I want to learn a graphic field that is in demand in the market like 2025.
for example in the present UI/UX Design( most demand 2021), T-shirt Design, mascot logo.
tell us your thoughts about the future of the field.
Welcome.
I’d suggest learn graphic design as a subject and then worry about the branch you want to go down. A good designer can adapt to most disciplines because they understand what design is all about. The rest is just learning software and application.
In short, get yourself properly educated if you want a long-term, sustainable career.
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In the US, everything related to the fields of publishing or printing is going to continue to be a bloodbath.
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I see disruption across the board. I’m not sure that I’d phrase the issue as one of this or that thing being in or out of demand — especially as narrow as t-shirt, logo, or even web design. Everything is changing and will continue to change.
On the one hand, there have never been more printed materials than today. Still, the glut of new designers, do-it-yourself alternatives, crowdsourcing, lower-cost overseas work, and commoditization of design is changing everything. If you can find your niche in this changing landscape, you’ll do fine, but if you approach it as a typical designer doing custom, bespoke work, it’ll be tough going with low wages.
As for UI/UX design, I’m not sure that it’s that far behind print and for many of the same reasons. It’s been a growing area of design because online communication has grown rapidly, but really, how much growth potential is still there? Web design, for example, is quickly turning into a choice of which off-the-shelf WordPress or Wix template to pick, which isn’t all that different from the Canva approach to print design. Various schools are churning out UI/UX designers by the boatload, so I suspect supply will soon catch up with and overtake demand, just like it has with print.
There will always be low-wage, one-off jobs, but if the goal is to make a good living, a more creative approach to positioning oneself in the field is needed. There will also always be higher-end jobs requiring custom solutions, and I don’t see that changing for the foreseeable future. However, aiming for these higher-end jobs is a bit like a college basketball player aiming for the NBA — a few will make it, but the vast majority won’t.
One somewhat stable growth area that I don’t see mentioned often is in-house design positions. The means to communicate with and market to their customers has expanded by leaps and bounds. In the past, companies might have one or two low-skill marketing people on staff, and they’d outsource the more significant projects to outside agencies.
Today, a company’s potential marketing and communication channels warrant bringing this work and expertise in-house. They’re expanding their in-house communication/marketing groups into full-fledged in-house agencies. The advantages to designers being that these jobs typically come with good company benefits, better pay, and the stability that often comes from being part of a larger organization.
These in-house advantages are drawing increasingly large numbers of top-notch designers and increasing the quality of work. In addition, these groups are changing from being purely service groups into strategic decision-makers regarding their company’s public communications. I don’t see this trend diminishing over the next five to ten years. It’s hit and miss so far but heading in the right direction.
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This is the best post I’ve seen on the state of design (at least digital design). Thank you
I could not agree more with Just-B and Sprout and will attempt to add my 2 cents worth. Having started decades ago with no computers, I learned the hard way that to survive and prosper in design and publishing you have to be willing to adapt and learn outside of your comfort zone. This meant teaching myself how to design on the latest software that never existed before…how many here remember “Letraset”? There were no classes to take (in fact I created classes after teaching myself). This environment creates a curious mindset for designer…“that looks cool how do I do that with this?”. This reinforces a desire to keep up with the latest trends in design using software.
Fast forward 40 years and I have gotten my fingers dirty with almost every aspect of digital design out of desire to learn. Having a grasp on the many facets of digital design gives one the ability to see that almost every company out there want someone who is multi-talented. They don’t value the years a REAL designer puts in to learn their craft and they keep looking at the bottom line when deciding how much to pay when hiring. One thing they do know is this - they want someone who is more than a “one trick pony”. If you do page layout why can’t you do web design? We need someone who can do social media and color correct the photos they are using in the layout they just did. Do you see where I am going with all of this?
As Just-B mentioned UX is going the way of print and I feel it is mainly because of technology and drag and drop sites where coding is not needed to create a vibrant web or phone interface. As Sprout mentioned, you need to learn Graphic Design as a whole in order to be able to adapt to not only the current atmosphere but the ever changing future.
My personal feeling is that as time goes by the challenge “Real Designers” will face is in learning the UX of the latest drag and drop software for designing. Learning curves will be almost non existent and just like back in the late 1990’s more dunderheads will claim the title of “Graphic Designer” just because they can drag and drop. They will flood the market, willing take less pay and again devalue the field. Same old story…same old song and dance.
I heard the UX/UI/Graphic design market is booming. Especially with everything going digital. I want to get my foot on the door for UX/UI as well, I heard about the bootcamps but still hesitant to go for it.
There are way too many hearing that same message — about 15–20 years later than when it was accurate.
UI/UX has boomed but is on the cusp of plateauing. — mainly for the reasons I listed above in my post. Graphic design is only booming at the bottom end of low-paying, online crowdsourcing work. Almost every other aspect of graphic design is stagnating or moving in the wrong direction — partially the result of people believing the kinds of things you’ve heard and jumping into an already oversaturated field.