Graphic Designers are the Visual storyteller which engage the audiences which the combination of images, words and graphics and also communicate with the information. They mostly use some design elements such as shapes, colors, lines and textures to produce a range of professional work. In graphic designing designers create posters, products packaging, Logos and animations.
Graphic designing is known as essential part of the marketing and advertising of a brand or a company. We can also say Graphic Designers as a Communication Designers which creates such visually appealing designs that support the brand’s message and emotions from the consumers.
Five Steps to Become a Graphic Designer
1. Learning some Graphic Design Principles:
It is known as the first step of becoming a Graphic Designer that you have to know about all basic Graphic Design Principles. For creating a Good Design you have to need a lot of planning and expertise during applying some design theory and principles.
For all of this a Graphic Designer have to need to consider all the elements such as lines, colors, shapes, spaces, texture and typography, scale, dominance and emphasis and harmony. All of these elements are the soul of a design which make some impact and can shape how an audience feels.
2. Enroll yourself in some Graphic Design Course:
An enrollment in some course is very important as it teaches you the fundamentals of design and helps you to build your skills through working on some projects. These courses also introduce you with mentors and peers who will prove to be invaluable as you grow your own network.
These course are very important as most of them cover topics like color theory, typography, layout and graphic design tools and software. Some high level course will tell you about the graphic design history, user experience (UX) and website design principles which are some courses depends on depth.
3. Learning some Key Graphic Design Tools:
Variety of Graphic Designing tools are available use by the designers. In all of them Most commonly they work with graphic design software such as Adobe Creative Cloud which is a standard type of graphic designing tool.
There are many other graphic designing tools available such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and InDesign. Majority of Graphic Designer use these kinds of tools. To get start your Graphic Designer journey you have to check Adobe’s series of tutorials.
4. Work on your own Projects to Develop Your Graphic Design Skills:
If you have pretty knowledge about graphic design principle and tools then it’s time for the practice. It is the best way to grow your skills and master graphic design software is to work on your own projects. Assign yourself some tasks and complete them or start to create some mock ads and logos for real or made-up companies.
You can also use the existing companies design and update them by making changing in them. This will be a good practice for identifying and designing for the target audiences. You can become a volunteer with local non profits brands to make their logo and poster which will help you to make new customers for future purpose and encourage you to make professional work and will give you some real world experience.
5. Develop a Portfolio to Showcase Your Graphic Design Work:
A portfolio is the main thing or introduction of a graphic designer and it very essential. Your portfolio may include your previous projects you completed and well as your personal experience or work projects. Always focus on the quality product to add in portfolio over the quantity of products or projects.
Your portfolio should be attractive and professional as it is the main thing which gives the first impression that some potential employer or client will see always select your best and accurate design skills and interest in creating your portfolio.
Types of Graphic Designers
As a graphic designer you have many opportunities for starting your career you can easily work in-house where they create designs for some company or brand, at some agency where they work with many clients and brands and also have an opportunity to work as a freelancer.
1. In-House Graphic Designers:
These kinds of designers are employed by some established brand or company. They tend to have a range of general skills which suits with various needs of the company. They design their all types of tasks which may include on some campaigns for some new marketing or include on some annual reports.
In-house graphic designers may work within a team of graphic designers or they may be the only designer who works for the company.
With In-house graphic design there is usually a more traditional working environment. They usually think about long-term design ideas and strategies. They always try to build and improve upon their previous work.
2. Agency Graphic Designers:
They usually work with the range of brands and clients because many agencies are hired by outside clients. These kinds of designer’s works on some short term projects geared towards some specific campaigns. Agency work tends to be more fast-paced and agency graphic designers may be designing for several brands at once.
Agencies are the good opportunity as a beginner graphic designer because it helps you to start a startup and opportunity to work with some other senior graphic designers and make a good relation with them and get a first-hand look into their design processes.
3. Freelance Graphic Designers:
They are self employed graphic designers and run every aspect of their business from the actual design/art work to deal with the clients and issuing the invoices they manage all of these things by themselves. They work with a variety of clients and on a range of projects. They are the only Boss of themselves. Self motivation and business mind is the key of success for a graphic designer.
As a freelance graphic designer it offers a great flexibility they can live anywhere work anywhere and can create their own schedule. When you start your career as a freelancer than it is very important to grow a strong client base. They need to devote time to marketing themselves and handling administrative tasks. They always need to seek for new clients and opportunities.
