12 Tips to Boost Your Graphic Design Skills

As a graphic designer, you should always seek improvement. Enhancement in your artwork will not only impress your existing clients and bring new clients, but it will also make you more confident. Always remember that the famous designers you idolize now did not become famous without any effort. They started their career just like you, but their hard work and desire for excellence elevated them from others. There should be eagerness in you to aim for something better. When you try to cross your own limits, you get amazing results and start realizing your true potential. In this article, I will share some tips to help you improve your graphic designing skills.

# Start your own project: You don’t get too many projects every month. When you have some free time, start working on your own projects. This way, you will be able to sharpen your skills and express your creative ideas. You can create fake companies and design their logo, website, brochure and other marketing materials. This will not only improve your designing skills, but also enhance your portfolio. You can use them as work samples and impress potential clients.

# Improve previous work: Besides working on new projects, you can also improve your old designs. Every designer keeps backup of his previous designs in a portable hard drive or DVD and one of the best techniques to improve your skills is to retouch the previous designs. You can also select your favourite graphic designers’ creations and add your personal touch to them.

# Collect designs to get inspired: When you read magazines and websites, I am sure that you find some exciting logo, illustrations, ads etc. Start building a collection of different designs that excite you. In fact, you can create different folders for different design inspirations such as “logo”, “brochure”, “business card”, “illustration” etc. You can get ideas from other designers’ work when your creative juice runs out. It boosts your creativity and encourages you to work hard.

# Create your own blog and read other people’s blog: Blogging is good for you as it helps you sharpen your writing as well as communication style. When you share your knowledge with web audience, they also give you feedback and you get to learn new things. Bookmark the blogs of your favourite artists and read their articles regularly to learn new designing trends. Knowledge of latest software and design trends are essential to stay ahead of the competitors.

# Connect with other designers: Social media sites like Pinterest, Facebook and LinkedIn are great platforms for professional friendship. You get the opportunity to bond with experienced as well as newbie designers. You can ask for advices and also share your thoughts to solve the challenges other designers are facing.

# Be a part of online design communities: There are several design communities that you can join. Online design communities are a great place to enhance your skills. You can post your work and take feedback from other designers. Take criticism positively because when someone shows you the flaws in your designs, you get a scope for improvement. Besides, you also get the opportunity to evaluate other designers’ projects.

# Take photos: You can’t take all the design inspirations home, but you can always take pictures of the things that mesmerize you. Images are often used in various promotional materials such as brochure and billboard ads and you can use your photos in those designs to save time. For example, if you visit a foreign country and like the landscape, take some photos using a HD camera. Once you return home, you can use those images for designing a travel brochure for your client. Is not it a good idea?

# Attend seminars: Attending seminars is a good decision as it helps you broaden your horizons. Famous designers share their experience in the seminars and encourage the visitors to pursue their dreams. You may also meet some potential clients in the graphic design seminars. Share your contact details with them to get new projects.

# Collect and read important books: Designing is not just about practicing your artistic skills in Photoshop. You should be a good reader to excel in this profession. Read the latest books on graphic design to know how the industry is changing. You can also learn the use of various designing tools like Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator by reading these books. Just because you use Photoshop every day, don’t think that you know everything. There are hundreds of effects and brushes in Photoshop that you may have never used before, but the design books can make you aware of them.

# Enrol in a good institute: This suggestion is mainly for those want to enter the field of graphic design. Free online graphic design tutorials may help you learn a few trick, but if you want to truly enhance your designing skills, take admission in a graphic design institute.

# Don’t stop sketching: You may have a laptop, but your best friends are pencil and paper. Sketching is the basic thing in graphic design. Suppose you got a logo design project from the client and he told you how he wants to project his brand to the target market. Instead of opening your laptop, you should first draw a few sketches on paper to get a clear concept.

# Learn new things: Just because you are a graphic designer, it does not mean that you have to work all the time. Be creative and do something that you love besides designing. Give your brain some time to relax and rejuvenate so that work does not seem like a burden.

You can easily improve your graphic design skills by following the suggestions mentioned above. Aim for excellence and you will be able to create memorable designs.

Author bio: Brian Simpson is a graphic designer, working in a renowned web design agency. He writes in his own blog and also posts his articles on other sites as a guest author. To read some of his other articles, go to topwebdesignny.com.