What Are The Skills That Graphic Designers Need To Get Ahead In 2020?

The role of a graphic designer is continuously changing. With digital transformation, the need for compelling graphic designs has increased. As a graphic designer, of course, your responsibilities include creating beautiful designs, but it isn’t just limited to this. To make sure you don’t get swept aside, you need to keep up with the changing trends and adapt to them. There are plenty of ways to enhance your skills by either joining an online course or spending time with creatives.

But what are the skills required to get ahead in 2020? This is what we will be discussing in this blog.

1. Digital Typography

Being a graphic designer, you should and need to learn the basics of typography. As graphic design gradually transformed from print to online, the necessity to comprehend the standards of digital typography has never been more critical. Moreover, it isn’t merely a matter of trading ems for pixels. You can watch professional videos, tutorials, or take an online course to learn digital typography.

2. Software skills

It is surprisingly common and well practically possible for graduates to come out from their design courses with no software skills at all. To some extent, it’s okay because as long as you know the basic principles of graphic designing, you have a strong base where you can add these skills later on.

But now or later, at some point, you will have to learn software skills because its highly improbable that you would get even a junior designer position without a little knowledge of Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. But if you are already employed, there’s no harm in adding a feather in your cap as it will help you in getting better employment opportunities in life.

You can choose to learn the software skills that you are highly interested in. Doing so will not only be exciting for you, but you will be mastering a skill you are passionate about.

3. Image Editing

Living in a world of Instagram and Snapchat, people have become more visual minded. As a graphic designer, editing and retouching images has become a significant responsibility at all levels. From removing tiny glitches from photos to cropping images to fit various social media platforms to complete image enhancement and manipulation, graphics designers need to master these editing skills.

The best way to do that is by joining an online course or pursuing a project or working with a company.

4. Photography

Besides editing the images, being able to capture one is an excellent skill to have for graphic designers. If you are freelancing, knowing photography will reduce your dependence from stock images, and with original photos, you’ll be able to add more value to your client’s project. And if you work in a studio and pay photographers, having good photography knowledge will help you communicate with them better and get the exact shots you want. The best way to learn this skill is by purchasing a camera and experimenting.

5. UX Design

With the design industry concentrating on digital more than ever, the user experience (UX) design has become essential. As a UX designer, you need to enhance the audience’s interaction and enjoyment of a product both cognitively and visually. Learning this skill doesn’t mean changing your career, but this will boost your skills for the job you’re currently involved in.

6. Coding

Just like UX design, nobody will expect a designer to completely build a website using coding because that would make him/her a web developer. But the better is your understanding of coding, the better you will be able to communicate with the web developers and programmers to create an innovative digital design. These skills are in high demand, and learning them will only help you get ahead. You can take a free or paid online course to learn coding.

7. Print Design

Like the experienced graphic designers lack some digital skills; similarly, the young designers might have some gaps in print design skills. Even though digital media is skyrocketing, the print media is still influential and essential. Therefore it is better to add these skills in your knowledge base.

8. Problem-solving

Undoubtedly having certain software and technological skills are vital for designers, but there are some other essential skills too, which might get lost in the way. Designers should develop problem-solving skills by experimenting on new projects. Taking up projects you’ve never done before will boost your skills and help you to see how far your creativity can go.

9. Expansive thinking

Along with problem-solving skills, having expansive thinking is also essential for graphic designers. This will improve your creativity skills and help you to come up with innovative ideas that will eventually help you in building unique, compelling designs. Unlike other skills, this skill can’t be developed by taking a course; instead, it is about consistency and practice.

So, these were the nine skills every graphic designer must know to get ahead in 2020. We hope this information was useful for you. Drop your views on these in the comments below.