By Jacob Greenly
If you are a creative individual who has a keen eye for the aesthetics of design and you pay great attention to detail, then graphic design might just be the right career for you. Many of those employed in the field will tell you how much they love making a living doing what they do best and are passionate about.
The job market for graphic designers is growing steadily and is expected to do so until at least around 2018. This growth has been brought about primarily by the ever-increasing popularity of the internet and online forms of media. However, due to the fact that there are already around 192,000 graphic designers employed in the United States, there is considerable competition for every position available. New graduates of a Bachelor’s degree in graphic design soon find out that there are many people who possess the same set of basic skills and that getting contracts and being hired depends on things like having several years experience in the field, a large and impressive portfolio and a network of influential contacts. As a potential future graphic designer, it is important to start building your portfolio early on by doing all design work you can get your hands on. If you are having trouble finding work, you can offer your services for free or complete some projects of your own.
The average salary for a graphic designer working in the United States is slightly higher than $48,000. If you compare the amount of education, and degree of expertise required to those of other careers that require a degree, it may seem that the salary of a graphic designer is quite low. This low average salary is due to the large supply of graphic designers that want work and the relatively small number of jobs available for them to fill. When there are so many qualified people to choose from, employers find that some will accept a smaller salary in order to get a job. However, this is not always the case. Some designers earn around $75,000 a year and a few of the most well-respected and experienced graphic designers make over $100,000 per year. Despite the relatively low salary, designers generally have a higher level of job satisfaction compared to other careers because they genuinely enjoy the work they do every day.
The option of being self-employed or doing freelance work provides the career with a degree of freedom that few other careers benefit from. Freelance workers are often paid by the project, which enables them to schedule their own working hours and only work the number of hours necessary to complete a project properly. Taking this into consideration, making $40,000 a year for only 20 hours of work per week on average doesn’t sound that bad. This way you can make a decent living and have plenty of time to spend doing things you wouldn’t have time for working the standard 40 hour work week.