What Do You Need to Learn to Become a Graphic Designer

Education along with professional skills is a key component while applying for a graphic design position in most of the IT firms. If you aim to become a graphic designer, there are certainly some basics, you need to be aware about.

The major role of a graphic designer is to craft graphics that meet commercial, promotional or packaging needs of day to day businesses. This can only be made possible if you have knowledge about layout principles and aesthetic design concepts.

In order to qualify for the position of a graphic designer, a candidate must have bachelor’s degree in graphic design or a certificate of taking credible graphic design courses proving that the candidate has all necessary skills. Candidates in this field can display their creativity via creating effective design concepts. They also must have basic business skills that are useful for marketers. The most important skill that a graphic designer must master is a good eye for art and visual design. Designers must be able to think creatively and develop artistic concepts that sell products and are eye catching.

Important Skills For Graphic Designers

Be it any profession, taking just the required courses and learning technical skills isn’t just enough. However, you also need hands-on experience in your growth and skill enhancement as a graphic designer. It is important to take help of real-world work experience to sharpen your design skills.

The most important skills every graphic designer must have are:

Typography: Typography is an element that can either make or break your design. A professional graphic designer must have know-how of terms like white space, kerning, tracking, leading, line height etc. Understanding on finding the right font and and knowing how to create your own will help designers go a long way in their profession.

Creativity: A professional graphic designer must be able to find out new ideas and designs to incorporate them in their work. A general understanding of artistic elements is required.

Web design: Adding web design portfolio will multiply  the chances of landing into a graphic design job. These days, designers also work as web designers having knowledge in HTML and CSS.

Mastering the software: In order to be proficient, a designer needs to have a high degree knowledge in industry’s standard software programs. Once they get comfortable with the software, it becomes easy to create designs quickly.  

Steps To A Great Graphic Design Career

Familiarize with UI principles: Start by learning some design principles. This way you will be able to start thinking creatively.

Creative UX process: In this phase, designers define idea and solutions are iterated.

Keen eye for design: It is the time to identify strengths and weaknesses in a design. This can be done by researching on different designs. Whenever you come across some pretty design, start saving it in notes. This way, you will have an inspirational collection of designs.

Learning about latest web design tools: Get to know the best design tools and keep yourself updated with the latest features. Sketch, Figma, Adobe XD, and Marvel app are some well known tools.  

Get mentored: Find a design mentor who is ready to help. They will help speed up your learning process. The designer will be able to review the work and give their comments whenever possible.

List Of Courses To Succeed In Graphic Designing Career

Design foundation

This covers the basic building blocks of graphic design. In this subject, you will learn about design software and how to use it for design and illustration.

Digital Illustration

In this subject, you will learn the skills and techniques used for creating storyboards like icons, mascots and thumbnails.

Career development

This course outlines the ways to market yourself and teaches you how to create a resume and manage interviews.

Digital Media Production

This course focuses on multimedia aspects of a design. It is important to learn special effects and authoring software in this course.

Wrapping it Up!

A career in graphic designing has a very good outlook. There are many options that aspiring graphic designers can choose to make their designing career dream a reality. A graphic expert can choose to become a web designer also. One can either acquire bachelor of fine arts degree in graphic designing or avail a certification program based on the field they want to opt for.

Design is an iterative process, therefore designers need to keep working on their ideas. As they progress ahead, they need to create their own workflow to make a tailored design.

Learn to become a graphic designer by opting these skills. It will definitely help you to come up with a rewarding and flexible career on the basis of principles and techniques of design. For more queries, drop us your questions in the comments section below. If you have any other tips, please share with us.