Being a graphic designer can be quirky and fun, as it requires a great amount of creativity and thought the process to bring out the best of us. Our designers strive to create meaningful designs that need to be distinctly communicated to the audience viewing it. This aside, there are infinite meetings, client alterations, frustrated project managers, long sleepless nights, and multiple cups of coffee (which is a life saver) that they embrace on a day-to-day basis.
So, what’s a day like in the life of a graphic designer? Let’s hear it from our designers themselves.
5:30 am – We snooze and snooze, and then drag ourselves out of the comfort spot- our bed. The toothbrush isn’t the first thing we hold. It’s our phone, because well, we love to check those never-ending emails and schedule that days’ work by prioritizing important projects and deadlines.
8:30 am to 10:30 am – We finally reach office after fighting our way through the traffic. And after a happy good morning to the office peeps, we go through the emails once again, that has now increased by a hundred. Then start the client meetings, one by one, where we try and understand the requirements of our clients, present mock-ups of the ones that are ready, attend calls in between and check more emails.
10:30 am to 1 pm – We all love to ‘parTEA’, don’t we? We go grab a beverage and have some time-off so our brain could relax, because hey, tired brain means no creativity, and no creativity means bad designs. We start working on multiple projects at one time- sketching designs for one client, waiting for materials for another project, sending mock-ups to confirm the design for a third and so on. Sure it can get stressful, but we have hobbies too. So every time work gets hectic, we listen to music, or doodle, or just stare at the wall. It does help us deliver a better quality of work.
1:30 pm – It isn’t lunch time yet for us, as we have a client call to finish. We think of getting it done quickly so we can finally get the break we’ve been waiting for since morning- The Lunch Break. But the word ‘quickly’ isn’t directly proportional to a graphic designer. So we take time to carefully draft the designs so as to meet the requirements of the client. Lunch can wait, but we don’t want to keep our clients waiting.
3:00 pm– There are days when we have heavy meals due to extra time on our hands. On some days, we opt for fast-food, maybe a burger or something, due to the work rush. And as we eat, we have thoughts about the unfinished projects and nearing deadlines. That’s when we start contemplating our life choices, a change in career maybe? Day Dreaming gets over along with lunch, so we get back to work.
3:30 pm to 6 pm– One of the most important things that every graphic designer will relate to, is that unless we are satisfied with our work, we will not present it to the art director or the clients. We make sure to incorporate the requested changes, receive feedback from the team/clients, and check the completion of designs of other projects. On completion of a project, we share it with the team/client, and after carefully going through it, the project designs are finalized.
6 pm to 7 pm– Exhausted but happy about the smiles we delivered, we clear the table, but not our desktop, because there are too many files, and we are lazy to do it immediately. We work till the creative department in our brain is active. When that shuts down, our laptop does too. We take some time to carefully back-up our work and organize tasks on sticky notes for the next day.
8 pm– Home is where comfort is. Or in our case, home is where more work is. Call it passion or greed to make more money, we take up some freelancing work too. So we plug in some music, and all the creativity flows from our minds, onto the designs. After almost two hours of painstaking work, we march to the kitchen to stop the grumbling in our stomach.
10 pm to 12 am– After a tiresome day, we hit the couch with food and television. After binge-watching a few episodes of our favorite series, we decide to call it a night. We are so passionate about our work because even after an entire day of working from fingers to the bone, we sleep-talk things like “Maybe we should change this color a bit. Aaaand, perfect”. Yes, this really happens. The same cycle repeats, with different projects, clients, another genre of music, and another cuisine we try.
A life of a designer can be challenging, and there are times when we think about changing careers. But truth be told, we wouldn’t. Because we love what we do. We love being creative and fun at our job. We love seeing happy and satisfied clients at the end of the day. We love how, every day, no matter how tough, we do what has to be done and sleep, having no regrets, whatsoever.
