Graphic Designers
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Automation risk
Low Risk (21-40%): Jobs in this level have a limited risk of automation, as they demand a mix of technical and human-centric skills.
More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.
User poll
Our visitors have voted they are unsure if this occupation will be automated. However, employees may be able to find reassurance in the automated risk level we have generated, which shows 34% chance of automation.
What do you think the risk of automation is?
What is the likelihood that Graphic Designers will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?
Sentiment
The following graph(s) are included wherever there is a substantial amount of votes to render meaningful data. These visual representations display user poll results over time, providing a significant indication of sentiment trends.
Sentiment over time (quarterly)
Sentiment over time (yearly)
Growth
The number of 'Graphic Designers' job openings is expected to rise 2.6% by 2032
Total employment, and estimated job openings
Updated projections are due 09-2023.
Wages
In 2022, the median annual wage for 'Graphic Designers' was $57,990, or $27 per hour
'Graphic Designers' were paid 25.2% higher than the national median wage, which stood at $46,310
Wages over time
Volume
As of 2022 there were 211,890 people employed as 'Graphic Designers' within the United States.
This represents around 0.14% of the employed workforce across the country
Put another way, around 1 in 697 people are employed as 'Graphic Designers'.
Job description
Design or create graphics to meet specific commercial or promotional needs, such as packaging, displays, or logos. May use a variety of mediums to achieve artistic or decorative effects.
SOC Code: 27-1024.00
Resources
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Comments
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Graphic design is too broad of a term in my opinion. There's logo design, web design, package design, wayfinding design, branding, mobile design, t-shirt design, print design, poster design, and much more.
Digital art and illustrations I think are already under threat. When the art being generated is general and the boundaries of art are more forgiving, then the general nature of AI will thrive. But for more exacting work like logo design, web design, and package design, AI struggles from my experience.
I have played around with Adobe's built-in AI tools for Illustrator and Photoshop. While they're cool to play with, I often find myself wasting time playing prompt engineering, when I could have created something on my own faster. If I as a designer don't have patience to prompt-engineer my way into a design, I'm certain clients won't either.
There's also levels to graphic design. Maybe AI will get rid of the bad designers and the bad clients! But the precise, custom, unique work that many clients look for is hard to replace.
Lastly, being a graphic designer is more than just the technical skills. It's about directing a vision for the design. Even if AI is 100% perfect, it may not understand the client's needs.
For example, composite specialized designers have already taken a toll. Sure AI generated composites are still funky, but with enough time all their flaws WILL be perfected.
I can't imagine a future that AI doesn't learns proper design theory and starts applying it, rendering mostly generalist graphic designers useless. More niche skills requiring a human to take decisions such as "Is this appropriate for the brand?" will still be needed, but I'm not sure still.
A few years ago there was a website that said "Artists can't be replaced because AI can't draw", and here we are. For as much as we try to guess AI will keep outperforming in ways we can't expect, until it happens.
The problem that people don't seem to understand is that all the generative ai programs right now produce art that's very cool to look at and art that no one would ever pay for, because they don't understand the point of paying for art in the first place.
There are billions of cool images you get get for free online right now. Graphic designers already compete against that, and yet, they're still paid.
Why?
The reason why artists are paid is because people want something very specific, and all generative AI right now, and in the future, will fail the specificity requirement because it by nature has to give probabilistic (aka common) answers, and as people adapt to AI art existing, the demands on specificity will increase.
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As a design educator at a university with a well respected communication design program who has embraced AI use by my junior/senior level students over the last two semesters, I have watched our students aided by AI, produce more strategic, well researched and well executed advertising and brand designs that far exceed their peers who are not using AI. I have seen the most progress in:
- organization
- accuracy
- time management
- writing skills
- iterative idea generation
- clarity of communication
- audience insights
- persona building
- animation
- automation of manual task
Their approach is more efficient and and happens much quicker allowing them more time for a more irrational process foe problem solving and concept generation and in turn allowing more time for refinement of initial design exploration, which lead to outcomes they far exceeded their expectations.
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In my 25-years as a design educator I have never seen this kind of student improvement and quality of outcomes in the above categories/areas.
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These students will — with a high degree of certainty— enter the market with a baseline knowledge of AI that will far exceed most of the more senior employees and management of the firms that will employ them. Most likely they will demonstrate better time management, process and modality engagement and organizational proficiency. Aided by AI and with an in-depth knowledge of AI they will be highly valued for their efficiency by offloading manual and time absorbing task like research, composing emails, etc. allowing them to be hyper focused on create problem-solving and more strategy solutions and outcomes.
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We would reserve class time to discuss the ethics and implications of using AI covering, authenticity, originality, IP volitions, copyright violations. Additionally, In compliance with our University’s Code of Academic Honesty they include citations and attributions to what AI sources were used.
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Like most of us, I’m both excited and a bit apprehensive about AI. I’m optimistic that AI can help elevate and augment a designer’s approach and creative outcomes. The difficulty I face and an educator is the unprecedented pace at which AI is expanding. There is no doubt they AI will get abused and it will require guidelines and policies that are currently non existent.
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