Graphic Designer Skills: Why Designers Should Learn Beyond Design

Why I Don't Think Graphic Designers Should Stay in One Lane

I've noticed something that seems to come up more and more whenever people talk about graphic designer skills and graphic design jobs: a company posts a position for a graphic designer, but the job description also asks for experience with video, animation, web design, social media, photography, content writing, SEO, and a dozen other things.

Then the comments start, with people complaining that companies aren't really looking for graphic designers anymore and are instead looking for four or five different positions rolled into one. I honestly don't understand that way of looking at it. I understand why someone might not want to take on responsibilities they weren't expecting, especially when a position offers lower pay while also requiring a larger number of responsibilities and tasks. Personally, though, I've always looked at those kinds of opportunities differently.

Maybe you really don't know how to do some of these things they are hiring for and it's not about being unwilling. At that point you just have to take a leap of faith if you're not well-versed or experienced in all of the areas an employer is looking for. If I'm honest with a company about my experience in these other areas that may fall outside my wheelhouse, and they are willing to spend the time to teach me something I don't know yet, why wouldn't I want to take them up on that and learn it?

I've always wanted to make myself as useful as possible to the companies I've worked for, but I also wanted those skills for myself because every time I learned something new, I wasn't just becoming more useful to an employer; I was adding another tool to my own skill set. That's really where the idea of the "Swiss Army knife" designer comes from for me.

Pitch Deck Intro Tommy T-rex, © 2026 One Moment Productions

Graphic Design is Bigger Than Logos and Layouts

I have a background in graphic design and illustration, and those are still the foundation of what I do, but I don't think being a graphic designer should mean that you have to stop there. Over the years, I've had opportunities to learn things that weren't necessarily part of my graphic design education, including packaging and prepress, printing and production, website management, product listings, blogs, SEO, video and animation content, and different types of digital media marketing.

Some of those things I knew how to do already, but a lot of them I didn't. When I started working at Bear Rootz, for example, I became responsible for packaging, prepress, website management, product listings, blogs and SEO, which weren't areas I had studied in great depth when I was in school, so I had to learn them as I went. The people I worked with were patient with me and helped me along the way, and I gained a lot of confidence and experience simply by doing the work.

That's something I've come to appreciate more and more, you don't necessarily have to know how to do something before you take the opportunity to learn it. You just have to be willing to learn, and once you do, you have that skill to carry with you wherever you go.

COM Stability infographic, © 2026 One Moment Productions

You Don't Have to Be an Expert at Everything

I think this is where a lot of people get stuck. They see "animation" on a job description and think, "Well, I'm not an animator." They see "web design" and think, "I'm not a web designer."

They see "video editing" and think, "I've never done that professionally." But there's a big difference between saying "I'm an expert at this" and saying "I know how to do this and I'm capable of learning more."

I don't think you have to be a master of every program or every discipline before you put a skill on your resume or take on a project. I'm still learning myself, whether that's improving my 2D animation and effects work, continuing to develop my illustration and digital painting skills, learning more about 3D modeling and animation, or exploring children's book illustration.

I don't consider myself an expert at all of these things, but I know enough to keep learning, and more importantly, I'm willing to put the time into getting better. That's what I think matters. You don't have to know everything before you start; you just need to have an open mind and be willing to put in the work.

I Learned a Lot by Just Doing It

One of the best examples of this for me has been screen printing. Once I started learning more about the printing process, I became interested in printing my own shirts because I didn't want to always have to rely on another company, deal with minimum order quantities, or give up control over what I was producing. So I bought a screen printer and a flash dryer and started learning how to burn my own screens with emulsion.

It was a lot of work and definitely a learning curve, but I learned pretty quickly that some things that look perfectly fine on a computer screen don't necessarily work when you're trying to actually print them. Lines can be too thin, small details can disappear, and artwork has to be prepared differently depending on what you're trying to produce, so I had to make mistakes, figure out why they happened, and then try again.

Now I can take something I've designed and actually turn it into a shirt myself, and I can work on shirts, hoodies, hats, skateboards and other products without having to hand everything over to somebody else. That knowledge also feeds back into my design work because the same thing has happened with packaging and prepress; what I learned working with physical products eventually became something I could apply to my own work.

That's the part people sometimes miss when they talk about learning "extra" skills. They aren't really extra because they can make you better at the thing you were already doing, and that's also a big part of what I've been trying to build with my own business.

Animating Bill Cipher in AE, © 2023 One Moment Productions

My Own Work is A Good Example

I started One Moment Productions with graphic design and illustration, but I've never wanted it to be limited to just those things. My own projects have given me a place to experiment with different skills and figure out how they work together, and the enamel pins are a good example of that.

Designing something like my Marshmallow Kun enamel pins isn't just a matter of drawing something I think looks cool and sending the artwork off. I have to think about how the artwork is going to translate into an actual physical object, including how thick the lines need to be, what happens to smaller details, how the enamel areas are going to work, how the metal borders affect the design, what size the pin should be, and where the pin backs need to go. Suddenly I'm thinking about illustration, production, manufacturing and physical design all at the same time.

That's one of the reasons I enjoy making my own products. I'm not just designing something and then walking away from it; I get to see what happens when the design actually becomes a physical object. The same thing happens with stickers, apparel and other merchandise, and the more I learn about the production side, the more I understand what I should be thinking about while I'm designing in the first place.

You can see some of that work through One Moment Productions.

Sleepy Mallow Enamel Pin, © 2025 One Moment Productions

I Took The Same Approach With Animation

Animation is a little different for me because it's something I've wanted to do since I was a kid. I've always wanted to be a 2D animator, but for a long time I gave up on that idea and decided to focus on building a career, eventually climbing the corporate ladder at Whole Foods Market. I liked working there, I made good money, and I met a lot of great people, but eventually I realized that I didn't want to look back on my life and wonder what would have happened if I had actually pursued animation.

So in 2022, I went back to school at Academy of Art University to pursue my BFA in 2D Traditional Animation and Effects, and I'm now in my final semester. It has been one of the hardest things I've ever done because going back to school later in life while working a full-time job and raising two kids isn't exactly an easy schedule. There have been plenty of nights where I stayed up late trying to finish an assignment, got only a few hours of sleep, got the kids ready for school, and then went straight to my 9-to-5 job.

There have definitely been times when I've wished I had done this when I was younger and didn't have nearly as many responsibilities, but I also wouldn't trade the experience. Going through animation school has made me think about design differently because I'm learning timing, movement, staging, effects and visual storytelling, while using Toon Boom Harmony and working through the animation process instead of just thinking about what something looks like in a still image. Now I'm taking that knowledge back into my other work.

That's another reason I don't like putting creative disciplines into separate boxes. Graphic design can help you with animation, animation can help you with design, illustration can help you with both, and understanding production or how a website works can make you better at designing for those things. It all connects.

Animation Rough - Marshmallow Kun, © 2026 One Moment Productions

Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone Is Part of The Job

I had a similar experience while working with Gray Group International, where I was pushed into areas that weren't necessarily my normal wheelhouse. I worked on content for different projects and clients and had to deal with different types of media, including animation for websites, animation and video for marketing, YouTube thumbnails, vector artwork, branding, and even creating car wraps where the artwork had to be designed around actual photographs and connect and wrap seamlessly on the vehicle.

Some of those projects were things I had more experience with than others, but every one of them forced me to think a little differently, and that's what I think is valuable about being willing to step outside your comfort zone. Sometimes you discover that you actually like doing something you never thought you'd be interested in, and sometimes you discover that you're terrible at it, but either way, you learned something that you didn't know before.

How I Actually Learn New Things

I'm not someone who can just look at a program once and immediately know how to use it. Usually, I start with YouTube or books and try to get a general understanding of what I'm trying to learn and how the process works, then I'll start digging deeper into the details until I have enough information to actually try it myself.

That's probably the most important part for me because I learn through trial and error. I'll try something, mess it up, figure out why it didn't work, try it again, and eventually get into a rhythm where I understand what I'm doing. Sometimes I'll frequent Skillshare, but in all honesty, there is a lot of great information and videos for free just on youtube alone, as well as my local library. What matters is actually applying the information myself once I've taken it in, over and over again.

I think that's important for anyone trying to expand their skill set because watching tutorials for six hours doesn't necessarily mean you know how to do something. At some point, you have to close the tutorial and try it yourself, and you're probably going to screw it up. That's okay, figure out why, have another go at it and problem solve why things fail, you keep going until you finally get it.

Custom Screen Printing Design, © 2026 One Moment Productions

Help The Company, But Help Yourself Too

This is probably the biggest point I want to make. When you learn another skill at your job, don't only think about how useful that skill is going to be for the company, think about what you're taking away from that experience as well. If your employer gives you an opportunity to learn video editing, learn it, and if they need someone to help with a website and you're willing to learn, learn that too. The same goes for packaging, prepress, animation, or anything else that gives you a chance to expand your skill set.

Even if you eventually leave that company, you don't leave without the skill, and that's the part that makes being versatile so valuable. You're building your own toolbox, and the bigger that toolbox gets, the more options you have.

Maybe that helps you get another job, maybe it lets you take on freelance work, maybe it lets you start your own business, or maybe it lets you create products you couldn't have made before. For me, it's been all of those things, and it has also given me the confidence to look at a problem and think, 'I can probably figure this out.'

I Don't Think We Should Stop Learning

I don't know exactly what the graphic design industry is going to look like five or ten years from now. AI is changing things, technology is changing, the kinds of skills employers are looking for, and the tools we're using are changing, but I don't think complaining about that is going to help us very much. I'd rather keep learning.

That's really the mentality I've tried to build throughout my career. I don't need to be an expert at everything, I just need to be willing to learn. I've gone from graphic design and illustration into packaging, product design, screen printing, video, traditional animation, and now I'm adding 3D work to my skillset. I'm still figuring things out, and I'm sure there will be plenty more things I don't know how to do yet.

That's okay, and honestly, that's what makes this interesting. I've always wanted to be a 2D animator, but I don't want to stop being a designer, stop painting, or stop learning how things are made and making physical products on my own. I want to keep adding tools to my wheelhouse.

That's why I like the idea of the Swiss Army knife designer. Not because you need to be an expert at everything, but because when something new comes along, you have another tool you can pull out of your pocket to help you figure things out. And if you don't have that tool yet, learn it. That's what I'm going to keep doing.

Marshmallow Kun Animation Production Scene, © 2026 One Moment Productions

What do you think? Should graphic designers stay in one lane, or is there value in learning skills beyond design? Have you ever learned something outside your main field that ended up helping you in unexpected ways? I'd genuinely like to hear about your experiences. Leave a comment and let me know.