Ask designers in any Ghanaian town what they spend their days making, and the answers are similar: social media posts and Status graphics, event flyers, church and funeral programmes, posters, banners, business cards and stickers. These everyday jobs are where most designers earn their first money, and they appear again and again in job adverts from print shops, schools, NGOs and companies.
Two destinations: screen and paper
Every design you make will end up either on a screen or on paper, and sometimes both.
- Screen designs are seen on phones: WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. They need the right size and shape for the platform, small file sizes for people on prepaid data, and text large enough to read on a small screen.
- Print designs go to a printing machine. They need the right physical size, extra space at the edges called bleed, sharp images and colours that print well. Mistakes cost the client money because paper and ink are wasted.
Many jobs need both. A church harvest might want a WhatsApp flyer, a printed A4 poster and a large banner, all matching. Knowing how to adapt one design for different sizes is a skill employers value.
What this section covers
- Social media graphics. Sizes for posts and Status, one clear message per graphic, small files and templates for businesses that post often.
- Flyers, posters and banners. Designing for quick reading, from a phone flyer to a banner read across the road, plus programmes and multi page documents.