What "Graphic Design" is and must it include Animations?

Question

Let's consider the following activities, where NO animation 3d nor 2d are involved.

• Creation of visual material (online and printed posters, badges) to promote events, including the research for fonts and selection taking care of their license terms of use, the adaptation and editing of the text written by others, managing and adapting third-party logos, creating original images to go with the text. The tools used are Adobe Photoshop (professional advanced use) and Adobe Illustrator (basic use).
• Creation of wedding invites, bottle labels and logos for small associations, including vectorial minimalist illustrations ad hoc, selection of fonts, layout. Same tools as before.
• Use of Photoshop techniques for Photo editing on original pictures made by me, e.g. tilt-shift, toy camera effects, cinematic effects, cross processing, HDR effects... Tool: Photoshop.

Some of these activities have been carried out for months and have been paid, some others have been used online to promote social campaigns and blog posts or to realize non-profit material for small associations or private individuals.

Are these activities or some of them considered "Graphic Design", even if no Animation tools like Blender were involved?

If not, which is their professional category and how should they be included in the resume in few words?

Answer 1

Animation is not generally considered to be graphic design. It is a totally separate field. Although lately it has become more common to see animation coming out of graphic designers.

Using blender is almost certainly not graphic design in general. But that does not stop a graphic designer to use it if they want to.

Most of the other things you mention fall under graphic design and photography

Answer 2

Everything you list would indeed fall under the blanket term "Graphic Design" in my opinion.

Animation is to graphic design what web development is to graphic design or what 3D modeling is to graphic design. In that, yes some designers may be adept and perform those tasks, but they are not inherently seen as part of a graphic designer's skill set. Most in the industry do not see animation, video, 3D, PHP, ASP, etc as "graphic design".

A "graphic designer" typically, but not always, focuses on look and feel for static imagery and the skills required to accomplish that imagery for a given delivery method. Often that means photo retouching, spot illustrations, icons, branding, type usage, etc.

Be aware that the term "graphic designer" is a "catch-all" in many ways. There are Graphic designers who specialize in video title design, web design, package design, marketing/sales, print design, signage, environmental design, direct mail, branding, etc. But in the broad sense, the term "graphic design" is most often seen as meaning print design and/or web design (front-end) and the skills associated with those areas.

Answer 3

Regarding how you would lay this out on a CV or resume you might want to put it under a header such as skills or bullet point programs you have used in your employment history/education.

As the term graphic designer is pretty broad as discussed already I would try and create a CV/resume that caters for the job you are applying for. I have one or two that can be edited when needed, so create a document that you can easily move around your info and samples of your portfolio.