A way to be graphic designer

Can I learn graphic design on my own? That was the first question when I started learning about it. And I am sure that's your question too, isn't it?

It's not only possible to learn graphic design on your own, it is possible to be very good at it too. However it is one thing to be good at graphic design and another to be a graphics designer in terms of making a living.

Step 1. Learn to see

The biggest mistake that I made was jumping into Photoshop too fast. Learning Photoshop does not make you a designer, just like buying paintbrushes does not make you an artist. Start with the foundation.

First, learn how to draw.

• You don’t have to sit in a room with a bunch of other artists trying to draw a naked woman.

• You don’t even have to get that good at drawing. Just learn some basics so you can be comfortable sketching with a pen.

• You only have to do one thing to learn how to draw: get the book "You Can Draw in 30 days" and practice for half an hour every day for a month. I love to make sketches as some of you know

Learn graphic design theory

• Start with the book "Picture This". It’s a story book of Little Red Riding hood, but will teach you the foundations of graphic design at the same time.

• I know this is boring but trust me if you've passion, you would love this book, look once

• Learn about color, typography, and designing with a grid. If you can find a local class to teach the basics of graphic design, take it.

• Go through a few of these tutorials every day. Personally I found them pretty interesting and informative.

Learn some basics in user experience

• There are a lot of books about user experience. Start with these two quick reads that will get you in the right mindset:

• The Design of Everyday Things

• Don’t Make Me Think!

Learn how to write

• Here is a sure sign of a bad designer: their mockups are filled with placeholder text like Lorem Ipsum. A good designer is a good communicator. A good designer thinks through the entire experience, choosing every word carefully. Write for humans. Don’t write in the academic tone you used to make yourself sound smart in school papers.

• Read Made to Stick, one of my favorite books of all time. It will teach you how to suck in your readers.

• Voice and Tone is a website full of gems of good writing examples.

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Step 2. Learn how to use Photoshop and Illustrator

Hooray! Now you’ve got a pretty solid foundation – both visual and UX. You’re ready to learn Photoshop. Actually, I recommend starting with Illustrator first and then moving on to Photoshop after. Illustrator is what designers use to make logos and icons.

Learn Illustrator

• There are a ton of books, online tutorials and in-person classes to learn Illustrator. Choose the style that works best for you. Here are the books I found especially helpful to learn the basics of Illustrator:

• Adobe Illustrator Classroom in a Book – It’s boring, but if you get through at least half of it, you’ll know your way around Illustrator pretty well.

• Vector Basic Training – This book teaches you how to make things in Illustrator that actually look good.

• Now for the fun stuff! Follow these online tutorials and be impressed by what you can make. Here are two my favorites – a logo and a scenic landscape.

Learn Photoshop

• There are a million and one tutorials out there. A lot of them are crap. Fortunately, there are sites with really high quality tutorials. PSDTuts by TutsPlus is one of them.

• Here’s a good photoshop tutorial to make an iPhone app.

• Here’s another good photoshop tutorial to create a website mockup.

• Carve out an hour or two every day to go through some tutorials, and you’ll be impressed by how quickly you progress.

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Step 3. Learn some specialties

Do you want to design mobile apps? Websites? Infographics? Explore them all, and pick and choose the ones you enjoy to get better at them.

Learn Logo Design

• Learn how to make a logo that doesn’t suck: Logo Design Love

• You’ll want to take it a step further than a logo though. Learn to create a consistent brand – from the website to the business cards. Check out this book, Designing Brand Identity.

Learn Mobile App Design

• Start with this tutorial to get your feet wet on visual design for mobile apps.

• Read this short but very comprehensive and well-thought out book on iPhone design: Tapworthy. It will teach you how to make an app that not only looks good but is easy to use.

• Geek out on the apps on your phone. Critique them. What works and what doesn’t?

Learn Web Design

• Read Don’t Make Me Think to learn how to make a website that people find easy to use and navigate.

• Read The Principles of Beautiful Web Design if you want help making a website look good.

• Make a list of the websites you think are beautifully designed. Note what they have in common.

Now for the hairy question of whether you need to know HTML/CSS as a designer: It depends on the job. Knowing it will definitely give you an edge in the job market. Even if you don’t want to be a web developer, it helps to know some basics. That way you know what is possible and what isn’t.

There are so many great resources to learn HTML and CSS:

• My favorite free one is Web Design Tuts.

• My favorite paid one (pretty affordable at $25/month) is Treehouse. If you’re starting from the beginning and want someone to explain things clearly and comprehensively, splurge for Treehouse tutorials.

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Step 4. Build your portfolio

You don’t need to go to a fancy design school to get a job as a designer. But you do need a solid portfolio.

How do you build a portfolio if you’re just starting out for the first time? The good news is you don’t need to work on real projects with real clients to build a portfolio. Make up your own side projects. Here are a few ideas:

• Design silly ideas for t-shirts.

• Find poorly designed websites and redesign them.

• Got an idea for an iPhone app? Mock it up.

• Join a team at Startup Weekend and be a designer on a weekend project.

• Enter a 99 designs contest to practice designing to a brief.

• Do the graphic design exercises in the Creative Workshop book.

• Find a local nonprofit and offer to design for free.

Resist the temptation to include every thing you’ve ever designed in your portfolio. This is a place for your strongest work only.

Steal, steal, steal at first. Don’t worry about being original – that will come later, once you are more comfortable with your craft. When you learn a musical instrument, you learn how to play other people’s songs before composing your own. Same goes for design. Steal like an artist.

Then the final step would find a job or internship as graphic designer. Unlike others, it requires more practice than to be good at. More people from many different backgrounds are giving shot at this. You should give it a try, maybe there a graphic designer is lurking in your mind.

Be Positive😃 And Stay Amazing 😎

If you want give suggestion or what should be our next topic please write it down in comment box. Always excited for response. Thank you:)