So, as you expose
yourself to as much creativity as you can. Next it will be time to start to
practice and nurture your skills. First, I would strongly recommend you
practice your drawing. This is the fundamental skill in any creative
career. Drawing is the basic skill of expression and communication. Drawing is
the essence of design. If you can bring your thoughts and ideas from your mind
and project them onto paper you can start to practice the design process. If
you can nurture your skill in drawing it's really going to help you in future. So,
get a sketch pad or layout pad and start sketching. Take it everywhere you can
and be spontaneous. Consider using mixed media use pencils, pens, crayons,
marker pens or paint. For this I would recommend a broad range of subject
matter.
Observation and still life drawing: Draw a bowl of fruit. Draw your
pet. Draw a portrait of a friend. Draw the tree a flower in your garden. I
recommend this as it will help build your expressive Freestyle drawing skills.
Copy what you see. Draw your favorite comic book character. Find a building or
picture of a building and draw it. Pick a typeface you like type out your name
and draw your name in that font. This will help build your technical drawing
skills. So drawing is something you can be practicing all the time. I have been
practicing graphic design now for over 10 years and I still try and draw as
much as I can.
So next I would recommend you begin practicing your graphic
design. Once you're consciously learning from creativity your observing, your
reading creative books, you're collecting things you like, you're seeking
inspiration and you're practicing your drawing, it's time to put what you have
learned into practice and have a go at a small design exercise. Now if you're a
complete beginner to design I recommend you start with a very simple and fun
exercise to get you started. So, for this I would recommend you set yourself a
mini brief. Now this could be anything
So, think of a local coffee
shop you like or make one up.
1. Design or redesign a logo for that coffee
shop.
2. Define some colors, a choice of fonts and create a theme, a brand to
go with your logo.
3. Take that brand and design a poster to promote the coffee
shop and include the logo.
4. Take the poster design which should include your
brand elements and design a menu for their coffee list.
So, three things there.
Now whatever you brief before you even think about using a computer. First do
your research, seek your inspiration and sketch your ideas on paper first. Do
not focus on one idea. Sketch as many various compositions as you can of the
same idea. Once you have at least three or four options of any idea. Only then
move onto the computer.
So, the next thing I would recommend you do is: Practice
your software skills. Once you have sketched out your design and you know
roughly what you want to do you can start to practice using software tools to
bring your design to life. For this I would recommend you use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator
or In-design. These are the key design programs to use. Learning these software
tools can take a while so take your time and enjoy it. Stick with it and soon
you'll get the hang of it.
So that is one mini brief idea I would recommend to
practice your design process. Now to help you practice your software skills
further I would recommend you undertake an imitation project. Find a post that
you really liked or magazine article and attempt to copy it on the computer.
Study everything about it and see the creative decisions the designer made. Try
to imitate the design on the computer. You will not only be practicing your
software skills but learning about design principles.
Now another way to
practice would be to undertake online briefs. Today there are lots of websites
that small businesses will go to find designers from all around the world to do
various creative briefs. Now these sites do not require any particular design
qualifications. Here it is all about your portfolio. You can subscribe to
these, showcase your work, specify your rate and be in with the chance to be
selected. If selected this could be a good way to practice on some small
projects.
This is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out when to end it. But then, this is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Period.
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