Digital Designer Requirements

Digital design offers much more freedom and creative fulfillment than many other careers, but that doesn’t equate to a lack of industry standards. To get a job as a Digital Designer, you’ll need to meet specific requirements and be able to demonstrate your qualifications in a job application. Digital design skills and tools can vary between jobs, which can make it confusing to figure out which skills are essential when starting out. To help you get started, this article will cover hard requirements across industries.

What is a Digital Designer?

The simplest way to describe a Digital Designer is as a visual media creator who emphasizes interactivity. These designers are distinguished from other classes of designers by their focus on how people experience their designs. Rather than focusing solely on what their designs communicate visually, Digital Designers spend considerable time perfecting components like information architecture and accessibility. To improve user-friendliness even more, digital design projects often include prototyping and preparatory phases that include demographic research. 

Digital Designers are best known for their digitally generated graphics, animations, and visual effects, but many Digital Designers also create full-scale websites and apps. If one type of project piques their interest more than others, a Digital Designer can specialize in a unique aspect of digital design. Some Digital Designers highlight primarily digital projects, while others work exclusively on preparing interactive print designs for marketing. 

Because digital design is an umbrella term that includes many different design niches, most digital design professionals collaborate with a team. Their team may include fellow Designers, Project Managers, Product Designers, and IT professionals. 

Education

By and large, most hiring managers expect digital design job candidates to hold a Bachelor of Art (B.F.A.) degree in a design subject (such as digital design, UX/UI design, graphic design, or web design). However, a degree won’t mean anything if not accompanied by real skills. For this reason, many aspiring designers find it valuable to attend a design bootcamp or certificate class. In these career-focused classes, students learn practical skills by applying them to hands-on projects. With the right digital design bootcamp, it’s possible to start building experience for a design career before completing an expensive college program.

After completing your initial training, be prepared to continue learning throughout your career. Like any industry, digital design changes over time, and it pays to stay up-to-date on the latest design trends, tools, and techniques. 

Some digital design jobs may require specialist certifications that can be attained through a proctored exam. Regardless of whether your job requires certification, however, getting certified can reward you with more opportunities and a higher salary. Throughout the United States, certified workers earn almost $400 more per week than they would without a certification. Following the same market rules, college graduates also earned an additional $500 each week and saw less unemployment as of 2020. 

Experience

Most entry-level digital design roles will require about two years of experience in the industry, and senior roles often demand up to eight years of experience. Although this requirement certainly makes it harder to break into digital design, it also means that the more experience you have behind you, the easier it becomes to land and keep jobs. 

There are numerous ways to get digital design experience. To help you get the ball rolling in the early stages of your career, professional experience is typically built into vocational training programs such as college degrees, design certificates, and bootcamps. You can also build experience by participating in an internship or volunteering to help out on community design projects.

Digital Designer Skills

Like other schools of design, digital design is built on classic design principles that Digital Designers need to know how to implement. Among the many design theory concepts that Digital Designers rely on are composition, color, and typography. While it’s possible to create a digital design without knowledge of applied design theory, utilizing design principles effectively enables professional Digital Designers to create designs that are both interactive and user-friendly. 

To live up to the “digital” half of their name, Digital Designers need to know how to use a variety of technological tools. In addition to popular graphic design tools such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, they may also deploy video production software such as After Effects. Moreover, Digital Designers use specialized software like Sketch and Figma to create and test prototypes.

Other technical skills commonly used in digital design include: 

• Graphic Design
• Web Design
• UX/UI Design
• Coding
• Project Management
• Digital Marketing
• Motion Graphics Design
• Product Design

Communication is among the most vital skills a Digital Designer can develop, but this doesn’t just mean conveying ideas clearly and respectfully when working with clients and team members. For a Digital Designer, effective communication skills are also about being able to anticipate how people will respond to design features with relative accuracy. To create more user-friendly designs, Digital Designers must become adept at accepting and implementing feedback with humility. 

Additional soft skills needed for effective digital design include:

• Applied Design Theory
• Time Management
• Problem-Solving
• Creativity

Portfolio

Getting a job in digital design is as much about skill as it is about education and experience, Hence, your job application should include a portfolio full of completed designs that aptly capture your capabilities as a designer. Think of your portfolio as a free opportunity to show hiring managers your best tricks. If you want to make your first impression even better, you can create a digital portfolio that’s viewable online. 

Though you can devise a portfolio entirely on your own, you can get expert feedback and help with the assembly in a certificate-granting digital design course. Because they highlight key digital design skills, the assignments in these courses typically make fabulous additions to a portfolio.

Resume & LinkedIn Profile

You probably already know that you need a resume to get a job, but there are likely things about your resume that could be improved. When creating a digital design resume, here are a few quick rules of thumb to live by:

• Rather than including all your experience, feature work that’s most relevant to the role you’re applying for. 
• Keep your entire resume to two pages or less. 
• Include a link to your online portfolio and LinkedIn profile. 
• Add a summary (career profile) near the top of your resume.
• Include both work experience and your educational background. 
• Include a section that spotlights relevant skills and certifications. 
• Proofread, proofread, proofread. 
• Get feedback and proofread. 

While your resume only comes into play when you apply for a job, having a great LinkedIn profile can increase your online visibility to a wide range of recruiters even when you’re not actively applying for jobs. In contrast to job-tailored resumes, your LinkedIn profile can include experience from all your years of work. 

If you want to create a killer design profile on LinkedIn, be sure to:

• Include a professional headshot and background banner. 
• Write a strong headline.
• Link to your portfolio and contact information in the header.
• Write a compelling bio summarizing your experience in the first person (use the first three lines for the most important details). 
• Use digital design SEO keywords to help you show up in searches.
• List your top skills for your contacts to endorse.
• Work toward connecting with 500 contacts.
• Get feedback on your profile from someone who knows the platform well. 

You can get additional designer resume tips or learn more about how to improve your designer LinkedIn profile with Noble Desktop. 

References

Every job application should include a list of people who can commend your work ethic at length. Although there’s no stipulation requiring that these people be digital design professionals, it will lend your application more credibility if they are. In general, a good choice for a reference is someone who has managed you. You may also include colleagues who have worked closely with you in a professional or academic setting. As a rule, never include friends, family, or people who are unlikely to comment positively about your work. 

Steps to Becoming a Digital Designer

Because digital design is a field with high standards, you’ll need patience as you tackle each stage in your journey of becoming a Digital Designer. 

Pinpoint Your Career Goals

Digital design isn’t just one career, but actually includes many different career paths. While these paths are united by a shared focus on interactive design, they’re unique in other respects. These differences can create challenges if you’re a learner trying to start a career. For instance, if you have a limited amount of money to spend on a training program, you probably want to know beforehand whether you’re interested in web design (creating websites and apps) or UX/UI design (creating many types of user-friendly digital platforms). 

Attend a Digital Design Vocational Program 

Today, there are scads of resources and classes available for learning digital design. However, for comprehensive career preparation, your best bet is a program that’s designed as a vocational course. These programs include college design degrees and digital design bootcamps. 

Longer and more beefy in terms of educational content, college programs tend to be expensive and may even lead to long-term debt. As a trade-off, a college degree can provide thorough training, several years of experience, and numerous references. By contrast, you won’t spend as much on a bootcamp and will be able to complete your training in a couple of months. In that time, you’ll get hands-on training that doubles as professional experience. 

No matter what program you’re considering, don’t sign up until you’re that it fulfills these requirements:

• It includes training on all skills needed for your intended career (not a related career).
• It includes the professional development perks you must have (such as mentorship).
• The schedule and format won’t clash with your lifestyle. 

Create Your Design Portfolio

Because the assignments from vocational courses are intended for use in portfolios, you’ll likely start building out your portfolio during your training course. However, you shouldn’t just complete your assignment and add it to your portfolio as is. 

Instead, take advantage of any resources your program offers to help you polish your portfolio to professional quality. Some classes include a dedicated portfolio workshop that will give you the chance to get feedback on your work. Other courses provide free access to career services that can help you workshop your portfolio, resume, and LinkedIn profile. You may also find it valuable to ask an instructor or mentor for feedback during a one-on-one meeting. 

Gain Professional Experience

Depending on your training program, the amount of experience you need to score your first design job may vary. In any case, be patient as you work toward the experience you need. You may find that the opportunities you explore during the experience-building stage of your career result in fond memories, lasting friendships, and additional opportunities. 

Learn the Skills to Become a Digital Designer at Noble Desktop

Want to learn design in a supportive environment? Noble Desktop offers highly-rated design classes covering a range of digital design topics for students at all levels. In addition to shorter classes, you’ll find a variety of career certificates that provide comprehensive training, complete with one-on-one mentorship and professional experience opportunities. Start your journey now by signing up for training live online or participating in face-to-face classes at the school’s NYC campus. 

With the hands-on training you’ll get in the Digital Design Certificate, preparing for a digital design career isn’t hard. Even if you start with no experience, you can learn the UI design and graphic design skills you need to launch your career in a matter of weeks. Instead of sitting through dull lectures, this program will teach you practical skills through activities and projects. In addition to mastering tools like InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Figma, you’ll gain the expertise necessary to apply design principles for truly stunning results. 

Learn the skills to make websites and apps that are truly user-friendly in UX & UI Design Certificate. Working with a team, you’ll create your own interactive digital interfaces from start to finish, resulting in work you can proudly display in your portfolio. Rather than focusing only on aesthetics, you’ll learn how to research your target users and prototype to improve accessibility. This course also includes a job preparation segment designed to help you workshop your resume and create the perfect portfolio website. 

If websites are your jam, you can make it into a career by joining Noble Desktop’s Web Design Certificate program. Work toward an impressive portfolio with hands-on assignments that will help you learn a combination of design, coding, and software skills. Quicker than you know, you’ll acquire a versatile skill set that includes UI design theory, Figma, WordPress, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Before you’re through, you’ll also have the chance to build a high-quality portfolio website with help from your expert mentor.