To become a graphic designer, you need to gain knowledge of colour, typography, composition, and many other important aspects of this discipline. You also need to practice a lot to hone your skills, learn how to create striking visuals, and gain recognition.
Due to all these nuances and the amount of information to master, many aspiring designers struggle to take their first steps in this industry. This article can help solve this problem by offering five simple yet efficient tips to create your first graphic designs. Read on to learn more!
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4 Different Types of Graphic Design
This discipline has changed greatly through various design eras. The first designs were cave paintings, and today, graphic design is present in all areas of our lives and has many different branches. The four main types of graphic design include:
Advertising Graphic Design
This type of design focuses on creating various visuals, such as banners, posters, or ads used to promote products or services. Its main goal is to grab the attention of a target audience and persuade them to take a specific action, for instance, make a purchase or attend an event.
Visual Identity Graphic Design
The purpose of visual identity design is to give brands a consistent look and feel, stand out among competitors, and build recognition among their target audiences. To achieve this, designers develop a visual identity, also known as branding—a set of visual materials and rules for applying them.
Packaging Graphic Design
Packaging design helps your product stand out on the shelves and look appealing to customers. It must also present all the information customers need to know to make an informed purchase. This design type includes creating visuals for product labels, boxes, and bags.
Editorial Graphic Design
This design type, also known as publishing design, is all about presenting the content in books, magazines, newspapers, and other publication materials. Designers use it to make this content look well-structured, visually appealing, and easy to read. Often, it includes formatting and creating illustrations to convey a message more efficiently and help readers memorise information better.
FAQ: What are the Five Areas of Digital Design?
The five areas of digital design are email design, web design, UI/UX design, motion design, and 3D design. Email design is used to create visually appealing and engaging marketing and communication emails. Web design focuses on developing website layouts. UI (user interface) design is all about creating the visual elements of digital interfaces, while UX (user experience) improves how users interact with digital products or services. Motion design focuses on creating animation videos, while 3D design is the art of building three-dimensional digital models and visualisations.
5 Graphic Design Tips for Beginner Creators
Now that you know about the types of graphic design, the next step is to practice creating designs. The following tips can help you build workflow and hone your skills for commercial projects and those that will go into your graphic design portfolio.
Create a Mood Board
A mood board is a visual collage that shows your design project’s overall feel, style, and aesthetic. It can include images, colours, textures, patterns, and typography samples that you find most relevant.
Creating a detailed mood board is essential for several reasons. First, it makes communication with the client easier, as you can share your vision, preferences, and ideas in an easy-to-understand format. This way, both you and the client will be on the same page regarding the project’s direction. Second, you can use a mood board as a reference through the design process to stay focused and consistent in your choices.
Keep It Simple
The “less is more” principle was first introduced by the Bauhaus, a German art school that was and remains a powerful influence on designers worldwide. This Depositphotos article delves into its philosophy and main principles, which are functionality, minimalism, innovation, and artist and artisan unified.
The above-mentioned principles suggest that removing unnecessary elements and focusing on essential features can often make a design more impactful and effective. Such an approach can be especially useful for beginner creators to avoid overwhelming the viewer with cluttered or overly complex designs. It can help you create visuals that are easy to understand and engage with.
Be Mindful of Typefaces
Depending on the type of design you create, it’s generally good to stick to 2–3 typefaces. Using too many of them can create visual confusion and detract from the overall aesthetic of your project, especially if you don’t have much experience in design.
You should also stick to discreet text formatting to ensure clarity and legibility. For instance, you can use one font and go for the Bold version for the headlines and Regular for the rest of the text. This can help establish a clear hierarchy and make the content easier to read and digest.
Choose Colours Wisely
62–90% of people’s initial assessment of brands is based solely on colour. That’s why it’s so important to be mindful of the colours you pick for your projects.
The easiest way to do so is to use the colour wheel—a circular diagram that represents the relationships between colours. It offers specific colour arrangements, also known as colour combinations, that you can apply to your projects.
For instance:
- The analogous colour scheme consists of adjacent colours on the wheel and is used to create soothing and comforting designs;
- The complementary colour scheme consists of opposite colours on the wheel and helps create dynamic and energetic visuals;
- The triadic colour scheme is made using colours evenly spaced around the colour wheel. It is balanced and contrasting at the same time, a great fit for creative designs.
Don’t Settle with One Concept
Instead of focusing on a single concept, make several versions of your designs and polish them until you’re satisfied with the result. This will allow you to offer more options to the client and explore different ideas to discover the most effective solutions.
FAQ: How Do You Make Good Designs?
To make good designs, you need to understand the problem or purpose it has to address, conduct thorough research to find inspiration, iterate, and ask for feedback to ensure that your design looks good.
FAQ: What Is the Key to Good Design?
The key to good design is to make it appealing and functional for the target audience. Sometimes, this means opting not for the choices you like, but for design approaches that the customers enjoy.
To Sum Up
By embracing the foundational principles of graphic design and implementing the beginner-friendly tips from this article, you can easily master the art of visual communication. Immerse yourself in the design process, hone your technical skills, and explore the depth of your creativity. Try out the different types of graphic design to discover your unique style.
5 AI Tools That Help in Graphics Designing
Adobe Firefly
Adobe Firefly, part of the Adobe suite, is known for its innovative products. Initially in the public beta test phase and accessible to Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop subscribers, it’s now available as a standalone tool. It boasts features such as text-to-image generation and custom font creation based on user prompts. Firefly can recolour SVGs to offer more colour options for vectors. AI-generated images are watermarked by the platform as per Adobe’s commercial usage policy.
Midjourney
Midjourney is a cutting-edge AI graphic design tool that sparks a range of emotions among its users. Renowned for its hyperrealistic images, it stands out as one of the premier AI tools in the graphic design realm. Accessible solely through a Discord channel, Midjourney offers both free and paid subscription options, though some users may find it challenging to navigate at first.
Once familiar with the platform, creating stunning visuals becomes a seamless process with just a few simple commands. The level of realism in the generated images often blurs the line between AI-generated and human-made artwork, showcasing the immense capabilities of this innovative tool.
Khroma
Khroma is your go-to tool for creating stunning colour palettes effortlessly. With its graphic design AI technology, Khroma offers an endless array of colour combinations to elevate your designs. By selecting 50 favourite colours initially, Khroma tailors results based on your preferences. Users can explore these palettes in different formats such as text, image, side-by-side, or gradient views.
The ability to favourite or customise palettes allows for personalisation and feedback to enhance future suggestions. You can upload images to incorporate desired colours or easily use provided hex codes in other design platforms. Say goodbye to the struggle of choosing compatible colours with Khroma’s intuitive and user-friendly interface.
Looka
Graphic designers often find themselves tasked with crafting unique and eye-catching logos for various companies. Looka Logo Maker simplifies this process with its user-friendly configuration wizard, generating multiple logo options guided by the user’s preferences. The software showcases pre-made logos to help users identify their design aesthetic before selecting colours, symbols, and slogans that align with the brand.
With a vast selection of customisable elements including layouts, icons, colours, symbols, and fonts, users can refine and fine-tune their chosen logo to perfection. Looka Logo Maker streamlines the logo creation process, empowering designers to create cutting-edge and appealing visual identities for their clients efficiently and effectively.
Autodraw
Autodraw is an AI tool designed for graphic design that helps users create icons and elements based on their drawings. By simply sketching out what they need, designers can receive multiple suggestions from the AI on what they are trying to represent. This allows them to select the best-fitting image for their projects. The images or icons can then be downloaded in PNG format for easy integration into creative works.
Autodraw is a versatile tool suitable for a wide range of projects, making it a popular choice among designers who may not excel at illustrating or those looking for quick design solutions. Its intuitive interface and quick output make it a valuable resource in the design community.
Read our guide to the best graphic design tools for artists and designers.
FAQ: How to Use AI for Graphic Design?
AI has fundamentally transformed the field of graphic design by offering innovative tools that enhance creativity and productivity. By incorporating AI in design workflows, designers can streamline tasks, generate new ideas, and refine existing designs with ease. These tools also enable quick iterations and customisation through text prompts or image input.
