Tag Info

To substitute a design education you have to be aware of what you are missing out on. In my experience, learning at design school was mostly about two things; building robust theory and concepts, and the push-pull of designing in a social environment, eg crits, inspiration, encouragement etc. In which case you need to find substitutes for these benefits of ...

Sketching and drawing are often used as the basis to flesh out designs; it's often useful to have some preliminary designs so you know how text will flow, your proportions, etc. That being said, it's by no means necessary to be able to create those beautiful photorealistic drawings that make us all jealous when we see them. I'll also start with "bubble ...

A good portfolio of work that shows creativity and commercial sensibilities will be of more benefit than a qualification. Having said that, any course that leads to a graphic design qualification will include practical work which can be used to form the basis of a portfolio. You can’t beat real-world experience though.

I'm going to disagree with everyone else and say that, if you're serious about graphic design or digital illustration, you should get a tablet ASAP. If you're the creative type, then it's unlikely that your first experience drawing is going to be in a digital media, as you were probably exposed to analog media in art classes likely as early as kindergarten ...

You will always take something from education (networking, friends that can later become work partners, field experience, inspiration, and so on...) if you select a good university but the amount of knowledge online makes it easy to learn enough to become a successful graphic designer if you have the required philosophy and self-control. My advice: if you ...

Absolutely, unequivocally, definitely start with pen and paper first. Art programs are great tools that can enhance skills by exponential orders, but nothing—nothing—beats the immediate results and response of working with pencil and paper. I have yet to meet a designer that didn't start with rough pencil sketches first. Being able to draw by hand is a skill ...

My list would be ranked less on the form factor or the intended outcome and more on the number of elements you need to create from scratch. for example: photo from flickr with fancy text put on it. [...] n. design your own body-text font Website designs will be in the '[...]' part multiple times depending on how much you borrow and how much you create. ...

Back in the day, I had to interview graphic artists to work at my agency. I had a lot of "illustrators" come in (i.e., fine arts background) and most of them had portfolios that emphasized illustration. Very few understood what was needed for graphic design. Now that we have computer-based tools, I think the ability to draw is not as important as a good ...

I don't know if I'd call it a disconnect. This is a product of the desktop publishing era. Many small businesses (at least in the US) employ an in-house "marketing" person who does it all. They often learn graphics apps on the job or through some kind of on-line training. I've seen this first hand, coming in as a freelancer. One person who learns web and ...

They're two completely different worlds. I'd go for the electronic stuff first, and do the pen&paper whenever the electronic stuff wasn't available. This is only because you propably do more with the computer skills than with the "traditional" cave painting methods. I'll clarify I started drawing with the tablet after 12 years of experience in ...

All of other answers to this question are all excellent advice that I would summarize as the following: Nothing beats practical experience, but if you are serious and have the opportunity to go to school, then I would suggest doing so. A degree gives a defined advantage in job searches and a speculative-yet-usually-positive advantage in quality of work. It ...

If you have innate artistic skill, school will help you refine it and teach you real-world logistics, both of which you can do on the job. If you are not innately artistic, yes, you need training. If you have a "tin eye" for design, it's much harder to pick up just by doing it without understanding why it works.

All designers should know how to draw. In fact, I think everyone should know how to draw. It's a good skill to have. It's a extremely useful tool for brainstorming and general idea generation regardless of the line of work one does. Of course, as a graphic designer, where communicating visually is the key component it's especially important.

You don't need to be a virtuoso with a pencil, especially if you're going into computer graphics. There are maybe a few basic things that you need to be able to do: 1) Draw (sketch) well enough to be able to convey your ideas to someone else, likely your client or boss. I mean, if you really think about it, there are popular cartoons on TV and comics that ...

I wouldn't say those job descriptions are asking the candidate to actually be able to execute graphic design, but rather manage it--be it through vendors or other teams within the organization. Marketing and Graphic Design obviously are closely related and there is certainly overlap. It certainly doesn't hurt marketing folks to have some graphic design ...

I was scared off from going to a bona fide design school for university, so I know what you mean! But depending on where you are, you could go back after graduating from your current uni and take evening classes at a reputable art school. I'm very lucky to have lived close to Art Center College of Design, one of the best design schools in the US, and they ...

JFW, I understand what you are asking because my wife has graduated from FIT as a graphic designer and I have no educational background on graphic design. In my experience I have seen that from going to good to great you will mostly need educational background. If you have real neck for details and have graphical sense then with the good college ...

Learning to draw is primarily about learning how to interpret things with your eye/mind and translate that to the medium you are working with. A pencil and paper is cheap, readily available, and portable. It's likely the best medium to get in lots of practice to help build that mental and muscle memory. Then there's learning the particular medium. That ...

The two books I recommend to anyone beginning with Photoshop are Scott Kelby's "Photoshop [any version] for Digital Photographers" followed by "Photoshop Classic Effects". You can follow up with video tutorials and other books, but these two will give you a thorough grounding in the basics, painlessly and fast. You need the photography title because that is ...

When I first started, I didn't even know how to use Photoshop so you're already one step ahead of what I was. I found it best to lay down the content that you know is necessary - or if you don't have any then just put some text layers down for things like; heading, sub heading - and then get some dummy text and divide it into a few paragraphs, do a 'feed' ...

Traditional and digital mediums are quite different. So, will your skills in traditional carry over to digital? No, not all of them. And will you digital skills carry over to traditional? Also, again, probably not. Though, being talented in one will definitely help you out with the other. Always starts with traditional, though, that's not what I ...

I would say both. If you're looking to become a "Digital Artist", you'll want to be able to work comfortably in that realm, which means knowing the software and hardware. But I haven't met too many designers who work in the strictly electronic world; I still use a sketch book to flesh out ideas (and occasionally reach for my roll of bum wipe to do overlays). ...

Graphic designers don't need to be well-versed in fine art. I suppose knowing how to paint could help, especially with understanding of color theory and composition, but plenty of people learn that stuff using Photoshop. Knowing how to draw is pretty crucial, but it's important to define exactly what you mean by "draw." If you mean a realistic life drawing, ...

You don't have to. Not for web design, at least. I can't draw very well at all, but my designs are fine. I used to draw out a new layout for a site, on physical paper, but I find no more need to. It will definitely help to know how to draw, but there are many brushes you can use for Photoshop that will do a lot of the drawing for you. Look at the very site ...

Always required, but not much. You can be a graphic designer even if you can't draw. But to be a good one you must be able to make sketches and drawings on paper, but not always professionally. Start over with drawing on paper. Keep working on Designing Softwares, because you can learn to use software. Don't ever get frustrated or get worried if you can't ...

I was considering going to a school for Graphic Design myself. Through what seems like a complete accident I ended up have a phone conversation with one of my favorite photographers ever. His advice was that art school was a waste of time. If you have the talents, it'll show through your work. Now, I'm not saying that I personally believe art school is a ...

There are quite a few journals indexed in the Design and Applied Arts Index (DAAI) which can be accessed through ProQuest. The International Review of Graphic Design is one other journal. Gemser, et al. (2011) have surveyed the top industrial design journals by popularity and average ranking. They are not specifically dedicated to graphic design, but many ...

I was just talking about this yesterday with another designer friend, although her comment was that employers wanted designers who also have high-end coding experience. Her perspective is also that Jacks-of-all-trades are masters of none, and she'd rather be a kick-butt designer who knows a kick-butt coder she can subcontract. My feeling is that these are ...

From personal experience, web/print design seemed to be a lot easier than something like a logo! Logo design is by far the most difficult design niche I've encountered, simply because it's so client-specific and it packs the most design wallop for its size. They all look so simple and easy, until you try to make one from scratch yourself... Years ago I took ...