hey there how's it going guys so a couple of days ago I filmed the
video in a park that's near my apartment talking about the hardest things I find
in being a graphic artist and when looking it over a little bit I realized
how I didn't like the mood of the whole video on it it seemed a little negative
it just seemed a little too serious it seemed formal and that's not me I'm not
really comfortable being that way so I thought I'd reshoot it and perhaps do a
little bit of a better job explaining myself because I kind of went off on
tangents here and there so avoiding that let's read you to this whole thing
okay so whether you're an aspiring graphic artist or graphic designer you
may have some questions in mind and from someone who is a freelance artist who
works entirely for myself right now I may have some answers for you one you're
probably getting a lot of negativity from people saying that it's an
oversaturated field there's too many graphic designers out there that are
taking up all the jobs it's just it's not for you
for you it's you can't make a living off of that it's in a way yes there there
are a lot of graphic designers out there and I don't mean this as a disrespect I
just mean that there's a lot of graduates in the graphic design field
who may have left with an associate's degree in graphic design in general
graphic design but they're what they don't show is that there aren't many
people that leave getting jobs a lot of people just walk out with a degree and
then do absolutely nothing with it especially with graphic arts and I think
that's because a lot of people went into it because they were like oh I need to
go to college for something I guess I'll go for something easy like graphic
design and then they go through the motions and then get it and then they're
like I don't know and then they they drop it altogether and that kind of
bumps the numbers up and it also shows that a lot of people don't leave with
the job right away so that also hurts the figures so anyway yes there's a lot
of people that go out for it but not a lot of people who are truly driven
and really want to be graphic artist and that's kind of sad because I don't think
you should really go into anything that way especially if you're going to school
and spending $30,000 goodness and that's just in the associates degree that's I
know a couple of people who spend $30,000 to get this degree and then did
nothing with it it's like going and buying yourself a brand new car and then
driving it directly into a river and then walking away like whatever anyway
all that aside yes it can be a pretty competitive field but there's enough
room in there that your style and how you go about doing things and how well
you work in or the type of work you prefer whether it be logo design in
branding or website design or our product design billboards advertisements
I mean literally everything you see it has been touched by a graphic designer
in some way or another there's been design and just about everything you
could look at anything I mean if you're watching this on a TV right now the logo
on the TV has been designed and that cost thousands and thousands of dollars
so there is plenty of work out there the problem with the connecting the work the
work itself to the business side of it that's where a lot of designers have
issue is because usually if you have a creative mind you struggle with business
and money and caring about all that and being really good at it not that you
can't that's not at all it is but it is a typical thing it's just depending on
what side of the brain you use the most and as artists we typically use the
creative side rather than the analytical side so I think that is the hardest
thing is the money side of it not that it's not a marketable bit business at
all that's not the case at all I've in fact I've seen some rather subpar
designers make an incredible amount of money at living on lake houses and I've
they showed me proudly their work and it was like really and that's that's not to
be overly critical or anything but it's like
I thought that you had to have like insane impressive skill that was so
stand outage that you know you were the only one that could but no it's about
how you market yourself and that's where a lot of people have the hard part
especially in freelance work so yes going and getting a job at my graphic
design firm and may be ideal for most especially those who have a hard time
motivating themselves personally or going out and getting the business side
of it but it is harder to get a job in a graphic design firm because they want
people who are kind of like them or they have very specific rules about who they
hire and it's just trickier like fitting into that fitting into their niche and
and a lot of times they they only hire people out of a certain school like they
have a connection to this school and then they hire the people from there so
I think in graphic design you might do especially if you have a unique style
you might do a little bit better if you work freelance just for yourself which
is when I start to recommend if you're gonna have any form of Education or
schooling try to push it more towards business it it seems odd that you you
focus on the business side of it rather than graphic arts but with graphic arts
it's not something that you can you can truly just teach which you don't already
have somewhat of an interest in it if you have no creative flair or no
interest in the arts and just go because they think it'll be easy you're doing it
wrong if you want to do better with being a freelance artist you have to
know a lot of the business sides of things and you don't necessarily have to
go to school for that I didn't go to school for graphic arts and go for
design I just was hungry and wanted to learn more on all that I can so
throughout my entire life I just soaked up any tutorial any any video there was
on the subject I got books out of the library I copied things I watched all
the special features on DVDs all of like the Disney movies and the
artists that worked on these things and how they did it and I just soaked all
that up and then tried it myself and if you're hungry like that and want to
learn and are open to learning that can be a really good way to when it comes to
formal education unless that's your only way to learn if your that's the only way
you know how to learn I mean that's that's okay but it's so expensive right
now that you may want to consider some other options yes it can be a pretty
quick way to learn but you can get the same type of education from people who
went through the process themselves on YouTube a lot of designers are on
YouTube a professional designer superb leaders in the field may have YouTube
videos talking about how they got there what they did and they have very
specific instructions on their videos and the great thing about that is that
it's not like if you miss a class you've missed the whole thing you could rewatch
this as many times as you want and very specific things that you need to know
when dealing with the money side of graphic arts and getting money for your
work that can be a little bit tricky because you you may get some big jobs
here and there that are a great paycheck and that's what obviously what you want
but a lot of times they're kind of spaced out it may be a month or two or a
few weeks or depending on how well you do with how you market yourself and you
don't want to rely on that being as your only source of income only searching for
those things while you're trying to get those have other sources of income you
know you could sell things on some online stores you could make youtube
videos do portraits you could vary the different streams well yeah all
those things may bring in a limited amount of income but if you have
multiple sources of those little incomes just coming together then it will help
sustain you when you don't have the bigger things and all the incomes
brought together you'll have one bigger source of income so be diverse always
look for opportunities to get them elsewhere don't just be waiting around
for the big things that will help you out a lot and you have to have that sort
of openness of mind to be able to do those things if you're close minded and
you want to be a graphic artist it's not gonna work out so well 3 the other thing
too I think that I deal with that's the most difficult is sure you you need the
work you're ready and willing to go and then you deal with the client that is
just slow and it's not necessarily slow about paying you although that is a big
problem it's sometimes you have some clients that just communicate super
slowly because you know they've got their work to do and this is kind of
like a side project you know for them like oh yeah I could I could go for a
nice you know a better looking website or a better logo or something and then
they email you then you email them right back like a good a good businessman that
you are and then they email you back like two weeks later like mmm sounds
interesting then they ask you a question and then you email them right back
hoping that this time they take you more seriously and another two weeks goes by
so those are things you can't really help you can't you have to be patient
because that happens while this is your business and it's it's your top priority
it's not necessarily everyone else's top priority so sometimes you may have in
the queue a good a good contract coming you may have to wait a while before you
get it so be patient yeah that then what that one can get to
me because yeah I mean to sum things up if you want to be a graphic artist it's
not the easy route not saying it's impossible just if you thought that
being a graphic designer or whatever like I guess I'll go to school for that
because it looks easy I kind of like drawing hmm
you can't go add it with a passive attitude it takes a good business sense
and it takes a lot of motivation and a driven sense of mind it's it's gonna be
hard to make a living if if you're not driven at it and some people need their
9 to 9 to 5 jobs that you know give them the structure like that oftentimes when
you're an artist in any form that it may be you have to do the structure yourself
and that's one of the big things that art schools teach the most is they give
you almost impossible assignments and an insane amount of work to do to help show
you that in that line of work you have to be driven you have to you have to
really push and that's what they teach you but if you if you have that yourself
already and you want to be a designer then then you'll probably do ok and you
have to have thick skin you have to realize that in the beginning it's gonna
be probably pretty hard and it is a hard field to be in there's a lot to learn
and a lot to constantly learn and adapt to it is one of the most rewarding
fields to be in seeing a project come together and seeing people be happy with
the work that you do is incredibly satisfying if you have that drive and
you have that focus and you're really motivated and you really really want to
do this you're going to do well you just have to have thick skin and push through
it anyway how about you tell me what if you're a graphic artist or a graphic
designer what's the hardest part for you let me know in the comments or if you
have any other questions about what it's like to be a graphic artist or an
illustrator or anything in the art field because I kind of
I kind of dabble in all of them ask me it's what this YouTube channel is for
anyway I've talked enough and I need a glass water I hope this video was
helpful for you let me know like it please please like my videos if you have
any other questions let me know well until then I'm gonna get a glass of
water until I see you in the next video take care