- Why The Journey Of Becoming A Graphic Designer Is Never Easy
- Why Everyone Can Benefit From These Tips
- The Top Tips
When you’re first starting with becoming a graphic designer, the journey isn’t easy. It’s a long process filled with trial and error, and at times you can feel a little lost. Although the internet is filled with helpful free tutorials and articles to get you through the basics, it can be difficult to recognize the difference between helpful advice and useless information.
That’s why we decided to sort through the hundreds of articles and find the information for beginners that actually matter. The tips that all graphic designers wish they knew before they started, the information that could have saved them hours of work. These tips are from real-life designers that have figured out an efficient method for completing graphic design projects.
These tips can help all graphic designers, whether beginners or professionals, but they’ll be most beneficial to those just starting on their journey of design. These can help guide you with sparking creativity, reaching the professional level faster, and efficient short cuts to eliminating the unnecessary time spent on projects. Here is our list of top must-haves for all beginner graphic designers.
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Know Your Software and Know It Well
A lot of graphic designers first starting design put weight on what software they use; they assume that they have to use the best of the best. Although it’s true that if you can afford it an expensive software will certainly help you, it isn’t a requirement. You’ll find that you can accomplish the same result with free software that you can with Adobe. As you grow in the field you may want to upgrade, but when first starting out don’t worry too much about what software you use, just focus on knowing the software that you do use.
The number one mistake that many graphic designers make is not taking the time to familiarize themselves with their software. Software like Adobe Creative Cloud, Procreate, and Canva are specifically developed to be used efficiently; they’re created for designers, with shortcuts made that will make your job easier. You want to take the time to fully understand all the in’s and out’s of the software that you’re using. You’re going to be working intimately with this software daily, so make sure that you’re familiar with it and have done your research.
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Don’t Get Discouraged By Creative Block
There’ll come a day in your career when you sit down to do work and your mind can’t think past opening your computer. It’s like trying to barge past a wall without any hope of reaching the other side. Creative block isn’t something to be mocked. It happens to the best of us and, to be quite honest, it sucks. Sometimes creative block can last for weeks and it can be discouraging, especially to the beginner graphic designer who was currently on a productive pathway of accomplishing all their work.
It’s important not to give up in discouragement, at least not until you’ve tried every method possible. Sometimes it can be fairly easy to get yourself out of a creative block, well other times it can feel nearly impossible. Start with trying to get yourself inspired; take a look at Pinterest inspiration or listen to some music that usually helps you feel the inspiration or go for a walk outdoors and get some fresh air. Whatever you do, it’s important that you acknowledge that creative block is real and can hinder you. Once you do this, it’s easy to be capable of getting rid of it.
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Keep Your Designs Simple
New graphic designers can tend to feel as if they have to overcompensate or ‘do more’ for their designs. They want to put a bit of everything in their new designs, but sometimes this isn’t necessary. With graphic design, the term that less is more always applies and is one that you should always have in the back of your mind. Try not to let yourself get carried away with your designs and keep them simplistic.
Really work to channel your inner minimalistic side when creating designs. Keep in mind the basics; every element in your design should have a reason for being there. There’s no need to overcomplicate it. Some of the best designs in history have been simple and clean with just a few elements to them.
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The Client Is Never Wrong
When you put your heart and soul into a design and spend hours, sometimes even days, working on it, it can feel like a slap on the face to hear your client criticize it. But the truth, and a hard truth to hear, is that the client is always right. Always. What may, in your eyes, be the greatest design that you’ve made yet, could be everything that your client detests.
When you’re in the middle of something that you genuinely love, it can be easy to forget that you’re getting paid to do it and that you’re doing it to please someone else. Some designers have to go through months of revisions before reaching the final result and others have to completely scratch their design at the request of their client. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but at the end of the day, the opinion of your client is the only opinion that matters.