1. Collect inspirational work and try reproducing it

Be it starting a Pinterest board or a desktop folder, collect pieces that you like and try reproducing them yourself, without a tutorial on the first try. This helps you build analytical skills in terms of design, as well as understand processes and concepts better.

2. Get feedback

Design is subjective in nature, which is why considering different opinions is vital if one is to sharpen the designer's intuitions. Learning to accept constructive criticism is no easy task, but it is vital to becoming a better designer.

3. Join design communities

Following up on the previous point, joining online communities and groups is one of the best ways to receive feedback from beginners as well as experts. This helps you connect, socialise, and share your skills and knowledge with other designers. Being active in these communities also helps you market yourself for free, just by participating in discussions and showcasing your own designs. Besides Facebook groups, DeviantArt, Behance, Coroflot and Flickr are other popular platforms for such communities.

4. Join design contests

Nowadays there are often various graphic design competitions hosted by universities as well as government facilitators. Online communities host monthly contests and challenges as well, often with prize money or other incentives. It's important to participate in these because if done seriously, they will help you learn from the research based on the design briefs and boost your creativity at the same time. If you're persistent, you might even end up winning one (or more!) of these.