Table of Contents
How Long Did It Take You To Learn Graphic Design Without Schooling?
Numerous things will influence how long it takes you to become a graphic designer. While not all of them will be applicable to everyone, we wanted to add as many as possible so you can estimate how long it would take you to become a graphic designer.
The many variables include how you choose to study, your present skill level, the amount of time you can devote to the process, and the duration of your job hunt. We will now go deeply into each of these elements.
1. How Did You Choose To Learn?
One of the beautiful things about being a graphic designer is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to learning. Indeed, there are several methods to learn. For now, we will examine the duration of each of the three primary paths to become a graphic designer—university/college, self-teaching, and online courses.
Another option for becoming a graphic designer is to self-teach. We have noticed an increase in the number of designers who have taught themselves the skills and knowledge required for a job in the design business in recent years. And the internet has pushed this process even more! How long does it take to self-teach as a graphic designer? How long is a piece of thread, after all? It is quite difficult to estimate how long it will take to become a graphic designer if you are self-taught. It is highly dependant on the strategies and methods you use to educate yourself, as well as the amount of time you can devote to self-education. This will be discussed in more detail later in this text.

When you graduate, you will get a diploma certifying your status as a graphic designer, as well as an essential portfolio to assist you in finding work. This is far faster than the university path and is likely to be faster than self-teaching as well!
As you can see, the method through which you choose to study graphic design has a significant impact on the length of time required to become a graphic designer.
2. Your Current Level of Competence
Another critical aspect affecting the length of time it takes to become a graphic designer is your existing skill level. This refers to the graphic design talents you currently possess.
Not to fear, your present skill level will have no effect on whether or not you can become a graphic designer; it will only affect how long it takes.
If you are a total novice, first and foremost, welcome! You are about to embark on an exciting and intriguing trip. As you have just read, there are many different methods to acquire the knowledge necessary to become a graphic designer. Beginning your graphic design education from scratch requires you to grasp Design Principles and other essentials of the graphic design process before diving into the nitty gritty of applications such as Adobe Creative Cloud.
If, however, you already have some design expertise, your journey to graphic design celebrity may look a bit different. If you have a degree but believe that your abilities are lacking or that there are gaps in your knowledge, self-teaching may be the way to go.
If you know precisely what needs to be tuned, it should only take a few months to get back on track.
However, if you believe that anything is really missing, it may be worthwhile to retrain from the ground up. This is where a short course like Blue Sky Graphics’s comes in handy—in a few months full-time or part-time, you may acquire all the skills and knowledge necessary to work as a practising graphic designer while continuing to work. We provide online graphic design courses to people interested in this field through our highly competent teaching staff in a one-to-one environment.
In summary, although your present skill level does have an effect on how long it takes to become a graphic designer, there are many ways to shorten that time—it all relies on the following component.
3. The Time You Have Available To Commit To The Process
Perhaps the most critical factor to consider when determining how long it takes to become a graphic designer is how much time you can devote to learning, researching, and exercising your new skills and knowledge.
As with any creative activity, taking up a pen is not as easy as taking one up—there are skills to be acquired and hours to be put in to get there.
As you have previously seen, the various paths to become a graphic designer entail vastly varied time commitments and degrees of participation.
Therefore, you should carefully examine the amount of time you have available and want to devote to being a graphic designer.
For instance, if you want to study graphic design at university, it is quite improbable that you would spend your days studying how to be a graphic designer. It will be slower-paced, and you will have time outside of the classroom to yourself. This is an effective method of education for some, but not for others.
Self-study is perhaps the most time-consuming choice, since it is highly dependent on the amount of time you can devote to the process. If you devote your whole time to studying and practise, you should be able to make a living as a graphic designer very rapidly. However, this approach enables you to pick up a book or practise a programme anytime you have a free minute—which means that your route to becoming a graphic designer may eventually take as long as you like.
Finally, if you are short on time and want to become a graphic designer as quickly as possible, a short course like the Blue Sky Graphics online graphic design course is the way to go. It will help you to quickly develop into an industry-ready graphic designer. When you take the BSG online course, you will have flexibility and a pocket friendly graphic design coaching by your side.