7 In-Demand Career Options in Design
Design careers, major skills required and important tools to learn
If you are new to design or aiming to pursue the field of design, you might be wondering what is the best career option in design which suits your personality as well as your skill set. In this article we will briefly talk about what are some of the in-demand career options in design and what skills and tools these design fields require.
1. UI/UX Design
UI (User Interface Design) and UX (User Experience Design) is all about strategizing and designing an end to end seamless and easy experience for the users on digital products like websites, apps and other digital platforms.
Major skills required:
- Research
- Analytical and Problem solving
- Wireframing
- Interface Design
- Usability Testing
- Basic knowledge of HTML/CSS
Important tools:
- Figma/ Sketch/ Adobe XD/ InVision (For UI Design)
- Miro (For UX design and brainstorming)
- Maze (For Usability Testing)
2. Graphic Design
Graphic Design can include designing a wide range of design related things for social media as well as for print media. It can include designing branding, logos, social media posts, editing pictures, designing brochures, business cards, letterheads and packaging material.
Major skills required:
- Communication design
- Color theory
- Typography
Important Tools:
3. Animation Design
Animation is about giving life to your design. Majorly this field is divided into sub categories of 2D animation and 3D animation based on the design itself. Branding animation, CGI effects, game animations are all crafted by animation designers.
Major Skills Required:
- Graphic design skills
- Communication design
- Story telling
Important Tools:
4. Video Editing
Lights. Camera. Action! Editing and manipulating videos in order to communicate an idea or a message is what video editing is all about. It can be a video film, a video Ad, story telling, V-logs or even gaming videos.
Major Skills required:
- Editing skills
- Animation skills
- Videography
- Story telling
- Visual communication
Important tools:
5. Interior Design
Turning an empty and dull space into an aesthetic and comfortable interior is what we call interior designing. The interior can be of a room, office, café or a car. The interior designers play with different design styles and understand the customer psychology to give them the best personalized and aesthetic environment.
Major skills required:
- Consumer psychology
- Graphic design skills
- Color theory
- Product design
- Communication design
Important Tools:
6. Fashion Design
Fashion design is all about giving outfits a "WOW" factor. Fashion designers play with different themes, trends, colors and seasons psychology to design unique outfits and wearables which give its customers a unique personality and make them stand out.
Major Skills Required:
- Graphic design skills
- Sewing, drawing and sketching
- Communication design
- Fabric and material knowledge
Important Tools:
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Illustrator
- Sewing Machine, threads and needles
- Any 3D software
7. Industrial Design
Designing all sort of tangible products on an industrial scale is what industrial design is all about. The products can range from anything as small as a water bottle or a nail cutter to heavy machinery like automobile design and furniture design.
Major Skills required:
- Consumer psychology
- Raw material knowledge
- Communication design
- Sketching and drawing
Important tools:
While each of these design career option is specific to different industry and products, one thing however, is consistent across all these fields which is having a creative eye for the design. If you have creative skills, you can evaluate yourself to see which type of work seems more fun and engaging to you. But you are never limited to any one specific field and the path to learning is always open.