Hello,
Apologies for the long post- I am just a bit stressed and in need of some advice!
I am a 23 year old Illustration graduate who mostly made 2D animation work on my BA.
I thought I wanted to be a 2D animator who does some freelance Illustration on the side but the competition, instability and constant self-promotion needed to freelance in these areas really stresses me out. The majority of roles in Illustration and Animation are freelance. In animation, there can be very long hours which also puts me off. There seems to be this expectation that you need to live and breathe your art and do lots of your own projects in your free time in order to be successful and while I am very passionate and I do enjoy illustrating and animating, I'm not sure I want to do it all the time. I have spent the last year doing personal projects and learning animation skills and software in my free-time and I am feeling very stressed and burnt out- I feel as if I have turned my passion into something that causes me stress. These reasons make me think perhaps I am not cut out for it.
I've been working for a while in a Graphic design related role for a digital marketing company- doing branding, social media content creation, and designing websites and apps for small businesses. I have been really enjoying it - researching brand identities, experimenting with composition and grids and reading lots of books in graphic design theory and history. It makes me wonder if Graphic Design might be better balance for me: It uses creative and visual skills that I enjoy and also has the opportunity for non-freelance and more stable work with a much clearer career progression. Areas that interest me are editorial/publication design or web/UX/ UI design. I find the research behind brand design really interesting as well. I wonder if I might be happier still working in a creative field and turning drawing and animation into a hobby so it can be fun for me again.
These are my pros and cons for animation vs Graphic Design.
ANIMATION
pros:
GRAPHIC DESIGN
pros:
I am new to Graphic Design so I appreciate my view of the industry may not be accurate. This is the main reason why I am writing this post. So I Have these questions:
1) Do you think moving into Graphic Design based on these reasons is a good idea?
2) Is there anything I've got really wrong?
3) Does anyone know anything about the LCC PGDip degree and whether it is worth doing to get into Graphic Design?
4) Does doing an MA matter or is it more about developing a portfolio?
Thank you so much
Apologies for the long post- I am just a bit stressed and in need of some advice!
I am a 23 year old Illustration graduate who mostly made 2D animation work on my BA.
I thought I wanted to be a 2D animator who does some freelance Illustration on the side but the competition, instability and constant self-promotion needed to freelance in these areas really stresses me out. The majority of roles in Illustration and Animation are freelance. In animation, there can be very long hours which also puts me off. There seems to be this expectation that you need to live and breathe your art and do lots of your own projects in your free time in order to be successful and while I am very passionate and I do enjoy illustrating and animating, I'm not sure I want to do it all the time. I have spent the last year doing personal projects and learning animation skills and software in my free-time and I am feeling very stressed and burnt out- I feel as if I have turned my passion into something that causes me stress. These reasons make me think perhaps I am not cut out for it.
I've been working for a while in a Graphic design related role for a digital marketing company- doing branding, social media content creation, and designing websites and apps for small businesses. I have been really enjoying it - researching brand identities, experimenting with composition and grids and reading lots of books in graphic design theory and history. It makes me wonder if Graphic Design might be better balance for me: It uses creative and visual skills that I enjoy and also has the opportunity for non-freelance and more stable work with a much clearer career progression. Areas that interest me are editorial/publication design or web/UX/ UI design. I find the research behind brand design really interesting as well. I wonder if I might be happier still working in a creative field and turning drawing and animation into a hobby so it can be fun for me again.
These are my pros and cons for animation vs Graphic Design.
ANIMATION
pros:
- Passionate about it and have been for a long time
- unstable, short freelance contracts (animators can have gaps between work)
- possibility of moving a lot for roles
- lower salary
- most jobs through word of mouth- need strong networking skills (I like people and get on well with people but I am very shy so this scares me a bit)
- a lot of skill required- need to refine anatomy, drawing skills, animation principles and learn software (tv paint, toonboom, flash)
- competitive
- very specialised so hard to move into other things
- entry level jobs can be quite repetitive/boring (eg clean up)
GRAPHIC DESIGN
pros:
- creative skills
- possibility of agency/in house, non-freelance roles- more stable
- salary/pension/benefits
- Already confident in Illustrator, Photoshop, Indesign, Premiere, Aftereffects, XD.
- Maybe a better work-life balance? (probably depending on area of GD)
- Advertised jobs/apply through speculative emails
- new area for me
- competitive
- will I be any good?
- there can be some boring jobs in it
I am new to Graphic Design so I appreciate my view of the industry may not be accurate. This is the main reason why I am writing this post. So I Have these questions:
1) Do you think moving into Graphic Design based on these reasons is a good idea?
2) Is there anything I've got really wrong?
3) Does anyone know anything about the LCC PGDip degree and whether it is worth doing to get into Graphic Design?
4) Does doing an MA matter or is it more about developing a portfolio?
Thank you so much