- Identity Design
- Web Design
- Collateral
- Packaging
- Other
0 voters
1 Like
Other: Infographics
3 Likes
Other here too: Product Instruction Manuals
While most creatives would flee this work out of terrified boredom, my pathological fascination with product design and manufacturing keeps it running hot for me.
1 Like
Man this is tough to answer. I enjoy T-shirt design and infographics … but occasionally branding/identity design. As well as knocking out some collateral or print work. It just jumps around a lot. I guess I’m glad I don’t have any one thing I prefer. It just depends on the client/project and my current “mindset”. Sometimes I love to “clear my head” by just doing some “mindless” production style work.
1 Like
Most of my career since the early '90s seems to keep coming back to website UI/UX, but I honestly don’t like doing it. I love print — especially publication design (magazine, books, newspapers ) much, much better.
3 Likes
If I could do nothing but logos, I’d be happy. Of course, if that ever happened, I might get bored. The grass is always greener, I suppose.
1 Like
I enjoy designing stuff for trade-shows. There always seems to be more leeway on the actual engineering part of the product as well as the designing stage.
And there’s something fulfilling about going from the sell, to the early planning stages, to the mock-ups/design, to the printing to the production of the final piece (woodwork/metalwork, whatever else) with limited guidelines. Although I could pawn off part of any of those tasks to either a production person or designer we have working here, those are the jobs I’ll typically enjoy doing the most.
Also I enjoy anything that allows me to use my illustrative abilities. My day job is pretty fast-paced so I save most of that stuff for freelance work.
The ones I dislike the most are the ones Just-B mentioned. Anything with large masses of text. I think the most I’m okay with are tri-folds.
2 Likes
I am impartial to the nature of jobs, as long as it’s the paying kind.
3 Likes
I like digging into human behavior, analyzing what might motivate them to act.
1 Like
Do you like marketing more than you like graphic design?
No, but it’s hard to separate them. Marketing + graphic design + psychology = fun stuff. But the graphic design would win.
1 Like
Marketing seems to pay better, but doesn’t look as fun.
I think graphic design is all about marketing. Depending on how you define marketing.
1 Like
Marketing: socioeconomical research applied to the goal of a message and delivery channels
Graphic design: communication design research applied to the style of a marketing message and the technical aspects of message delivery
Marketing is a big, big subject…
This one aligns with design a bit closer; “the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.”
That sounds more like communication design than graphic design.
I miss the good ol’ days when clearer divisions of labor was considered to be a wise thing. I know that’s not practical in a shrinking outsourced and automated labor market. But judging by the quality of ads these days, there’s too much overlap in merging disciplines.
Yes, WAY too much overlap. These days, graphic design seems to includes videos, html and css, motion graphics, powerpoint presentations… and many potential employers and clients don’t distinguish.
It’s impossible to define any more. But by me, it’s marketing.
I do mostly print collateral and some Wordpress web design, and often call myself a marketing designer. My career has been all about marketing, whether working with data for direct mail campaigns, or market data analysis at Nordstrom, or print design.
Basically, marketing is the common denominator.
I completely agree. It’s the argument I used to the upper management where I work to consolidate the marketing, communication and creative groups into joint teams.
To me, graphic design is a component or subset of marketing. I suppose there could be types of graphic design that have little to do with marketing, but I’m having difficulty thinking what they might be — crafts, regulatory labels, instruction sheets, maybe.
A problem I see in considering graphic design as a discipline within marketing is that it tends to place traditional marketers in the position of overseeing graphic designers. In my experience, many marketers (especially the MBA types) can be clueless about graphic design and communication issues (while believing otherwise).
I could write another page or two about why that might be the case and what should be done about it, but that’s another subject.
1 Like
Thinking, thinking, thinking…got it! Wedding invitations?
Even wedding invitation are designed to be marketed to the engaged couples who buy the invitations.
How about road signs? They’re designed to convey information, but I’m not sure that’s marketing.