Do you have to be amazing at drawing to become a Graphic Designer and how much do you need to know about color theory?
Find the answers to these questions and much more in this blog post! Our team loved talking through these topics and hopefully you will love reading about them.
The team often get emails from aspiring Designers asking if they need to be incredible at drawing to be successful. The answer to this question is no!
You don't need to draw incredibly well you just need to be able to sketch out rough ideas. Drawing is definitely a useful skill and if you are already great at it thats awesome but if your not don't panic.
Most designers will create loose sketches at the beginning of a project just to flesh out ideas, these can be simple line drawings just to work out if a composition looks good or not!
Sketching out ideas will help you get started on a project and help create new designs you hadn't considered. It's good to keep going and get as many ideas as you can on paper in their most simple form. It may feel weird and hard to start with but push though it, like anything sketching is skill you get better at with practice!
If you don't fancy drawing on paper perhaps try apps like Adobe Draw & ProCreate on the iPad Pro.
Make sure you are not put off becoming a Graphic Designer just because you are not a naturally good at drawing.
Our drawing tips:
- Start simple: challenge yourself to redesign a simple logo or think of an object you would like to draw ( I started with coffee cups.) Then draw at least 10 versions of the logo or object. Keep repeating this process with different subjects until you start to feel more comfortable.
- Use tech: If possible try using an iPad or even Graphic Tablet to draw with. These tools mean that no mark you make is permanent and can easily be undone. If you find paper frustrating or intimidating you don't have to use it!
- Take the pressure off: You wont love everything you draw you might not even like most of it but don't panic just keep sketching it gets easier the more you practise.
- It does not have to be realistic: Loads of contemporary designers don't draw things in a realistic way, they take creative licence and use imagination. You can do this to, have fun and go a little crazy with it!
Color Thoery
This is a massive topic and it can get very confusing and technical! BUT what do Graphic Designers actually need to know about this topic to create good work?
How to create color themes
It's important to have an understanding of how to combine different colors and what works together compared to what looks out of place. To do this you can look at how others use color and use online resources like Adobe Color.
How to create color themes
Think about meaning. Different colors have different meanings placed upon them and you should be aware of this when creating work because one culture may have a very different meaning for a color compared to another.
Also check out this post we created on combing and using color to get you started and take a look at our Instagram where we share combinations you can try out!
We hope you enjoyed this post and hopefully you had the time to also listen to the Podcast where we discuss these topics in even more more detail.
Let us know what you think in the comments below and check out this post if you want to learn more skills for designers!