12 Exciting Career Options in Communication Design

Step up to create a unique identity as your degree in Communications Design now offers you access to these cool and interesting career opportunities

Communication Design is one of the fastest growing design disciplines in the world today aimed to design messages and create solutions using language, visuals, moving images and digital experiences. This dynamic area of work requires creativity, time management, analytical and research skills. It encourages an entrepreneurial mindset with the ability to either work independently or in a team.

It’s a sensitive, intellectual and pragmatic discipline engaging different aspects of activity including sensitivity to the visual domain, awareness of culture, sensitivity to differences, flexibility of the mind, lucidity of judgment, technical grasp, and interpersonal skills. As communication is fundamental to all environmental, commercial, socio-cultural and political practices there is scope to avail of a multitude of innovative career opportunities in a range of allied and associated spaces.

At the outset communication design creates a space to develop skills in print and publishing, graphic design, product design, 3D modelling, animation, photography, videography, colour grading, video editing, audio editing, digital media etc. Specializing in any one of these can help build credibility and make for a valuable and marketable career.

The specialization process can become even more streamlined when one is able to identify their niche, a distinct segment of a market, i.e., a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted.

Within this space, one can create a niche by focussing on –

• Design – a particular design sector like designing for Halloween and haunted attractions.
• Client – certain exclusive demographic target groups like restaurants and bars or sports teams.
• Location – defined geographic location like working exclusively with local influencers and organisations who in turn benefit business by driving more revenue through introductions to their audiences.

Based on the specialization one can explore these career opportunities to set themselves apart.

UI/UX Design

UI or user interface design refers to the graphical layout of an application. It’s mainly concerned with the aesthetics to ensure that the application’s interface is attractive, visually-stimulating and themed appropriately to match the purpose and/or personality of the application. UX or user experience determines the structure of the interface and functionality, i.e., how easy or difficult it is to interact with the user interface elements that the UI designers have created. The Business Value of Good Design, a report by Mckinsey clearly recognises UX design as a driver of a business’s financial success. Although UI design and UX design involve very different skill sets, the collaborative process between the two is integral for each other’s success.  UI/UX designers commonly collaborate with other designers, product managers, engineers, customer support, operations, sales and marketing.

Within this larger umbrella, multiple other opportunities exist. UX Researcher is a pivotal role to help engage with people, uncover their needs and then translate them into feedback for the development team to act upon.

Storytelling is a key component in creating "memorable" user experiences. UX Writers helps to translate user value into reality, creating products and experiences  that consumers relate to on a deeper level. They create user persona to help speak to the audience so they can resonate with the product and brand.

Design without Interface

With the rise of voice assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana, it’s evident that voice is becoming more commonplace in our daily lives thereby simultaneously driving another trend - design without interface. As technology is evolving, touchscreens are slowly replacing the mouse and voice is eliminating the need to type, or use hands. According to Gartner, by 2020, 30% of all web browsing sessions will be carried out without a screen. Leading up to this reality, focus on “interfaceless” design is increasing to create seamless interactions and user experiences.

Game Design

BY 2022, the number of smartphone users in India is estimated to increase to about 442.5 million. Simultaneously, according to The Evolving Landscape of Sports Gaming in India report by the Indian Federation of Sports Gaming (IFSG) and KPMG, the gaming industry in India is estimated to reach INR 118.8 billion by 2023. It clearly shows that the game design sector is slated to be a tempting career option especially because of the multiple opportunities within this space. There is the option to become a Concept Writer who creates the backstory of the game, Game Artists create visual elements like characters, scenery, objects, vehicles, surface textures and clothing, Level Editors define and create interactive architecture for a segment of a game, including the landscape, buildings and objects, Designers devise the core elements of what the game consists of and how it plays, Sound Engineer provides the sound effects for every situation within the game including character voices and spoken instructions, Game Developer creates the basic game plan, and Game Testers analyse the game and provide quality checks.

Virtual / Augmented / Mixed Reality

Reality technologies are continuously gaining momentum providing for immersive communication experiences to help people collaborate efficiently. Apart from gaming, reality-based learning content helps to revolutionize education making it more immersive and engaging. It is widely used in healthcare for surgical training, in the travel industry in the form of virtual tours and manufacturing industry to reduce time, human error and increase efficiency, within the retail space helping customers virtually view and even try products sold online. According to Gartner, by 2020, 100 million consumers will shop in augmented reality.

Storytelling

Storytelling requires the ability to be good communicators and presenters who can shape a story, read and understand audiences’ response to revise it or reinterpret the same in a way that'll appeal to them and keep them engaged. Today storytelling is widely used in corporate settings and training initiatives.

Wedding Invitation Designer / Décor Designer

Weddings are now big business. The Indian wedding industry currently accounts for over INR  1,00,000 crores growing at a rapid rate of 25-30% year-on-year. An average Indian wedding can cost up to 5 crores. It has opened up the space for creative roles like a wedding invitation designer or wedding décor designing since most wedding couples crave uniqueness through the creation of one-off stationery and breath-taking venues.

3D Illustrator / Isometric Illustration

3D illustrations hugely help to communicate ideas, plan projects and make designs relatable to real-life physical objects thereby increasing their visual appeal. Isometric illustrations help to further remove perspective distortions so irrespective of whether the object is closer or far from the viewer it’s represented in the same size. They can be created for magazines, design agencies, product launches and advertising campaigns, websites, billboards, flyers, animations and even interactive content. Its scope of use is unlimited as it’s no longer controlled by technical constraints.

Sign Painting

With changing times, sign painting has transitioned to easier and cheaper vinyl lettering or large-scale digital printing. Yet the practice of sign painting and hand lettering remains a highly coveted skill, especially in the hospitality industry. Minimalism, DIY culture and the inherent need for uniqueness has led to sign painting making a comeback with people and businesses actively exploring it’s old-world charm within a contemporary environment.

Surface Pattern Designer

Designers and artists often work across mediums using a variation of materials to enhance visual appearance and functionality. Surface Design encompasses colouring, patterning, and structuring of fibre and fabric. Its scope is broadened by creative processes like dyeing, painting, printing, stitching, embellishing, quilting, weaving, knitting, felting, and papermaking. It’s widely used to design patterns and creating colours for bedsheets, blankets, towels, curtains, coats, sweaters, socks, shirts, sculptural baskets and fibre installations.

Photo Restoration / Retouching

Photo-Restoration includes restoring old or damaged photographs using photo-editing software and image-manipulation techniques and converting original photos to the digital image. Clients include individuals, groups and businesses who want to retain historical and ancestral photo archives; museums, galleries and universities wanting to improve the quality of their photo collections; advertising agencies and design firms wanting to enhance or correct photographs used in advertisements or brochures while book and magazine publishers require restoration services, particularly when working on historical topics. Photo Retouching or airbrushing, refers to the process of manipulating photographs in order to slightly change the looks of a subject like erasing pimples or making their complexion smoother, or slimmer or sharpening images or morphing subjects.

Muralist

Muralists use a wide assortment of media to create artwork either directly onto walls and/or ceilings, and other large surfaces or they paint on a canvas which is then affixed or cemented to a wall. Painting murals on a large scale is the best way to share art with the public. It requires them to incorporate the architectural elements of the space into their design. Muralists are culturally and politically important to express individual or social experiences and concerns. They can design murals inside churches and businesses, libraries, and museums, in suburban, urban, and rural areas. To associate their products with meaningful experiences many corporate brands increasingly use muralists.

Medical illustration / Animation

Within the general field of biomedical communication, medical illustration is a unique applied art discipline. A professional medical illustrator needs specialized training and advanced education in medicine and science along with art, design, visual technology and media techniques. In collaboration with scientists, physicians, and other content specialists, they serve as visual translators of complex technical information to support education and research and empower health literacy for patients and the public. They disseminate information through publications, web, mobile health apps, health games, augmented and virtual reality simulators etc. Attorneys use medical illustration to clarify complex medical information for judges and juries in personal injury and medical malpractice cases. Some also create sculptured anatomical teaching models and museum exhibits.

Thus communication design is a versatile field of study that can set you up to explore the different facets of your personality, personal likes and dislikes and also skillsets to create your unique career.