: Best resources/way/curriculum to learn Graphic Design? I have a Fine Art background. I want to learn Graphic Design and be job ready in this field within six months. I am self learning and

@Harper654

There are reasons why people pay money to learn graphic design in school. So they can learn "from scratch" how to be a graphic designer, including principles and tools.

With all due respect, I feel you need to carefully re-read the answers you have gotten here. Then do more research yourself.

For example, go to job search websites and see what skills are required. You will find that most of the time, a degree is required.

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@Shanna688

After 15 years in the field i would say the very short answer is to learn the Adobe Suite, mainly Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign. Some might argue this for various reasons, but generally these apps are currently the top 3 tools for professional designers.

At the same time you need to get some work done for some friends or whoever is willing to give you simple projects to begin with.

To get a quick start while learning the software, i would avoid creating custom designs and downloading/adjusting ready-made templates of which you can find plenty on any kind of material, be that flyers, brochures, logos, etc.

Then as you make progress with this workflow, you will become more confident with your software skills and also should be able to develop initiative and create your own designs.

Good luck!

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@Debbie163

I'm posting a very limited answer because the real scope of it.


I want to learn Graphic Design from scratch and be job ready in this field.


I must say I have lived all my life doing "graphic design" "related" things, for example in high school one periodic table that was stoled two days after by a fan. I studied 4 years in the university, and worked on the field by several decades now. And I still "strugling" to be ready, because things are changing all the time.

Having said that, part two:

Art and design are not the same, take a look at this: Whose persona should I consider while designing my portfolio?

And the marked as duplicated answer: What does an artist who wants to learn graphic design need to know? among other things.

Part 3, the software... Oh, my.

The software is specific about what branch of graphic design you want to work in, and the first choice is what do you want to do?

The main categories based on the output


Printed
Electronic medium (Graphic design, UX, video, etc)
Video


Based on the specific step of the process (this list is not methodological but a brainstorming.


Image manipulation, photo manipulation
Ilustration creation
Press output, publication integration
Web UX, content
Motion graphics
Corporative design, internal comunication


So the main categories in which "Graphic design" software is categorized is:


Vector based: Corel Draw, Ilustrator, Inkscape, and some others like DrawPlus.
Photo editing: Photoshop, Gimp (and some many others)
Publishing systems: InDesign, QuarkXpress, Scribus
Presentation software
Video Editing
Animation
3D, animation and rendering, modeling, etc.


So first of all you need to decide what are you going to do.

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@Reiling762

I have been in the graphic design business for a while (1986), and right now, my programs of choice are Adobe In-Design, Photoshop and Illustrator. I am using the Cloud version of all of these programs, which is becoming the way of the world I'm afraid. But they do keep your software up to date automatically. My expertise is in the world of Print, not Web design. I would really suggest taking classes. You can take on-line courses, but either way, you really need to get a good understanding of the process. (it's kind of like saying - "I can read a cookbook, so I must be a chef") I have met lots of people over the years who are "self-taught" and all they (usually) end up with is bad design. You need to have an understanding of the printing process in order to create designs that will reproduce well. Your art background will help you, but the graphic programs that I listed above are complicated and will be overwhelming if you haven't used them before, that's why I suggest some classes. Adobe's programs mesh well together with each other, which is one reason that I like them. I also use Quark, but don't like it as much, but need to because some of my clients use it. There are many community schools that have classes, and Adobe offers tutorials but I have found that you need to have a basic understanding of the software to get the most out of the tutorials. I hope this helps a little.

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