Step 1: Learn the History of Graphic Design 

By learning graphic design history, its movements, and designers, you’ll become more informed and appreciate not only the work of past designers but also take inspiration from current design practices. This will allow you to diversify your taste and learn about what makes good design. As you navigate the different design disciplines, start to pick areas that you’re drawn to and learn more about that subject to discover where your passions lie and areas you want to explore further.

As a designer, you will dedicate your life to learning new techniques and processes. Having knowledge of design history will enrich your skills as a designer as you learn more about the profession and past design movements. Knowledge of past movements and designers will enrich your skills, inform your approach to new projects and serve as inspiration for the work that you will create.

There are many places where you can get started with your design history knowledge, from podcasts to documentaries and design books. Want to get started building your own design library? We’ve curated this list of both classics and newer releases that can be a great starting point of important books to start reading.

To get you started, be sure to add these five to your list:

• Graphic Design School: covers the essentials of visual design, theory and practical examples with case studies covering both print and digital.
• History of Graphic Design Vol 1: is a great starting point for your graphic design studies. This first volume from Jens Müller is a comprehensive history of 70 years of graphic design, designers and developments from the late 19th century to after the Second World War.
• History of Graphic Design Vol 2: is a comprehensive resource on the history of designing from the 1960s until the mid-2010s explaining the work of prominent designers like Massimo Vignelli, Paula Scher and Stefan Sagmeister, providing you a concise summary of key figures in design.
• 100 Ideas That Changed Graphic Design: gives an overview of the most influential ideas within the world of design from the 19th and early 20th centuries, highlighting key ideas and providing valuable insights that shaped post-war consumer society.
• Graphic Design Visionaries: goes beyond theory and focuses on 75 designers that shaped history, sharing their stories and important works. The book covers the development of design, mid-century design, corporate branding, typography, magazine design and iconic posters.

For more book suggestions, check out Shillington’s Book Club recommendations where Shillington teachers share their favorite books from their own personal libraries. And for some more inspiration, explore Design History 101 in the Throwback Thursday series on our blog for brief lessons on design legends like Aaron Douglas, Louise Fili, Alan Kitching, Emory Douglas and many more.

Step 2: Master the graphic Design Principles & Process

Graphic design is the effective visual communication of an idea or concept. Design is all around us—from food packaging and logos to billboard posters—design is a daily part of our lives, enticing us to buy a product or helping with an everyday task like using an app on your phone.

Every designer knows the 5 key principles of design which are alignment, repetition, contrast, hierarchy, and balance. These principles help to create a cohesive design, stability, organization, consistency, impact, and a clear message. By following these fundamental principles, designers can solve visual and conceptual problems as a part of the design process, from the research to the idea generation and final outcome that answers the client brief.

In order for a piece of design to be successful, it needs to adhere to these fundamental design principles and how each one works together. Alignment helps to create a more cohesive and orderly design. And through repetition, the design is strengthened by tying the elements together through association, creating a familiar and consistent visual style.

On the other hand, contrast is a method to create emphasis within a design for impact, which can be seen in color choices, scale, or making specific text bold thereby creating a central focal point. To create an organization in your design, hierarchy helps to create a system where each element is organized according to its level of importance.

And, to achieve balance, the design needs to have structure through either symmetry or tension. Next time you’re looking at a design online or out on the street, try an exercise and see if you can identify these principles.

Step 3: Geek Out On Typography

Typography relates to the way copy is formatted and arranged within a layout and plays a pivotal role in graphic design. Type includes typefaces, point sizes, line spacing, letter spacing, and kerning. As you navigate your way through design, you’ll learn about the differences between a sans serif and a serif, deepen your knowledge of typefaces and learn which fonts pair well with one another.

Typography gives character to a brand and is crucial to all communications, from magazine copy to advertisements and logos. By understanding typography, you’ll be able to justify typographic choices in your own work and how it can elevate the design. Apart from being central to the communication of ideas, type gives the design a specific mood through the tone of voice.

Type can be created by hand or digitally, but it’s also worth noting the different specializations within typography. Let’s review lettering, typeface design, and typesetting in detail to learn more about each one:

• Lettering: custom-drawn letterforms created either by hand or digitally that can be used for logos, murals, signs, album artwork, advertising, products, wedding invitations, and more.
• Typeface Design: is the creation of type characters that can be the full set from A-Z (along with numerals, punctuation, and accents). Although some typefaces contain the full set, others can be limited to just uppercase or only lowercase. The characters are created within a vector-based program like Adobe Illustrator before transitioning to an application like Fontographer for further refinement.
• Typesetting: is the process of laying out text within a layout, whether it’s a newspaper, brochure, or magazine. The typesetter usually works with large blocks of text and establishes a hierarchical structure for the headings, quotes, captions, and so on.

Step 4: Study the Fundamentals of Color 

Color affects the mood and personality of a design. The best way to learn about color combinations is to look at the work of other designers and studios. You can then begin to create your own inspiration boards with color palettes that invoke different moods. You can also explore Adobe’s Color CC to further experiment with various color combinations. Palettes can be created from photos, prints, patterns, or any other graphics that you find.

Color is such an important part of the design because it can be used to affect the mood of the design and the brand, being used as a tool to persuade and entice. Designers learn about the meaning of each color, color combinations, and how the palettes can be used for emotive impact. When selecting colors for a design, it’s important to have a solid foundation of color and the science behind it. By understanding color theory, the designer can make the proper choice in the color selections to ensure the brand stands out and is relevant to the target audience.

The book Color Now: Color Combinations for Commercial Design Color is an excellent resource to help guide you in making thoughtful decisions about color use, color combinations, and examples of successful projects for inspiration. By looking closely into the psychology of color, associations, and its application, this book is your go-to manual for research and inspiration. Perhaps after reading this book, you’ll look at ads or apps more critically, and then learn to apply the concepts within your own work, ensuring the color palettes you select evoke an emotion that is aligned with the brand and audience.

Step 5: Learn Graphic Design Terminology

As you start learning more about graphic design, it’s also important to become acquainted with the terminology so that you can speak the same language as other designers. We’ve put together a list of 120 design terms to help you understand the meaning behind each one.

A few common terms you may have heard of include the golden ratio, rule of thirds, hierarchy, kerning, leading, tracking, and x-height. By becoming fluent with the common design terms, you’ll be able to understand the “design speak” when meeting with other designers as well as communicating with your team.

Step 6: Master Graphic Design Programs

As a designer, you’ll need to learn the basics of the Adobe Creative Cloud (Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop) and Sketch to learn how to work with them together to create everything from a logo to a poster or a book. By mastering the essential design programs, you’ll be able to tackle client briefs with ease. The top four you need to start with include:

• Adobe Illustrator: is a vector-based program that allows you to create shapes and draw using the pen tool. The great thing about the tool is that it allows you to create a broad range of artwork from logos to icons and illustrations. Plus, each graphic can be reproduced and expanded to any size since it’s a vector.
• Adobe InDesign: is a layout tool that can be used for both digital and print, working cohesively with Photoshop and Illustrator. As the industry standard, it’s a powerful program for creating multi-page documents, creating master pages and paragraph styles that can be used to create everything from magazines to brochures.
• Adobe Photoshop: is a powerful program used by many creative professionals from designers to developers and photographers. The purpose of the program is for image editing, retouching, image manipulation and creating compositions.
• Figma: is the standard for digital designers. A digital design (UI and UX) application for vector design and prototyping.

Step 7: Get Social 

Social media platforms like Dribbble, Behance, and Instagram are great resources for not only discovering the work of other creatives but an opportunity to connect with other designers from around the world that you admire. By regularly publishing your work on these channels, you’ll be sure to get your work noticed by other designers. These platforms allow you to share your work and receive feedback for an ongoing exchange which can help you grow as a designer and possibly land your next job. You never know what can develop from a new connection and find an unexpected opportunity. Through social media, you can exchange conversations with other designers, share your latest work, and ask for feedback from someone you admire. Stay engaged, join groups, and follow companies that you respect.

 Step 8: Join Graphics Design Groups and Network

By attending graphics design events (now virtually!), and joining global and local design groups and professional organizations, you can network with other creatives to build your connections in the industry.
By connecting with and learning from fellow designers, you can create long-lasting friendships and potentially find a mentor (which is great even if you’re not a beginner) who can help you in your design career.

As a creative, especially when you’re a beginner first getting started, you’ll need to continue learning as much as you can and network. But of course, the learning never ends, especially when you want to ensure your long term success. As technology is constantly evolving, you too need to learn about the software, new techniques and ways to be a more efficient designer. Taking a design course is an important step in gaining practical knowledge and building a portfolio, but the learning doesn’t end beyond school. As a designer, you need to stay curious and continue self-training.

A few popular creative events you can bookmark to stay in the loop about future happenings are:

• Adobe Max: Offers live and on-demand content that you can watch on topics relating to creativity, technology and entertainment. With over 300 sessions to watch, there’s plenty to choose from depending on your interests.
• Adobe 99U: The annual conference aimed at inspiring creatives through keynote speakers, workshops, talks and masterclasses . Some famous past speakers include Debbie Millman, Adam Kurtz, Tina Roth Eisenberg and Michael Bierut.
• Nicer Tuesdays: monthly event with talks featuring four speakers from around the world that talk about their latest project. Every month there’s an incredible line-up of speakers you should not miss.
• Creative Mornings: hosts virtual events in cities around the world centered on a different monthly theme. They also provide a platform called FieldTrips which are meetups where you can interact with others, learn and collaborate.
• Wix Playground: hosts monthly events that include workshops, talks and portfolio reviews hosted by creatives for designers. Topics covered include type inspiration, illustration and talks with well-known creatives about their career to name a few.
• Ladies, Wine & Design.  A global group started by Jessica Walsh with the aim of promoting diversity in the creative industry. Through the group, there is a free mentorship offering, along with portfolio reviews and creative meetups.