u/lostburner:

I got my bachelor’s degree in an unrelated field which I have temporarily set aside as an area I will ever work. Bad choice. Now I have parlayed my sometime hobby of doing the occasional design in Illustrator (my wedding invitations, the occasional card) into a full-time job as the “designer” at a sign shop. I’m not kidding myself; though the shop owner flatters me, the job description is really that of a production artist. The amount of “design work” that I do is pretty minimal, though I’m the file-wrangler and bitmap-tracer.

I’ve had this job for about a year, and this combined with a long-term interest in graphic design (regularly consuming related podcasts and blogs; staring at fonts and kerning in the real world) have made me decide that I want to become a Real Graphic Designer.

Without going back to school. […]

Your plans are on-spot. Even though I have a degree in design, I think university was mostly a shooting range where I could practice before getting into real client work, and the print shop accomplishes this.

The only thing I see missing from your plans is getting an online portfolio as soon as possible. This helps you convert customers and it helps you be disciplined about the quality of your work.

If you want another resource shameless plug warning I created http://method.ac as a place to practice design. Take a look!

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