Lina Smith asked:

Being a graphic designer is a career that is ideal for anyone who loves to use words and pictures to communicate ideas and messages to other people. Graphic designers are used for a whole variety of different jobs in lots of different fields which can include things like:

• Advertising on posters and in magazines.

• Designing the layout of websites for companies.

• Creating CD-ROM pages.

• Designing logos, letterheads and other branded material for companies.

• Creating brochures.

• Designing leaflets and handouts.

• Designing effects and credits for movies and television.

A graphic designer can do all of these and more as it is such a wide ranging and challenging job, but many people choose to focus on one or two specific areas and make them their speciality. Being a graphic designer is also very rewarding for anyone who has a keen interest in advertising and the way that design can influence people.

So what does it take to become a graphic designer? Firstly it is a good idea to take art and design related courses whilst at school, as this will give you a good grounding as you start on the route to becoming a graphic designer. If you have not done this you might be able to get on a college course which will help you to learn more about being a graphic designer and will help you to further your education. To be really successful as a graphic designer you should really have a bachelor’s degree and this is one of the most basic requirements for many of the graphic design jobs that are advertised.

During your bachelor’s degree to become a graphic designer you will cover a great deal of difference mediums and types of design. This will help you to gain an understanding of a wide range of different areas and it will also help you to decide what you would like to specialise your bachelor’s degree in. Subsequent years will then be spent in more specific areas in which you would like to work. There are so many different disciplines that are involved in graphic design that you might want to pick two or three and then in your final year focus on just one.

If you are already a graphic designer and would like to pursue your career in a different direction you will be able to get onto an associate degree or a certificate program. These are designed to help graphic designers to branch out into different disciplines and increase their knowledge of these disciplines. However you must be aware that you must also have a bachelor’s degree in graphic design before you can start on a different graphic designer course.

Becoming a graphic designer does mean a lot of hard work and a lot of determination, but it will be more than worth it when you are in your chosen profession. So even if you have not taken are or design school, you still have a chance to become a graphic designer.

Anirban Bhattacharya asked:

The best bakers and pastry chefs come out with products that are not only mouthwatering but delectable visually as well. Similarly, graphic design is the art of presenting information in a visually appealing way. For companies to stand out from the crowd, it’s critical to have an outstanding and instantly recognizable logo that represents the company.That’s where corporate graphic design comes into the picture.

Every entrepreneur’s dream is to have a company and a logo that’s as instantly recognizable around the world as a Nike or a Coca Cola. The job of a professional graphic designer is to try to convert these dreams into reality. The graphic designer takes the brief from the client and comes up with a graphic design that reflects the values of the client.

Professional graphic design is a skill that is a combination of both art and science. While a design needs to be catchy, the graphic designer has to keep in mind the different media that will be used to promote an identity for which the logo is created. A logo needs to look good – be it from an outdoor advertising panel, on computer/TV screen, or on to a mobile device.

The role of the print media continues to decline as the primary mode of advertising for companies. As people are beginning to spend more and more time online, the share of online advertising from the total branding remuneration pie will continue to grow for online and internet advertising. With ubiquitous broadband internet and 3G mobile services, advertising will change from something that is simply static to one highly dynamic; and encourage greater interaction amongst the user.

The corporate graphic design of the future has to bear in mind these changing dynamics. The winning graphic design will be the one that best understands the mindset of its target audience and is able to entice and influence its target geography and the people living there.

spinxwebdesign asked:


Graphic design can be a boon for your website or curse if done wrongly. Visual pleasure is the strongest asset and quality of any website which makes them a visitor attracting medium. No matter how good your online content and information is useful for the end user, if it is not presented well and have unattractive graphic design, visitors would not devote enough time to see your website and would exit it quickly. Graphic designing is an art it is the designer’s job of combining art with technology for better functionality. A website has only few seconds to impress the site visitor, an image conveys thoughts and can be a substitute for thousands of words too. Therefore graphics on the home page has to be eye-catching and sensible enough to keep the potential customers hooked to your website for long. For better website speed try to stick to graphics of lower resolution, you can have high-resolution graphics if it’s necessary for the website. In case your graphic image is too big, it can be broken down to small modules so that loading is faster. The graphic that is being used should be related to the website and its content and should not look out of place. Not all computers of the target customers are equipped with faster downloading speed and better connectivity, so keep the graphic design simple that can be assessed by simple connection as well. Before designing the final graphic, consider the dimension of the graphic images, and then these images are assigned sizes by specified width and height during the process of tagging. This procedure makes sure that exact position of the graphic image placement is known to the browser. It helps in instantaneous displaying of text along with graphics that is being loaded. So that the site visitors can read the text and see the graphic image simultaneously. Assigning all images description is essential which can be done by alt-tag function for each image separately. This option is extremely useful in times when a visitor is not able to view the graphic image for some reason, here they can at least have a short description about the graphic design. Good content and graphic design go hand-in-hand for website success, putting up images where content is required would not serve the purpose. Well-designed graphic design can form long lasting positive impression on the visitors motivating them to come to your website again and again. The home page is the most important page of your website, so make it attractive and information source giving a gist about what your website is all about.

Copyright © 2008

Anirban Bhattacharya asked:


When vying for a commercial successful website, one cannot really afford to ignore the need for a professional graphic design powered by custom web development and overall search engine friendliness. Per se, there are various facets to a good looking corporate graphic design and one of them is called anti-aliasing.

A term often used in connection with graphic cards and computer games; Anti-aliasing is integral to a nice and smooth professional graphic design across digital media. The method is used to discernibly smooth the rough edged texts and images in any online game, graphic card or website to give it a more corporate look.

A deeper look into how anti-aliasing works, reveals that it involves no magic but purely smarter handling of the graphics at hand. Anti-aliasing achieves a smoother look for the texts and graphics by rendering the edges less obvious for the human eyes, thus only fooling the viewer’s eyes that the image is now minus a jagged look. The finer texts and graphics in turn reinforce a corporate graphic design impression in the psyche of the audience at large and win better response for the game/ graphic card/ website etc.

The secret behind anti-aliasing can be easily realized by magnifying the text before and after anti-aliasing. An analytical eye would take no time in understanding what anti-aliasing does to any text/ graphic. The method when implemented simply blurs the edges of the text, which looks neat and corporate like for any professional graphic design when reduced manifolds in size within the template. It naturally increases the calculations to be done on the computer monitor to achieve the professional look for the graphic design, and hence a bit slower uploading time.

While the jagged look is an outcome of the basic limitation of a computer screen, which is made up of multitude of pixels and draws any subject using horizontal and vertical lines, Anti-aliasing basically incorporates gentle color changes around the edges to give them a blended look.

bestweboutsourcing asked:


 

Graphic design outsourcing helps in obtaining good graphic designs at affordable rates and in a timely manner. Companies with a strong marketing background are an added advantage for graphic designers. This fact holds true for all mediums of promotion and sales.

Firms that are among the best graphic design companies would primarily analyze details about your company, like the marketing channels, the competitors, target customers, etc. These companies offer graphic design outsourcing services for websites and also printed mediums. You can request to see their graphic design portfolio to see the range of work they have successfully completed.

Graphic design outsourcing is a far cheaper option in comparison to appointing a staff for graphic designing. The number of people preferring outsourcing for their web projects is increasing. These graphic design companies are far more specialized in their respective fields and have expertise in handling online projects.

Look out for any discount schemes or promotional offers by these companies. They typically charge a fixed amount of fees for certain time duration or for an overall project.

The reasons for outsourcing differ from company to company. Some might opt for it as they don’t have the required qualifications and resources. Some need additional time for business core issues, whereas some people might be short of time and so on. Outsourcing helps in focusing on other business goals. Think about the benefit that outsourcing would free you from the stress of creating appropriate designs and logos for your company. Apart from qualified professionals handling your graphic design project, they even give you the choice of selecting the logo from many options designed by them.

The chances of getting the maximum ROI can be expected with outsourcing. For a premium, you can even hire a graphic designer to work exclusively on your project on a part-time or full-time basis as needed. If you want to make any changes in existing designs, it becomes easy and can be done in less time.

Imagine if you have to complete all the small changes in your graphic design on your own. Firstly you have to install new software which would cost you hundreds of dollars. Then you’d have to learn how to use it, thus costing you time as well as energy. These shortcomings are overcome by graphic design outsourcing. It’s worth a try for any project, large or small.

 

Copyright © 2008

 

spinxwebdesign asked:

All computer wizards have accepted the power of graphic designing as one of the strongest marketing tool. The designs procured through graphics have great value in the market giving the much needed right kind of public exposure to the website. Consult with your graphic designer, let them know what your design expectations are so that the outcome is very close to your requirements.

Graphic designs are very versatile in nature that can be applied to both print as well as websites. It can turn imaginations into reality, giving your dreams wings and achieve the height of business expansion. Taking professional help gives designing professional touch and handling.

The concept of graphic designing also requires some basic factors to be considered. Creating strong visual appeal is important, so due consideration has to be given to color selection. Image has to match with your website business strong enough to exert positive impression on the site visitors. Message that you want to convey through the graphic has to be thought about and then formed. Customers see and hear exactly what you are trying to communicate to them.

Stepwise and rigorous research and planning goes into choosing most specific graphic design for a website. Right from the graphic design creation to its application, it can be divided into three process categories namely:

Design process

Grid application

Technology application

Every graphic design is produced in a stepwise manner, giving right kind of design solutions. Grid application is used to improvise the quality and look of the graphic images for that perfect online look. Integrating latest technology in the graphic designs is essential to give modern and attractive look to them.

Web design and graphic design are inter-related with each other, as both have significance for any creatively designed website. They influence the overall look of a site comprising of typography and layout. Graphic design has extended scope not just confining to the internet, several other media use graphics.

After an image is designed, the next step will be its apt placement on the website and the size of the image. Do not overlook the importance of arrangement of visuals and content on the web page. Graphics ones created does not solve the purpose forever, they have to be maintained, edited or changed after some interval of time.

Copyright © 2009

Akhila Choudhary asked:

Adobe Photoshop and graphic designing spell almost synonymous. The contribution of Photoshop to a graphic design firm has been manifold –right from designing to editing. A graphics designer who works on Photoshop is well-aware of the advantages of Photoshop over other designing tools.

Photoshop’s Paint Tools consist of four tools – Airbrush is one among them (Pencil Tool, the Paintbrush and the Paint Bucket are the rest). The Airbrush Tool of Photoshop stimulates an airbrush and it’s ideal for soft, delicate and subtle editing. A creative graphic designer even uses this function for removing dark circles from under eyes while merging or incorporating images onto their projects to make the graphics look for stunning, more vibrant.

The Airbrush Tool of Photoshop is similar to the Paintbrush only difference being its softer edge. Using the function is quite easy. You just need to click on the tool and then select the desired options from the Option Bar that includes brush size, shape and pattern. The Brush pull-down menu on the Option Bar helps you select a new brush. You can also load more brushes by clicking the circle button with the black arrow. Create brushes, save modified brushes, delete brushes, rename brushes and reset brushes are the other functions which can be initiated using the button. You need to select the layer on which you want to paint in the Layers palette. Then dragging the mouse you are all set to draw.

A graphic design company can harvest the maximum in designing using the Airbrush Tool of Photoshop. The tool comes with a Pressure slider function that modifies how much paint is sprayed when the mouse is down. The spraying of paint using the function is pretty easy and interesting. You just need to choose the airbrush tool and then click on the canvas holding the mouse down while dragging. In a custom graphic design firm, this function is frequently used. And results have been just terrific!

Sharron Nixon asked:


Graphic design is a creative process that combines art and technology to communicate ideas. It is the process of communicating visually using typography and images to present information, usually used whenever visual intricacy and creativity are needed to present text and imagery. It can also be applied to the layout and formatting of educational material to make the information more accessible and more easily understood.

Designing a masterpiece graphically is the art of combining text and graphics to communicate an effective message. It is primarily used in the design of logos, brochures, newsletters, posters, signs, and other type of visual communication. Graphic design is the use of words and images to pass on information or to create a certain visual effect. This art form is sometimes referred to as commercial art because of its application to advertising and its vital contribution to business function.

Graphic design practice embraces a range of cognitive skills, aesthetics and crafts, including typography, visual arts and page layout. Graphic designers have a unique ability to sell a product or idea through effective visual communications, and are asked to perform the difficult task of being creative every single day.

Combining visual communication skills with the interactive communication skills of user interaction and online branding, graphic designers often work with web developers to create both the look and feel of a web site and enhance the online experience of web site visitors. Color is also another powerful way of helping users find their way around a site, and color coding sections of the site helps users identify where they are.

Graphic design adds a visual and emotional context to the purely cognitive text on the site. The primary tool for this art form is, of necessity, the creative mind. With the advent of computers and software applications, the task of the designer has become a little easier, as these have provided more effective production tools than traditional methods. It is a creative profession and things that were once only conceived in the mind are brought to life through skills and imagination.

There is a downside to the inclusion of graphic design on websites. Many designers have tried to force the Web to be what it is not, creating ineffective and sometimes unusable websites. There is a tendency to forget that words, and not images, are the building blocks for the vast majority of websites. People are strongly visually orientated, and their response to the website’s aesthetics and visual structure plays a strong part in how they interact with it as a whole.

The mid 1980s heralded the arrival of desktop publishing and the introduction of graphic art software applications. This introduced a generation of designers to computer image manipulation and 3D image creation that had previously been a tedious and intensive process. Today’s graphic designers often use desktop publishing software and techniques to achieve their goals.

Graphic design requires that the advocate must continually keep up to date with the development of new and updated software, usually either on their own or through software training programs. Contrary to popular belief, anybody with the right software can not necessarily do it, creativity is the biggest attribute that needs to be added.

Graphic design is not just a case of being fluent in some type of software, but also about communication, solving visual problems, and imagination. The tools that are now available do not detract from the need for creative imagination, rather just make the performance of the task easier, and perhaps open the floodgates to applications that may have been out of reach previously.

Karen Saunders asked:


When you own your own business, there’s never a dull moment. That’s why I wrote ‘Turn Eye Appeal Into Buy Appeal’. It’s the do-it-yourself graphic design handbook that makes marketing your business as easy as 1-2-3. There are some projects, though, where it pays to hire a graphic designer. When it’s time to hire a graphic designer, these 5 essential tips can save you a lot of time and money:

1) Figure out if you can do it yourself. If you are not a professional graphic designer, you could spend days – even weeks – to make a brochure or flyer that a professional designer could do in a matter of hours. For major projects that will be a big part of your marketing campaign, you’ll want to take advantage of the experience a graphic designer can offer. Once you find the right designer, you will have access to a consistent style of graphics for all your marketing pieces.

2) Check out their samples. Do you like what you see? If their portfolio includes the design elements that you are looking for, then you’ll know if their style is going to mesh with your style. And of course, you’ll want to see how their style will work for your type of product or service.

3) Get references. Your best place to start would be by asking friends and colleagues if they can recommend someone. Also, many graphic designers will include testimonials either on their website or correspondence. Don’t be shy to call… it’s why they’re there! You can also check with local printers. They usually know firsthand what the designers working style is. The website for the American Institute of Graphic Artists (AIGA.com) has a free listing of designers all over the country.

4) Interview your prospective designer. Talk about the size and scope of the project, what your expectations are, and any deadlines you may have. You can get a sense of their work ethic, and see if you will work well together. This gives the designer the chance to ask you questions, too. You’ll know upfront if they have the time and skill to take on your project.

5) Get it in writing. Once you’ve found the right designer, make sure all the details are outlined in the proposal or contract. Get it in writing and make sure you know what it does (and doesn’t) include. Don’t forget to read any terms and conditions (such as a deposit) and make sure you’re comfortable with them before you start the project.

Now you can go out and hire the graphic designer that’s going to make your marketing campaign come to life!

Horatio Farquaar asked:


We’ve all dreamed of spending our working days reclinining back in a deck chair eating cheese sandwiches on an overcast summers day. But then we remember the mortgage/kids/wifes $500 a day drug habit and our fantasies turn to dust. It doesn’t have to be this way. Here at www.mindtap.co.uk we show in 5 easy steps how you can quit that lousy Graphic Design job and spend the rest of your life living in easy street.

Step 1: Think yourself in a better place and low and behold it will happen

This is your first step towards financial freedom. Imagine if you will yourself sat upon a huge pile of money, flinging it in the air with *** abandon and why not? Congratulations you’ve just made the first step towards making this a reality. Forget the graphic designer career you had mapped out. Let’s join the idle rich instead.

Step 2: Tell the boss what you think of him and burn those bridges!

Now its time to get some payback. Remember the time your design studio manager had you stay late and manually key in that 1oo page farming brochure text by hand and then laughed at you in your face? Right, we’ll show him who’s boss. A good way to be forcibly removed from the office and earn some extra kudos from your fellow graphic design employees is to take a dump and leave it festering away in a drawer in the bosses desk.Just wait for his reaction when he smells that sick stunt. You’re history.

Step 3: When you hit rock bottom the only way is up, up and away

No job = No money right? Wrong you putz. How do you think the tramps and beggars fill there days outside sainsburys? That’s right – drinking and robbing. It isn’t absolutely necessary to pick up a drink and drug habit at this stage but it isn’t going to harm your chances of success. Now would also be a good opportunity to get rid of the other half if you happen to have one. A spot of domestic violence after hitting the bottle is usually enough encouragement. Hey Presto, one more tiresome burdon off your back!

Step 4: Remember keep your vision and your dreams will come true

At every stage in this degenerate journey, never lose sight of that image we visuallised in step one of yourself sitting astride a huge pile of banknotes. They can take away your dignity but not your dreams. After several years of eeking out a living as a street bum its time to get this show on the road. Think hard about your previous day to day life, was there someone in your remote family or circle of friends who had a large stash of cash readily disposable? It’s time to pay them a visit with cap in hand.

Step 5: Invest wisely and you can say hello to a life of wanton abandon

Now after securing your large sum of cash from your chosen aquaintence, its prudent not to blow it all in one go on 200ft gold statues of yourself or buying an amusement park complete with zoo. No, you don’t want to be going back to the nine to five graphic design day job do you? There are a thousand ways to invest your cash so that it will sit pretty and continue giving you a steady stream or revenue for a long time. Property for example is ‘as safe as houses’ or maybe put it all in a high interest savings account. It’s taken a long time to reach your goal and hopefully the pain, ill health and loneliness have been worth it.