make your designs better.
14 Sure Ways to Become a Better Graphic Designer
To become a successful graphic designer, it is important that you get better every day on your work. This will help you to retain and increase your client or customer base, and your income too.
So, how do you become a better graphic designer?
That answer is what this post seeks to provide, so keep reading:
14 Sure Ways to Become a Better Graphic Designer
Here are tested and proven ways to become better continually in your graphic designing career:
- Volunteer to work for charity
- Go for outings to art galleries or museums
- Use colors with caution
- Take on the challenging project that you think you cannot complete
- Review your recent work
- Always request for feedback
- Explore the works of talented designers
- Use your style
- Consider taking part in challenge
- Register for a course
- Join a network
- Make a mood board
- Study under a professional graphic designer
- Specialize on a particular niche.
- Volunteer to work for charity
As a graphic designer, you can gain more experience when work more. Assisting local non-profit organizations will help you to develop your skills in graphic designing.
You can look for a local brand that has a poor design and offer them an opportunity to update their look.
In doing that you can learn new skills that will enable you become a better graphic designer.
- Go for outings to art galleries or museums
If you want to better your skills in graphic designing, you can find inspiration from displayed works online or at art galleries and museums were you will be able to assess and explore the creativity of talented artists which might help you get tips for your own work.
Pay attention to the ways the artist created the lines, the colors used in drawing and painting and look for the element that made the design unique.
After all, you can use the techniques in your designs.
- Use colors with caution
When combining colors, it is important to use them cautiously in order to create a meaningful design for your audience. Various colors convey different meanings.
Blues are often used for calm scenarios while reds depict passion or violence. Colors say a lot in designs but while using them, use them with intentions so as to relay the right information.
Proper color combination is a part of good design.
- Take on the challenging project that you think you cannot complete
Take up projects that you think are meant for professionals only and work on it. Get resources online or anywhere that can help you design the project.
Any challenging project that surpasses your design skills, you can ask for advice from professional designers to give you guidelines on how to go about the design.
Trying out these tough projects will help improve your skills.
- Review your recent work
Carefully go through your old projects you have completed, critically review them again and you will see that you still gain new insights, with time you will see how much you have excelled in your works.
Look at areas where you did very well and areas where you think you need improvement on, then consider what you would do differently next time.
Use the new insights you have gained to develop skills for your new project.
This will help you become a better graphic designer.
- Always request for feedback
Always ensure you seek feedback from your clients, you will gain a lot from other people’s insight about your work.
Although you must have critically reviewed your works, it is always a good decision to let other people tell you their opinion because you also need to hear from other people aside your idea to make a good work.
Seek feedback from other designers and product users, it will assist you in developing your skills.
- Explore the works of talented designers
One man cannot be an island; this is the summary of everything. Studying the works of other famous and talented designer will help you improve your skills, explore their works, take note of the decisions they took while creating their projects.
The design technique they used, how they made use of layout, background space, the harmony of their works, hierarchy of everything, contrast typography and color.
You can also go online and watch tutorials by your mentors, identify the area where you are not good at and work towards improving yourself.
Studying all these should give you insights on how to improve your graphic skills.
- Use your style
Making use of your style will give you an opportunity to develop your skills, it will also give you a unique design whether you would like to design T-shirts, work on a blog or create illustrations and storyboards for a community theatre project.
Using your style allows you to develop designs without any time limit; you will be able to experiment, make decisions and take the project in any direction you choose.
- Consider taking part in challenge
Taking part in online challenge or physical challenge will help in developing your skills. Try to replicate or redesign materials for a company, it might be their logo or posters or anything concerning graphic designs.
While doing all these you are creating more awareness for yourself and if you are good you might end up winning the challenge.
Make a decision to redesign company websites, logos, posters etc. This will bring you to limelight if you are consistent.
- Register for a course
Go extra mile by registering for an online design school, it might not necessarily be online; it could be formal education too as long as time permits you.
Sign up for courses you wish to improve on, they will help you build your skills. Do whatever is convenient for you but make sure you go at your own pace, do not try to rush it.
- Join a network
Do not be an introvert when it comes to your business. Join networks in your neighborhood; also join networks online.
You can learn new things, find inspirations and meet potential clients.
Nowadays its best to join an online network, for example twitter and Instagram give you the opportunity to explore new designs, meet new designers and network.
You can also follow your favorite talented designer.
- Make a mood board
Mood boards allow you to understand and keep records of the colors, styles, and choices you made, and what is informing your aesthetics.
A mood board can be used to reflect a general idea about a particular topic.
- Study under a professional graphic designer
Search for opportunities to study with a professional graphic designer who has achieved great design heights.
Get an internship if you have to, observe and learn the various techniques they apply to tackle a problem.
- Specialize on a particular niche
As a graphic designer, you can specialize on web designing, 3D vector designing, animation, mobile or logo designing.
Finding your specialty earlier in your design career helps you spend most of your time developing relevant skills and techniques.
Conclusion
As graphic designing is constantly changing and taking new shape so are the techniques and tools changing too.
Continuous learning and experimenting helps you to acquire knowledge and learn new skills.
Learning is the master key that improves your design practice. It renews, refreshes, and keeps your skills up to date as you continue to learn the different approaches in graphic designing.