Syracuse, New York features many gifted visual artists successfully pursuing employment among the city's roughly 25,000 corporations and private businesses. Commercial graphics is, for obvious reasons, the most lucrative profession in the field of visual arts. Companies in Syracuse maintain an ongoing economic demand for highly disciplined graphic artists, especially illustration experts.
Syracuse Schools and Training Programs for Illustrators
Syracuse has a few outstanding colleges and countless independent fine art studios hosting classes and workshops in commercial illustration. Aspiring illustration artists in Syracuse most often major in visual arts. Local artists typically attend Empire State College or Syracuse University.
Nonetheless, some aspiring illustrators in Syracuse acquire skills and degrees via virtual design colleges. Popular accredited online schools of graphic arts include the Academy of Art University, National University, Post University, Full Sail University, DeVry, Stratford Career Institute, University of Phoenix, The Art Institutes and ITT Tech. One popular feature of accredited online schools is that they often provide supplemental local campuses and testing facilities.
Working as an Illustrator in Syracuse, New York
Many Syracuse illustrators create commercial art for graphic design firms like Advantage Graphics, Commercial Graphics, Morrow Graphics, Landmark Graphics and Quala Graphics, for example. Creative local illustrators with a funky cool flair can design for nearby tattoo parlors like Halo Tattoo, Angry Banana, Defiance Tattoo or Electric Circus.
Syracuse illustration artists with a knack for precision sometimes work for local engineering firms like Joseph-Burns-Consulting, Robson-Woese, Fraser-Fassler-Consulting, Blasland-Bouck-Lee and O'Brien-Gere-Engineers, among others. Some technical illustrators work for Syracuse medical illustration services such as Blackstone Medical, Lightouch Medical or Visage Medical Aesthetics. Other local businesses hiring illustrators include greeting card companies, toy makers, event coordinators, newspapers and computer programmers.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that a professional illustration artist employed full time in the city of Syracuse, New York reports an average earning of about $42,450 per year, with a reported mean hourly wage of around $20.40. However, this data does not reflect the incomes of part time illustrators, local freelancers or Syracuse artists employed by companies based outside the United States.
Skills of a Professional Illustrator
Aside from supreme natural talent for hand-drawn creations, illustrators also perform photo editing, image enhancements and other visual alterations. Many illustrators are also animators and graphic designers. Most professional illustrators are completely proficient with traditional and digital visual media. Today's popular digital illustration software programs include Sketsa SVG, Logo-Design-Studio-Pro, Diagram Designer, Quark Xpress and ACD Canvas.