One of the best thighs that a graphic designer gets to do is to work in highly creative domains. Their field is the one that is filled with diversity as different industries try to bring them aboard for various purposes but mainly advertising. If you wish to opt for a career in graphic designing and want to become a good designer, then you need to get comfortable with Photoshop. Photoshop alone doesn’t make you a successful graphic designer. But being on good terms with Photoshop will help you build professional proposals. Here are 8 tips for your success in mastering Photoshop. Go here for hire top graphic designer.
Get Inspired
In any field, to get started is to find inspiration and especially in design it plays a pivotal role in shaping your skills. So once you consider taking up design, you need to start a collection of work that you feel is successful in accomplishing its purpose.You can do this by simply making your own Pinterest board, bookmarking images in your favourite web browser, or downloading items to a separate folder. This helps you to recognize both present and past trends.
You might also be able to identify patterns in others' work. In the process of looking for inspiration, you get to understand what you like to do. You get to know your own interests and style preference.
A thing about designing is all the work is preceded by some kind of inspiration. So all your savings in work might help in that and start your project faster.
There are even online platforms specifically designed for this purpose where numerous designers of varied fields showcase their work.They even give insights into their design processes and help you in starting your own creation process.
There are even apps that introduce new work naturally during your daily routine. This might be quite helpful if you find it daunting to set aside time for looking into inspiration.
Become A Dissection Specialist
After looking at the various inspirational works, you might have realised that you can start deconstructing a particular image into individual elements or how the designer might have created that particular image. You might even realise that you are looking at someone’s work who themselves are trying to master the blending of various elements.Imagine doing this regularly on a daily basis. In no time you are analyzing the design process behind every image or illustration that you come across. Now you will be able to understand the process behind creating a piece of work. You’ll also be able to know which tools were used or other technical details that you might not know before. This greatly increases your skill level and lets your creative juices flow out. Doing this you’ll find out that you know more than you think you know. Or you might be exposed to the things which you don’t know and get accustomed to them.
You can level up this dissecting process from just looking at the image to literally deconstructing it layer by layer by viewing the image of interest in Photoshop. There are various online platforms where you can get those types of files. These would make a great practise in flexing your Photoshop skills.
Experimentation
When you don’t know what to do the best way to learn is by experimenting it out. It does take a long time to come to your own status quo but it doesn’t mean any less.Experimentation also opens the doors to creativity and helps you get comfortable with the software at your own pace. Talking about Photoshop, there are numerous tools to try and experiment with. Each tool produces different results each time. There are tutorials for each tool you want to master out there.There are even effect specific tutorials which might be a great help. Follow them and try experimenting in various cases and bring out your creativity.
There will be numerous instances where you’ll be hit by an obstacle and wonder how to do something. Don’t worry every designer comes from that stage. To your numerous instances of obstacles there are numerous tutorials out there on different online platforms which are completely free.
Another important thing to consider in experimenting out is being specific in your search keywords to look for a solution when stuck in a problem. To find the specific terms for techniques, try browsing a design terminology glossary. This will help in ease your process of searching online. This also gets you accustomed with the professional words of your field.
Replicate Others Work
The best proven way of learning any new art is by imitating the work of others. But in no way you should boast the imitated work as your own work. Giving respect to the original designer not only is the etiquette but also increases you getting sincere feedback from experienced designers in your field.In the process of recreating others’ work you’ll learn new technical skills that you can later use in your own projects. You’ll even become more creative by implementing various approaches in recreating the work. But you need to keep in mind that the process of practise is more important than the end result. Don’t get frustrated if you don’t get the end design right as the original work.
One big advantage in replicating other’s work is that it helps you to gain a deeper understanding of the design technique . It also enables you to assess your own capabilities which is an important thing to know to keep track of your progress.
So what are you waiting for - choose a work from your inspirations and try recreating it in the software of your choice. Got stuck somewhere. Try googling it out or post it in one of your forums. As you have learnt earlier, use specific search queries to get better results.
Do More Projects
By this point you might have got the idea that improving quickly means doing a lot of practise and by practise. Doing the dissection and imitation of some others’ work is well and good. These will only take you so long but might be the position you desire. But doing your own original projects shows who you are and gives your work authenticity.Doing something you don’t want to do is hard, very hard. You’ll be unable to put aside some time to it, put in extra effort and might ultimately lead to frustration. This deeply affects your learning curve and you’ll see yourself going nowhere. So mostly try to do something that you feel passionate about. This way you will advance your design skills and have fun at the same time. Taking up projects that you feel passionate about greatly motivates you amidst the chaotic circumstances that you might be going through.You’ll compel yourself to get through your frustrations and try to face the uncertainty of facing not knowing what to design as you pick you new skills. All in all don’t design something simple because you think you should.
Get Feedback
One of the greatest ways of improving one's designs is by getting criticism. For some it might be as easy as a piece of cake. But for some it might be more than getting out of their comfort zone. In fact, everyone's a little afraid of the feedback to some extent. But learning to accept that constructive criticism takes you a long way in becoming a better designer. Once you try to accept the criticism, you’ll be able to understand others perspectives and incorporate their viewpoint to improve your ideas. Just the action of listening to what the others are saying might help you in opening your mind to border views. You'll always have the choice of either inculcating their ideas or not. Sometimes you do listen and not want to have any takeaways from the conversations you had. That is totally fine. You’ll be able to trust your own intuition and stand up to your own design solutions.So get out there and start posting your work on social media platforms. There are also many online forums where you can become a member and get feedback on your work. There are a ton of experienced people who are ready to give out feedback. All you need to do is to be consistent and put out your work.Go here for hire top graphic designer.
Navigating Photoshop
There are a number of tools and effects in Photoshop to use and master. Try starting with the following:a. Layers, Layers….
The one thing that is most important in Photoshop is layers. You need to know a lot about layers from adding a layer to merging layers. Sometimes you may need to utilize 10 to 12 layers to complete your project. So memorize keyboard shortcuts for various types of layer manipulations.b. Presetting Your Tools
One way to save yourself a lot of time is to prepare your tools in a particular way. This is made possible by Tool Preset Icon. By this you can save your brush kit, color palette and use them later.c. Scaling and Proportioning
One of the most important skills for a designer is scaling and proportioning. Without this the design could end up disastrous. You must always keep in mind the aspect ratio of the elements you are working with.d. Know Your Keyboard Shortcuts
Another great way of saving time is by memorizing shortcuts for the various tools you use. Remembering shortcuts of all the tools is very scary, so try memorizing them on priority basis.Enter Competitions
Entering competitions opens doors to whole new worlds. It enables you to develop confidence in your own skills and get ideas within the deadlines. They foster new bonds with new collaborations and teach you the importance of teamwork. In working as a teamplayer you also get to become a better communicator. You’ll be able to master the attitude of getting the things done which would become your greatest asset in climbing the ladder of your success. The best part about participating in competitions is that you get to learn all this stuff while literally having fun. At the end they enable you to give out the best in you to create something specific which for you is able to get feedback from distinguished designers in your field.Hope these tips help you in becoming a good designer and all the best for your future.
About the Author:
Sunny Chawla is a Managing Director at Alliance Recruitment Agency. He specializes in helping client for international recruiting, staffing, HR services and Careers advice service for overseas and international businesses.
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