It’s a brand new world ready for the taking, and your opportunity could arise at any moment. Are your skills ready to take on the tasks involved in rearranging visual media to match your design dreams, or are you simply satisfied with consuming the art all around you?
Everywhere you look, the fruits of hardworking artistic labor scream by on the sides of vehicles, shout out from billboards and ads, and stare at you from their places on products, magazines and newspapers. Even our relaxing past times are dominated by the image composition, motion graphics and typography that make up the title sequences and credits from your favorite movies, or even just comprise the in-game instructions and cut-scenes that dot the video game titles you enjoy. Image composition, typography and motion graphics are invaluable fields of expertise for anyone who wants to work in film, fine art or any other visual media, not just for graphic designers.
If you want to see a great example of motion graphics design projects advancing careers, you can find some prime, often-studied examples in the films that have redefined intros since the 1960′s. Simple concepts and forms, like those the famed designer Saul Bass used in the title sequences for films like The Man With The Golden Arm (1958) and Psycho (1960), were very effective at conveying the tone of their respective stories. Technology has come a long way from the manual animation techniques that were all the rage then, and global film industry’s reliance on motion graphics to set the mood has only increased.
Typography is the science of character arrangement, shape, placement and sizing, so it includes a good deal of work, but those who make their study diligent are amply rewarded. Typography is an essential component of every paragraph, sign, word and letter you read, because the juxtaposition of letters dictates how you view them, and ultimately, how they affect the message you want to communicate. When fonts are too gaudy or flashy and detract from your reception of the main idea, the design suffers, and as anyone can create these less than perfect products, demand is high for those who have a solid background in the fundamentals.
There aren’t many layout careers that don’t include some graphics-based work as well, and image composition goes hand in hand with typography at any magazine, online publisher or modern print house. You can take a photo and change it in many different ways, and with so many new tools constantly being marketed as the next best thing in editing, staying on top of your game requires some background courses. The best professional image composition specialists know how to make sure the digital tool set they rely on stays organized and ready to accommodate all the new assignments their bosses can cook up, along with the usual insufficient deadlines.
It’s easy to get behind in the career hunting game unless your degree or training takes heed of the historical background and modern purposes behind the graphic design techniques you learn. You can rest assured that the employees who work at big name studios like those under Pixar and Paramount keep in touch with new innovations in typography, image composition and motion graphics, just to stay fresh themselves.