Traditionally, a visual arts degree is necessary for a successful career in photography, art, and design. But the degree can also help those pursuing some of the most offbeat jobs in the world. How about cake decoration? Cake decorators use icing, frosting, or other edible elements to decorate cakes that resemble 3D people, places, and things. The job requires a steady hand and a flair for design and many cake decorators have visual arts degrees. On the not-so-sweet side of life, forensic artists create composite drawings of crime scenes and also sketch suspects and court scenes. And visual arts degrees are held by animators, scenic designers on TV shows, toy designers, textile artists, and even tattoo artists.
While the art world is filled with amateurs, those holding visual arts degrees qualify for more than 200 other jobs from ad director and aerial photographer to website creator and window display designer. In the art world alone, visual arts degrees are held by art consultants, art historians, art insurance agents, art teachers, and artists’ agents. In the world of fashion, illustrators, editors, and merchandisers benefit from visual arts degrees.
When studying the visual arts students focus on a wide variety of subjects to help them communicate ideas, thoughts, and feelings. These include, physical and life sciences, music appreciation and history, literature and humanities, philosophy, history, and economics. Art electives such as figure drawing, painting, photography, and digital design are also on the menu. Classes utilized an assortment of material including oil paints, watercolors, acrylics, pastels, pencils, pen and ink, plaster, clay, cameras, lights, and computers. The art world is competitive. But just about any career that involves art and design can be kick-started with a visual arts degree.