Graphic design can be a difficult industry to enter. The skill will only take you so far if you don’t know how to market yourself properly and demonstrate that skill. Everyone knows that a portfolio is one of the best methods for graphic designers to demonstrate their effectiveness in the trade, but first-time designers don’t have pieces they can show yet. How do you start building a portfolio of quality works if you need that portfolio to get your first customer first? The best thing any graphic designer can do in this situation is to make a series of mock-ups or fake ads, images, etc., that showcase their talent. Most people don’t even know where to start, so here are some graphic design ideas to get you started and get inspiration for your first few pieces.
For starters, it is always useful to go to the internet. Finding tutorials that you can follow step by step is a great way to learn and use new techniques. You can also start to see how the same techniques can be used in different ways to get unique results. If you follow a design tutorial you used online, don’t include it in your portfolio. Rather, take those techniques and get a result that is entirely yours. Use the tutorial for inspiration. Another practical approach to this is to find designs you admire, and then try to recreate the effect without any step-by-step guidance.
Here are some of the Best book graphic designs for beginners.
Photoshop CS4 Quicksteps by Carole Matthews
This step-by-step instruction manual should be in every graphic designer Photoshop user’s library. The compilation covers almost everything you really need to learn to create wonderful manipulations and designs. It displays full-colour illustrations that make it easier for users to appreciate the text. It’s the definitive reference book you should have at your fingertips while experimenting with Photoshop CS4.
The book shows us how to use the latest version of graphic designing in a quick and easy to understand way. One chapter teaches you how to edit and retouch photos, while another explains how to use drawing and painting tools to their full potential. These graphic design Photoshop tutorials are applicable to beginner and intermediate users. Some of the advice found in the book is too basic, and more advanced graphic designers tend to ignore it.
The practical instructions are always accompanied by screenshots to better explain the steps as you see them on the computer screen.
Solutions Elements 2
This concise book offers clear instructions and relevant examples that are useful to all graphic designers. It covers a range of topics with cross-references to other famous graphic design books and Photoshop tutorials.
Photoshop Studio with Bert Monroy
The author himself is the selling point of the book. This famous graphic designer shares his own techniques for creating photorealistic digital arts in Photoshop 7. Despite being a graphic design rock star, Bert wrote the book comfortably and reassuringly using a conversational tone from start to finish. Even if the pages are full of spectacular illustrations, readers are not intimidated. Instead, they are motivated and inspired to practice more. However, what the book lacks are step-by-step Photoshop tutorials, but it sure did a great job explaining the concepts and principles of graphic design.
Non-designer type book by Robin Williams
Compared to the other three books we’ve already mentioned, this one addresses a more specialized concern that every graphic designer has. In fact, the book is not only written for designers, but for everyone who needs to deal with typesetting on a regular basis. The book explains the basics of typography well in layman’s terms by incorporating text with real-life examples. Define the principles that govern the type. Try to explain the logic behind which type is readable and which doesn’t seem to work. The instructions did a great job of balancing function and art in dealing with typography. The best thing about the book is its non-platform-specific approach, which means that what you get is not just Photoshop tutorials. The techniques are applicable to any other graphic design software.
Photoshop Colour Correct by Michael Kieran
This book also addresses a more specific Photoshop technique. Discuss the theory behind colour correction and how it should be applied to different types of photo editing tasks. The concepts are complete and well thought out. It covers everything from using levels and curves to contrast and channel mixing. However, this book is highly technical and is not suitable for novice users. For intermediate graphic designers, this is another book worth your time.
The virtue of graphic design can be found in how you can control the medium you have chosen. Oil painters who want to learn watercolour must first unlearn the oil. The same maxim governs digital art. One photo editing platform is a completely different skill from the other. Each one has to be learned and not learned, so to speak.
A graphic design tutorial should ideally have about 12 of your strongest jobs. This does not mean taking your first 12 jobs and calling them your portfolio. Ideally, create 3 or 4 times that amount and then select the best 12 of them all. Many beginners simply try to put all their work in the portfolio, but all it does is show the average pieces along with the good ones. When you bring your portfolio to a potential client, you are more likely to form an opinion based on the worst quality jobs than the best.
If you’re stuck with graphic design ideas to work with, just take a walk down the street and look around at the advertising you see. You can even do this in your own home or design studio by looking at magazines, books, or newspapers. Ads for imaginary corporations are a good starting point, as are CD labels or book covers. Anything that features a strong and focused design can be used as inspiration. If you really need creative juices to flow, just pull out a pen and start abstract designs as you come up with them. If you use software like Photoshop for your designs, just start playing around with the various tools and looks for cool effects. Sometimes inspiration comes from the most unlikely sources, so always keep an open mind for your graphic design ideas.
