Teaching Graphic Design: Why New Designers Seek Mentorship

Graphic design mentoring can be an incredibly powerful way to help junior designers find their feet. While universities and colleges are great for teaching the fundamentals, there’s a lot that can only be learned on the job. As such, the role of a graphic design trainer is less about artistic principles and more about practical applications.

So with all that being said, let’s talk about how to teach graphic design with a focus on practical applications and the areas junior designers often struggle most with.

Learning Visual Languages

All graphic design is, in essence, about communication through imagery. Good graphic design, in turn, is often about being able to lace as much meaning as possible into images that feel simple. In order to do so, graphic designers often rely on visual shorthand – signifiers that the viewer will innately understand.

Of course, any junior designer would know this principle but this is where the gap between theory and practise really comes into play.

The problem with visual languages – or any language for that matter – is that they’re a very loose medium. Ideas are communicated through association. For example, we all know that red means danger because we associate it with blood. When those associations change however, our communication becomes far less clear and this can lead to big problems.

One well-known case of this is the popular – and now somewhat infamous – typeface Times New Roman. Originally commissioned by The Times newspaper, this typeface used to be associated with broadsheet journalism. It was a sign of professionality – of text that took itself seriously. Then came personal computers and desktop publishing. Suddenly everyone had access to Times New Roman and it became many people’s default, go-to font.

The problem is that this creates a split audience. For many this has made it feel cheap and dated, especially when compared to more ‘internet friendly’ san-serif fonts. For others the meaning hasn’t changed at all.

Now, there’s no one-size fits all solution to a problem like this one. While many designers have chosen to abandon Times New Roman, other dated signifiers – such as the floppy disc that is still universally recognised as the symbol for saving a file – have stuck around.

A lot of graphic design mentoring is about encouraging junior designers to understand these distinctions, especially where they intersect with demographics. It’s about teaching them to stop asking “what does this communicate?” and start asking “what does this communicate to my audience?”

But how can you best define your audience? And how can a graphic design trainer teach that skill?

Understanding Brand Identities

Brand identities are, in many respects, all about understanding your audience and your methods of communication. They’re also very tied to the here and now –  particularly if your company is aiming to feel modern and up-to-date. All you need to do is look at how tech startups have chosen to brand themselves over the last decade and you’ll see just how quickly that visual language can shift.

That being said, while the method changes, the core audience often doesn’t. You might use different fonts and different colour schemes, but you’re still trying to communicate the same fundamental ideas.

This is where an experienced graphic design mentor can really help. If you want to teach someone graphic design then teaching them how to update a brand’s image while retaining their identity is a must. As an experienced designer, you’ll have seen trends come and go, and developed an instinct for which design elements might be kept and which might be changed.

That instinct might be based on principles but it also relies on experience and application. Graphic design mentoring is a chance to kickstart that experience and get junior designers thinking along the right lines.

Mastering The Iterative Process

It’s hard to underestimate just how valuable an iterative design process can be. One mistake many junior designers often make is trying to get it right the first time rather than offer a range of ideas. Although this also can depend on a company’s willingness to invest in multiple stages of design, more often than not the best designs come out of a process of narrowing in, gaining more feedback at each stage.

When all’s said and done, although they may be inexperienced, junior graphic designers certainly aren’t stupid. Many of today’s young designers are avidly searching for ways to improve and develop faster and that’s what brings them to mentoring.

If you’re an experienced designer who knows how to work with brand identities and communicate using visual language that your audience will understand, then you’d be the perfect mentor. Find out more about how you could monetise your experience by signing up to Career Navig8r!