Looking for jobs, I always see many more Graphic Design jobs (even just “print” oriented jobs vs. web) than ID jobs. Anyone done a transition to GD? Any tips, experiences?
I have done small graphic jobs to support my product designs for my employers, so I am confident in my design skills but always had production people to handle the files. … I guess my concern is the production end of it, i.e. trapping, color space specification, dot gain, etc. and if employers think the ID education / background transfers in the minds of creative / art directors.
You are one among the many who would like this transfer. I was in the same situation few years back , cant find ID jobs, restrictions on visa’s and economy pressure. Your mind just wants to settle on something that seems to provide you. Probably you are in different situation. But if thats what you really want to do and you are talented enough to move up in GD field then you could change. There is similar pressure and competition in GD, probably, even more. Think thrice!
ID is my first love and I think I am a good fit for it.
I am hedging my bets so to speak, if I can’t get an ID fulltime, I want to try for GD, even entry level, because it is still design. I know GD can be more open-ended, so to speak, with less constraints so it can be difficult that way, it is also very prone to endless changes, extreme deadlines and difficult bosses (bosses could be editors, art directors, marketers, etc. - everyone has an opinion).
There are also many more graduates to compete with coming out of GD (who actually have degrees in the field and know what they are doing) not to mention the pay can be lower unless you score a gig with a really good firm or corporation… who probably is going to hire a GD grad unless you differentiate yourself as being better able to do packaging and such. Graphic design is a discipline, and just like I would say to a GDer on here trying to get into an ID role, I say the proper training in typography, letter forms, informational graphics and so on are really necessary. When I graduated school, it was the original dot com boom. Many ID kids got caught up in making websites and ended up doing that for a living. The most successful ones went back to school at some point.