6 Essential Tips for Budding Graphic Designers

Believe it or not for graphic designers just entering the field — it’s a perfect time! Here are some tips to help budding graphic designers.

Graphic design has become one of the most competitive fields for new designers.

The graphic design industry growth rate between 2016 and 2026 will only reach 4%. Consequently, the industry will add more than 11,000 jobs during the said period, Source.

With the advancement in the software industry and pace of technology in general, unlocking creativity with graphic design is now easier than ever. The good news for graphic designers is;

• E71% of businesses created 10 times the amount of creative content in 2015 than a few years back. ^[1]
• Interestingly, 67% of small businesses think that the importance of graphic design to business success will grow exponentially in the next five years. ^[2]
• The specialized design service (20.66%) has the highest level of employment in the graphic design industry. ^[3]

And, let’s not forget that we’re in a pandemic; which puts graphic designers in a great position to work effectively remotely.

To highlight how valuable graphic design is, it is worth knowing that there are a plethora of clients who fork out large chunks of money to get quality designs. If you have just completed your graphic design course or you are self-taught and you want to kick start your professional work as a graphic designer, then the following tips could prove invaluable as you start your career. 

Tips to remember for new graphic designers:

1. Look for Inspiration

The world around you can be a good inspiration yet isn’t enough for professional work. One of the biggest hurdles for many graphic designers right now is lack of creativity from working in a bubble.

Creativity may not be a talent but exposure to a variety of designs gives you top-gear creativity. Actively seek out graphic content over the internet. There are several top sites such as Medium, Pinterest, and 99designs that offer endless lists of diverse inspirational graphic designs.

You can visit these sites and grab an idea to help you curve your designs to become more eye-catching. There are also a lot of great graphic design blogs out there, just like this one, that provide creative and valuable resources for designers and marketers.

Of course, there is that temptation to copy other people’s designs but keep in mind that is nothing but plagiarism. Remember the main reason for inspirational designs is to get an idea or inspiration to make your designs better. Simply take the idea and integrate with yours to design a unique yet magnificent graphic design piece.  

2. Don’t Complicate

One of the biggest tendencies for new graphic designers is to over design. Experienced designers will tell you that overcomplicating does not a make a strong design. A strong design is graphic design that is clear, coherent, clearly defined, and perfectly integrated with a few efficient techniques. In short, we are trying to say that you ought to make your designs simple but creative. Just don’t exaggerate or overdo it. 

You might find these resources interesting;

3. Talk About Your Designs

If you are getting ready to present your design to a client, you need to fine-tune your design and scale down mishits that may end up preventing progress.

This is why it is important to hear other people’s views about your designs. Most often, the people you are going to present your project don’t have a background in graphic design. So, they are hardly going to point out those technical aspects.

You can talk about your designs with non-designers. Again, talking to non-designers can be a hell of a task because you’re going to get a lot of random feedback from people who want to share creative input. A good thing to do is create or join some private design groups on Facebook. This will allow you to share your work with a professional, and valuable source of feedback. Besides joining groups like this is a great way to network — you may even find this community useful for growing your own creative agency.

4. Choose and Master a Good Graphic Design Tool

Part of the reason competition is dramatically increasing for graphic designers is the advancement of design tools available. Graphic design tools are becoming better and better while several new and improved tools are released at a faster rate.

Choosing a good graphic design tool is not a walk in the park.  One of the best tips we can give new graphic designers is to focus on the most used and most trusted design applications such as; Adobe Creative Suite.

Spend your time becoming an expert in these design tools. Speed will be a huge factor in project management and ultimately building revenue. With resourceful internet, you can easily find good video tutorials and online courses to assist with this. 

Here are some additional tips from expert graphic designers to help you diversify your income:

5. Invest in Good Computer

Choosing a good software takes care of the software part of the graphic design matrix. Now, the hardware part is taken care of by selecting a good computer. When it comes to graphic design, your computer should be fast and reliable. You don’t want to design professional works with a computer that keeps on lagging, shutting down unexpectedly, or becomes unresponsive unexpectedly.

While choosing a computer with good specs can solve this, it doesn’t mean you have to throw your previously good computer. It is not enough to buy a good computer. You also need to maintain it to ensure that it performs smoothly. Most of the problems that make your computer unreliable are often associated with hard disk memory. The accumulation of junk files or other unnecessary files in your computer eats up a large portion of your disk space. This effectively lowers the speed and hence the efficiency of your computer. 

The best solution is to clean up your disk using a suitable cleanup program. You can check this guide on how to clean it up if you are running on Mac. Make sure you take good care of your machine to avoid running into glitches that could hinder or lead to loss of critical projects.

Here is a great tutorial on how to speed up a slow mac:

Remember, time is an important factor in the design and you have to be wary of losing data. So, don’t forget to also backup your data. 

6. Know the Trends

While the principles of graphic design remain very much the same, there are always new design trends that you should be aware of. This means you have to be up to speed with the latest trends in graphic design to remain relevant in the market. However, it doesn’t imply that you have to fully switch to what is trending in the current graphic design landscape. By integrating the current trends in graphic design and your design style, you can create amazing unique designs. The secret here is to know how you are going to incorporate trends while meeting the needs of your client. 

Wrap up

Finding yourself a good place in the graphic design market as a budding graphic designer may not be easy. However, the tips we have highlighted above will no doubt spark a good graphic design career for you. Put these tips into practice and realize how invaluable they are to you as a budding graphic designer.