Graphic design involves using visual art for communicating with audiences or persuading potential customers to purchase a product or service. Gaining skills in graphic design requires learning design tools and techniques for creating appealing visual content. Learning skills in graphic design can expand options for work in a variety of professions and industries. Therefore, exploring training options for learning graphic design can open up career opportunities with several jobs for helping organizations ranging from small businesses to large corporations for building brand identities through developing graphics and building engaging marketing campaigns.
Crafting artwork or combining images and text for creating visual content to use in commercial, informational, or online purposes can lead to working in graphic design. Graphic design has become a vital component in business, marketing, and other forms of communications and promotions. Graphic Designers create visual design concepts to use in a variety of media. Graphic design is a skill that combines elements of visual art with graphic technologies. Graphic Designers can apply their skills to working in digital media, commercial art, or online marketing.
What Can You Do with Graphic Design Training?
Training in graphic design can open doors to new careers as well as providing people with creative growth through their work. Knowledge and experience in graphic design can lead to employment in a variety of industries or professions such as web design, video game development, or digital advertising and marketing.
With training in graphic design, prospective Graphic Designers can find work developing engaging graphics that can be included in a portfolio to appeal to potential employers. Skills used in graphic design include being able to work with a variety of Adobe applications like InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Through learning these design tools, students will be able to create complex graphics, including logos, backgrounds, and animation. Knowledge in Adobe design software can also help Graphic Designers and related professionals with being able to create elaborate illustrations armed with the skills to work in several industries in a variety of professions and capacities.
Skills in graphic design can lead to working in areas such as motion graphics and video editing that involve the digital technology used in today’s film and television industries. Experience in graphic design can help with finding work as Graphic Designers, Visual Designers, and Digital Designers with responsibilities for shaping, managing, and maintaining graphics-related content. Design professionals can also work as part of a design team tasked with developing graphics, typography, and other visual design elements in product design, marketing, or social media. Training in graphic design can also help with expanding the skill set for any ambitious Graphic Designer through learning concepts like motion graphics or visual effects.
What Will I Learn in a Graphic Design Class?
For anyone who is new to graphic design, getting comfortable with related software could represent a high hurdle. However, training to learn user-friendly applications like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop for eventually working in graphic design can help ease new learners along their way to gaining design skills. Learning graphic design provides skills in a variety of approaches for applying graphics such as static images, animated images, typography, moving titles, and animated logos. While learning anything might not be easy, training in graphic design with tools like Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign should provide a smooth transition for picking up a new set of skills.
Graphic Design
Graphic design combines elements of visual design with graphic design technology. Design skills can be applied to working in digital media, traditional commercial art, or online marketing using graphics and other forms of visual design. Graphic Designers must be able to apply a wide range of skills for creating graphics, including motion graphics for adding dynamic visual elements to otherwise static images. Graphics can be used for creating static images or animated text for web layouts as well as inserting dynamic graphics into video presentations with content in a variety of media.
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics design tool used in a variety of industries for creating and customizing graphics and illustration that can be used in digital and print media with products and clients who include creating infographics and promotional material. As the industry-standard vector design tool, Illustrator can help with improving any Graphic Designer’s career options. Illustrator offers time-saving features such as Repeat Patterns and Global Editing that can help with creating graphics in a variety of sizes and formats. Adobe Illustrator is among the most popular vector graphics applications used in visual design by professionals and organizations for creating resizable illustrations, designing visual elements in videos, and developing motion graphics through its vector creation tool integrated across the Adobe Creative Cloud.
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is the world’s most popular photo editing software used by Photographers, Graphic Designers, and other design professionals for retouching and other design purposes, including social media graphics, web design, and app design as well as graphs used in animation with Adobe After Effects. Learning Photoshop is a necessity for any career associated with visual design in today’s digitally saturated marketplace. This photo editing application provides hundreds of tools that Graphic Designers can use in visual design projects beyond just photography. Photoshop can also be used with animation, graphic design, web design, or UX design as a tool that can be applied in many formats due to its versatile functions for facilitating visual creativity.
Motion Graphics
Skills with motion graphics can be used for working in a variety of design professions, including web design, social media marketing, digital advertising, film and television, and video game development. Graphic Designers often use motion graphics to help with attracting audiences or with comprehending complex content more easily through animated visualization. Motion graphics has become popular in several areas of media for connecting with a wider audience of potential customers.
Adobe Dreamweaver
Adobe Dreamweaver is a web development application used for creating websites. Dreamweaver provides Web Developers, UX Designers, and other web and design professionals with a tool for building and managing professional-looking websites that includes a variety of options with graphic design. Graphic Designers who have skills with Dreamweaver can create basic HTML layouts as well as prototyping webpages before publishing to help with application design, information architectures, and UX design. Graphic Designers in particular can use Dreamweaver for applying a variety of aesthetics to websites and web designs to help with more effectively engaging online users or potential customers.
How Hard is It to Learn Graphic Design?
For anyone interested in learning graphic design who has anxieties about how difficult the training might be, picking up new skills greatly depends on an individual’s ambitions. Learning graphic design will be affected by a student's experience and purpose for the training. Other factors include whether someone training in graphic design has a current job or other obligations, as well as the level of training involved and which graphic design tools a person may be familiar with.
What Are the Most Challenging Parts of Learning Graphic Design?
For anyone training in graphic design, getting comfortable with related software for learning a variety of design techniques might stand as the biggest challenge. However, training with user-friendly applications like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop to learn graphic design can help ease new learners along their way to mastering design skills. Learning graphic design provides skills for working with a variety of approaches for applying graphics, including static images, animated logos, typography, and moving titles. Learning anything new is never easy, but training in graphic design techniques with tools like Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign can provide an efficient method for picking up a new set of skills.
How Long Does It Take to Learn Graphic Design?
As with many skills related to technology, many who have considered learning graphic design might believe that the training might take too long to complete. However, as with many creative skills, learning graphic design may not necessarily take very long. Learning the basics of graphic design software like Illustrator or Photoshop can take a few hours or days, while training to learn more advanced design concepts with those same applications could require weeks or months of training.
Should I Learn Graphic Design in Person or Online?
Graphic design is a broad field with different options for training people who live in Houston. Students in Houston can enroll locally for in-person classes to learn everything from the fundamentals of graphic design to advanced training in certificate programs focused on providing expertise in a variety of design software and techniques. In-person training offers a practical way for developing skills in graphic design through real-time, hands-on instructions that allow students to learn methods and software for working professionally in visual design.
However, while some people living in Houston might be eager to learn graphic design to qualify for working in a new career, many may not be eager to deal with traffic to find a classroom somewhere in the city after a long day at work. Live online courses can give students options for gaining the same level of education that they would get from sitting inside a classroom without having to go anywhere. Virtual learning provides hands-on training where students can ask questions and get answers in real-time, and even allows for an instructor to control a student’s computer screen remotely to demonstrate or clarify a concept.
Noble Desktop, for example, offers live online graphic design training for people living in Houston and everywhere else to be able to take advantage of training in graphic design. Noble Desktop provides interactive graphic design courses that can help students fulfill career ambitions. These courses include graphic design classes, bootcamps, and certificate programs for learning a variety of design software taught by experienced professionals who introduce new learners to a variety of concepts related to visual design.
Can I Learn Graphic Design Free Online?
For people who don’t feel quite ready to pay for in-person or live online training courses to learn graphic design, there are free learning options available from a variety of online education providers. This includes Coursesity, which offers the free Design Workshop for Beginners with Free Design Elements course. Anyone interested in initiating training in graphic design can also take advantage of Udemy’s free Introduction to Graphic Design tutorial or Envato’s Free Graphic Design Trends video tutorial on YouTube. Additionally, Noble Desktop offers free video tutorials for learning graphic design, including the ||CPN549|| seminar, which provides practical insight related to working in graphic design for creating logos, graphics, and other types of images used in websites, online marketing, and social media. This free webinar introduces new learners to graphic design for working in a variety of capacities. Noble Desktop also offers free tutorials related to graphic design that include the Intro to Adobe Creative Cloud seminar, the Intro to UI Design seminar, and the Get Started in Design: Graphic, Web, UX/UI & Motion seminar.
What Should I Learn Alongside Graphic Design?
Training in graphic design can include learning a wide range of skills for working in print, digital media, or video for career options in a variety of industries. For example, Graphic Designers can expand their skill set by learning motion graphics that can lead to finding work in film and television or designing animated graphics for websites, online videos, or social media. Learning Adobe After Effects can provide skills in motion graphics as well as knowledge for crafting visual effects.
Graphic Designers may also want to learn video editing to integrate graphic and audio content into coherent visual presentations by learning Adobe Premiere Pro or Apple Final Cut Pro. Learning skills adjacent to graphic design such as motion graphics, video editing, visual effects, or UX design offers a varied skill set that represents a visual cross-pollination to give Graphic Designers flexibility for working in a variety of media.
Industries That Use Graphic Design
Houston, the fourth largest city in the United States, has a distinct place in history related to aerospace technology due to its association with NASA. Houston also has ties to shipbuilding, the oil industry, and biomedical research. Because of this, the city gained a reputation for tech innovations long before the tech industry became an everyday part of people's lives. Within the tech industry, graphic design plays an important role, so skills in motion graphics and animation software could open up options for employment. Finding work in graphic design can include many industries for employment in marketing or handling the look and feel of a company’s online presence. Graphic design and web development are essential to the economy of a city like Houston as it is for places like San Jose or Seattle, which have more prominent associations with the tech industry. Because of the role of web and digital technology in everyone’s day-to-day lives, the need for Graphic Designers in making websites appealing for drawing in online users is vital. Houston offers career opportunities for working in graphic design in today’s digitally saturated marketplace. Learning design tools like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop can provide the technical foundation for working in a variety of professions involving digital and print graphics in Houston. However, while skills with Illustrator or Photoshop by themselves cannot anchor a career in visual design, combining training in these graphic design tools along with knowledge and experience in other areas of design should provide an appealing portfolio and resume. Listed below are several industries and professions for applying skills in graphic design:
Graphic Design
Work in graphic design requires using a variety of graphic design tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign that provide design options for working with clients in several industries. Graphic Designers can apply skills to create design layouts for promotional materials such as flyers, brochures, and business cards along with designs for books and magazines. Houston offers virtually limitless options for people who have skills in graphic design.
Marketing and Advertising
Marketing and advertising agencies must develop tons of digital content for promoting clients, products, and services to a variety of consumers. While written content is essential for communicating information about products or services, visual design is vital for attracting eyes in promoting those products or services. Training in graphic design can create career opportunities for people who have skills that can help with drawing in potential customers using visually engaging marketing and ad campaigns that can guide observers to the written content. The right image can grab the attention of online users through dynamic graphics along with descriptive text. Graphic Designers can apply engaging graphics for creating logos, animated text, and visual effects in websites, social media, and videos that play a vital role in establishing an organization’s brand identity. Graphic Designers create visual content used in marketing and advertising on television, websites, and social media.
Digital Design
Skills with visual design tools can be applied in graphic design for creating visual elements that make websites and video presentations more dynamic. Digital designs can be used for illustrating web design layouts or visual presentations that can help with enhancing content in a variety of media. Training in digital design tools like Photoshop can provide skills for working in visual communications on websites, television, or social media. Digital Designers can help bring any client’s visual concept to life for attracting and engaging audiences and potential customers.
Skills with digital design tools like Adobe Photoshop can be combined with other graphic design tools available through the Adobe Creative Cloud, including Illustrator or After Effects for integrating files to create motion graphics, animated text, or animated logos for use in a variety of media. Graphic design applications like Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, and Premiere Pro can be used to design and develop visual effects for websites, apps, movies, television shows, video games, and music videos.
Film and Television Industry
The television and film industries look to hire Graphic Designers, Video Editors, and other design professionals who know how to work with a variety of visual design tools for creating material in different media. Skills in graphic design can be used for creating graphics, motion graphics, and visual effects for commercials, movies, television shows, or online videos. Graphic design in film and television can include static images and motion graphics for illustrating or animating graphics and typography for movie titles or end credits, creating visual effects for music videos, adding graphics to a news program, or creating an infographic for a documentary.
Graphic Design Job Titles and Salaries
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment outlook for careers related to art and design projects is expected to increase by three percent between 2023 and 2033 for designing content in print and digital media. Graphic Designers create layouts, production designs, and graphics for organizations in several industries such as print advertising, online marketing, magazines, and websites. Companies in Houston depend on Graphic Designers for working in web development, digital marketing, and print publishing to connect with online users and potential customers. Possessing graphic design skills and experience can give Graphic Designers an edge when finding employment in the city’s growing technology and design labor force.
Graphic Designer
Graphic Designers are able to apply skills in design for making visual elements in content more appealing with print and digital media. Graphics can help with enhancing the look and feel of any design layout as well as illustrating print material. Training in graphic design can improve anyone’s career options for working in visual communication, including television, web design, and social media. A Graphic Designer working in Houston can make an annual income ranging from $33,000 to $109,000. Graphic Designers can help bring any organization’s visual concepts to life to attract and engage online users and potential customers.
UX Designer
UX Designers handle the accessibility and ease of the user experience for navigating websites or smartphone apps. Part of a UX Designer’s responsibilities involves designing engaging graphics that contribute to the visual appeal of apps and webpages to draw users into purchasing products or services. Working as a UX Designer can bring in a salary between $93,000 and $171,000 a year in Houston and requires possessing skills with graphic design tools like Figma. Figma is a web application that helps UX Designers create prototypes for websites to test interactivity and ensure a seamless user experience.
Visual Designer
A Visual Designer creates artwork and other visual concepts to use in digital media and other areas. Visual Designers have responsibilities in a variety of industries that include web design, marketing and advertising, and film and video production. In Houston, a Visual Designer can make a yearly income between $33,000 and $91,000. While some companies may have their own Visual Designers as part of an in-house design team, many Visual Designers work as independent contractors. Working as a Visual Designer typically requires collaborating with Web Designers, UI Designers, and Product Managers who may be part of a design team.
Web Designer
Due to the versatility required for working in web design, graphic design experience can provide anyone with a variety of career options. Graphic design skills can contribute to finding work as Web Designers, who can earn from $29,000 to $90,000 a year in Houston. A Web Designer is responsible for designing the look and navigation of websites. The profession requires being able to combine graphic design with computer programming skills to produce both visually appealing and efficiently functioning websites and mobile apps. A good Web Designer must have vision for designing websites that can attract users and must also be able to anticipate how users might navigate a particular website.
Digital Designer
Digital Designers design websites, smartphone apps, and online ads by applying skills in graphic design, animation, and visual effects. Digital Designers are able to work in various areas of web design, including digital marketing, social media, and print media. A Digital Designer can earn between $34,000 and $191,000 a year in Houston. Digital Designers can apply their skills in using a variety of graphic design tools for prototyping newly developed websites and applications to ensure that everything works as expected for users to be able to access content on smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers.
Graphic Design Classes Near Me
While there are plenty of live online courses available for learning graphic design, many people simply feel more comfortable learning inside a classroom with an instructor in front of them. For those individuals, there are schools throughout the Houston area that offer in-person graphic design-related training. Developing skills in graphic design can open up career options for working in one of the largest cities in the country. Students can enroll for in-person training to learn anything ranging from the fundamentals of graphic design to certificate programs focused on gaining expertise with design software. In-person classes offer a practical way for developing skills in graphic design through real-time instruction that allows students to learn a variety of techniques with design tools for working as Graphic Designers.
While some people living in Houston might prefer attending classes in-person for learning graphic design skills, others may not be eager to deal with traffic after a long day at work to find a class somewhere in the city. Live online courses give students options for acquiring the same level of education that they would get from sitting inside a classroom without having to go anywhere. Virtual learning provides hands-on training where students can ask questions and get answers in real-time and even allows an instructor to control a student’s computer screen to demonstrate or clarify a concept. Listed below are a few in-person and live online courses, bootcamps, and certificate programs for gaining skills in graphic design:
For anyone considering a career in graphic design, you can enroll with Noble Desktop for the ||CPN548|| program. This course will train you in a variety of Adobe design software, including InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator for gaining a comprehensive understanding of graphic design concepts and processes for being able to create modern designs for expanding your skill set. Lessons cover composition, typography, color, and design theory. Through this certificate program, you will be able to compile a portfolio built from projects that include social media graphics and cover art that you can use to impress potential employers. This program offers 1-on-1 mentoring outside of class as well as an opportunity to take the course for free within one year.
You can also enroll at Noble Desktop to get the UI Design Certificate. This certificate program trains participants in fundamental skills related to user interface design for creating websites and smartphone apps. Lessons will focus on graphic design and interfacing for designing, developing, and prototyping websites and applications along with best practices for creating and testing apps and webpages. Students will also learn about composition, typography, user interface elements, and color. Upon completing this program, students will compile a portfolio filled with projects that showcase their skills to potential employers. Students should feel comfortable using computers to participate in this course. As part of this program, students will design a website and an app and are encouraged to have a project in mind by the time the class starts. This program offers 1-on-1 mentoring outside of class as well as an opportunity to retake the course for free within one year.
The University of Houston Online and Special Programs offers the UX/UX Design Course that provides training for new learners in digital design through focusing on the user experience and user interface. Training aims at helping students develop design skills for creating websites, apps, and software. Lessons cover competitive research, designing an efficient user experience, applying design aesthetics, testing accessibility, and creating design prototypes.
Prospective Graphic Designers can choose Certstaffix Training to take the Adobe Photoshop (2024) Course. This course trains participants in the basics of working with Adobe Photoshop to help with finding a career in graphic design. Lessons cover learning the fundamentals of working with Photoshop, including editing photographs, compositing videos, printing 3D files, painting with the mixer-brush, and producing vectors. Upon completing this course, students will be able to use Photoshop in a variety of capacities for working in graphic design. It should be noted that Certstaffix courses are taught using remote instructors who are not in the same room as their students but teach these classes live online. This three-day course can be taken live online or inside the Certstaffix lab located in Houston.
Anyone interested in learning graphic design can enroll in the Adobe Illustrator 101 Training Course available through Ledet Training. This course trains participants in the basic functions of using Adobe Illustrator. Lessons will cover artboards and workspaces through hands-on training for learning how to use the Tool Palette, the Pen Tool, Live Paint, and basic patterns. Training includes learning basic functions and tools for designing and illustrating vector graphics. Upon completing this course, students will be able to create professional-looking logos and type effects as well as designing complex airbrush effects using Illustrator.
People who have been considering training in graphic design can enroll with Sonic Training for the InDesign Introduction/Intermediate course. This program trains students in Adobe InDesign on both beginning and intermediate levels. The purpose of this course is to familiarize individuals with concepts related to print layout and design for using InDesign. Students will learn the tools and functions relevant to using the desktop publishing application. Lessons focus on creating digital and print publications as well as learning about photo placement, object manipulation, text threading, and text formatting to apply in graphic designs, publications, master pages, and visual effects. This course focuses on basic and intermediate techniques related to using InDesign for enhancing the appearance and function of any document. Upon completing this course, students will be able to manage an InDesign work environment to create professional-looking documents for print and digital distribution. This course allows students to retake the class for free within six months for any reason.
You can enroll at Noble Desktop for the AI for Graphic Design course. This class will train you to work with artificial intelligence by using the Adobe Creative Cloud. Lessons cover applying AI technology to graphic design using a variety of Adobe graphics applications, including Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Upon completing this course, you will be able to use AI in composition, typography, color, and design theory to enhance the creative process for designing graphics along with descriptive text prompts in developing text-to-vector graphics for keeping pace with ever-evolving technology related to design. If you plan on enrolling in this course, you should feel comfortable working with computers. This program offers 1-on-1 mentoring outside of class as well as an opportunity to retake the course for free within one year.
Graphic Design Corporate Training
Are you looking to train your staff in the most up-to-date graphic design skills and tools? Noble Desktop offers corporate training in graphic design that can be conducted either onsite at your company’s location or remotely using a teleconferencing platform like Zoom. You also have the option to purchase vouchers at a discount for Noble Desktop’s public enrollment graphic design courses.
If you’re ready to get your workplace up-to-date with skills in graphic design, contact corporate@nobledesktop.com for more information or to discuss a free consultation.