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Graphic Design Learning Sheffield – 5 Ways to Master Graphic Design at Home
As you are no doubt aware, we are currently living in uncertain times and consequently more and more people are still working from home and studying from home, and that is most certainly not a bad thing.
All across the UK, particularly in the north in areas such as Yorkshire, people are choosing to learn a whole host of different skills, with graphic design in particular, being at the top of the list. Graphic design learning Sheffield online courses for example, are selling like hot cakes, so this surely shows how popular graphic design really is.
Those of you with a creative side and an interest in art and design could benefit hugely from learning graphic design, either for professional reasons, or simply as a hobby to pass the time, or maybe even for a side hustle.
As with mastering any new skill however, there is a lot to get your head around and mastering any new skill takes time. Luckily enough, we’re here today to share a few graphic design learning Sheffield online course tips with you today.
Here’s a look at 5 tips guaranteed to help you master graphic design learning at home in no time at all.
Learn the lingo
First and foremost, if you want to be a graphic designer, not only do you need to think like a graphic designer, you also need to speak like a graphic designer.
If you sign up for a graphic design learning Sheffield online course today, your tutor will quickly talk to you about the importance of learning the correct terminology for graphic design, before looking at some common terms and phrases.
Of course, your tutor will go through the terminology with you, though as you’re at home, you can also go through everything yourself, in your own time by using YouTube tutorials, blogs, articles, books, magazines, and so on.
We won’t go through the many different terms and phrases with you now as there are too many, but a few common examples include things such as:
Body copy – The main group of text found within your design.
Typography – This is the selection and/or design of letterforms which you organize into sentences and words in your design.
Alignment – Alignment is how you organize elements of your design on your page that you’re working on.
Orphans and widows – Finally, the most unusual example is probably going to be this. Orphans and widows are used to describe words which appear either at the top or the bottom of a column of text. Most designers wish to avoid these in their designs, unless they’re going for something very unique.
Make use of tutorials and design blogs
As we just touched upon, because the internet is so vast, you can use it to find pretty much anything, including tutorials and blogs aimed exclusively at newbie graphic designers.
If you want to learn graphic design at home, blogs and tutorials are ideal as you get all of the benefits of actually taking a graphic design course, without actually attending the course or paying.
There are all manner of tutorials on YouTube, as well as useful blogs covering all manner of graphic design elements.
When searching for blogs and/or tutorials to follow, be sure to follow credible sources, as you need to ensure that you’re being taught correctly, rather than being taught the wrong things or unhealthy graphic design habits which could set you back in your career.
Again, as these resources are FREE, what have you got to lose really? Nothing! Yet you’ve got everything to gain.
Brush up on your graphic design history
Who doesn’t love a bit of history now and then? Whilst the history you were probably taught at school involved King Henry VIII or the Industrial Revolution, the history we want you to learn is the history of graphic design.
Remember, this could very well be your career so you must treat it with the care and respect that it deserves.
As you learn about the history of graphic design, you’ll likely also pick up a whole host of useful hints and tips along the way, which ultimately will help make you a better designer.
While you may think that graphic design is fairly new because we’ve only really been online for a few decades, the truth of the matter is that graphic design can be traced back to 38,000 BCE to primitive cave paintings.
Practice with free software
If you’re serious about making it as a graphic designer, no doubt you are going to need to invest in quality software used by designers, such as Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Before you get to that point however, it is worth practicing with free software first.
Free design software is great for beginners because it is much easier to use and easier to navigate, yet it still tests you artistically and allows you to get creative and to practice a number of different designs.
You can practice with different fonts, typography, colours, patterns, and design techniques using free design software such as Canva (though they do have a premium package) so you can brush up on your design skills without having to worry about spending your money.
Sign up for graphic design learning Sheffield online courses
Finally, if you really want to progress in your graphic design journey, you are going to need to sign up to an online graphic design course and learn that way.
These courses proved popular in early 2020 thanks to the fact that you can learn from home, and now they’re more popular than ever. Here, you get to learn from a professional, experienced, and qualified graphic design tutor, and learn everything there is to learn about graphic design.
Best of all is the fact that you can learn from home in your own time, so you don’t need to worry about travelling to and from a school or college so you can learn in your own time.
