Fashion Advertiser: Employment Information for Students Considering a Career in Fashion Advertising

You're artsy, edgy, trendy and supremely self-assured; you eat fashion publications and live to shop. If you're a fashion-forward photographer with technical know-how, or a stylish wordsmith with a bachelor's degree, get ready for a career in Fashion Advertising!

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Career Definition: Fashion Advertising

Fashion Advertising is a specialized, highly competitive area of commercial art and graphic design. Workers in the industry include photographers and copy writers. These creative workers contribute to the production of advertising messages, including shots of fashion models gracing glossy magazine ads, online and print catalogs, web pages and department-store newspaper ads. Fashion photographers work with digital cameras and traditional silver halide film to create and store images, often of costumed models, that show styles in a way that makes them desirable to a specific market. Fashion advertising writers are good at using words that not only describe a high-style item, but create the impulse to buy it.

How to Become a Fashion Advertiser

Required Education for a Career in Fashion Advertising

Since Fashion Advertising photographers most often freelance, they need demonstrated proficiency; this proficiency is often gained through classes at universities, community colleges, and trade and technical schools. Classes cover equipment, processes, and darkroom techniques. University courses in business as well as design and composition are also helpful. Aspirants may learn the ropes by working as assistants to accomplished photographers. Copy writers, like most salaried writers, generally need a 4-year degree. Some employers of writers seek those with a broad foundation in the liberal arts. Others consider English, journalism, and communications majors, especially those with fashion knowledge and expertise.

Skills Required for Career as a Fashion Advertiser

All Fashion Advertising workers need polished portfolios of excellent samples. Photographers also need good vision, hand-and-eye coordination, patience, accuracy, a knowledge of copyright laws and a combination of artistic, business and people skills. Copy writers need to cope with stress, deadlines, and a high-pressure environment. They need to be comfortable with computer software, electronic publishing, graphics, and video.

Career and Economic Outlook: Fashion Advertising

A total of 122,000 persons were employed as photographers of all types in 2006 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), www.bls.gov; of these, half were self-employed. Median annual income of all employed photographers was $38,150 in 2007. Any photographer, let alone one in the competitive field of Fashion Advertising, will face stiff competition for salaried positions. The median annual salary for all salaried writers and authors was $48,640 in May of 2006. The number of opportunities for all writers and editors is expected to grow about as fast as average.

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