Digital Designers

Digital designers typically gain one or two years’ experience in traditional graphic design, plus one to two years’ experience in digital design, before being considered full-fledged designers. Any digital design experience you can obtain while in school will be extremely useful.

As with all artists, digital designers need artistic talent, creativity, and imagination. They must have an eye for detail and a strong sense of color, balance, and proportion. Much of these qualities come naturally to potential digital designers, but skills can be developed and improved through training, both on the job and in professional schools, colleges, and universities.

Digital designers need solid computer skills and working knowledge of several of the common animation design, drawing, image editing, and page layout programs. Digital design can be done on both Macintosh systems and on PCs; in fact, many designers have both types of computers in their studios.

Other traits for successful digital designers include a talent for solving problems, strong communication skills, the ability to work as both a member of a team and on one’s own, the ability to work well under deadline pressure, and a willingness to continue to learn during one’s career.