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3 Skills You Need To Be A Great Print Designer

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Alex Sanders
3 Skills You Need To Be A Great Print Designer

Thanks to technology, people who want to be graphic designers no longer have to be really great at drawing by hand. Rather, you can now use software and programs to create your designs for you. However, this isn’t necessarily any easier than drawing by hand, especially if certain parts of graphic design don’t come naturally to you. This can be particularly transparent when it comes to print design, as this skill is slightly different than designing for the web.

To help you become better at this part of graphic design, here are three skills you need to be a great print designer.

Educate Yourself On The Software

Before you can even begin to do print design, you first have to educate yourself on the software that you’ll be using to create your designs. Otherwise, even if you may have great ideas, you won’t be able to turn them into something tangible or be able to successfully execute any part of your design.

According to Alison Doyle, a contributor to The Balance Careers, the software and technology you should become very familiar with as you grow as a print designer should include things like the Adobe Creative Suite, CSS, HTML, Quark, and basic photo editing. Without knowing your way around each one of these software programs, you can’t expect to create print designs that are as well done as they could be.

Understand Principles Of Fonts and Colors

Just knowing how to use the software that can help you create your print designs won’t do you any good if the design you’re creating isn’t well designed. Some principles of having a well designed graphic product include understanding how and when to use certain fonts and colors.

Especially with printed materials, Daniel Bortz, a contributor to Monster.com, shares that the most important quality of your design is that it’s visible. If what you’ve designed doesn’t translate well once it’s printed, either because you’ve used the wrong colors or because you’ve picked the wrong font, you could be in some serious trouble.

Ask The Right Questions

The skills you need to be a great designer don’t only revolve around skills that you’ll learn in school or on the job. You also need some soft skills to help you communicate with the people who you’ll be making your print designs for.

One of the hardest skills for many graphic designers is knowing how to effectively ask questions in order to get the direction they need from their clients. To best do this, you’ll want to ask questions that help you get to the core of the messaging of the design so you can fully understand the project and what your client’s objectives are.

If you’re wanting to use your love of technology to become a great graphic designer, consider using the tips mentioned above as you create content for printed media.

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