Learning Graphic Design - A Forum Post Response
July 25th, 2008
Web Design
The Question
I have good experience with Photoshop, Illustrator and HTML. But I don’t know much more about graphic design. I found several tutorial about fundamental of graphic design like - color, shape, type, balance, harmony etc..
But I want to learn the complete graphic design, but don’t want to go to a design school. Is there any tutorial or Open Course Ware for graphic design? I also purchased some books but none of them are practical.
I found one video tutorial here, unfortunately it is German.
Please help what to do?
Pretty standard question. The age old “help I’m good with programs but not with design”. XLCowboy from Studio Gecko comes through with this response:
The Answer
Just a few quick things (I’m a designer myself, and an illustrator, and my dad’s an architect, and my wife’s an animator… as you can see… good company).
1) Knowledge of Photoshop or other software techniques does not make you a designer. Techniques are simply tools. A talented sculptor does not need the best tools. Having the best tools simply helps the sculptor.
2) There are no “rules” in design. There are only problems and solutions. How you go about finding the latter to solve the former is up to you.
3) Schools teach you techniques, give you ideas, and help inform you of approaches, beliefs, and theories. You can learn all this yourself if you’re passionate about what you do.
4) Design isn’t something you can “learn” like a skill set (e.g. plumbing). It’s like music. Either you have it or you don’t (as American Idol has showed all of us). If you have no passion for it, you will never succeed.
Basically - if you’re doing it for the money or the fame, prepare to fail, badly. No successful artist / designer ever worked for financial stability. They did it out of love / passion for it. The money just came later.
5) The competition is very, very, very fierce. I’ve heard lots of sob stories about “wannabe” artists giving up because they couldn’t match the current level of design a good number of people are producing. Know what you’re getting into first, because you realize very early on that it’s not going to be a walk in the park.
Programs are merely tools, schooling helps and either ya got it or ya don’t. Awesome response.
July 26th, 2008 at 7:30 am
My response would be to send them to have a look at Creative Curio, a blog which has comprehensively covered the principles of design in a series of posts over several months - and because it’s a blog, it’s completely free.
November 19th, 2008 at 9:59 am
I would always recommend learning Photoshop to anyone who is trying to learn design. I love the free-form pen tool - it should be the first tool to learn, I think. Also, the new Adobe Dreamweaver (CS3 & 4) now has support for the Spry framework built into it. I tmakes it so much easier to add cool widgets and effects for them now (tabbed panels, menu bars, and visual effects). I always incorporate Dreamweaver into my design process becuase I like working with layers. Thanks! And good luck!
November 20th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Hmm well I think if you are really serious about ‘wanting’ to learn than you need to invest in proper training. Going to school is the serious thing to do especially in your case. As Kevin said, just because you know photoshop certainly doesn’t mean you know design.
Good designs have spent time and alot of money learning about colour relationships, different mediums for design, printing process, workflow just to name a few, without the push a school will give you, you will strugle to learn it all.
That said if you are still adamant you don’t want to go to school (even via coorespondence) then take a trip to your local library its a good place to pick up some colour theory books (and don’t think you don’t need to know it) it doesn’t matter how old they are the principles still ring true.
Get some books, subscribe to feeds from blogs that talk about design. Signup for some services ‘before and after’ is a fantastic magazine for designers. Lynda.com has some invaluable resources http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=558 to start you off.
Lastly get out there and ask for help. Many design studios will take work experience students, especially if you say you are willing to work for free. The same goes for commerical printers, go and see them see how the printing process work, it will help your work out immencely, that’s how I started out, and best they could see I took the time to understand the process they now flick work my way daily!
If you are serious, and I mean serious as Kevin was saying then expect to invest some significant time into learning.
Best of luck!