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Best Ways to Learn Graphics Design for the Web?
ConceptDog asks: "I consider myself a fairly good web programmer. In fact, my job evolved from just fixing PC's to being lead designer for most of the new web applications for my company. I'm comfortable with formatting things using CSS, however the one thing that has always escaped me is designing custom graphics for my sites. I'd like to be able to create buttons and interesting backgrounds to punch up my designs and use in other media (Flash for example). I've always had a problem with art. I really can't draw a straight line with a ruler. What are some methods and resources others with more language oriented backgrounds have used to help make the step from just a web programmer to a real web designer?"
you can learn color theory, you can figure out what doesn't look -bad-, you can get a basic grasp of what not to do, etc..., but to really be able to make something good you just have to know how to do it without knowing how you did it, so to speak.
i saw the baby, and the baby looked at me
As a graphics designer (among other things), I vehemently reject the notion that graphics design is some magic art that only a circle of "gifted creatives" can practice. This, I cannot help but believe, is sheer balderdash, created by designers to reinforce the illusion that they are indispensible wizards. Though I was interested in art from day one, and cannot speak from personal experience, I believe that it is possible for anyone to develop the creative skills neccessary to become a good artist or graphics designer, and the fact that the poster has shown an interest is probably the single greatest hurdle. With that said, I would reccommend the following course of action: 1. Go to a bookstore and take a look at the various books they might have on graphics design, perhaps picking up one or two of interest. Visit the galleries on aiga.org. Learn to appreciate graphic design as an art, study the works of the great figures in the discipline (Paul Rand, William Golden, Saul Bass, Massimo Vignelli, et cetera), and get an understanding of the differences in style and the subtleties of different types of graphics. 2. Before deciding whether or not to commit to graphics design, download an open source app and play around with it. Try various typographic treatments, try creating web buttons, and do other practice work. See if it's a process you find enjoyable. Keep experimenting until you start to really like what you see. 3. If you have trouble coming up with design ideas, you might try playing a computer game that requires or stimulates creativity regarding design - building houses in The Sims would probably be the best example of that. If you like what you see in your studies of design, then I would encourage you to pursue it further. If you find typography, color management, and the other aspects of the discipline to be exceedingly dull after studying them for a bit, then you should probably avoid wasting your time (and your clients money) going after it, but don't come to that conclusion until you've played around with it. Remember, though, it's a serious discipline, and you won't achieve good results unless you respect it.
Graphic design is a much different beast than illustration.
Graphic design is the understanding of how colors, shapes, text, empty space, and images all work together in conveying a message (not just the substance of it, but the gist of it, the emotion of it, etc.), and applying that knowledge to the message you have to convey. It's like layout on steroids. And while some graphic designers draw all the parts of their designs, some primarily use clipart, photos, and text without doing any drawing at all.
Road signs use graphic design. The side of a cereal box uses graphic design. The tray liners at McDonalds use graphic design. Graphic design is communicating visually, not just textually.
If you're looking for ways to make buttons, there are lots of books and web sites full of Photoshop tips for doing that. Anyone can make a button. A graphic designer makes a button that is the right color and size to fit into the larger concept so it feels like a part of the whole rather than a random element slapped in.
The best way to learn graphic design, IMO, is to look at things with a critical eye. What makes other designs work for you or not work for you? When something looks amateurish, try to isolate the elements that make you feel that way. When something looks really slick, try to isolate the elements that make you like it. Over time, you'll get a better feel for what makes a design look slick or look sick, and that will be your greatest aid in better design.
- Greg
Start a happiness pandemic
Step 1: You must know that there is one prerequisite: you have to know good design when you see it. You don't have to be able to create it, not yet. But you must have an eye for telling good design from bad. If you don't have that, you probably can't be helped.
Step 2: If you can tell good design from bad (and have had some third parties confirm this!) then go out and find the very best designs in the genre you are working in. Adapt their ideas to your project and copy like hell. Your first design will either look like a Doppleganger or a Chimera. This is good! It might be illegal (though probably not) but this is practice not perfect.
Step 3: Put your design next to the good examples you found and ask yourself, "Does mine look as good, professional and polished as theirs?" If the answer is yes, pat yourself on the back. You are an instant success as a purely derivative designer. In a few months no one will be able to make any solid causal link back to the people you are ripping off, and you might as well hang up a sign and go into business. In a few years you won't need to rip anyone off anymore, at least not consciously.
Step 4: Your design probably still looks like brussel sprouts on the way back up at this point. Don't panic (yet). Get very detailed an objective about what is different between your design and the exemplars. Don't look at the whole thing, look at specifics. Why do their buttons look better? Maybe they have a background "texture" of faded lines or a graphic of some subtle color behind the links? Maybe they created a subtle 3D effect with about 2 pixels and yours is so 3D it looks like a balloon about to burst. Write down a list of theories, then attempt, painstakingly, to apply them to your design. You will do a lot of painful learning about your graphics program at this point. I recommend Photoshop for mocking up web pages, but many tools will work. If you use Photoshop, learn to appreciate layer effects, text effects, layer groups, and the magic wand tool.
Rinse, lather and repeat. You are done when your design can truly hold its own next to the exemplars. Be willing to start ripping things off entirely if you have to, to make it to this point the first time. Build an entire mockup copy of one exemplar site if you have to. Then at least you will know how to use the program to do something at that level. It will sink in, you will get faster, you'll start combining ideas of your own, and you'll gain confidence. Graphic design books and language will start to make sense to you. It's well worth the effort!