For the past 100 years, the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) has seen many changes in the discipline of graphic and communication design. What graphic design is, what designers need to know, and who becomes a designer have all shifted as the computer went from being a basic tool to becoming our primary medium for communication. While many principles have stayed the same, schools and workplaces across the discipline have evolved. Practitioners who would have stayed with the same studio or company for decades have moved laterally across the field, and designers are finding new and higher places in business hierarchies. How jobs are advertised and how prospective candidates communicate with prospective employers have changed as well, as has the culture and context for many workplaces, requiring new approaches for how to find your first (and last) position.
Through clear prose, a broad survey of contexts where designers find themselves in the present day, and interviews with studios and design directors, The AIGA Guide to Careers in Graphic and Communication Design is an invaluable resource for finding your place in this quickly growing field.