Series: Design in 2025 – What They Don’t Teach You in School
When I started, graphic design didn’t feel like a real job. Not where I was from.
You couldn’t just decide to be a designer in a place like Wollongong.
People didn’t get it.
We had slow, clunky computers, no cloud anything, and most of the software was cracked. You’d heard of RayGun, but no one ever actually saw a copy. Black+White was pretty high-end—more photography and art direction than day-to-day design. If you were a graphic designer, Desktop Magazine was the go-to. That’s where most of us got our inspiration. You’d flick through it, study the type, look at the layouts, and just try to work out how they did it.
No YouTube. No Canva. No Webflow. No Behance. No Instagram to scroll. You had to work it out for yourself.
I studied Design Fundamentals at TAFE in Lidcombe. That’s where they taught us the Paul Rand approach—starting with the actual rules. Dot, line, shape, form. Symmetry, asymmetry. Contrast, variety, balance, rhythm. Unity, hierarchy, scale, proportion, negative space.
It sounds simple, but that’s the core of design. Strip away the tech, the trends, the AI—and those ideas still hold.
I also remember hand-painting a colour wheel, which, honestly, was one of the most tedious and difficult exercises in my whole design career.
That course gave me a foundation I still use. Most people skip that now. But if you don’t understand the basics, you’re just styling things—not designing.
Then I went to Shillington when it was still near The Rocks. It was full-on.
Fast pace, high expectations. They treated it like a proper job. If you weren’t up to scratch, you fell behind. You could tell pretty quickly who was going to stick around and who just liked the idea of being creative.
That period taught me more than any software update ever has.
It’s Easier Now—But It’s Also More Crowded
These days, design is everywhere. And that’s not a bad thing.
There are more tools. More pathways. More access.
But it’s also more competitive. And more surface-level.
Everyone’s a designer now.
Your client’s nephew can whip up a half-decent logo in Canva.
AI can spit out a mockup in 30 seconds.
That doesn’t mean the job is gone—it just means you need to be sharper.
You need to know how to actually solve problems. To build systems. To create something that holds together, not just looks good.
The Problem With Most Portfolios Today
A lot of folios I see from new grads are full of made-up brands and over-designed posters. They don’t show whether you can actually work with a real client.
Or communicate a clear message.
Or deliver something someone can use.
Uni fills heads with ideas—but in the real world, most of those won’t land for a while. You’ll be building things for cafés, tradies, and mid-tier businesses long before you’re branding any luxury hotels or sneaker drops.
And even if you’re good, you’re going to have to go learn from someone.
You don’t come out of school a senior designer. You earn that.
Graphic Design Isn’t a Career. It’s a Discipline.
This is the part no one tells you. Graphic design, by itself, isn’t a full career anymore.
It’s one part of the puzzle. A skill you bring into:
- Branding
- Packaging
- Web
- Motion
- E-commerce
- Advertising
You’ve got to specialise. You’ve got to pair design with something else that gives it direction.
Just calling yourself a “graphic designer” in 2025 won’t get you far.
You’ve got to be something more—something that actually helps businesses grow, sell, or connect.
Use Tools—But Know What You’re Doing
Canva isn’t the enemy. Neither is AI.
But they expose you fast if you don’t know your fundamentals.
You need to understand layout, typography, white space, colour, and hierarchy—not just how to drag elements into place. That’s what sets you apart.
Real design isn’t built on style. It’s built on thinking.
The Jobs That Taught Me That
At 3D World, the dance music magazine in Sydney, I learned how to work under pressure. Print deadlines, ad layouts, media kits. The work had to be finished by Friday—no excuses.
At Media Merchants, I saw the guts of advertising. Fast-paced, messy, client-led, but you learned how to adapt and deliver. Retail, branding, weekly turnarounds—it taught me to work with constraints.
Later on, I worked at a not-for-profit. That’s where I learned about branding in a deeper way—how to create consistency, how to communicate abstract goals, how to direct photo shoots, roll out full campaigns, and actually pitch ideas that made sense. That job sharpened me the most.
It’s where I learned that design is as much about direction as it is about execution.
Final Thought: You’re Still Needed—If You Can Deliver
The tools are faster now. The entry points are easier.
But that just means the expectation is higher.
If you want to stand out, you need to do more than make something look good.
You need to make it work. You need to finish it. And it needs to make sense for the person who paid you to do it.
Don’t worry about AI.
Don’t panic about Canva.
They’re not going to replace real designers.
But they will replace people who never became one in the first place.
Up Next → Post 2: What Good Design Still Requires (Even in 2025)
Why style’s not enough—and why your fundamentals still matter.
