Since time immemorial we have been told that a picture is worth a thousand words and not for nothing. Forms of visual communication have proven to have a higher retention value and a more lasting impact on its consumers. While it adds value to the story being told in some cases, it effectively tells the whole story by itself in many others. This is where graphic design and its efficacy comes in.

The very essence of graphic design is the ability to convey ideas and resolve complex problems through a platform—a visual and design message board—which appeal to and communicate through the primal sensory touchpoint of sight, elaborates Anu Kiran, a graphic designer and motion graphic artist at marketing consultancy firm One Source.

As per a report by market research firm The Business Research Company, the global market size of design services is projected to grow to $249.5 billion by 2022 from the $153 billion that it had touched in 2018. Things are looking up for graphic designers as well as the global graphic designers’ industry market size, which stands at $43.4 billion, is expected to increase by 3.7 per cent in 2022, says an IBISWorld report.

Today, there is hardly any field that is untouched by graphic designers and designers, in general. As Kiran aptly puts it: “I’m giving you these answers via a laptop which was translated from the product designer’s mind to the product engineering team’s industrial conveyor belt by a team of graphic designers on the R&D team at the company. Then, visually appealing packaging was added to the product mixture before it reached me as a final product. Alongside, there was a team of graphic designers that took care of its sales promotion and advertising which attracted customers and made the whole chain run again.”

From the products and apps that make your life easy to the

Social media managers, rejoice – today, TikTok has added a new set of social media management platforms to its Marketing Partners Program, which will enable you to organize, schedule and yes, publish content to TikTok from your platform of choice.

As explained by TikTok:

“Today, we are excited to introduce the TikTok Marketing Partners Program’s inaugural group of badged partners in the Content Marketing specialty. These eight industry leaders – Brandwatch, Dash Hudson, Emplifi, Hootsuite, Khoros, Later, Sprinklr, and Sprout Social – have built innovative solutions that make it easier for brands to publish, manage, and track their content on TikTok, all within the content management tools that brands already use and love. We are excited to connect brands with these trusted partners who can help them lean into and level up their TikTok-first content strategies.”

That will make it much easier to plan and post your TikTok updates, while also simplifying the repurposing process, so you can re-share your video assets across each platform.

Still, it could make it easier in reverse too, enabling you to share your TikTok clips to other platforms, while at the least, it will enable you to map out your scheduled content across all networks, helping to ensure you remain consistent and active in each app.

And that’s not all – through this new integration, brands using these approved TikTok partners will be able to:

• Manage – Organize, schedule and publish content on TikTok; streamline content collaboration, scale publishing activity and manage cross-platform content
• Understand – Track profile and video metrics in real time, compare to other platforms and benchmark performance; optimize strategies; better understand audiences and engagement
• Respond – With Content Marketing partners, you can track conversations happening in the comments section, delegate and respond, understand the community’s engagement style with your brand, and maintain a consistent response cadence to stay engaged with the TikTok community.

It could provide a big boost to your TikTok marketing efforts – and with the app on track to reach 1.5 billion users in 2022, which would make it the second most used social media app in the world, many brands are now working to establish a TikTok strategy, in alignment with the latest trends.

These new integrations will provide insight and oversight, in order to optimize your TikTok approach, which could make it much easier to scale your current content efforts to include TikTok clips.

It’s a big update, and no doubt many social media managers will be excitedly looking to add TikTok into their dashboard, with the option now being rolled out in your account settings (here’s how it looks on Hootsuite).

It could take some getting used to, but now, TikTok will be a much more central part of many brands’ social media strategies.

-dollar motion picture, graphic design is central to most consumer-facing companies today. What does that translate to? Opportunities galore for talented individuals who opt for graphic design as their career option—freelance or full-time. Interestingly, it is also one of those spaces where freelancers reportedly make more money than full-time employees by taking on more individual projects.

Drawing The Blueprint

So, what does excelling in a career built around graphic design entail? “Apart from knowing the basics, the theories of design and the concepts, you must also be able to possess an understanding of what the user wants. Being a user-first designer helps not only you but also the businesses,” says Mohammed Zeeshan, CEO and co-founder of edtech firm MyCaptain. While the aspirants should know the digital tools like the back of their hand, they should also cultivate the ability to solve problems through their design, he adds.

There are job titles like apparel graphic designer, logo designer, packaging designer, web designer, multimedia designer, art director and even UI/ UX artist that become available for a person trained in the field.

Factors like rapid modernisation, increased production across sectors and the need for future-ready talent will increase demand in the graphic design sector. However, the demand for talent to design, produce and market that laptop that Kiran is talking about, or anything else for that matter, using tools of graphic design is not being met in India, lack of proper educational infrastructure being one of the reasons.