So, you want to become a graphic designer? That realization is a great first step. Now, we want to teach you how to become a graphic designer and make your way into a career in design. There are several ways of doing this and there are lots of different things to learn along the way. You may be starting from scratch, fresh out of school or college, or you may be a few years deep into another career. If you follow these steps then you’ll be well on your way to achieving your dream and becoming a graphic designer. What Are Graphic Designers? We’ll start off your journey to becoming a graphic designer with a little about who and what are graphic designers. First off, who. You may have a picture in your head of who a graphic designer is and what they look like. Though forget the stereotypes and the clichés, a graphic designer can be anyone and anyone can be a graphic designer. The design industry is full of people from all walks of life. Okay, that’s all good. But what is a graphic designer? That’s what you really need to know to become one. We define graphic design as effective visual communication of an idea or concept. This means that, first and foremost, graphic designers are visual communicators. In other words, in order to become a graphic designer, you should be able to take information and turn it into something visual or graphic. To break this down further, the information usually comes in the form of a brief from a client and something visual or graphic can be many things — we’ll break some of these down further now. As we said before, all graphic designers are visual communicators but graphic designers can also be a huge number of different things! Designers are responsible for creating so many things you see and use on a daily basis: branding, adverts, apps, magazines, packaging, logos, books, maps, and websites. We could go on for a lot longer but we think you get the picture. In short, graphic designers are visual communicators that create things that make our lives easier in many different ways. Why Becoming One Is A Good Idea You’ve got this far so you must still want to become a graphic designer after reading what they are and what they do. Now, we want to break down why becoming a graphic designer is a good idea and what you stand to gain from your new career. Firstly, it’s the people. No matter where you work as a graphic designer, you’ll work with some amazing, creative people. Whether in a studio or in-house, you’re guaranteed to meet a new family as soon as you start working. In addition to this, as a graphic designer, you’re not just limited to being a graphic designer. You could be a UX or UI designer, an artwork, a motion designer, or a concept artist. You’re not just limited to those though, here are some more jobs you can do as a creative graphic designer. Don’t make this feel like you can’t work as just a graphic designer though — obviously, a majority of graphic designers do just stick to their job title! But even this gives you loads of flexibility in your career. Graphic designers can work in a design studio or agency, they can work in-house for a company (everyone from insurance companies to ad agencies have in-house designers) or they can freelance and work for themselves! Another fantastic bonus of being a graphic designer is that your work can take you anywhere — after all, design is a universal language. If you’re looking at becoming a graphic designer, you’ll also be looking at a well-paid career ahead of you. We’ll take the starting salaries in Shillington’s campus cities as an example. According to Payscale and Indeed in June 2019, in New York City, the average salary for junior graphic designers is $43,317. In London, according to Indeed in June 2019, the average salary for junior graphic designers is £22,209, and in Manchester, the average salary for junior graphic designers is £18,905. Finally, according to Indeed in June 2019, in Australia, the average salary for junior designers is $48,376. Though junior is just the start and your salary is only going to go up from there. For a full breakdown and to see how your salary would progress as a graphic designer, check out our Complete Graphic Designer Salary Breakdown. This brings us nicely on to our next point: growth. As a graphic designer, you’ll quickly find yourself progressing up through the workplace. If you’re working in a studio, you would usually start as a junior designer before working your way up to the mid-weight designer, senior designer, and finally creative director. Similarly in-house, you can progress from being a junior designer to a design manager in just a couple of years. Finally, becoming a graphic designer gives you the opportunity to be creative day in, day out and create incredible work that you can be proud to call yours for the rest of your career. How To Become A Graphic Designer You’ve now read what it means to be a graphic designer and the amazing benefits that a career in graphic design can offer you. Now let’s really get down to brass tacks and discuss how to become a graphic designer. Specifically, what you’ll need to know and what you’ll need to do. Step 1: Be Creative The first step is an easy one and, if you’ve already got this far, chances are you’ve already achieved it! The first step to becoming a graphic designer is simply to be creative. Graphic design is a creative career so you’ll need to have creativity by the bucket loads to be a graphic designer. Some people are born with a creative streak. Others are developed as they get older. Some don’t even find theirs until they’ve been a career for years! Though it doesn’t matter when you found your creativity, if you’ve got it then you can be a graphic designer. Step 2: Become a Problem Solver As well as being creative, graphic designers need to be problem solvers. A large part of being a graphic designer is thinking of creative, graphic solutions to “problems” given to you by clients. Of course, graphic design isn’t the only career where you need to solve problems so you may already be used to it. It may also just come naturally to you! No one is expecting to walk into your job the first day as a graphic designer and be able to answer all the questions but it’s definitely worth knowing how to tackle a problem head-on. To become someone who doesn’t panic when faced with a problem all you need to do is practice, practice, and more practice! This can be in your day-to-day life. For example, open your fridge and see what’s in there. Rather than going to the shop to buy something else, solve the problem by cooking something that uses the ingredients you already have. Keep doing things like this every day and being a problem solver will become second nature to you. Now apply that to a graphic design scenario — and practice some more. Make up your own client briefs or use a dedicated service such as Briefbox and just start brainstorming some potential solutions. You don’t even have to design anything — just jot some ideas down on paper and you’ll begin to understand how to solve problems and become a problem-solving graphic designer. Step 3: Get the Right Tools… Like any other profession, to become a graphic designer you need the right tools to get the job done. So before embarking on your journey to becoming a designer, it’s essential that you get a hold of the tools you need. These tools are both actual tools and apps and programs on your computer. The actual tools? Well, a designer’s best friend will be their computer. The industry standard is an Apple Mac, either an iMac or MacBook Pro, so picking up one of these is your best bet. Though, if Windows is your go-to then you should be able to work with that too. Not as essential, but a tablet, a good digital camera (even on a phone) and a drawing tablet such as a Wacom will also go a long way if you want to become a graphic designer. Of course, a notebook or sketchbook and your favorite pen or pencil will also come in very handy. Especially for quick tasks such as thumbnailing or brainstorming. And the apps and programs? Well as soon as you get your computer, then you should immediately install the Adobe Creative Cloud, namely InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator. These are three programs that you will get to know like the back of your hand as you maneuver your way through the design world. They’re not the only programs with the Adobe Creative Cloud but they are the ones you will need to master if you are going to become a graphic designer. When recruitment ads demand proficiency in a long list of design tools, it can be difficult to read between the lines. After all, there probably isn’t a designer alive who’s mastered every single aspect of Photoshop. What if you’re not so hot on Illustrator but you’re a whizz at Figma? What qualifies as an ‘intermediate’ skill level anyway? In this spirit, Shillington teaches full-time students and part-time students the industry-standard design software — Adobe Suite InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop — as well as the digital prototyping app Figma. You’ll start from square one with software demonstrations, sharing best practices, tips, and shortcuts, and teachers are available for one-on-one technical guidance. But more importantly, by moving quickly into real-world briefs, you’ll learn how to get the software to do what you need it to do; just like working designers do in the real world. A big part of your new career is also likely to be digital design so you’ll need to get yourself a digital design app too. At Shillington, we teach and recommend Figma. Figma allows you to create, prototype, collaborate and bring your all digital ideas to life! On top of these projects you’ll really be dealing with, there are likewise some other applications and projects that will assist you with filling in as a visual architect. Throughout the course of recent months, a ton of work environments have changed to utilizing Slack and Zoom to keep associated and work gainfully. Both of these are most certainly worth downloading onto your PC before you become a visual creator so they’re prepared for you when you want them. Stage 4: … And Learn to Use Them! It’s generally great having every one of the instruments and projects you want to turn into a visual architect however you would rather not fall into the snare of “all the stuff and no thought”. You really need to figure out how to utilize these devices in the event that you are genuinely keen on turning into a visual originator. We’re certain you’re as of now capable of utilizing a pen and a sketchbook so we will skirt past that one. There are self-educated originators out there who have realized every one of the abilities for turning into a visual fashioner through web-based discussions, YouTube, and simply rehearsing. However, we by and by thinking the most effective way of turning into a visual planner is to take a course. There are a few unique choices for courses you should take, however, Shillington’s inventive visual originator course will show you how to turn into a visual architect in only three months full-time or nine months low maintenance. You can likewise now take the Shillington low maintenance course on the web so you can turn into a visual fashioner from the solace of your own couch. At Shillington, you’ll not just get familiar with the projects we referenced above, Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Sketch, yet additionally, all the information, hypothesis, and abilities that you’ll have to turn into a visual architect. Our alumni leave Shillington as visual planners with an abundance of information prepared to set out on another profession. Stage 5: Understand the Fundamentals One thing we in all actuality do educate on the Shillington course is the essentials of the plan. Above all, the plan standards. Regardless of where how you decide to turn into a visual originator, you will not get far without these. These standards are arrangement, redundancy, difference, ordered progression, and equilibrium they’re pivotal in making any effective plan. In this manner, they’re an essential piece of turning into a visual originator. For a smidgen of a decisive advantage over your excursion to turning into a visual originator, let us rapidly separate what every one method or what it means for a plan: Arrangement > makes a more honed, more bound together plan. Reiteration > fortifies a plan by integrating with any case separate parts and, thus, making affiliations. Contrast > is the best method for making accentuation and contact with your plan. Progressive system > makes the association. Balance > gives security and construction to a plan, either through evenness or strain of components. These are just a few fast definitions however for an undeniably more top to bottom investigation of the Design Principles, look at this article. Consider this a fast little manual to help you while heading to turning into a visual creator. However, really understanding the essentials takes significantly something other than knowing what every one method. Any visual architect deserving at least moderate respect ought to have the option to try these in every single plan they make. The Design Principles cooperate to make a plan that is both outwardly engaging and appropriately organized. We can’t pressure that they are so critical to dominating to be a visual fashioner. Stage 6: Be a Bookworm An extraordinary approach to assisting yourself with turning into a visual creator is to get your head in a decent book. Clearly, we’re not discussing the most recent novel or a youth top pick, we’re discussing the many, many astonishing visual depiction books out there. As we said, there’s a ton of visual communication books out there so there are not many that we prescribe for various things to assist you with arranging the good product from the waste. First up, history. Any visual fashioner who is working currently should realize what preceded them. There are two significant volumes to find a workable pace on Design History: Jen Muller’s unimaginable History of Graphic Design Volume 1 and Volume 2. The principal covers the years 1890–1959 and the second 1960 as far as possible up to the present moment. One of our cherished pieces of the visual depiction is typography-and obviously authors concur as there’s a ton of books committed to it. Two of our top choices are Why Fonts Matter by Sarah Hyndman and The Visual History of Type by Paul McNeil. The previous opens up the science and the workmanship behind how textual styles impact you and clarify why certain textual styles or styles summon specific encounters and affiliations. In the interim, Paul McNeil’s book is a thorough review of the significant typefaces created since the coming of printing. Stage 7: Build a Portfolio Possibly the main advance in the excursion to turning into a visual originator: getting yourself a portfolio. You might inquire “In the event that I have every one of the abilities, instruments, and skill, for what reason do I want a portfolio?” To flaunt your work obviously! A portfolio is a method for showing your best work and showing precisely what you can do. A portfolio will be fundamental for turning into a visual creator as it’s eventually what you will use to find a new line of work. This goes for working in a studio, in-house, or outsourcing. The odds are good that you’ll have to send a consolidated form of your portfolio when you initially apply and afterward take your full portfolio along to a meeting. Nobody is truly going to give you a task as a visual creator except if you can show them some amazing work in a portfolio. However, it’s not just with regards to a visually beautiful sight. You’re not a craftsman, you’re an originator. The thing that matters is that plan tackles an issue. Thus bosses will likewise need to see something of how you moved toward the issue, and how your plan settled it. For consultants, you will have to send your portfolio over to potential clients while pitching for occupations. They are the principal device in any visual originator’s collection. Making your portfolio may appear to be an overwhelming undertaking. It’s difficult to choose what to place in and surprisingly harder to choose what to cut, yet here are two or three-pointers to get you rolling in the correct heading: In the event that you need your portfolio to be all that it tends to be, you should be a piece heartless. That implies being extreme with yourself and chopping it down to 10–12 top-quality pieces that feature your best work to have the most effect. Tailor your portfolio to the sort of work you need a greater amount of. There’s no reason for placing something in that doesn’t address you as an originator or assist you with landing the visual communication position you need. A portfolio is an extraordinary method for flaunting who you are personally! Try not to exaggerate yet ensure there’s a portion of your character in there in the manner in which it’s introduced, your own marking, how you compose, and so forth It most certainly assists with having some private work (contest sections, side tasks, and so on) in there too-to add to your own character and to introduce some work or procedures that probably won’t be somewhere else in your portfolio. Ensure you exhibit some cycle work in there as well! There’s no point simply showing the completed item without showing how you arrived in any case. It’s an incredible approach to exhibiting to a potential boss what you can really do. At Shillington, you’ll rise out of your visual computerization course with an industry-level portfolio highlighting an assortment of activities and styles, including advanced, print, bundling, UX/UI, marking, efforts and the sky is the limit from there. That portfolio will plainly show how your thought advanced into your last plan, in addition to you’ll have fostered the abilities to develop this smoothly during your meeting. Ideally, those tips will assist you with making a beginning on your portfolio. For more accommodating tips and for some unimaginable portfolio motivation from a portion of the world’s most prominent visual architects, look at this article. Whenever you have your portfolio cleaned and all set, you’ll be well headed to turning into a visual fashioner. Presently there’s just a single more, significant last advance to take… Stage 8: Find a Job You have this far, however, our last advance is possibly the most overwhelming advance in turning into a visual fashioner: getting a visual computerization line of work. However, it must be said, it tends to be a seriously fun interaction too. It’s a thrilling method glancing through the scope of astounding plan studios and different organizations who are recruiting and pondering where you need to work! The initial step inside this progression is to get a new line of work to apply for. Fortunately, there are a few astonishing internet-based positions sheets devoted to visual communication occupations and different positions inside the inventive enterprises. A decent spot to begin is our own special Shillington Jobs Board here on the blog. However, there are a lot of different spots to look at. Investigate our summary of 20 of the best plan occupations sheets out there for occupations across the world. Whenever you’ve got a new line of work that you like the vibe of, it’s an ideal opportunity to apply. In general, a plan employment form will expect you to present your portfolio (let you know it’s fundamental!), a CV, and an introductory letter. Your CV should diagram all your experience and your abilities. Make sure to incorporate all that you were doing before you turned into a visual planner, these different encounters and abilities all amount to you being a more adjusted worker. Your introductory letter acts equivalent to some other illustrating why you consider you would be the ideal qualified for the job. One truly significant interesting point to ensure you are fitting every application to the gig and friends it is for. Don’t simply reorder. Enrollment specialists will see directly through it assuming you do! We’ve heard accounts of individuals sending in introductory letters with some unacceptable organization on them. Fitting to each organization will likewise cause it to appear to be far more charming and expert making you stand apart from the group. At last, there’s the meeting. You’ve had interviews for occupations before yet a visual depiction meeting can be somewhat unique. You might be approached to talk through a portion of the activities in your portfolio. Or then again, a questioner might request that you pick a task or two from your portfolio and walk them through the cycle. Along these lines, be ready to have the option to discuss your work, its course, and why you thought it was fruitful. Clearly, there will be different inquiries too-for a secure manual for the kinds of inquiries you will get and how to respond to them, head over to this blog entry. In spite of this, when you become a visual planner then, at that point, you’re not restricted to being a visual architect. Obviously, we don’t mean to sort out some way to turn into a visual architect and head off to be a financier. There are heaps of other inventive positions those visual originators can do, particularly assuming you’re proceeding to acquire new abilities while you’re working. How Long Will This Process Take? You’re ideally chomping at the bit to go now and figuring how might it take for me to turn into a visual architect? All things considered, how long is a piece of string? The time taken to turn into a visual planner will change contingent upon which course you decide to take to arrive and how much time and exertion you put into it. For example, on the off chance that you pick a course like the one we offer at Shillington you can turn into a visual fashioner in just three months full-time. With more than 20 years in the game, we’re prepared to outfit maturing originators with all that they need to procure a visual computerization endorsement, make a portfolio, and become visual fashioners. For additional assets on your review choices, read through this asset on various approaches to the learning plan. On the off chance that three months full-time isn’t your favorite, we additionally offer a multi-month low maintenance course, which you can do nearby or on the web. 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