25+ Tips for Improving Your Graphic Design Skills

Today, the world revolves around design, passion and creativity. Everywhere our eyes go, we can see the work of Multimedia Designers, Art Directors, User Experience Designers and other graphic designers. Even in the education sector, you can find Graphic Design Certification Courses and even Online Graphic Design Courses. The visual communication with the help of text and art in print and electronic media is the result of skills needed for graphic design. Designers either use computers and software or even draw by hand to express the message through their work. There are many Graphic Design certificate Courses both online and offline to hone the required skills. India’s graphic design industry is expected to grow by 5% through the year 2026. Also, the salary of a Graphic Designer with good graphic design skills in India, on average, starts from INR 90K and can go as high as 800K per annum with experience, justifying the demand of graphic designers in India.

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25+ Tips for Improving Your Graphic Design Skills

In order to know about graphic design skills you can go for this 25+ tips for improving graphic design skills and make a career out of this booming industry:

1. Understand Color Theory

Color theory is the art and science of using all the colors that give life to graphics. To use colors in an appealing way and convey your message through graphics accurately, you should know skills needed for graphic design on how people perceive colors, colors mix and match tips and others. For this, you can enroll in “Color Theory for Artists and Designers” online graphic design course on Alison for free. It is a graphic design certification course of 3-4hour duration including understanding of color theory, aspects of colors and light perception.

2. Visual communication tips

The other name of Graphic design is Visual communication design. To have an effective communication of message using technology and art, you need visual communication tips to ace your graphic design. Enroll in an online graphic design course named “Visual Communication Design for Digital Media” on class central for free. It is a 4-week long graphic design certification course about aspects of communication design, virtual media technology and other important graphic design skills.

3. Brand identity

There are several Brand Identity Designers that prepare visual elements for various brands. It is important for designers to know how to use image styles, logo of brand, color palette, typography, and other brand-related constituents efficiently. You can enroll in “Brand Design from Concept to Finish” graphic design certificate course on Udemy for INR 8,640 with a flexible deadline that covers every aspect of designing for a brand.

4. 3D modelling

A 3D graphic designer prepares all the visual material as per client requirements in 3D for games, printing and others. It is formed using computers and software like CINEMA 4D. It requires knowledge of software, tools and tips like starting with basic cubes and then reaching the complex part of designing for efficiency. One of the best graphic design certificate courses for this is “Complete Blender Creator: Learn 3D modelling for Beginners” on Udemy for INR 8,640 to understand the interface of blender, create 3D models and equip with tips for improving graphic design skills.

5. Brand Strategy

A graphic designer should know that his/her design or logo should get the attention of the audience and fulfill the strategy of the brand. It is important to have a few tips for improving graphic design skills and tricks up the sleeves to make your design stand out for the best impression among competitors. You can enroll in “Brand Strategy for Designers” online graphic design courses on LinkedIn learning with a certificate on completion. It teaches all strategies and ingredients of Brand strategy.

6. Logo Designing

The logo may look very small and easy but it is the identity of any brand or company. It is important to use all the tricks and strategies to come up with an accurate design that complements the tagline, product and brand. A graphic design certification course named Logo Design Fundamentals on Udemy is a good pick for the same. It is a 49-minute course for free that includes quality content on the same.

7. Portfolio Management

It is important for graphic designers to curate their best work and show a wide variety of graphic design skills on their graphic design portfolio to stand out. There are many tips that can enhance your output and scope via portfolio management like choosing the right platform for content and others. You can go for “Graphic Design Portfolio Builder” on Udemy for INR 4,480 and learn about developing a deep body of work on a portfolio.

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8. Make Behance Your Friend

A Behance page features your work of graphic designing but there are some things to keep in mind. To get the best, a graphic designer should only publish after completion of work, highlight it creatively to create a buzz to get the right response. You can enroll in the best online graphic design course named “Learning Behance” on Lynda for free to get a better understanding about Behance.

9. Dribble Tips

Dribble, just like Behance, can also represent your graphic design-related work. The small things like using relevant tags, telling the story behind the work, using rebounds, attachments, sharing work constantly and others go a long way. You can find various paid online graphic design certification programs on i-Course to ace your skills and get best out of it.

10. Communication tips

It is important for a graphic designer to know the terms used by designers and have good communication skills. A simple conversation can sometimes solve many queries and clarify the expectations of clients from the designer. One can go for “Effective Communication: Writing, Design and Presentation” on Coursera which is a free online graphic design course that deals with all aspects and tips for improving graphic design skills on communication and is a great graphic design diploma course.

11. Observation tips

Graphic designers with compelling observation skills attract many clients. Hence, it is important to have a strong observation power and know the tips that can polish your design and make it observationally sound. You can enroll in “Graphic Design: Powers of Observation” online graphic design certification course, to build a keen-eye.

12. Idea Generation

The importance of idea generation in graphic designing is very crucial. A Graphic designer should embrace the process of coming up with ideas before beginning with designing. For this, one can go for “Design Thinking: Generating Ideas, Stories on Prototypes” on Alison for free. This online graphic design course with a certificate will teach ways to brainstorm ideas in just 1.5-3 hours and tips for improving graphic design skills.

13. Understand the importance of typography

Graphic design is not just art, shapes and colors, it has a lot to do with words and message delivery. Typography is the art of using visual form of language in enriching the meaning of graphics. To have tips regarding this graphic design skills, you can go for “Introduction to Typography” on Coursera for free and learn the basics in just 8 hours.

14. Image Making Helps A Lot

A Graphic designer knows the requirement of image making in the field. For beginners or budding graphic designers, one of the best Graphic Design diploma Courses is “Introduction to Imagemaking” on Coursera which is of 11 hours and teaches all the aspects of image making.

15. Back to Basics tips

You can go on improving and learning new things but if your basics are not clear, you might not become a successful graphic designer. It is of utmost importance to retain the basic tips for improving graphic design skills that can ensure nothing would go wrong once you dive in the world of designing. The course named “Graphic Design Basics: Core Principles for Visual Design” on skillshare’s platform teaches all the tips that can help both beginners as well as pros. It is a 35-minute graphic design online class.

16. Adobe Photoshop and Designing Will Take You Far

You might be using the Adobe Photoshop software for graphic designing since forever but this is one platform that never stops giving. There is always more to learn and tips to grasp to do the same work you are doing more effectively by spending less time. You can go for “Photoshop Training and Tutorials” online graphic design course on Lynda for free and learn new skills and tricks.

17. Composition and Elements of Good Design Need To Be Understood

Composition decides a lot about your graphic design work. There are times when we have used every single element, colors, shapes and everything right but the composition blows the whole work. To avoid this, one should go for Fundamental of Graphic Design short course on Class Central platform and learn about composition along with other elements for free in 4 weeks.

18. Illustrator tips

If you use Illustrator software for your graphic design skills, you can learn new ways of making the design and a few tips to smoothen out your work. Check out “Adobe Illustrator CC Training Course”. It is on Udemy. This online graphic design course with a certificate is worth INR 8,640 and has 53 lectures along with content that would take 4+ hours in completion.

19. Understand Color Palettes

For being a good graphic designer, you need to know how to play with the colors and make the work pop out by learning the skills needed for graphic design. However, having a keen understanding of color theory can help you in deciding what colors to pick, when and with which shades they would go nicely. To get the tips regarding this, you can enroll in the ”Color Theory for Designers” for INR 2,240 on Udemy. This graphic design certification program can equip you with understanding of Color wheel, color rules, tints, tones, shades, harmonies and other aspects of color theory.

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20. Adobe Premiere Pro tips

All the video editors who work on designing animations and videos for any niche, mostly, rely on Adobe Premiere Pro for editing. Premier Pro is also a maze that has many routes for one output. To be more efficient and save time, you can learn some new tips for improving graphic design skills and tricks about this software on Udemy. The graphic design online certification course named “Video Editing Complete Course- Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2020” on Udemy is a great pick. It is available for INR 8,640 and teaches about tools and techniques that can help a designer in various ways.

21. Game Designing Tips

Designing games requires excellent editing skills and knowledge to nail the job. If you are one of those graphic designers, who work professionally or are aspiring to excel in game graphic creation, you can use some tips to ease your way into the designing world. The graphic design short course on Udemy named “Learn Professional 2D Game Graphic Design in Photoshop” is a great pick for INR 8,640. It includes tips and techniques about drawing tablets, making high quality animations in less time, and keen understanding of Photoshop software.on completion, you can try your hands on making 2D Game Graphic designs professionally and make a career out of it.

22. Canva Graphic Design tips

Canva has become a very popular and successful tool for many graphic designers today. Many entrepreneurs rely on Canva for designing because of its user-friendly interface and ease thanks to a plethora of templates and presets that can be used to generate a design quickly. However, with the availability and ease, some tips for improving graphic design skills and techniques are the need of the hour to stand out among the other designers. You can go for “Canva Graphic Design for Entrepreneurs- Design 11 Projects” online design course on Udemy for INR 3,200 which is specifically designed for entrepreneurs.

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23. T-shirt designing tips

T-shirt designing is a type of graphic designing that involves designing the graphic for clothes using computer and design tools. Unlike logo making and other types of designing, T-shirt designing is something that requires a different kind of thinking process, material choice and ideation. You cannot expect, say a game graphic designer to design for a T-shirt. Hence, to develop the right thinking and working process, you can go for a graphic design course named “Learn T-shirt Printing and Design” on Lynda for free.

24. Advertising tips

Graphic designers who work in advertising field design brochures, posters, flyers and other promotional material for clients. It is a complicated and time-taking task as you have to justify the message and presentation with the given theme or data. Also, the visuals, for a fact, travel 60,000 times faster in the brains of viewers as compared to text. However, if you skip creating a grid before proceeding, you might end up losing the right proportions. Hence, you need tips to professionally design graphics in the right manner and order. You can go for “Design The Best Advertising Material From Scratch” graphic design short course on Udemy for INR 8,640 which would cover all you need to know.

25. Creativity tips

Graphic Designing is a job that needs a lot of creativity from designers. However, it might become very difficult to retain creativity for 365 days of the year and more to come but the field demands the same. If you want tips on the same, you can go for “365 days of creativity” on Udemy for 8,640 and learn about hundreds of creativity tools, skills and techniques that can help you in the field.

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