What Is a Graphic Design Artworker?

What is an artworker?

I have often been asked this question by graduate graphic designers looking to break into the industry. It is not an unreasonable question as its not really something you can study or certify for so a definition is hard to find.

You will see job ads for these positions in some of the more specialised design publications. Artworker, Creative Artworker, Layout Artist, Mac Operator etc...

The role came about before the introduction on apple macs when all typesetting was done manually. The designers took on a more of an art directing role and left the typesetters to bring their scamps to life. Nowadays with the mac ubiquitous in every studio these days, the designer can now get more hands on. Indeed in small agencies they may be asked to take on the artworking role too but in larger setups the separation is still maintained.

Its interesting to note in Asian countries like Hong Kong, China etc, where the industry developed differently, artworker roles are relatively rare. It's taken for granted that graphic designers job will encompass this function.

So what's involved in these roles and how do they differ from a graphic designer? In a nutshell, the artworker is responsible for setting up the final artwork that will go to print. They take the designer's rough scamp or mac files and rebuild these to print quality standard.

This can range from checking the type flow looks good with no widows/orphans, headlines are tracked correctly, alignment and spacing is consistent, images are of high enough quality, colour balance adjustments, retouching, ensuring separations are correct etc.

However, some 'Creative Artworkers' will go beyond quality control and will have some input in the layout of the piece. A typical task would be to take a design and reformat the size/orientation for different applications. i.e from an advertisement to a 48 sheet poster to a web banner to a television still...

In this case the artworker will need to have some layout sense to create something that is well balanced and in tune with the designer's expectations. Beyond this, some artworkers may specialise in other aspects such as photo retouching or illustrations so they will have more in-depth skills in the software tools they use.

You will find artworkers in all fields of design such as branding, packaging, literature... each with slightly different skill sets and competencies.

In effect they let the designers get on with designing and let someone else take care of the details.