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The Economic Impact of Graphic Artists and Their Work in the United States

From the moment you get up in the morning, your day is influenced by graphic artists. A graphic artist’s job is to translate society’s ideas and messages from the market to you. Your sheets were designed by a textile artist; so are the fabrics you wear. Your morning paper or TV news program was formatted by a graphic designer or broadcast designer. The book or magazine you read as you commute to work has a title design and illustrations created by artists or photographs shot by a photographer. The logos, letterheads and brochures you see at work present a visual image that adds to the messages you are receiving and were created by a graphic artist. Every product of our society is dependent upon the work of a graphic artist in order to convey its message to you.

The irony is, despite the high public visibility of the works of graphic artists, the actual artist is invisible and seldom acknowledged for what he/she contributes to the economy at large.

Virtually all areas of commerce and communications use the graphic arts. Graphic Artists often specialize, focusing their talents to serve particular markets within the communications industry such as magazine or book publishing, or they work for corporations, manufacturers, retailers, advertising agencies, broadcasting companies, or for-profit and nonprofit institutions. Clients may be individuals, small companies, or conglomerates.

Graphic artists include two primary groups of visual communicators: illustrators and graphic designers. Illustrators create the entire spectrum of commercial artwork for reproduction, and graphic designers create all types of visual communication in print and digital media.

According to the US Department of Labor (DOL), artists held 218,000 jobs in 2006 and 63% of that number were self-employed, or 137,340. That number includes not just illustrators, but also multi-media artists, animators, art directors, fine artists, craft artists and other artist related workers.

Also according to the DOL, graphic designers held 261,000 jobs in 2006 with 25% of that number being self-employed, or 65,250.

The economic contribution by graphic artists is felt every industry in the United States. For example, the licensing industry generated $59.08 billion in revenue in 2008 for all 18 product categories tracked, according to The Licensing Letter. Those product categories include accessories, apparel, home furnishings, publishing, stationery, toys, and videogames/software. Graphic artists contributed to those categories in one form or another, whether it was the product’s package design and/or artwork, or textile design for home furnishings or apparel.

The Economic Census defines graphic design services as follows:

541430 Graphic Design Services

This industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in planning, designing, and managing the production of visual communication in order to convey specific messages or concepts, clarify complex information, or project visual identities. These services can include the design of printed materials, packaging, advertising, signage systems, and corporate identification (logos). This industry also includes commercial artists engaged exclusively in generating drawings and illustrations requiring technical accuracy or interpretative skills.

According to the 2007 data, this category generated $8.4 billion dollars in revenue for that year. This is based on 16,369 establishments, or businesses, which employed approximately 57,113 people. These numbers do not take into consideration the number of solo practitioners, or freelancers, a section of the industry that is growing larger each year. Some estimates put that number at 48,168 generating approximately $5 billion in revenue. This number would seem to be significantly higher if one takes into consideration the numbers from the DOL cited earlier.

Graphic art, and the artists who create it, is a vital, necessary, integral part of the economic fabric of this country. Protecting that creativity should be a vital, necessary, integral part of the law.

Given the phenomenal expansion of the global economy, which will only continue to grow, it is essential to protect the copyrights of those who create American intellectual property. Graphic artists’ livelihoods depend on their ability to claim authorship of the work they produce. The ability to sell or license limited usage, or limited rights, to a creative work for a fee is not only an issue of basic fairness; it is the economic essence of copyright law that sustains the productivity of American creative professionals.