YOUTUBE Real World Advice for Graphic Design Students About Design School AdminAugust 15, 2023045 views Graphic Design Advice for Students Looking to Become a Graphic Designer One Day. If you’re going to college for graphic design or plan to pursue a graphic design degree, you need to watch this video. SHOULD YOU GO TO COLLEGE FOR GRAPHIC DESIGN? Going to graphic design school at a college or a university can help you learn the principles of graphic design. But that is not enough if you want to become a graphic designer in the real world, get hired and make a living at this. Graphic Design school is not the same as working as a designer day in and day out. BECOMING A GRAPHIC DESIGNER AND GETTING HIRED The reality is that your portfolio and experience are what get you your job. College may open doors or keep other ones from being shut, but on the other side of those doors, you are competing with people who have already done this for a living before, not just other design school graduates with a better GPA. Actual designers with years of work under their belt are gunning for the same job as you. EDUCATE YOURSELF BEYOND GRAPHIC DESIGNS SCHOOL Learn about becoming a designer by talking to designers who already work full time for a living as a designer or have recently. Understand what the day to day work of a graphic designer actually looks like. You can learn online on YouTube or other platforms. Skillshare: https://robertoblake.com/skillshare FOCUS ON YOUR PORTFOLIO NOT YOUR GPA Your body of work is how you will get hired as a graphic designer. Period. You need to do the work to build your portfolio. That means personal projects, freelancer work, client work, and yes, “dreaded spec work”. Get all the experience possible and do as much work as you possibly can, don’t try and get out of hard work. Period. BUILD AN ONLINE PORTFOLIO In addition to the traditional print portfolio, you need an online portfolio that works when you need it to and is easy to maintain. Get a website if you don’t have one. Here are some places to get an affordable website: HostGator https://robertoblake.com/hostgator WIX https://robertoblak.com/wix BlueHost https://robertoblake.com/bluehost Namecheap https://robertoblake.com/namecheap OUTWORK YOUR COMPETITION If you want to become a graphic designer, you will have to outwork people who have a better degree, or background to work with than you. And the only way to do that is to constantly sharpen your skills and learn new ones. NEVER get COMFORTABLE, always challenge and explore your creativity as a graphic designer. AUDIO MUSIC & SOUND FX https://roberoblake.com/go/audioblocks JOIN THE AWESOME SQUAD NEWSLETTER! https://robertoblake.com/newsletter MY YOUTUBE EQUIPMENT AND GEAR https://amazon.com/shop/creatorgearguide RENT CAMERA GEAR https://lumoid.com/?invite=3C46I86Q LISTEN TO THE PODCAST https://goo.gl/SEQmn8 GET A CREATE AWESOME SHIRT! https://goo.gl/lsr8uY SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE AWESOME https://youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=robertoblake2 Checkout More Graphic Design Videos: https://goo.gl/1yqkNK RECOMMENDED WEB HOSTING PROVIDER Blue Host https://goo.gl/or3zpx RECOMMENDED EMAIL MARKETING via MAILCHIMP https://eepurl.com/bugUyT CONNECT WITH ME ONLINE Roberto Blake Tweets by robertoblake https://periscope.tv/robertoblake https://instagram.com/robertoblake Disclaimers: all opinions are my own, sponsors are acknowledge. Affiliates are: Amazon, BHPhotoVideo, MyFonts, 1and1, Bluehost and Lumoid. source