Welcome to Part 1 of my No-Nonsense Guide for Learning Graphic Design. I’m Tirso Gamboa, a former creative director at Condé Nast, Hearst, and Time Inc. If you’re trying to learn graphic design without going to design school, you’ve probably encountered a lot of bad advice online. Not to call them out (which is a disclaimer that I’m about to call them out…), but that’s largely because of content creators. I don’t consider myself a content creator, but instead a designer who makes content. The difference is that content creators make it about them. My content is focused on you, so you can actually learn graphic design as a self-taught designer, without spending $100K on design school.
If you’re here, you’ve likely encountered advice that hasn’t really pushed the needle for you in your design journey. Some of that might be from blog articles of videos that say, “All you need is…”, “Top 10 Hacks…”, “Fastest way to become…” I can tell you with my full chest that
“The slow and proper way to learning design is the fastest way to get to your goals.”
The problem isn’t that design school is a scam. It’s that design school is either too expensive, or if you chose a different career path, you might feel like it’s too late to go back. Whichever your situation, my goal for this series is to help you become a graphic designer by replicating a design education without the $100k price tag.
And I first start by debunking the internet.
This post covers the myths holding self-taught designers back. Want the complete roadmap?
1. You Don’t Need a Graphic Design Degree (But You DO Need an Education)
You don’t need a graphic design degree, but you do need an education, and a proper one. The reason being, you aren’t just competing against other self-taught designers, you’re competing against graphic design graduates who spent four years learning theory, curation, and how to talk about their work. If you want to beat them, you have to replicate that 4-years of rigor.
2. Can You Actually Make Money as a Graphic Designer?
There are some people who claim that there is no money in graphic design. I’ve found that those are the same people that haven’t put in the work necessary to be marketable. My take is that
“Graphic design is the only way I know how to make money.”
Companies always need marketing, social media, websites, etc. They’re paying someone, why can’t it be you?
Graphic designer salaries are real: Junior Designers in NYC average $70,000. Art Directors and Creative Directors often break six figures. If money is your only goal, a graphic design career probably isn’t for you. But if you want a career you love that also pays for a high quality of life, it’s very much possible.
3. What Online Education Can’t Teach You
When you learn graphic design online, there is a huge focus on learning software. In graphic design school, they focus solely on process, which is hard to learn online. You can learn software on YouTube. You would need mentorship to guide you along the way because it’s not just about following THE design process, it’s creating your own design process that works for you so you can execute good work, consistently. For example, online tutorials show you the final Photoshop layer stack, but they don’t teach you how to handle a client who changes their mind five times—or how to defend your design choices in a room full of stakeholders. Basically, online education teaches you how to reach a specific result, while design school teaches you to the process to create solutions for design problems.
4. Stop Designing in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator
One of the worst pieces of advice online is that you’re able to design in Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator. The issue is that these are not the primary tools of working designers, and when people learn these first, they’re learning skills that don’t apply to the job. Adobe InDesign and Figma/Adobe XD are the industry standards for a reason. Adobe InDesign is for print. You’re able to typeset properly, and preflight files to send to the printer. Figma is the most common tool for screen-based design. It depends where you work, but some companies also use Adobe XD. Both limit you to the constraints of interaction, which is a good thing because it ensures that your designs can actually be built by a developer. You also can’t send Photoshop files to a printer OR a developer. There are two choices here. You can struggle to learn the proper tools now, or have an even harder time finding a job later.
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5. How to Tell If a Design ‘Expert’ Is Actually an Amateur
Unfortunately, a lot of content creators are amateurs pretending to be experts. They aren’t able to find work in design, so they turn to “design content.” For those creators, I challenge, how can they guide you to the destination when they’ve never been on the journey?! I don’t need to call anyone out specifically. I’m also not trying to be a hypocrite about this. My portfolio is at tirsomisu.com. If it doesn’t resonate with you, no problem at all. I urge you to look at other creators’ portfolios and follow the ones that are doing the work you want to be doing. If they don’t provide a portfolio, that’s a huge red flag.
6. Why Your Portfolio Shouldn’t Niche Down (Yet)
In the beginning, cast a wide net. I see too many graphic design portfolios that are 100% branding or 100% illustration.
“When I’m hiring, I’m looking for a generalist who can handle a variety of problems.”
The reason being, the job of a graphic designer has expanded so much over the years. You’re often responsible for all things creative, whether that be social media, branding, web design, video, etc. The more skills you present, the more marketable you are. When you are focused in one area, you miss out on other opportunities. You can niche down later in your career, but for your first job? Prove you can handle the breadth of the craft. Once you have a group of portfolio-worthy projects, how should you showcase it?
7. Instagram ≠ Portfolio: What Hiring Managers Actually Want
Creating a “design” Instagram is quite popular with self-taught designers. People do it with the idea of getting noticed, and don’t get me wrong, some people do. What’s not quite accurate about this approach is that an Instagram link isn’t a portfolio. A portfolio is a curated collection of 5-10 projects with case studies showing your process, problem-solving, and results. An Instagram is 100+ posts with no context or narrative. I don’t want to contradict what I said earlier about companies paying for social media. Although that is true, the proper way to showcase those skills is through a campaign or social media project that is presented in a portfolio. You can apply to a job with a portfolio. You can’t with an Instagram link.
Conclusion
These are the seven myths that keep self-taught designers stuck. Skip the hacks, learn the right tools, and build a portfolio that actually lands you graphic design jobs. In Part 2, I’ll break down exactly what graphic design skills you need to learn.
Stop guessing what to learn and have a guided path using my No-Nonsense Guide for Learning Graphic Design.
