Paul Rand, one of the leading graphic designers was never good with computer softwares yet he is in my opinion one of the greatest designers to ever exist. When one thinks of design, we never learned from where we come as creatives. If I look back, I can remember people telling stories of painters, musicians, artists wandering from one village to another tell stories with their art-form. So, why did they roam in the first place? The answer is quite simple, one cannot create new art with worn-out experiences sure they help to curate art from new experiences.

People have asked me that they want to start designing so what software should they learn. It is never the software first. Consider software as a canvas of a painter. If a painter knows painting techniques and how to work on the canvas but he can use those skills only when he has a creative idea in mind? And that idea is what makes a designer. Learning design concepts like space, gestalt, colours help you in understanding what goes into a design and how people perceive it.

Even Google being a tech giant uses hand-drawn wire-framing method in their initial design processes. One has to learn how to do proper research and how to come with an idea around that research so that they can show that idea with the help of the software and if you do not know how to use a software you can always hire someone who know how to, Paul Rand did that.

I will conclude by saying, if you want to start designing, not knowing how to use a software is not at all an excuse because that is not designing, it is just a helping hand in showing what idea you have in mind. Working on that mind is important not the software.

One who is lost, draws precisely.