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Graphic Design |OT| Be, INdesign
- Thread starter Kikarian
- Start date
travisbickle
Member
InDesign is a desktop publishing tool.
Learn sizes, scales and ratios. I would suggest reading a "back to basics" type book for InDesign because setting up master pages, guidelines, and placeholders properly really helps speed up your output. (And styles as mentioned above)
Pick up books on layout and read. Practice layouts, and if you're a student copy others.
edgefusion
Member
Fellow design GAF, I'm in an awkward position design-wise and need some help. I have a degree in graphic design but I'm currently working in administration for my sisters nursery. It's been successful, they've opened two branches and are interested in a third but have no brand identity, including logo, company materials etc.
This is the logo (as a start-point) I did for them (quote to see):
They are both very lethargic on getting any branding done and keep hiding behind "once we get xx sorted out, we'll focus on branding" which inevitably leads to never getting anything done. How can I get them to understand the importance of a good brand? In my mind this is something that should have been done a long time ago.
My second problem is this (quote to see):
It makes me physically angry to look at. This is what is being used as a signature to every email sent out to clients, it's also on all the paperwork that gets sent to clients to sign. My sisters husband fancies himself some kind of 'creative' and comes up with these atrocities against humanity without so much as seeking my expertise. How can I explain to him how awful this is? Just how mind-blowingly, earth-shatteringly disgusting it is? And how can I get him to keep his taste-destroying mitts off any future design that gets done? And UK GAF, yes that is just Sainsbury's slogan, reversed.
TL;DR - My sister has a company with no brand despite employing someone (me) with a degree in design while her husband shits on every piece of design philosophy that ever existed.
This is the logo (as a start-point) I did for them (quote to see):
They are both very lethargic on getting any branding done and keep hiding behind "once we get xx sorted out, we'll focus on branding" which inevitably leads to never getting anything done. How can I get them to understand the importance of a good brand? In my mind this is something that should have been done a long time ago.
My second problem is this (quote to see):
It makes me physically angry to look at. This is what is being used as a signature to every email sent out to clients, it's also on all the paperwork that gets sent to clients to sign. My sisters husband fancies himself some kind of 'creative' and comes up with these atrocities against humanity without so much as seeking my expertise. How can I explain to him how awful this is? Just how mind-blowingly, earth-shatteringly disgusting it is? And how can I get him to keep his taste-destroying mitts off any future design that gets done? And UK GAF, yes that is just Sainsbury's slogan, reversed.
TL;DR - My sister has a company with no brand despite employing someone (me) with a degree in design while her husband shits on every piece of design philosophy that ever existed.
I'm on my phone so it's hard to see the pics, but try and find some nurseries with great Branding and then show her that. Tell her that with a good brand, people will remember her store and potential customers might be more interested in coming in if their name/look is friendly, inviting and most importantly, professional.
EDIT: Your design is off to a nice start, looks great! Has your sister seen what you've done? You might also have to flesh out everything else, including brochures, materials and email newsletters before they both take a look and go, "shit that makes what we did look like junk".
Many people can't just look at a logo and think of the entire brand like us, it was something I struggled with when I first started out.
EDIT: Your design is off to a nice start, looks great! Has your sister seen what you've done? You might also have to flesh out everything else, including brochures, materials and email newsletters before they both take a look and go, "shit that makes what we did look like junk".
Many people can't just look at a logo and think of the entire brand like us, it was something I struggled with when I first started out.
Phonomezer
Banned
You're right about that email signature... yikes.
Are they afraid of the additional work that they might have to do? If so you could just confront them with the results more or less on a take it or leave it basis.
You may try with me: Why is it awful? Please try to explain in ways of "because potential customers are ...".
Krauser Kat
Member
I trying to bust out a logo for my friend who is now a practicing lawyer. Trying so hard not to be corny. His initials are MR, he is not going into the schlocky law stuff so we cant call him MRLAW which would have been awesome. Just been brainstorming basic MR logos maybe with a hint of law stuff like a book or scale.
From some work I've done in the past with lawyers, unless they're goofy people they'll want the typical serif font initial law BS designs. Unfortunately, the law field doesn't really let creativity fly. It's more to the point.
Buckethead
Banned
Confront him and tell him that you have a degree in design and he doesn't.
Working with family is dangerous enough but this is a situation where you need to assert yourself and not take any shit.
If you aren't going to be respected, I wouldn't work with them.
Jzero
Member
Yea, some people just don't know what's good.
Introduction:
2 years of art institute of nyc
2 months intern at maxim
7-8 years in the design/print business
worked at macy's advertising as art director, freelancer, and art tech. next year will be my 6th year
can't really post my daily work here, due to copy rights
a vday card i made for my wife last yr... didn't make one for her this year lol
2 years of art institute of nyc
2 months intern at maxim
7-8 years in the design/print business
worked at macy's advertising as art director, freelancer, and art tech. next year will be my 6th year
can't really post my daily work here, due to copy rights
a vday card i made for my wife last yr... didn't make one for her this year lol
SJRB
Gold Member
God I've been slaving over my own website for months now, but evertime I think I nailed the style I change my mind.
Not to mention coding the whole thing was a brutal process since I have no relevant education in webdesign or whatever, I janked everything from googling and random books I found.
How did you guys handle this? Thinking of a satisfactory design for myself is the hardest thing ever haha. I have a general idea of what direction I want to go, I made a logo for myself and thought of the right color schemes I want to use. But other than that..
Also - how do you guys "practice"? You know, build a portfolio?
Not to mention coding the whole thing was a brutal process since I have no relevant education in webdesign or whatever, I janked everything from googling and random books I found.
How did you guys handle this? Thinking of a satisfactory design for myself is the hardest thing ever haha. I have a general idea of what direction I want to go, I made a logo for myself and thought of the right color schemes I want to use. But other than that..
Also - how do you guys "practice"? You know, build a portfolio?
Buckethead
Banned
Volunteer, be underpaid, and network.
megarockexe
Member
Everyone always says to "network, network, network" and I'm just terrible at it. Over the past 2 years, I could probably count on one hand how many different people I am in contact with now.
Not sure if this is the right place but I've been learning some CSS and FW stuff while putting together my subreddit, here's my latest theme
http://www.reddit.com/r/vocaloid
http://www.reddit.com/r/vocaloid
Just start. I've redone my website maybe 5-6 times over the past 3 years. Sometimes it's a background texture change, or a new font. My logo has stayed the same since I started, but I change the look/feel to go along with my current mood. Just recently I re-coded the entire site for wordpress, and just last week I finished the responsive aspect of it. Keep in mind I learned code from deconstructing my favourite sites, and never in school.
I started doing small websites for local politicians, start up shops, etc. Moved my way up to big companies subcontracting me out to do app designs. I've also helped people launch their new biz by running the creative side. Word of mouth travels fast, but honestly you need to be good with design.
Buckethead
Banned
Correct... Never export professional work from photoshop to a photoshop PDF, the text will become image alone with the file, which will become pixilatted when you zoom in.
If anyone is into Game Design (Partically the Graphic design side) you will like this guy.
http://www.youtube.com/user/midnitedesign
He does a lot of Game design and gives you a good insight.
http://www.youtube.com/user/midnitedesign
He does a lot of Game design and gives you a good insight.
beanman25
Member
Could someone make me a YouTube background?
http://www.youtube.com/beanman25jr
I tried making my own and it is far from appealing. If someone could make me one, that would be amazing. If possible, please make it colorful and include game characters including Chrono (Chrono Trigger), Ness (Earthbound), Isaac (Binding of Isaac), and whoever else you see fit. Please make the banner similar word wise. I'll code the links myself, just please send me the banner separately also.
Thank you SO much!
http://www.youtube.com/beanman25jr
I tried making my own and it is far from appealing. If someone could make me one, that would be amazing. If possible, please make it colorful and include game characters including Chrono (Chrono Trigger), Ness (Earthbound), Isaac (Binding of Isaac), and whoever else you see fit. Please make the banner similar word wise. I'll code the links myself, just please send me the banner separately also.
Thank you SO much!
Hey bros, any tips on what font(s) to use for my own portfolio site?
I'm not a designer, the site will just have some links to some projects I've worked on, apps/code not graphics.
Right now, it's just got a static image background, with some left-aligned and centered text, that has my name and some text, I can PM anyone the link if you want to see.
I'm not a designer, the site will just have some links to some projects I've worked on, apps/code not graphics.
Right now, it's just got a static image background, with some left-aligned and centered text, that has my name and some text, I can PM anyone the link if you want to see.
Look at this guy's blog and he lists fonts on the side.
Look for one's that you like!
http://ilovetypography.com/
Betta Lines
Member
Let's say I've drawn a complex shape with the Pen tool in Illustrator... and it looks good as an outline with the stroke width at a certain thickness. I'd like to make that line thickness the actual shape (so that if I put the new version side by side, and it would look the same with no stroke and a fill instead)... is there an easy way of doing this?
[edit] Ah... I found it.
[edit] Ah... I found it.
Betta Lines
Member
This is really confusing me. Let's say I'm doing a logo where a shape blends into a character of a certain word. In order to manipulate the typeface appropriately, I've created outlines so that the characters are no longer editable as text. I've then gone on to scale groups of these characters, and suddenly they start doing weird things, where certain bits don't scale in line with everything else. It seems to happen when stuff goes very small... am I just reaching some kind of precision limitation?
Monkeylord
Member
Having just upgraded my graphics programmes thanks to the generous people at Adobe giving away CS2 for free (hey, I was using Photoshop Elements 4 that I got free with a printer up until now, so this is a massive upgrade for me) Ive been interested in having a bash at some vector art using Illustrator. Ive never used it before, although I have had a mess around with Inkscape.
I was wondering if anyone could recommend any essential (and preferably free) plugins for the various CS2 programmes I now find myself the lucky recipient of.
Im particularly interested in anything that would give me access to variable-width strokes in Illustrator as seen in CS5 (and promised for what seems like an eternity for the next iteration of Inkscape).
I was wondering if anyone could recommend any essential (and preferably free) plugins for the various CS2 programmes I now find myself the lucky recipient of.
Im particularly interested in anything that would give me access to variable-width strokes in Illustrator as seen in CS5 (and promised for what seems like an eternity for the next iteration of Inkscape).
Betta Lines
Member
Not sure what 'strokes' are exactly, but I created the shapes with the basic pen tool, and adjusted some of the lettering with the direct selection tool once I'd converted the text to outlines. Having that box checked hasn't helped unfortunately.Do you have strokes on anything?
Make sure you have this enabled in illustrator.
I've noticed that if I have my group of letters selected, under the Transform window the 'Align to Pixel Grid' tick box is a blob, instead of being ticked or unticked. If I click that once, it becomes a tick, and all the letters go slightly wrong. This is what is happening when I scale the group, but to a lesser extent. It must be related in some way...
Betta Lines
Member
Everything is definitely selected, as it was grouped and then pasted into a new document.
[edit] and just to make sure, I tried scaling it in the original document too, in case it was the pasting that was causing problems, and it also screws up.
[edit] and just to make sure, I tried scaling it in the original document too, in case it was the pasting that was causing problems, and it also screws up.
Are you scaling manually or using Object > Transform > Scale? Sounds like you are doing it manually. Try doing it the other way. In that window there will be an option 'Scale stroke & effects', this will keep the stroke of an object the same size relative to the shape.
Betta Lines
Member
Yeah I tried to scale via the menus with the same result.
I've figured it out now. It was because the 'Align to Pixel Grid' was checked before I converted the text to outlines. Grrr.
Thanks for the suggestions.
I've figured it out now. It was because the 'Align to Pixel Grid' was checked before I converted the text to outlines. Grrr.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Need some help/advice design GAF. I'm having a pretty big creative block at the moment, which is annoying because after designing so many logo's I'm stuck on the one I'm doing now for my own company.
Not completely satisfied with any of them, and would have preferred something more creative and modern, but going from a general consumer perspective, from the multiple people I've asked (potential customers), they all seem to prefer the stuff with added fluff.
Here are the one's I've got so far. Better with or without the stones? Both? (I could use the non stone version as my hallmark on my jewellery). Or a complete re-design? Any advice, alternatives or opinions would be much appreciated
Quick and dirty mock up of a black version.
Not completely satisfied with any of them, and would have preferred something more creative and modern, but going from a general consumer perspective, from the multiple people I've asked (potential customers), they all seem to prefer the stuff with added fluff.
Here are the one's I've got so far. Better with or without the stones? Both? (I could use the non stone version as my hallmark on my jewellery). Or a complete re-design? Any advice, alternatives or opinions would be much appreciated
Quick and dirty mock up of a black version.
I personally hate reflections, especially on the D considering it's above the name of your company, it physically makes no sense.
I like the second one, though I would make the logo a tad smaller, maybe 3/4 of its current size. You are close though, nice!
^^ @ Flek, I'm pretty sure that's the " & "
I like the second one, though I would make the logo a tad smaller, maybe 3/4 of its current size. You are close though, nice!
^^ @ Flek, I'm pretty sure that's the " & "
It's an &! I was originally going to leave it bare, but it just lacked symmetry and artistic balance (imo) without something there.
See, I'm with you on the reflections thing. But every single person I asked (quite a few) seemed to prefer reflections, hence me using the term "fluff" lol. I'm at odds now.
I'll make the logo smaller and see how it looks. In all honesty sizing wasn't final, but I really appreciate your comments. Agree with them too which helps!
Cosmonaut X
Member
Yeah, I'd drop the reflections too. To be honest, I'd also drop the ampersand in the logo - I think it's distracting, borderline legible and your D/S letterform is stronger without it.
I prefer the version without the gem, but that's more personal preference (my wife likes that version!) and I think having both would be good (one reproduces better in B&W for faxes/letters etc., and the other would be appropriate for full-colour pieces etc.).
Nice work though!
EDIT:
I see your comment about balance and symmetry, but I think it works without it, and a little asymmetry is more pleasing than the effect you've got now. I hope this doesn't sound too harsh; your piece is strong IMO and a touch of judicious trimming will make it all the stronger.
I prefer the version without the gem, but that's more personal preference (my wife likes that version!) and I think having both would be good (one reproduces better in B&W for faxes/letters etc., and the other would be appropriate for full-colour pieces etc.).
Nice work though!
EDIT:
I see your comment about balance and symmetry, but I think it works without it, and a little asymmetry is more pleasing than the effect you've got now. I hope this doesn't sound too harsh; your piece is strong IMO and a touch of judicious trimming will make it all the stronger.
Ok, I'll play around with it. I do agree regarding cleanliness without the reflections. Will try a combination of versions. I did have a version without the ampersand, but as mentioned, that left side of the main image was too linear and sudden. But I'll tinker with it.
But yea, general consensus thus far seems to be to drop the reflections.
Cosmonaut X
Member
I'll be interested to see how you get on. Good work though!
Cheers dude. Glad the opinion isn't out right dislike (unless those people just didn't post) lol. Always tricky to gauge work when you've been starring at it for a bit too long.
To expand my graphic design portfolio I (re)designed Spotify. See it as a lite version. I hate the Spotify interface (it's ugly and way too full with useless features like the social tab).
It's still a work in progress, I need to change a few things like:
1. The colours (a few parts are too dark)
2. Stuff isn't really aligned yet
3. A bit more space at the top bar (with the bio)
It's just my own creative take on the interface, not an exact copy with the same features... What do you guys think of it?
It's still a work in progress, I need to change a few things like:
1. The colours (a few parts are too dark)
2. Stuff isn't really aligned yet
3. A bit more space at the top bar (with the bio)
It's just my own creative take on the interface, not an exact copy with the same features... What do you guys think of it?
It looks great!
I would change the Shuffle button and replay button colors on the bottom right though.
Great Work!
Cut out the background and show the interface in higher resolution. It's hard to critique when it's so small!
For me, I'd make sure all your text lists have the same line height. I notice that the songs are squished together more than on the left hand side. If you give yourself more breathing room I think it'll improve the look/feel and flow of the app.
You may also want to add in a way to see which song is currently playing. I see that the first song is playing, but there's no indication of that in the song list. In the top section, the album name placement also wouldn't work with the icons on the right hand side for albums with longer names.
Overall nice clean design though, I'd love to see it in higher res.
For me, I'd make sure all your text lists have the same line height. I notice that the songs are squished together more than on the left hand side. If you give yourself more breathing room I think it'll improve the look/feel and flow of the app.
You may also want to add in a way to see which song is currently playing. I see that the first song is playing, but there's no indication of that in the song list. In the top section, the album name placement also wouldn't work with the icons on the right hand side for albums with longer names.
Overall nice clean design though, I'd love to see it in higher res.
Lennington
Neo Member
First thing I wondered, what happens when you play an artist with a name longer than 'Burial'?
foodtaster
Banned
I was wondering if someone could help me with a logo?
Need some help/advice design GAF. I'm having a pretty big creative block at the moment, which is annoying because after designing so many logo's I'm stuck on the one I'm doing now for my own company.
Not completely satisfied with any of them, and would have preferred something more creative and modern, but going from a general consumer perspective, from the multiple people I've asked (potential customers), they all seem to prefer the stuff with added fluff.
Here are the one's I've got so far. Better with or without the stones? Both? (I could use the non stone version as my hallmark on my jewellery). Or a complete re-design? Any advice, alternatives or opinions would be much appreciated
Quick and dirty mock up of a black version.
I know people already said drop the & so I won't repeat. But I'd also consider bringing in some of the color you had in the version with the diamond and sapphire placed in the DS shape (the actual stones being in there was a bit much). You'd have to play around with it a bit but it could be nice.
I'd also think of a different way to treat the reflections. It adds a bit of depth to this logo which I think is necessary considering who this is for. Think of your audience not other designers. Too many of us fall into that line of thinking where you're wondering what your peers think when ultimately that doesn't matter. Think of a way to refine it more so it makes sense physically. Don't just get rid of them.
Also, squint and look at the negative space that's created within the D. I think there's something there that's not so obvious and is worth playing with.
The Glitch Mob, a three-piece electronic band often posts work from fans on their Facebook page. I really love their music. I was in a creative mood so I decided to give it a try. Anyways, I tweeted it to them on Twitter, I didn't expect a response (320k followers) but guess what? They retweeted it and posted it on their Facebook. It has almost hit 1.000 likes. I never expected that to happen. It was purely meant for fun (and was a wallpaper for myself), but it's pretty cool they did it.
(FYI: 'Drink The Sea' is the name of the album, hence the sea, you also should check out their music because it's pretty awesome)
Sorry for the late reply. Thanks for the tips! I haven't had time to finish it with the changes yet (or well, I didn't felt like it at the moment), but I changed it a bit and I think it looks better. I'll post an update soon!
(FYI: 'Drink The Sea' is the name of the album, hence the sea, you also should check out their music because it's pretty awesome)
Cut out the background and show the interface in higher resolution. It's hard to critique when it's so small!
For me, I'd make sure all your text lists have the same line height. I notice that the songs are squished together more than on the left hand side. If you give yourself more breathing room I think it'll improve the look/feel and flow of the app.
You may also want to add in a way to see which song is currently playing. I see that the first song is playing, but there's no indication of that in the song list. In the top section, the album name placement also wouldn't work with the icons on the right hand side for albums with longer names.
Overall nice clean design though, I'd love to see it in higher res.
Sorry for the late reply. Thanks for the tips! I haven't had time to finish it with the changes yet (or well, I didn't felt like it at the moment), but I changed it a bit and I think it looks better. I'll post an update soon!
Yeah well, I didn't thought about that to be honest because the design was just for fun. I'm trying to fix it so it could work.