>>441709
Taste, designs that are actually marketable.

And good communication skills with the client.
Producing something that they actually want so you can turn that into something visually cohesive.
There are many cases were it would feel like the client doesn't even know what they want, and many cases where the designer keeps missing the mark because he just doesn't get it.

I always say this- learning the software is the easy part. But any monkey can make a circle and call it a logo. But making something that is pleasing to look at that will satisfy both the client and their customers requires a good designer eye.

>>441709
A degree in Graphic Design

Taste level

>>441712

lol retard

>>441709
A professional is anyone who graphic designs to make a living, and an amateur is somebody who just enjoys doing it. A professional can be bad at it and an amateur can be good at it. Your question is just weird baiting on one of the slowest boards.

Nothing but a paycheck

>>441709
A paycheck.

>>441709
knowing what good design is

>>441709
I'd like to know as an amateur beginner at which point should I start "working" as in start to look for clients, open up a Fiverr account and all that bullshit
Should I work on designs for a portfolio first, been thinking about doing an instagram account, work on some designs for myself and posting them there
I think I'm pretty good with the adobe suite (photoshop, illustrator, indesign) but I don't feel like I have the "experience" yet to start working

>>441912
Everyone on fiverr is using templates. Don't take it too seriously.
Your biggest worry on that platform are the pajeets and durnesh who spit work at twice your speed and charge half your rates.

>>441912

People in your community need flyers for one reason or another. If you want my advice for real, it's to offer your services for free to something that you care about, whether it's like a restaurant you enjoy or a band you like or something. One of my first gigs was at one of my favorite diners, their menu looked like shit and I was like [Speech 100/100] "Hey, I'm a professional graphic designer, I can re-design this for you, and I wouldn't even charge you for it since I love this place." They ended up giving me $100 for like an hour of work.

>>441709
Reminder that all frogposters are feds

>>441709
understanding file formats and printing mostly, you can't get away with doing a logo in rgb for instance if it's going to be printed, it has to be cmyk and trapped correctly to print right, shit like that.

is taste really that much of a separator? As long as you know how to create something that is not fugly, you should be good to go. Most clients only care for tasteless shit anyway.

>>441916
>They ended up giving me $100 for like an hour of work.

if you are already known somewhat, grab all the work and do all the posters, signs, billboards, branding materials, facebook profiles, youtube channels and websites in the town. you but you need to think how it averages over a week, month & a year and what is that you need to do to have baseline of $x per month, $x hourly average, how much that house and car and taking care of your old folks and own family in x years will cost, charge them accordingly, anything that takes more than an afternoon - have a contract (there WILL be people who will try to fuck you over and not pay).

>>442616
taste and art knowledge will always be the great divider.

>>441709
Understanding of hierarchy, either textual or graphic. Design elements do not compete to have a clear purpose when somebody knows what they are doing.

>>441709
nothing

>>441709
>amateur = not getting paid
>pro = getting paid