Precisely for this reason, this article I am sure you will like it
But before we start ... let me introduce myself!
I am Lorenzo Miglietta. I am a Graphic Designer and in 2014, while I was still a student, I created Grafigata.com, the blog you are reading. Over the years, a community of more than 20,000 designers was born around Grafigata and Grafigata has become the most appreciated and most-read the blog on graphics in Italy. In recent years, with Team Grafigata, I have also created some of the most advanced and complete online video courses on graphics. Such as ABC Graphic Design, the advanced course on the basics of graphics.
for a course Graphics Design Training in bangladesh
Where to start to learn graphics?
Such an article is obviously aimed at many people. There are those who are still a high school student, who is at university and who instead wants to reinvent his career.
The point is that everyone starts from a different point.
But the first thing I want to say is this: you cannot in the least think of becoming a good designer without studying. And by study, I don't just mean exams at university or something. By study I mean things like: reading books, constantly inquiring, deepening, being curious, never being satisfied with what you already know (or think you know).
In this regard: discover the list of the best graphics and design books divided by topic.
Although many people look superficially at the world of graphics, considering it something simple, the truth is that it is an extremely delicate matter, extremely thorough and full of pitfalls.
So: study, be curious (which is the feature I consider most important for a designer ).
Design school: yes or no? Spoiler: if you can, yes.
Ok, in an article on how to learn graphics, we cannot fail to talk about school, university, or academy.
The big question: do you have to go to university to learn graphics?
The answer is it depends.
But I want to be clear immediately: the University, if chosen well and faced with the right spirit, is certainly the right choice in 80/90% of cases.
This is because a university or academic course, generally of three years, allows you to acquire in the best way the right approach to the subject. Being in a creative environment, the possibility of constantly exchanging information and constantly receiving feedback, obviously represent a competitive advantage compared to those who do not go to university.
Precisely for this reason, when I receive e-mails of boys or girls asking me whether or not to do the triennial, I generally recommend yes.
But is it impossible to study as a self-taught?
Absolutely not! Some of the best and most successful young designers I know are basically self-taught. While at the same time, there are some of my former college classmates who have ridiculous skills and who have probably wasted three years of their life pulling one exam after another to take a useless piece of paper (for them).
The truth is that to become a graphic designer, the important thing is to acquire the skills and learn what I like to define the "right approach" to design.
Most of these skills can be learned safely on your own!
There are online resources, like this Grafigata blog you are reading, that offer you a quantity of free content which in itself covers a good 60/70% of the basic skills needed.
the rest can be reached with paid video courses, books, and a lot of patience, perseverance, training, and experience. The advantage of those who train themselves is that they have the time to make more work experiences (even experiences of me ** a, yes), to make more personal projects, to acquire skills to be immediately adapted to the world of work. the huge disadvantage, however, is that it is very difficult to have a well-organized learning path, which takes you from A to Z as it does for those who attend a three-year course.
So, in short, summed up:
Yes: it is possible to learn from self-taught
Yes: it is much more difficult to do it (and it is very likely to have gaps on the bases). But it is not impossible!
Which university/school to choose to learn how to make graphics?
Returning to the University topic: one of the questions I most often receive is “ Lorenzo, which University do you recommend? ".
None! How can I give advice on such an important choice in a person's life? Furthermore, I cannot give the same advice I could give to a boy son of transhumant breeders in the Abbruzzese countryside to the daughter of two surgeons from Milan ( good examples, nor? ).
The choice of which university to do for graphics depends, for example, on:
Where do you live and where are you willing to live?
Unfortunately, many of the best universities are in the North (Milan in particular) and this can be a problem. But in any case, there are many extremely valid ones also in the south, both public and private.
Another big difference is between small towns and big cities. If you already live in the city you are obviously closer to the universities;
Are you willing to move? In case you don't live near the universities you want to go to;
How much can your family spend? (Or you personally)
In many sectors, in Italy, private universities are not that much better than public ones. Unfortunately, this is not the case in design. Schools like IED, NABA, ILAS, etc., are excellences that allow you to train yourself more fully than even the best polytechnics.
But this must not be a limit for you, it must not be a reason for renunciation. Can't you afford an installment of 10 thousand euros per year? Well, luckily Italy is a European country and we are not in the USA: public universities are often excellent here (not all, however).
However, beyond these aspects, I always recommend choosing a course that is as in line with what you want to do in life as possible. If you already know you are interested in a very specific branch, such as Motion Design, for example, go find a specific course on the subject.
If, on the other hand, you have the most confused ideas or you think you need a more complete but also more generalist training, then focus on a three-year course (like the classic "Communication Design" courses or courses of this type).
The key thing, however, is to study
As I said before, I know excellent designers who have trained themselves and bad "designers" who have only one more piece of paper in their curriculum and few real skills.
The difference, whatever your course of study, makes it the commitment you put into studying for your business. This is something that I really want to emphasize: even if you go to a university, academy, or school that is, you still have to study as a self-taught person if you want to become a good graphic designer.
What to study? What do you need to know to be a good graphic designer?
Ok, studying is fundamental, it's true. But what to study? Let's see together the macro-topics on which you will have to focus your study in the coming months and years.
For each point, I will refer you to other articles I wrote on Grafigata so that you can save them as a favorite or start reading immediately
Drawing (do you have to know how to draw?)
Often, when we talk about Graphic Design or Design in general, we end up also talking about drawing. Drawing is a tool that, in fact, can be extremely important for a designer.
So a designer must know how to draw? Short answer: no.
I also talked about it in this old article. It depends on what is meant by " knowing how to draw ".
If by "knowing how to draw" you intend to paint pictures, make hyper-realistic pencil drawings, perfect portraits, or wonderful illustrations, then the answer to the initial question is a dry one: no, it is not necessary.
All of this has nothing to do with design. In fact, the design is not art, it is not the production of a single piece. Design is the design of something, an object, a poster, a website, designed to be mass-produced and used by many different people. And it is the design of something that must serve a certain goal. Of course, if the goal is precise to create a well-made illustration or a cool design to use within a project, well, in that case being good at drawing is extremely useful.
On the other hand, what is extremely important for all designers is the ability to exploit the design to find ideas, test them quickly and to make them concrete. In short: he must know how to make sketches, he must know how to do sketching.
A designer must use drawing as a tool for creativity. The better you are at making sketches and sketches, the faster your ideas will flow on paper.
To learn more, I refer you to this old article that I wrote on the subject.
The first and primary knowledge to be obtained is to understand how the graphic composition works and, that is, the design of a layout. The composition, or the arrangement of the graphic elements inside the predetermined "container", is, in fact, one of the main elements of the graphics.
This "container" can be a physical page like those of a book, magazine or flyer but also that of an advertising poster. But it can also be a software document or a website page.
Designing a page layout means using texts and images to tell a story, convey a message, or communicate something.
The layout can be of two types: it can be a grid layout or a free grid layout.
The grid-based layout is obviously based on a graphic grid structure.
The graphic grids, in practice, are a subdivision of the workspace through vertical and horizontal lines aimed at organizing the spaces and delimiting the elements that will make up a project.
A grid is therefore not a random set of lines that are an end in itself. It is used to organize the elements that are placed on the page. Examples of layouts designed using graphic grids are books, magazines, newspapers, letters, documents, websites, etc.
For further information: Guide for designers to graphic grids.
Many layouts, however, are not built based on predefined grid structures but are free-form.
Of course, in this type of layout you still work with guidelines and alignments, you still have the aim of generating something harmonious, balanced and balanced, but you do it freely, without pre-built grids. In this sequence of slides extracted from the ABC Graphic Design course you see exactly what I mean:
In practice, in free-form layouts, if the content changes, the structure, and composition also change. And the grids are still used but only to align different elements with each other. The letters (font and typography) Another fundamental element of graphics is the use of letters and, that is, typography.
By Typography, obviously I do not mean the workshop or physical shop where the products are printed, I mean the matter of Typography, or the study of typographic characters and the layout of the characters on the page. The characters are, in graphics, like bricks in architecture, atoms in physics, or numbers in mathematics.
In short, they are the basis of the graphic material.
Some historical works by the great designer Herb Lubalin. Master of Typography.
The "Type" helps to convey the first impression of each project and each page. It is important because the observer is conditioned by the type of typography used, even before reading the content.
In fact, typeface conveys emotions and has a personality.
It can be friendly or aggressive, it can convey a traditional and elegant or modern and synthetic appearance, it can appear feminine or masculine and so on.
A good designer is one who is able to make the best use of typefaces. Not only knowing how to choose the right one but also how to manage it within the project, based on the type of message you want to convey.
This is because a university or academic course, generally of three years, allows you to acquire in the best way the right approach to the subject. Being in a creative environment, the possibility of constantly exchanging information and constantly receiving feedback, obviously represent a competitive advantage compared to those who do not go to university.
Precisely for this reason, when I receive e-mails of boys or girls asking me whether or not to do the triennial, I generally recommend yes.
But is it impossible to study as a self-taught?
Absolutely not! Some of the best and most successful young designers I know are basically self-taught. While at the same time, there are some of my former college classmates who have ridiculous skills and who have probably wasted three years of their life pulling one exam after another to take a useless piece of paper (for them).
The truth is that to become a graphic designer, the important thing is to acquire the skills and learn what I like to define the "right approach" to design.
Most of these skills can be learned safely on your own!
There are online resources, like this Grafigata blog you are reading, that offer you a quantity of free content which in itself covers a good 60/70% of the basic skills needed.
the rest can be reached with paid video courses, books, and a lot of patience, perseverance, training, and experience. The advantage of those who train themselves is that they have the time to make more work experiences (even experiences of me ** a, yes), to make more personal projects, to acquire skills to be immediately adapted to the world of work. the huge disadvantage, however, is that it is very difficult to have a well-organized learning path, which takes you from A to Z as it does for those who attend a three-year course.
So, in short, summed up:
Yes: it is possible to learn from self-taught
Yes: it is much more difficult to do it (and it is very likely to have gaps on the bases). But it is not impossible!
Which university/school to choose to learn how to make graphics?
Returning to the University topic: one of the questions I most often receive is “ Lorenzo, which University do you recommend? ".
None! How can I give advice on such an important choice in a person's life? Furthermore, I cannot give the same advice I could give to a boy son of transhumant breeders in the Abbruzzese countryside to the daughter of two surgeons from Milan ( good examples, nor? ).
The choice of which university to do for graphics depends, for example, on:
Where do you live and where are you willing to live?
Unfortunately, many of the best universities are in the North (Milan in particular) and this can be a problem. But in any case, there are many extremely valid ones also in the south, both public and private.
Another big difference is between small towns and big cities. If you already live in the city you are obviously closer to the universities;
Are you willing to move? In case you don't live near the universities you want to go to;
How much can your family spend? (Or you personally)
In many sectors, in Italy, private universities are not that much better than public ones. Unfortunately, this is not the case in design. Schools like IED, NABA, ILAS, etc., are excellences that allow you to train yourself more fully than even the best polytechnics.
But this must not be a limit for you, it must not be a reason for renunciation. Can't you afford an installment of 10 thousand euros per year? Well, luckily Italy is a European country and we are not in the USA: public universities are often excellent here (not all, however).
However, beyond these aspects, I always recommend choosing a course that is as in line with what you want to do in life as possible. If you already know you are interested in a very specific branch, such as Motion Design, for example, go find a specific course on the subject.
If, on the other hand, you have the most confused ideas or you think you need a more complete but also more generalist training, then focus on a three-year course (like the classic "Communication Design" courses or courses of this type).
The key thing, however, is to study
As I said before, I know excellent designers who have trained themselves and bad "designers" who have only one more piece of paper in their curriculum and few real skills.
The difference, whatever your course of study, makes it the commitment you put into studying for your business. This is something that I really want to emphasize: even if you go to a university, academy, or school that is, you still have to study as a self-taught person if you want to become a good graphic designer.
But what should we study, then?
What to study? What do you need to know to be a good graphic designer?
Ok, studying is fundamental, it's true. But what to study? Let's see together the macro-topics on which you will have to focus your study in the coming months and years.
For each point, I will refer you to other articles I wrote on Grafigata so that you can save them as a favorite or start reading immediately
Drawing (do you have to know how to draw?)
Often, when we talk about Graphic Design or Design in general, we end up also talking about drawing. Drawing is a tool that, in fact, can be extremely important for a designer.
So a designer must know how to draw? Short answer: no.
I also talked about it in this old article. It depends on what is meant by " knowing how to draw ".
If by "knowing how to draw" you intend to paint pictures, make hyper-realistic pencil drawings, perfect portraits, or wonderful illustrations, then the answer to the initial question is a dry one: no, it is not necessary.
All of this has nothing to do with design. In fact, the design is not art, it is not the production of a single piece. Design is the design of something, an object, a poster, a website, designed to be mass-produced and used by many different people. And it is the design of something that must serve a certain goal. Of course, if the goal is precise to create a well-made illustration or a cool design to use within a project, well, in that case being good at drawing is extremely useful.
On the other hand, what is extremely important for all designers is the ability to exploit the design to find ideas, test them quickly and to make them concrete. In short: he must know how to make sketches, he must know how to do sketching.
A designer must use drawing as a tool for creativity. The better you are at making sketches and sketches, the faster your ideas will flow on paper.
To learn more, I refer you to this old article that I wrote on the subject.
The graphic composition
The first and primary knowledge to be obtained is to understand how the graphic composition works and, that is, the design of a layout. The composition, or the arrangement of the graphic elements inside the predetermined "container", is, in fact, one of the main elements of the graphics.
This "container" can be a physical page like those of a book, magazine or flyer but also that of an advertising poster. But it can also be a software document or a website page.
Designing a page layout means using texts and images to tell a story, convey a message, or communicate something.
Layout and grids
The layout can be of two types: it can be a grid layout or a free grid layout.
The grid-based layout is obviously based on a graphic grid structure.
The graphic grids, in practice, are a subdivision of the workspace through vertical and horizontal lines aimed at organizing the spaces and delimiting the elements that will make up a project.
A grid is therefore not a random set of lines that are an end in itself. It is used to organize the elements that are placed on the page. Examples of layouts designed using graphic grids are books, magazines, newspapers, letters, documents, websites, etc.
For further information: Guide for designers to graphic grids.
Many layouts, however, are not built based on predefined grid structures but are free-form.
Of course, in this type of layout you still work with guidelines and alignments, you still have the aim of generating something harmonious, balanced and balanced, but you do it freely, without pre-built grids. In this sequence of slides extracted from the ABC Graphic Design course you see exactly what I mean:
In practice, in free-form layouts, if the content changes, the structure, and composition also change. And the grids are still used but only to align different elements with each other. The letters (font and typography) Another fundamental element of graphics is the use of letters and, that is, typography.
By Typography, obviously I do not mean the workshop or physical shop where the products are printed, I mean the matter of Typography, or the study of typographic characters and the layout of the characters on the page. The characters are, in graphics, like bricks in architecture, atoms in physics, or numbers in mathematics.
In short, they are the basis of the graphic material.
Some historical works by the great designer Herb Lubalin. Master of Typography.
The "Type" helps to convey the first impression of each project and each page. It is important because the observer is conditioned by the type of typography used, even before reading the content.
In fact, typeface conveys emotions and has a personality.
It can be friendly or aggressive, it can convey a traditional and elegant or modern and synthetic appearance, it can appear feminine or masculine and so on.
A good designer is one who is able to make the best use of typefaces. Not only knowing how to choose the right one but also how to manage it within the project, based on the type of message you want to convey.
No comments:
Post a Comment