Hello and welcome to this beginner's guide series to graphic design.
From what graphic design is, skills to be a graphic designer, design theory, education you need,
equipment you need to the graphic design portfolio and interview advice.
This series is for anyone at any level.
So if you're interested in graphic design and considering becoming a graphic designer
join me as I discuss a series of graphic design topics.
So you're thinking about getting into graphic design and
you're wondering how to begin. In this video I'm going to discuss and suggest a
few things you can do to help you get started. To get started I would suggest
you undertake six key steps and I would recommend you do them in the following order.
Step one: Learn research, Step two: Collect, Step three: Be inspired,
Step four: Practice, Step five: Seek education
and Step six: Apply your skills.
Now these steps can be taken at any stage in your life if young
still in school and looking to get into graphic design you can follow these steps.
If you're older perhaps you're thinking of a career change
you can also follow these steps. In this video I'm going to talk about step four: Practice.
So as you expose yourself to as much creativity as you can.
Next it will be time to start to practice and nurture your skills. First I
would strongly recommend you practice your drawing. This is the fundamental
skill in any creative career. Drawing is the basic skill of expression and
communication. Drawing is the essence of design. If you can bring your thoughts
and ideas from your mind and project them onto paper you can start to
practice the design process. If you can nurture your skill in drawing it's really
going to help you in future. So get a sketch pad or layout pad and start
sketching. Take it everywhere you can and be spontaneous. Consider using mixed media
use pencils, pens, crayons, marker pens or paint. For this I would recommend
a broad range of subject matter. Observation and still life drawing:
Draw a bowl of fruit. Draw your pet. Draw a portrait of a friend. Draw the tree a
flower in your garden. I recommend this as it will help build your expressive
Freestyle drawing skills. Copy what you see.
Draw your favorite comic book character. Find a building or picture of a building
and draw it.
Pick a typeface you like type out your name and draw your name in that font.
This will help build your technical drawing skills. So drawing is something
you can be practicing all the time. I have been practicing graphic design now
for over 10 years and I still try and draw as much as I can. So next I would
recommend you begin practicing your graphic design.
Once you're consciously learning from creativity your observing, your reading
creative books, you're collecting things you like, you're seeking inspiration and
you're practicing your drawing,
it's time to put what you have learned into practice and have a go at a small
design exercise. Now if you're a complete beginner to design I recommend you start
with a very simple and fun exercise to get you started.
So for this I would recommend you set yourself a mini brief. Now this could be
anything but for this video I'll suggest an example. If you'd like to take a
closer look at this mini brief you can find it in the downloadable PDF document
that accompanies this series. Link is in the description. So think of a local
coffee shop you like or make one up. 1. Design or redesign a logo for that
coffee shop. 2. Define some colours, a choice of fonts and create a theme, a
brand to go with your logo. 3. Take that brand and design a poster to
promote the coffee shop and include the logo. 4. Take the poster design which
should include your brand elements and design a menu for their coffee list.
So three things there. Now whatever you brief before you even think about
using a computer. First do your research, Seek your inspiration
and sketch your ideas on paper first. Do not focus on one idea. Sketch as many
various compositions as you can of the same idea. Once you have at least three
or four options of any idea.
Only then move onto the computer. So the next thing I would recommend you do is:
Practice your software skills. Once you have sketched out your design and you
know roughly what you want to do you can start to practice using software tools
to bring your design to life. For this I would recommend you use Adobe Photoshop,
Illustrator or InDesign. These are the key design programs to use. Learning these
software tools can take a while so take your time and enjoy it.
Stick with it and soon you'll get the hang of it. So that is one mini brief
idea I would recommend to practice your design process. Now to help you practice
your software skills further I would recommend you undertake an imitation
project. Find a post that you really liked or magazine article and attempt to
copy it on the computer. Study everything about it and see the creative decisions
the designer made. Try to imitate the design on the computer. You will not only
be practicing your software skills but learning about design principles.
Now another way to practice would be to undertake online briefs. Today there are
lots of websites that small businesses will go to to find designers from all
around the world to do various creative briefs. Now these sites do not require
any particular design qualifications. Here it is all about your portfolio.
You can subscribe to these, showcase your work, specify your rate and be in with
the chance to be selected. If selected this could be a good way to practice on
some small projects.
Well I hope you enjoyed this video If you did hit the like button on my facebook page.
If you would like to see more videos like this in future hit the subscribe button
and you can also follow me on twitter at TastyTuts.
So in next video I'm going to talk about the next step,
step 5 and talk about how you can build on top of your
foundation skills and seek education.
So see in the next video!