Let Your Personality Type Choose the Right Design Career For You

Many people look at a group of designers and assume that every designer performs the same job, has the same passions, and will have the same lifestyle. This could not be further from the truth. Graphic design and web design are some of the most wide-open career fields in the job market. There are some jobs that suit some people better than others. If you have earned or are earning a design degree, you should consider what type of personality you have before committing to a job. Here are some jobs that are the best fits for certain people.

Larry the Leader

In every group there are chiefs and there are indians. If you are a chief, you naturally rise to leadership positions and have a knack for directing people. You might fit in well as a creative director. Creative directors are in charge of creative teams that produce artwork for various media and entertainment outlets. They make sure that all team members complete their work on time and at a high level of quality. Directors have the final say on products and services performed by their team. If you would enjoy an administrative position and can handle responsibility, this area of work might be right up your alley.

Tina Technology

For those who feel more comfortable in front of a computer screen than a sketch pad, design jobs requiring technology are growing more rapidly than ever. Web design has become an indisposible part of most companies. Web designers handle the layout, graphics, and continuity of websites. Their work is sometimes seen by thousands of people each day. The latest trend is the use of Flash, a multimedia graphics program from Macromedia. It is used to create interactive and animated websites, and is being used by nearly everyone. So for the designer looking to unleash the computer geek within, there is plenty of demand for designers in the tech industry.

Photo Phil

While some designers enjoy creating their artistic masterpieces from nothing, other prefer finding the beauty in things in the world around them. Photographers take a simple image and turn it into their work of art using equipment such as lights, lenses, and especially their creative vision. As we progress through the digital age, photography is evolving due to technology. Many people make careers as photo editors, especially through the use of Photoshop. Photoshop gurus manipulate photos to add even more  artistic value to them. If you are handy with a camera, you could end up in one of these professions.

Artistic Amy

Some designers are purists and just want to focus on the heart of the matter: the art. Illustrators transform ideas and stories into images that are used in printed materials as well as commercial products, such as greeting cards and stationery. Technical illustrators primarily use digital media to create illustrations. 

Brian the Businessman

There are some people that enjoy being part of large companies with widespread recognition and influence. These corporations need designers, too. Brand identities and logos are the products of graphic designers. These products must be constantly evolving to remain on the cutting edge. If you prefer settling into a single job, especially with a large company, you might fit well into this category.

These are just a few of the jobs that are available to graphic and web designers. Many designers are independent or freelance, so people who enjoy frequent change can find their niche as well. Now you can evaluate yourself and decide which kind of career is right for you.

About the Author

Chris Faires is a writer for MyCollegesandCareers.com. My Colleges and Careers helps people determine if an online education is right for them and helps them search for online degrees that can help them reach their goals.

Taking Photos in Low Light (Infographic)

This infographic on low light photography comes from Snapsort. It has a ton of great tips such as taking a ton of photos in succession, camera settings and lens selection.

You may also want to check out our past guest posts on photography: Film Photography vs. Digital Photography by Claire Jarrett of Marketing By Web and Finding Your Own Photography Style by Sarah Gonski of loveandpaella.com

Film Photography vs. Digital Photography

Photography has come a long way since the days of the first pin-hole camera, which was invented in the 1850’s. New technologies have periodically refined photographing methods, each adding new dimension to this delightful art, which many pursue as a hobby. Basically, a photograph captures the image which the photographer desires. Formerly, such images were captured on films. Now, photographers have an option between digital photographs, and film photographs. Both these photography methods are acceptable as of date. Each of these methods has its drawbacks as well.

There is a difference in the types of cameras required for film photographs, and digital photographs. Cameras that generate digital images are costlier in the beginning. In the long run, however, they more than make up for their cost because images in these cameras are generated digitally. This means that digital photography results in considerable saving on film cost.

A dark room is essential for editing any images taken on film. Such a requirement is not there in case of digital photography. Digital photographs can be reviewed immediately, unlike those taken on any film. Digital photographs can also be printed using any computer and printer. Therefore, the photographer is not required to purchase any equipment that is exclusively meant for taking prints.

Digital cameras are also much lighter than cameras used to take film photographs. Another advantage of digital camera is that fewer attachments are required to take digital photographs.  Zoom lenses are carried separately by a film photographer, and considerable care needs to be taken to ensure that the lens is not damaged. Often in the case of photographers such as a wedding photographer, they will bring both digital and film cameras.

Many of the other principles of these cameras are quite alike. Therefore, each of these cameras has an aperture, and a shutter. In case of cameras that use films to generate images, the speed of the film is also important. Lens focusing, film speed, aperture, and shutter speed play crucial roles in any photography. Any unsteadiness on the part of the photographer can ruin the film photograph.  Digital cameras come with an autofocus feature. However, the camera cannot decide which is the object that the photographer desires to capture as an image. Therefore, the photographer using a digital camera also needs to select the object.

Knowing the effect of light on photographs is very important.  An advantage of film photographs is that if exposure is a bit too high, the photograph is salvageable more than it is in the case of any digital photograph. Likewise, smaller focusing problems do not result in major flaws in film photographs. Finally, to date, film photography is superior to digital technology for capturing images in black and white colors.

This is a guest post by Claire Jarrett of Marketing By Web, who blogs about a variety of topics on behalf of her clients

Finding your own photography style

Everybody wants to find their own style, right? I don’t think anyone launches into photography, or any art for that matter, with the cheerful intention of looking like everybody else.

But where a lot of us falter is finding how exactly to go about finding a style. I’m sure this is pretty different for everyone, but I’ll throw my two cents in the collective pot.

Look through the pictures you’ve been taking over the last few months or so, and pick out your favorites – the ones that give you the greatest surge of pride or aesthetic pleasure. Look at these pictures, really look at them, and take stock: what’s the common theme? Are there certain subjects or colors or lighting situations that you keep coming back to? Do you like close-ups or wide angles? Macro shots and still lifes? Black and white or rounded corners or vintage looks?

I went through this exercise a few months ago and have to tell you – I was really surprised at what I found! I enjoy photographing people, and I always thought that I leaned more towards portraiture. But after taking stock in my photographs, I realized with a little more clarity that my favorite shots are often still lifes – I
love taking photographs of everyday objects in their natural environment – a jar of colorful paper clips, a gold-and-red streaked apple hanging on the branch, a cluster of balloons waving wildly in the wind. I still love taking photographs of people, but now I pay a little more attention to the objects around me, knowing that in them I can find inspiration.

So if you’re looking to find your style and make art that is uniquely your own expression, allow your images to tell you what you like to photograph instead of the other way around. This exercise may help to get you kick-started!

Sarah Gonski enjoys photography, 80s music, and extra sharp cheddar cheese. She recently moved to Spain because she heard it’s nice this time of the year. You can find more of her work at her blog, loveandpaella.com

12 Social Websites for Artists & Designers

[[Social network service|Social networks]] aren't just great for connecting people with their friends and family. They're great ways to find content. Myspace has been a great platform for connecting bands with their fans and fans with musicians. The power of social networks is being harnessed to help artists and designers come together in new ways. Community is one of the major features of a social network. People go to where the people they want to contact are. So if you want to meet designers, these niche sites might just be great tools for it.

If you've used any of these sites or know of any that I didn't mention, please post your comments!

Design Float

Not unlike the more generalized social rating site Digg, Design Float aims to help the design community share websites of interest with each other. It's especially useful if you're looking for specific topics such as photography. Digg has a more generalized audience.

The Outer Post

The Outer Post is a nice and friendly site where you can create art portfolios featured in your profile. In most other ways its like a lot of other social networking sites. The community is uniquely artists and that changes the landscape of how you can really use the thing.

VIRB

VIRB takes your interests and turns them into a more visual experience. The keyword and list oriented profiles of myspace and facebook are contrasted by VIRB's focus on sharing your generated content. So basically, you post up your photos, link up your blog, post your videos. There is a ton of art, design and photography featured to look at. The best thing about it for me is that it aggregates your rss feeds into your profile if you don't want to have to do everything a million times like on other sites.

DeviantArt

DeviantArt has been around for a while. The community is large and the site is fully featured. It's a great place to just look at art and what people are doing. There's just so many people posting there that you can see tons of stuff. The site puts the artwork in the forefront. The profiles really showcase the art and you can just look at someones profile or go to the art with very few clicks. Some of the other sites take a bit more work to actually see a full sized image: clicking through to searchs, profiles, albums and then finally artwork. While the size of the community can make for problems of its own, I think its still a leader in this space.

Graphic Design Network

The name might imply it or maybe not, but this site has a strict focus on building a community of designers and web developers. It's based on the Ning social network development platform and is built its user base around the existing Estitica Design Forum community.

Amateur Illustrator

Amateur Illustrator takes a the simple and effective approach of putting up art galleries and forums letting you immediately access great content. Like Digg, they've moved away from the importance of the profile. You can still see the artist's information and look at their forum posts and galleries. They let the art speak for the artist. It makes sense.

Sabet TV

Sabet, "a community of hyper-talented folks", gives a feed approach similar to Facebook showing users recent activity and a flash slideshow of works. They also have videos and galleries. There is a lot of content types here meshed together

Pixel Art

Hey why not. It's a community of pixel artists. It's funny that now any type of community platform is now considered social networking. It's strange how terminology suddenly defines something. The best of these new "social networks" are the ones who are less concerned with what they are and more keyed into what they're trying to do. This site does just that. They love pixel art and want to bring together its creators. They showcase the sites best content and make it interesting even to people who didn't know this stuff is cool.

Urbanseeder

While it's in beta right now, it's worth a mention. Urbanseeder is truly social networking. It allows you to connect with people you've met in a sandboxed environment. It's a pretty creative concept, you'll have to look at it and

myartspace

What makes this site interesting is that it connects artists with curators, collectors and others involved in the arts. They also have a blog of interviews with artists on various levels.

Artlog

Artlog aggregates art news, an event and exhibit log, news, museum information and a social layer into what turns out to be a promising product. The focus on the real world of art brings it above the self-love of user-generated profiles. Although they have those too, of course

Digg.com/Design

Users like yourself can rate stories using Digg's interface. The ones which are rated highest end up more visible. It's a simple concept integrated with social features such as profiles and comments. The ease of participation makes it a pretty good place to start.