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Designer Edmar Cisneros has an interesting and unique philosophy regarding design that can be seen through his work. Edmar’s relationship with Photoshop has flourished over the years and it has lead to him to discover his own style. In our inteview, Edmar discusses his struggles and triumphs with art and Photoshop. Please take a moment to review this excellent interview.

Hi everyone! My name is Edmar Cisneros, I’m 22 years old and currently live in Mexico City. I work as a freelance graphic designer and Illustrator and I’m currently perusing a degree in Digital Animation. I started out with an old copy of Paint Shop pro; I used to retouch pictures back in 2007 and at that time I stumbled across a little site called Deviantart where I was introduced to the world of digital art. Eventually I discovered some art communities such as Evokeone, Depthcore and Slashthree where I was really impressed with the quality of images that could be produced using Photoshop and so I guess I got hooked since then.

I used to spend a lot of time messing around with Photoshop, looking for tutorials and inspiration sites as well as submitting everything I did to Deviantart for comments and feedback. I got obsessed with it and with that I became better little by little.

Revenant

When I was younger I got into the habit of spending entire nights drawing and painting random stuff. After a few years of keeping this up I lost interest from one day to another until I got into digital art. I switched my pencils and brushes in for my computer and I rediscovered my interest in the field.

UV-9

I remember the first time I used Photoshop I downloaded some grunge and floral brushes and started making a mess with them. I found the program kind of difficult to use but as I got more interested with it I started searching the web for tutorials on how to use it. PSDTUTS+ and Abduzeedo being two of those places and I think I recreated every single tutorial both sites had until that point. Then I started using what I learned on my work and experimenting spending countless hours on my own. From there it took me a couple of years to start developing my own style without the need of much outer inspiration and just using my own ideas and concepts.

On The Coldest Winter Day

When I was still learning my way through Photoshop I liked following trends and basically do what everyone else was doing at the time. That changed when I started joining art communities (Most recently Slashthree). Within these communities I learned how important it was to create my own style and have my own voice and that way my works changed like I changed my way of thinking about art. It’s something that you learn to do day by day and with each artwork you create.

Longing

I wouldn’t say I have an specific style set in all my artworks. I like going from Photo manipulation to 3D to Digital Painting and also from Surreal to fantasy and Sci-fi stuff. It all depends on what I’m working on and how it flows, nothing is ever set on stone.

Adonis Complex

A savant is a person that has some sort of ability that exceeds the normal standard and I wanted to illustrate that with someone breaking or “blooming” out of the normal into creating something beautiful or brilliant. I used Cinema4D and some rock textures to create the ‘meteor’ (as I like to call it) on the background and also used C4D to render all the branches. Then I selected a stock image of a model I saw fit for the concept and retouched and over painted in Photoshop. One thing I like to do with my works is using neutral color palettes and add some color details, in this case  I decided to keep the main colors to blacks, grays and the contrasting white on the branches and leaves with only the soft pink tones from the body of the guy.

Savant

My biggest flaw would probably be not developing my concepts thoroughly. This can make me get lost in the artwork. Technically, It can be difficult selecting a color palette or a stock image that would fit the idea and it could lead to an unfinished or unsatisfactory result as well as lots of wasted time figuring out what else I can add or do to it. I found out that by sketching my ideas beforehand or just simply writing down all the elements that I want to incorporate to the design and making a plan of action helps a lot.

In Search For Apotheosis

Thanks to you Emil and everyone at PSDTUTS+ for making this interview possible. And I just want to tell everyone out there to experiment and develop you craft and try to bring to the world all the ideas you have no matter how crazy they are. Just keep screaming until you are heard.

Goilya

Where to find Edmar on the Web

• Edmar’s DeviantArt
• Edmar’s Behance

Void

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Fortunately, it isn’t required to go to design school in order to be a graphic designer. A good foundation in graphic design history, theory, and practical application will help you hit the ground running. There are plenty of resources available in which you can learn graphic design on your own. Don’t set your expectations to high at first, as it will take enthusiastic study for years to become great. You can do it though!

If you would like to learn graphic design from the ground up, through self directed study, then this article lists some great resources that will get you started with your design education. Also, even if you do go to design school, at least three-fifths of your education will be through self directed study anyway. Let’s get to it!

Editor’s note: This article was original posted on Psdtuts in May 2009.

1. Understanding the Principles and Theory of Graphic Design

There are a few graphic design principles that effect every project you’ll create. Understanding these principles conceptually and learning to apply them practically will formulate the foundation of your graphic design education. Let’s take a look at the basic areas you should study to get a solid footing in graphic design.

Shape, Spacing, and Rhythm

I remember first learning these basic design principles, and they seamed so foreign at first. It took me quite some time to get comfortable with these techniques. In school we did a beginner project that consisted of drawing triangles, just to communicate emotion through placement, shape and spacing alone. Below are some good resources on these principles.

• The Principles of Design by Joshua David McClurg-Genevese
• What is Graphic Design? Overview, Basics of Design Principles, and Design Elements

Color, Texture, and Imagery

Understanding the basics of color theory is important and getting a feel for how to work with colors. Color can make areas of a design pop off the page or recede into the background. The use of texture can enhance the feel of a design. In print design texture can be the actual feel of paper or other materials. Imagery can also blend in with texture and is loaded with colors. Learning how to balance these is a delicate craft that will take some practice to apply well. Here are some resources on using color, texture, and imagery in graphic design:

• Principles of Color Design by Wucius Wong
• Texture in Graphic Design
• The Basics of Graphic Design

Working with Type

Your ability to use type is one of the things that differentiates graphic design from other visual professions. A big part of graphic design is understanding typography, developing your knowledge of typefaces, and how to apply them in your design. This will be a constant study throughout your career. Here are a few great resources on type:

• Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works by Erik Spiekermann and E.M Ginger
• Typography Workbook: A Real-World Guide to Using Type in Graphic Design by Timothy Samara
• A Typographic Workbook: A Primer to History, Techniques, and Artistry by Kate Clair and Cynthia Busic-Snyder
• Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students by Ellen Lupton

2. Standing Strong with a Historical Graphic Design Grounding

Philip Meggs book (see below), is a must have for every graphic design. You should read it from cover to cover. Also, as you go through spend time researching areas that interest you the most. Pick at least three areas to go into detailed study with and learn as much as you can about them. One area of interest for me is the Bauhaus, which was a graphic design and craft school founded in the early twentieth century. I find the subject captivating, probably because it combines so many of my passions: art, design, history, and education.

• Meggs’ History of Graphic Design by Philip B. Meggs and Alston W. Purvis
• History of Graphic Design

3. Internalize the Graphic Design Process, Conceptual Solutions, Real World Experience, and Creative Application

Graphic designers solve visual problems. The key to teaching yourself graphic design is to understand the process of solving a visual problem. This means you’ll benefit from tackling design briefs. You’ll learn to apply the skills you study by solving fictitious design problems to begin with and as you advance tackling real world problems and working with clients.

Visual and Conceptual Problem Solving

Visual and conceptual problem solving is the core of what we do as graphic designers. Clients come to us with a brief, which is a problem that needs to be solved. A new company may need to enter a specific market and come to you for a comprehensive identity solution. Or you may work at a newspaper and have to lay out a page to deadline. The problems are endless and your job is to solve these issues.

What is a visual concept? Well it’s more than a pure visual solution. It’s a unification of a graphic and an idea, which is placed in context to solve a problem. Let’s look at the example of a logo. It’s a visual mark, which represents the idea of a company, presented in the context of all the company’s identity, marketing, and history. Let’s look at some resources for developing your visual and conceptual problem solving skills for graphic designers. Keep in mind though practicing your craft will help build your visual problem solving skills.

• Visual Literacy: A Conceptual Approach to Graphic Problem Solving by Judith Wilde and Richard Wilde
• Graphic Design: The New Basics by Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips

The Design Process

Learning to research, create thumbnails, refine sketches, work up visual solutions in programs, and present to clients are just some of the basics of the design process. Every subset of design may have a slightly different procedure, and your working methodology, or a company you work for may implement things in a somewhat unique way in their production environment. Even so, the basics remain the same. Get familiar with the design process from start to finish, and work on getting faster and better at each stage of the process on each project you work on.

• Design Evolution: A Handbook of Basic Design Principles Applied in Contemporary Design by Tim Samara
• My logo design process by David Airey
• The Role of Sketching in the Design Process by Sean Hodge

Real World Graphic Design Application

A business card, like a canvas, has boundaries. A book has specific dimensions and technical print limitations. These type of practical and technical limitations are an important part of practicing the craft of graphic design. Work to learn about these technologies and build up your knowledge through real projects. You’ll learn a whole lot about print by having to get a big project printed on a budget. Also, keep in mind that creative solutions are often driven within contained creative environments. Part of the fun of graphic design is solving technical problems with creative solutions.

• Working Within Limitations to Achieve Great Designs by Sean Hodge
• Basic vs Applied Research in Graphic Design by Michael Kroeger

4. Consider Advanced Study and Development

Advanced study can take many different paths for each designer. You may become interested in a related field, and then mold your graphic design education to apply to that field. However, every graphic designer will benefit from advanced study and planning.

Of course, there’s no limit to the depth you can study on any subject of graphic design. Grid Theory, Graphic Information Design, and Career Planning are just a few areas to focus on. You could certainly go much deeper in other areas as well.

Grid Theory

Many areas of graphic design incorporate grid based solutions. In many ways, grid theory is advanced principles of spacing, flow, and rhythm, though applied to real projects, like laying out an entire book or website. Putting together any multi-page document will likely benefit from a grid, as it makes the design feel cohesive. Below are some resources to get started with grids.

• Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type by Kimberly Elam
• Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop by Timothy Samara

Graphic Information Design

While many of the principles of graphic information design are similar to graphic design, it takes on a more technical and practical approach to visual problems. Rather than looking at the concept on a billboard, a graphic information designer might analyze the proper font size to use for traffic passing the billboard at 40mph, so as to have maximum impact. It’s a blend of scientific research and practical application to visual design. Edward Tufte has written many good books on the subject, and I recommend you read them all. They are elegantly written, the layout of the books are beautiful, and the principles taught have strong, illustrative examples.

• The Work of Edward Tufte
• Envisioning Information by Edward Tufte

Planning Your Career

Spend some time getting acquainted with the graphic design landscape and plan your career. Graphic design is a large discipline, which is directly involved in numerous occupations. Learning the potential of the field will help you decide what you want to focus on. You may be attracted to print design, advertising, interface design, or another graphic design or related field.

• Graphic Design: A Career Guide Edited by Sharon Helmer Poggenpohl
• 25 Graphic Design Career Preparation Tips
• Becoming a Graphic Designer: A Guide to Careers in Design, 2nd Edition by Steven D. Heller, Teresa Fernandes, and Steven Heller

5. Learn from Professional Graphic Designers

Aside from studying graphic designers throughout history, you’ll also benefit by studying contemporary designers whom you identify with. A couple designers I found inspirational while I was in design school were David Carson and Carlos Segura. Both of these designers utilize typography in intuitive, innovative, and illustrative fashions. They helped encouraged me to get expressive with my use of type, spacing, and texture. While the approach they practice in design isn’t appropriate for every project, it certainly helped develop my graphic range and ability to think illustratively through graphic design.

You may fall in love with some other approach to design. Also, you’ll go through numerous phases, where you’ll be attracted to something else in design. This is part of what’s great about the field; it’s so diverse. Don’t be afraid to emulate designers approaches on some projects. It’s a good way to learn. Then you’ll move on to something else and it will become part of your collective design experience.

• The End of Print: Graphic Design of David Carson by Lewis Blackwell and David Carson
• 16 Great Graphic Design Blogs and Sites by Danny Outlaw

6. Developing Your Proficiency, Intuition, and Flow

Part of becoming a good graphic designer is becoming one with your tools. If you can wield a pencil, and quickly sketch down conceptual solutions, then you’re a more proficient designer. Of course, when working within programs the same thing applies. If you’re a logo designer, the better you know Illustrator, the better a designer you’ll be. That’s one of the reasons why sites like Vectortuts+ are so useful.

Being proficient with your tools helps you to be able to enter an intuitive flow like state when working, but it’s more than that. The better you know design, your medium, your chosen field of focus, your toolsets, and your workflow, the easier it will be to sink into that space where decisions come easily and time disappears. This flow state is a big reason why people choose any art related field, like graphic design; they enjoy being in the flow of creating and working visually.

• Tuts+ – Power Up Your Skill Set
• Core Principles for Rapidly Attaining Creative Flow by Sean Hodge

7. Put Together Your Portfolio and Blog

Make sure to create a portfolio (a home base with your own url), and blog regularly on what you learn as you grow as a designer.

Three things help get you hired as a graphic designer (in order of importance): your portfolio, your demonstrated experience, your ability to communicate your knowledge on graphic design. You build all three of these over time. It’s not something that happens overnight.

Your portfolio is your most important tool in marketing yourself as a graphic designer. It demonstrates your abilities to practically apply your skills. When interviewing it also holds some of the greatest weight in you being hired.

Experience takes time to grow. Someone that has worked in the field for years, run an agency, or worked with large known companies has a tremendous leg-up in the industry. Don’t get discouraged though, everyone started from ground-zero to begin with.

One of the greatest skills one learns in design school is how to talk and write about design. It’s not just being able to create something that looks cool, but being able to critically analyze a problem, apply a proven workflow to solving it, and communicate the process. In the field, this will equate to needing to sell your solutions to clients or bosses. Or when interviewing, describing how you solved a design problem.

Writing articles for your blog is a great place to practice discussing graphic design, and how you’ve solved specific design problems. It also, in itself, demonstrates your knowledge in the field. Don’t be afraid to add case studies to your blog, even for personal projects, as it’s a great way to build this analytical skill set. Through self-study, use your blog to write articles as you learn about design. This serves as a good substitute for assignments you would receive in a design class, and will compliment the design projects you do.

• 12 Steps to a Super Graphic Design Portfolio
• Creating A Successful Online Portfolio by Sean Hodge
• 10 Steps To The Perfect Portfolio Website by Lee Munroe

8. Participate in Online and Professional Graphic Design Communities

Becoming involved in the graphic design community and professional associations will increase your connections in the industry and knowledge of the field. Also, attend conferences and network whenever possible.

Join Professional Associations

A great way to learn about the workings of the graphic design profession is to join professional organizations. They run conferences, produce articles, books, and other resources. Some of these organizations work to improve the profession as a whole by lobbying and other activities.

• AIGA
• Graphic Artists Guild

Becoming Part of the Graphic Design Community Online

Aside from professional communities, there are loads of communities on the web that you can participate in. Below are some graphic design forums you may want to participate in.

• How Design Forum
• You The Designer Forums

Getting Critical Feedback Online and Promote Your Work

Interaction and critique is really important to your growth as a graphic designer. If you’re not in design school, then you need to find other places that people will tear apart your work, and that you can develop your own critical eye. The best thing for a young design is to have someone tell them why something they made isn’t well designed, and what they might do differently. This prepares you for clients doing this (gives you a thicker skin), and it helps you grow with your visual and creative problem solving abilities.

I don’t know of the perfect place on the net to find this, but try different online communities or forums. And if you can find a mentor, even someone with just one or two more years of experience than you, who is willing to critique your work, this can be invaluable. Try some of the places mentioned below and search further.

Aside from your main portfolio, it also helps to have satellite portfolios, which are submitted to portfolio communities, and where you can get feedback on your work. They are also great places to promote your work and gain new clients. Below are some communities to explore.

• DeviantArt
• Behance
• Coroflot
• Flickr

9. Keep in Mind that Graphic Design as a Discipline Doesn’t Exist in Isolation

Any study of graphic design will include some connection to related disciplines. Studying art and illustration will help develop your ability to create graphics. Studying Marketing will help you place your conceptual solutions within the context of business and consumer needs. Also, graphic design is often a part of the foundational study for related disciplines. You’ll be a much stronger web designer, if you have a solid graphic design education for example.

• Seth Godin’s Blog
• Fundamentals of Illustration by Lawrence Zeegan
• Basics Illustration: Thinking Visually by Mark Wigan
• The Fundamentals of Creative Advertising by Ken Burtenshaw, Nik Mahon, and Caroline Barfoot

10. Finding Work as a Freelance Graphic Designer

Aside form landing a job directly, freelancing is a career path available for designers. There is work out there for almost all skill levels. You’ll need to work at building your portfolio, negotiating, and your business skills.

There are numerous communities and resources online that can help you grow as a freelance graphic designer, and freelancing is a great way to get a broad set of graphic design projects under your belt. It’s a great way to grow your skills and learn through real projects, as you study independently.

• 10 Great Places to Find Graphic Design Jobs
• Freelance Switch Job Board

11. Evaluate if Self Study or Graphic Design School is Right for You

After evaluating the above steps, do some research on schools, and consider the best course of study for you. Not everyone has the financial ability or desire to go to college. Fortunately, it isn’t a prerequisite to becoming a professional designer. The biggest resource in landing a job is your ability to demonstrate your skills, done through your portfolio, and in interviews your knowledge and passion should show.

Going to design school is great, but if you’re diligent you can learn graphic design through independent study. Keep in mind, I’m not saying don’t go to college, as that decision is up to you (I went to Undergraduate school and I took some Graduate courses). Also, you may be in a position that you’re studying something else, but are passionate about graphic design. Plenty of great designers started in other fields or learned on their own.

Even while I was in design school, some of the greatest lessons I learned came from doing projects on my own, studying online, and books. A good teacher can be a great resource though and I appreciate all those that helped me learn while I was in school.

If you do plan on going to design school, then spend some time deciding on the right school for you. What school fits your budget, goals, and ability to attend. You may want to consider online professional programs as well. Or for the brave of heart, do it without formal schooling.

Graphic Design Schools

• Choosing a Graphic Design Degree
• A Brief Guide To Design Education by Adam Richardson
• 7 Tips for Getting Into Graphic Design School

Putting it All Together

Good luck with learning graphic design. Keep in mind, an undergraduate course takes numerous years to complete, and some even go on to grad school, so don’t set your expectations to high in the beginning, whether you attend school, or go it independently. It’s OK if it takes even years to master graphic design. Just study, grow as a designer, don’t give up, and you’ll get there. Be sure to have fun along the way, or else what’s the point!

Besides, by the time you’re a great graphic designer, you’ll probably be interested in learning something else. That’s just the nature of things, right!

Feel free to link to your favorite graphic design resources (books, articles, and others), as their is an endless amount of great material to get started with, and then to advance your skills as you grow!

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A while back, we brought you the works of Richard Roberts, a Milwaukee, WI, USA artist who specializes in digital illustration and photo manipulation. Since them Roberts has been busily preparing new works. Today, we decided to showcases some of his newest designs, which demonstrate a diverse range of styles and project types.

The Reaper

This Illustration was done for Depthcore’s most recent Chapter "Obsolete."

The Jade Element

This was the album cover illustration for The Jade Element’s upcoming album.

Energy

This print illustration was done to promote alternative sources of energy, geothermal energy being the one in this case.

Elan Vital

Artwork to promote nature and all it’s beauty.

Grow

Print collaboration with Jennifer Cirpici.

DACS

Illustration for last year’s designers against child slavery exhibition.

The Cage Keeper

Print illustration in collaboration with Jeff Huang.

Tiger Beer

Illustration for Tiger beer’s Tiger Translate which features different artists and their interpretations of different themes. "Growth" being the one here.

Phantasma

Abstract illustration for Advanced Photoshop’s cover of issue 70.

The Call From Within

Book cover illustration for Eri Nelson’s upcoming series.

Zen

This piece was commissioned by Advanced Photoshop to design a surreal matte painting piece.

Poseidon’s Grip

Illustration done for Depthcore’s chapter Mythic. The idea was for Poseidon to be fighting the Kraken for control over him.

Supernova

Another illustration done for Depthcore. This piece was inspired by the song Champagne Supernova by Oasis.

Air Castle

Abstract illustration done for Advanced Photoshop Magazine. Air Castle means – absentminded dreaming while awake.

Chimera

Promotional print illustration done for the Keystone Design Union aka The KDU.