The design industry offers vast opportunities for creatives to experiment with their careers, emphasizing creativity, uniqueness, and excellence. Since the moment you decided to pursue a career as a graphic designer, a large door has opened, brimming with possibilities waiting to be explored. Branding stands out as one of the compelling avenues worth considering. Businesses and brand managers consistently seek experienced designers to help establish a distinct voice and identity, contributing to the growth of their ventures.
Branding revolves around ensuring that the brand image is meticulously maintained and polished, leaving a lasting impression on customers and building their trust. For brands, hiring a skilled brand designer becomes imperative to elevate their business image to new heights. For graphic designers, a career in design translates into job security, promising design career prospects, and an attractive salary – what’s not to love? It’s all about mastering brand strategy and turning it into a tangible reality.
Let’s delve into everything you need to know about becoming a brand designer with three essential tips to kickstart your journey toward a successful career in this field.
What is a Brand Designer?
A graphic designer is known for producing visually appealing designs across various platforms, environments, and formats. This can encompass website designs, posters, invitation cards, brochures, book designs, t-shirt designs, and more.
Now, let’s explore the role of a brand designer.
A brand designer is involved in creating or redesigning the distinct identity of a brand or its services, aiming to elevate the brand image across all platforms. Their responsibility extends to crafting the overall visual appearance and messaging of the brand. This involves tasks such as creating a logo, selecting a color palette, writing typography, developing marketing collateral, and defining the brand’s vision and goals.
As the saying goes, the first impression matters. A brand designer oversees the visual representation of the brand to ensure customer trust and affinity. It’s about constructing a visual story that leaves a lasting impact on the audience’s minds.
A successful brand designer ensures that every aspect of a company’s branding, including its social media representations and visual identity on each website, is consistent and coherent across all platforms. Consistency is a fundamental aspect of successful branding. A well-branded company should be immediately recognizable to its audience, encompassing its products and content.
With this understanding, let’s delve into the basics of how to become a brand designer.
What Skills do you need to become a Brand Designer?
A brand designer needs a variety of creative skills to be able to produce top-quality work. Demand for people with Organizational skills is more. They must juggle multiple tasks and remain productive throughout their working day.
Good communication skills are part of the key skills, allowing them to work with clients and colleagues alike – providing clear instructions, providing feedback, and keeping abreast of updates within the industry. Time management skills help ensure that all deadlines are met, even when several different projects need to be completed at once. It’s also important for a brand designer to be a team player who can collaborate with their peers while still finding ways to stand out from the competition.
Excellent Attention to detail is vital in this line of work; brand designers should have a keen eye for everything from small nuances in the project design down to fine-tuning content edits. They also need an understanding of a range of print and online processes, such as social media campaigns, website optimization, video production, etc., to properly create or communicate ideas to life. Lastly, having impressive design skills or experience with creative software packages such as Adobe Photoshop or InDesign can give a brand designer advantages.
They should also possess technical proficiency, showcasing high-level experience in demand skills such as Figma, Adobe Illustrator, After Effects, and more.
What Qualifications does a Brand Designer need?
To become a brand specialist, obtaining a degree or a higher national diploma in relevant subjects is crucial. These may include Graphic Design, Graphic Communication Design, Graphic Branding and Identity, Visual Communication, Brand Design, or Art and Design. Pursuing a degree in any of these disciplines requires a significant financial and time commitment, so careful consideration is essential to determine if it aligns with your career goals.
For a junior brand designer, you can opt for online courses to enhance your technical skills and stay updated on market trends. Regardless of the chosen career path, a designer’s most critical tool is their portfolio, showcasing unique ideas and design skills. You can earn experience through internships in the tech industry, learning the basics of client brand guidelines to help you kickstart your career.
A well-maintained portfolio proves beneficial whether you are seeking employment or an apprenticeship.
How To Become a Brand Designer?
Once you’ve decided to pursue a long-term career as a brand designer, the next step is to secure some exciting new projects. However, if you lack experience in brand design, here are three tips to help you get started on your journey to becoming a professional brand designer.
1. Educate Yourself with Courses and Articles
One of the most effective approaches to becoming a brand designer is enrolling in a course tailored to this specific field. You need to have a strong ability to learn the stages of client projects and agency life and understand the fast-growing industry standards. General graphic design courses may not offer the specialized knowledge and skills essential for success in brand design. Seek resources for courses that concentrate on subjects like logo design, typography, and brand storytelling. Such courses will provide you with a solid foundation and qualifications specific to brand design.
2. Join Facebook Groups for Business Owners
If you’re looking to establish connections in the industry, consider joining various Facebook groups for brand managers, brand designers, or business owners. Being part of such communities enables you to showcase your work to potential clients and connect with fellow creatives or entrepreneurs pursuing a similar path. Additionally, you can receive valuable support and advice, guiding you in the right direction. This tip is instrumental in attracting the right clients for your creative journey and building a portfolio that showcases ample work to present to future clients.
3. Create a Website That Sells!
Having a website showcasing your 2-3 years’ experience and details is crucial for potential clients to take you seriously. The website should provide sufficient information about yourself to help clients consider hiring you. Include examples of past projects, testimonials, and details about your packages, which can be based on rates according to time frames or the number of projects.
If you lack recent projects to showcase, consider creating mock projects that are fictional. Your portfolio should highlight your design work, and testimonials, even if not specifically from branding projects, can be obtained from previous employers who are familiar with your work ethic and can vouch for you.
Why Choose a Career in Brand Design?
A career choice in brand design can be highly enjoyable, varied, and rewarding. It provides the opportunity to develop a comprehensive skillset that is applicable across many industries, from fashion to technology, and to use these skills to create memorable brands. The creativity required when designing meaningful visuals to represent companies or their products is stimulating, and presenting this work in front of clients can be both exciting and nerve-wracking.
The salaries for brand designers are generally higher than many other professions employed within the creative industry.
The salary for middle-weight brand designers is generally higher than many other professions employed within the creative industry. Starting off as a budding brand designer, you could expect to earn up to 28K per year, depending on experience level and location. With the right training and dedication, it’s possible to have a successful career in brand design with increasingly attractive salaries available for more experienced professionals.
In conclusion, I’d like to encourage anyone to step into the world of brand design. Despite the abundance of talented professionals, there is still ample room for you to make a name for yourself. Keep an open mind, don’t shy away from any project, and consider it the beginning of your journey. Every designer has taken on projects not perfectly suited for them before climbing their way up. Put your best foot forward, learn from every opportunity, and challenge yourself.
FAQ
Is brand designing a good career?
A brand designer is responsible for creating the overall look and messaging for a business. This includes all elements of design from logo development and color palettes to defining the mission and voice of the company. Branding design is a good career option for those who have graphic design experience.
What does a branding designer do?
A brand designer is an innovator in the creative world. They develop designs that fit clients’ needs on a variety of platforms, including logos, visual identities, apps and websites, out-of-home media, social media, magazines, games, and physical environments. Brand designers are highly skilled with a genuine passion for design and creative culture. They have an eye for detail and strive to provide the client with the best possible outcome with each project.