Filling Graphic Design Gaps

Hi Rachel,

Great question! This is something that a lot of people struggle with. Like you, I self-taught myself Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. I use these tools on a daily basis; however, I've also learned that there's also you can accomplish in PowerPoint alone!

One thing I've learned over the years, is that no amount of training will turn someone into a graphic designer. You either have an "eye" for it or you don't. Assuming that you have a talent for it, you just need to develop it. I still don't think a formalized class will help you with that (just my personal opinion).

I learned to develop my graphic design skills by emulating others. When I'd see something cool, I'd figure how how they created it and do it myself. I'd also suggest taking the time to learn some of the basic rules and best practices regarding the use of color, fonts, shapes, etc. You'll find a ton of resources like that here. The weekly e-learning challenges are also a good way of doing this.

There's no quick fix to becoming a good graphic designer. It take practice and time. Eventually you'll find your style.

I come from a graphic design background and I can tell you that good basic graphic design skills can be learned. A few courses on color theory, positive and negative space, UI design, can go a long way. Photoshop and Illustrator are great to learn, but these are just tools that help you put your graphic design ideas into place. Just learning photoshop and illustrator (or any graphic design software) won't make you a graphic designer much like me buying a stethoscope will make me a medical expert. Don't worry about the tools too much, but focus on the fundamentals.

Welcome to the forums, Rachel.

Tim makes good points above. I admit, I struggle with creating interesting, appropriate visual looks for my courses, but I usually create something serviceable. Sure, a true graphic designer could do better, but I'm an e-learning pro, not a graphic designer. BIG difference.

How I get better:

1. Practice playing with ideas. I do most of my design work in PowerPoint, and just keep playing with an idea till I have a sort of Master slide that I can create different layouts from. There's only so many layouts you'll need. Tom Kuhlmann created an informative post on different layouts.

2. Keep a folder of cool designs I see: everything from cereal boxes to magazine ads to whatever. For instance, I recently "borrowed" a menu from a popular chain restaurant, because I liked the graphic design. When you get stuck (or want to challenge yourself) take a look at the folder and try to create something similar.

3. Get a hold of Robin Williams' Design books. I have the Non-Designer and Workshop books. She's great at explaining design concepts to non-designers. Hope that helps somewhat. --Daniel

Some great points that Daniel mentioned. I'd also suggest checking out Slide:ology from Nancy Duarte. The book is geared towards designing presentation; however, I learned a TON about general graphic design from her.

+1 Slide:ology - an excellent book, as is Garr Reynold's Presentation Zen.

Also, take a look at resources from places like GraphicRiver as they often have designs/images/logos/backgrounds/etc that you can either get very cheap or at least use for inspiration. Sometimes it's far better to spend say $6 on an set of images like these instead of spending hours and hours trying to build your own.

The non-designer's design book was pretty useful for me. It taught me some general principles of good design and got me looking critically at the designs I was creating and how I could improve them.

Thanks for all the insight! I actually have some of those books (Slide:ology and Presentation Zen), and they're incredibly helpful.

At this point, I'm keenly feeling a lack of understanding the "fundamentals," as Jerson mentioned above. I feel like I have a decent eye for design, but I don't know what I don't know. I might make some good choices by chance, but I want to make sure I can back up my graphic design choices with solid theory, the same way I can back up my instructional design choices. In my organization, more and more graphic design responsibility is falling to me, and I want to make sure I'm well qualified to handle it.

Has anyone supplemented their reading and experimenting with extra GD courses or certificate programs?

I agree with posts here and I read the non-designer's design book which was helpful to me when I first got started designing training.

We have graphic designers on staff in my current position, but I use pixlr to edit photos as needed. I agree with Daniel - I focus on eLearning development and I'm not a graphic designer, but I do see the value if you have both skill sets. I would love to learn Photoshop in conjunction with graphic design skills at some point, or at least the basics geared toward what eLearning developers need to know.

Rachel: While you are checking out certificate programs, you might check out the following titles on lynda.com:

• Introduction to Graphic Design with Justin Seeley (who's well-respected among lynda authors)
• Foundations of Color
• Foundations of Layout and Composition
• Foundations of Typography
• Before and After: Things Every Designer Should Know

Perhaps I'll take my own advice. --Daniel

As Daniel mentioned, those Lynda.com courses are great.