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Is It Possible To Learn Graphic Design From Books Or Video Tutorials?
The Graphic Design course by Blue Sky Graphics covers the essential ideas of visual design, allowing learners to create brochures, backgrounds, logos, and typography, infographics, and presentation visuals, among other things. The course includes an introduction to creative thinking as well as hands-on practise with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. The programme is very engaging, with practical design tasks that allow participants to create a design portfolio at the conclusion of the semester.
Learning Objective:
Participants will get a concept of colour theory, as well as a thorough introduction to Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as the ability to create posts and posters. In addition, students will receive knowledge about how to advertise a business.
Graphic design, on the other hand, might be intimidating if you are just starting out. Learning from books or video tutorials is not an easy task. You have to spend hours reading and re-watching the videos and still end up being confused. Learning online in a one-to-one classroom is the best option these days. There are several tools to learn and design concepts to implement. From font selection to alignment, colour theory to balance and symmetry, and general designer guidance, here are some graphic design principles that any newbie may put to use right now.
Reduce the number of fonts used.
With thousands of free fonts at your disposal, it is easy to get carried away and employ ten different types on a single design. Using more than two or three typefaces on a design, on the other hand, will make it appear amateurish at best and disorganised at worst. Consider choosing a bold font for headers and headers and a basic font for body content.
Consider kerning.
The spacing between letters in the text has an effect on how it looks and should always be taken into account when incorporating typography into any design—improved letter-spacing results in a more appealing, readable text.
Alignment can be used to generate a sense of order.
Keeping items aligned gives any design a more refined appearance. Even sites with a lot of text and pictures appear better with good alignment. Fortunately, today’s design software has built-in standards that may assist in ensuring the precise positioning and alignment of elements on a graphic. Follow them so that your final output appears to have been done by a professional.
The importance of balance cannot be overstated.
Balance makes a design appear sturdy and allows the viewer’s eye to flow easily between pieces. It is about appropriately dispersing things across the design so that it looks appealing and not cluttered. It is crucial to notice that balance does not require that everything be the same size or exactly aligned.
To begin, equally load your design on the left and right, as well as above and below. If you think your design might benefit from some unevenness, you may attempt breaking the symmetry later by shifting your pieces about.
Make use of a grid.
A grid-based method is one technique to attain balance and symmetry. Most experienced designers utilise a grid to organise the pieces when beginning a design. This allows them to keep structural harmony in their paintings while also seeing where they can defy the rules.
Try using a baseline grid if you are dealing with a lot of typography, such as on a magazine article page or a billboard. Set up 10 grid columns and 10 grid rows evenly spaced throughout your page. Use the grid as a starting point for where you will arrange your words and graphic components, then tweak them to match your needs.
Embrace white space.
Inexperienced designers frequently overcrowd their papers with components. The advanced usage of white space distinguishes the specialists.
White space, often known as negative space, is the space in a design that is not occupied by any visible or textual feature. It gives the eye more visual breathing room, enhances readability, and enhances the overall visual arrangement.
Include enough white space in your designs to make them seem clean and to improve legibility and comprehension. You might even use your negative space creatively, like in the example above, where it was employed to form the number “2.”
Maintain consistency in your elements.
Elements on a page or in a series of artworks should seem the same. Every component, from typefaces to photos to brush strokes, should be in harmony with one another so that your design can communicate a consistent message.
One method to stay consistent is to choose one or two typefaces and a colour palette before beginning work on your design (more on this in the following tip).
Make use of a colour pallet.
Colour theory examines how people perceive colour and the effects of colours mixing, matching, and contrasting with one another. As a designer, you must understand how to use colour to create statements and establish moods. Colour, when used correctly, can draw attention and boost the impact of any design.
If you are new to design, there is a lot to learn about colour, but one approach to keep your designs appearing professional is to utilise colour palettes, which are simply groups of colours.
Make use of separate lines.
Even the simplest designs benefit from the use of separate lines. Experiment with several types of lines, such as solid, dotted or dashed, to find which one works best for the appearance you want to achieve.
Lines and colours were utilised to divide the different textual sections of the invitation in this design sample. This style may also be used for posters and other designs that require some element separation.
Consider the use of scale
As people’s attention spans shorten, you must choose the most significant aspect of your design and assist your audience in focusing on it. One method is to use the notion of scale, i.e., increasing the size of text or any other component of your design that you wish to emphasise. At first look, the focus element of your design should be the most prominent.
Good designers see the world through designer spectacles. Look around you with the eyes of a designer at posters, logos, advertising, websites, and architecture. You never know when you will have a burst of inspiration.