Hey everyone. So, I got a
lot of messages being like,
"I don't have Photoshop. Can
I still learn graphic design?"
and the truth of it is that
programs like Photoshop
and Illustrator and
InDesign are just tools.
Granted, pretty important
tools if you wanna be a
professional graphic designer these days.
But, a lot of the basic concepts
can be learned with a lot
of practice and hard work
and pencils and rulers and x-acto knives.
I mean, think about it.
Personal computers weren't even around
befor the 80s and the 90s and
the first version of Photoshop
wasn't released until
1990, which, funny enough,
is also the year that I was born.
I've never lived in a
world without Photoshop.
But clearly, graphic design has
been around since before 1990.
Take a look at this graphic arts book,
which was actually one of my
Dads text books in the 70s.
There's so much information in here
and most of it is still very relevant.
So, a great thing you can
do to really get a feel for
typography and learn about letter forms
is simply to draw them,
like in this composition
that I did four years ago when
I was a sophomore at RISD.
Just grab some tracing
paper, a sharp pencil
and a few magazines and start drawing.
You can try making some
that are really precise
or have fun making
whole page compositions.
But, as you're drawing, really
pay attention to the curves
and angles and details of the type,
especially in Serif versus Sans Serif
versus decorative text.
And you don't only have to use found type.
Try printing out all of the letter forms
of some of your favorite fonts
and just draw them over and over again,
paying attention to all the details
until you can recognize it
without a second glance.
And you can also experiment
with different media besides pencils.
Try pens or markers or charcoal.
Once you get started
with projects like these,
the possibilities just open up
and it can start getting overwhelming.
A good exercise to reign your ideas in
is to give yourself limitations.
See if you can make a composition
that's only two inches by two inches.
Try to find and draw every
letter of the alphabet
in a different font.
Try drawing with your left
hand or with your foot
and see what are the most
essential shapes needed
in order to be able to
recognize each letter.
See if you can make 30 compositions
in 30 minutes and so on.
I think you see where I'm going with this.
Another exercise is to try
copying layouts by hand as well.
Once you strip out all of the text
and distracting imagery,
you can really get a sense for the balance
and hierarchy of the page,
especially if there are a
lot of different elements
all competing for your attention.
And you can start trying
to cut up your tracings
and rearrange the elements to make
different versions of the same layouts.
But, by now, I think this
video has gone on long enough.
This is only part one of graphic
design without a computer
and in the next episode,
I'll be talking more about
page layouts and hierarchy.
That video won't actually be next week
because I have a different
video planned for then.
But, if you want to be
notified in two or three weeks,
when that video comes out,
you can go ahead and click
subscribe right above my head.
I'd love to see what
you guys come up with,
so feel free to send me
photos on Twitter or Tumblr
and I'll be retweeting and
reblogging my favorites.
Thanks so much for watching.
I'll see you all next time.
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