With a population over four-and-a-half million and several good-sized cities, Louisiana is an appropriate state of residence for artists in search of careers in graphic design. Many commercial businesses throughout the state employ graphic designers for many different reasons.
Louisiana Schools and Training Programs for Graphic Design
Quite a few reputable Louisiana colleges have degree programs in graphic design, which is technically known as communications design. Among the top Louisiana design colleges are Baton Rouge School of Computers, Louisiana State and Southern University in Baton Rouge. Similar educational offerings in New Orleans include Loyola, Tulane and University of New Orleans.
Many resident Louisiana artists earn graphic design degrees online. The most active schools offering online degree programs in graphic design are The Art Institutes, ITT Tech, University of Phoenix and DeVry.
Louisiana graphic designers typically major in Communications Design or Fine Arts. Artists on the rise learn about computers, website design, digital art, photography, animation, technical drawing, typography, printmaking and software applications, among other topics.
Working as a Graphic Designer in Louisiana
Louisiana graphic designers are in demand. Local employment options include designing brand logos, rendering product descriptions, creating promotional art and developing educational materials, as well as designing book covers, web pages, product packaging, street signs, home interiors, textile prints and assembly instructions, to name a few.
Some designers work for top Louisiana ad agencies such as Bright Moments, Firefly Digital and Keating-Magee in New Orleans or the Moran Group and Rockit Science in Baton Rouge. Other local designers create film credits, movie posters and promotional media for Louisiana motion picture producers. Among the largest of these are Palmetto, Zydeco, Moxie and Fox Pro Media in New Orleans.
Other Louisiana businesses that hire graphic designers include patent offices, software developers, colleges, book publishers, retailers, equipment manufacturers, industrial contractors, architects, real estate agents, internet start-ups and many more.
Companies in the U.S. currently employ more than 250,000 visual artists. The starting salary for a graphic designer largely depends on education, related experience, talent and expertise, among other things. Employers also review design portfolios when selecting professional talent and determining pay rates. A design portfolio is a book of photo images representing the designer's best work. About half of all graphic designers in the U.S. earn somewhere between $30,000 and $60,000 a year.
Working as a Graphic Designer in Louisiana
Graphic design is a precise, well-structured art form used for communicating specific messages, often for commercial use. Most graphic design work involves page layout. Page layout deals with the relative size, color, location, orientation and other attributes of images on a page, as well as the background against which those images appear.
Professional communications designers understand visual subtleties like juxtaposition of form, how moods are affected by color and light, the emotional impact of symbols and the importance of the location of the observer. Graphic designers learn technology, psychology, visual arts and commercial trends in order to obtain specific reactions from particular target markets. In most cases, graphic designers create art that causes us to spend money.