Getting into Graphic Design

guitarzero

I've been thinking about getting back into graphic design again. For various reasons I had never pursued it after college, which is about 6 years ago now. I have my printed portfolio from college but it looks pretty amateur and I'd definitely need to add to it. There about 10 pieces of work, some worthy of a hard facepalm.
So where would be a good start? Should I just do some work that was supposedly for something in particular or just do some freelance by picking a brand/event etc and do some design for the sake of my portfolio?
Also, are there any good websites or media that are popular sources in the GD community? I badly need some inspiration.

Thanks

fluke

Hey there,

Have a look at Behance, people post their work there and there's lots of awesome stuff there, for whatever kind of design style(s) you're influenced by.

beauf

I like looking at coroflot.

allfred

Have a look on google about porfolios of "Doodle Creative Cork" and "Rocket Media" or maybe google "Graphic Design Cork" or "Dublin" etc to find some of the creative agencies and freelancers' portfolios.

disj

Deviantart can be good to get some inspiration artistically but when you get on the landing page sort by most popular to avoid all the weird stuff-there is a lot of weird stuff.

Also if you google graphic design trends 2014 you should kind of get an idea of what's in right now. I've just completed my design degree and I'd say the best advice I got is to beef up that portfolio, pick anything you want and create sample stuff. Pick a company and design say a corporate identity pack for them or even get friends or family to set you tasks like a fake company to brand or something as it can be quite hard to get started yourself and sometimes a challenge from someone else is handy.

Regarding the portfolio I got some great tips for layout etc and the current standard and if you'd like some of those tips just pm me and I'll be happy to fill you in.

pauly-chops

I would strongly suggest signing up to Behance. It's the absolute best site out there and by far the most professional community. There are sites like that where the community are serious about what they do and give good and honest feedback of your work. Same is true of Vimeo of you have any motion graphics, animation or film. It's not like YouTube at all full of cat videos and other junk.

Don't expect anything straight away and don't post work based on tutorials you have seen online or read in magazines cos every artist is doing the same thing. They are reading and following tutorials and then applying their own style to the knowledge. Those that post work already created by others don't get much traffic. It took me years and years to develop a style and I'm finally getting followers and feedback. Also because Behance is now owned by Adobe it's supported by all Adobe products which is great. Plus there is a pro version of Behance if you want to customize your page and make it look like a personal site rather than a generic portfolio page.

Good luck!

abstrakt82

i second behance, of course, but am also gonna say, if you're looking to find work in graphic design, try and learn some basic front end code too, as it will be very appealing to employers