Graphic Design Software and Skills: Can You Keep Up?

GRAPHIC DESIGN SOFTWARE AND SKİLLS: CAN YOU KEEP UP? Know what graphic designers do and what design programs they use. Graphic design is not just about creating images. A good graphic designer needs to have up-to-date technical skills and be prepared for the heartaches that come when dealing with unreasonable clients. With new software continuously being developed and with clients often giving nearly-impossible demands, it pays to be prepared. The infographic below shows what design programs graphic designers today use, as well as statistics on their skill sets. A small percentage of designers use lesser known design programs such as Designer Pro, Smart Draw, Print Artist and Serif DrawPlus. 3% Smart Draw markets itself as a quicker and easier "Visual Processor" for business, making it less popular with graphic designers. 5% CorelDraw is a popular alternative to Adobe Photoshop. The graph shows how many designers are into this counterpart. 15% Installed on over 98% of internet-enabled desktops and with approximately 75% of videos online dependent on it, Adobe Flash is the #1 format for video on the web. This FI software is one of the most popular programs in the graphic design industry. "With little extra work, you can tum print-ready layouts into EPUB books, Web content, and PDFS, making InDesign CS5.5 quite a little 38% ID workhorse." Dave Girard, Ars Technica, June 2011 59% Running for second place is another Adobe product - a program for creating Ai online illustrations. 85% Ps Adobe Photoshop is still the most popular graphic design software used by professionals and as Adobe says, the standard for digital image editing and creation 97% HOW MANY DESIGN PROGRAMS DO YOU USE? If you only use one design program, then you might be missing out. Some designers prefer to be familiar with almost all the mainstr programs available in the market. 25% 20% 7% HOW MANY DESIG PRODAMS DYOU USE? Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop are the most popular design tandem. Iknows at least 1 design program Knowing three design programs may be common at least three design programs like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign then you are part of the majority. 2 design software 3 design software Knowing three design programs may be good but knowing four more definitely makes you extra awesome! 4 design software 5 or more design programs GRAPHIC DESIGN SPECIALIZATIONS 30% 2% 42% 68% PRINT IDENTITY PACKAGING WEB Designing for print is the second most popular graphic design specialization. This includes designing for business cards, Identity designers will often have a Packaging design is one of the Most graphic designers today also have skills in web holistic approach fundamental skills that includes both web and print design. taught in most graphic design courses yet, only a few graphic designers are specializing in this field. design. It is common for web designers to know how to design for identity and print posters, t-shirts, and multi-page prints such as catalogs. as well. POPULAR CREATIVE SKILLS Photography is a popular skill among designers. Most designers see this as a necessity as images are one of the key elements in graphic design. PHOTOGRAPHY SEO Search Engine Optimization is an increasingly important skill for graphic designers MARKETING Graphic designers are usually marketers as well. Graphic design is a big part of marketing, after all. APP In the year of tablets, Androids and iOS, app development is a new avenue for graphic designers on the techie side. DEVELOPMENT Flash animation, advertorials, film editing and company presentations are just some examples on where graphic designers practice their video editing skills. VIDEO EDITING SOCIAL MEDIA Graphic designers create images for Twitter, Facebook, FBML etc. mainly for identity purposes. MARKETING ILLUSTRATION This skill also counts those who paint, sketch, and or do any visual art. ANIMATION AND 3D DESIGN Few graphic designers are practicing this skill. 3D animation is commonly used in films and visual presentations. 3D SEO OTHER SERVICES AND SKILLS: Architectural Design Photo and Video Coverage Fashion Design Business Solutions Music Production E-commerce Digital art Copywriting Programming Web Development Content writing and management MULTIPLE-SKILLED DESIGNERS: HOW MANY DESIGN SKILLS DO YOU HAVE? 3% 7% 20% 28% 5 OR MORE DESIGN SKILLS 4 DESIGN SKILLS A few can give more than just design. Need anything artistic, they got it! 42% A client is lucky if he can find someone 3 DESIGN SKILLS 1 out of 5 2 DESIGN SKILLS graphic who can design packaging, websites, logos, and business cards! A large KNOWS AT LEAST percentage of these designers designers work on different design projects involcing 1 DESIGN SKILL believe that one different fields. The majority of graphic designers specialize in one skill - either web, print or identity. should specialize in more than one field. All details are based from the graphic designer survey by you designer UPrintinga in partnership with .com *Based on details provided by almost 10000 designers through their Linkedln Accounts and websites on the Graphic Designer survey