12 Hilarious GIFs That All Graphic Designers Can Relate To

By Kyle Christensen:

Like any job, being a graphic designer comes with its challenges. You’ll work to the bone, make numerous revisions on a project you loved before edits, or maybe you’ll have to scrap your most prized design and start over. But, if you have a passion for being a graphic designer, it’s not really a job at all.

It’s a rewarding experience that makes any challenge exciting to solve it. I know first hand how hard you work if you’re a designer, which is why I wrote this article to share the most hilarious, relatable moments the job will bring—in GIF form of course.

1. You Can’t Function Without Coffee Because No Coffee = No Workee

There’s one thing that rings as a universal truth to graphic designers all over the world. No coffee = no workee. It’s true, and I can attest that coffee makes for a better alarm clock than the one I hit snooze on for literally an hour every morning. So remember, if there’s any way you expect a designer to work, you better make sure they have a cup of coffee in their hand. We’re sure you can relate.

2. When You Watch a Design Tutorial on YouTube and Learn Something New

As a designer, it’s important to stay sharp and keep up on the latest trends. This means you’ll probably have to watch tutorial videos to learn how to execute them. When you finally learn how to make that awesome web banner or animation you’ve been inspired by for the past week, the feeling is amazing. And you’ll more than likely tell all your designer friends.

Are you a graphic #designer? These hilarious #GIFs are way too relatable and perfectly sum up a day in the life. See them all here, via @RedBranch! Share on X

3. When You Come Back from Lunch to Check If You Got Any Emails

Making edits as soon as they’re received and being available for your clients makes a good designer a great and reliable designer. But once it’s lunchtime, you’ll likely have to pause for a moment to fuel up. When you get back and check your emails, it can feel like you’ve been gone for a week. We designers expect this and are more than happy to make sure all our clients are happy, so you’ll probably see us grab a second cup of coffee and respond to all of their emails before diving into our next project.

4. When You See Your Print Designs in Real Life

Unless you’re a designer, it’s hard to explain the joy of seeing your print work in real life. It’s one thing to see it on your computer screen, but once it’s printed in all of its glory and you hold it for the first time… it’s a reward in and of itself. The best way to describe it is that it’s the physical form of all your hard work and dedication, and it’s tangible. A bonus is when we get to keep a printed copy. And if you know any designer, they probably have a hoarder’s stockpile of printed designs at home.

5. When You Knock Out Your Entire To-Do List an Hour Before Your Work Day Ends

When a designer writes out a task list for the day, it’s a list that will always take the entire day to complete. This is because each design project can range from taking a half hour to 6 hours to finish, depending on the size and priority. So when a designer accomplishes multiple projects an hour before the day is even over, it’s a big deal. And we’re extremely proud of the hard work we’ve done.

6. When the Internet Goes Out

The internet is a common commodity these days, but no one knows this truth more than a designer. It’s our lifeline. It connects us to our clients. It’s our deliverable delivery system, our source of stock photography, design assets, and design inspiration, and the place where we can learn new tips and tricks. When that goes down, a big percentage of our job is put on pause.

7. When You Have a Spark of Inspiration, Then Creative Block Suddenly Hits You

Creative block is real, people. What’s more real is that as a designer, you’ll never see it coming. Yes, it can be frustrating, but the good news is there are ways to combat it! Read 3 of my favorite techniques on how to do just that in my article, below.

Discover my 3 favorite techniques on combating creative block in this article and get a bonus Spotify playlist, on us!

8. When Your File Gets Corrupted and Can’t Recover It, So You Have to Remake Your Entire Design All Over Again

A designer’s biggest fear is losing all of the work we poured our heart and soul into creating. This exact fear explains our obsession with hitting the save button once every 5-10 minutes and making external hard drive backup copies of files labeled, “final.ai,” “realfinal.ai,” “newfinal.ai,” or “finalfinal.ai.”. There will come a time in a designer’s life where either the hard drive fails and corrupts your file, or your computer corrupts it.

At this point, you’ll be forced to remake the design all over again. It happens—technology isn’t perfect. What advice I can give you is to try a cloud service like Google Drive. This way, if your hard drive fails, you have another way to recover your file. We’re sure some designers can relate, and we’re sorry that you do.

Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy these 12 #TooReal GIFs that all #GraphicDesigners can relate to. We can pretty much guarantee you’ll lol. See them all here, via @RedBranch! Share on X

9. When Your Non-Designer Friends Say, “Your Job Must Be Easy, All You Do Is Draw on the Computer All Day”

 

Designers love their job. It takes time management, patience, attention-to-detail, ambition, and passion. It’s knowing multiple design platforms, having excellent communication skills, keeping up on trends, and making sure our design eye is well-trained. So when our non-designer friends try to tell us our job is “easy,” it’s hard not to laugh. Especially after finishing large projects like launching a website in a 12-week timeline.

10. That Indescribable Feeling of Making Something Your Client Absolutely Loves

There’s nothing more indescribable than the feeling of bringing your client’s idea to life and having them rave about it. It’s one of the reasons we became designers. We love making people happy with the things we create. So it’s no wonder we might want to tear up with joy when we deliver our favorite project and hear it’s equally well-received from them.

11. When You’re Collaborating with Other Departments & Drawing Out Your Designs or Layouts Is the Only Way You Can Describe Your Idea

It’s our job to communicate our designs effectively, so it’s no wonder that designers are visual people. Sometimes when we start a new project or have a spark of inspiration, it can be hard to express our ideas verbally. During these times, you’ll probably see us hold up our pointer finger, scribble a rough sketch and hand over the piece of paper to show you what we had in mind. It’s easier for us that way so we can get feedback on the design before it’s even created.

12. No One Will Understand Your Obsession With Free Fonts & Design Assets

Designers are digital hoarders. Free icon packs, fonts, or design assets are pretty much click bait for us. Don’t believe me? Just open a designer’s computer. I’m betting it’s full of over 1k fonts and 50-75% of hard drive storage is full of design assets like mockups, presets, or other design elements. What can we say? We like free stuff. Especially design stuff.

Speaking of free stuff, snag a free Red Branch Media icon set that I’ve created from scratch. Download it here!