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The first step on this guide is to understand what is Graphic Design, and the Graphic Design definition is the process of visual communication with the use of typography elements, photography and illustration to solve problems or communicate ideas, but lets make a small exercise, turn around and you will see that everywhere there are design as a logo design of a brand, to a music festival poster and the user interface design of the apps you use in your smartphone.
Graphic Design is the way to communicate using images, text or illustration in a creative way to show the message of the brand in the best way and how we want that people feel the brand and that is actually the work of a Graphic Designer, they need to interpret what the client wants to transmit and show it to people.
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As mentioned Design is everywhere and there are different types of Graphic Design, let’s see some of them
Marketing and Advertising Design is one of the most known graphic design types and that is because publishers need to show their products in the best way to engage with their potential clients and they need Graphic Designers to create graphics to advertise their products.
Marketing and advertising designers are very important because images create more engagement with people and they need to create the graphic to effectively meet the needs of their clients, with the growth of the online business and Digital Marketing Marketing and Advertising designers need to create Social Media graphics, email marketing templates and infographics for brands.
A good Marketing and Advertising Designers needs to know Graphic Design and also they need to have marketing knowledge and know the consumer trends and habits to effectively create a great Ad.
Some examples of Marketing and Advertising Design are these
Environmental design objective is to connect people to the place they are and Environmental Graphic Designers combines their graphic design skills with architectural, interior design, landscape and industrial design to create a unique experience for the visitors who are in that place using elements to indicate people where they are, information messages or telling a story during their visit.
A good Environmental design can create a unique space that tells stories to their visitors an enhance their experience. A Good Graphic designer specialized in environmental design also need to understand architecture to use the architectonical elements to create a unique experience.
Some examples of environmental design
Publication and Print Design is the most common graphic design type as it refers to print media like books, magazines or newspapers traditionally, and Publication or Print Designers usually use traditional elements of art like colour, space and very important use of typography.
But as technology advance and magazines, newspapers and books adapted to modern technologies publication designers also evolve to design on digital platforms that include e-books, email newsletter and online magazines.
Publication and print design examples.
Motion Design maybe can be one of the youngest graphic design types that exist, and first lets introduce what is motion design, Motion design is the creation of digital graphics which create the illusion of motion, and why is the youngest graphic design type, its easy, due to the grow of digital world it open new possibilities to graphic designers as they can create animated gifs, apps, website designs with movement because their designs will not be printed and allows to play with movement.
Motion design examples
Corporate design is used by brand and companies to transmit their philosophy and goals to their customers through visual elements and create a Brand Identity, that is the companies face to communicate about the brand. A Corporate Design is created by graphic design elements as colour, shapes, and images that a brand will use in everything to create a relation between all the graphic elements of the brand to transmit their personality.
A Corporate design or branding includes the logo design of the company and all the elements that the brand will use, like Business Cards or Stationary, and it’s important that all these elements have the same typography and the same brand colours.
Corporate Design examples
Nowadays every brand needs to have a website to exist, and this website needs to transmit their philosophy and convince the customers why they need to choose their product, and web designer use elements as page layout, images and typography to create the perfect interface for customers to navigate through the companies website.
Good web design needs to have a balance between beautiful aesthetic web design and make it easy for customers to navigate through the website and create a Great User Experience.
Web Design examples
Packaging design is the connection with graphic design elements, as structure, colour imagery and typography with the product that you are selling to make it more suitable for marketing purposes.
The packaging first objective is to protect the product inside but it also opens a great door for companies to attract the attention of possible customers with marketing and graphic design, that is why Packaging designer also needs to have knowledge of product marketing tactics to create a memorable packaging.
Packaging Design examples
Now that we already knew some of the graphic design types that exist, let’s talk about how to earn money as a graphic designer, I will mention some of the ways a graphic designer can make money but there are many more.
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The most common way to make money as a graphic designer is to specialize in one or various graphic design types and work for a graphic design agency, marketing agency or a company that needs graphic design elements.
The second way to make money as a graphic designer is related to the previous but this time, you are the graphic design agency, I mean become a Freelance Graphic Designer and working for different clients.
Teach others what you already know, there are plenty of people wanting to learn Graphic Design and how to use the different Graphic Design Programs, so you can teach them by creating Online Courses or YouTube Tutorials and teach them what you already know
Create Digital files that can be templates or mockups and sell them through the different graphic design Marketplaces or you can sell them directly on your website.
Create a graphic design blog where you talk about graphic design topics and monetize it through the many different ways that they are.
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Now let’s talk about the best graphic design software for graphic design and what use can we give to that programmes, it’s clear that all Adobe Suite of software is a Standard for graphic design and all the different types, but let’s see the basic software that Graphic Designers use.
The first graphic design software on this list, is Adobe Illustrator and it is a Vector graphics Editing software, and what this means, a vector graphic use paths defined by start and end point, and as vector graphic don’t use pixels and a specific number of dots, they can be resized and not lose any image quality. That is why Adobe illustrator is the perfect Graphic Design Software to create Logo Design, Illustration and Icon Design.
Adobe Photoshop is an image editing software for photo editing, where you can manipulate, crop, resize and correct colour on digital photography, and this software is very popular for photo editing projects, create poster design and in fact, you can do everything with Adobe Photoshop.
Adobe InDesign is typesetting and publishing software and graphic designers use InDesign to design posters, flyers, brochures, magazines, newspaper, presentations, books and ebooks, and its the perfect graphic design software for Editorial and Print Design.
Adobe After Effects is the perfect graphic design software to create, composite and stylize animations on 2D and 3D, and it’s the perfect programme to create effects and animations for Video, and you can use it to create Video Effects, Animations and Motion Graphics.
Adobe XD is the Adobe Suite Software for UX / UI Design, that helps you designing website, mobile apps and more, and with Adobe XD you can design, prototype and share your project with your client or partners, and this software is used by many User Interface Designers and Web Designers.
Now that we saw what is graphic design, their types, how to make money as a graphic designer and the best Programmes and you are interested in learning graphic design, here I will show you different ways you can learn graphic design.
The first option is studying Graphic Design in college and get graphic design degree, and this option is great because you will have professional graphic design teachers and you will have a direct conversation with them, and they will help you studying Graphic Design.
Here are some of the best graphic design colleges in the world
When we are talking about studying graphic design online, there are two possibilities, the first one is Studying a Online Graphic Design Degree in college, that as the previous option you will have a degree of graphic design, but you can study it from your home and the other option is Graphic Design Courses, the good thing about online courses is that you can choose a huge option for them, and they are faster.
You will find great Graphic Design Courses on
Adobe Illustrator Online Course by Daniel Scott Adobe Certified Instructor is the best course to Graphic Design Beginners to learn The essential elements of Adobe Illustrator, on this 40 lesson 6 hours online course you will learn how to create logo design, business cards, hand drawn illustrations and much more.
This Adobe Illustrator Online Course is the continuation from the before mentioned course, also by Daniel Scott, on this Online Course you will learn more advanced Adobe Illustrator Techniques, with 54 lessons and 8 hours of content you will learn to speed up your productivity and workflow, you will learn advanced anchor point and pent tool tricks, you will master depth and perspective in illustrator and much more
Adobe Photoshop Online Course by Daniel Scott Adobe Certified Instructor where you will learn the basic elements and Techniques of Adobe Photoshop, with 87 lessons and more than 8 hours of content you will learn to mask anything, clear cut images, how to make type interactive, retouch photographs like a professional, and much more.
Advanced Adobe Photoshop Online Course by Daniel Scott Adobe Certified Instructor where you will learn the Advanced elements and Techniques of Adobe Photoshop, with 108 lessons and more than 13 hours of content you will learn to increase your speed on design, create amazing duotones, you will learn how to remove all kinds of objects from images, advanced retouching techniques, you will learn how to edit videos with Adobe Photoshop and much more.
Advanced Adobe InDesign Online Course by Daniel Scott Adobe Certified Instructor where you will learn the essential elements and Techniques of Adobe InDesign, with 77 lessons and more than 6 hours of content you will learn to work with colour, picking your own color palette or using corporate colours, you will learn to choose and use fonts like a professional and much more.
Learn the secrets of Logo Design with the Famous Graphic Designer Aaron Draplin, on this Logo Design Online Course you will learn to refine your work with shapes, type and color and you will learn basic Logo Desing and Branding Skills with 10 lessons and 1 hour of content.
This Adobe Illustrator Course is one of the best-selling Courses from Udemy, and the teacher is one of the Top 10 Adobe Instructors on the World.
This Graphic Design Course is focused for all type of users, from graphic design Beginners to already Adobe Illustrator Users, with this online course you will take your Illustrator skills to the next level.
This Adobe Photoshop Online Course is perfect for beginner Graphic Designer, and this course focus on real cases and introduce you the best best Photoshop Techniques that requires the minimal effort but will produce maximum results.
This Graphic Design Online Course is perfect for Graphic Design Beginners and everybody who wants to become a Graphic Designer, in this course you will learn how to make the most popular Graphic Design Projects as Logo Design, Business Cards, Brochures, Web Graphics and much more.
On this Adobe Photoshop Online Course you will learn how to use Photoshop and all his secrets to elevate your Photographer and Graphic Design skill to the next level.
On one of the best Adobe Photoshop Raiting Course you will learn all the drawing tools and techniques that are in Photoshop, you will learn how to use all the essential tools, different retouching techniques and much more.
With this Adobe Illustrator Online Course you will learn the essential tools and techniques you need to use Adobe Illustrator, master advanced tools and techniques, you will learn how to create custom typography, design your own graphics and much more.
Many people interested in Learn Graphic Design ask this question, can be Graphic Design be self-taught?, and the answer is yes, I always say that the important thing is the knowledge and no where you get it, and to study graphic design by your own you will need to have passion for design, because the best way to learn it is by practicing everyday an trying to experiment with all design tools that exist, and of course there are plenty of online courses to learn graphic design and if you search in YouTube you will find everything you will need.
It is possible to learn Graphic Design for free, you can find Free Courses on the three platforms that I show you before and there are plenty of YouTube videos and guides to learn graphic design for free.
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