You don’t even have to get that good at drawing. You don’t have to sit in a room with a bunch of other artists trying to draw a naked woman. Learning Photoshop does not make you a designer, just like buying paintbrushes does not make you an artist. The biggest mistake is jumping into Photoshop too fast. What I really like about it is that it gives you project assignments, and then connects you to a design mentor who gives you feedback (they have really good ones who work at Facebook). This course wasn’t around when I was learning, but man do I wish it was – it would have made the whole process a lot less daunting.

Since then I’ve gotten hundreds of emails asking for more guidance and easier to follow steps, and I finally found one: Designlab. Update: I first published this blog post over a year ago. This is a guide to teach yourself design. Or you want to learn some basics for your startup or side project. Maybe you want to change careers and become a designer full-time. I’m the only designer at Exec, so I do a pretty wide range of things – visual and interaction design, print, web, and mobile app design. But I’m definitely good enough to do my job well. To be clear, I’m nowhere near as good as those design prodigies that come out of a 4-year education at an elite school like RISD. I didn’t think I was ready but started applying for jobs anyway – and got a job at a great startup, Exec. I had hacked together my own design education in 6 months while working a full-time job. I got my job as a designer without going to design school.

What is a gfx designer