AG's 9 steps to improve your graphic design skills
- agaadyagarg
- Jul 21, 2021
- 7 min read
In today's creative world, you will never run out of design needs.
From social media graphics, blog posts, content upgrades, product packaging & much more...design has become much more than a skill, it is now - a necessity.
Here are 9 steps to improve your graphic design skills. Right from researching design history to learning the terminology to jumping in and designing your first project, you'll have the perfect guide to kick-off your design journey.
Step #1: Research Design History
The importance of knowing design history is often under-valued.
The value of history, in general, is often under-valued. I've always been intrigued by history, ever since I was little and it has helped me immensely over the years, in more ways than I could explain.
Understanding history, especially that is design related helps you understand why graphic design is used the way it is and how it came to be.
For instance, the first designs date all the way back to 38,000 BCE. Historians believe that the first cave paintings were created to illustrate stories.
Today, our pull towards visual communication has only become stronger. Studies have proven that 65% of people are visual learners, meaning they understand and grasp a concept better when it is visualized in front of them.
This demand for visual communication dates as far back as human existence, which highlights just how important understanding design history is to understanding the use and relevance of designing today.
Hall of The Bulls, Lascaux Caves France. The five metre-long bulls, the graceful stags, the rutting bison, the very same prehistoric images discovered in 1940 that changed the history of art and design.
Step #2: Research Design Terms
Before you begin designing practically, it is ideal to dive into the theory and at least learn a few basic design terms.
The graphic design world has its own terminology, just like any field of study. Knowing and understanding those terms is a vital first step in improving your design skills.
Once you begin watching tutorials or reading blogs, a lot of basic design terms might be used that you may not understand, which is going to make it a lot harder to complete the tutorial and hold your attention.
Here are a few basic terms you should know to get you started:
Typography Related Terms
Typography: is the design or selection of letterforms to be organized into words and sentences.
Body Copy: refers to the main group of text in your design.
Leading: is the adjustment between lines of text to improve legibility.
Kerning: is the adjustment between two individual letterforms to improve legibility.
Tracking: is the adjustment between all letterforms in a text to improve legibility.
Legibility: references how easy it is to distinguish between the individual letterforms.
Orphans & Widows: refers to the word(s) that appear at the top or bottom of a column of text. You typically want to avoid orphans and widows in your design.
Alignment: refers to how you organize elements on the page.
Pull Quote: a brief, attention-catching quotation, typically taken from the main text of an article and used as a subheading or graphic feature.
Color Related Terms
Color Palette: a collection of 5-6 colors that is used in an illustration, brand or design project.
Hue: a gradation or variety of a color
Tint: is the process of adding white to a color to make the hue brighter.
Tone: is the process of adding grey to a color to make the hue neutral.
Shade: is the process of adding black to a color to make the hue darker.
Monochromatic: a color scheme built out of only one color, including tints and shades of that color.
Analogous: a color scheme built out of three colors that are next to each other on the color wheel.
Complementary: a color scheme built out of two colors that sit opposite each other on the color wheel.
Triadic: a color scheme built out of three colors equally spaced around the color wheel.
CMYK: or Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black, is a color model that is used for print purposes.
RGB: or Red, Green, and Blue is a color model that is used for on-screen purposes
Pantone (PMS): Pantone Matching System is a standardized system of colors for printing. Every Pantone shade is numbered, making it much easier for people to reference and identify exact shades of color.
Photo Related Terms
Opacity: The degree of transparency an element has. The lower the opacity, the more transparent an element is.
Resolution: The amount of detail an image has. Generally speaking, the higher your resolution, the better your images appear.
Stock Photo: A professionally shot photograph available online for licensing. Stock photos are usually used when you can’t hire a professional photographer.
Rule of Thirds: The design theory that if you divide your image with two vertical and two horizontal lines, the areas where your lines intersect will become focal points.
These are just a few of the design terms, you may want to know. If you are interested in a more specific type of design, like brand design, web design, or packaging design, research some genre-specific terms.
Step #3: Utilize Design Blogs
There are countless graphic design blogs that detail the basics and beyond.
Blogs are a great resource for designers because, not only is the content free but, credible blogs are kept updated for their readers to teach new trends, software, and techniques.
Here are a few great resources to help you out:
Graphic Design:
Brand Design:
Do check out these great free resources.
Step #4: Follow Designers Online
Designers, like myself, often share their work, techniques, tips and methods online.
For instance, on my Instagram and website blog, I share posts and Instagram reels that detail my client projects, behind-the-scenes of my design process, and tips or tutorials to share my experience.
Outside of bloggers, you can follow along with graphic designers on Instagram, Behance, Dribbble, Pinterest, or YouTube.
Instagram and Pinterest are great resources for following designers that you want to learn from or work with in the future. You will find a lot more small business owners and freelancers on these platforms as well as content that is short, crisp and easy to absorb.
Behance and Dribbble are more professional platforms for designers in agencies.
YouTube is the best platform, outside of blogs, to learn graphic design skills and techniques if you prefer instruction based visual tutorials.
Step #5: Study Other Designer's Work
This is something that is often missed or done incorrectly as there is a fear of stealing people's work.
But, it's important to start understanding how all of these design theories are used in practice. By studying and practicing other designer's work you can get a feel for your design software and the real-life uses of design theory.
Recreating famous or popular work, helps you deconstruct the basics of design and learn how to apply them.
𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐀𝐍𝐀 𝐒𝐎𝐀𝐒𝐇 is one of my favorite designers that I follow on Instagram!
Step #6: Start With Free Softwares
Before investing in Adobe software, utilize free softwares available only.
Free softwares are great because they help guide you through the design process with auto-alignment, patterns, and templates.
One of the most commonly used free software is Canva. Some other good softwares available online are Visme and Crello.
When you’re ready to graduate from free design software, or plan on pursuing graphic design professionally, Adobe creative suite is the best.
The most common Adobe Softwares you may use as a small business owner, are:
Adobe Illustrator: a vector based software used for graphics and illustrations. Since it is vector based, it has infinite scaling capacity.
Adobe Photoshop: pixel based software primarily used for photo editing.
Step #7: Take Classes Online
If you're struggling to learn on your own or you want more in-depth knowledge, online courses are a great route.
Subscriptions: Programs like Envato Tuts+ and Lynda offer a wide variety of courses and different teaching methods.
Learning from a subscription based program can be really beneficial for learning a lot of different topics, techniques and methods. This is great for getting a general understanding as well as basic technical specifications of a field.
Online Courses: There are also some great online courses from small business owners. This can be really beneficial, if you want to learn a more specialized skill or technique.
You can typically get a more in-depth experience and understanding, than a general subscription might be able to provide.
For instance, I offer a course a 1 on 1 tutoring for graphic design, personalized and catered to your specific requirements. Depending on the type of design skill you’re looking to learn, you can surely find a specialized course online.
Free Education: You can also search for tutorials on YouTube, as there are plenty of them available on simple tasks and projects, available for free if you know what you’re looking for.
Step #8: Experiment
No matter how much you study before you start designing, you'll never become an expert until you start experimenting.
Trial and error is the only way to learn how to use the software, implement design theories, improve your skills and establish your style.
When I was first getting started, I used to love taking part in design challenges.
Design challenges would push my limits and get me working within a specified set of boundaries that was really beneficial when I started working with clients.
If you want to push yourself to experiment, I have a mini AG design challenge you can take part in.
AG's 15 Day Design Challenge:
Create a color palette for Spring, Winter, Summer, and Monsoon
Design a vision board (or mood board) for your favorite brand - fashion, food or lifestyle
Design a Pinterest graphic for a lifestyle blogger
Design a business card for an architect or an interior designer
Design a typographic Instagram post based on your favorite quote
Create a web mockup for a small business owner
Design a media kit for an Influencer
Design a set of contact information icons
Design a logo for a local coffee shop
Design a geometric pattern
Digitize your handwriting
Design anything outside of your typical aesthetic
Design a pricing guide for a photographer
Design product packaging for a candle company
Design a magazine cover
If you decide to take part in the challenge, I’d love for you to share it on Instagram. Be sure to tag me @ag.aadyagarg and use the #agdesignchallenge! I’d love to see, share and learn from what you create.
Step #9: Get Creative
As you learn more and gain confidence, you'll slowly be able to get more and more creative. One of the easiest ways to get creative with your work is to learn the "rules" of graphic design and to start breaking them because rules are meant to be broken. Ignore trends and popular designers, create your own unique works and people will surely appreciate it.
BROWNIE Step #10: Creative market
Designing templates, illustrations, icons and everything in between is a great way to get started in the design world.
Creative Market is my go-to resource for all design resources. Whether you need a template for your social media marketing or icons to jazz up your website, supporting these small businesses is always a good idea.
Keep designing, keep creating! Much love, AG
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