Youtube Channels for Graphic Design: More Education Than Most Design Colleges
As my college education failed me, I sought out the internet to be my teacher. Instantly, it overtook the position I’d held for my professors in the range and depth of knowledge it provided me with. As I grew as a designer, I made it my responsibility to be able to find niche design channels as well as popular ones that could aid me in the most efficient way possible. Some of the best ones are:
The Futur and The Futur Academy have, over the last few years, become one of the most important sources of design education, critique and advice for creatives. The range of content spans over two accounts which collectively offer knowledge in typography, the business of design, logo design, branding, content creation among many others. Headed by Chris Do, who posts nuggets of design on his Instagram on a regular basis, this channel will sharpen your skills and add value to your design capabilities.
Created by RISD Adjunct Professor Clara Lieu & Thomas Lerra in 2015, this is a free website and youtube channel to learn visual arts. The channel covers video critiques of artworks, portfolio reviews, guides for students to apply to specific art colleges all over the world and pro-development resources for artists. Even though this is mainly a channel that covers videos of visual art, there is much to learn about the creation of a revenue stream out of your artworks.
Stefan Kunz is a self taught lettering artist who has managed to make a sprawling and lush career out of his propensity to create beautiful type. His project, Create Something Today - even if it sucks, has its own hashtag where he encourages people from all backgrounds to create an artwork every single day.
He is an inspiration to non-designers and over the years, he’s worked to increase the accessibility to this skill to people via his youtube channel which covers basics of lettering in every possible way. He has a free module from his online courses available here. Apart from videos, he also sells lettering guides and procreate brushes that aid greatly in the creation of your own lettering art and has his own blog.
He is a peer of Stefan Kunz, working to make design learning accessible. The content on his youtube channel and website cover topics ranging from advice for creatives on how to conduct themselves in various aspects of their business, bite-sized videos for creatives to change their workflow and make it more efficient, tutorials for lettering etc.
He is a trained graphic designer and offers educated perspectives through his work quite occasionally. What sets his channel apart is that he regularly conducts logo reviews and portfolio reviews for students all over the world.
I first discovered this channel when I was studying Jessica Walsh obsessively in college, for a project. This is an ongoing documentary project that covers creatives across genres and fields while offering an insight into who they are as people. The foray into their personalities and motivations helps to understand the translation of their personal likes and dislikes into their work in a way that you understand their design intuitively there after.
A breakfast lecture series for all members of the creative community, this is the brainchild of Tina Roth Eisenberg (swissmiss). She felt the need to create an accessible event for New York’s creative community and thus, creative mornings was birthed. The concept was creatives coming together for breakfast and a small, succinct talk once a week - on a Friday.
Today, it has snowballed into its own version of Tedx where attendees gather in cities all around the world to meet like-minded individuals, network and learn more than they knew before.
Created by Lauren, Rob, Daniel and Krista, this is a youtube channel that is the culmination of their passion for photography as it pours out as lessons for other photography novices. The channel and website covers tips to improve photography, understanding cameras, reviews of the tools needed for the trade, lightroom tutorials and free resources for young learners.
This is a brand new addition to my design learning. They hosted their first ever Type Weeknd on September 24 through to September 27, which was a treasure trove of knowledge on typography and the business of it. This is an online-only type conference for everyone who design and sells type. All their livestreams are uploaded on their channel and they’re as good as a small crash course on typography for anyone looking to begin a career in type design.
This is an extention of the Learn feature on the Creative Cloud app. The youtube channel provides content you wouldnt otherwise find on their app. The conduct talks with world-renowned designers, the latest being a look into the photoshop brushes used by Keith Haring. This is the go-to page for Adobe tutorials, quick hacks and to understand the softwares you’ve been using in greater depth than before.
