How Self-Isolation is Impacting the Graphic Design Industry

As the current public health crisis continues to touch every aspect of our lives, it’s important that you keep up on the current trends in the graphic design industry so that you can remain productive and working towards your goals.

Graphic design is an interesting industry to look at because it had long been a profession you could do “from anywhere with a strong internet connection.” As a result, the changes that have come about from stay-at-home orders and intense self-isolation have less to do with the transition to a work-from-home environment than is the case in other areas. 

Instead, what’s being impacted is the focus of the industry as well as its future, which can be scarier and more difficult to understand, although there are reasons for optimism. 

To help you grasp what’s going on in the industry as a result of self-isolation, and how that applies to your life, here are some examples. 

A Turn Towards Public Service

One interesting change that has come about in the industry is that it’s being employed now more than ever to help provide information to the public. This mandated self-isolation is a tough pill to swallow for most people, and so its purpose and need must be communicated clearly.

Of course, informing the public has always been an arm of the graphic design world, but there is an increased importance on producing communications materials that convey accurate and useful information. 

This is attracting top talent and has made public-information-driven design a priority of the industry, but it’s also raising the stakes. 

Graphic design has always impacted how societies deal with crises, especially health ones, and so it’s important the industry make efforts to present this vital information in the best possible way, as this could save lives and have a dramatic impact on how well we do at overcoming this major challenge.

More Uncertainty

Graphic design certainly has a role to play in this crisis, but the reality is that not every designer is going to be working to inform the public. And as self-isolation continues to wreak havoc on the economy, this produces a lot of anxiety for all types of designers.

In truth, this anxiety is justified. No one knows how much of an impact this sudden halt in human activity is going to have on the economy, and in all likelihood, It will be a long time before we get back to where we were before.

It’s important to be honest about this so that you can manage expectations and deal with disappointment. However, things will improve someday, and when that happens, you want to be prepared. Spend some time now learning a new skill, working on some personal projects, and building your portfolio so that when things do start to pick up you can be ready to take on lots of new work.

More Possibilities?

It’s true that all of this self-isolation is upping the amount of  uncertainty in the graphic design industry, but there are reasons to be hopeful. 

For one, with so many businesses being forced to move their entire business online, there are a lot of companies who are more aggressively pursuing building up the ecommerce side of their business, something they will likely want to continue after all of this clears up and settles. 

This means that when things pick up again, there should be lots of work to be had as people spend money to maintain the gains they made online while their brick-and-mortar stores rebuild. 

Furthermore, businesses who aren’t doing this now will want to start when things resume since this crisis has clearly shown us how crucial it is to move large chunks of our lives online so that we can be more resilient to shocks such as this one. 

Also, don’t be surprised if there is a sudden influx in the amount of digital entrepreneurs operating on the web after this is over. 

This crisis has in part shown us the need to be more self-sufficient, and many people see an online venture as the ideal way to do that, which means there will be lots of people ready to spend some money on content for their new ventures, giving graphic designers the chance to get back to work. 

Difficult TImes Ahead

There are reasons to be hopeful about what can come after this, but let’s not lose perspective. This struggle will continue for the foreseeable future, but while so much self-isolation is impacting every aspect of our lives, we must remain strong. This is the only way to save lives and make sure that when we do return to normal it will be for good.

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