Employability – The UK Market for Graphic Designers (Lorraine Gresty Lecture)
Navigating yourself through the working world is considerably a daunting experience. Although, it’s an experience that forces you to ask important questions about who you are, what you as a person stand for and what’s most valuable in this life to you.
It all comes to how you want yourself to be perceived, and if that belief would attach the people/ companies that you want to associate and work with. For example, if you are very set in wanting to abide by morality and environmental awareness, many companies would see that attitude as very much a desired attribute to include in their campaign/company. So, it’s best to make that clear in your professional portfolio.
An emphasis on personal branding is essential to being able to attract attention fast and get the correct image of yourself across, whilst demonstrating what you’re capable of at first glance. Which is of course, easier said then done.
An evaluator pitch – Make sure you are prepared
To add to the area of personal branding, during the talk Gresty touched on the idea of being ready with an evaluator pitch, which serves the same purpose of having a visual brand identity. This is instead how you present yourself in person when coming across people you would want to work with in an unexpected situation (as in, the person in question only has so much time to interact with you). Essentially, this is being ready with a project you are proud of on hand, presented in some format such as a business card, and a sentence that sums up yourself and what you aim to do.
Customise your Linkin URL
It is always best to encourage direct links to your profile with a name that is memorable. Create a distinctive online presence (considering how saturated the market is and how many people there are on the internet who might share the same name as you, and perhaps with someone whom you do not want to be associated with as well). It is also just in general easier for the employer to find you. In this case, creating a very good SEO, as best as you can, be very beneficial for an employer to find you.
Creating a Linkin Headline
You would also need to have a good starter headline on your Linkin, if you were to use Linkin of course. It’s best advised to keep it short, but still a good conclusion on what you are strong at, what you are looking for and what you want to experience more of. Something that would interest your intended audience to look further into your profile
Creating a Banner and profile picture
For the banner, you could be a little playful with something related to your work, although for your profile that would be more composed and professional. Try not to overly smile for the photo, and get it to the best quality you could have the picture taken in. Its also recommended making the profile ‘’60% of your face’’, I suppose this is a chance to see what cloths you would present yourself in whilst still being able to see the face properly.
Obviously, if your job does not require a traditional office uniform, that standard is dying out, especially for a designer job. But try to dress in either something smart and simple, or anything that is true to you, still expressive but appropriate.
How to Format you CV
When reading your CV, try to avoid using ‘I am’ s’, as it is extremely easy to start repeating that as it is focused around selling yourself. Try to include books you have read, idealisms and of course any achievements. You should include what is most relevant to the job and any other information that might help, there may be more that the employer would want to use. For example, an editorial company wants a design, but they want to design something geared towards tennis, and you express that you have an interest in the company may see this as a great benefit to have someone who understands the topic more then a candidate that may not.
Be very careful about using words that read along the lines of ‘focused’, ‘highly motivated’, ‘passionate’. Those words are generally used by people who couldn’t expand on a way to describe themselves further and could appear self-unaware. The main goal of this is to appear self-aware but in a really well versed and realistic manner.
Adding any projects you’ve created and expanding on your role and purpose in the project to show that you are capable of working in a team if needed to.
It's important to remember to keep receipts for the work you have done and present it best you can.
Involve Yourself in the community – Linkin forums with similar interests – Discourse
Of course, when using Linkin or Behance or generally online work forums and platforms to showcase your work, you should try and develop some community contact. Try to share things, add people, ask questions from people in high job positions, then you learn more about the job. This demonstrates engagement as well.
Works Cited
Boom, Creative. “The Graphic Designer Salary Guide for 2022.” Creative Boom, 18 Jan. 2022, www.creativeboom.com/tips/the-graphic-designer-salary-guide/. Accessed 9 Feb. 2025.
Deehan, Jane. “20 Steps to a Better LinkedIn Profile in 2024.” LinkedIn, 8 Jan. 2024, www.linkedin.com/business/sales/blog/profile-best-practices/17-steps-to-a-better-linkedin-profile-in-2017.
IBISWorld. “Graphic Design Activities in the UK - Market Research Report (2014-2029).” Ibisworld.com, 2014, www.ibisworld.com/united-kingdom/industry/graphic-design-activities/14663/.
