Online Education is Good Prep for a Career in Magazine Design

By Joe Cooper
Career Colleges Columnist

Whatever your interests—from knitting to extreme sports to high fashion—there's a magazine for you! Magazine layout is a popular career choice for graphic designers, and an online degree program will give you the credentials you need to launch a fantastic career from the comfort of home.

Working in Magazine Design

For Brad Hammerstron, a professional graphic designer who produces magazine layouts, industry terms are second nature. Good decisions in column alignment, text baselines, image cropping, and font choice can make or break his work. It requires a bit of creativity, but a lot of technical know-how, too. That's what makes a degree in graphic design so important.

Magazine layout jobs in graphic design are incredibly diverse. Most positions require a degree, and with the rising credibility of online degree programs, an online degree can qualify you just as well as an on-campus degree. While researching online degree programs in graphic design, note the course listings. If you are interested in a career in magazine layout, choose a degree program with a course listing tailored for this profession.

Working in Graphic Design

With an online degree in graphic design and a few years' experience, earn a reasonable salary in the industry. According to a 2004 report from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, graphic designers earn an average salary of $38,030, with a middle range of $29,360 to $50,840.

Not sure you want to sign on with big media? You can also use your online degree to qualify you for freelancing positions. Many graphic designers work for multiple clients, diversifying their workload as well as their income. Internships are a great benefit of a design degree program, and using internships to form industry connections can help you become a freelance designer in the future.

Whether it's a career in magazines, or commercial art, or corporate marketing, or another subset of graphic design, an online degree can help you get there.

Sources
US Bureau of Labor Statistics

About the Author
Joe Cooper is a freelance education and technology writer and edits medical literature. He holds a bachelor's in American Literature from UCLA.

Email this article

All information on the Career Colleges website is copyrighted and intended for informational use only including the Career Assessment and Most Popular Career Colleges section. The school programs offered by the technical schools and trade schools represented in the online college directory are up-to-date.