How to Become an Illustrator in Worcester, Massachusetts

Worcester, Massachusetts is alive with corporations and private businesses that utilize the services of local graphic artists.  Local companies hire visual artists – especially those with illustration skills - to design promotional materials, brand identities, corporate logos, text illustrations, characterizations and other commercially advantageous visual media.

Worcester Schools and Training Programs for Illustrators

A handful of excellent colleges and numerous independent art studios in or near Worcester, Massachusetts provide classroom instruction and technical workshops for aspiring commercial illustrators.  Art students attending local colleges usually study visual arts and communications design.  Worcester area colleges with fine arts divisions include Assumption College, Becker College, Quinsigamond Community College and College of the Holy Cross.  Other popular educational options for local artists include Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Worcester's Promise.

Nonetheless, growing populations of local artists choose online educational programs for learning skills and earning degrees.  Successful accredited internet-based schools of graphic arts include National University, Post University, Full Sail University, Stratford Career Institute, University of Phoenix, The Art Institutes, DeVry and ITT Tech.  Various virtual visual arts colleges also maintain physical campuses and local testing centers.  University of Phoenix has a campus in Westborough. 
 
Working as an Illustrator in Worcester, Massachusetts

Corporations and private businesses in Worcester, Massachusetts that hire professional illustrators include event planners, toy and game manufacturers, educational media services, real estate agents and photo labs.  Many local illustrators work with award-winning Worcester graphic design firms like Milk-Row-Studio, Almar-Designs, Gardiner-Design, Cocoon-Graphix and National Promotions, for instance. 

Some Worcester artists illustrate technical artwork for top local engineering firms like Dockum-Engineering, Mica-Engineering, Art-Engineering, Croft-Engineering and Concentric-Engineering, among others.   Intensely intricate illustration artists sometimes land positions at local medical illustration companies such as Ace-Medical-Service, Medical-Engineering-Dynamics or Resource-Point.

Based on data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average annual income for a professional graphic designer (includes illustrators and most other commercial visual artists) employed full time in the city of Worcester, Massachusetts is about $46,540, with a reported average hourly pay scale of about $22.40.  However, these figures do not reflect the unreported incomes of local freelance illustrators. 

Skills of a Professional Illustrator

Professional illustrators are specialists at hand-rendered artwork featuring acutely detailed designs.  Most illustrators are trained in traditional fine arts techniques as well as in various digital art forms.  Popular digital illustration software packages include Adobe-InDesign, Quark-Xpress, Macromedia-Freehand, ACD-Canvas and Inkscape, to name just a few.  The best professional illustration artists are emotionally adaptable, mentally flexible and highly proficient, not to mention exceedingly clever.