Graphic Designer Wanted: A Document Analysis of the Described Skill Set of Graphic Designers in Job Advertisements from the United Kingdom

Thumbnail Image

Access rights

openAccess
© 2017 Dziobczenski & Person. Copyright for this article is retained by the authors, with first publication rights granted to the International Journal of Design. All journal content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License. By virtue of their appearance in this open-access journal, articles are free to use, with proper attribution, in educational and other non-commercial settings.
publishedVersion

URL

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
This publication is imported from Aalto University research portal.
View publication in the Research portal (opens in new window)
View/Open full text file from the Research portal (opens in new window)
Other link related to publication (opens in new window)

Authors

Date

2017-08-31

Department

Department of Design

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

15

Series

International Journal of Design, Volume 11, issue 2, pp. 41-55

Abstract

The present study investigates what skill set employers expect from graphic designers, based on a document analysis of 1,406 job advertisements from the United Kingdom. In organising the statements made in the advertisements, we describe the skill set of graphic designers in three main areas: (1) what graphic designers are expected to deliver (competence areas), (2) what graphic designers are expected to know (knowledge and skills), and (3) what personal characteristics graphic designers are expected to have. In analysing advertisements for different types of positions, we compared how employers articulate their interests at different levels of seniority (junior, middle, and senior) and for different types of positions (internal and external to a company). The results of our study suggest that employers seek a varied skill set from graphic designers and that the relevance of different skills partly depends on the position advertised. Based on our findings, we discuss implications for design education and practice in terms of how expertise in graphic design is articulated, studied and taught.

Description

Keywords

Design education, Design knowledge, graphic design, Job advertisements, United Kingdom

Other note

Citation

Nicoletti Dziobczenski, P & Person, O 2017, 'Graphic Designer Wanted : A Document Analysis of the Described Skill Set of Graphic Designers in Job Advertisements from the United Kingdom', International Journal of Design, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 41-55. < http://www.ijdesign.org/index.php/IJDesign/article/view/2790/781 >

Permanent link to this item

https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-201710157209

Collections

[article-cris] Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu / ARTS