- Admin
- December 21, 2020
- Graphic Design
A good design, what do you think defines it? A good idea or the people are putting their heart and soul into every little thing that belongs to it. A career in graphic designing, how conducive option is it? How to become a graphic designer? Questions are never-ending.
A graphic designer knows how to draft, market, and also how to sell their skills to the clients and employers they value. To be a successful graphic designer, you have to follow the path where you can learn graphic designing, its theories, master the software, understand the market standards. Without further ado, let us unveil what’s and how’s of this professional array, and how can you be one of them.
The Art of Becoming a Graphic Designer
We have made the process into the five-pointers list so that you can understand the process as a step by step action. Some specific skills and qualifications make you different and demanding than others.
- Building a Strong Foundation of Skills
The first step on how to become a graphic designer is having the passion and zeal for drawing, sketching, and creating. Graphic designers are professionals who work in the art industry, specifically on the commercial part like advertising or marketing. So a steady people skill will also be needed with mastering the crafts. Graphic design professionals are in charge of layouts, designs, developing concepts, creating digital imagery, visual elements for brands.
You may have to work with your clients directly or indirectly, collaborating with the entire team of technicians and production managers. Sometimes you have to create visuals sounding like the client’s brand identity. So understanding how design works, adapting commercial art skills will be the tools to your disposal.
- Basic Drawing Skills:If you are thinking about choosing this meticulous career, then learning the craft and sketch for project illustrations will be the starter. Making concepts into reality with a rough sketch, practice more clarity in your designs, get inspired with storyboards, and more. Align the structures with a purpose.
- Learning the Theory Part of Graphic Designing:There are handwritten rules for graphic design, and it covers everything from typography, layouts, grid systems, spacing, visual skeleton, and an appealing approach. Clients are going to demand the best from you and your utilization of blank space. Creating contrasts with colours and imagery would also be included in the learning process.
- Learning UX, Website Design, Copywriting, and Critique:UX stands for user experience. It is about understanding the brand you are working for, including audience, values, appeals, elements. Website design practices will also be another thing to learn here, optimizing your design for robustness, visitor engagement, and page loading time are all the aspects of the UX that you need to adapt in your graphics too.
While working on the designs, you also have to make sure the brand’s message to its audience is loud and clear. You might have to play the role of copywriters once in a while, writing should be attractive, and CTAs should draw their immediate attention. The most challenging part of learning: accepting all the criticisms out there, and for that, you got to develop brainstorming research skills and critical thinking ability.
- Mastering all the Tools & Software
You have a clear idea about the personal skills you may need to nurture, and for how to become a graphic designer, there shall be computer design skills too. It would be best if you learned to use digital tools and modernized software.
Familiarity with CSS, HTML, JavaScript will help you in the field. Photoshop is the go-to program you need to master first of all. Solely for imagery, editing the flaws of photography, a good designer always has a stock of good images to use.
If you want to master logo design, then Adobe Illustrator is the software for you. This is to get comfortable with detailing, colouring tools, intricate lines, and more. Then comes another Adobe product InDesign, that is used for text alignments, professionals printing, layout formatting, image insertion, converting files, etc.
Once you master the Adobe package, designing gets more comfortable to learn and to explore. But only the consistency to practise the tools regularly is mandatory.
- Learning from the Professionals & Earning a Degree
There are several degree programs available for graphic design enthusiasts worldwide. Students with a bachelor’s degree in design earn more than those with a high school diploma in the course of a graphics career. The truth is, employers are looking for more skilled talents these days.
Although not each job in this industry do not require a graphic design degree, it is also right degrees and always high on demand. Professionalism certainly reflects on the degree from a reputed institute for demonstrating your skills to companies, brands, clients, advertising firms.
Moreover, professional graphic design training is worth the effort because you get to learn so much. There are also internship opportunities that are wide open after completing the degree courses. Institutes provide design theories, software, illustration practices, basics of animations, and even other aspects for nurturing your inner talent.
There are also factors kike communication skills, management skills, leadership, critical thinking, and teamwork that are very important and sometimes can be challenging to develop on your own.
- Focus on the Individual Specialization that Suits You
When you are looking forward to knowing how to become a graphic designer, then you should also put your focus on the specialization. There are plenty: Logo designer, web designing, digital designing, multimedia designing. Nurturing a niche can significantly narrow down the area of focus. Like you can join as a logo creator for brands, giving images a meaning for the brand, making logos memorable, reflecting the brand’s personality.
Web design or digital designing is also trendy these days. As digital presence gets more important for businesses, designers are required to stay updated with the market demand. A good web design should be able to fulfil the expectations of the audience, as well as make a good impression on them, so that they may return for more. Choosing digital design comes with a lot of responsibilities because you also have to be sure of delivering a functional and robust website.
Some graphic designers also focus on multimedia design because there are so many available platforms. Producing video tutorials, podcasts, commercials will always be on-trend. So is the craving for multimedia designers.
- Creating a Compelling Portfolio for a Lucid Career
A portfolio is the building ground of a successful career, for any industry. After mastering how to become a graphic designer,you should get to work on developing a good impression on people. A portfolio helps you in getting a job or client. You should include 10 to 12 examples of your best work to showcase to your prospects.
Many students make mock designs, logos, projects for imaginary brands. Others volunteer for design internships in different organizations. There are also small budgets and rates for beginners which help them in building experience and a portfolio that stands out. Make sure to put your best in every portfolio you make.
Now the next big step in how to become a graphic designer is to start preparing for the job you have been eyeing for years. Various factors can assess your work. Post graduation, you will be able to apply for jobs in marketing, advertising, and design agencies. There are several factors which you should remember always:
- Whether you choose to be part of a firm or work as a solopreneur, the key here is to provide exceptional, out of the box ideas to your clients. You are only able to land that dream job by working harder and keep building a portfolio and competing with other candidates aiming for the same.
- When you are approaching how to become a graphic designer, do not lose your individuality in the process. Be creative, innovate original ideas, stay involves until the end. Find ways to analyze your work to get better results. You can join local companies or national competitions to challenge your skills and explore new platforms, software, media, and tools with enthusiasm.
The key to becoming a graphic designer is constant learning. We hope we have answered all your queries regarding how to become a graphic designer.This is one industry that is evolving every single instance, so you should embrace the change and deliver the best quality.
Adapt to the changing data, stay up to date. Practice new applications in the market, improvise your software skills. Stay hungry, and be ready to learn and implement!