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Visual Designer

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What Is a Visual Designer? How to Become One, Salary, Skills.

Visual designers create the layouts and artistic elements of a company’s digital platforms. They apply their knowledge of typography, colors, graphic design tools and other specialized techniques to establish a brand’s unique online look. Visual designers ensure the consistency of brand style across digital platforms, including social media and mobile devices. Here’s what to know about a visual designer’s needed skills, salary and how to become one.

 

What Is a Visual Designer?

Visual designers create and maintain a brand’s style across digital assets. A visual designer relies on their graphic design and web design skills to create the layout of a company’s website, mobile apps and social media. They often collaborate with graphic designers and UI designers and are responsible for creating the visual brand identity for a company or organization.

 

 What Do Visual Designers Do?

Visual designers create and design the physical look and layout of digital products for a brand, company or organization. The specific responsibilities of a visual designer will vary depending on the project or the industry, but often include creating wireframes, user-centered interaction models as well as working with IT and business teams to fix design issues.

Visual Designer Responsibilities

  • Create the tone and look for a brand’s website, apps, devices or games. 
  • Use brand guidelines to design layouts and digital assets to match the brand’s style and tone. 
  • Create mockups for digital assets.
  • Design logos, icons and infographics.
  • Create presentation materials for projects, marketing assets and interactive event materials.
  • Manage several projects while meeting expectations and deadlines.

Day-to-Day Responsibilities of a Visual Designer 

  • Manage and maintain digital assets. 
  • Source images and video for social media. 
  • Work with a brand or company’s component library. 

Types of Visual Designers

Visual designers commonly share some skills with UI designers or graphic designers but the key difference is that visual designers are responsible for the style of all a company’s digital assets. Sometimes a visual designer is known as a brand designer, digital designer or web designer.

Visual Designers Within a Company

Since visual designers are responsible for digital assets of a company, they often work under the design or product departments. Visual designers are typically responsible for presenting new design and redesign concepts to leaders in other departments and explain their design’s key features, functions and benefits.

Importance of Visual Designers

Visual designers establish and create the guidelines for how a brand or company is represented visually. This role is crucial to creating recognizable imagery, typography and design that users can easily understand and associate with a company.

Video: Userfacet

 

What Skills Are Needed to Be a Visual Designer?

Qualifications to Be a Visual Designer

  • Strong understanding of design principles.
  • Understanding of website design and website accessibility.  
  • Basic coding skills. 
  • Ability to present design concepts and explain their uses and function.

Visual Designer Prerequisites

  • This role typically requires a bachelor’s degree in design, graphic design, art or a related field. 
  • Solid portfolio of design work and mockups for websites, marketing materials and more.

Visual Designer Hard Skills

  • Photo and video editing skills. 
  • Basic coding skills. 
  • UX/UI design skills. 
  • Graphic design.

Visual Designer Soft Skills

  • Communication skills. 
  • Strong problem solving skills. 
  • Ability to take direction and interpret brand guidelines.
  • Presentation and negotiation skills. 
  • Ability to multitask and work under deadlines.

Tools and Programs Visual Designers Use

  • Photoshop
  • Canva 
  • JavaScript
  • Adobe
  • Sketch 
  • InDesign
  • Illustrator
  • AutoCAD
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How to Become a Visual Designer

Visual Designer Education and Experience

Visual designers usually have a bachelor’s degree in graphic design,  design, art or a related field. A visual designer should have a strong portfolio of work displaying creative and professional projects ranging from website design to mobile app mockups. Aspiring visual designers should have a firm grasp on website design issues such as accessibility and cross-platform compatibility.

Visual Designer Certificates and Courses

Visual Designer Career Path

Like many roles, it’s beneficial to start a career in visual design as an intern or in an entry-level position. For example, a graphic design intern will be able to learn the basics of design principles and have a structured environment within which to develop. Before becoming a visual designer, some of the common titles a person might hold include graphic designer or web designer. Those looking to advance after being a visual designer may progress into user experience designer or creative director roles.

 

Visual Designer Salary and Job Outlook

The job outlook for graphic design is set to increase by 3 percent through 2031. Although this increase is specifically for graphic design according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, visual design and graphic design are related fields and there may be some correlation. Those working in digital design can expect a 23 percent job growth rate during the same timeframe.

The full compensation package for a visual designer depends on a variety of factors, including but not limited to the candidate’s experience and geographic location. See below for detailed information on the average visual designer’s salary.

Courses

Expand Your Visual Designer Career Opportunities

Stand out from the applicant pool by demonstrating in-demand skills with Udemy’s online UX and design courses.

Udemy

Learn how to use Photoshop CC 2024 with the newest AI (artificial intelligence) tricks:

  • remove anything in just a few clicks;

  • remove a background through a single button;…

Udemy

Udemy’s best-selling Illustrator course – by one of the Top 10 Adobe Instructors in the world – teaches you to use this industry-leading vector graphic application as a creative professional. The whole course content,…

Certifications

Visual Designer Certifications + Programs

Take your career path in a different direction by earning online UX and design certifications with Udacity.

General Assembly’s Visual Design course helps you explore the art and science of visual communication and the process of creating beautiful digital products. Create a production- ready composition for a responsive webpage, conveying your vision through typography, layout, and color. You’ll learn to give and receive design critique and implement feedback to improve your designs.

 

What you'll accomplish

This is a beginner-friendly program with no prerequisites, although many students have used software such as Photoshop, Sketch, Figma, or Adobe XD* previously and may be familiar with basic design principles. Beginners will have access to optional tutorials to practice using software and boost their confidence ahead of class. Throughout this expert-designed program, you’ll:

  • Conduct research to inform content strategy and design decisions.
  • Create a digital design solution that balances client needs and user goals.
  • Design digital layouts with industry-standard tools such as Figma and Sketch.
  • Implement visual design best practices in composition, typography, imagery, and colors.
  • Communicate design decisions to stakeholders and collaborators.
  • Apply what you’ve learned to create a portfolio project: a production-ready mockup for a responsive webpage and a presentation deck to document your process.

 

Why General Assembly

Since 2011, General Assembly has graduated more than 40,000 students worldwide from the full time & part time courses. During the 2020 hiring shutdown, GA's students, instructors, and career coaches never lost focus, and the KPMG-validated numbers in their Outcomes report reflect it. *For students who graduated in 2020 — the peak of the pandemic — 74.4% of those who participated in GA's full-time Career Services program landed jobs within six months of graduation. General Assembly is proud of their grads + teams' relentless dedication and to see those numbers rising. Download the report here.

 

Your next step? Submit an application to talk to the General Assembly Admissions team


 

Note: reviews are referenced from Career Karma - https://careerkarma.com/schools/general-assembly

 

General Assembly

General Assembly’s User Experience Design Immersive is a transformative course designed for you to get the necessary skills for a UX Design role in three months. 

The User Experience Design bootcamp is led by instructors who are expert practitioners in their field, supported by career coaches that work with you since day one and enhanced by a career services team that is constantly in talks with employers about their UX Design hiring needs.

 

What you'll accomplish

As a graduate, you’ll have a portfolio of projects that show your creative and technical ability to launch the next generation of successful apps, websites and digital experiences. Throughout this program, you will:

  • Identify and implement the most effective methods of user research to gain a deeper understanding of what users want and need.

  • Use interaction and visual design techniques to craft a dynamic digital product that brings delight and function to users.

  • Conduct usability testing to make product experiences more accessible for diverse user populations and environments.

  • Learn best practices for working within a product team, employing product management techniques and evaluating technical constraints to better collaborate with developers.

  • Produce polished design documentation, including wireframes and prototypes, to articulate design decisions to clients and stakeholders.

  • Prepare for the world of work, compiling a professional-grade portfolio of solo, group, and client projects.

 

Prerequisites

This is a beginner-friendly program with no prerequisites, although many students are familiar with common tools for graphic and web designers and some may have had exposure to UX concepts in the past. The General Assembly curriculum helps you gain fluency in end-to-end UX processes, tools, and documentation and put them to work on the path to a new career as a User Experience Designer.

 

Why General Assembly

Since 2011, General Assembly has graduated more than 40,000 students worldwide from the full time & part time courses. During the 2020 hiring shutdown, GA's students, instructors, and career coaches never lost focus, and the KPMG-validated numbers in their Outcomes report reflect it. *For students who graduated in 2020 — the peak of the pandemic — 74.4% of those who participated in GA's full-time Career Services program landed jobs within six months of graduation.  General Assembly is proud of their grads + teams' relentless dedication and to see those numbers rising. Download the report here.

 

Your next step? Submit an application to talk to the General Assembly Admissions team


 

Note: reviews are referenced from Career Karma - https://careerkarma.com/schools/general-assembly

General Assembly
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