I want to say is this: you can’t even think of becoming a good designer without studying. And by studying I don’t just mean university exams or things like that. By studying I mean things like: reading books, constantly informing yourself, learn graphics, being curious, never settling for what you already know (or think you know).
Although many people look superficially at the world of graphics, believing it to be something simple, the truth is that it is an extremely delicate subject, extremely in-depth and full of pitfalls.
Design School: Yes or No?
University, if chosen well and approached with the right spirit, is certainly the right choice in 80/90% of cases .
This is because a university or academic path, generally lasting three years, allows you to acquire the right approach to the subject in the best way. Being in a creative environment, the possibility of constantly exchanging information and constantly receiving feedback, obviously represent a competitive advantage compared to those who do not go to university.
But is it impossible to study on your own?
Absolutely not! Some of the best and most successful young designers I know are essentially self-taught. While at the same time, there are some of my former college classmates who have ridiculous skills and who probably wasted three years of their lives taking one exam after another to get a useless piece of paper (for them).
The truth is that, to become a graphic designer, the important thing is to acquire the skills and learn what I like to call the “right approach” to design. Most of these skills can be easily learned on your own!
There are online resources, that offer you a quantity of free content that in itself covers a good 60/70% of the basic skills needed.
The rest can be achieved with paid video courses, books and lots and lots of patience, consistency, training and experience.
The advantage of those who train independently is that they have the time to gain more work experience to make more personal projects, to acquire skills that can be immediately adapted to the world of work.
The biggest disadvantage, however, is that it is very difficult to have a well-organized learning path that takes you from A to Z, as happens for those who attend a three-year course.
So, in short, to summarize:
- Yes: it is possible to learn by yourself
- Yes: it is much more difficult to do (and you are very likely to have gaps in the basics). But it is not impossible!
Which university/school should I choose to learn?
The choice of which university to attend to do graphics depends, for example, on:
Where do you live and where are you willing to live?
Many of the best universities, unfortunately, are expensive and this can be a problem. However, there are many extremely good ones both public and private.
Another big difference is between small towns and big cities. If you already live in the city you are obviously closer to the universities;
Are you willing to relocate?
In case you don’t live near the universities you want to go to.
How much can you can spend?
In many sectors, private universities are not that much better than public ones. In design, unfortunately, this is not the case. Some schools are excellent and allow you to train in a more complete way than even the best Polytechnics.
However, beyond these aspects, I always recommend choosing a course that is as close as possible to what you want to do in life. If you already know that you are interested in a very specific branch, such as Motion Design, for example, go and look for a specific course on the subject.
If, on the other hand, you have more confused ideas or think you need a more complete but also more generalist training, then aim for a three-year course (such as the classic “Communication Design” courses or courses of this type).
The fundamental thing, is to study
As I said before, I know excellent self-trained designers and terrible “designers” who only have one more piece of paper on their resume and few real skills.
The difference, whatever your educational path, is made by the effort you put into studying for yourself.
This is something I really want to emphasize: even if you attend a University, Academy or School, you still have to study on your own, if you want to become a good graphic designer.
What do you need to know to be a good graphic designer?
Ok, studying is fundamental, it’s true. But what to study? Let’s see together the macro-topics on which you will have to focus your study in the coming months and years.
Drawing
Often, when we talk about Graphic Design or Design in general, we end up talking about drawing. Drawing is a tool that, in fact, can be extremely important for a designer.
Does a designer have to know how to draw? Short answer: no.
If by “knowing how to draw” you mean painting pictures, making hyper-realistic pencil drawings, perfect portraits or wonderful illustrations, then the answer to the initial question is a clear: no, it is not necessary.
All this has nothing to do with design. In fact, design is not art, it is not the production of a single unique piece. Design is the planning of something, an object, a poster, a website, intended to be mass-produced and used by many different people. And it is the planning of something that must serve a specific purpose.
Of course, if the goal is to create a well-made illustration or a cool drawing to use within a project, well, in that case being good at drawing is extremely useful.
What is extremely important for all designers is the ability to use drawing to find ideas, to test them quickly and to make them concrete. In short: he must know how to make sketches, he must know how to do sketching .
A designer must use drawing as a tool to serve creativity. The better you are at sketching and drafting, the faster your ideas will flow onto paper.
The graphic composition
The first and primary knowledge to be obtained is to understand how graphic composition works, that is, the design of a layout.
The composition, or the arrangement of graphic elements within the pre-established “container”, is in fact one of the main elements of graphics. This “container” can be a physical page such as a book, magazine or flyer but also that of an advertising poster. But it can also be a software document, or a website page.
Designing a page layout means using text and images to tell a story, convey a message, or communicate something .
Layout and grids
The layout can be of two types: it can be a grid layout or a free grid layout .The grid-based layout is based, of course, on a structure of graphical grids .
Graphic grids, in practice, are a subdivision of the work space through vertical and horizontal lines aimed at organizing the spaces and delimiting the elements that will make up a project.
A grid is not a random set of lines that are an end in themselves. It serves to organize the elements that are placed on the page. Examples of layouts designed using graphic grids are: books, magazines, newspapers, letters, documents, websites, etc.
Many layouts, however, are not built based on predefined grid structures, but are freeform.
Of course, in this type of layout you still work with guidelines and alignments, you still have the goal of generating something harmonious, balanced and balanced, but you do it in a free way, without pre-built grids.
The letters
Another fundamental element of graphics is the use of letters, that is, typography. By Typography, I obviously do not mean the workshop or physical shop where the products are printed, I mean the subject of Typography, that is, the study of typographic characters and the layout of the characters on the page.
Characters are, in graphics, like bricks in architecture, atoms in physics, or numbers in mathematics. In short, they are the basis of the graphic material.
Some historical works of the great designer Herb Lubalin. Master of Typography.
“Type” helps convey the first impression of each project and each page. It is important because the observer is conditioned by the type of typography used, even before reading the content. A typeface, in fact, conveys emotions and has a personality.
It can be friendly or aggressive, it can convey a traditional and elegant look or a modern and synthetic one, it can appear feminine or masculine and so on.
A good designer is someone who is able to make the best use of typographic characters. Not only knowing how to choose the right one, but also how to manage it within the project, based on the type of message you want to convey.
The images
Images are one of the 3 key elements of graphics along with letters and colors. Of course, obviously saying “ you have to study images ” doesn’t make much sense, because “images” is a category that covers a lot of different concepts.
So I’m going to give you a quick list of the main things, within the topic of “images” that you will have to study and know to learn graphics and become a designer.
Theory of Perception and Gestalt Psychology
Every sign, every shape and every symbol generates a specific reaction and emotion inside our brain. Studying the reasons and dynamics of these reactions is of fundamental importance for a designer, because it will help you understand the best way to communicate what you want to communicate, through the right visual choices.
Speaking of Gestalt, this is a lesson of mine taken from the ABC Graphic Design course in which I explain what it is and how it applies to graphics:
The technical aspects of digital images
For example, starting from the basics: the difference between a raster image and a vector image, what a vector format is, and what the various image formats are.
The various types of “images”
Probably, when you read that you had to study images, the first thing that came to mind were photographs and illustrations, right?
But images are also icons, patterns , textures and logo. All types of images to know and understand. These are, of course, just some of the aspects to consider. But they certainly represent a great starting point.
The colors
The last macro-topic to be addressed in order to learn how to do graphics is colors. Just like letters and pictures, colors also greatly influence our perception of things.
We humans, in fact, associate certain emotions with each color, linked both to the color itself and to the context in which we interact with that color. If we see the color green we immediately associate it with nature, with plants and things like that. And so it transmits calm, peace, freshness .
However, we can also associate it with a brand, or a political ideology based on our personal experiences. All of this is, essentially, the Psychology of Color.
The basics of printing techniques
Another fundamental aspect to know and study is the world of printing and what its rules and techniques are. As Stefano Torregrossa wrote “the designer is a piece of a process, what he produces must be inserted into a production flow that provides rules.”
And this is true for those who work to create graphics for print, as well as for those who work to create graphics for screens (which require two different types of color systems, for example: CMYK and RGB).
The world of printing, in particular, requires very specific and technical knowledge that often, many young designers tend to underestimate or not consider, working mainly only on the computer.
The software
Many beginners think that to learn how to do graphics it is enough to know how to use some program like Photoshop. But this is not the case at all, as you have seen in the previous paragraphs.
Software is a tool. For a designer, it is like scissors and a comb for a hairdresser or a hammer and a saw for a carpenter. Of course, you have to know how to use them well, but they are still tools.
In design, most of the work is done mentally, using creativity. And software is a tool to turn those ideas into reality. But it is not the end.
What software do you need to learn to do graphics?
The basic advice is to start with the trio: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign or programs that fulfill the same role, such as those from Affinity. There are perfect to learn graphics