5 Steps to Learn Graphic Design And Earn Money As Skilled Graphic Designer.
Follow Step by Step roadmap and Start Earning Money as Beginners Graphic Designers .
This article describes steps required to become a graphic designer and earn money. After reading the article, you will avoid all mistakes that delay you from earning money as a skilled graphic designer. It’s not necessary to have a degree to work as a professional graphic designer. By developing your skills in a particular graphic design area, you can earn a higher salary or even more than someone with a degree. If you have imagination and the ability to incorporate it into your design, then it’s great. The procedures and road map in this article will help you develop into a qualified graphic designer. Follow these steps to achieve your goal.
Choose your niche in graphic design.
The first step is to choose your niche, which is very important. Here is a list of graphic design skill fields that you can choose from to become a specialist in. It’s possible to add more skills, but you must initially concentrate on a single skill.
Art and illustration graphic design
Illustration are related to fine art. Illustrations are a way of visually depicting or illustrating a written text. They have the potential to assist in explaining an idea, telling a story, or providing decoration. Therefore, the main purpose of illustrations is to communicate using pictures and convey feeling and emotion. The creation of cartoons and art is a part of art and illustration.
Paid Softwares: Adobe Illustrator and Affinity Designer are used for illustration.
Free Softwares: Inkscape, Vectr are free alternative software.
Advertising graphic design
The purpose of graphic design in advertising is to create a informative, engaging, and visually appealing message that can be used to increase the sale of products and services.
Graphic designers use their skills to assist companies in promoting their products or services.
So it is very important to focus attention on advertising designs, including color, font selection, layout, and placement of images to increase sales.
Ad campaigns on social media like Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram are part of social media advertisement. Print media advertisements include ads for newspapers, magazines, etc.
Brand identity graphic design
Graphic design is used to create a strong brand identity that helps businesses recognize their uniqueness and take it to the next level.
Graphic designers use unique typography, color palettes, and shapes/forms to develop brand design.
To design the brand identity graphic designer designs a logo, visiting cards, letterhead, covers, and, sometimes even product packaging, website, and email design, etc.
Packaging graphic design
Designing a package, wrapper, or box where the product will be placed for sale is called packaging. Packaging design is the process of decorating a package or container for a product.
Graphic Design for Print Publications
In Print Publications, we create advertisements as well as books, brochures, pamphlets, and magazine layouts. In order to work in printing, it’s important to become familiar with Adobe InDesign. It allows you to create interactive PDFs, info sheets, books, posters, magazines, and more. It has more capabilities that are related to publishing.
UI graphic design
The process of creating the user interface for a website, app, or any other object that requires input through graphics is known as UI design. It displays a visual presentation of how the finished website or app will appear. Coders do coding to organize these items and add features to the graphics.
Motion graphics design
Motion graphics involves creating a graphic design and adding animation to it. Explainer videos are examples of motion graphics. The software for motion graphics is After Effects and Illustrator. Illustrator is used to create graphics, and After Effects is used for animation. Inkscape and Blender 2D are both free alternatives.
Photo editing
Working with photographs, such as editing or manipulating a photograph, is part of photo editing. Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom are programs used for photo editing. A free alternative is GIMP. These are a few classifications in the area of graphic design. In the beginning, focus on one field, and then you can add more skills. Acquiring expertise in UI design and Motion graphics requires more time.
Learning a Graphic design software tools
In this step, you should learn how to use all the tools of a specific software and also get familiar with all the tricks and tips of the software. To get started, you need to become proficient in one tool. After that, you have the opportunity to learn additional tools.
Choose A tool for learning graphic design
The software tool you choose should be based on your niche. The right tool for the niche is very useful for easy learning. I have mentioned tools for each niche in the paragraph above.
The Graphic design tools are divided into two categories: raster and vector.
For example, in a digital image, each pixel in raster graphics is individually specified. In vector graphics, mathematical formulas are used to design lines and curves, which are then converted into the graphic at the output. To work with digital photographs or scanned images, opt for raster graphics tools like Photoshop or GIMP.
If you want to design diagrams, logos, programmatic marketing material, web graphics, or paper scrapbooking, opt for the vector graphics tool. Vector graphics are also scalable and can be printed on large hoardings without any Pixelization.
Some graphic design applications require a combination of tools. To begin with, you need to become proficient in one tool, and then you can learn additional tools depending on your needs. Inkscape and Illustrator are both vector tools, while Photoshop and GIMP are both raster tools.
There are two types of tools to choose from when learning graphic design software: paid and free.
Adobe Suite is fine, but for this we need to pay a monthly subscription. If you can’t afford a paid tool, you can opt for free tools that are fully capable. I mention a few programs that are available for free use. For example, Alternatives to Adobe Illustrator include Inkscape, Photopea, and Figma. The alternative to Adobe Photoshop is GIMP, which is free graphics design software. GIMP can also be used to edit images, make creative composites, interface components, mock-ups, and print designs for icons and logos.
Taking a course is a way to learn a software tool. You can find many excellent free courses on YouTube, or you can purchase a course from Udemy or Coursera. It’s important to start with the fundamentals of software. After that, proceed to the expert level. By becoming an expert in software, you will be able to easily use other software.
Gain knowledge of graphic design principles and theory.
To build visually stunning designs, you need to learn design elements and principles. Typography (font styles), color theory (color combinations), composition, and other design elements, such as layout design, branding, and user experience, are covered by these concepts.
In order to stand out from the crowd, you should use these principles effectively. These principles are applicable to websites, print ads, and graphic design.
The basic principles of graphic design
- Color and space
- Balance
- Alignment
- Emphasis
- Proportion
- Pattern
- Typography
- Hierarchy
- Contrast
- Rhythm
- Proximity
Practice graphic design and improve skills.
Improving your skills is a necessary step after learning the tool. Practice is very important for skill development. As time passes, your creativity increases as well.
Take inspiration from others’ designs. At the beginning, you can copy and imitate good designs for practice. Then use your creativity to add something. You can find design tutorials on YouTube and learn by copying them.
Fake client briefs
A great way to practice is by creating hypothetical customer briefs. There are some websites where you can create a hypothetical client and create graphics or designs based on their demands. You are required to select a work type, such as logo design, illustration, UI design, or graphic design. Next, it will create a fictional customer and specifications for the design. By working according to the design, you can enhance your understanding of client demands.
Creating portfolio
You need to build a portfolio to show your work to customers. You have the option to create your own portfolio website or create a free portfolio on Behance. Portfolio creation is very important for obtaining work.
Using template-based graphic design tools to improve your skills and earn money
Template-based design tools offer you ready-made layouts that you can customize to meet your design objectives. The layout can be easily modified using the drag-and-drop editor. You can move or resize elements or change a font to decorate the design.
If you don’t need advanced features and more resources, you can use the free version. Or, you can purchase a paid version
These are highly valuable for learning purposes. Professionals design these templates with a great deal of care for design principles and theory.
By editing these templates, you can put design principles into practice and learn font combinations, space, color, etc.
In addition, we can use these template-based tools to design graphics for clients and earn money from graphic designs. Just edit these templates and sell them to your clients.
Before selling any design, you should read the copyright rules, so as not to violate it.
Before using these template-based design tools, it’s important to learn a core graphic design tool. It will help in working with these tools.
Canva, VistaCreate, Snapper, Adobe Express, Desygner, Design Cap, and Fotor are all examples of online template-based tools. All of these programs run in browsers and are therefore compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Ways of Earning from graphic design
Graphic design offers numerous opportunities for earning money. If you possess talent, there is no shortage of work available. You may encounter some difficulties in obtaining work by begging. To get through this, you need to show your work. At the outset, it’s a good idea to charge less money, which will assist in the development of your network. The primary objective is to establish your network, which will be of great help to you.
Freelancing graphic design
It’s important to share your skills with others because sometimes people with whom you are in contact need services. Display your work on social media; send messages in WhatsApp groups and Facebook groups; and post your work on Pinterest, among other places.
Work locally.
Starting with a wedding card, logo design, or visiting card can help you develop a link with potential clients and improve your experience. The recommendations of clients can greatly enhance your reach and attract new clients. Furthermore, this will contribute to the growth of your portfolio. Begin with small steps to ensure long-term success.
Selling design template
Sites like Freepics, GraphicRiver, Vecteezy, and Creative Market allow you to upload and sell your work. Keep in mind that these sites have standards for their work.
Use social media sites
LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook networking sites are available for you to join and showcase your work. There are many that need a professional graphics job; you can contact them. Creating a YouTube channel and uploading your work for a showcase is an option, and anyone interested in your work will get in touch with you.
freelance website
You can get work from freelance websites like Upwork, Fiverr, and 99Design. At first, it may be challenging to find work, as we don’t have our portfolio on these sites. In order to overcome that, you must charge less to obtain work and build your portfolio. It also helps to create an online portfolio and links.
Sell video templates
You can sell your video templates on websites like Envato.
Get a job as a social media designer
Your job as a social media designer will involve managing social media platforms for celebrities and businesses. To work with them, you can redesign their logo, carousel, and YouTube thumbnail and show them. If they find your work appealing, they will hire you as a graphic designer. This is a great way to get work.
Individuals who specialize in their work can use the following earning methods.
Online coaching
Online coaching may be passive income, but it requires expertise. E.g. webinar
Create courses
Referral fees
If you have more work than you can handle, you can refer it to another designer and charge them a percentage.