After I just entered my first question, I would like to introduce myself. 
I’m Heike from Germany / Nuremberg and I’m brand new to graphic design, trying to self-study.
I was always interested in creating. In a few years when I hopefully have enough experience I’m planning to work remotely.
Welcome to the forum, Heike.
Welcome Aboard Heike! 
Welcome.
A word of advice though; don’t self-study. Get an education.
Welcome to the forum, how is your self study going on? Do you study any book or watch youtube tutorials online?
Thank you all!
@sprout and @aristopromo - I started a course für graphic design last year but quit after three month. It was this course at the OfG - ofg-studium. de
In my opinion there where very little content in the monthly lessons. I found better courses at LinkedIn-Learning, which I currently use.
I also find the courses at Envato tuts and Domestika quite interesting.
Would you recommend this or probably other courses? Or would you recommend to study at a university?
That’s an online course, isn’t it? I agree, I’d quit too. You need to learn at a real course in a real, reputable university. You cannot learn to design in a bubble. You NEED peer and lecturer critiques.
This forum is good for putting your work up and getting critiques from people who know what they are talking about. You’ll have to develop a thick skin as it is often brutally honest. However, there is no substitute for face-to-face critique sessions where you learn by breaking things to pieces and dissecting why they do or don’t work.
If you want a long-term, sustainable career, this is the way to go. It will give you knowledge and rise you higher than the army of self-taught, who are never going to get a look-in on the plum design jobs in the best agencies. What are your long-term career goals?
This also assumes you have the requisite talent. Going the university route will show you whether you do or not. If you don’t, you won’t get a place. It is hard, but to climb your way up to any sort of elevated level, beyond bottom-feeding with the hobbyists, is tough. It always has been. Now it’s even harder. Everyone thinks they are a designer, because they are creative.
There are no short cuts I’m afraid.
Try putting some work up in the crit pit. Get some sort of idea of the quality of your work. But moreover, get yourself qualified. It’s hard work. Sacrifices will be needed, but it’s the only way to give yourself the best chance.
If I were hiring, the first thing I would do is put ALL the applications without a degree on the NO pile (unless they were talented enough and could show they had years of experience in the right places) . Going through the formal education system gives you a perspective that you won’t get otherwise. It also demonstrates that you want this enough and are prepared to put the effort in to achieve your goals.
Hope this helps, rather than disheartens. Good luck.
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Thank you for your detailed answer.
To be honest, I’m more the category hobbiyst 
My intention is not to work for big companies or agencies, at least not in the moment.
I have a remote part-time job and intentend to do creative work also remotely. I guess most (big) companies and agencies expect working on-site.
Of course there are various levels of design and if you are planning on being a hobbyist, then fine. I’ve absolutely no issues with people producing graphic artwork and even selling it as such, in the same way other creative fields do – painters, ceramicists, etc.
However, if you plan on taking money off people for professional design services, that’s a whole different game. You still need to know what you are doing so that you know the advice you are giving is going to solve their problem and is not just a creative outlet for you. Design is a much more hard-nosed field that other creative endeavours. As I say, it is used to solve clients’ problems and help them achieve their goals…
It wouldn’t work for many other professional services. ‘I only want to be a hobbyist lawyer / doctor / surveyor and will just do some remote work.’ You’d still have to be a qualified lawyer.
As to remote working. These days, on-site is becoming less and less pertinent in many sectors. I stared out, after university, working in studios in London, but for the last 25+ years I have worked for all my clients remotely. Can’t remember the last time I had a face-to-face meetings (apart from small jobs I’ve picked up wherever I was living at the time). Now, with Zoom, in a (nearly) post-pandemic landscape, it is perfectly possible and has become a whole lot easier for those of us who’ve been doing it for years anyway. No longer do you have to explain why you are not going to get on a train for three or for hours to have a 20-minute meeting that could have been done by phone anyway. It is now just accepted.
Ironically, the education part and first few years of experience does still need to be in-person.
Personally, I’d like to see the industry regulated, in the same way other sectors, like law, medicine, etc are, so that you couldn’t legally practice unless you were professionally qualified.
Hope this helps clarify. I am not trying to be negative for the sake of it, but those of us who’ve been doing this many years see every day, examples of people who don’t know what they are doing, but think themselves as creative are offering spurious solutions to unwitting clients, that will simply never do the job it is supposed to do and talk to the people they want to talk to.
Good luck.
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Welcome to the Forum!
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