Can i become Photoshop Graphic Designer?

Can i become professional high quality photoshop designer by just learning tutorials online? How much time in a day should i give to learn ps?

I learn from good-tutorials.com but do not know why i forget previous terms even i try one technique 2 times and also written common tips at notebook.

Give me tips for becoming good designer in 6 months

 

I personally believe majority of the photoshop designers have no formal graphic design education, they all learned by themselves. From my own experience I can tell that the success of becoming a good photoshop designer depends mainly on three factors - the time you spend on using photoshop and doing real projects, the quality of the tutorials you read and the level of talent you have been born with. In six months with hard work you can become a mediocre designer unless you are extremely talented. It takes time and trial-error experience to become a good designer.

To conclude - the best way to learn is to start with small REAL projects to motivate yourself. Find a good forum to get feedback from experienced designers.

 

Same here, I have taught myself and that I believe is the best way. A good idea is to download plenty of brushes and then make some small compilations for yourself, just your name to start with and then start adding backgrounds and a few fancy object. Then have a mess with the blending options which is useful.

After that, I went on to an online game and designed graphics there for free, this is good because many gamers want a tag and don't care about quality when it is free. Also, because they are free, this gives you some experience as to how your future paying clients would react and what they might order.

 

I guess if all you want to be is a 'photoshop designer' you can learn from tutorials, but graphic design is supposed to be something larger than simple the sum of a bunch of software skills - it's theories and principle of design whether using photoshop or drawing it all out by hand.

I can say, although it is possible, through years of experience, tutorials, and self-directed learning to learn what you need to be a real graphic designer - unless you already know what it is you need to learn you will not end up learning it all, in which case even a mediocre formally trained designer will far surpass you because they won't totally fail at anything.

Areas you'll need to not just know, but master: Typography!, Layout, Colour Theory, Illustration, Typography again, software skills (Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe inDesign, HTML and CSS)

Typography is at the heart of all forms of design, both print and web, and without good typography your work will fail. It's not evident when you go to learn 'photoshop' for design, but it's crucial.

Also, Photoshop should be used only for photographic manipulation - not for designing. Onve you've learned Illustrator you'll understand why, even if I can't explain it to you in terms you'd understand right now. Photoshop is dirty and messy for design, Illustrator is clean, professional and has the text-capabilities that Photoshop only wishes it had. Since Typography is at the heart of design, this makes Illustrator much more valuable than Photoshop - and since Illustrator documents can be inserted into a Photosohp layout and resized without ever getting pixellated, it's essential you know how to use it to take advantage of this.

I bothered to take 3 years of formal training and I can't imagine where I'd be without it - even though during that time most of my actual learning has been independent and using online sources, without the training I wouldn't have certain insight on where to look, or have stuck with it as long as I might have.

If you're serious about being a designer, take the training - and not just software training. Design is creative problem solving according to a set of design principles - you need to learn how to think to make good designs.

 

I agree with innovati 100% here, I studdied Fine Art & Design for 2 years and then Software Development for a year and a half, majoring in Graphics Design and Photography in both courses.

A good sence of design is crucial, anybody can learn to use a program, being able to utilise and adapt what you know about that program, using your own design skills along the way is what will make you a great graphics designer, nobody is a 'Photoshop designer', there are designers who know how to use photoshop, but nobody can be classed as a 'photoshop designer'.

After all, it is said that an infinite amount of monkeys could write the works of Shakespear an infinite amount of times, does that make them good writers?
No,

The same applies to design, go out and learn how to use all the programs you can, but make sure that you know what your doing with them first.

 

Ill keep it simple and short.
Designing skills are inborn and god gifted as an Artist or painter has.
you can learn from those tutorials, but you can't learn those imaginations and innovative touch, Because that comes from your soul.

 

if you read tutorials and eboks you can get that maybe this will help you Photoshop CS3 top 100 Simplified Tips and Tricks

 

Yeah it's possible, there are many good tutorials online. I learned everything from Tutorials. Also look at other professionals work to get inspiration.

 

I think it's possible, many good PS designers learned from tutorials, no offical education. But you must have a sense for design.
good luck

 

Of course you can, a lot of the freelancers online at the moment are self-educated. It will just take time. You also need to have some form of creative flare otherwise you wont get far in this competitive industry.

 

Yes you can! I have been working with Photoshop for about 2-3 years now. I didn't take any classes or anything, I only learned by trial and error. Createblog.com has some good tutorials for your basic stuff you need to know, then you can just play around with the program to create the things you'd want!!

 

hey now, design is mental muscle. It's horizontal thinking, creative problem solving and using a process. Yes, some people are naturally gifted, but even they have to practice and train their skills before they are good. Even the most gifted athlete still has a strict training regimen.

The way I see it there is Talent, Smarts, and Heart. You only need two of those to be a great designer.

I won't lie, it's hard work to be good, but the problem isn't people not being ABLE to do it - it's that some people just aren't cut out for it and don't have the patience for it.

Take me and photography for example: I know in my head what good photography is, and I also know why and all about it. I've taken courses and been raised around photographers all my life. Can I do it? No. It's not that I'm unable - I simply don't have the patience required to get the experience to be good. I'm more than happy to pay somebody who loves to to it my money than for me to sit there and grudgingly stuggle my way through and have that great photographer flipping burgers because there isn't enough work around to pay the bills.

Now, even though I'm a designer and not a programmer - if you sit me down at an HTML/CSS page that's not working, or a broken computer I'll GLADLY sit down and muddle over the problem until I figure it out, even if I'm not the most skilled at it ever because for whatever reason I just find that rewarding. I could do that for hours.

So think about it. What is it that makes design so rewarding for you, and is it something you can sit and play with for hours or does it grow tiresome after a while and you just wish it wasn't there? As cheesy as this might sound I mean this in the most manly and serious way I can muster on an online forum: follow your heart, because you either need talent or smarts (you don't need to have both, but it helps) and then whatever it is you do will be fulfilling and you'll enjoy your work. When you enjoy your work you enjoy your life (especiallyguys because for some reason we base our self-esteem on our work more than women) and when you enjoy your life there's no better place to be.

For me, that is design - web design, multi-page print layout, typography, user-interface design. I hope you find it, whatever it is and good luck to you!

 

You can be, software wise. But I think anyone who wants to be one, needs to have a formal study.

Like me, I've been making web banners but I like to learn more so in the future, I would like to study Graphic design course.

 

+10 Nice post, agree with everything you have said here.

Tutorials are nice to expand your photoshop skills, but you need to know how to combine all these skills togather to present a design.

IMO websites likes smashingmagazine can be very useful if you want to learn graphic design without attending formal study.

 

People tell me that I need to enroll in a Photoshop course in order to be a master of it or something. But then, I didn't listen to them instead I watch tutorials, made notes, applied it, offered free services (business cards, logos and etc). Two months later, I'm earning a lot because of my Shirt designs.

 

Don't worry... if you want to become an expert in Adobe Photoshop and actually make a living from it by working for a company - you would need to complete a proper course and gain valid certification since no matter how good you are, some companies do not hire without seeing some degree or certificate behind your name.

If you want to learn Adobe Photoshop for your own purposes like I have, then you do not need to study a course. You can enroll for some free courses online if you want to, but going to tutorial sites and graphic design forums and learning as you go along is the way to go.

I am self taught as well, yet will be completing a course in it as well as I see the benefits to it.

 

Self-Teaching, Trial and errors : )

 

I haven't been formally trained, and have some natural ability - I have learned most of my stuff from the web. You have to find a great source out there that give you some great tips and tricks as it's a crowded industry out there! If you are dedicated though, you will do well!

 

I started using Photoshop 10 years ago and was using it for about 2 years for the purpose of my work and I never read any book or any tutorial, I got lot of help of my colleague who showed me few things. I wasnt really interested in Photoshop much after that but 2 years ago had the oportunity to make some good money doing couple of projects and I went back to Photoshop and learnt a lot just by doing those projects and trying different things. Now I use Photoshop at work every day, doing graphic for the catalogues, ads, flyers, banners, logos and make a good money with Photoshop even though I am not an certified or professional "Graphic Designer".
So I think it's important to do some real work and real tasks to get some experience.
It's also important to learn how to listen your clients and make them happy and that's the most difficult part as many of them don't know what they relly want or they keep changing their mind every half an hour.

 

Someone background living is also one of the main concerns here. No offense, but many time I see people with a lot of money will have better sense of design than the opposite. This is because if they're grow and born in a rich family, that will mean they will see, hear, feel, taste a better class of something.

What I'm trying to put in my 2 cents here is: talented or not, people will adjust themselves, and people with a good taste of design will have a better chance to produce something good. If you're trying to reach your goal in 6 months, there's a great chance that you'll have to devote a lot of your time in graphic desigining and seeing other people works. If you can grab your hand into a good source of design (books, images, or anything else), take a deep examination.

It works.