How to Become an Expert Graphic Designer and Make Money

In the age of the Internet, the demand for graphic designers has spiked as small and big businesses and organizations are looking for them to market and advertise their services and products to target their potential audience.

Clients need a graphic designer to communicate information through a visual story containing images, words, and graphics and to engage customers.

A graphic designer uses design elements such as shapes, lines, colors, and textures and creates posters, product packaging, logos, and animations.

Think like a Graphic Designer!

To become an expert graphic designer, you need to think like a graphic designer and follow the principles of graphic design. To create a well-crafted design, you need serious planning and expertise to apply design theory.

You will have to carefully consider elements like color, lines, space, shape, typography, texture, scale, dominance, and harmony. All these elements play a crucial role in making your design attractive.

How to become a Graphic Designer?

One tried and tested way of learning graphic design is to take good graphic design courses. In these courses, you learn the fundamentals of design and have a chance to hone your skills and complete different projects.

You meet different mentors and instructors who help you grow as a graphic designer. You gain mastery over layout, typography, color theory, software, and different graphic design tools. Also, you learn about user experience (UX) and graphic design history.

Graphic Designers’ Tools

Graphic designers have a fantastic toolbox at their fingertips! Think of programs like Adobe Photoshop, where they can work magic with photos, or Adobe Illustrator, which is perfect for creating sharp logos and drawings. Then there's InDesign for laying out beautiful magazines and books, and cool free options like Inkscape and Canva that are super user-friendly.

The awesome thing is, if you want to learn how to use any of these creative powerhouses, there are tons of easy-to-follow tutorials and training videos online, ready to help you unlock your inner design whiz!

How to become an expert Graphic Designer?

Once you complete your training and get the know-how of the above-mentioned principles and tools, it is time to practice design projects.

For example, you can create mock logos and ads for made-up companies. You can even create new designs for existing companies. Another way of getting hands-on experience is to offer your services to local non-profit organizations or brands. This will help you get more practice and gain experience.

When you successfully complete several projects that show your design skills and interest, you can create a strong portfolio that will help you find potential clients and employers.

Where to work as a Graphic Designer

As a graphic designer, you can work in-house for a company, brand, or an agency that owns a design business or runs a software house. Here,  you will be doing a job as a graphic designer and working for different clients.

When working in-house, you will design new marketing campaigns, images, and other artwork. You may be working as a solo designer or with a team of other graphic designers.

Working in a company as a web designer, you need to have an in-depth understanding of the company’s brand, style, and audience.

Some graphic designers work in agencies and offer their services to different clients. Agency graphic designers run specific campaigns and are required to work fast. They may be designing marketing material for several brands simultaneously.

Working alongside other designers in a company helps you get first-hand knowledge of their design processes and learn from their experiences.

Become a Freelance Graphic Designer

When you become an expert graphic designer, you can offer your services on different freelancing platforms. Working as a freelancer, you will be working on multiple designing projects, managing existing clients, growing a new client base, and marketing yourself on different social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

For that, you have to be self-motivated and business-savvy. A freelancing career offers you flexibility, as you can work anywhere and create your own schedule. Since you will be competing with other freelance Designers, you will have to offer quality services in minimum time.

How to Grow as a Graphic Designer

To grow as a Graphic Designer, you have to brand and market yourself. Think of a catchy name for your business, create a portfolio and highlight your best work so that potential clients can easily find you.

To find new clients, create your accounts on Fiverr, Upwork, and other freelancing platforms, and let your friends, peers, and relatives know about your business.

When doing your first project, ensure you go the extra mile. Overdeliver on the initial projects and impress the client with your skill. This way, you will have good feedback from the clients and get more work from the same clients in the future.

At the start of the career, accept most incoming work. This will help you build a client base. Once you become a pro graphic designer, you can be more selective about the high-priced projects and working for great clients.

Word-of-mouth is one of the tried and tested marketing strategies that you can use to gain more clients. When you successfully complete a project to the satisfaction of a client, ask if s/he can refer you to some other client who needs similar services. Such referrals can be helpful to increase your client base.

Conclusion

Think about it – we live online now, right? That's why anything that looks good digitally, from websites to cool animations and phone apps, is super important. And guess what? That means businesses of all sizes are on the hunt for talented Graphic Designers!

They need folks who can create eye-catching website designs that draw people in, make fun animations that grab attention, design easy-to-use mobile apps, and put together all sorts of multimedia magic.

Plus, they're looking for experts in UI (how things look and work) and UX (how easy and enjoyable things are to use). So, if you've got a knack for making things look awesome online, you're in high demand!