In reality, a designer's work is often not about creativity, but rather about analytics, research, and testing. It involves a lot of hard and soft skills, which greatly depend on what direction of design you decide to develop in.
designer's work
If you are currently choosing a future profession or thinking about moving to design from another field, it is important to weigh the pros and cons. Namely, to understand the responsibilities and roles of different types of designers, development prospects in the industry and the situation on the market. Today, there are many options and formats of work: freelancing, working in a creative agency, a product or service company. If you have a clear understanding of where you want to go and develop the necessary skills, you will definitely succeed.
In this article, we'll take a closer look at the types of design jobs and the skills and tools they require. This might just be the sign you've been waiting for to start a career in design.
Content
Graphic designer
A graphic designer is a creative professional who creates visual concepts for marketing and advertising creatives. They design logos, posters, packaging, advertising materials, and other visual elements that reflect the brand’s ideas and messages. These can be digital and printed materials.
In his work, the designer uses graphic programs:
Adobe Photoshop,
Illustrator,
InDesign,
Figma;
and technical tools:
graphic tablet,
computer.
It is important for a graphic designer to know the basics of shapes, colors and compositions, to understand the main principles of design - balance, proportion, color ratio, to analyze trends and integrate them into their work.
Graphic designers can work in creative agencies, design studios, in the advertising and marketing field, or independently as freelancers, collaborating directly with clients.
UX/UI designer
A UX/UI designer is responsible for creating website and application interfaces that provide an optimal user experience with the product.
A UX (User Experience) designer analyzes and studies user needs, generates ideas and creates prototypes to improve user interaction with the product.
A UI (User Interface) designer is responsible for the appearance of a product: interface design, placement of elements on the screen, colors and fonts.
Given the different functional responsibilities, the skills required for UX and UI designers are somewhat different. UX requires analytical skills, understanding of user behavior and needs, and technical features of the product. Valuable skills for a UI designer include creating aesthetic, user-friendly, and effective interfaces, i.e. implementing creative ideas that will satisfy user needs and achieve business goals.
In their work, a UX/UI designer uses the following tools to create layouts and prototypes:
Sketch,
Adobe XD,
Figma,
InVision,
Adobe Comp,
Mockflow.
Specialists in this field can work in IT companies, design agencies or on a freelance basis with various projects. Together with developers, marketers and product managers, they create an intuitive and aesthetic product that meets the needs of users.
Web designer
A web designer thinks through and creates the architecture and appearance of websites, develops a design concept and interface. Important characteristics of this specialist include skills in working with graphic programs, understanding the basics of composition theory, coloristics, typography and principles of UX/UI design, the ability to analyze the target audience and meet user needs, while achieving business goals.
A web designer uses various tools to create a design: from graphic programs to code editors, namely:
Figma,
Sketch,
Illustrator,
Photoshop,
Dreamweaver,
InDesign,
Weblium,
WordPress.
Programming and coding skills are not mandatory for a web designer. However, they will be very useful, as basic knowledge of HTML and CSS, the ability to work with CMS (content management systems) help to understand how to structure and format content on a website, as well as how to use no-code programs.
A useful tool for web designers is the Weblium website builder . With this platform, you can quickly create a functional and attractive website design based on ready-made templates. The Flex block element is also available to implement all creative ideas: it allows you to customize elements. With Weblium, creating an effective website is quick and easy.
A web designer can work in a web studio, marketing agency, freelance, in IT, e-commerce, a logistics company or in any other field.
Game designer
A game designer designs the gaming experience, is responsible for creating the internal structure and gameplay of games, develops scenarios, mechanics and basic elements of the game. The tasks of this specialist can be compared to the work of a director in a movie: he generates ideas and conveys them to the performers.
A must-have for a game designer is to love playing games, analyzing them, understanding what components a game consists of, following trends and what interests users. A game designer does not need to know programming languages, since the implementation of ideas is usually done by technical specialists.
There are different directions within the profession of a game designer:
a game mechanics and systems designer who is responsible for the rules of the game;
monetization designer, who deals with the game's economy;
a level designer who creates game levels: locations, environments, and tasks for them;
a narrative designer who creates the story of a game.
To create games, a game designer uses specialized game development programs:
Unity,
Unreal Engine;
graphic editors for developing visual elements of the game, as well as technical programs for creating animation, sound design and other aspects.
Important traits for a game designer are a broad outlook, in particular basic knowledge of mathematics, physics, geography, chemistry, history, since some game plots and settings require the most realistic recreation. Good communication and organizational skills, the ability to convey your idea are also mandatory for the successful implementation of the project.
Game designers can work in game development studios, IT companies together with programmers, artists, animators and other specialists.
Motion designer and animation designer
Animation designers, or animators, create moving images that tell stories or convey information. Animators primarily specialize in hand-drawn animation, creating computer-generated images, or 2D/3D characters.
A motion designer is a kind of combination of a graphic designer and an animator. They develop animation designs for various media formats: videos and presentations, digital advertising and GIFs.
The difference between animation and motion designers is the projects they work on. Animators often work on creating characters and environments, while motion designers create graphics and visual effects.
Another difference between the two types of designers is their specific skills. Animators need to understand traditional animation techniques like drawing and composition, as well as anatomy and character creation. In contrast, motion designers need to have skills like typography and visual language, as well as a background in graphic design.
To create animation, it is important to be able to work with the following tools:
After Effects,
Cinema 4D,
Animate,
Premiere,
Final Cut Pro,
Photoshop,
Illustrator.
Soft skills include perseverance and patience, attention kazakhstan phone number resource to detail, and creative thinking.
A motion and animation designer can work in IT, advertising, game development, television - anywhere where there is a need for animation.
Product designer
A product designer is a specialist who is responsible for developing a product, whether digital or physical. It could be a mobile app or a coffee maker. They do market research, develop an idea, create a user-friendly interface, prototype and test, evaluate and improve the product.
It is important for a product designer to be able to take into account user needs and combine them with business goals to implement a successful project. Product design is a related field to UX design. The difference is that a UX designer develops a user-friendly interface and a targeted solution to user requests. Product design covers all stages of business project development.
To create layouts and prototypes, a product designer needs to master the following tools:
Sketch,
Adobe XD,
Figma,
InVision,
Illustrator,
Photoshop,
Adobe Comp,
Mockflow.
Important soft skills include developed communication skills with the team and clients, the ability to analyze user needs and achieve business goals.
As we have already mentioned, the product the specialist works on can be digital or physical, so potential places of work also vary. It can be an IT company, e-commerce, a design agency or any other area where there is a demand for product improvement.
Industrial designer
The role of an industrial designer is to create functional and aesthetically pleasing products for mass production. An industrial designer studies potential uses of a product, designs comfortable and ergonomic products that meet the needs of the user.
Industrial designers use computer programs or hand drawings to create concepts, designs, and models for products. Skills in 3D modeling and graphics programs are important in their work:
