I am a new beginner in graphic design. What software should I be using?
photoshop, illustrator, indesign, bridge, dreamweaver and maybe flash to begin with. i’m sure i’m missing a few
it’s expensive, but adobe products are essential to any graphic designer.
Can you be more specific about what you hope to achieve… there’s always a program geared slightly more toward one thing or another. Photoshop is the most broad though.
what do you mean by “visual designer”? Making sigs / avs? Doing print layouts? Web design?
The main thing to do is to understand design basics and composition, and then build from there.
Software is the least of your worries… almost anyone can learn and master software.
generally all designers these days require a rudimentary knowledge of Photoshop and Illustrator at the very least.
btw there’s also a graphic designer’s thread over in IMM:
http://shoryuken.com/f13/graphic-design-web-design-discussion-thread-160273/