INDUSTRY INSIGHT
For people with drive and creative minds, there are great rewards on offer in the art, design and fashion sectors. Though graduates have found difficulty in the past getting a foothold in the industry, an increase in relevant degree courses offered by colleges and universities means that, with some work experience, jobs have becoming much more accessible, although opportunities may still be limited in a developing nation such as Nigeria.

What’s on offer
There’s a whole lot more to a career in the art industry than paintbrushes and easels; if you are buzzing with artistic ideas and have good commercial awareness a design career could see you working on anything from magazine pages to television backdrops.

Graphic designers are employed by companies ranging from newspaper publishers to advertising agencies and many designers find working as a freelancer pays dividends. Designers will commonly have a degree in fine art or graphic design and may have to show a year’s or more relevant experience.

Other career areas may include working as an illustrator, in animation, interior design and photography.

The public face of the fashion industry is widely seen as the often glamorous role of fashion designer, but it’s a competitive area to get started in.

Work may include anything and everything from making patterns and deciding on which materials to use to dealing with buyers and addressing market trends.

While you can launch yourself in the profession with any degree, a fashion or textiles degree would be favored, and graduates from other disciplines would be helped by a postgraduate qualification.

Career areas include textile designers, design management, colorists, garment technologists, stylists and illustrators. There are associated careers in journalism, public relations, marketing and retail.

Wherever you choose to go, you should show enthusiasm, belief in your own ability and build up an impressive portfolio to show prospective employers.

* Fashion Designer

* create haute-couture clothes or create haute-couture-influenced clothes for the designer ready-to-wear or high-street market
* take a design from a sketched idea through to the production of a sample and the manufacture of the garment, whether a one-off or a run of thousands
* liaise with trend forecasters, fabric buyers, range planners, production teams, and retailers or customers.

Key skills:
* cutting and sewing fabric, and making up patterns
* must be highly perceptive about what is going on elsewhere in the market
* an understanding of what is happening in garment technology, textile technology, and production management
* confidence in their own judgement (and in their own appearance)
* good interpersonal skills.

Training
Because the industry is concerned with expression and interpretation within a narrow range of possibilities, training beyond the basic skills tends to be on-the-job or is limited to business and technology skills.

* Interior designers

* create or enhance the quality and function of an interior space
* provide clients with a complete consultancy service: taking a project from brief, to sketch, to design, then through construction to choice of furnishings and decoration.

Key skills: 

* drawing or computer-aided imaging
* business awareness in order to understand the cost and time constraints of the client
* must be highly perceptive about what is going on elsewhere in interior design
* knowledge of architecture and building techniques, planning laws and building regulations, materials and fabrics, arts and crafts
* the ability to interpret a brief, to liaise with the client and with other professionals, trades and crafts people involved in the project, and then to produce a design which fulfils their (sometimes unstated) needs 
* good interpersonal and presentational skills.

What they do? 

* capture and select prepared or spontaneous moments with a camera which (possibly with the help of enhancement) reveal an aspect of appearance that the client wants to see
* photographers are often self-employed and/or work for agencies in the fields of advertising, fashion, news and sports reporting, portraiture, and business publications.

Key skills:

* ability to work to tight deadlines
* keep up with the latest camera, lighting and imaging technology 
* good interpersonal skills, both for liaising with clients and for working with subjects.

SKILLS REQUIRED

To work in these ideas-led areas you will need to be: analytical, confident, creative, innovative, organised, reliable, resilient and a good teamworker.