Visual Communication and Graphic Designing are Great Career Options with their Reach Extending Across Several Industries

chillibreeze writer — Ali Kirmani

Animation, graphics and special effects today have contributed to the phenomenal success of films like Jurassic Park, Titanic, the Star Wars series and more recently, the War of the Worlds. Skilled technicians have brought to life extinct dinosaurs, given Spiderman a clear sweep over the Manhattan sky and added special effects as Darth Vader and Obi Van engage in a clash with their light sabers in the latest Star Wars series.

The ICE age (Infotainment, Communication, and Entertainment), has brought about many changes and been a catalyst in shaping many careers.
One career that has really blossomed is commercial arts or visual communication. The arts have merged with computer sciences. The canvas has turned into a monitor, the brush into a mouse and the color palettes into form toolbars. A host of enhancement software like Adobe Photoshop, Flash, CS8, Illustrator, In design, 3D Max, Corel Draw,Maya, and countless others have come together to dictate the expression of one of India's fastest growing careers, that of Wcomputer graphics designing.

Dr. Anita R. Gautam a senior artist reflects, "Colours and shapes can have a strong effect on people, evoking a wide range of emotions, from sadness to anger to joy. Graphic artists and designers understand this and are experts at manipulating color and shape to make people react in certain ways-most frequently in an optimistic way."

Who exactly is a graphics designer?

Graphic designer is a broad category that includes artists who use a wide range of tools, from computer applications to video cameras, to design promotional displays, marketing brochures, logos, commercials, annual reports, and other visual products for clients. They also develop the overall design, animations, special effects and layout of magazines, newspapers, journals, corporate reports and other publications, usually under the command of a design or art director.

The fields of specialization that you can take up are Graphic Animation, Web Designing, Illustration, Events (stage shows), Advertising, TV channel promos, books and publications.

Nitish Handa a design director says, "Graphic animation has lots of scope in India, Recently FICCI had organized FRAMES 2005 which boasted the animation industry as being one of the fastest growing in India.” To hold grounds in this field you should be thorough with 2D two-dimensional) and 3D (three dimensional) animations. The 2D images are scanned into the computer, while the 3D are developed on the computer itself using complex modeling engines like Flash and Maya. The applications, which are innumerable, start with simple 2D illustrations and get carried over to intricate 3D animations for cartoon serials, movies, and advertisements. The payments can start at from Rs.5000 p.m. and get carried over to six digit figures.

As far as web designing is concerned, the market is anchored by software such as Macromedia Flash. Therefore in order to succeed in this field you have to have complete command over Flash, have the ability to perceive what your client wants, have an occupied initiative of the market trends and be able to meet deadlines.

Exploring the many facets of illustrations, Rajshri Mehta says, "Illustrations are used by various media such as advertising, logos, backgrounds, lettering, and television and movie production. Production artists work under the direction of art directors, laying out print and graphics for publications, such as magazines, newspapers, and websites. Using computer applications like the Quark express and Adobe illustrator, they figure out where to put the print and the graphics to create an attractive publication." The entertainment and promotion industry are already bursting at the seams and the bulk of the work lies with graphic designerss. Habib Guffran a marketing executive says, "We have got so many promotional live shows happening that graphic designers are in huge demand for set and stage designs, decors, backdrops, etc." About ad agencies, Tanmay Awasthi says "Posters, print ads, outdoor designing are the elements, rest it all depends on your creative ability to bring your ideas to product, as far as animation is concerned ad agencies are already onto it."

The flashy commercial with Mr. All Out snapping up mosquitoes and Shah Rukh Khan’s burger and pocket speaking up for his bottle of Pepsi are regulars on the television. However, visual communication is not limited to the moving images on the screen. A picture can speak a thousand words and you should definitely judge a book by its cover. Zoobi Sheikh of Anees Publications says, “Nowadays presentation has a lot of value and the design you have on the paperback of your book matters a lot. So the graphic designers have a big hand in it."

The requirements:

"A clear-cut practical knowledge of the programs like Flash for animation-based careers, Photoshop and CorelDraw, 3D MAX, PageMaker etc. comprehension of HTML and other web programming languages such as XML, Visual Basic etc. would assist particularly if your hub is website development. It is still better if you are acquainted with photography. Other than this artistic ability, communicating well with clients, creativity and imagination, dealing with the pressure of constant deadlines, perceiving visual detail, sitting in concentration for long periods of time, and working with the least supervision are skills that will help. As for certification, "employers usually like to take people with a bachelors degree in commercial arts and more than anything an impressive portfolio, remember nothing can makeup for a good portfolio" says Namita Bhatti.

Exploring the dollar dreams Mohant Tejwani says, "It's okay if you start slow. The industry standards in India start from Rs. 5000 per month. Again, depending upon which field and company you land a job, the preliminary base may contrast. Event and ad agencies are not great paymasters. But once you have proven yourself, you can go on to Rs. 10000 - 15000 in 2 years and in senior post it ranges from 30,000 - 50,000 p.m."

Be prepared to work late nights. "They are inevitable looking at the nature of the work, this could be stressful, but most professions nowadays are stressful," says Shruti, a graphics designer. "You are dead if you don't reach deadlines."

Where to get started:

Step 1 - Get a degree / diploma in Commercial Art from institutes like the JJ School of Art or Raheja's School of Art in Mumbai. A diploma in multimedia / graphics from the National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad), which offers a PG in design with specialization in Graphics, is also a good alternative.

Step 2 - Your institute may or may not offer guaranteed jobs, so prepare a great portfolio and take the initiative in finding a job. The growth factor is extremely optimistic as, "Creativeness is not really common. Being a skilled creative professional, you will be scrutinized as a highly valued asset and that will be a ladder for your career to go upwards. From a Junior Visualizer you can scale the corporate ladder to be a Creative Director in a few years." says Sujata Sharma. Considering the increasing movement in the field of entertainment, advertisement, TV etc, Graphic Designers are the IT people to leave their imprint on the industry. If you have it in you rev up your imagination and get going.

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—About our writer:

Ali says, "I am a freelancer for the Indian Express and on a non regular basis I write for Hindustan Times. I love gunning on photoshop and flash. My favourite authors are Mario Puzo, Michael Crichton and Chetan Bhagat. In future I wish to be in the field of journalism".

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