Tori Lemon
Lantern Staff
Community college often gives students the opportunity to dip into different fields of work and to decide what they do and do not like. Some take a liking to music, literature, engineering and to digital media.
For all lovers of art and illustrations on the digital level, business is thriving. Graphic design stems into all kinds of areas of expertise. Professor of Digital Media Aaron Vague explains that there are many specializations within graphic design such as web design or typography, the most common industry for designers being the field of advertising. He has been working with digital media in one way or another since he started studying art at Wichita State University in 2003.
“Basically anything that is visual can be within the umbrella of graphic design,” Vague said. “In many cases, graphic designers create the overall look for websites, advertisements, correspondence and signage.”
If graphic design is starting to sound like your cup of tea, there are many classes Vague recommends students take before beginning their digital media voyage- many are very art-oriented. He stresses that students can look up some different techniques on the internet, but knowing elements of art and design will provide them with greater knowledge to excel in this field.
“Sometimes students prioritize practical knowledge, like knowing what each filter option does in Photoshop, but ultimately that kind of expertise is easy to gain from a few YouTube tutorials, or even by just experimenting with the program itself,” Vague said. “What we do in art classes, however, is much more focused on observation, critical discourse, discussion and the application of skills. Those are experiences that art classes build in a way that nothing else can, and the broader your knowledge of various art practices is, the better your work will be.”
Vague stresses the idea that having a solid foundation and art-focused background can ultimately make the difference between a mediocre graphic designer and a spectacular one, in ways that are so subtle it may not even seem to matter until it is too late.
“Experience in art develops a wide range of skills that might not be immediately obvious, but that impact a variety of choices,” Vague said. “It could be as simple as knowing when to lower the chroma of a given color in order to deemphasize it in a composition or even something like choosing a photo for a web presence. Knowing how to really see and analyze the visual world isn’t always intuitive, so having practice becomes important in many ways.”
Depending on which role of graphic design the designer takes on, he/she could earn roughly 40 – 50 thousand dollars a year, according to the 2015 Bureau of Labor Statistics. Designers should also be prepared to take on multiple jobs simultaneously.
“Some professionals take on the roles of graphic designer, social media editor, public relations coordinator, materials purchaser, etc. and blend those disciplines into one job,” Vague said.
For students at Butler who are looking to further their education and expertise with graphic design, Vague recommends going to Fort Hays State for its digital media program. Nationally, some of the specialized higher education schools are Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, Pa., Rhode Island School of Design, Maryland Institute College of Art and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to name a few.
