Design Education Updates

Video Game Design Careers Sizzle

It’s the kind of job children dream of and adults drool over: working in the fast and furiously paced video game industry. If you want to make your mark in this multi-billion dollar industry, enjoy the knowledge that as video games become increasingly complex, demand should sky rocket for skilled, educated, and above-all passionate video game designers.

What Does a Video Game Designer Do?

Sometimes people lump the work of video game designers, programmers, and developers together. However, because gaming technology is becoming more complex, the designer usually serves a separate function. Video game designers are responsible for a game’s concept, layout, and game-play. Programmers create the game’s code, and developers prepare the game for publication.

What’s it Take to Land Video Game Design Careers?

To land that coveted video game design career, you need more than a love for gaming. Critical thinking, problem solving, and deadline driven, you must show potential employers that you not only have wide personal knowledge of the industry, but that you’ve committed to educational advancement in the field. Game nuts are a dime a dozen, but the serious success stories are generally folks who have studied game design.

Video Game Design Careers: Shoot for a Strong Educational Background

A lot goes into designing that new hit game. In addition to major visual appeal and intense graphic effects, game designers must have their pulse on pop culture and an understanding of human psychology. It’s not surprising that many video game design career professionals have a background in the liberal arts with a bachelor’s degree in a specialty such as digital entertainment, game art, or simulation programming.

Source:

US Bureau of Labor Statistics

Do notice your surroundings? Do your friends complement your design sense and ask you for help with their living spaces? If so, you’ve probably got an eye for spatial relationships and composition, and are sensitive to color. You’re on the cutting edge of style -it’s time you considered shaping your future with an interior design career.

Prep Yourself with an Interior Design Education

While you need an aptitude for design to succeed in an interior design career, employers generally require some formal schooling. Interior design certificates and degrees at the associate’s and bachelor’s levels can prepare you with combined coursework in interior decoration and design concepts. Learn industry-current concepts in architecture, engineering, as well as fabrics, drawing, and color. Most important in many of today’s interior design careers is your ability to work with Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software–schooling should provide you with that skill.

Degrees and Licensure Bring Interior Design Career Opportunities

Because interior design is a fairly competitive field, you’ll want to gain an educational advantage. While your two-year interior design degree program should qualify you to enter the interior design workforce, a four-year degree will bring more opportunities. And 24 States provide a licensure for interior designers through the Interior Design Qualification Exam (NCIDQ).

Job Growth and Earnings Statistics for Interior Design Careers

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 65,000 interior design jobs in 2004 with employment growth continuing at an as fast as average pace. Interior design careers can give you the flexibility to work at your own pace: in 2004, about 30% of interior designers were self-employed. In 2005, the average income for an interior design professional was $40,670.

Source:

US Bureau of Labor Statistics