help with ur suggestion if u r from USA

Hello, I am from bangladesh. I will fly to NY by next May as permannet resident. I am not a professional designer. But alng with my secreterial job i have been doing some graphics work as i have strong attraction in this field. For the last couple of years I have done some graphic projects from freelancing sites. I know photoshop, sme illustraor,some flash and little dream weaver.

I want to build myself as a graphics dsigner. How can i take preparation?If i want to to take a 1 year diploma what type of preparation i need to take.How prospectve it is there? plz help with ur suggestion. tnx in advance.

 

I know in Canada, just a few hours North of where you'll be living, we have a lot of 2 or 3 year college courses in Graphic design.

Software knowledge is 10% of graphic design. Being able to do thing by hand, knowing Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and web design are good skills, but they didn't exist 20 years ago.....you have to be ready for what might arrive in 20 years that we don't have today.

What I would recommend to you is to learn about design skills and concepts that aren't specific to any particular tool. Typography, Illustration, Layout. these are the heart of design - no matter what type of design it is or what tools you use.

Places to research:

wikipedia for typography, design
typophile.com < a wonderful typography forum

Congrats on your relocation, I hope it goes smoothly - enjoy North America!

 

tnx Tauren, for ur kind help.I will try to develop myself by te time i go there. Actually i want to make myself ready not for the jpb right now. I want to take a course 1st. What could be the requiement to get admission in a college for graphics design course? I want to take 1 year course and have a job. No matter what is the salary. Then i will go for longer course again.Means work and study togethere.plz come up with ur invaluable info.

O ya wht part of canada u live?

 

I live in Kingston, Ontario, which is directly between Toronto and Montréal. I am not positive on the time it would take to drive to New York City, but I imagine it is less than half a day to drive.

I'm not sure of any 1 year Graphic design courses, but I will say that there is a good deal of great information related to graphic design on the internet (because designers create the internet) and every good designer keeps a blog.

Even though I have taken college courses on Typography, I have learned more online freely than I have in the classroom - so you can start by reading about that now and continue reading online, even if you do take a college course.

For the requirements to get into my college all I needed was to have passed Secondary Schooll (grade 12) and have a working level of english. Then I had to complete a portfolio assignment and send it in to my college.

I had to prepare a portfolio of 10-12 of my pieces for another college I applied to and I had a couple graphic design pieces, a few art pieces.

What they are looking for most isn't the technical skill or ability with software, but proof that you have a creative mind and can think on a conceptual level. Skills can be easily learned, but creativity is essential.

While it would be good to include a wide variety of pieces, a great resource for learning design is logo design. Look up logos on designfloat.com and see the best logos out there. Research Paul Rand and try to figure out what makes a logo 'smart'. Logo design is considered by many designers to be the purest form of graphic design - and it's certainly the biggest challenge I've ever had to do.

Good luck to you, doing what you love is truly rewarding, and there's an old saying: "If you do what you love to do, you will never work a day in your life." I hope you find this to be true as you get closer to moving to New York.

 

tnx buddy for ur very kind and fruitful info. I will knock u now and then for your suggestion when i m there.

I have done some works for the clients of a freel;ancin site. O ya! u can see my signature's link for the site

I am also a forex trader.I want to do it professionally. u know whhat it is?

o ya take it easy if u see me abscent in net now and then. i m bz with my office work and others as I will leave ths country soon. plz stay with me.I want to add u in my y messenger.

 

http://www.esnips.com/web/Bannarsample

here r the some samples of my recent works. o plz don't forget i m amature and self learner. o have never taken any course. ur comment will be highly appricieated.

 

innovati has alot of great information here for you, take his advice especially on knowing how to draw by hand, it's not a requirement but would greatly increase your marketability to potential employers. And learn as much as possible about the tools you will be using. You your going straight for Gfx Design then learn as much as possible about Illustrator, Photoshop, and Flash if you decide to go into animation and such. If you are going for web design then the same as above but learn dreamweaver (it's one of the most widely used web design packages out today). And for the love of god stay away from frontpage anyone that knows anything about webdesign should know stay as far away as possible from MS crap, that is unless you are doing ASP stuff then use Visual Studio for that.

 

definately learn actionscript
very useful

 

That is object oriented language. This is must if i want to master in falsh.