Graphic Design

Six mechanical faults, every one fixable.

• Alignment and the grid hands on
  Nothing lining up is why amateur work feels sloppy, and the grid removes the fault permanently.
• Whitespace hands on
  Crowding is what makes a design look cheap; empty space is what makes everything else look deliberate.
• Hierarchy hands on
  Deciding what the eye sees first, and making that decision visible.
• Stretched images and other instant tells hands on
  Crop, never stretch. Two seconds, and it separates paid work from homemade.

The fastest single upgrade available to any designer.

• Choosing and pairing typefaces hands on
  One or two. Restraint reads as confidence; five fonts read as indecision.
• Size, weight, spacing and line length hands on
  The mechanics of readability.
• Urdu typography hands on
  Nastaliq, line height, and mixing scripts without it looking accidental.
• Type as the design hands on
  Layouts carried by type alone.

Chosen with a method, not by taste.

• Colour systems and harmony hands on
  Building a palette that holds together.
• Contrast and accessibility hands on
  Text a person can actually read, including in sunlight on a phone.
• RGB, CMYK and why print looks different
  The conversation that saves a reprint at your own cost.
• Restraint hands on
  One dominant colour, one accent used sparingly, a neutral doing most of the work.

Adobe, and the free alternatives clients also hand you.

• Photoshop for raster work hands on
  Selections, layers, masks and non-destructive editing.
• Illustrator for vector hands on
  Paths, pathfinder, and why a logo must be vector.
• InDesign for multi-page work hands on
  Brochures, catalogues and master pages.
• Canva and Figma hands on
  What clients arrive with, and working in them without losing quality.

The work clients actually pay for.

• Social media sets hands on
  A consistent set, not one good post.
• Print: flyers, banners, packaging hands on
  Bleed, margins, resolution and what the printer will ask you for.
• Logos and basic identity hands on
  Marks that still work at 16 pixels and on a shop board.
• Presentations and reports hands on
  The unglamorous work that pays regularly.

Where designers lose money.

• Reading a brief and asking the right questions
  Before opening any software.
• Revisions and scope
  Agreeing the number up front. Unlimited revisions is not a service, it is a trap.
• Exporting correctly hands on
  Right file, right resolution, right colour space - where beginners genuinely lose clients.
• Keeping the editable original hands on
  So a one-word change is not a rebuild you do for free.

Pakistan's National Vocational & Technical Training Commission publishes a course-contents document for the trades it funds. This programme is mapped to Graphic Designing (UI/UX) — 12 weeks, 4 hours a day, 240 contact hours.

Published by NAVTTC and reproduced here so you can check our syllabus against it. We teach it to those hours: 240 contact hours over 12 weeks, the same as the standard. Read the NAVTTC document.

Before you start

• Free: Graphic Design Fundamentals
  Covers the first module.

Where it leads

• Video Editing
  Motion is where most design work is heading.
• Google UX Design
  For designers who want to design products rather than assets.

Roles this prepares you for

• Graphic Designer
  Agency, in-house or press.
• Social Media Designer
  High demand locally.
• Freelance Designer
  Requires the business skills taught in the Freelancing course as well.

Interested in this programme?

Try the subject free first — there is no reason to pay before you know you like it.