What do designers need to know to stay informed and relevant in their practice today? As technology, social context, ways of learning and working continues to change, designers have to constantly be on top of the current trends and concepts in addition to developing their method, theory, and techniques. To be able to understand the current marketplace, they have to go back in time to understand the history of art, design and its impact on economic, social and technological developments.
Designers who understand the big picture and can learn to do one thing well, often end up succeeding in their design careers. Studying how ideas and concepts get translated into form and understanding the origins and history of your design field will help you make sense of the market today. For graphic designers, visual representations carry a lot of meaning. To be able to explore this connection, the designer should be able to look at graphical representations of the past and the present to understand why things look the way they do now. From here, images and type get put together to create a form that can be used to convey a message to the targeted audience.
The landscape of design is changing. The US Bureau of statistics reports that there will only be 0-1% growth in the traditional graphic design arena. On the other hand, design around social media app and networked communications are expected to rise by 27%. As graphic designers begin to change shape, jobs and expectations are changing as well. Let us take a look at the shape-shifting field of design and how designers can keep themselves up to date.
