I\'m a programmer, and I\'m pretty good at programming. I can easily pick up mos

Question

I'm a programmer, and I'm pretty good at programming. I can easily pick up most technical topics such as Linux, Systems Administration, Databases and of course, new programming languages. I even dabbled with 3d modelling and wasn't horrible at it.

However, I am awful at Graphic Design. I have no skill there whatsoever, and even after quite a few Photoshop tutorials I can't design a website (or anything else really). I'm wondering if I pour a whole bunch of time into it, if I can become a good graphic designer.

So what I'm looking for is anyone else who has done this, or advice, thoughts, etc.

Explanation / Answer

Being a good artist is just as much a talent as being a good engineer. Some have it, some don't. Some can do both (fairly hard to come by).

Having said that, there are logical elements of design that you can learn to help you become fairly proficient at it. I mean, chances are that you won't find yourself getting a webby award for your designs, but you can get good enough by simply following standard design rules.

One of the first books that I read on design was User Interface Design for Programmers. It's old(ish) and a short read, but it still sticks out in my head as one of those things that I read that really helped me to start understanding UI design.

Learn color theory. Simply a must have if you're doing any design work at all.

Most importantly, rip off other designs.. I mean, find sources of inspiration ;) Check out some design-related sites and check out real artists designs. More times than not, when "borrowing" a design, I've gotten inspiration of my own and the output looks nothing like the original, but it's still something that I'm happy with.

Oh yeah, and grab a book or run through some tutorials on Photoshop, Gimp or Inkscape (whichever one you're doing). Generally speaking, I won't go into tutorials blindly - if I'm working on a "borrowed design", I'll look them up as needed: "Hey, I'm supposed to have a wood texture here - how do I do that?" kinda thing.

Good luck - it's a tough road, but doable :)

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