I moved to Toronto after studying graphic design at Fanshawe College and started working mostly doing print, sign and logo design. In 2006 it was really easy to find a job in print, and I got a print job at a publishing house where I worked for two years. At first it was great, but in the second year the company started to downsize, laying off a large number of graphic designers and reducing my hours due to low magazine sales.
I decided to go back to school to upgrade my skills. I completed the digital media arts certificate program at OCAD University and looked for employment elsewhere. I soon landed a job at an e-commerce website and put the skills I’d learned at OCADU to work.
The program gave me a firm foundation in current web coding and design that I use every day. Companies now typically want to hire people who are strong in both print and web design. I currently work in the corporate sector. It’s a great challenge to incorporate design in a corporate setting.
The main thing I didn’t understand was how websites are created today. Six years ago there was a different standard. Once I understood that, I was able to apply it and use my design skills across the board. I have the fundamentals, so if my boss asks for something I don’t immediately know how to do, I can figure it out using the basic logic of those fundamentals.
As an undergrad I learned a lot about Adobe products. They say you can take the courses without having that background, but I don’t know how you’d design a website if you didn’t have a graphic background. When I did the Flash course I created my own characters in Illustrator from scratch and animated them, so having a design education definitely helped.
If I wanted to get more into hardcore web programming, PHP and other languages, I would have to go back to school. Essentially, I’m half print and half web. I’m maintaining a website and doing other print work. More and more jobs will involve a little bit of everything.
I’ve seen a lot of friends struggle this year and last because they weren’t willing to do a little bit of upgrading. I had one friend who was laid off, has been out of a job for more than a year and had to move in with her parents. All she had to do was take a little bit of web.
Some designers only design websites, but companies don’t want to pay someone $100 an hour to change a date on a site. They want someone on staff who can do more that’s why learning this little bit has helped me so much.