How to Become a Graphic Designer
Graphic design is very rewarding — and very competitive. You can choose from different types of graphic design and plenty of sub-fields of design.
The first step to become a graphic designer is to decide which design interests you the most. For instance, some people are employed in the field of animation as creators of cartoon script. Others designers create visual story lines for video games.
Another area of graphic design is developing greeting card and stationary templates. This includes creating visual arts for e-cards and website backgrounds. It can also include designing banners and logos, but this is more commercial design.
Commercial designing provides the most employment opportunity. This work involves creating a variety of different types of promotional multimedia productions.
For instance, a television commercial may include graphics and animation, as well as a business logo. Likewise, an Internet ad might include sound, animation, and logo art.
Some commercial graphic designers specialize in one area of graphic design. However, most designers work different design projects to gain experience. They create different advertisement in commercial graphic design, including the following: logo design, web development, brochure creation, banner creation, sign making, and letter design. These may include either two-dimensional or three-dimensional images.
If you know what graphic design interests you, then you are ready for the next step: training. You can teach yourself and practice on your own via website tools, library resources, and online training. However, you may benefit from online and offline accredited training.
No matter how much training you have, you also need practice. Perhaps you can accept a few lower-paying jobs to gain experience; you can then highlight this work on your resume. Furthermore, you might consider completing design jobs for local non-profit groups or churches.
Once you have completed training, you will need to rate your skills as a designer. If you have a natural eye for design and you have great samples, then you can start with these.
You can find free self-assessment tools on the web to determine if you can succeed as a graphic designer. These assessments will help you find more about your strengths in design.
When you feel confident enough that you can succeed as a designer, then plan your success. Create a list of places that are hiring full-time design staff, or create your own business plan if you are deciding to freelance.
No matter where you are in the process of training, you should have the best desktop publishing software. Although you may have a natural eye for graphic art, it will take time to learn how to masterfully use certain design programs.
If you have the best quality software, you are best suited to make a living as a freelance designer. Consider this as one of your supply costs written into your business plan.
Recommended types of graphic design programs include those created by Adobe, Coral Ventura, Microsoft Office Publisher, and Quarxtplus. Serif PagePlus is also a very helpful program.
You can also obtain specific publishing programs for creating projects, such as greeting cards, stationary, calendars, or other gift items. Some of these include Hallmark Card Studio, American Greetings Creatacard, and others.
You may not have hundreds — or even thousands — of dollars to spend up front on software. If you are still in the beginning stages of using computer software, then you will want to try some before you buy the full version.
You can find some versions of Serif PagePlus for Windows for free. These are usually the older versions, but they will help beginning designers perform different design tasks.
Other types of free design software include Scribus Desktop Publishing and Open Office. These together can help you complete a different types of design tasks.
About the Author
Visit Brian Scott’s website,
http://www.FastCashDesign.com
and learn about
freelance graphic design
and how to
make money as a graphic designer
.
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