Graphic Designers

Job purpose

To create designs, concepts and layouts for commercial and promotional purposes — packaging, displays, logos, product illustrations and web sites — and to prepare them for print or broadcast, so that the client's message reaches its intended audience in a form that is visually effective and technically fit for production.

Skills

• Command of design technique and principle — layout, typography, the arrangement of illustrative material and copy, and aesthetic design concepts — supported by fine art knowledge, media production and dissemination methods, and fluency in the software used to generate images, draw charts, graphs and illustrations, and prepare digital files for printing. Includes electronic video equipment for broadcast graphics, print production processes and their costs, and the marketing knowledge to design for a researched target audience. A bachelor's degree is the norm, with a tenth of incumbents holding a master's and a further sixth entering with a school-leaving qualification, together with several years of related experience and on-the-job training.
• Confers with clients to discuss and determine layout design, prepares rough sketches and illustrations to discuss with clients and supervisors, and makes the changes agreed. Reviews final layouts and suggests improvements, and works to persuade clients and colleagues of a design approach. Prepares written notes and instructions for the workers who assemble and prepare final layouts for printing, and writes or edits copy where required.
• Interprets a commercial brief into a visual solution: researching the target audience, studying illustrations and photographs to plan how material will be presented, and deciding size, arrangement and type style. There is no single correct answer and originality is central; the design must satisfy the client, suit the audience and remain producible within the print or broadcast process.
• Organises and prioritises own work across commissions, from brief and research through concept and sample layouts to final print-ready files, schedules activities and coordinates the work of others in accomplishing them. Sets own tasks, priorities and goals to a considerable degree, and works under time pressure.
• Screen and keyboard work at a workstation with design software, together with hand work in marking up, pasting and assembling final layouts. Involves prolonged sitting, repeated movements and sustained use of the hands.

Responsibilities

• No line management is recorded, but directs and instructs the workers who assemble and prepare final layouts for printing, leads and coaches colleagues; the output of others depends on the instructions and files supplied. Deals directly with clients and with external customers and the public.
• No budget is held and no spend committed. Selects type, materials and production methods, with awareness of the raw materials and production costs those choices commit.
• Care of a workstation, design software, camera and electronic video equipment used to produce broadcast graphics. Maintains the archive of images, photographs and previous work products.
• Owns layouts, artwork, concepts and the digital files prepared for printing, and the notes and instructions issued to production workers. Exactness matters — a fault in a print-ready file is reproduced in every copy — and decisions taken on a design affect co-workers and company results.

Effort required

• Creative and exacting work in equal measure: original concepts must be generated to a brief, and then rendered in files where dimension, typography and specification must be right. Decisions are made frequently, and time pressure runs through the design and production cycle.
• Personal accountability for work judged on taste as well as technique, presented to clients for approval and revised at their direction, in a field where competitive comparison is a feature. Elements of the work repeat from commission to commission.
• Seated at a workstation for the greater part of the working day, with repeated movements and sustained use of the hands in operating design tools and assembling layouts. No lifting or exertion.

Working conditions

• Indoor, environmentally controlled premises, with no exposure to weather, noise, hazardous conditions or hazardous equipment. A substantial volume of contact by e-mail, telephone, written correspondence and face-to-face discussion, within a work group and with clients and members of the public.
• Two-thirds of incumbents work a regular established schedule and a third an irregular one that varies with production or contract demands; the working week exceeds forty hours for over half. No shift, rota or on-call obligation appears in the data. Time pressure runs through the work and the field is competitive; against that there is considerable freedom to make decisions and to determine own tasks, priorities and goals within the brief agreed with the client or supervisor.