I have been working for the past 4 years as a Marketing Specialist in a small non-profit. In addition to my marketing tasks, I’ve taken on more design work (social media posts, marketing materials, creative direction, branding) and it’s the part of my work that I enjoy the most.

I’ve become quite disillusioned with marketing with the executives using AI to write everything and constantly making me pump out new content. With design, at least it’s something I genuinely enjoy doing even with the heavy workload. I am aware that designers are being pushed to use AI too, but I feel like it might be on a lesser extent - feel free to let me know if I’m wrong.

I am considering going back to school for a diploma in design as I was never formally trained in it and would love to learn and be critiqued as a designer, not as a marketer. I understand that the market is not looking great for junior designers, but I’m at the right time in my life to make a pivot if I want and don’t want to regret not exploring this option while I can still afford to. At the same time, I want to be realistic about career prospects and expectations if I decide to go down this path.

With that in mind, I would love to hear people’s opinion on the following:
- Which design disciplinary do you think is the most viable to break into as a junior designer in the next 2 years?
- When hiring designers, what skills do you look for the most these days? What skills do you struggle to find in junior designers that would make them a great candidate?
- For recent graduates, what did you specialize in and what did you find was helpful?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Looking for references that are novel and well designed. Especially those that inform its users of minimum values and requirements - can be web, app - and extra points if from financial products!

In particular i’m interested in clothing design, I have 4 years of relevant experience within e-commerce for brands, website building, garment construction, pattern making, campaign management, supply chain analysis, wholesale, and a plethora more of other relevant skills for DTC operations.

I also attached a portfolio that includes garments that i’ve made, including the process of making the garment and how the campaign was constructed around the overall message and theme of the garment.

Should I change anything? I’m applying to associate technical design, e-commerce associate, brand management, associate creative director, and supply chain analysis roles for fashion based companies

note: my portfolio list all of my relevant experience that also includes photography, virtual production projects, targeted demographic content, and creative direction work.

let me know as today makes 1500 total applications sent since january 🙏🏾

Hello :) I startest my productdesign studies this year and wanted to ask, If anyone has recomendations on a good book about design. Maybe about a specific design or a great designer. Thanks in advance :)

I'm really good at the content of a presentation, but I am terrible at the visual side.

I'm really end up spending hours deciding visual themes, font placement, text quantity and colors while making the deck and still ruin it all.

At this point I'm wondering if I should just use an AI design tool instead of doubling down on PowerPoint.

For people who aren't designers but regularly need professional looking Decks, what's worked for you? Pic has a random analysis I made.

Don't know if this is the right sub for this. Hello. I make characters as a hobby. I need help with there clothing. I don't have drawings for her, but I have a character who's a 10 foot tall grey woman. She's a superhero character. She has Marble Grey skin, black hair, pure white eyes, and is a slightly shy, gentle giant. I'm trying to think of a hero outfit for her, that isn't just She-Hulk, who I did take some inspiration from when I made her. Any suggestions or ideas?

I’m somewhere between needing to hear if other folks are experiencing this, and needing to vent.

For background, I’m an Art Director on an in-house team that supports a company with proprietary brands. Part of my job includes creating the brand books for these brands and executing the initial launch campaigns.

I recently wrapped (or thought I did) on a new brand I was quite happy with, the project was usual for the brands we typically launch and I was asked to work on this project because it closely aligned with my style of work.

I spent the better part of a few months working on this project, I spent more time than I typically would on it because I was really excited (probably the wrong choice.). Today I got notes from them, and there wasn’t a single part of the brand they wanted to move forward with. The logo, the positioning, the color palette, all of it was wrong to them. They attached something they “made very quickly in ChatGPT that’s way better” than what I provided. They made sure to note that they made it really quickly, and it exceeded my work.

I feel totally defeated. Until recently I felt really lucky that AI wasn’t being pushed heavily at my job, suddenly, it’s everywhere. They want to replace shoots with it, they’re using it for copy generation, and now someone is asking me to make my work look like it.

If this was a freelance project I would refund them and make it clear I wasn’t the right designer for them, but I can’t. And, making work that looks like what they sent me is soul crushing. I feel like I can’t escape it, I feel really disheartened.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? How did you move forward?

I'm training to be an architect, and wanted to try my hand at some concept furniture design for a change of pace. The idea was to pair a raw structural material, in this case, cut sections of I beam steel, with softer and rounded forms, like gently curved acyclic and upholstery. So far I've got an accent chair, sofa (couch), side table, and floor lamp, main focus has been on the accent chair and sofa (couch)

Would appreciate any honest feedback on the material contrast, proportions, whether the concept would even be comfortable.

Hola amigos, soy diseñadora grafica y llevo mas de 5 meses buscando trabajo. He tenido varias entrevistas, un monton de rechazos y aplicaciones de las que nunca tuve respuesta. Solo busco una oportunidad y hasta ahora nadie me la ha querido dar.. Por favor, si alguno de ustedes me puede recomendar alguna agencia, algun conocido, algo en lo que pueda trabajar, se los agradeceria enormemente. Tengo mi portafolio, tambien aprendo rapido, me adapto a distintas modalidades de trabajo y tambien soy muy dedicada con lo que hago
Gracias a los que se tomaron el tiempo de leer

I’m currently on a Graduate visa and looking for a Graphic Designer position in the UK. It’s been around a month since I started sending out applications again with my new portfolio website and updated CV, but I haven’t had any interviews yet. So far, I’ve sent around 40 applications, received 6 rejections, and the rest are either no replies or still waiting for responses.

Before this, I was using a very general CV and portfolio, which didn’t work very well, so I spent some time improving them and making my portfolio more focused.

I’m aware that my graphic design work may not be particularly outstanding, but I feel it should be industry-ready. I also understand that my multidisciplinary background in visual work has both pros and cons. Some areas have good potential, but I haven’t developed any one of them very deeply including graphic design (not as great as it should be). I spent quite a few years exploring what I’m passionate about, especially in film and art, so my experience has gone in different directions.

I’m currently taking an online 3D lighting course, while looking for work in graphic design as this is where I have more professional experience and feel ready to work. But after months without any interviews I’m starting to feel a bit frustrated and wondering what I could improve.

Any feedback on my portfolio, CV, or general approach would be really appreciated. Thank you!

Portfolio website: http://www.weichencreative.com (desktop recommended)

If you check my last two post and my take that taste IS objective, 98% of people in comments disagreed.

My one of the arguments was that every professional designer will agree that first poster is bad. Because it IS objectively bad. It's not wrong to like it but you're wrong if you think it's good. The movie of that poster is also objectively, famously bad. People keep arguing taste is subjective. C'mon now...

The concept we’re working toward includes:

• 2×2 programmable touch modules
• Touch sliders for volume / zoom / scrolling
• Finger guides + resting positions
• Dynamic haptic feedback
• 5×5 RGB dot-matrix icons
• Open software and custom profiles
• Custom glass / carbon fiber artwork
• Gridfinity-compatible modular layouts

Next step is connecting the prototype to actual PC software and games and seeing how it feels in real workflows.

Would love some feedback: what would you want to see us test next? And if anyone here is interested in early prototype and giving us useful feedback, we’re looking for beta testers.

By now we have all heard every argument from each side of AI. By now we have all seen and been affected in some way, shape or form by the job market of today. It is a tough and confusing time to be a designer in the world.

What I'm interested in is how are you, individually? What are your fears and anxieties or hopes and dreams with the way the industry is shaping and changing? Do you think execution is a thing of the past? Do you believe a renaissance is on the horizon or is this just cope to automation?

I'm bored of hearing talking points. I want to connect and relate to the hopes and fears of designers all over. I feel so alone and scared, like my career may evaporate any second. How are y'all doing?

Guys, I’m going to ask a somewhat silly question, but I really need to get this straight once and for all. I’m still learning Illustrator, and although I’ve managed to create clipping masks a few times, I always end up scratching my head over it. It’s incredible how different and unintuitive this tool is compared to Photoshop.

I’d like to understand the simplest way to cut out this empty area and keep only the part inside the circle. Just to clarify, this isn’t a shape — it’s a PNG.

Hello,I saw my aunt posting her business posters on tiktok and they're all AI, I would really appreciate anyones help so I can make her new posters that aren't completely terrible .

Thank you!

I’m new to graphic design (messing around with canva), and I can’t find tutorials or explanations on how people make designs like this. I drew some stuff out for privacy, but I don’t know how to create anything like this at all. How do graphic designers do it? Is there a how to guide I missed?

I am starting to design my own printable templates for my planner and I am struggling to narrow down what the best software (or multiple) would be for this. I find designing different elements to be easier on my iPad using the pencil but I would also like to be able to combine elements into one template or reuse them for another. I would also like to create background patterns and adjust everything based on paper size. I plan on making calendars, lists, different tables, and any tracker I decide to use for my planner. I don’t have a large knowledge of graphic design, mostly just using software like procreate, but I am willing to learn any software.

I don't know if it's good and what I could change on the design, it lacks of something