Visual Communication

Earning a degree in visual communications will assist you in earning a position in many different communications or design industries. However, prior to picking a program offering a bachelor's degree in visual communications, you need to first think about the specific area of study you are most passionate about. You want to choose an area that is going to allow your skills to grow. A visual communications degree focuses on basic visual organization and information into materials that can be interpreted through both reading and looking. The aim of this degree is to educate and develop artistic students for careers in fields of commercial art and design.

Common Career Paths:

Advertising Manager

An advertising manager is looked to for organizing a company’s market research, its sales, advertising, and promotions. They also are responsible for marketing strategy, pricing, and product development. In smaller companies, either the owner or CEO may take on all of these responsibilities. However, in a larger corporation, one that offers a large number of products and services, there is usually a designated person in charge of such duties. Regardless, advertising managers are hired to run a firm’s or group’s advertising and promotional campaign. Their usual working environments circle around between advertising agencies – working on campaigns, in a media firm purchasing advertising time and space, and visiting organizations that frequently do heavy advertising. An advertising manger will work with the members of a sales team to come up with strong ideas for a campaign. They prepare a budget and cost estimates for the campaign with the finance department. Sometimes an advertising manager will play the role of mediator between a firm requiring the advertising and an advertising agency that will develop and place an ad. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2008 the median average annual salary for advertising and promotions managers were $80,220. The salary of an advertising manager depends greatly on their level of managerial responsibility, how long they have been working in the profession, and their education earned. Further factors that can great impact the increase or decrease of wages offered is the location and size of the firm looking to hire, as well as the industry in which the firm operates. For instance, manufacturing firms typically pay advertising managers higher salaries than non-manufacturing firms.

Animator

An animator puts together and constructs special effects, animation, along with other visual images on film, on video, or with computers. With technology advancing in recent years as it has, animators have ventured out to using all other superior electronic media as it becomes more available. An animator works mainly in motion picture and video industries. They are also commonly employed in advertising, and computer systems design services. Their work starts by putting pen to paper, drying by hand a creation of a series of pictures that form the animated images or special effects seen in movies, on television shows, and in popular computer games. In recent years animators have chosen to start their sketches on a computer as opposed to on paper. An animator has the ability to put together storyboards for television commercials, movies, and animated features. A storyboard presents a T.V. commercial in a stretch of scenes almost like a comic strip and then allows an advertising agency to look over commercials proposed by advertising companies. A storyboard can also act like a guide to place actors as well cameras on a television or movie set and even to other production details. A lot of animators that work with computers model objects in 3D, and then work alongside programmers to make their images come to life and move. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2008 the median annual wages of salaried animators were $56,330. The middle fifty percent earned between $41,710 and $77,010, the lowest ten percent less than $31,570, and the highest ten percent more than $100,390.

Graphic Designer

Graphic designers, or graphic artists as they are sometimes referred to, are in charge of planning, analyzing, and developing visual solutions to communications problems. They are expected to uncover the best way of getting a message across in electronic media and in print. They use illustrations, photography, varying colors, animation, and every print and layout technique they are aware of to piece together the overall layout and production design of magazines, newspapers, and other publications. Other work includes constructing promotional displays, packaging, and marketing brochures. This work is used mainly on products and the services of certain companies and organizations. Graphic designers apply their talents to design one-of-a-kind logos for their employers that are then used to stamp on products and any relevant materials owned by the company employing them. A large number of graphic designers are now producing material for Internet websites as well as multimedia projects. Graphic designers can earn work producing the credits seen at the begging and end of a film or television show. If you are going to create any new design for a client, you need to first fully grasp the needs of your client. You need to be crystal clear on the message that your design is meant to get across. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2008 the median annual wages for graphic designers were $42,400. The middle fifty percent earned between $32,600 and $56,620. While the lowest ten percent earned less than $26,110, the highest ten percent earned more than $74,660.