Are you creative? Do you have a passion and an eye for the beautiful in life, and in nature? Do you love to paint, sculpt or draw? If so, you might want to pursue a career in art or design.

Be aware that the term "visual arts" can an does include the traditional fine arts such as painting, sculpture, and printmaking as well as decorative arts and crafts, and art media.

Some people even include performing arts such as acting and dancing into this broad visual arts category, but for our purposes we have a separate page on the site for those artistic categories.

Like most artistic persuits, careers in art and design are competitive, challenging, and require a lot of hard work and dedication to succeed. Many dream of making a full-time living as an artist, illustrator or designer, but few actually do.

The field of art and design is actually quite broad, and can be broken down into several categories:

Fine artists – these are the traditional artist that most people identify with the industry. Fine artists create paintings, illustrations, prints and scupture that are then sold or displayed in galleries and museums.

Craft artists - everyone is familar with craft artists from local arts & crafts shows. These talented artist work in various forms and media, including hand-made quilts, candles, pottery, jewelry, leather items, and more.

Graphic designers - graphic designers design a wide range of visual items, from web graphics to business logos, cards and stationary.

Art directors - these are the managers in the art world. Art directors work with artists and designers to develop various media, from raw concept through the entire creation and production process.

Multimedia artists - these artist work in “non-traditional” forms such as movies, video, animation, video games, the Internet, and other forms of electronic media.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, just over 60% of artists and designers are self-employed. These freelance artists usually take years to develop a clientele that will support them with a constant stream of income. Many work at other jobs part-time as they’re establishing their business.

Other artists and designers find employment with schools, magazines and newspapers, museums, graphic design studios, movie studios and more. While employment in the art industry is expected to see steady growth in coming years, the largest increase is forecast for multimedia artists, due to the growing demand for visual effects on the Internet, video games, and movies and television.


 

Art & Design Careers

• Career as a Fine Artist
• Career as an Illustrator
• Career as an Interior Designer
• Career as a Video Game Designer
• Career as a Floral Designer

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