Here are the top ten free ways that you can learn graphic design, and graphic design is an incredible profession we live now in the creative economy there are more opportunities for creative professionals than there ever have been in history.

So now is a great time to be a graphic designer but what if you don’t have the money to go to school? What if you’ve already been to university for something else, but you want to make a transition into graphic design.

You’re not prepared to like lay that money out for tuition in another four years to do, so well I’m gonna share some ideas for you about how you can learn graphic design for free.

Learn About The Basic Terminology

You want to familiarize yourself with the basic lingo of graphic design the basic terminology because as you go about learning graphic design you’re going to be barraged with a whole lot of terminology about fonts and imagery and composition that you may not be familiar with, so you’re going to want to familiarize yourself with the general terminology of graphic design a great place to do. Canva is a great learning platform for nongraphic designers you can also look on Wikipedia and look up some of those terms or other terms that are used in graphic design and study up on those terms. So as you go about your learning and proceed through your learning journey you will have a basic understanding of those terms.

Learn Your Design History

Learn your design history you can understand historical movements in design by looking through Wikipedia looking through a lot of resource online about design history.

We want to understand the influences on modern-day graphic design and where they came from in history it also helps you understand historical trends in graphic design that continually show up in modern graphic design.

All sorts of historical movements in graphic design are present in modern day graphic design there is no separation in the historical timeline in lots of respects in how graphic design manifests itself aesthetically and strategically.

Explore The Greats in Graphic Design

You want to explore the greats in graphic design you want to learn about the Titans in graphic design the people who are historically significant the groundbreakers the innovators the people who moved the ball forward historically in graphic design what their beliefs were what their missions were what kind of rules they were looking to break what rules they actually had a hand in creating what work.

They did who they did it for where they were when they did it who their clients were some of the greats include people like Saul Bass or polisher or paul rand Milton glazier David Carson Massimo Vignelli all sorts of incredible titans of design that are only a google search away so you want to try to learn about those historical figures.

Play With Designs

You start doing and playing with actual graphic design and you’ve learned that history and kind of focused in on some of those greats of graphic design you want undoubtedly come across pieces of graphic design that are inspiring to you that you think are amazing.

One of the ways a free way to learn graphic design is to actually copy the pieces of those greats find some of the great designers or the great design pieces or even nonfamous designers whose work really inspires you and copy those pieces.

Number one it will help you learn design software because it will force you to learn how to do certain things on the computer unless you were challenged with having to figure it out, you might not come across and learn on your own it also will help you learn aesthetics and aesthetic choices that are made in great graphic design.

Free Adobe Alternatives

You’ve got to eventually start learning some software but you may not have the money right out of the gate to buy the Adobe Creative Suite and pay that hefty subscription fee, so until you can afford those more professional level tools there’s a lot of free tool options out there for you things like affinity designer which is very popular and has a 90 day free trial period there’s [ __ ] there’s Inkscape if there’s any number of Adobe Photoshop Illustrator InDesign like programs that are available for free online.

All you have to do is explore it a little bit and many pros really are starting to abandon Adobe products because of Adobe’s pricing structure and how they kind of put handcuffs on you over time and so there are pros who are abandoning Adobe and going to more free alternatives, so it’s not to be looked down upon to leverage these free alternatives especially when you’re at the beginning and beginning to learn.

Watch Tutorials(Learn Graphic Design Free)

Watch great tutorials seek out the best YouTubers there are hundreds of thousands maybe millions of design tutorials on YouTube free for the taking it is an unprecedented time in history to be trying to learn graphic design and all of the resources that you have at your digital fingertips to watch and learn from practice at your own pace.

Practice the tutorials that they show you you have to get in there and start pushing a mouse or Wacom tablet to dial us around in order to learn I always tell up the story that if you want to learn tennis you’ve got to start hitting some tennis balls around you can buy tennis clothes you can watch tennis videos you can kind of go-to tennis matches, but until you start hitting a ball around and knocking it over the fence you’re not going to learn tennis.

So in graphic design, it’s very the same way you really have to kind of get in there start pushing the mouse around start playing with the program start doing bad stuff at the beginning in order to learn graphic design.

Learn Designs on Websites

You want to cruise design blogs you want to search out blogs and websites that speak to your aesthetic and I encourage you though not to focus on only what you like, because here’s the thing when you become a professional graphic designer a lot of times you have to do design in aesthetics that you don’t like an aesthetic that’s right for a particular client’s industry or that serves a particular product or service or customer set that you’re going to have to excite and get the work to perform for, but it may not be in the aesthetic that you particularly enjoy.

Because in business it may be demanded of you that you are able to do that sort of work the difference between art and design is that design is art with a job to do it’s got to perform and it’s got to create some sort of action or movement on the point of a consumer, by all means, get inspired by what you love but don’t turn your back on other aspects of graphic design that you may be called on to do.

Try Something Different(Learn Graphic Design Free)

Try something different you may as you start off kind of get into a particular groove or like a particular aesthetic or start doing a particular kind of work, but I encourage you to try something different push yourself to new aesthetics push yourself out of your design comfort zone because it’s outside your comfort zone well you will learn and grow the most.

Take Free Online Classes

Take some free online classes Skillshare you can get started on Skillshare for absolute free LinkedIn has an amazing amount of learning they absorbed lynda.com and so LinkedIn has an incredible amount of learning available on it YouTube-like, I said here we are on this platform this is the best learning platform there is for graphic design for free.

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Social Media(Learn Graphic Design Free)

Go to websites like you know Instagram Behance Communication Arts AIGA so the American Institute of graphic arts the graphic artists guild and you could also join my new Facebook group it’s called brand design masters and it’s at facebook.com slash groups brand design masters it’s a private group you have to answer a couple of questions to get in but if you want to start getting to know and networking and meeting other creative professionals that’s a place to go do it there are people in there who are just starting out.

There are people in there who are very senior in the industry it’s a great place to meet and grow get feedback on your work ask questions it will accelerate your learning curve as a graphic designer and it’s free so I encourage you to head over to Facebook and join the brand design masters Facebook group I also offer a paid Master Mind level the brand design masters guild which is a private group of 810 people and that takes learning to a next level I’ve even got junior-level people in those paid groups where we set goals for each other give each other feedback and push each other to grow and expand and get better and what we do faster than you would on your own so I hope you enjoyed this article on 10 free ways to learn graphic design.