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- Use your graphic design skills to create page layouts for books, magazines, and digital publications
- Creative work, where you'll have the opportunity to develop the way a publication looks and feels
- Opportunity to work for yourself as a freelancer, or for a company
Layout artists are specialists within the field of graphic design who focus their work on arranging text and images on a page to ensure they have the desired effect. They work on magazines and print publications, and increasingly on digital content and publications.
DAY-TO-DAY DUTIES
Use your graphic design skills to create visuals of pages, screens, or advertisements - combining text and images to make the page look balanced and engaging
DAY-TO-DAY ENVIRONMENT
Some layout artists work full time for a specific publisher, while others will work for themselves and move from project to project as a freelancer.
You'll need
To become a layout artist, you'll need to develop strong graphic communication skills, have good attention to detail, be able to follow a brief, and have the ability to understand space, shape and form.
You'll develop a knowledge of typography, photography, illustration, and the ability to use specialist software products like QuarkXPress, Adobe PageMaker, and Adobe InDesign.
Most layout artists move into this field from a background in graphic design, so studying this subject at college or university will help you build the skills you need. You'll need to build up a portfolio of work to show when applying for jobs, and studying on a graphic design course will help you do this. However, there are other ways in which you can add to your portfolio, for example by setting yourself briefs, or by volunteering to work on charity or student projects like student newspapers.
You'll also need to gain knowledge of how to use the specialist software used in this industry (QuarkXPress, Adobe PageMaker, Adobe InDesign), studying for a formal qualification will normally give you access to this software (which can be expensive) as part of your course.
CAREER PROSPECTS
With experience, a layout artist might move into a supervisory position such as an art or creative director. You could also go on to teach at art school.