Beginning as a Graphic Designer

Plug & Play

Think you are a Graphic Designer? Think you know Photoshop? Have you even started dabbling in those really cool stencil effects Illustrator can give your photographs for Myspace?  The fact is; so do a lot of people. The saturation of people calling themselves designers is vast, and though it is no fault of their own, it is something that can hurt the discipline as a whole.

Myself as an example, I have spent many years developing my skills in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, all the while calling myself a Graphic Artist. It is true that I could combine photographs and manipulate techniques that could create beautiful drawings and digital paintings. But to all beginners, this is not what makes a person a Graphic Designer.

Graphic Design is the art of communicating ideas. You are bringing ideas into form. The most important thing you do and know is not going to happen on your computer. In fact, the nature of designing has nothing to do with what you can do on your pirated copy of Photoshop Elements. 

Filter < Render < Clouds..and Dream!

From a perspective of meeting your goals, by all means call yourself whatever you want! Don’t get your hopes down of being one of the greats. I know designers with “Owner/Creative Director” on their business card who still think Typography is a test women get at the doctor’s office. 

Be who you know you are and make the rest happen with hard work. This is largely a benefit of visualization. Call it confidence, call it BSing, call it dillusions, but live as if you are the successful freelancer guru you want to be. There you go-visualize it. You’re so cute with your little Wacom Tablet pen in hand, I could just pinch your cheek. But I won’t, you’re filthy. I doubt you find time to shower with your hours hunched over the computer trying to figure out Bézier curves. 

It is my hope that any young artist that believes in their heart that they belong pursuing this life ignores their parents, ignores their professors, and ignores the economy telling you Ramen Noodles and rejection are forever in your future. This field is indeed a long and arduous road, with becoming one of the top handfuls of professional designers a very difficult task. Doesn’t that excite you?

My words in this matter for any young artist are that there is truth in both. If you think you will be easily deterred, get out now. If you think you can learn a few application hotkeys and think you can Filter and Plug-in plow your way to success then, please get out now. Please go home and trash that Macbook Pro your grandma bought so you’d feel more creative. Please stop sifting through stock photography on DeviantArt.com for hours, and for the love of Buddha please stop making it harder for the rest of us to get respect.

A Design of the Times

Do you find it difficult to be taken seriously as designer? Does it seem like there is always someone out there working cheaper and doing a worse job? Do you look at the signage and websites of your local businesses and want to put a pencil through your eyelid? Well don’t do that, you’ll never afford eye surgery as a freelancer and the next time your mom’s, sister’s, aunt’s dog wants you to do a business card design for their neighbor you won’t have a pencil on hand to take down the number. Just watch, it happens.

These realities are sometimes frustrating, constantly looming aspects of the field. If this isn’t something you have noticed yet don’t worry, if you work hard enough you certainly will soon. If not, you are probably one of the millions of designers mashing up pretty pictures for a pay check.

Be concerned not for your own selfishness, but for the community you are entering. It is very difficult for a graphic designer to find quality clients, lasting work, competitive pay, and most of all value for their time. The more people attempting to operate in this field means that the craft itself is in constant jeopardy of being trivialized.

A client has no need to take their business to an experienced, professional designer if they see there is always someone else offering the service for cheaper. What results is everyone losing. Hard working designers that took the time to learn each nuance of the game and properly lay out space will find it harder to find the pay that their time, talent, and background is worth. The client loses because the product they settled for is unsatisfactory and they become more disillusioned with graphic design as a profession; ultimately asking themselves why they wasted the time in the first place.

The climate for artists is a constant weariness that the talents they work so hard to develop are not valued and understood by a client. It is in our client’s best interest to help educate them on the numerous benefits of a well designed document, logo, website, or ad. The differences between someone who simply knows some tricks of their toolbar to create a product, and someone who takes the time to apply proper color theory, negative space, and typography to name a few are vast. Do yourself a favor in fast tracking your path to becoming a professional designer: work hard to become one of the paragons of our community; not a pariah.   

Latest & Greatest

There is a wealth of information on the web that will provide excellent tips and get those creative juices flowing. If you follow their advice and just read, read, read, trust me it will sink in. Eventually within a week you will wonder how you ever thought adding drop shadows and gradients to your text was ever a good idea.

Laugh at yourself, and join the club. You might just be better than you think.

Finally, my top picks to start reading for any beginning graphic designer!

6 Must Read Graphic Design Articles:

1.     15 Signs You’re A Bad Graphic Designer

Jacob Cass executes an excellent breakdown of common faults of less experienced designers. See if you break these “rules” and have a good laugh.

The real point to take away from this type of post is that if you do not have the background yet for quality, disciplined design you will often gravitate toward these bad habits. Everyone loves a drop shadow, right? It makes text and images look instantly more worked on. Using bevels or any of the filters and plug-ins that Photoshop offers can be helpful at times, in very small doses. You are best off using plug-ins in subtle ways and combine them with another technique you know will bring your design together and propel its visual attractiveness. Learning this difference comes with experience and knowledge. If you want to play things safe, just don’t use them. Without them, see where your designs go. You may find that you are forced to begin creating things in more difficult and professional ways.

2.       Why logo design does not cost $5.00

I want to point out another excellent post at Just Creative Design. This is one that stood out to me as a paradigm shifting entry. The examples of bad design here make me smile, remembering not long ago when I was just starting off. There is a point where we all began and the idea of just drawing whatever we could manage, slapping a gradient on with some text, and calling it graphic design was all the glee we could hope for.   The sooner you change from this way of thinking, the sooner you will be helping your own career drastically.

Pay attention, and take pride in the work you start creating by following this knowledge.

3.       3 Questions for 3 Top Design Bloggers & Productivity Tips

Learn from the best. Your habits and surroundings are often not condusive to success. If you are just starting out and you work in low lit areas, wake up late, and keep a messy home “office” how do you expect to be successful? Breath, eat, and porcelain your graphic design needs!

If there is anyone to learn the habits and practices of a successful designer from, it is the bloggers helping everyone get up to speed. Get interested in what popular bloggers like Jacob Cass, Brian Yerkes, Chris Spooner, or David Airey have to say.

4.       Cheat Sheets for Front-end Web Developers

Fast track your interests in graphic design and web creation! Become well rounded and soak in all the grimy little tips and tricks you can muster. Soak it in like a moldy sponge. The more skilled with a range of programs and ways to market yourself that you are, the more chance you have of making it.

5.       Logo Design Project Step by Step Walkthrough

Read and learn from the design processes of more experienced designers. In just a few minutes you will be astonished at the steps taken to find a creative way to communicate all kinds of ideas through text and imagery.

6.        Supplementing Your Freelance Career With Blogging and Expert Content

Freelance Switch discusses being well rounded to offer many services and stay employed. If you are beginning or even an advanced designer you may not have much to talk about or help others with in a professional context. However, we are all constantly learning lessons and if for nothing other than your own benefit, you too should blog.

Blogging can help gauge your development. Beginning posts are going to have a stark contrast from later posts. Your experiences may be able to help someone else struggling with the same things you are.