Ready to learn graphic design but design school isn’t the right choice for you?
You’re in the right place.
Whether you’re just starting out or testing the waters to see if design is the right path for you, this guide is packed with only the best resources to help you in that endeavor.
No fluff, no overwhelm—just the essentials to help you get started and build a solid foundation in graphic design.
From powerful design software and handy tools to inspiring and learning resources, we’ve gathered all the must-haves to help you grow your skills and move toward becoming a professional designer.
Each resource in this list has been carefully curated to give you the most value, so you can focus on learning what really matters and start creating your best work.
So, let’s dive in!
Here’s everything you need to kickstart your graphic design journey 🚀
Design Programs
Graphic design is a craft that goes way beyond the tools you use. It’s been around for way over a century, long before computers ever existed, and there are no strict rules for “how” you create great design.
That said, you can’t really dive into it without some tools.
Whether you’re creating logos, building websites, or designing posters, having the right tools in your arsenal will make a great difference in your craft.
So here are the essentials almost every professional designer uses daily. And our definite favorites.
Think of these programs as your digital toolkit. Powerful and intuitive platforms that will not only elevate your design game but also make the process smoother (and way more fun!).
The industry standard for professional designers. Adobe Creative Cloud gives you all the pro tools you need to create stunning visuals across different mediums.
Includes:
- Illustrator — Perfect for creating vector-based designs like logos, icons, and illustrations. It’s a must-have tool for designers working on scalable graphics.
- Photoshop — Known for its powerful photo editing capabilities, Photoshop is ideal for everything from retouching images to creating digital art and graphics.
- InDesign — Best for layout design, especially if you’re working on print materials like magazines, brochures, or even eBooks.
A beginner-friendly tool for creating graphics, especially great for those just starting out (it has a free plan!). But we’d argue it’s also useful for more advanced designers who need to create quick visuals or those who design templates for their clients to modify later on their own. Canva offers an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, making design accessible to everyone. And it’s growing into a mega powerful platform every day.
Now, if you’re more into UI/UX & Web Design (websites, apps, digital products), then these are the tools designers are using right now to design and prototype:
A tremendously powerful tool for UI/UX design, wireframing, and prototyping, perfect for seamless team collaboration. And, you can get started for free with their starter plan.
A vector-based tool used widely for UI/UX design. It’s fairly easy to use and it also integrates well with third-party plugins, making it highly customizable for designers who want to streamline their workflow.
Framer offers interactive and responsive prototypes. It’s perfect if you’re into web design and want to see how your designs behave in real-time. It allows you to create everything from animations to fully functioning prototypes without writing code.
Where to Learn
Graphic Design
Alright, you’ve got your tools ready…
Now it’s time to learn the craft of graphic design. But where do you even start?
Let’s make one thing clear:
Design school isn’t the only way to become a professional designer. You can absolutely learn from a variety of sources and become an expert designer just as much.
There are books, online courses, tutorials. The internet is overflowing with information on graphic design. So much, in fact, that it can be overwhelming.
The real challenge isn’t finding the resources, but figuring out how to cut through the noise and focus on what truly matters.
Worry not, though, ’cause we’ve got you covered.
Here’s a curated list of high-quality learning resources –from books to courses, and advanced classes– that will help you build a strong foundation, develop key design skills, and turn you into the pro designer you’re aiming to be.
Courses, Classes, and Tutorials
Udemy and Skillshare design classes
Udemy and Skillshare offer a vast selection of graphic design courses. From beginner lessons on typography and branding to advanced logo design and UI/UX. Worth checking these out if you’d like to begin to see what is this all about, or if you’d like to focus on learning something in particular.
Adobe’s tutorials for Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign
Adobe provides free, high-quality software tutorials directly on their website. These tutorials cover everything from the basics of each program to advanced tips and tricks, ensuring you get the most out of the software.
Adobe Illustrator for Beginners Free Course from Envato Tuts+
This free, beginner-friendly course breaks down the essentials of Adobe Illustrator (which is the program we recommend you learn first within Adobe’s suite). You’ll learn how to navigate the interface, create basic shapes, and work with colors and typography. It’s a great starting point if you want to get a handle on vector design without feeling overwhelmed.
Fearless Design is our comprehensive program that takes you from zero to professional designer. Instead of focusing on the tools, we dive deep into the fundamentals of great design: principles, typography, color theory, brand identity, layout, strategy and more.
Perfect for anyone looking to kickstart their design journey with expert guidance and a supportive community. This program will save you countless hours of trial and error by providing a clear, actionable blueprint to elevate your design skills and fast-track your growth no matter which medium you want to design for.
Books
“Thinking with Type” by Ellen Lupton
“Graphic Design: The New Basics” by Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillip
“The Designer’s Dictionary of Color” by Sean Adams
“Logo Modernism” by Jens Müller
“Logos that Last: How to Create Iconic Visual Branding” by Allan Peters
“Grid Systems In Graphic Design” by Josef Müller-Brockmann
Advanced Learning
Turbocharge Your Logo Designs by James Barnard
An intermediate–advanced training to boost your efficiency when creating logos in Adobe Illustrator (from sketch to finish!).
Figma Pro Secrets by Alexunder Hess
Master Figma’s more advanced features and boost your UI/UX design skills.
Landing Page Mastery Course by Alexunder Hess
Learn how to design high-converting landing pages with clean, effective UI/UX.
Master Gorgeous UI Design by Pablo Stanley and his team
A deep dive into creating beautiful user interfaces so you can unlock your creative potential and stand out from the crowd.
Process Masterclass by Nguyen Le
A unique course for pro designers that blends career building skills with technical design skills to level up your UI/UX career.
Better Web Typography by Matej Latin
Way more than a book, it’s a course in a book format. A must-read on typography for the web, including digital extras, example exercises, and very actionable tips and tricks.
The Design Industry Playbook by James Martin
A complete guide to thrive in the business of design, streamline client processes, sell your value and attract the right clients.
Where to
Get Inspiration
Keeping your creative well full is crucial for your growth as a designer. But let’s be real: creativity isn’t always a 24/7 thing. Sometimes, you’re gonna need a little spark or two to get your ideas flowing.
This section is all about inspiration. The kind that leaves you excited to tackle your next project. The kind that pushes your boundaries as a creative, that helps you move forward.
So whether you need some killer typography ideas or want to see what’s trending, these platforms will fill up your inspiration bucket in no time.
(And by the way, looking at stuff, not just design but anything that sparks curiosity, is probably one of the best ways to stay inspired really.)
Showcases work from designers across various fields and it’s great for finding fresh ideas and seeing trends in action.
A creative community where designers share their work, often leaning towards more polished visual design inspiration.
The go-to for typography inspiration. Features font pairings, font alternatives, and real-world examples of type in use.
THE place for design inspiration. A search engine and browser extension to discover + save art, design, architecture, photography, fashion, and web inspiration.
A daily showcase of the best websites from around the world, focusing on innovative and beautiful designs.
A public archive of typography used in the real world, indexed by typeface, format, industry, and period. Super useful for project research, font pairing ideas, and discovering new ways to use fonts.
Godly, Httpster, and Minimal Gallery
Browse these sites for even more website design inspiration from around the world, browseable by business categories.
Beautiful hand-picked color palettes to get you inspired. Warning: you can -and will- easily spend hours browsing the collection.
Graphic Assets to
Amplify Your Designs
Designing from scratch is great, but sometimes you’ll need a little extra to make your work even better.
This is where graphic assets come in.
Whether it’s fonts, mockups, or illustrations, these resources will give your designs that professional edge. Plus, they’ll save you hours of extra work, so you can focus on making your project look incredible from the get-go even if you’re not an illustrator, a type designer, a photographer, a mockup creator (I mean, nobody does it all alone).
Here are the best marketplaces and resources for finding those graphics.
A one-stop shop for fonts, templates, graphics, and other digital assets.
Beautifully crafted, hand-drawn fonts and design assets, with a whimsical touch. Perfect for designers looking to add some charm to their designs.
Clean, minimalistic, and sophisticated fonts. Jen Wagner Co. provides top-tier typefaces that are perfect for modern branding, editorial designs, web design and print applications.
Offers free design resources like mockups, UI kits, and more.
A great source for free and premium mockups that will bring your designs to life.
AI-powered, royalty-free, incredible stock photos that help you break free from boring visuals.
A huge collection of beautiful, royalty-free stock images that you can use for any project.
Free and royalty-free stock photos, images & videos.
An icon library and toolkit used by millions of designers, developers, and content creators everywhere.
A massive collection of icons that you can use for any design.
Serious about becoming a graphic designer? Start here.
Handy Tools
And now for the cherry on top, the icing on the cake… or, well, the icon on the button, the stroke on your vector, the mockup to your concept, the grid for your layout, the smart guide on your canvas 🙂
These resources will help you nail down the details that make all the difference in your projects.
From finding the perfect font to generating a killer color palette, these handy tools are essential for streamlining your design process and creating more inspiring, fresh work.
THE resource for free web fonts. Google Fonts offers a wide directory of open source typefaces that you can use on the web or download for free, making beautiful type accessible to anyone for any project.
High-quality typefaces with seamless integration into Adobe programs. Adobe Fonts provides access to its entire font library under a single licensing agreement. And you can use their fonts directly on websites, or sync to your computer via Adobe Creative Cloud.
Steal like an artist, anyone? This browser extension helps you identify fonts used on a website you like and try them out.
A quick and easy tool for generating color palettes and exploring trending color schemes by colors, topics or styles.
A web app to create and discover unique color themes, including an image color extractor tool. Plus, you can save themes to your Adobe Creative Cloud Libraries and use them in Illustrator, Photoshop, etc.
Through AI, Khroma learns which colors you like and creates limitless color combinations that you can save and use for your designs.
Bonus Resources
We couldn’t fit these into any of the essential sections above, but also… we couldn’t not have them in this guide.
These tools and platforms provide extra value for more specific needs, from web building platforms to other design perks worth checking out.
The most popular content management system, great for building websites and blogs.
A powerful design and development platform that allows you to create fully responsive websites without writing code.
A tool that allows you to create and customize illustrations directly in design software like Figma and Sketch.
Adobe’s new AI-powered tool for generating creative content quickly and efficiently.
A fun game to help you master Illustrator’s pen tool.
An easy-to-use tool to organize ideas and projects into visual boards. Useful for mood boards and art direction boards.
An online platform to create animated content: animated UIs, videos, social media posts, websites, apps, logos and more.
Design Publications / Blogs / Podcasts / Newsletters
Serious about becoming a graphic designer? Start here.
Wrapping It All Up
There you have it! Everything you need to kickstart your graphic design journey in 2025.
From powerful tools and resources to curated inspiration and learning materials, this guide will help you get started and grow into the designer you aspire to be.
And as personal advice: no matter which path you choose, the key to becoming a great designer is to keep learning, keep practicing, keep creating. One design after another.
So grab your tools and let’s get you started!
Have any questions?
Drop’em in the comments ⤵︎