I was wondering what the Czech for my job, a graphic designer is. The dictionary at slovnik.cz says "grafik" but it back-translates as "lay-out man", "printmaker", "graphic artist", "graphic designer", "book designer", "etcher" which are all quite different occupations. Any clarification on my title, someone who designs magazines, posters, leaflets, etc?
"grafik" is just fine - the people in your business will get the picture, besides, i can't think of a one-word expression for "layout man" for ex. if you want to describe exactly what kind of graphic design you do you'll have to use a sentece or two. and furthermore, it not always desirable to translate your job into czech - it's gone out of vogue. the more english and the more words the better. it doesn't even have to make much sense. if you say you are a "senior trainee graphic manager consultant" many a czech HR person will be truly impressed
You are right, "grafik" is wide term in Czech republic. "Classic" meaning of grafik was/is artist, who make graphic arts, like this: http://www.nakladatelstvirk.com/?text=umelecka-grafika "New" meaning is someone, who works with graphic or DTP on computer and without further specification it could be both world-famous computer artist and last dtp worker in studio or even web designer. Often positions are in English, even in Czech companies - like art director, graphic designer, graphic operator etc...
But an average Czech would think you are self-important idiot. :wink: The word “grafik” was commonly used for any worker in a printing office who was engaged in any graphic activity. And a long time before the computer era. Sorry, but that sounds like a name for a Polish piece of software for train sheet designing. The Czech-English combination should be “grafický designer” (“grafická designerka” for female). And it is not wrong translation at all. It is commonly used since the 90’s.
Wer wrote....But an average Czech would think you are self-important idiot. That's funny. That is a title that kind of brags about how important you are. Pretty fancy title. But these days you have to be descriptive.
What about "grafický návrhář" or "návrhář grafiky" ? In todays trend to call everything in english it would sound a bit out of fashion 8)