The wonderful work of graphic designers is all around us.
Whether you’re walking down the streets of your city, reading a magazine, shopping for groceries or watching television you are experiencing the work of graphic designers. There is no other business like it!
There are infinite possibilities for graphic design work. So, if you have the desire to go on this career path, here is some expert advice on how to get started on your journey to becoming a graphic designer.
We’ll answer questions like…
- What does a graphic designer do?
- How much do graphic design jobs pay?
- How to get graphic design jobs with no experience needed?
- How do I build a portfolio?
- Can I get a job in graphic design without a degree?
- What skills do I need and where can I learn?
- How do I get freelance graphic design work?
What Does a Graphic Designer Do?
A graphic designer creates visual concepts using typography and imagery to communicate information and ideas to inspire, inform and capture the attention of consumers. They create designs for:
- Brochures
- Advertisements
- Magazines
- Posters
- Billboards
- Packaging
- Logos
- Websites
- Social media
- Motion graphics
- Marketing materials and much more
How Much Do Graphic Design Jobs Pay?
Graphic design salaries range from $30K to $100K annually with the average salary being $50,000. However, the potential for a freelance graphic designer is far greater.
As a freelance designer, you can set your own rates and work with a variety of clients instead of working for a set salary at one company.
It can be an exciting career path with limitless potential.
How to Get Graphic Design Jobs with No Experience Needed
At first, you have to create your own experience. As you are learning to design, create graphics as spec designs for fictitious companies or known brands.
Create design concepts and then design assets for various uses such as:
- Printed flyers
- Facebook or Instagram posts
- Google ad banners
- Posters
- Website landing pages
With these assets in hand, you can start reaching out to friends, family, organizations you are connected to and offer to design marketing materials for them. You’ll be amazed at how helpful people can be.
You will get some “no’s” but that’s all part of the learning process. You won’t survive without being able to handle rejection.
Everyone has experienced rejection so don’t take it personally, just move on.
This process will benefit you in many ways:
- It will sharpen your design skills
- Develop communication skills
- Understand what kinds of concerns and questions customers will have
- How to negotiate
- How to set expectations and timelines
- Possibly develop long term business relationships
- Most importantly, you will build your portfolio
If you don’t have strong design skills or the skills to use Adobe design software yet, then go to Canva.com where you can start with pre-designed templates that you can customize.
Canva is free but with some limitations but if you pay a small monthly fee you can get full access. It’s quite powerful and extremely reasonable so it’s a great way to get started.
They have beautiful templates for just about anything you can think of.
How Do I Build a Portfolio?
When you don’t have experience, the freelance path is the best way to go because it is very rare that prospective clients will ask you about your education or previous work experience.
At this point your portfolio is everything. As mentioned above, you can start by creating spec designs and then reach out to people you know and offer to design Instagram posts, logos, brochures and flyers for free or perhaps a small fee.
This way you will quickly build up a portfolio that you can use to attract paying clients.
As you get more projects, keep refining and building your portfolio.
Start a Behance page and post your projects to get feedback from their enormous community. You can also find work with your Behance portfolio.
Can I Get a Job in Graphic Design Without a Degree?
You can absolutely get a graphic design job without a degree. While many graphic design jobs require a bachelor’s degree, many jobs do not have this requirement.
Indeed.com is a good place to look for work if you are interested in a graphic design job with a salary position. Know that most employers prefer someone who has prior related work experience with another company.
The demand for good graphic designers is high so you still have a good chance of getting a job if your portfolio is impressive. However, without experience, you will probably not win the higher-paying jobs.
What Skills Do I Need and Where Can I Learn?
Strong design skills are important of course and you should never stop developing them. There are always new techniques you can learn and refine.
If you are a beginner, you need to learn the need to understand the fundamentals of design. Always focus on good design and learn from your mistakes.
Here are some of the important concepts you must be familiar with or your lack of experience could be quickly exposed.
- Alignment
- Repetition
- Contrast
- Hierarchy
- How to create balance and balance with tension
- Color Theory
- Understanding color modes like RGB, CMYK, index color etc.
- Understanding the difference between pixel and vector graphics
- Image resolution
- How to work with Pantone colors, Spot colors
- Typography
- The importance of whitespace and how to use it
Pay attention to all the different designs that you see and think about how they made the graphic and why they designed it that way. Think about why the designer made those choices for fonts, colors and imagery.
Once you understand the fundamentals of design then you should choose a direction to focus on in the beginning.
For instance, if you choose to focus on designing things like brochures, flyers, posters then Adobe InDesign is the most commonly used software. This one is the most powerful tool to get proficient at because there is so much you can do with it.
Adobe naturally has many great tutorials on how to use InDesign software but they also have a large variety of design and creative concepts as well so they are a tremendous resource.
Once you develop strong skills with InDesign, you’ll find that Illustrator and Photoshop have many similar interface elements so it will make the learning process a little easier.
You might want to focus on logo design so look for tutorials on how to create a logo.
Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop are the most common software tools for logo design. Adobe has excellent tutorials on logo design and you can download a free trial of their software to get started.
Even if you don’t have much money to spend, you can easily learn online at any level with courses and video tutorials from various sites. Some of the best sites are:
If you have a little money to spend it’s a good idea to take some courses where you can earn certificates along the way. These types of courses are more structured and more preferred by some people.
How Do I Get Freelance Graphic Design Work?
Start freelancing on Legiit.com.
Finding clients on your own can be difficult especially if you don’t have sales experience. Once you create a profile and offer your services on Legiit, the jobs will come to you instead of you having to reach out.
You can offer different gig packages and set your price and add different upsells to boost your revenue.
It’s generally recommended that you start with lower prices and then as you build your reputation with good reviews, you can scale your business and increase your rates. Legiit is not overcrowded like some of the other marketplaces so it won’t take long to build your reputation.
A strong portfolio is going to be your most important asset when you start to look for freelance design clients.
Potential customers will want to see that you are capable of designing the kind of project that they need to have done.
If you can show them a previous project like a brochure that is similar to what they are looking for then your chances of being chosen for that job are far better.
Keep this in mind and be strategic when you create your offers on Legiit by targeting specific niches and their specific needs.
If you have done Instagram graphics for a Day Spa, then create a gig offering Social Media post design for spas and salons. When someone searches for social media posts for spas, your offer is going to catch the attention of that potential customer.
If you have designed a flyer for an Electrician, then offer a service for a flyer design for all home service businesses so it would appeal to Plumbers, Flooring Installers and other related Contractors.
The point is, try to target specific services for specific business types so you have a better chance of standing out in the crowd. Consumers would rather hire specialists, so if you position yourself that way, you will increase your chances of converting that prospect into a customer.
You don’t have to stay in that lane forever but it’s a good strategy for getting started and you could acquire customers that stay with you for many years.
The Legiit Facebook Group is a very supportive community where you can connect with other freelancers and find valuable resources.
Expanding and Developing Your Career
There is always more to learn. Spend some time looking closely at the work of other designers and learn from them by considering what went into that design and what software they probably used. Then maybe even reproduce the graphic yourself just to sharpen your skills.
Advertising is a fascinating field and if it interests you, there is so much you can learn from the legends of advertising like Bill Bernbach, David Ogilvy, Ridley Scott and Steve Jobs
As you dig deeper into graphic design you will learn a lot about marketing and the psychology behind the choices.
You will gradually build the confidence to take on any kind of design project and open yourself to a whole world of opportunities and possibilities.
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