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What is Graphic Designing?
A graphic designer
visualizes the concepts and produces a ‘hard’ copy of the thoughts in digital
format or paper sketch with the purpose of inspiring someone, generating a
sale, motivating a customer, attracting the reader or simply conveying a
message to its audience. The graphics may be in the form of a company logo,
sales brochure, product information, marketing flyer, magazine page,
advertisement contents or management reports.
How Much
Earning with Graphics Designing?
Depending upon your
skill level and market exposure, there is a wide range of salary which you can
earn from graphics designing. A less literate who has learned the basics at his
own may be able to earn a few hundred dollars each month whereas a university graduate
in the right domain with the right skill set may have starting monthly salary
of $3500 and will get increased
$45,000 and $55,000 in the US. For further details about earning visit Bureau of Labor website.
Pre-requisites
to Become a Graphics DesignerIf your career plan is join a professional organization and continue your career growth in Graphics Designing, you might need to undergo respective graduation program or achieve certification in certain design domain. However if you are thinking to work as freelancer (working for your own), you don’t need any academic certifications. You can launch your solo consultancy business by persistently watching YouTube videos (typically 30 minutes a day) until you become a guru and easily create impressive work to attract customers on fiverr.com or upwork.com
Initial
Investment to Start:
It depends on how far
you want to go in Graphics Designing domain. For amateurs, there are plenty of
free options available (covered in later part of this article) however for
professional large scale work you have to purchase professional software such
as Adobe®, CorelDraw®, Maya ® etc.
Professional
Tools and Techniques
Following are the
most powerful graphics tools to start with:
o Adobe InDesign
o Adobe After Effects
o Adobe Illustrator
o Adobe Photoshop
o Adobe Dreamweaver
o Autodesk 3ds Max
o Corel Draw
o Autodesk Maya
o Inkscape
Here is a detailed guide about different professional graphics tools
Free Online Graphics Designing tools
Surprisingly there
are many online easy-to-use tools to create awesome graphics:
- Canva (My favorite tool)
a.
Canva.com can be used to create posters, logos, marketing material,
events, ads, brochures, student projects, Facebook covers, certificates,
resumes, infographics, wall papers and many other graphics within minutes.
b.
Canva has 1000000 pictures (mostly royalty
free). Canva offers wide range of fonts styles, shades, themes and elements. I
am sure you will love it.
c.
Up to 10 team members can collaborate on one
project. You can upload your pictures. Multiple export formats (jpg, pdf etc.)
supported.
d.
You can use public graphics and modify according
to your needs and color taste. Similarly you can make your graphics public so
others can use them too.
e.
Tip: Don’t try canva app on your mobile as it
will not impress you much on mobile devices. Remember, Graphics Designing is a
serious stuff, not just time pass.
- Stencil:
b.
It has 1.3 million photos and 1 million graphics
to choose from.
c.
2000+ web fonts, 600+ templates and 100,000 quotes.
d.
You can design post images, headers, logos, ads
and custom size pictures.
If these are not
enough, you can explore the below tools to satisfy your creativity:
- Quick and Easy Graphic Design - Snappa
- Online Photo Editor - DesignBol
- Free Online Photo Editor - Fotor
- Create Infographics, Presentations and Charts - Piktochart
- Photo Editor and Graphic Design - PicMonkey
Once you are
confident about your creativity and skills, you can proceed for making accounts
on global service platform such as Fiver and Upwork:
o
Fiverr: This is one of the largest
platforms where you can earn minimum five dollars (fiver company name comes from
this fact) for basic work (logo design, internet marketing, graphics etc.) and
the highest you can charge your customer can be in thousands. Want to know more
about Fiverr? Check this Complete
Guide On how to Make Money on Fiverr.
The guide covers signing up, creating profile, setting up your services (gigs)
and promoting your work.
o
Upwork: Upwork is a well-known online community
where individuals get connected with the businesses and collaborate remotely.
You need to create compelling profile offering suitable service charges to
attract businesses. If you get hired by any business and you deliver the
services up to the mark, your “ratings” will increase which will lead to more
business collaborations, means more money for you.
- A good resource on how to create Upwork Profile
- 7 Steps on how to make money on Upwork
YouTube
Videos
Below YouTube videos provide detail guides about Fiverr and Upwork.- How to make money on Fiverr – Complete Guide
- How to create a complete profile on Upwork – Tutorial in Urdu
- Complete Fiverr Training in Urdu/Hindi
Facebook
Groups to Learn More
Joining Facebook groups is an awesome way to
learn from others, ask questions and get answers, collaborate with businesses,
get exposed to new techniques and enjoy many other learning benefits. Below are
some groups you may consider to join:
Conclusion:
Freelancing is a billion
dollar industry and yet many Asian countries are not yet fully exposed to such
opportunities. So if you like this article, please share via WhatsApp, Facebook,
Twitter and help others to join mainstream to achieve financial independence.
Additional Recommendation:
- If you would like to learn affiliate marketing and start making money working from home, consider visiting this informative page created by Gareth James.
Additional Recommendation:
- If you would like to learn affiliate marketing and start making money working from home, consider visiting this informative page created by Gareth James.
- Check out this resource providing more information on graphics designing tools
About Author: Junaid Tahir is a telecom engineer, program manager, an analyst and author. His work has been published in several countries in magazines and websites. Junaid cares about peace-and-prosperity-for-all and economic empowerment. If you care about these causes too, please share this article via your Facebook, WhatsApp or Twitter.
