Customer Reviews

Becoming a Graphic Designer: A Guide to Careers in Design, 2nd Edition

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Everyday, more and more university students are choosing some area of design as a career field. This guidebook is divided into four major information sections: Design Specialties, Design Businesses, Design Options and Design Education, followed by a Resource Guide, which consists of the names and addresses of design-related organizations and publications. Interwoven with these sections are portions of interviews with about 90 design professionals on such subjects as How I Became a Graphic Designer; Advice to Designers; On Personal Style; Major Influences; and The Future of Graphic Design. Other informative features include How Many Graphic Designers Are There? What Do They Earn? and The Optimum Portfolio. For the curious but uninformed, this is very likely the best introduction available. (Copyright by Roy R. Behrens from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol. 15, No. 1, Autumn 1999.)

Coming from a graphic design student in my senior year, this book has been so helpful in pointing me in the direction of where I want to go after I graduate in the spring. BUY THIS BOOK! You won't be disappointed. The insight of the designers featured in this book is very informative.

I can't believe this book. It encompasses everything an aspiring graphic designer needs to know, including art schools, design organizations, and what you need in a portfolio. My teacher lent me this book, and I didn't want to give it back! Get this book!

There is a lot of good to be said for this book. But the thing that jumps out and slaps me in the face, right off, maybe because I have dealt with new design students and new professionals for the past several years, is a few dumb comments such as "If you are going to be a good designer, fine. If you aren't don't bother. The field is full of mediocre talents as it is."

And how, pray tell, does one know whether one is going to "be good" during the first year of ones study? --Or even during the first few years of ones professional practice, when sweeping out the place may be included in your job description, and hands-on real world work may come your way slowly and in small discreet bits? And doesn't every creative person at one point or another question the worth and validity of what he or she is doing, EVEN after recognition has started rolling in and they understand that their work is generally perceived by their peers as good? Further, I would ask whether everyone HAS to be a Saul Bass or a Neville Brody. Isn't design a broad enough field to encompass the work of those with less Olympian ambition? Comments such as the one above are relatively few and far between, to be certain. But where on earth was the editor when pompous uninsightful stuff like this flew in under the radar? Although the sheer snideness of the comment may make many jaded pros cheer, I have to wonder what useable information this kind of comment contains for the neophyte at whom the book is supposedly aimed? --To show that a lot of jaded pros have a really bad attitude?

I do not favor the Pollyanna view whether we are talking art or careers. But I believe it is impossible to know how you will fare at something before you have been doing it a while. Thinking otherwise --for example, that a teacher in a design 101 class can tell you whether you are "any good" (and I have seen or heard about many students asking this very question)-- just intimidates and discourages people from being brave enough to give the life that they would see for themselves a try. To me, that is way too limiting.

I wish that I had discovered this book before I had graduated from design school. Not only does this user friendly book offer excellent advice from all the tops in the industry (done in short - to the point paragraphs), it is very informative as well. The book is divided into different sections on different types of design along with an interview of sorts with a person in that industry. What I found to be most informative was that at the beginning of each section there are recommendations on the types (as well as number) of pieces your portfolio should contain if you are interested in going for a job in that particular part of the industry. I would recommend this book to people in school, just graduating, or perhaps looking to reenter the job market in a different specialization of the field.

I am finishing up by degree in Graphic Communications in December. I checked this book out of our school library and didn't want to give it back...so I bought my own! What I love about this book is that it breaks it down by industry and specialty area. I also like the way it breaks down what you should include in your portfolio for those areas. It is nice knowing that there is more to Graphic Design than just being a Graphic Artist in a print shop or a newspaper. This book gives you an idea and an overview on what's out there. Awesome!

I just found this book while ordering other books, and it has been proven to be very helpful. It has opinions and and advice from the best graphic designers in the country!

This book is a good overview of what it means to be a graphic designer. It goes through the different areas of design, and different job positions.
Everything you need to know about the design world is in this book.

This book looks a little outdated, but that's just what I expected. The condition is good, and the price was the best available. Shipping was fairly timely.

This book is a good overview of what it means to be a graphic designer. It goes through the different areas of design, and different job positions.
Everything you need to know about the design world is in this book.