Want to Learn Graphic Design? 8 Tips & Tricks for Beginners

 For many of us, the thought of high school conjures memories of ample notebook doodles. Hand-drawn bubble letters, pictograms, and stick-figures would decorate homework, tests, and papers -- and teachers, of course, were constantly asking us to knock it off.

And so, most of us did, perhaps because we figured out that we just weren't that good at drawing on paper. But when some of us were in high school, we didn't yet have the numerous digital options for "drawing" our ideas. But now, machines can help us bring them to life -- and it's become a career path for many people.

Graphic design is something that marketers can always benefit from learning, even without a formal education. In those cases, we enter a world of do-it-yourself education, with repeated recommendations like, "learn Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign," or, "read a book about basic design principles." And as much as those help, learning fundamentals, navigating new tools, and developing a personal style make for a tricky balancing act.

Download our full collection of blog design examples here to inspire your own blog design.

That's why we put together this list of tips that we wish we had received at the onset of our respective DIY graphic design journeys, along with some tools that can help you with them.

8 Tips for Learning Graphic Design

1) Always keep an ear to the ground.

As marketers, we already know how much there is to learn from influencers. After all, 49% of folks trust the people they know above anyone else for product or service recommendations, and in the digital age, that includes influencers.

Influencers -- who according to NeoReach are “individual[s] with an online presence who ... influence the opinions and behaviors of your target audience” -- are often willing to share the secrets to their success in their content. If you make a point to listen to and engage with them, you'll become more familiar with the online design world, which can help you discover more tips from other industry experts, become comfortable with relevant terminology, and stay on top of trends.

Wondering how to engage? Turn to Twitter or Instagram as a place to start conversations with these influencers. You never know who might respond to your questions -- and any positive connection you make can only help you learn more. Following along and joining the exchange can naturally lead you to become a part of a design community that will support you throughout your journey.

What to Do Right Now

Create a targeted list of influential designers on Twitter, so you can follow their daily insights without having to pick out their tweets from a sea of friends, coworkers, and news sources. You can use the Social Monitoring tool in your HubSpot software to do this by following the people on this list, specifically as they discuss topics that matter to you.

Add a variety of influencers to this list -- a mix of those who are well-known among most designers, those that personally inspire you, and those whose work you do not enjoy. That last point may seem counterintuitive, but consistently observing the work of that group can help you understand why you don't like it, which is a key part of understanding design.

If you're not sure how to discover designers to follow, try 365 Awesome Designers, which features the work of one designer each day.

2) Collect inspirational work.

Once you decide to learn design, start building a catalog of work you think is successful. That can be as simple as bookmarking images in your web browser, making a Pinterest board, or saving items to a folder on your computer. Like a list of influencers, a catalog of inspiring work will help you to identify trends -- both past and present -- in design as you begin to recognize patterns in the work of others. You'll also start to understand your own personal style preferences and interests. If you find yourself continually saving infographics, for example, you might start looking into specific resources to learn how to create them.

Your catalog will also serve to inspire designs you create in the future, which is underscored by the idea that "all creative work builds on what came before" -- a line from Austin Kleon's TEDx talk. If you can reference items in your catalog quickly, you'll be better equipped to begin your own projects.