Graphic Design: Tips for Beginners and Advanced

Graphic design is a vast and ever-evolving field. It’s inefficient to repeat the same mistakes that many have already encountered.

We have compiled several tips for different categories of designers: beginners, self-taught designers, and advanced designers.

Beginners

A beginner is a novice designer. There are many of them, and they often face numerous challenges, not knowing where to start or how to proceed. Every question feels like a major hurdle. They lack design theory knowledge and practical experience. Therefore, we have created a special checklist for beginner designers.

Follow: Visit Behance, choose 2-3 standout references, and start working! Try to replicate a webpage design and you’ll begin to understand the sizes and distances between elements.
Steal: Not literally, of course. Break down a designer’s trick or technique to its basics, understand how it works, and then do it better.
Copy: Look around, study your competitors. Take the best from them. Stand behind their shoulders and learn to copy. The only rule – never copy blindly. Analyze and understand what makes one designer different from another.
Don’t strive for originality: Start absorbing knowledge like a sponge. Read books, blogs, forums. Connect with designers, write emails, establish connections, but don’t be annoying. Don’t reinvent the wheel, just study it.

Self-Taught Designers

The second category is self-taught designers. They are very ambitious and think they know everything. They have learned what graphic design is through their own experience and many mistakes. They have studied other people’s work, but find it difficult to move forward because they feel what good design is but don’t understand the fundamental principles. They don’t grasp design theory but are well-versed in Adobe Photoshop or Figma. They rely on intuition and often look up to great examples on Behance.

Professional Fonts: Only use professional fonts for websites. Don’t use makeshift fonts. Designers with 2-3 years of experience still struggle with fonts, so trust reliable sources like Google Fonts.
Color Emotion: Remember a simple rule – subdued color palettes for corporate sites, bright colors for consumer sites. There are exceptions, and much depends on the brand, but this is the simplest rule to remember.
Content Magic: Use images and photos from professional stock photo sites. Never use unprocessed photographs in your design. If you can draw, you have an undeniable advantage over other designers. Original drawings are much better than stock photos.
Power of Words: Write the text for your website, blog, or client yourself. This way, you’ll better understand the topic. If words don’t come easy, hire a copywriter. Writing a brief for a copywriter will help you understand the design better. Trust the writing to a master of words, don’t skimp on the important stuff.
Visual Hierarchy: The most challenging part of the checklist. Start with the subject and predicate. Design also needs order.
Grid: Align everything with guides. Align horizontally and vertically. Learn to find connections between objects. Try grouping. This will help make the design cleaner.
Negative Space: Treat white space as an object, and the elements on the page will interact with each other.

Advanced Designers

Advanced designers are professionals who seek to understand the difference between good and bad design. For this type of designer, continuous learning and a desire for knowledge based on the success and failures of past projects are essential.

Treat all objects as elements: For instance, web design is a discipline of graphic design. Any page design is created from simple building blocks: lines, dots, and planes. When designing a webpage, learn to think in simple shapes.
Adhere to graphic design principles: All elements on a page follow principles: contrast, alignment, grouping, etc. These principles are described in Gestalt theory and explain how people perceive design. Your objects on the page need relationships; otherwise, they seem foreign. We often overlook the background, which works as an object. The theory of figure and ground is a key principle of Gestalt.
Monitor three parameters in a paragraph: Line height, font size, and line length are independent parameters that make web design balanced and clean. Ensure that typography effectively conveys your communication and always follow the rules.
60/30/10 Rule: When using color in web design, follow these proportions. The 60% + 30% + 10% ratio is meant to balance proportions for harmonious combinations. Choose 60% of one color to dominate, 30% of another color to contrast with the main color, and the remaining 10% as a third color to complement details and create balance.

Conclusion

Graphic design is a journey of constant learning and improvement. Whether you are a beginner, a self-taught designer, or an advanced professional, understanding and applying the right principles can make a significant difference in your work. Embrace the challenges and learn from every project you undertake.

Remember, great design is not just about creativity but also about understanding and applying the foundational principles effectively. Stay curious, keep experimenting, and continue to push the boundaries of your design skills. Your growth as a designer will reflect in the quality and impact of your work.