Calling out all the self-taught, professional, graphic designers!

I would love to learn everything I can about graphic design, but don't desire to go to college. What is the best way to learn? DVDs, books, online instructors, or tutorials. I've looked at tons of tutorials and even watched a few DVDs, but I don't feel like I'm learning anything useful. I purchased Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, but can't find any good, affordable, and efficient ways of using either.

Anything you could share with me about how you learned this trade would be greatly appreciated. Also, your suggestions don't have to be free. I'm willing to pay for training. I just don't want to spend money on something that "might" help.

 

Hey mjda,

What you have to understand is that while there are many tutorials that are helpful, most are just "how to create this", or "how to create that", and while they may give you a cool outcome, they don't help you in the long run.

Honestly though, the best way to improve is dependant a lot on what type of designer you want to be. Are you looking to design websites, or graphics? Or both?

If you're looking to design websites, I can say that the only way to improve on that is to look at some professionally designed websites and analyze them. Sure it's tedious, but take them into Photoshop and zoom in to see what type of gradients they are using, etc, etc.

As far as graphics go, I would say that the best way to learn is to first start out with what is called 'GFX'. GFX is basically, if I had to define it, making cool images for fun / for the love of art. There are plenty of different forums that would help you a ton in learning it, a few I would recommend are:

National Sig League

Sig Realm

and, the MUST JOIN:

Sig Source

If you ever need any help, feel free to shoot me a PM (no, no, I won't charge you), or add me on MSN (sorry -- Canadians don't use AIM ), which you can e-mail me for.

Good luck!

 

To be honest right now I'm more interested in designing websites, but I'd eventually like to be able to design anything and everything. I've been playing with Photoshop quite a bit lately, but still look at other people's work and I know I wouldn't even know where to start to make some of the things I've seen.

 

I did go to school to be a graphic designer so maybe it would help to know what my curriculum was like... It basically breaks down like this:

Drawing, Applied Drawing (basically drawing with a ruler, more technical stuff...)
2-d & 3-d design, color theory
typography 1, 2, 3
design lab 1, 2 (how to use all software associated with graphic design, basically everything adobe makes.)
photo communications (how to use photos in advertising)
publications design (laying out books, magazines, etc...)
packaging design
art history 1, 2, and history of graphic design
advertising art direction
web design 1, 2

there's more, but I can't remember....also thrown in there are history, math, literature.... all that stuff.

So. It's really a lot of theory and history. So like Shadowmaker said, look at all the stuff around you and deconstruct it. There are some excellent books out there. Go to you library and check out anything associated with graphic design/ web design and dive in. I might also recommend going to your local community college and seeing if they have some classes on how to use software like Photoshop, Illustrator... or a basic web design class. I guess I could have read books on all this stuff but personally I like the classroom environment where a teacher knows all the ins and outs (most of the time) and can answer questions, and believe me, there will be questions. Also, classes at your community college are generally pretty cheap.

There is also Urban Collective. A site that gives design prompts every month, and you submit your take on the theme. It's free to join and enter. Good place to meet some cool people too.

Finally, for web design stuff check out This Thread, started on these forums where people list good web design/ design related blogs.

Best of luck,
M

 

Get some work experience at a design firm, U'll be making lots of coffees and lunch runs, but the experience of been part of a design team is invaluable.

Also agree with outs been said in the previous posts

 

Learn from sites who has good tutorial like sitepoint.com, tutorialized.com etc. and buy good books.

 

Any ones in particular that you would suggest?

 

Learning from tutorial sites is great start. Google search for every graphic tool help. First we need to understand and complete tutorials from help files. It is very easy to understand and learn 1 or 2 designing tutorials from tutorial sites or from help files.

 

The Principles of Beautiful Web Design
The Photoshop Anthology: 101 Web Design Tips, Tricks & Techniques

 

How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul by Adrian Shaughnessy
Thinking with type... by Ellen Lupton
Making and breaking the grid by Timothy Samara
HTML, XHTML, CSS (Visual Quick Start Series) by Elizabeth Castro
*anything in the 'visual quick start' series is pretty good for beginning web design.

 

phootoshop wow book

 

my suggestion is to search the net for all design related stuff like tutorials, and free templates or such things and see how they were made. Practical learning it the best.

 

I came across a site a few weeks back that I had bookmarked but haven't gotten back to, so I don't have personal experience with them but you might be interested in it http://www.sessions.edu/

 

If your going to be making websites definitely learn how to make good content oriented sites not just pretty ones. As for improving your photoshop skills tutorials are great for that and doing some fun personal projects will definitely help fine tune your skills. Template sites can be a good source to start while your still learning.

 

Skip the tutorials.. play around.. its a lot more effective if you learn how to make effects on your own.