Table of Contents
Can You Teach Yourself To Be A Graphic Designer?
The worst error is to jump so far to Photoshop. Learning Photoshop does not make you a photographer, much as purchasing paintbrushes does not make you an artist. Start off with the foundation.
Learn Graphical Interface Philosophy
Start with the Picture This novel. It is a storey book about Little Red Riding Hood, but at the same time it will show you the basics of graphic design.
Learn about paint, typography, and grid architecture. If you can find a nearby workshop to teach basic graphic design, take it.
Here’s a sure sign of a poor designer: their mockups are packed with a placeholder text like Lorem Ipsum. Ok, a smart planner is a good communicator. A successful designer thought about his whole experience, deliberately selecting every expression. Write to the people. Don’t compose in the intellectual style you used to make yourself sound clever in school reports.
Voice and Tone is a platform full of jewels of good writing samples.
Step 2. Learn how to use Photoshop and Illustrator
Hooray! Now you have got a fairly good basis, both visual and UX. You are able to master Photoshop right now. In fact, I suggest beginning with Illustrator first and then going on to Photoshop after that. Illustrator is what artists are using to render logos and icons.
Know your Illustrator
There are plenty of magazines, free courses and in-person workshops to study Illustrator. Choose the look that better suits for you. Here are the books that I find particularly beneficial in learning the fundamentals of Illustrator:
Adobe Illustrator Classroom of the Book – It is tedious, but if you get through at least half of it, you can know fairly good your way around Illustrator.
Vector Basic Training – This book shows you how to make it look fine in Illustrator.
Now for some fun stuff! Follow these free videos and be surprised with what you can do. Here are two of my favourites – the branding and the scenic scenery.
Learn how Photoshop
There is a million and one tutorials out there. There is a lot of them crap. Luckily, there are pages with very good quality tutorials.
Carve out an hour or two a day to get through those lessons, and you would be surprised with how much you are making gains.
Step 3. Learn any of the specialties
Would you like to create smartphone apps? Websites? Websites? Infographics, huh? Explore all of them, then select and choose the ones you love to bring the most out of them.
Learn Logo Design
Learn how to create a logo that is not going to suck: Logo Design Love
You are going to want to go a little more than a logo however. Learn how to build a cohesive identity – from the website to the business cards. Check out this book, Brand Identity Design.
More about Mobile App Design
Start with this tutorial to get your feet wet on graphic design for mobile applications.
Get the applications on your computer. Critique them. What is it doing and what isn’t?
More about Web Design
Make a compilation of websites that you believe are wonderfully built. Note what they have had in common.
Now to the hairy issue of whether you ought to know HTML/CSS as a designer: It depends on the work. Knowing it would certainly offer you a boost in the work sector. And if you do not want to be a web developer, it lets you know the fundamentals. That way, you know what is possible and what is wrong.
There are so many excellent opportunities available to learn HTML and CSS:
My favourite free guy is Web Design Tuts.
My favourite paying one (very cheap at GBP 25/month) is Treehouse. If you are starting from the beginning and want someone to describe stuff plainly and comprehensively, check out Treehouse tutorials.
Step 4. Construct your portfolio now.
You should not have to go to a fancy design school to get a career as a designer. But you need a strong portfolio.
How can you create a portfolio if you are only starting out for the first time? The good news is you don’t need to focus on actual ventures for real customers to create a portfolio. Make up any of your own side projects.
Resist the desire to have everything you have ever designed in your portfolio. This is the only position for your best job.
Don’t think about being original – it will come later, until you are more familiar in your art. When you practise a musical instrument, you learn how to perform other people’s compositions before you compose your own songs. Same goes for architecture. Steal like a poet, man.
Step 5: Get your work as a prototype.
When I began studying architecture for the first time, I went to a designer career quest class. I stepped into a room full of designers that had a lot more experience than I did – 5, 10, 15 years of experience. They were all searching for work. It was intimidating. There I was, trying to teach myself design, knowing I was competing with these experienced designers.
And yet, six months back, I got a design position. There was a key distinction between me and all of the other models that gave me an edge: I understood how to deal with the developers.
The best thing to improve your employability is to be willing to partner with developers. Learn any interaction design. Learn some basic HTML and CSS. Designers in the software sector (interaction designers, site designers, app designers) are in highly high demand and are paying well. That’s where the workers are right now.
Make a personal website and make your portfolio the centrepiece.
Go ahead to make serendipity possible
Go ahead to make serendipity possible – convince everyone you meet that you’re searching for a career as a designer. You never know who may know anyone.
Research companies and agencies you might be interested in. Look on LinkedIn for 2nd and 3rd degree connections to people who work at those companies and ask for intros. The best way to get a job is through a connection. If you don’t have a connection, there’s still a lot you can do to give yourself an edge.
Are you looking to learn graphic design professionally but without wanting to join a traditional school? Enrol at Blue Sky Graphics online graphic design, web design and UX UI design immersive course where you will learn all the aspects of design along with adobe programs that are essential for graphic design on a professional level. Join us today and start your journey.
