If you are a visual person and like to create beauty, try your hand at graphic design. How to become such a designer, we tell in this article.

One of the most important professions in the digital sphere is that of a graphic designer.

Graphic design surrounds us everywhere, both in the Internet space and in real life. This includes the creation of banners, flyers, presentations, layout of magazines and other graphic materials for advertising and business.

The main areas of graphic design:

  • Corporate identity;
  • Business cards;
  • Logos and brand names;
  • Presentations;
  • Posters and posters;
  • Magazines and books;
  • Illustrations and advertising in printed publications;
  • Outdoor and transport advertising;
  • Advertising banners;
  • Infographics and graphic schemes;
  • Calendars;
  • Leaflets and booklets;
  • Packages and labels.

Think about what you are more interested in: creating a corporate identity for a business or labels and packaging, infographics or interfaces.

Choose several related areas: for example, you can devote yourself to working with businesses – designing corporate identity, logos, business cards and presentations. Or study printing and layout and take up leaflets, booklets, calendars, posters and other printed products.

To figure out what you like, you’ll need to try your hand at each job.

What skills you need

The first thing you will need is a good command of graphics programs. At the first stage, you will need:

  • Adobe Photoshop;
  • Adobe Illustrator;
  • Corel Draw.

or their free analogues, for example:

  • Krita;
  • Paint.NET;
  • GIMPShop;
  • Inkscape;
  • Gravit;
  • Vectr;
  • Vecteezy Editor.

But if you want to grow in the profession, you will need knowledge of more serious programs:

  1. For typesetting: InDesign, QuarkXpress, Ventura Publisher, TeX, FrameMaker;
  2. For animating objects and characters: After Effects;
  3. For 3D modeling: 3DS Max, Blender, SketchUp, ZBrush, Cinema 4D.

The next point is knowledge about the visual side of design. The most important: the theory of composition, coloristics (science of colors and their combination) and typography (science of fonts). Specialized literature and online courses can help you learn them.

Digital Illustration Toolkit

The right toolkit will not only optimize your workflow, but will also play an important role in your progress. A digital illustration toolkit can be divided into technical tools and software tools.

Technical Tools

You can set up a creative studio right in your own home: all you need is a comfortable table, an armchair and your computer. Better yet, you can set aside a room for it so you can concentrate better, or look for a co-working space. Most co-working spaces allow you to rent a desk in a shared space, allowing you to socialize and connect with like-minded people.

The ideal tools for working with digital illustration are a tablet and a reliable computer. A popular manufacturer of graphic tablets is Wacom. You can use them both for creating a digital drawing and for processing a hand-drawn one.

Software

There are many software tools for digital illustrators, and the list grows by the day.

Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and FreeHand are a few programs you should be familiar with. Most graphics tablets and styluses will work well with these programs, replacing your computer’s mouse with a digital drawing tool. The most popular counterparts to the Adobe suite are Krita, Paint.NET, GIMPShop, Inkscape, Gravit, Vectr, and Vecteezy Editor.

Add-ons and plug-ins. If you plan to become a professional illustrator, you should learn the art of integrating third-party add-ons into your projects. This not only saves time, but also improves the quality of your work. You can find many options online, both paid and free. For example, there are many such add-ons on the Creative Market site.

  • Gold Rush For Illustrator: this intuitive plugin lets you add metallic glitter and foil effects to your design. It includes 218 templates for Adobe Illustrator in gold, rose gold, copper, black and silver;
  • 792 BRUSHES – ProBrush™ BUNDLE: With this plugin you get access to 792 brushes, a professional set that will suit designers, illustrators and artists of all profiles.

Books for the graphic designer

  • Now You See It. And other essays on design. Michael Beirut;
  • Icons of graphic design. John Clifford; 
  • Fundamentals of Composition. Olga Golubeva;
  • Colorism and colorism. Elena Omelianenko; Graphic Design;
  • Graphic Design. The principle of the grid. Kimberly Elam;
  • Typography. Typeface, layout, design. James Felici;
  • About typeface . Eric Spieckermann;
  • Total Packaging. Thomas Hein;
  • Rice Assault and 21 other ways to think outside the box. Michael Mikalko;
  • Visual Thinking. Dan Roehm.

The third thing a graphic designer needs is constant improvement. Follow trends and trends on a daily basis, and regularly check out the work of other designers on Behance. Broaden your horizons and develop your artistic taste, refer to the classics of visual art and design, take inspiration from the works of acknowledged masters. This will help you not to stand still and get stuck in your own patterns.

How to Build Your Portfolio

You probably didn’t know, but designers, illustrators, motion developers and other creative people are very much in demand in various IT areas, even in areas where you would not think to look. For example, the profession of web designer is very much in demand in the direction of online entertainment such as: online casinos, sites with gambling and other gambling internet establishments, of which there are a large number in the market and new representatives appear every day. For acquaintance with the work of designers it is recommended to look Online Casino Canada list where you can estimate the work of colleagues in your direction and offer the representatives of online casinos their services and portfolio if you want.

Finding work without a portfolio will be difficult, so in the process of learning, create a few works that you can show to a potential customer. The easiest way is to open any freelancing exchange and look at the orders there. You will see what clients need, what their requirements and budgets are. The last point will help you decide on the most profitable directions. 

Another way is to create what you want, to implement your own idea. For example, to create an advertising banner for your favorite clothing brand, a business card with an interesting idea or your own logo. The main thing is to remember that the work should look professional and correspond to trends in design.

What thematic blogs to read

Don’t limit yourself to courses and books – be sure to browse design resources with current information and fresh ideas:

  • DESIGNogolik Design Blog;
  • Awdee Blog;
  • Type Journal, a magazine about type and typography;
  • The Dieline, a website with everything about packaging design;
  • Designyoutrust, the largest design site;
  • All the design secrets from Muzli.

Concluding review of an article about designing from scratch

  1. Decide on a direction;
  2. Learn the basics of design from books and courses for beginners;
  3. Make your first portfolio on your own on projects from exchanges;
  4. Begin to respond to requests on the stock exchanges and get your first real orders;
  5. Constantly check out Behance and design blogs.
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