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As India is growing to become the third largest economy in the world, there’s a high demand for graphic designers to make more brands, designs, and ads that could boost the economy.
Just imagine a day without graphic designers, the whole world will be bland and colourless right?
So the scope and future of graphic designers in India are huge, and any one who has a basic understanding of the English language, typography, colour theory, and layout understanding can become a graphic designer.
Even though there aren’t several education options after the 12th, like medicine, engineering, CA, and government job preparation with a basic degree, the probability of getting a job is very low in India due to the present ongoing job crisis. So I don’t recommend that anybody go for another three years of education after the 12th. The basic education till the 12th is enough. After 12th, just starting new skills acquire them, and apply for internships in different companies for different kinds of industrial exposure.
But in this article, we’ll talk about the Graphic Designer career, what education, skills and tools knowledge are required to become a professional graphic designer, and how you should craft your career path, to become a successful graphic designer.
Understanding Graphic Design
The content we are watching on social media, banners, posters, billboards, menu cards in restaurants, pamphlets, leaflets, flyers, business cards, logos, and all other kinds of designs are generally designed by a graphic designer.
They are the craftsman who designs the visual elements of a business.
The main skill that is required to become a graphic designer is Storytelling.
Yes. It hits differently, right? Storytelling. The motto behind any creative expression. You must have learnt all kinds of design tools, and have installed all kinds of fonts for design. But without a compelling storytelling idea in your mind, you can’t design better.
To become a graphic designer, you have to master storytelling through design. You’ve to learn design trends and various styles of design. You’ve to learn various design software like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Indesign, Figma, etc.
You’ve to understand the basic principles of visual communication and hierarchy.
You’ve to master one design software, either Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator.
Before thinking about starting your graphic design career, ask yourself if are you ready to sit for long hours like 12 hours, or 15 hours continuously to design. Can you design for free? Can you design for learning? Can design as a career suit your future? Is Design the one that attracts you the most? Are you getting attracted towards the designs in your surroundings..? if your answer is yes to all the above questions, then you’re most welcome! You are eligible to become a professional graphic designer.
Education or Training in Graphic Design
After deciding all the above, it’s time to decide your mode of education and training for graphic design. Let me tell you that 99% of Graphic Designers are self-trained, including me. Even though I’ve done a small DTP course, it doesn’t match with Graphic Design concepts at all.
The institutes that teach graphic design as private coaching houses only focus on teaching you the tool or software. But in reality, software is secondary. The principle stays the same for any design software.
For eg, if you become a master of design software say Corel, and someday for eg. the company goes out of the country, so you’ve to learn new software. right?
But if you have mastered the basic principles of design and its core fundamentals it, then you can design better with any design software.
I would strongly recommend learning from those who are practically working in the industry in any creative field. If you want to learn Graphic Design, try to approach a graphic designer, with significant experience, and try to learn from him. similarly for other streams like Video Editing, VFX, cinematography etc as well.
The best one is YouTube. The best platform to gain knowledge and skills for FREE. In this 2024-25 period, the knowledge is abundant and sufficient on YouTube, to teach all topics from basic to advanced is available on it. Just search, watch, keep the notes, practice and learn.
It’s difficult. It’s hard. but in the beginning only. Once you deep dive into it. you’ll find it easy.
Essential Skills to Develop
Understand aesthetics in deep. Learn about the colours and observe nature. It would teach you better about the colours and their mixing with each other.
Watch more creatives and creative expressions like movies, and posters on social media, or other web platforms, Try to dive deep into them and understand the concepts by decoding the layers and the story and idea behind that design.
Learn the trending industry standard software in the market. If you have to pay, then pay. Don’t try to use unlicensed software, you’ll gradually lose interest and respect towards your profession if you do so.
Grab the license, and practice hard for at least two to three months day and night. Trust me you’ll become inevitable, invincible.
If you can pay for online platforms like LinkedIn Learning, Udemy or other well-known course platforms, then you can learn all the content in a chronological manner and understand it better. Try to do online courses only, because offline courses or live courses will cost you a lot more and give you less and less freedom to explore more because of time and resource limitations.
Follow a lifestyle of maintaining an aesthetic lifestyle, like maintaining a clean design space, a clean aesthetic display, surroundings, your studio etc, to make everything look professional. This will help you to focus. And ultimately the focus will give you the results.
Build your Portfolio
Okay, now after you learn everything, it’s time to build your portfolio. Unlike any other job, the employer will ask for your portfolio to give you a post of graphic designer, not any kind of degree or diploma, Update them on your social media profiles and other portfolio platforms, and maintain them with a PDF, Website or platforms like Behance to host them.
Try to show your uniqueness in your design. Try to find inspiration from existing great designers. It’ll inspire you a lot.
Apply for FREE* Internships or Jobs
After you feel like you’re ready. You’ve learnt the design. you’ve designed your portfolio. It’s time for some serious task. What’s better than Job Training?
If you don’t get any job, don’t worry, try to apply for internships in MNCs, They will happily offer internships just to make you learn, but remember your portfolio must be attractive to get this opportunity.
Utilise this time to learn more deeply about the industry and future growth trajectory.
After diving into the graphic design industry, you can explore other fields, like Video Editing, Motion design, UX Design, Film making etc to expand your career and maybe start an agency in the future or a production house.
You don’t know. But working hard with the right direction and right plan is the key.
You can choose to work in a particular niche-related industry or in an agency, where you’ll get an opportunity to have all kinds of exposure.
Keep up with trends.
Design trends change every year multiple times. Keep track of them. The trend will keep you apart then other designers.
Join various private design communities in Reddit, Discord etc to gain exposure to other creative minds and their style of working, which can help you grow better.
Try to attend industry-related events in your nearby area or country, You’ll get a chance to network with a lot of like-minded people. And why not, at last your network is your net worth.
Follow many design blogs on the internet, and Subscribe to their free newsletter to get the latest updates about the industry to stay ahead of the crowd.
Career Growth Opportunity
After you complete your significant contribution towards your graphic design field, you will get a lot of areas to contribute as a graphic designer, you can work as an art director, a movie director, a creative director, a YouTuber, a content creator, Social media influencers, UI UX Designer, agency owner or a FREELANCER like me.
Because after all the goal of life is to become independent. As a freelancer you can do everything by becoming your own boss.
But if you would like to continue in the industry, it will be always open for you. Because as your age grows, you become the Alpha of your industry with different kinds of exposure and different kind of experiences every single day.
Conclusion
So, I hope you’ve got a complete roadmap, about how you can become a successful graphic designer and creative professional after your 12th, if you need any help from my side, feel free to reach out, I would be more than happy to help. Just comment below!