On average, adults change careers about five to seven times in their lifetime.
Many adults take it upon themselves to turn their hobbies or passions and turn them into a full-time career. If you have been creating graphic design works as a hobby, but you’re ready to take it to the next level, you came to the right place.
Read on to learn how to get started in graphic design.
1. Are You Passionate?
If you want to learn how to be a graphic designer, the first thing you need is passion. Like many careers, establishing yourself as a graphic designer will take some time and effort. It’s important you decide if you have the passion before you pursue a career in fashion design.
2. Learn the Principles of Graphic Design
One of the most important steps if you want to become a graphic designer is to learn the principles of graphic design. Before you can achieve your own style, it’s fundamental you master the principals of design.
A great graphic designer knows how to incorporate shape, spacing, and rhythm in all of their projects. Successfully blending all of these three concepts helps send a message on the page.
Graphic designers also need to master the use of color, texture, and imagery. Making the design jump off the page will depend on whether or not the designer uses the right colors.
While the right colors make the imagery pop from the page, texture creates the feel of the design. The right balance of all of these principals creates perfect imagery.
3. Become a Design Application Expert
Aside from learning the theories and principles of graphic design, you need to become an expert on the design applications that will allow you to create great designs.
Most professional graphic designers are familiar with Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe InDesign.
Adobe InDesign is the application used by professional graphic designers to create brochures, magazines, newspapers, books, posters, and other digital publications. This application allows designers to control typography, interactivity, page layout, and more.
Adobe Illustrator is the choice of designers to create vector assets and create logos for print and video.
Adobe Photoshop is the most popular of the Adobe products as it is used by photographers, digital artists, retouchers, web designers, graphic designers, and more to edit and manipulate images.
There are other products you can use as a graphic designer to create images such as Canva. Learning how to use Canva will also be a great asset to your graphic design career.
4. Difference Between Talent and Practice
Did you always dream of becoming a graphic designer? If you thought about becoming a graphic designer, but fear you don’t have the talent, you might need a little practice.
Although having talent is a plus in the world of graphic design, you shouldn’t let this discourage you from pursuing a career.
If you master the principles of graphic design, applications, and you hone your craft, you can have a successful career as a graphic designer.
5. Create a Library of Inspiration
Many people learn by watching others, and graphic design is not the exception. Make sure you spend a few minutes every day studying the works of professionals.
Whenever you find a work that is remarkable, you can add it to your library inspiration. You can add bookmarks on your web browser, create a Pinterest board, save a file on your computer, or keeping hard copies.
Since your goal is to become a graphic designer, don’t just look at their work, study it. Pay attention to how they use color, texture, and contrast. The more you learn, the more you will be able to recognize patterns, techniques, and trends.
When you study other graphic designers, it will also help you dissect the works. See if you can recognize some of the techniques they use, and try to apply different techniques into your work.
Learning and studying from the great graphic designers will help you find your style. When you learn different styles and techniques from others will help you grow as a graphic designer.
6. Make It Your Own
As we mention in the previous point, you want to study and learn from others, but stray away from replicating.
You will not be able to make a name for yourself by attempting to replicate other designers’ works. It’s better to focus on learning different techniques, so you can incorporate your unique style.
Remember that there’s a difference between learning from an expert and copying. Those who copy often try to imitate or rip off from others’ success, which leads to plagiarism and poor attempts.
However, those who learn from others study from different artists, give credit, and transform the ideas into something new.
7. Don’t Quit Your Day Job
As much as you’d like to start your new career as a graphic designer, getting consistent work can take some time. Don’t quit your day job until you have a consistent stream of clients to help you pay the bills.
Before you leave your job, make sure you evaluate where you are in your fashion design career.
8. Create a Portfolio
Once you’ve mastered the basic skills and started working with clients, you should put together an online portfolio.
Your portfolio will be the easiest way to show potential clients who you are as a designer. Because your portfolio is how you market yourself, make sure it includes works that represent your range.
9. Become Part of a Community
As with other careers, graphic design is about networking, which is why you should become part of a community.
To grow your network, you should attend professional conferences, join associations, and join graphic designer forums. Getting advice and feedback from other professionals will help you work professionally.
Now You Know How to Get Started in Graphic Design
After reading these tips on how to get started in graphic design, you’re ready to kick start your career.
Before you get started, remember to learn about design principles, master the use of professional applications, learn from other artists, and create your portfolio.
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