My S.W.O.T Analysis - What I can Offer to the Industry

Strengths 

One key strength that I carry into the industry would be that I have put a lot of focus into practicing illustrations from an early age. As many others in the industry have had other areas of focus, this sets me apart from them. I also have real-world experience working for clients/customers as I used to own my own business and studio. This has helped me strengthen my intrapersonal skills and the ability to meet deadlines and manage myself accordingly towards my goals. Within that period of my life I have had to collaborate with others, meaning I have had to take in feedback to suit a client’s demands whilst maintaining my style of work to represent my personal brand. I would have to give reasoning and convey my opinion in an appropriate manner. This has also led me to learn how to market myself and become adaptable any given environment (I was in a small town and knew who to talk to get my business out there), and I am confident that I can learn to do this on a larger scale using social media to market myself using my skillset in graphic design. I enjoy paying attention to detail and trying to understand why something may have worked or why it looked aesthetically pleasing, and I am capable of reimplementing those principles into other areas of my work. This has led me into becoming more curious, learning how to ask a question properly, allowing me to further my logic on particular topics. 

Weaknesses 

It would be more effective to spread my work onto many more different platforms, to increase my chances of being seen by a reputable company. I would also like to enhance my skills working with 3D modelling software as I feel that I can expand my concepts further and see how far I can take the idea to materialise it into reality. Also finding a way to make my designs more interactive to viewers, for example creating animations on my website to make my creations more 3 dimensional to my audience. Another area of improvement that I would like to give more focus to is typography, using illustrator and even creating a typeface that others could purchase online is something I aspire to do. I feel that I need to improve my photo editing skills as well, such as lighting and masking. I then can carry out those techniques into cinemographs as it would be nice to record and edit videos for future projects.  Also improving my line work on illustrations would allow me to use them for more commercial use and expand my audience. 

My portfolio needs more examples in certain assorted styles of graphic design, there are a lot of artists from different regions of the world that take a different perspective on design work, and I need to study and learn how to comprise their methods into my projects. 

Opportunities 

The opportunities I have in this industry stem from my being enrolled in a university with strong connections. So, I am able to learn from established designers and grow as an artist in a freeing environment that allows me to only focus on that goal. I am surrounded by others who also are devoted to growing in the industry from a range of diverse backgrounds. Another opportunity I have is that I live in a city that is surrounded by graphic design studios and is very rich in art culture, and many are open to new designers joining or learning from them. 

In the age we live in, I can find many opportunities online to work on a variety of projects. Such as Art station, Linkin and many recruitment sites offered by my education  

Threats 

The fact that I am fresh to the industry could also be a con when applying for jobs, as my portfolio does not have as many established projects to show case yet. Another threat trending today is the use of AI, which has been dominating the industry and everyone has had to adapt to its arrival. Still no one is quite sure how it sits in the industry and how it will age exactly. It is a case of recent technology that could very much threaten many jobs if workers in the industry do not learn quickly to incorporate it into their work. A quote from a graphic designer’s podcast featuring Seema Sharma puts this into perspective nicely, ’AI isn’t going to replace humans, AI is going to replace those who do not learn AI.’ That is a challenge for everyone in the industry from all levels of expertise. I can be grateful that I am new to the industry and am learning alongside everyone on how this can be a tool to enhance work, yet this advancement is so big it is incredibly overwhelming.