Graphic Design

[TheTerrorofDeath]

Question. I know there is plenty of talented signature creators here, and I was just wondering do any of you do anything related to GD?

I recently changed my major to this program and was wanting to get started my freshman year and learn a few programs to help me develop into this and get accepted into the actualy major. Would it be ideal to maybe get photoshop and start designing or signatures, or is that a different field?

[Beauxxx]

I wouldn't say that it's a different field. Making signatures/tags is just a trend that people follow as an expression of the elements that you can use with Digital programs.

Get Photoshop, GIMP, Adobe Illustrator, whatever your preference of editing /style/ is, per se.
Good luck with it =]

Always remember that -> Experimentation and Perception is everything.

[TheTerrorofDeath]

What program would you recommend? Because I haven't the slighest idea on how to make one. Which would lead me to reading tutorials all day. But what I was wondering was, would making signatures help me in this field of study in some way?

[.:[Kazuma]:.]

^ Photoshop Cs3,and OpenCanvas 4.5.09.

[iXenon]

I use Photoshop 7.0 and I'm damn good at it.

[TheTerrorofDeath]

Ummm are there any trial versions at all? If not how much do they cost, as far as any of the Photoshop programs?

Kazuma do I have to use both of those together?

[Beauxxx]

Go to Adobe's main site, search for Photoshop CS3, and select to download its /30 Day Trial/ Version.
I'm not sure if you can continuously download trials for as long as you wanted, but unless you're willing to spend the $300 - $600 for Photoshop in general, legally, then it's worth a shot.

You can also search YouTube on how to hack into it, to get the right coding, and illegally get it as well.
The process takes half an hour, with the installing. It's all up to you.

As for following tuts - You honestly only need to do it to get a hold of what you like, what your strengths are, and what you want to experiment with. I'd suggest hopping over to Deviant Art and search for tutorials to follow. Then later on, once you've got the basics of smudging, filtering, adding colors/gradients, and placing text down - Head to WM Studios and Tag Monkey to follow their more advanced tuts.

Once you're confident, take the training wheels off.
Flaunt your stuff to people, listen to their feedback, and just push new styles out of your head and develop them as much as you can.

[Veritas]

Get Photoshop CS3, OpenCanvas, Illustrator CS3, and Cinema4D if you're going to get serious in it. You should also invest in a good tablet. I would suggest a Wacom Intuos of a decent size.

I don't recall you ever doing graphic design of any sort on here. You should get into things that you're talented at and passionate about for your major. Hopping into a field that you seem kind of clueless about seems a little unwise.

Originally Posted by iXenon

I use Photoshop 7.0 and I'm damn good at it.

Yo-........nevermind

[TheTerrorofDeath]

Alright i'll try this all tomorrow when i'm done with school.

Veritas no i've never done it before. I changed my major recently to something I think i'd LOVE to do, since i'm always interested in art or something that catches the eye. I'm talented in art, just never have tried making signatures. Why not learn now eh?

[la tangerine]

If you've never played around with any sort of graphic design, I highly recommend that you reconsider your major. It's not that it's extremely hard to be a graphic design artist, but it does take years of practice and experience to develop your craft and style. One of the key things is to set yourself apart from the masses of artists, which can be a great challenge to do and certainly takes a lot of time.

I am a graphic design artist currently (among other art related fields), so you can take my word for it when I tell you it's no easy task to find a steady job, never mind one that pays well. (You do occasionally land those single big-paying jobs, though.) Graphic design is really just a side job for now that I'm using to take a load off of financial bills until I finish my other studies, and after those it'll most likely be nothing more than a hobby with the occasional freelancing job. It isn't something I would base my career around unless I was in a financially stable position (which then I might consider since it is a wonderful experience).

Lastly - since you are asking what kind of programs one should use - there really is no one program or set of programs I can recommend. Everything depends on what you decide to work towards. I tend to use Illustrator for the most part and I dabble a little bit in Photoshop and After Effects because I'm a vector artist. Photoshop is recommended for more generic things, usually a little bit of everything bundled up into one package but yet not exactly specializing in any one. (For example, Photoshop can also be used to make vectors but they're not as clean as they would be in Illustrator and they take ages longer to complete.) I would do a little research before diving into a field such as graphic design if I were in your shoes.

[TheTerrorofDeath]

That's what i'm doing now. I'm only a freshman in college. And I start next year on my portfolio. So I have a year to get myself accustomed to the field and have some knowledge of it. Also why is it so hard to find something? From what I heard it's the most sought out job and it pays well, maybe that's a stereotype. Either way, I like art, and I figured I would dip into the more technical spots of the art field.

[la tangerine]

When you're limited in travel because you have college or university, the best you can hope for is online work. Online clients tend to ask for one-time jobs, hence why it's difficult to get something steady. If you're playing the field and don't have college or university, though, it may be a different story.

[TheTerrorofDeath]

Alright so what did you do? Did you already know a lot in the field before you went into college? Or learn it your early years? Also you mind if I see some of your work?

[Veritas]

I have quite a few friends who are Graphic Design majors. They started graphic design when they were 16, 17, and younger and had a fair amount of knowledge in the field. Anything you do in art in college should be something that you have a fair amount of knowledge for. You're going to have a rough time putting together a portfolio worth looking at in a year unless you spend every hour in front of your programs going at it and don't hit any long slumps. Graphic Design is really not a very lucrative field unless you go into an advertising side of it. You said that you're talented in art. Find an art form you already know (writing, perhaps, since you seem to like RPing a lot?) and follow through on that one. I'm not discouraging you from trying Graphic Design, but I don't think you really know what you're getting yourself into just yet.

[Flashback Humor]

My mom's a professional graphic designer, if you need any more specific questions you can ask me and I can run them by her, though it'd have to be kept in mind that she's like, from the first generation of digital graphic designers, seeing as she was in college when Photoshop and things were just being created, and the way classes and things were done has probably changed, but overall the "process" of everything is pretty much the same.

Pretty much what Veritas said is true, though.

You always have to also keep in mind that there will always be people without the college degree who can beat you out of the field in a heartbeat.