Become a Better Graphic Designer

The first thing you must have, in my opinion is passion. If you're flicking through a magazine and don't stop to examine it with a sense of appreciation, then you're going to find it difficult to get far in this industry. Passion is something very powerful. It drives us to push the boundaries and put in extra time and effort needed to gain success. When you live and breathe the things that you work in, you will likely go a lot further than most people.

Next is the fundamentals of design. You can be awesome at using software, but if you don't understand what methods make effective design then you're pretty much lost. It's a lot like you knowing how to use a frying pan or an oven, but without a recipe. You would likely end up with mediocre food at best. So research and study the principles until you know them inside and out completely. I cannot stress enough how important the principles are to learn. You don't have to master the principles before starting to make designs. You can learn them while creating.

The third step is the software. Yes, graphic design principles are crucially important, but going back to that Chef analogy. You cannot make quality food if you cannot use the oven or other utensils properly. It doesn't matter if you use Adobe Illustrator, inkscape or Affinity. Whatever program you use to get the job done will be just fine. I don't personally have a bias for any of them over other ones. It's just what you like to use and what you feel comfortable. 

The fourth step is really important but I feel like most designers skip over it. You should look at existing examples of graphic designs made by professionals and then deconstruct those designs. 

Finally, sign up for a free dot design domain name of your choice to showcase your designs and your portfolio. Dot design is a more elegant URL option.  So get on board and get yourself, a DOT design domain name, completely free as well as free who is privacy and SSL certificate.