Top 9 ways to improve your design skills

Top 9 ways to improve your design skills

When someone finds out that I'm a graphic designer, I usually hear something similar to these responses. "I just don't have the knack for designing this kind of thing." "I wish I could, but I'm not very creative."

And while I agree that some people are more familiar with design than others, I'll be the first to tell you that you don't have to get a degree in design to implement a great design.

Whether you're a freelance designer just starting out with a client or you're a business owner facing the task of designing for their brand and website, you can create creative designs… just be prepared to learn and practice!

In this article, we review together 9 ways to improve your design skills, as soon as possible.

Subscribe to design blogs

One of the best ways to improve your skills is to get involved in design content by following blogs about design. Here is the list of blogs you must follow:

Canva Design School – This blog is a treasure trove of helpful design posts. From inspiring reports about great presentations and banner ads to how pop art implements your designs, you can learn a lot of great design principles and strategies by following the design school content.

Design Blog - Keep up with the latest fonts and new designs for branding, illustration, packaging, stationery, print, and more. I could stay at this site all day looking for inspiration!

Top 50 Design Blogs – This list is full of blogs related to design topics. If you want to dive deeper into the creative work for the next 3 hours, visit this link.

Take an online course

One of the biggest hurdles in learning design is to bring it to life, and this comes through learning how to use design software.

There are a lot of tutorials available on Adobe Creative Suite, you will gain a lot when you enroll in one of the online courses.

So instead of having to compile videos from YouTube, you will be guided on exactly how to use the program from start to finish.

InDesign Field Guide - In this course you will learn InDesign easily. It's also geared towards freelance designers and creative business owners, which is a plus!

Adobe Illustrator Basics - This course teaches you the basics of Illustrator. Video lessons and training files guide you through the various functions of the program that will help you create custom graphics that are unique to your business.

Once you learn the basics of design software, you can continue to improve your skills and pick new tricks by watching YouTube videos.

 Read books and magazines

Reading books and magazines is another great way to indulge yourself in great design. And whenever you find a great design, save it and re-design it again

These books and magazines are at the top of the list:

Logo Design Love - This book is a great guide for designers and business owners who want to understand what the logo design process is all about. David Airey doesn't use a lot of designer jargon. Instead, it simply explains the logo design process and makes it accessible to people at every level. The love of logo design is a great resource!

Thinking With Type Typography is a critical component of good design. In this book, Ellen Lupton shares everything you need to know about designing with type.

HOW Design Magazine - Spend hours upon hours in the Barnes & Noble magazine section browsing design magazines and getting inspired for new projects.

Follow with other designers

This is not an endorsement to copy the work of other designers. There is a fine line between inspiration and theft.

But surrounding yourself with other designers, even on social media, is a great way to learn from new design ideas the longer you follow their work.

Pay attention to the cool design to see what it does right

Good design and bad design are all around you, whether you're passing storefront signs or billboards on your morning commute, walking the aisles at the grocery store, reading magazines in the waiting room at the doctor's office, or browsing the Internet.

Anyone can tell good design from bad design, but not everyone can tell you what separates the two.

If you want to improve your design skills, start paying attention to good design and try to visually identify why it works.

Is it the color palette? Or font options? Or planning? Or what?

You can take the same approach with bad design. To find out the flaws? Why is the design not working?

Use templates

It's OK to start with templates if you're a design novice!

The more you use good design templates, the more you will learn about design elements that work well together.

Recreate designs for learning

During my first year in design school, one of my professors asked us to choose a famous artwork and recreate it.

You might have the same reaction you got at first: "Wait, do you want me to copy their work?!"

But this was just an exercise, and it was very useful.

By trying to recreate the work, I learned a lot about the technique and gained a new appreciation for the artist's talent.

So while I don't encourage you to copy the work and claim it as your own, I encourage you to try and recreate some of the designs you've seen and liked from other designers.

This is just for practice and practice and I don't recommend sharing it anywhere. But by trying to imitate the work, you will learn some new techniques.

Experience

The design needs to take risks and focus on things. And developing your own style comes from experience and a desire to be different.

So grab a sketchbook or open up Adobe Illustrator and just have fun!

Don't put too much pressure on yourself; No one else has to see what you're working on.

By trying new things and building on the design knowledge you've gained, you'll come up with your own unique style and start to differentiate yourself.

Ask for feedback and criticism

This is definitely the most effective way to improve your design skills, but I'd argue it's also the most effective.

We often have blind spots in our work. Since the design is so personal, it is easy to overlook points where we can improve.

You will never see your blind spots and will not improve if you do not ask for feedback and criticism on your work.

I say this knowing how difficult it is to accept criticism, but I see how much criticism has improved my projects.

There is a good mix of trained designers, freelance designers, and encouraging business owners who always have great insight into the design business.

Which of these tips or resources are you most excited to implement? How are you trying to improve your design skills? Don't forget to share it in the comments!