Graphic Design Training for Veterans

Are you a veteran returning to civilian life or a member of a veteran’s family aiming to avail yourself of entitlements and benefits? This article is designed to help you navigate your options for taking advantage of these services to enter into a professional skills training program and learn the graphic design skills you’ve always wanted to learn. Graphic design training is a versatile and expansive skill set that will help you find a creative job in the public or private sector without needing to invest in a two-year or four-year degree program. Plus, learning graphic design tools like Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator will give you a solid foundation for future skills training, keeping the door open for entry into several diverse, high-paying career fields.

What is Graphic Design?

Graphic design is a field of creative arts that focuses on projecting visual communication, often built of combinations of text, images, photographs, and other visual elements, with specific goals. Graphic design covers a wide array of different artistic disciplines and endeavors. Still, at its core, it is the act of using visual imagery to communicate with audiences and convey feelings and ideas that language alone wouldn’t be able to express. As a subset of the fine arts, graphic design skills are used in virtually every industry, but they are particularly prominent in advertising and branding. Advertisements, product packaging, logos, branded merchandise, and other promotional materials all demonstrate graphic design skills. Any business or organization looking to reach an audience will want to hire those skilled in graphic design.

Since graphic design covers a wide range of artistic disciplines, no two Graphic Designers will be working with the same toolset or on the same kinds of projects. Some will work in traditional print mediums, such as the publishing or magazine industry. Some will work on designing logos and branded merchandise for companies to place on billboards, hats, and other promotional materials. Some will work on digital projects, building webpages and mobile application assets. Others will design infographics, posters, and signage for activist organizations or non-profits. Graphic design is a wide-open field of diverse artistic endeavors, and learning graphic design skills will open many doors for creatives.

Read more about what graphic design is and why you should learn it. 

What Can You Do with Graphic Design?

Graphic design represents a wide-ranging field of visual expression, which means there is virtually no limit to the kinds of images that sufficiently skilled creatives can create. As the field of graphic design is so expensive, creatives can make use of their skills in both professional and personal contexts. As professional Graphic Designers, creatives will be tasked with building imagery that is both evocative and communicates complex persuasive ideas to their audience of consumers. Graphic Designers will build the iconography of companies and brands, build the images that audiences come to associate with those companies, and help construct memorable advertising campaigns, promotional material, and product packaging.

Graphic design skills are also helpful for non-professionals who want to persuade large audiences. Small business owners, start-up entrepreneurs, or even creatives working in marketplaces like Etsy may wish to learn more about graphic design to build their brand identities and set themselves apart from their competitors. Activists and organizers can learn graphic design skills to build more visually appealing and persuasive designs for flyers and infographics. Politicians will hire graphic designers to build campaign materials. As long as someone attempts to communicate visually to an audience, they will benefit from either learning graphic design skills or working closely alongside someone who knows them.

Support for Veterans

One of the primary purposes of the Department of Veterans Affairs is to assist veterans in their return to civilian life. To this end, one of the primary benefits offered through the VA is financial support for continuing education through the GI Bill. This bill, which was vastly expanded under the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act (more commonly known as The Forever GI Bill) provides financial assistance to veterans seeking higher education and continuing training. This financial support can cover tuition, course materials, and incidental expenses such as transportation and even housing. This financial support is not only available to veterans seeking continuing education at four-year universities. It can also support veterans who want to receive training through accelerated career-training programs.

The pilot VET TEC Program has been recently expanded. It currently provides 45 million dollars annually in educational benefits for GI Bill-eligible students working in approved tech education facilities. These support services make it even easier to take advantage of your VA benefits and improve your resume when you re-enter civilian life. This specific program has slightly more restrictions on the kinds of supported programs, so you will have to look more closely at the various programs available to you if you plan on enrolling in a career program looking to use these benefits. 

To explore your options for VA-supported programs through Noble Desktop, please visit their Veterans Support page.

Why Learn Graphic Design

One of the most important questions that you’ll need to ask yourself when you are taking advantage of your GI Bill and other VA entitlements is what specific skills you want to be learning. There are a lot of educational benefits available through the VA, so why should you opt to learn graphic design over any other tech skills?

Learning graphic design is an excellent way to combine creative passions and professional aspirations. Using tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign will help you learn how to translate your creative passions into in-demand career opportunities building creative pieces for organizations in the public and private sectors. These jobs have a relatively competitive salary compared to the median US employee. They are excellent positions for anyone who wants to work on vibrant and evocative visual design projects. Learning graphic design will also lay the groundwork for future training in skills like web design, motion graphics animation, and user experience design. This makes learning graphic design skills a profitable long-term career decision.

Graphic design skills are also highly approachable skills for novices to learn. There aren’t a lot of formal prerequisites to learning the major graphic design tools, and these tools are built to be user-friendly and inviting for new designers to pick up and experiment with. Students who are looking to learn graphic design skills can, with the help of professional instructors, gain enough proficiency with these tools to enter the job market in only a few months, which is much faster than one could expect to learn a new set of career skills at a university or other career training institution. This makes learning graphic design tools a great way to get the ball rolling on a long-term career without spending too much on an introductory training program.

Why Choose a Skills Bootcamp?

Another critical concern in learning a new set of skills is why consider a skills bootcamp over a more traditional skills training program, such as a four-year degree program. The GI Bill and the VA offer numerous benefits encouraging veterans to attend four-year colleges and universities, so why opt to learn at an accelerated skills bootcamp?

The primary advantage offered by a skills bootcamp or other career development program is that these programs are greatly accelerated in terms of instruction. One of Noble’s career-certificate programs, such as their Graphic Design Certificate program, will prepare you for a job in the field of graphic design in as little as six weeks of full-time training or three-to-six months of part-time training. This accelerated pace makes these certificate programs an ideal alternative for veterans looking to learn new, practical skills quickly. You can complete a graphic design certificate program in less time than it would take to complete your first semester of a four-year degree program.

The second major advantage of this kind of training program is that they tend to be far more focused on vocational training and development. Four-year universities still expect students to take several courses outside of their field of study and in line with college and state accreditation requirements, meaning that students' first few semesters are often defined by their general education classes. Skills bootcamps and career-certificate programs bypass this and aim to emphasize career skills above all else. Every lesson you learn in a skills bootcamp will directly apply to your work as a Graphic Designer. Students wanting to set themselves up for career success immediately should consider learning graphic design in this capacity.

Learn Graphic Design at Noble Desktop

Interested in learning graphic design? There are a few different options available. It’s possible to either study individual graphic design tools in accelerated bootcamps or learn complementary graphic design skills in more career-focused training programs. Both graphic design training courses are available to students through Noble Desktop, both in-person and online. These courses are taught by experienced instructors who can teach students crucial graphic design techniques and give them vital feedback on their designs. Even online, Noble strives to keep class sizes small, ensuring that students can interface directly with their instructors. Plus, all of Noble’s courses have the option to retake the course for free within a year. This allows students to hone their skills, cover material that may have given them difficulty, or just get more hands-on practice and feedback on their designs.

For students looking to learn the programs most commonly associated with professional graphic design, Noble offers a wide selection of bootcamps. These include training courses in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, all of which are industry-standard tools. These courses will provide students with hands-on training in the advanced techniques to manipulate and edit photos, build vector graphic illustrations, or construct layout designs. Each of these courses will guide students through practical exercises replicating the kinds of projects built by professional Graphic Designers. Each of these courses will teach an individual tool, but because they are all part of the Adobe Creative Cloud, learning one tool will ease future training and greatly expand how creatives can use multiple programs simultaneously.

Students looking to build a career in graphic design may wish to consider Noble’s Graphic Design Certificate program. This accelerated training program will teach students all three major 2D graphic design tools. Students will learn Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign work separately, then they will learn how these programs complement one another, introducing students to new and expansive ways to build graphic designs. Since this is a career-focused bootcamp, students will receive one-on-one career mentorship. The final portion of the course is dedicated to helping students build a practical portfolio of sample design that they can take onto the job market. For students looking to turn a passion for graphic design into a career, Noble’s certificate programs are an ideal place to receive the necessary skills training. You can also browse the full list of schools for graphic design classes on the Noble website.

Key Takeaways

• Veterans looking to take advantage of their government educational benefits may consider enrolling in a graphic design career program.
• The VA offers expansive support for veterans’ continuing education through the GI Bill and the VET TEC program, all of which can be used to support veterans learning graphic design in a career-focused certificate program.
• There are many advantages to enrolling in a career-certificate program rather than a four-year university degree program. Career-certificate programs are far more focused on teaching you career skills, and many, even part-time, can be completed in less time than it would take to complete a single college semester.
• To learn more about your options for comprehensive graphic design training programs, both in-person and online, consider checking out the options available through Noble Desktop.