- Hello, and welcome to
this beginner's guide series
to graphic design.
From what graphic design is,
skills to be a graphic designer,
design theory,
education you need,
equipment you need,
to the graphic design portfolio,
and interview advice.
This series is for anyone at any level.
So if you're interested in graphic design,
you've considered becoming
a graphic designer,
then join me as a I discuss a series
of graphic design topics.
(upbeat music)
Now in my experience,
I have created work across
many forms of media,
from print to digital.
Being a freelancer, I go
into a lot of design agencies
during the course of a year.
And I'm expected to be
efficient in various software
to deliver work to deadline.
As a graphic designer, depending
on what job you're doing,
you will have to use
particular design software.
In this video, I'm going to discuss
the creative software tools you will need
as a graphic designer,
and which software you might use
for which design scenario.
So as a graphic designer,
the main software you will
find yourself using is
Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop,
and Adobe Illustrator.
As you broaden your skillset,
you may find yourself
using Adobe After Effects
or Adobe Muse.
As a graphic designer, you
will find yourself using
a combination of the big three,
Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop,
and Adobe Illustrator.
Each one of these
programs has been designed
for a particular design task,
and each has their particular tools.
Depending on the complexity
of your design task,
you may have to use a specific tool
and a particular program,
or use a combination of programs and tools
to develop your end result.
So now I'm going to talk a
little about Adobe InDesign,
Photoshop, and Illustrator.
Adobe InDesign.
Adobe InDesign is the most powerful
desktop publishing program
and has become the industry standard,
specializing in design for layout.
InDesign provides the ability to create
and manage multi-page documents with ease.
InDesign provides powerful tools
to work with grids and typography,
while offering maximum creative freedom
to create dynamic layouts
for both print and digital media.
InDesign works by placing external links,
both raster and vector, into compositions.
These links are images or files,
otherwise prepared in Adobe
Photoshop or Illustrator.
Compositions are exported out
as single, portable documents,
which are distributed
and can be viewed online
or sent to be printed.
The type of work you'd
expect to do in InDesign is
multi-page leaflets and flyers,
posters, books, magazines,
print banners, brochures,
business cards, presentations
for print or digital,
interactive PDFs, typesetting,
and bespoke prints.
InDesign is one of the key programs
any designer should have in their toolkit.
If you're new to InDesign
and wish to learn how to use the software,
I have a 13-episode
beginner's guide course
on my channel.
If you'd like to find out more,
the link is in a description,
and in the PDF document
that accompanies the series.
The link is in the description.
Adobe Photoshop.
Adobe Photoshop specializes
in working with raster images
and creating raster graphics using layers
and applying affects with filters.
Put simply, a raster image is made
with many little square pixels.
Together, these pixels build a picture,
which we see in Photoshop.
If you're new to the
subject of raster images,
I have another video dedicated
to raster image principles.
You can find the link in the description,
if you wish to find out more.
Adobe Photoshop was created specifically
for image enhancement and
the modification of pixels
that make up an image.
However, since Photoshop's release,
it has been adding more and more tools
that has broadened the
type of work you can do.
In Photoshop, you'll
be working with images,
creating initial layouts,
and generally creating assets
to be used in other programs,
such as InDesign or Illustrator.
The type of work you'd
expect to do in Photoshop is
image retouching,
modification, and enhancements,
digital art and image effects,
web design layouts and image preparation,
web banners and animated gifs,
posters, simple print layouts,
and social media.
If you're new to Photoshop
and wish to learn how to use the software,
I have a 33-episode
beginner's guide course
on my channel.
If you'd like to find out more,
the link is in the description
and in the PDF document that
accompanies this series.
Link is in the description.
Adobe Illustrator.
Adobe Illustrator offers
specialized creative tools
for creating and modifying vector graphics
and working with color.
In recent years, Illustrator
has introduced tools
that make it behave like a
desktop publishing program,
though has limitations
when compared to InDesign.
Adobe Illustrator was designed
to create and modify vector graphics,
which are very different to raster images.
Raster images are limited to the quality
of their resolution and DPI.
Instead of being made of square pixels,
vectors are made with anchor points,
which are joined with paths
to form curves, lines, and points.
Vector shapes are
mathematical expressions,
represented visually.
This means that vectors can
be scaled up to any size
and will not lose any superficial quality.
Once created, a variety of color
and stroke effects can be applied.
If you're interested to learn more
about vector basics, I have a video
that explains and
demonstrates this in detail.
Link is in the description.
So the type of work you would
expect to do in Illustrator is
logo design, iconography,
design for T-shirts and clothing,
creating typefaces,
creating simple leaflets, flyers,
business cards, and posters,
presentations for print or digital,
infographics and blueprints and plans.
If you're new to Illustrator
and wish to learn how to use the software,
I have a 19-episode
beginner's guide course
on my channel.
If you'd like to find out more,
the link is in the description,
and in the PDF document that
accompanies this series.
So those are the three main programs
any designer will need.
Now I am of the opinion that none
of these programs are
better than the other.
Each has been designed and developed
with a specific task in mind.
They are simply different
tools in the toolbox
that can be used to tackle
a particular creative task.
Used together in the right way,
there is nothing you can't create.
Now as you broaden your skillset,
there are other programs
that you may want to explore.
For example, Adobe After
Effects or Adobe Muse.
If you start to work with
video or motion graphics,
After Effects offer
specialized creative tools
to create motion graphics.
As a graphic designer myself,
I don't find myself
using the advanced tools
of this program, only the basics.
For me, I find this program is great
to enhance my video presentations.
For me, I find it great for animated type,
color correcting footage,
video presentations,
video effects and transitions,
and simple animations.
So the last program I'm going to talk
about here is Adobe Muse.
In recent years, Adobe Muse has emerged
as a contender to the web design scene.
For designers, this is the
dream web design product
and puts the power in
the designer's hands.
Muse empowers designers to create custom
online experiences for
desktop, tablet, or mobile,
without having to edit any code.
Muse is much like Adobe InDesign,
in the way you can create a layout
and import external files,
which have been prepared
using Photoshop or Illustrator.
You can then export your web design
directly to your FTP server.
Adobe Muse works by
exporting your web layout
into HTML 5 and JavaScript.
Muse offers some great features
like publishing with a range of typefaces,
parallax scrolling effects,
social widgets, and the
ability to embed HTML.
If you're interested in web design,
I could not recommend this program enough.
So those are the programs you'll need
in order to bring your design to life.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this video.
If you did, hit the like
button on my Facebook page.
If you'd like to see more
videos like this in future,
hit the subscribe button.
And you can also follow
me on Twitter @TastyTuts.
Now in the graphic design industry,
one of the most important
things you will need is
a good portfolio.
More often than not,
this will be your ticket
to getting future work.
In the next video, I'm going to talk
about the graphic design portfolio
and discuss some of
the things you can keep
in mind to aid you in
creating a solid portfolio.
So see you in the next video.
(upbeat digital music)
