Graphic design, arguably, bridges the gap between art and commercial marketing, while pulling in a huge amount of creative and cultural references in the process. This beginner’s guide to graphic design includes essential tips for creating typography, color, layouts, and graphics.
Graphic Design for Beginners: 12 Tips to Make a Start
- Familiarize Yourself with Core Design Principles
- Become a Typography Nerd
- Understand the Power of Color
- Become an Image Curator
- Brush Up On Your Graphic Design History
- Find Your Design Icons
- Experiment with Design Software . . .
- . . . But Keep the Sketchpad on Hand
- Network with Other Designers
- Get Outside Your Comfort Zone
- Build a Strong Portfolio
- Stay Inspired
Graphic Design for Beginners: 12 Tips to Make a Start
Because graphic design is such a huge (and competitive) discipline, it’s a good idea to give yourself the best possible start by taking the time to research graphic design principles and find your footing within the field.
Even if you’re not planning to become a graphic designer, any creative project will benefit from following some or all of the tips below. The resulting design will be well worth it!
Read on to discover more about each of these tips in detail, as well as helpful resources and links to get you started.
1. Familiarize Yourself with Core Design Principles
Graphic design can be viewed as a kind of structured creativity. For example, art is about experimentation and unbridled creativity, while graphic design works within a given set of parameters, usually in order to produce work that meets a particular purpose, which is more often than not a commercial one.
With that in mind, it’s important that graphic designers are highly creative, but it’s also essential they are aware of principles of hierarchy, legibility, and balance, for example, in order to create effective and functional designs.
The hierarchy of elements, in which A, B, and C follow a hierarchical order of size and/or prominence on a layout. This helps give viewers a controlled way to processing a design, by leading the eye through the hierarchy.
The importance of using white space on a layout, which refers to areas on a design that don’t include any busy elements, type, or images.
The promotion of balance on a design, which involves assessing the visual weight of prominent elements to create a more balanced result.
The importance of legibility and clarity. Many graphic designers are tasked with creating signage, posters, or social media posts, all of which prioritize communication of information in a clear and accessible way.
2. Become a Typography Nerd
Font nerds are always welcome in the graphic design community. Typography is an obsession for most graphic designers, and with good reason. Perhaps more than any other design element, type has the capacity to make or break a design.
For beginners, there are two fundamental elements of type to know about.
One is typeface, which is the word used to describe a characteristic design style applied to a set of letterforms. Sounds complicated, but you know and use some common typefaces all the time, such as Helvetica, Ariel and Times New Roman. A font is the digital version of a typeface that’s created to make it usable on computer software.
For many graphic design projects, typefaces are intrinsic to the success of the design, helping to set a mood, style, and a clear way of presenting information. For brand identities, in particular, a well-chosen typeface can reinforce the consistency of the identity, making designs feel uniform and ‘on-brand’ across a wide range of media.
The second part of type to be aware of is typography, which describes the way in which typefaces are arranged to create a typographic design. Thoughtfully constructed typography is an artform in itself, and when executed well can make your layouts feel effortless and orderly.
Typography is created through designing a hierarchy (in which an order of size and weight is established) of type, before additional design processes might be applied, such as color contrast and other type effects—shadows, underlines, textures.
3. Understand the Power of Color
Color is the psychologist at work behind the scenes of any graphic design project. For beginners to graphic design, knowing a little about the theory and psychology of color can help you to feel more empowered when making color choices.
The first thing to know about is how to apply color in a way that appears attractive to the eye, and for that purpose a color wheel is going to be your new best friend. Brush up on your complementary (hues that sit opposite to each other on the wheel) and analogous (neighboring hues on the wheel) colors to avoid a clashing scheme.
Alternatively, seek out color palettes to use on your design projects, which do the hard work of sourcing companionable colors for you.
- What Is a Complementary Color Scheme—and Why Does It Matter?
- How to Use the Color Wheel to Build a Brand Palette
- 10 Tech Color Palettes for Branding and Logos
For beginners to graphic design, applying the right type of color to a project can seem daunting. Don’t sweat it! Basically, a color swatch is a digital version of a color (and can often be located in a swatches panel in design software), and are available in different color modes, depending on the type of project.
Print designs require ink-compatible CMYK swatches or, in certain cases, Pantone swatches for spot colors, while digital projects use light-based swatches called RGB color swatches.
For online designs, such as social media designs, you’ll also often see RGB swatches converted to HEX codes, which are HTML compatible and look like ‘#ff0000’.
Finally, aside from the technical aspects of applying color, graphic design beginners will find that reading up about the psychological properties of color will really unlock the potential of color in your projects.
Create a mysterious vibe with purple or a dynamic energy with orange, for example. It’s also worth checking the cultural significance of colors, too, if you’re planning on taking your designs to different global audiences.
4. Become an Image Curator
Being a graphic designer can sometimes feel like being a jack of all trades. Aside from mastering typography and color theory, it’s often necessary to add image curator to the list.
Luckily, you don’t have to be a photographer or illustrator to find and use fantastic images in your designs (that’s what Shutterstock is here for), but it does help to know a little about how to make the most of your images.
Raster images are made up of pixels, meaning that they have to be high-resolution to avoid distortion or blurring. Photographs are an example of raster images, and can be edited in photo-editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop or Shutterstock Create.
You can remove backgrounds, apply different filter effects, or retouch raster photos to create a desired effect. Raster images can be exported to a range of file formats for using on your designs, such as JPEG, PNG and TIFF files.
- A Complete Guide to Image Editing with Shutterstock Create
- Raster vs. Vector: What’s the Difference and When to Use
While raster images are fantastic for bringing detail and realism into your designs, vector images truly are a graphic designer’s best friend. Vector images or graphics are line-based, meaning that they can be scaled to any size without a loss of resolution.
Examples of vector images include logos, icons, illustrations, and geometric graphics—and can be edited in vector software, such as Adobe Illustrator. You can export vector images as vector file formats, such as AI and EPS, or as transparent-background PNG images for layering easily onto a design.
5. Brush Up On Your Graphic Design History
Graphic designers are magpies, often referencing a range of historical design styles to create something that looks surprisingly fresh. Beginners to graphic design will benefit from dusting off the history books and delving into the stories behind graphic design’s formative decades.
You’ll soon start to notice how many of these past design styles still wield a huge influence in contemporary graphic design, from the elegant Art Deco movement of the 1920s to the typographic genius of the 1960s Swiss Style.
6. Find Your Design Icons
When you’re a beginner to graphic design, the sheer vastness of styles and projects out there can make you feel like a very small fish in a very large pond. Finding your own style niche can take time, and it certainly helps if you can find designers to inspire you on your own design journey.
Graphic design is filled with a wealth of creative folk with a wide variety of design approaches, both historically and contemporary. You’ll find that many of the most successful designers have honed a distinctive style over many years, helping them forge their own unique place in the busy world of graphic design.
Fascinated by logo design? Look up the iconic modernist designs of Paul Rand, who created logos for IBM and UPS.
Can’t get enough of great typography? Paula Scher, the first female principal at leading design agency Pentagram, has created typographic identities and posters that will make your mouth water.
Love bold color and pop art playfulness? Jessica Walsh, of agency &Walsh, is your new design icon.
This isn’t to say that you should copy the style of these designers, but it’s always useful to see how other designers have found their own distinctive footing in this busy industry.
7. Experiment with Design Software . . .
Graphic design has come a long way since the early days of screen printing posters. Today, it’s a fully digitized industry and boasts a wealth of design software options to choose from.
Where to begin? Well, it depends on the type of project you’re working on, your budget, and how much time you’re willing to invest in learning how to use the software.
For complete beginners, there are now many more intuitive, easy to use, and often free apps to help you create designs, particularly for websites or social media.
Shutterstock Create is one example, which is free to use and allows you to create designs easily using a simple interface. The free online app also provides a range of templates to choose from, to help you make a confident start on a design.
If you’re creating more advanced designs for online or print, there are bulkier software options to choose from, which are usually subscription-based.
Adobe provides industry-standard apps for graphic designers, including Photoshop and InDesign, but Affinity also provides similar software options, such as Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer, for those on a tighter budget.
8. . . .But Keep the Sketchpad on Hand
When we have our heads down trying to hit a design deadline, it can be easy to spend nearly all of your time looking at a computer screen. Even though design software is becoming increasingly sophisticated, it still won’t act as a substitute for hand-drawn ideas and designs.
Taking a pencil to paper not only provides you with a well-earned break from your laptop, but it also allows your brain to connect with design ideas in a more fluid way. Unable to be distracted by fancy tools and filters, you’ll find that your best graphic design ideas still begin on the pages of a sketchpad.
So, whether you’re designing a logo or drafting out a layout, make sure to take the time to simply sketch out your ideas before you commit to the computer.
9. Network with Other Designers
Now that you’ve sussed out software options and brushed up on your design history, you’re really starting to find your footing in the graphic design world. It can be tempting to remain in a blissful design bubble alone, but one of the best ways to find work, potential collaborators, and inspiration is to network with other designers.
Most cities host graphic designing collectives or societies who hold regular networking events and talks. Female and non-binary designers should make sure to check out Ladies, Wine & Design, a networking non-profit started by designer Jessica Walsh, of agency &Walsh, who host events for graphic designers worldwide.
Even if you don’t live in a buzzing metropolis, you can also find networking opportunities online, with Facebook, Instagram, Dribbble, and Behance being some of the best places to connect with your design peers.
If you’re looking to join a creative agency, these are also often the best places to hear about upcoming opportunities before anywhere else.
10. Get Outside Your Comfort Zone
This may sound counterintuitive but getting outside your comfort zone can be a good thing. If an employer sees you have graphic design skills outside of the job you’ve been hired for, only opportunities can derive from this.
It can also help you stay creative. Working in the same medium, day in and day out, may eventually dull your creative senses. Go bold and try something new—something unfamiliar and outside of your routine.
In addition, building new skills in different areas of design gives you the opportunity to build new relationships with artists in these specific fields. These new relationships can result in job opportunities, as well as creative inspiration.
Lastly, conquering a once unfamiliar craft, and the challenges you face in doing so, is a huge confidence builder. End of story.
11. Build a Strong Portfolio
Begin by looking at other artists’ portfolios to get a sense of how different creatives organize and present their work.
Who are your favorite artists? Find their websites and see how they organize and display their work. Then pick a style that suits your methods and start building it out.
Remember: Do not copy another artist’s style, merely find inspiration through research then craft something original.
Also, having your own website is essential. This shows you mean business.
However, it’s a good idea to build a separate portfolio around the specific job you are applying for.
Make sure to include samples of your best work, as well as showcasing a variety of projects so that they know you are versatile.
- Best Practices for Designing Your Creative Portfolio
- The Complete Guide to Building Your Graphic Design Portfolio
12. Stay Inspired
Learning graphic design techniques and software, as well as creating designs (and throwing out many drafts in the process), can be in equal parts exhilarating and exhausting. When you’re starting out on the graphic design road, it’s easy to feel burnt out or even throw in the towel.
So, how can you keep yourself motivated when things get tough?
I am a working graphic designer, and still figuring out the complete answer to this question, but certainly one of the things that has really pushed me to continue is finding new sources of inspiration.
These can be within graphic design or outside of it (one of my recent projects was actually inspired by taking a cookery class). These sources simply have to make you happy and ideally fire your creative synapses in the process.
So, if learning the graphic design tricks of the trade is feeling a little tougher of late, go visit a gallery, pick up a beautiful photography book, or get out into nature. You’ll find the best inspiration in the most random of places, and you never know where it will lead you to next in your design journey. . . .
Conclusion: Finding Your Footing in the Graphic Design World
In this article, we’ve looked at 12 tips for making a start as a beginner to graphic design. This busy and creative discipline is endlessly fascinating and ever-changing, in part because, as a commercial form of ‘art,’ it is extremely reactive to consumer trends and popular culture.
In other words, graphic design is rarely boring. There’s always something new and exciting to discover.
Good luck with your graphic design journey, and make sure to explore the design section of the Shutterstock blog for more handy tips and tutorials for budding graphic designers.
