The Tribune

Job titles can be a confusing way to navigate the employment market.

So, you want to be a graphic designer? What does that mean exactly? What types of jobs are available?

For example, what some employers might refer to as a front-end developer, another may call a web designer.

Nonetheless, while there are no hard-and-fast rules about what you have to call a particular role when advertising or designing, there are a certain set of accepted role names that broadly share similar responsibilities.

And whether you’re a graphic designer, web designer or just John Doe, you’ll need the same basic understanding of design principles.

With this in mind - and in the interest of helping demystify who does what - let’s look at some of the most common job titles in the design field and what they really mean.

No doubt there are thousands of diverse designers. This list is not meant to be exhaustive but to provide a brief overview of the most popular titles, a look at a few requisites and their expected daily activities.

Web Designer

A Web Designer will likely be using skills in HTML and CSS and probably also in JavaScript on a daily basis. Some employers will also expect you to be conversant with Photoshop, taking a practical approach to creating mockups and flats, while others view the term ‘web designer’ as being almost synonymous with ‘front-end developer’ so it’s always important to read the job description specification carefully.

Art/Creative Director

The Creative Director position is a precarious one as these are the Don Drapers of the world. An art director is typically a fairly senior position. For the career-minded, an art director can be a stepping stone to creative director at the top of the design tree.

While everyone else sits in a cubicle, the Creative Director sits in an office. For the most part, Creative Directors started at the bottom and worked their way up through 10 or more years of experience.

A typical Creative Director might actually do more managing than actual design work. However, a good Creative Director knows how to maximise the potential of their teams.

All major work is filtered through them and they have the ultimate say on the direction of the artwork, client relations meetings and presentations etc.

Often, they get the praise when a project goes right, even if they haven’t really designed anything. Similarly, when projects go horribly wrong, they are faulted.

Package Design

Package designers are exactly what they sound like; they design boxes, bottles, cans, bags and cartons that fill every shelf in every store.

Shampoo bottles are also an example of a product with a container that is often heavily customised by each major brand. These designers have an amazing sort of anonymous fame.

Their work is everywhere: in our stores, all over our kitchens and even in our bathrooms. Every product you’ve ever purchased that came in any sort of container was largely a work of a packaging designer.

Print Publication Designer

The publication industry is historically one of the heaviest hitters even though this number has reduced dramatically with the rise of the web. What is more, magazines and newspapers were the Internet of yesterday and are still a large part of everyday information consumption for many people.

Notably, every single page in the daily, weekly, monthly, bi-monthly and annual publications has to be designed, compiled and organised by hard work of talented teams of Mac Operators, Graphic Designers and Creative Directors.

Motion Designer

Motion designers create animated graphics and titles. You’ll normally find a motion designer in the broadcast or movie industries working specifically on creating animated graphics and titles.

They’ll typically use the likes of Apple Motion, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, Avid and possibly Maya, 3D Studio Max and other modeling software etc.

Front-end Developer

Unlike the web developer, a front-end developer is involved in creating the visual presentation of a website. They will typically translate a mockup into a fully functioning website.

The skills used for this role include HTML, CSS and JavaScript, although sometimes there may be some low-level back-end work thrown in too. Traditionally a front-end developer would get more involved in the implementation and less in the design of the website itself.

However, there is an increasing crossover between the front-end developer and web designer roles, to the extent that some use the terms interchangeably.

UI Designer

A UI (user interface) designer gets involved in defining the way different elements of a user interface behave, provide feedback to the user and help convey meaning. This function is certainly more about designing and less about implementing.

However the difference between a UI designer and an interaction designer, I would say, is down to the areas of a website that encourage direct interaction with a user such as forms, menus, special effects, media playback and so on.

UX Designer

A UX designer focuses on the design from the point of view of the users and focuses on understanding how a website is used, defines areas for improvement and conducts user-testing to establish the success of any changes implemented.

Sometimes this is a hands-on role that incorporates elements of the front-end developer but other times it’s all about analysis and less about the actual doing.

IT Technician

This role is very simply network and hardware-related. If you’re expecting anything design or development related, you’ll be disappointed. Expect to be resetting user passwords and helping to administer Exchange server instead.

SEO Specialist

A SEO (search engine optimisation) specialist is concerned primarily with ensuring that the content of a website is optimised to achieve the best possible search engine positioning.

They may also get involved in helping to run and manage campaigns, but their primary function is the analysis of a website’s search engine performance.

Finally, bear in mind that some of these job titles vary depending on the country. And it’s also worth remembering that the industry is constantly changing.

In particular, ever since graphic designers have been involved in the interactive and web design industry, most creative job descriptions have had to be re-evaluated several times.

Until we meet again, fill your life with memories as opposed to regrets. Enjoy life and stay on top of your game.

Feedback to deedee21bastian@gmail.com

Deidre Marie Bastian is a professionally trained Graphic Designer/Marketing Co-ordinator with qualifications of MSc, BSc and ASc.  She has trained at Miami Lakes Technical Centre, Success Training College, College of The Bahamas, Nova South Eastern University, Learning Tree International, Langevine International and Synergy Bahamas.