I went down the design school method but in terms of advice for someone wanting to treach themselves I’d first of all say good on you and then;

• For the technical side of the software then there’s plenty of tutorials on, as has been mentioned, places like YouTube. Get yourself a creative cloud subscription and go from there.

• Somewhat conversely to my first point, don’t discard the good old pen, pencil and paper. I usually start most of my designs by at least sketching them out first. Sometimes just to quickly experiment with layout, other times to create custom elements or letterforms. Sometimes just to play around with texture and colour combinations. You can find some great ideas by accident this way. Let your creative brain loose at the start without limiting it to the rules of the software. Save Adobe for the polishing stage. So much is missed by jumping straight onto the computer and working from there. It may sound old fashioned to some but I believe the ability to visualise your ideas on paper is an essential tool to have which is lacking these days. Graph and layout paper can be your best friends, it doesn’t make you a dinosaur.

• For inspiration on what some others are doing I recommend behance as there are some great designers in all kinds of fields who exhibit their work on there. You’ll get to see the level other professionals are working at and this will give you a good way to gauge your skills against the rest of the industry.

• There’s a wealth of books out there on graphic design theory which would probably be useful too. I wouldn’t recommend trying to learn completely from books, more to use them as a way of delving deeper into areas that interest you. Most designers specialise in some specific area of graphic design over others, don’t try and decide this now but as you go along you’ll find yourself drawn to one aspect more than others, this is when it is worth really expanding your knowledge via books. To try and cover the entire scope of graphic design with literature would cost you a small fortune. Much more can be learned at this stage by actually trying your hand at creating designs.

• You could find work you like and try to emulate it. This will give you a good way of learning techniques and practises. Don’t ever try to pass it off as your own though, treat it more as a learning exercise for yourself.

• If you really want to get straight into the thick of it then have a go at producing designs for people who may want them, I’d stick to small stuff to start with. I guarantee your first attempts won’t be masterpieces by any stretch (feel free to prove me wrong on this!) but you can learn a lot from constructive, honest critique. Build a portfolio for these and take it around established design agencies. Most are happy to speak to people looking for crits and usually offer sound, focused advice that you won’t get from the Internet or a book. Always remember, people are critiquing your work, not you. Try to not take anything personally.

Hope this helps and best of luck!