However experienced and knowledgeable you get, you never stop learning – and great tutorials can teach you how to take advantage of new technologies, features, tools and techniques. You don’t want to end up missing out on a new trick that could save you time and energy, and help improve your design work.

Here we round up the best graphic design tutorials to hit the web this year so far. We've split the list up into Illustrator tutorials, Photoshop tutorials, InDesign tutorials and tutorials for other software, to help you find what you're looking for. Enjoy!

First up, it's the Illustrator tutorials. Despite the increasing rivalry from apps like Affinity Designer and Sketch, Adobe Illustrator continues to be the standard tool of choice for graphic designers and studios everywhere. Here are six of the best Illustrator tutorials we’ve spotted this year so far.

Learn to create a geometric pattern with this step-by-step guide

In this concise but incisive tutorial, Chris Spooner of Spoon Graphics demonstrates how to create a vector geometric pattern. You can either follow his step-by-step guide to create the same pattern, or remix the artwork to create your own.

This 16-step tutorial demonstrates how simple shapes can be combined to create something magical

Soft gradients are a great way to build depth and beauty into your vector graphics. In this 16-step tutorial, Russian artist Alexandra Zutto walks you through the creation of a stunning owl image, which she creates through a slow and careful process of layering and building up small segments.

Ensure your images work well on the web by following this SVG tutorial

In today’s multimedia world, when you create an SVG image in Illustrator, even if it’s intended for print, it’s important to make sure that it’s optimised for use on the web as well. In this Illustrator tutorial, Ivaylo Gerchev explains how to build fundamental SVG optimisation concepts into your creation process.

Use Illustrator’s Blend tool to create this stunning effect

Adobe Illustrator is commonly used to create abstract wave graphics, but here Chris Spooner explains how to use the Blend tool to create sci-fi-inspired digital particle waves. He uses Illustrator for the initial effect, then shows you how to move your pattern to Photoshop to add some extra colour enhancements.

Learn the fundamentals of designing graphic figures from expert Ben O’Brien

In this 10-step tutorial, illustrator Ben O’Brien walks you through the process of designing graphic figures that can fit into a scene effortlessly, paying close attention to body language, physical proportions and positioning different parts of the body.

Create editable yet attractive text using Illustrator’s Appearance panel

Here Chris Spooner shows you how to use fills and strokes within Illustrator’s Appearance panel to create permanently set graphic text that is editable. The result is a set of trendy, retro-style letters with a faux 3D appearance.

Next page: Great new Photoshop tutorials