Job Roles (U24: P4, M2, D2)

Task 5 - Job Roles (U24: P4, M2, D2)

Learning Outcome 2 (U24): Understand the behaviours, skills and attributes necessary within the advertising industry

Professional Attributes - Graphic Designer

Creativity: Graphic Designers must be creative in order to be able to constantly flow with new ideas and designs for differing products. The designs being made must be able to catch eyes of potential customers and clients in order to gather more income for a company. Furthermore, graphic designers should be able to successfully communicate that a product belongs to a specific company or brand simply by the way the design create looks (such as the use of colour scheme and fonts).

Technical Knowledge: Graphic designers need to basic knowledge of how to use a variety of different designing softwares such as photoshop, procreate, clip studio etc. With skills in a variety of softwares, graphic designers are able to work quickly upon being hired for a new projects as it takes away the time needed to train them in new softwares.

Profesional Attributes - Illustrator

Creativity: Illustrators as well as Graphic designers need to be extremely creative. They need to be able to come up with unique and compelling illustrations based on a company’s needs with a deadline. This illustration should gather attention for the product and draw in new customers and clients.

Flexibility: Illustrators need to be flexible when it comes to drawing styles as not all companies are going to want their illustrations to be in the same style. Illustrators will have to constantly change the way in which they draw in order to reach a brief or requirement set by a company or brand for their projects.

Personal Attributes - Graphic Designer

Time Management: Graphic designers need to be able to get their designs done for a certain deadline. By having good time management skills, graphic designers can make sure they get their final design ready for the deadline and make sure they don't need to run into contingency dates.

Communication Skills: Graphic designers need to be good at communicating ideas with others and also communicating ideas through a design. Designers need to be able to take the idea communicated to them by the brief, then communicate that same message through to an audience through their design work.

Organisation Skills: Graphic designers need to be organised, especially if they’re talking more than one project at once. They need to make sure that each design has the right elements that the company wants, and needs to make sure it gets done in time before the deadline.

Personal Attributes - Illustrator

Drawing Skills: Illustrators need to be very skilled drawers as they need to fit the design and style requirements of various brands and companies. As well as this, by being skilled at what they do, they have a higher chance of being hired to do other jobs.

Time Management: Illustrators need to be able to manage their time extremely well in order to meet deadlines, and have plenty of time to do so. Work may not be up to standard if completed in a rush or short span of time, so illustrators need to make sure they leave themselves enough time to do the project their working on.

Organisation: Organisation skills are very important to illustrators as they need to organise their projects if they’re doing more than one. They need to make sure that their illustrations hits each demand of the brief and appeals to a target audience. By organising what content they’re going to include before hand, they’re most likely to create a successful illustration.

Job roles from guardian website - Graphic Designer

Both job descriptions ask for you to have some sort of experience before hand whether it be in graphic design or in agency/retail. This is because, as they are not basic entry level job applications, applicants are required to have some sort of experience before hand.

Both jobs ask that applicants have knowledge in different design softwares such as Indesign, Photoshop and illustrator. This is so that the company doesn’t need to take out time train you in said platforms, and pay you for working hours that were actually spent training you in said design softwares

As well as this, both jobs also specify that applicants need eye for detail, and a broad understanding of design along with the different aspects of design such as texture, colour and placement. By the applicants already being experienced and having extensive knowledge in design, the designs they make for the company would already be of a high quality which may lead to it being more successful.

The jobs differ in salaries due to the level that the applicant will be working at. The Cancer Research job only offers £24000-£25000 as the applicant will be working at a junior level. However, the Inspiring Interns company will be paying their applicant £25000-£40000. Whilst they don’t completely specify the level of work they want, we can assume its  higher level as they are paying more.

Job roles from guardian website - Illustrator

This job application is looking for someone to become a lecturer in Illustrations and Visual media for a university. As the person they are looking for is going to be teaching their area of specification to another group of beginners, they will need to be quite advanced in their field. This school requests that the Illustrator in question has previous teaching experience in higher education or a comparable context to that. This is to ensure that students are getting high quality teaching experience.

The school also requests that the applicant has a masters or equivalent experience in the industry as they want someone who has a strong commitment to the advanced area of their field. This would create a more successful teachers/lecturer as they would have first hand experience in the field that they are teaching.

Lastly, they request that the applicant is a specialist practitioner and has academic or industry experience to ensure that they have a strong understanding of the modern contact of illustration and visual media in a professional and academic setting.

Etiquette

Proper etiquette is important when working in the media production sector. Good etiquette shows your colleagues that you have respect for them as well as showing your seniors and employers that you appreciate them and where you work. By being appreciative, it shows those around you that you’re motivated towards your job and therefore will work hard to get the best outcome for the company.

In the work environment it is incredibly important to respect those above you in the work place hierarchy. These people would include roles such as manages, bosses, employers, CEOs etc. However it is also important to respect those that are below you in this chain of work. This is because this could potentially put your job and maybe career at risk if its reported. To avoid this, you must treat them as if they were your equal, and not put them down by doing things such as pushing their ideas forward and speak highly of them. Treat people in the work place how you would like to be treated if you were in their positions. On the other hand, by treating above you with respect, you show that you’re willing which could even put you in the books for a promotion.

As a graphic designer, you’re most likely going to be in a sort of middle ground in terms of the work place hierarchy. You will have workers below you such as interns, however you will also have a lot of people above you such as art directors and managers. As a graphic designer you must show respect to both of those employees above and below you. By showing respect to people such as the Art directors in charge of the project you’ve been assigned to, they are more likely to acknowledge your hard work, and could even earn you a promotion. Similarly, if you were to show respect towards those below you in the ranks and give them constructive feedback on work they’ve done, those higher up could recognise you as having good leadership skills which could also lead to a promotion.

Illustrators are similar to Graphic Designers when it comes to the work place hierarchy; they have people above them, yet they also have people below them too like interns and runners. Much like Graphic Designers, by respecting those above them such as their Artistic Directors, Illustrators display their willingness and dedication to the project/company therefore earning themselves potential promotions int he future. The again, by treating those below them with respect and contributing with constructive criticism as well as praising the good work, superiors would see them as a good team leader or manager which also earns potential promotions in their field.

Over all, making your way up the ranks in the media industry is hard work, and respecting those around you at your job plays a big part in terms of promotions. Most people start out as runners or interns unless they have certain qualifications, and work their way up by learning on the job. Those in the middle of the hierarchy such as the Graphic designers and Illustrators need to make sure they’re not taking advantage of the runners and interns as this would make them looks disrespectful in the eyes of the company, and could stunt their growth in their career.