If you have a lot of utility in many different areas and you want an entry-level graphic design job, your portfolio emphasize your utility - your ability to produce clean, practical work -, you need to have examples that aren't that inspiring or “artistic” but show that you can get the job done. You can’t buy a portfolio for $50 full of someone else’s logo designs. So if you want to be a specialty logo designer, yes, you need talent. Someone who knows the tools and can show me that they can produce efficiently might be a great hire for a team needing to check a lot of boxes with one role. That guy is going to get work as a logo design specialist. If he’s charging a premium, he also probably doesn’t also build websites, write copy, etc. An excellent logo designer can do it in a notepad. If you're really talented and creative at one thing you don't really have to have a lot of utility in order to get work. This is why I hire designers even though I'm an Adobe Certified Expert - upper-level designers have talent. Just knowing the software and how to deliver assets is not very inspiring. I would think of it like being able to do a lot of different things increases your utility, like knowing the technicalities of certain software, but doesn't really mean you have a nuanced and unique talent for one thing you can get paid for. There’s a difference between talent and utility. The role of 'Talent' versus understanding Utility/Tools And rightfully so, as they are paying a premium for your graphic design services, and their clients in turn are paying a premium for their standard of excellence. The caveat is if you want to be a boutique branding designer or work for an agency - in most cases, they want to raise the bar higher than a “stock” element will allow. I got into graphic design because I wanted to create inspiring things and get “paid to be an artist”, but that's just not necessary in order to pay the bills and not the kind of work you have to even be good at.

Demonstrating that you can do functional day-to-day graphic design work is a much quicker route to getting a job than trying to create something inspired. We need a poster for the windows at a retail location, letterhead, signage, business cards, etc. Most of the time, an entry-level graphic design role is a very functional job requiring a lot of pragmatic, efficient, common assets. If my goal was to create a highly engaging branded advertising campaign, I might want someone to get really creative and make something no one's ever seen before or hire an agency. I decided to share the process with him, and it led me to write this as I was giving him (unsolicited) career advice.įirst, what does it actually look like to be a working graphic designer? So I thought about it for a minute and realized how truly easy it is to put together such a portfolio. I had one guy send me his portfolio, and he was very nice and professional, but his portfolio lacked examples of commercial design projects. This week I put out a LinkedIn job & a post asking for graphic designer referrals. And I don't think there's anything wrong with this method. I think you can create a graphic design portfolio that will get you hired as an entry-level graphic designer for about $50.

Entry level graphic design salary 2015