Need to Improve Designing Skills !

nsk50 · Fresh-faced recruit Joined: Oct 11, 2009 Posts: 1

Hi, I'm self taught graphic desginer, worked with Zee telefilms for sometime & learnt a bit from senior designers there. But after a long gap now i think that i'm missing those professional skills which i cud have aquired by getting bachelors degree in GD. I find myself lacking in all prominent areas such as designing composition, color theory, layout, typography.

My question is: Are there any affordable online courses which can really help me in improving my graphic designing skills. I wanna work like pro but its just not happening. Everyone around is just teaching tools & softwares no one is concerend about basic designing principles.

Can you guys suggest me some DVD tutorials, Online Courses, Downloadable video tutorials. Also a complete set of books will be good.

All your suggestions are welcome !

Regards
Andy

Siggi · Moderator Joined: Apr 08, 2003 Posts: 2795 Location: spain

hi there

welcome to our corner of the internet. have any of us ever learned enough????

just thought i'd point out the lEARNING link above.

good luck and most of all enjoy!!!
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vootie · Senior Site Admin Joined: Nov 12, 2001 Posts: 2062

We run many extracts from graphic design books here on Graphics.com. This gives you a chance to see if these are books you might want to purchase.
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barrypearson307 · Avoiding real work Joined: Oct 18, 2009 Posts: 30

Reading is a good idea but i think graphic design is more a natural talent, if it's for you i think you'll just know. If you need practice why not carry out a few dummy projects and post them to see what people think. That way you'll get some feedback on areas which you can improve on. Good luck!
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MadMutant · Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 11:34 am Post subject:

There's nothing wrong with being self-taught to a degree, but nothing beats a good (in)formal education. In one sense being in an environment where you have good mentors is something a lot of designers formally educated or not desperately long for. The industry started out that way for a lot of facets of the design world from comic books to advertising. But, the industry has grown up and having a solid formal education will cut years off of your development time and also open a lot of doors.

Appendum: Thought of this after the fact. There are other reasons to go through the formal education process as well.

One reason is having a relatively safe environment to experiment in. The school I went to "Alberta College of Art and Design" has the policy that all instructors must maintain a continuing art practice in the outside world whether they be fine artists or graphic designers. As such they have a good idea of what's happening outside the confines of the institute. When it comes around to "crits" and your standing in front of a group of your peers and the instructor you not only get the benefit twenty or thirty different viewpoints your also allowed the safety of knowing that if you're project fails in the eye of the client or worse the marketplace that there will still be food on the table. Also, you get the experience of someone who's had to pound the pavement already but you get additional fresh insights from other like minded individuals.

Another good reason is exposure. When I went I took every course that I could squeeze in above and beyond the recommended core courses. I included; silk screening, Intaglio, photography, sculpting, animation, and even jewelry, and what courses I couldn't take I helped out friends with or volunteered. I may never again have to cut a Rubylith again in my life but the exposure to a variety of techniques can only add to my skill set and if I can' perform a task for a client I at least know of an alternative process that can be brought into the mix to deliver something that will work for the client.

And, networking, if not just for the sake of expanding your social group, there is always someone that will do something differently or have a skill set that will enable everyone to move forward.
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10thWay · Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 12:58 pm Post subject:

There are a number of good online resources. Personally I find lynda.com to be the most complete one. Worth having a look at their site.
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barrypearson307 · Avoiding real work Joined: Oct 18, 2009 Posts: 30

There are loads of graphic design forums around which are full of ideas, take a look at other peoples work and see if you can learn anything from them.
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