If you have a creative child, you can consider introducing them to graphic design. If they are taught properly, they will develop a strong interest in the subject. Here are some great graphic design ideas and tips for kids:
• Use Many Primary Colours
Kids will be more engaged if you encourage them to design with more primary colours. They don’t necessarily have to follow graphic design rules and can use even six different colours in one design. When giving them a design to work with, it is important to consider their ages.
Children under 6 years will be more interested in colourful images with nature or cartoon themes. Kids between 7 and 10 will be more interested in images that have simple words. At this point, you can even use deeper colour schemes. Kids between 10 and 14 will still need simple images, but you can include deeper colour schemes and more adult-like themes. As teenagers, kids will still have very short attention spans and should not be given very complicated images to work with. They will quickly lose interest.
• Text
If your children are just starting to learn how to read, then you need to limit the amount of text you include in your designs. In fact, if you are working with kids under 8 years old, you should not have any text on the images. For older kids, simple words can challenge them and keep them interested in the activity. It is important to avoid sentences or paragraphs since children don’t really want to read that much in an image. At this age, they have not yet developed a skill to quickly read through words. Shorter words are preferable to longer ones.
• Choose Suitable Graphic Design Software
Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator are two of the best graphic design software, but children will have a hard time figuring out how they work. Don’t bother even showing them the tutorials or guiding them through the app since they will lose interest in the activity altogether. A good application for children to start designing would be Tux Paint. This application is free and is specifically aimed at kids. It has a cartoon mascot that helps users navigate the app. It also has sound effects.
You can even consider using KidPix. This one used to be just a drawing app, but it has since been developed to become a design tool. It can actually work as a simplified version of Adobe Photoshop. Another graphic design software is Canva. This one is available on desktop as well as mobile phones.
As your kids advance, you can slowly introduce them to Pixlr, GIMP, and Inkscape. These are easier to use compared to Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. They are also free and will not require a financial commitment.
Conclusion
Graphic design should be introduced to kids at very young ages. It is important to use simple colours and themes when working with kids. Also, limit the use of words and sentences.
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