age, the minimum amount of education is between two and four years of training in either fine art or design. Many choose to attend a general university to start with and often transfer to a specific art or design school. High school students are not expected to take classes specifically in graphic design, but advanced art classes will help them in the future. A basic four-year high school curriculum (English, math, science, and history) is all that is expected to have been taken by a high school student; however, college preparatory classes are beneficial. Since the demand for designers is quickly increasing, finding a job after advanced training is quite simple. Employers will look for those with a strong background, experience, and a large portfolio. A designer may have a natural ability to create an extraordinary piece of design; in this case a lot of training is not necessary. For this reason, students who wish to find work as soon as possible should look into attending an art school after they graduate from high school. Graphic design requires one to have knowledge and experience in working with images and type. "Typography is the term used to describe the use of words and type to convey a message" (Perfect). One who has an intelligent sense of design is familiar with how to incorporate color with type and image to create an emphasis where needed. It is important to be able to catch on to things quickly. A strong vocabulary will be to the designers advantage, because oftentimes words are used as the main focus; any misspellings would not be the clients fault. When looking at advertisements in magazines, for example, the ones that catch the eye have a good balance of image and type; there is not too much of one or the other. Computers are quickly becoming the most popular tool for combining image and type. The materials needed in graphic design can be quite expensive, but the final product will be worth it. As any artist knows, the ...
