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Welp, a few months ago, I was laid off from my graphic design role—not because I could be replaced by a person, but rather due to the ease and user-friendliness of Canva.

Long story short, I was a graphic and product designer at a small fashion e-commerce brand. I worked there for well over two years and was slowly approaching three. I hold a bachelor's degree in both graphic design and marketing. I was the only graphic designer, creating graphics for both their hard goods products and all marketing assets, including social media, emails, and ads. During my time there, I designed a product that went viral, becoming the company’s hero product and generating millions of dollars in sales. To this day, it’s still their main money-maker.

When budget cuts were made, I thought I was valued in the company. However, they completely removed my position, leaving them with no designers on the team. Their reasoning was that everything I worked on was in Canva and could easily be replicated. I used Canva because it was the only software they wanted me to work in—Adobe was too complicated for them, so Canva it was.

Now, they have zero qualified designers on their team, and every time I see their social media graphics, I get irked. There’s no strategy in their designs, nothing is on-brand, and they rely entirely on Canva templates. The graphics now look so juvenile and random.

Basically, my long spiel here is just my frustration with Canva. I understand its pros, but it makes everyone think graphic design is so easy, and that they don’t need a real designer on their team.

What are your thoughts on Canva?

I’ve seen so many articles saying “make your profile have a visual theme”, but I’ve made quality work with lots of clients who do lots of different things. I want to stay in the field of entertainment, but that alone encompasses SO many areas- key art, album covers, merch, artist logos, etc., and each of these projects I’ve worked on is in a different style. Aside from entertainment, I’ve also created some packaging work I’m really proud of and brand identities that came out really cool. So I’m all over the place and don’t know what to do.

I hate being constrained by a certain color palette because god forbid I want to post something I’m excited about and it doesn’t “match my theme”. But I’m preparing to schedule a bunch of content to post as part of my freelance rebrand/relaunch and am wondering what the best way to curate it is. Do I use the art itself, or mockups? Or a combo of the two? Would love to hear what you guys think. Thanks!

I (23f) recently got fired from my first graphic design job after just 7 days of work and I want to ask if anyone else has had a similar experience and how they got back on their feet/felt motivated again.

I've been job searching since August after graduating in June. The job search has been rough but I was able to I was finally able to land my first full-time position as a Jr. Graphic Artist at the end of October. I was extremely excited about this position but was unfortunately let go after just 7 days due to poor performance/not meeting the standard.

My time there was honestly brutal, no training/on-boarding was provided and I felt that I was just tossed into technical work without much guidance. Whenever I was asked for clarification or any question about the workflow, I would get looked down upon or ignored. My questions were always answered with, "are you actually competent with this software?" "what did you do, I'm so confused now, you made me so confused," or just a sign and complete silence. My emails were ignored and directly asking my manager would irritate them so I had to resort to asking my coworkers (who were fortunately very nice) but even that irritated my manager. I was caught asking a question and immediately told to return to my seat. There was also very clear favouritism towards new employees who didn't need guidance. By the third day, I was already told I was not meeting the standard. Most of the work was done in Photoshop and I knew my skill set was basic at best but, I acknowledged it and spent time practicing outside of work and during my breaks to "meet the standard." By the third day, I felt I had improved but I guess it wasn't enough.

To be honest I felt relieved when I was let go but the mental damage remained. There was not a single day where I didn't break down. I felt that I did try my best at this job but after being constantly berated, I can't help but feel incompetent and now I'm second-guessing my career choice. Do all design jobs expect us to know how to do everything from the start? Is no training normal? I know I should go back on the job hunt but I just feel defeated.

Do not use this site!!!!!! They claim you have a free trial so you go ahead and create a QR code FOR A BUSINESS. Then they deactivate your QR code once trial ends and they also don't specify that they'll charge you $121 instead of $15 monthly. They'll have you use their stupid trial and once that's over and you've already printed your business card u won't be able to use that QR code again unless you pay that $121 or more! So freaking mad right now. That's stealing if you ask me!! Garbage companies are the ones that have fine print because they are money hungry for cash!!

I see a lot of real estate agencies and branches with graphic designer positions around my area and wanted to hear first hand from someone who’s worked as a graphic designer for realtors. Some would also like photography and videography experience which I have.

Did you enjoy the job? What kind of work did you do? Was the working environment and pay good? Other insights would be appreciated.

I'm revamping my personal branding. I've gotten to designing my business cards and I was thinking about putting a QR code to link to my portfolio instead of having a web address. But qr codes take a lot of space on a card and I'm not sure if people will use the qr code. Should QR codes go on business cards?

I just got done removing all the excess clutter on my computer. Software, hardware. Books upon books. Drawing and art materials. All out in the trash.

How come?

I'm 36. I have been studying design and tech since 2009. I have a BA and a AS in Design. Alease 20 certificates.

I'm sitting here, stressed out my mind trying to learn something new. Laid off 6 months ago after EA games bought our company for 2 Billion. Then decided they want to go a "New direction". And laid off the entire studio. Many workers who were close to the 10-year mark! All gone.

Doing what I always did I decided to use my free time to skill up! And I came to a stark realization.

Why?

Why am I sitting here trying to learn C# and game development? To do what? Get a job as a UX/UI designer?

Why am I trying to learn HTML, Java? To get a job as a Graphic designer?

Why am I sitting here trying to cram motion graphics and aftereffects? To get a job as a graphic designer?

Why am I sitting here trying to learn Maya,3ds max, substance painter, texturing, rendering? To get a job as a graphic designer?

Why am I sitting here for over a decade of my own time, my own money constantly trying to skill up. I NEVER use these skills on my job. I never retain most of it due to a lack of having the time for all of them. I'm not actually gaining anything doing all of this. I don't have a home. I had health insurance for like 2 years my entire adult life. What's the drive and purpose? Passion? Is passion really worth it? What am I afraid of? "Harder jobs"?

Just looking at other fields and careers.... Is the burn out of unstable design work really worth all this trouble?
Other fields where they improve and grow by actually working on the job. Companies gladly pay and provide training! Long shifts? Do we designers really work only "40hrs" if we spend all our free time skilling up unpaid?

Most of our careers is what? trying to convince everyone else that our roles have purpose? Everyone else making choices for us and our work.

Working full time, Spending your free time trying to skill up AND then having to constantly do stupid art test. Mind you companies expect you to own software to do their free "test". What other fields are expecting you to own everything before working for them? Does Tesla expect factory workers to own a factory during the interview process for a test... So much of the design field is utter bullshit when compared to other fields.

I know this might sound like a long rant. But sitting here just thinking about it. But there are soo many Bullshit job titles out there. They are paid much more and dont require anything else than basic pc skills.. HR looks at their resume, shakes their hand and gives them a job. But for designers... Its like we have to be slaves and masters of all matter and knowledge in the cosmos.

I will continue my UX/UI design journey. But I will do so by just reading and studying. Light projects as I would if I was working. And live my life and research other fields to move on to.

But im done trying to keep up with this idiotic practice of constantly needing to master 10X different artforms and programming language. If the fields paid $300k, sure. But we all know we are paid shit.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1EiY5gW7cw/?mibextid=UalRPS

Can anyone give me advice on where to start so I can learn how to do reels like this

What software could be used is CapCut a good call

Hi everyone, first time poster here. I'm a freelance graphic designer, and I recently started my journey on front end development so I could offer more services to my clients. I have some regular clients, but I'm looking for some new opportunities lately so I can have a regular income every month, so I would really appreciate any feedback you could give me on my portfolio. I have a little bit more of 10 years experience, and around 6 as a freelancer. Here's my portfolio www.alebeldesign.com thank you!

hi guys so i just got my first pc ,its a windows 7 ,a bit rusty but it gets the job done, i really want to get into logo qnd graphic designe but i have no idea where to start since i just learned how to even use my pc correctly.

i know there is a lot of great graphic designers who started just as confused as i am right now here.

so if anyone has any form of advice for me (youtube videos,apps and sites like canva ,how to start)i would really appreciate it . thank u

MacBook M1 Pro 14inch 16GB RAM 512 GB drive (750usd, 2 months of use) vs MacBook M2 Pro 16 inch 16 GB RAM 512 GB drive? (750 USD, 3 months of use) — I’m a graphic designer searching for a mobile laptop for light tasks, although I love to open XXX Google tabs and Figma+AI+PS (generative fill with AI) at once. I’d like to work with AE, too. And do some music production (a couple audio tracks, mostly ableton FX or Maschine library). — It doesn’t need to be strong, it should be sufficient enough. For more demanding tasks I have 2080ti/x3950 at home.

TL;DR - I got fired from my first job out of school. I didn’t see it coming. They gave me no warning or indication I was on the rocks and I’m livid. I need to update my portfolio. I don’t know what work is reasonable to ask for and what would generally be off limits.

I was overjoyed when I got the job. It was a few weeks before I finished school. I loved my job, and I liked my team. I worked for a group of companies in the food and restaurant industry.

But yesterday I went to the bathroom before our weekly meeting and came back to see everyone gone except for my manager and the other graphic designer. The designer sat at her desk and basically hid behind her screen while my manager informed me they were letting me go.

Holding myself back from completely losing it, I pressed my manager several times for cause.

I ”wasn’t a good fit for the team,” was all I got.

My lower lip twitched as I asked, ”is it because I was too slow? I thought I’d picked up the pace. I thought I was killing it. I thought I was really getting the hang of things.”

”No, it’s not that. We really valued your creativity, you’re just not a good fit.”

I should have seen it coming. Looking back the vibes had been all off. They hired the intern for a full time position —as much as I’d liked him on the team, I remember being surprised they took on a third designer. I ignored my gut, telling myself I was being overly sensitive and it was all in my head. It wasn’t.

I’ve been feeling all the things —rejection, anger, humiliation, and betrayal— I’m scared. I know it’s hard out there. I have so much to do. I hadn’t updated my portfolio before I got the job, and I have a year and a half’s worth of work to put in. Not to mention the culling of crap.

I also have virtually nothing. I have a few shitty quality drafts of animations, I have a pattern I made, and I have a mock-up of a packaging project. But that’s it. I did so much more than that.

I have to email them about a few things —one being a request for some of the work I did to include in my portfolio. This feels especially important because that was my first official design job out of school.

I don’t know what work would be reasonable to ask for, and what would be out of the question for a standard company.

I guess I’m lucky in the sense that I worked for a group of companies/franchise group, so a lot of the work I’ve done has been used in public. But, a lot of the work I’ve done is also not accessible anymore as features come and go, ads retire, or it’s a print for locations hours away.

What would you do?

So my 11 year old is really great at drawing,I know everyone says they kid is but my really is :D and now she wants to move to more professional level. Her birthday is in about 15 days and I would like to buy her everything she needs to start.

She already have a great gaming PC so I was thinking to get her somekind of graphic tablet and pen to connect to the PC? Or better ooption would be iPad Pro with some app and apple pencil?

Money is no issue here but again I don't think she needs top of the line for start graphics design.

Also, I work in IT and at my spare time I do a lot of game dev so she would eventually join me as a partner for graphics.

So any help and advice is great here, thank you all in advance.

https://forms.gle/hgSuvqb23tMqr1zC8 We are working on a project that focuses on facilitating some of the difficulties that designers face Share with us your experience as a designer through this short questionnaire that focuses on the difficulties that designers face in choosing colors, the time taken in the coloring process, and the repetition of having multiple copies of the design in different colors. Thank you very much

I do some in my community. Great organizations where their missions resonate with me. I love helping them out.

But, it can sometimes be really challenging because they expect me to drop all things (paying projects) and work on last minute stuff or have no concept of actual time some of this takes, though I try to educate and explain.

My question: when you get irritated by nonprofits who aren’t paying you, how do you tactfully lay down the law and help them understand constraints, without coming off like an asshole? These people are incredibly sweet and kind, just clueless. I feel bad for being annoyed lol. Any insight?

Howdy,

I finished an HR interview and now moving forward with an interview with the design manager. They said it would be more technical questions, but I think the HR interview questions included some already, so what else can they ask? What can I expect from an interview with the design manager/senior designers? Here are the questions HR asked me already:

• tell me about yourself
• why [company]
• one time you worked in a team
• how do you prioritize
• how do you handle conflict
• how to introduce innovative ideas
• how do you handle designing a visual layout

Might be forgetting some, but help appreciated! This is for a junior position.

Hi! I'm seeing a growing number of companies asking for portfolios attachments in job applications. While I can curate specific pdfs for each of these jobs I feel it limited, and time consuming. So I'm wondering whether it would be a huge faux pas to have my attachment be a pdf with a link to my portfolio? I know its a bit cheeky, but is it too big a risk? Any creative hiring managers have any insight into this?

I've never seen this pop up window before. For some reason the last time I opened this file this pop up came up and after selecting OK the artboard and file is just completely blank. The preview shows what I had on there before but no matter what option I select on the pop-up, it's still a blank canvas. All that work, gone. I created this file pretty quick so I unfortunately hadn't made a backup file yet lol

But is this file done? Is there something I am missing? Any advice is helpful, thank you!

https://preview.redd.it/2i11bsjlgpzd1.png?width=354&format=png&auto=webp&s=81de36df6115bdf5922e80ced733be772c581c66

https://preview.redd.it/bia6m76mgpzd1.png?width=472&format=png&auto=webp&s=d42e5e3bae0b9ca3aaf1d6e912bfdc4450b31cd4

https://preview.redd.it/efkf98oogpzd1.png?width=1480&format=png&auto=webp&s=577d9330f6eea8a76c66d76aea93df0c6e6474db

Currently I've got:

2019 MB Pro

8 core i9

8GB GPU

32GB Memory

It's now showing slowed speeds as I've done more intensive work. Regularly I am working within Ai, Ps, Id, Figma, and After Effects at the same time. I have a feeling any new M chip will blow these specs out of the water, but I'm curious what I should prioritize. 32GB memory seems decent on paper, but am I not able to fully use that with only my 8 cores currently? Would higher cores give me significant improvement with the same memory? Just trying to gauge priority here and truly future proof myself. Willing to spend ~$4k, but if I can do it for less, by all means.

I've been storing my files on google drive but something that frustrates me is that I can't see a preview of the image or document when I'm browsing through my files, even if it's just a png or jpeg. Are there any cloud storage platforms that have a good navigation system?

I have a task where I need to turn it into vector graphics. Is it even possible? (and by that I mean keeping it good looking without millions of unnecesarry anchor points, with proper lines, etc)

https://preview.redd.it/e0irc53h3pzd1.png?width=1115&format=png&auto=webp&s=0aef1231b8a915dea09cd1f7e4c4836e91dd755e

My non-designer manager posted it in the team chat that has 3 other designers and 2 PMs and asked for thoughts. I was curious about reactions from other designers.