As a professional, it’s important to continue learning and improving your skills no matter how long you’ve been in your field. Learning allows you to grow both your skills, and in the case of Freelance Graphic Designers, your business.
In the digital world, learning opportunities are everywhere. The online learning industry is booming, raking in more than $100 billion dollars in 2015—seven years ago. The job market and ways people want to and succeed at learning is changing quickly. There’s never been a better time or more opportunity to keep learning about your craft.
So much opportunity can make it hard to tell what’s high quality, trustworthy information to learn. How do you choose who to learn from when there are 100 people offering a variety of the same course? And what’s the best way to learn, particularly in the creative fields, when there’s so much available?
4 Ways to Keep Learning As a Freelance Graphic Designer
No matter which learning style works best for you, there are places to keep learning. Whether you excel with instructor-led courses, on your own through experimentation and working with your hands, or listening to audio, there are choices to fit your needs.
These are some of the most popular and accessible ways to continue learning within the design industry. You can also use these strategies for other fields and industries as well.
Free Seminars & Courses
People often associate professional development with pricey courses and, to be transparent, boring seminars you don’t actually learn from. It’s common for individuals who work in an office environment to have mandated professional development, which feels less like growth and more like something a boss told you to do.
Freelancers, on the other hand, have complete control over how they continue to learn and grow in their specialties and overall skills. Although many in-depth courses and learning opportunities do require an investment, there’s plenty you can learn for free, too. Taking free seminars and courses can give you a clearer idea of what advanced skills you’d like to develop or hone before you pay for something more extensive.
Noble Desktop, a tech school that’s been teaching graphic design and coding skills since the 1990s, has a series of free seminars you can watch on several introductory topics like the Adobe Creative Cloud, social media marketing, and motion graphics. All you have to do to access the recording is sign up with your email address.
If you love watching videos or are already an avid Youtube learner, there are YouTube channels like Satori Graphics and The Futur that share information specifically about graphic design and the business end of being a Freelance Designer. Noble also has a fairly active YouTube channel with helpful tutorials that cover all kinds of skills and software programs you might want to learn as a Designer.
If you’re still beginning to get a feel for the industry and aren’t sure what you want to learn next, Behance is a great place to get inspired. Behance is a social media platform specifically for creatives. Hosted by Adobe, you can join for free and see projects designed in the Adobe programs from brilliant creators all over the world.
Self-Directed Online Learning
One of the most popular ways to keep learning online is through self-directed online courses. These courses, often displayed through modules, practice activities, and community groups, are extremely helpful if you’re someone who’s good at keeping themselves on track. They’re typically taught by field experts who’ve grown their business and skills around a specific topic such as starting a graphic design business. An example of a course like this is The Bucketlist Bombshells Academy, which teaches you graphic design skills, as well as how to set up your online business.
Some courses are “dripped out” which means that you’re learning the content over a period of time. Lessons and coursework is released on a schedule, for instance once per week, rather than all at once. These kinds of courses can be more helpful if seeing all of the information at the same time makes you feel overwhelmed.
If you’re not quite ready for a full blown course, there are numerous webinars available to give you an introduction to a topic or a very concise set of steps for growth. Usually these kinds of learning opportunities are less than $100 (or free). You can also look at brands you love and use Behance to get inspired. If you like something you see, analyze it and determine what skills you have and what it would take to be able to design like that brand—with your own flair, of course.
Specific Skills & Certifications
If you want to build your credibility as a Freelance Designer, or you simply enjoy more in-depth learning about topics that interest you, certifications are a great way to learn.
If you’re interested in more technical types of certifications, Adobe offers certifications for their programs. There are more than 40 programs to choose from Adobe Experience Manager Business Practitioner to Adobe Illustrator CC. These certifications offer an excellent chance to build your technical and creative skills, as well as your business reputation. Adobe certifications are sought after and known to be rigorous, so you’re sure to get the types of skills you’re looking for.
Noble Desktop also offers a range of certifications. The Digital Marketing Certificate is an excellent option for Freelance Designers because it offers coursework such as SEO, ads, analytics, and social media marketing. All of these skills are important to know as you grow your online business.
If you find social media fun, engaging, and powerful for your business, the Social Media Marketing Certificate might be a great fit for you. Included in this set of courses is material about LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, blogs, X (formerly known as Twitter), Instagram, and Facebook. Learn the nuances of each so you can determine how to best promote your business online.
Interested in seeing a breakdown of all of Noble’s certificates? Here’s a comprehensive look at the features and benefits of each one.
Practice & Doing the Work
As much as learning helps grow skills and knowledge, there’s nothing that will help you learn better than practice. The more you work on a skill or software, the better you’ll be at navigating and expanding what you can do.
In particular, taking on new kinds of projects can be extremely helpful. It might feel scary at first, especially if it’s something you’ve never done before. As long as you can look at the deliverables and know your skills can get the job done, there’s no reason you shouldn’t try.
That’s not to say taking on projects you have no hope of doing well is a good idea; but if you have a great opportunity that’s a little outside of your comfort zone, that might be the perfect chance to grow. In the same vein, looking for new types of clients you haven’t worked with before can open up these kinds of new projects.
If you’re not quite ready to take on a paying project outside of your comfort zone, you can create projects on your own. These projects, often called sample projects, are especially useful when you haven’t had paying clients yet. They can also be a good way to show off fun side projects you’ve been working on simply because you enjoy that type of work.