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[HTuran]

Good work!

Use to be hardcore Photoshop guy until I learnt the precision and crispness of vector design in Illustrator <3 Now most of my design work is done in Illustartor with any bitmap work done in Photoshop. Also learnt InDesign, but don't have much use for it, and recently learned a bit of Flash.

Using basic vectors is fine in Photoshop, but anything beyond the basics should be sent to Illustrator. There's a common misconception that Photoshop can't handle vectors whatsoever.

---

A note in the OP advising against OS talk wouldn't go amiss. It's so irrelevant to digital design, let alone graphic design in general, that it adds nothing to the dialog.

 

[cbox]

The one good argument I've heard for Macs over PCs for graphic design in this day and age is those fucking incredible displays on the iMacs. But you can buy comparable screens for PC of course.

Take away the glossy screen and it's like any other screen.

Though they do look nice, I'd never give up my dell u2711.

 

[WanderingWind]

I am pretty damn good with InDesign, but I have much, much, much more to learn about Photoshop. I need to take an actual course dedicated to just learning more of that program, outside of the photo enhancement stuff I've mastered. (And then Lightroom comes in and blows it out of the water for that anyway.

Anybody know a good series of Photoshop tutorials that aren't for people who are just learning how to right click a mouse?

 

[HTuran]

I am pretty damn good with InDesign, but I have much, much, much more to learn about Photoshop. I need to take an actual course dedicated to just learning more of that program, outside of the photo enhancement stuff I've mastered. (And then Lightroom comes in and blows it out of the water for that anyway.

Anybody know a good series of Photoshop tutorials that aren't for people who are just learning how to right click a mouse?

Photoshop is a tool; what do you need to use it for?

 

[WanderingWind]

Photoshop is a tool; what do you need to use it for?

Yeah, it's a tool I use for photo work. I'd like to learn how to use it for designing graphics from scratch, rather than cobbling shit together.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

I like centered things with their mouths open.

 

[Chittagong]

Love it. God I miss Michael Scott in the Office

 

[JaseMath]

do you have a website for examples of your work/your agency's work?

Sure. My website is www.mrgroff.com my company's website is www.wintergroup.net

I haven't updated my personal site in about 2.5 years, so the work/site is pretty old. I did just subscribe to SquareSpace, so I'll be redesigning in the next month or so...and that way I can also aggregate my work site into my blog.

We just redesigned the look of the Winter Group's site, but none of the newer, bigger work we've done (with PBS, Microsoft or Autodesk) has been added for whatever reason.

 

[Devolution]

Yeah, it's a tool I use for photo work. I'd like to learn how to use it for designing graphics from scratch, rather than cobbling shit together.

Use illustrator.

 

[mblitek]

Subscribing to this. Lots of talent in GAF for sure!

 

[WanderingWind]

Use illustrator.

I believe we've had this discussion before .

My background is in layout and photo work. I can do anything with InDesign, and can make a photo do whatever the hell I want.

I am (still) pretty ignorant to the capabilities of Photoshop and/or Illustrator. Any good beginner tutorials that you know of for illustrator? My job couldn't give a shit less if I use either, but I'm looking to expand my capabilities while I have free access to CS5

 

[Devolution]

I believe we've had this discussion before .

My background is in layout and photo work. I can do anything with InDesign, and can make a photo do whatever the hell I want.

I am (still) pretty ignorant to the capabilities of Photoshop and/or Illustrator. Any good beginner tutorials that you know of for illustrator? My job couldn't give a shit less if I use either, but I'm looking to expand my capabilities while I have free access to CS5

Probably but illustrator is best for logos and cobbling random graphics together. Resizing is never an issue either. I honestly wouldn't know of good tutorials since I had to take a class for it heh. My recommendation would be to play with it yourself, it's pretty easy and similar to photoshop and if you want to learn something specific, look it up.

 

[WanderingWind]

Probably but illustrator is best for logos and cobbling random graphics together. Resizing is never an issue either. I honestly wouldn't know of good tutorials since I had to take a class for it heh. My recommendation would be to play with it yourself, it's pretty easy and similar to photoshop and if you want to learn something specific, look it up.

That's more or less my approach to everything in this arena. I've done some amazing shit with Google. Just...outside of photo and layout, I'd like to be able to just...know. It comes full circle to me just taking a damn course on it.

EDIT: Do you just change avatars monthly, or what? COME ON.

 

[Devolution]

That's more or less my approach to everything in this arena. I've done some amazing shit with Google. Just...outside of photo and layout, I'd like to be able to just...know. It comes full circle to me just taking a damn course on it.

EDIT: Do you just change avatars monthly, or what? COME ON.

Yes. In fact I blame the GD in me for that one. Get bored. Make a new one.

 

[Vice]

I'm looking to do some pagination and need a good freeware program. I have a few years of experience in inDesign and understand Quark. Is there anything similar to those out there?

It's for magazine design.

 

[WanderingWind]

I'm looking to do some pagination and need a good freeware program. I have a few years of experience in inDesign and understand Quark. Is there anything similar to those out there?

It's for magazine design.

...maybe RageMaker is freeware now???

 

[Freestyler]

Woop woop! I'm a GD of about 7 years. Do a pretty even mix of print & web. Was working for an agency that had full offset & digital printing and manufacturing onsite for 6.5 years but have recently moved into a smaller agency that does higher-end work.

The joy of the old place was that we did everything inhouse - creative, design and printing/manufacturing so we got to do a lot of cool shit (metallic inks, foiling, embossing etc.). So I know a lot about the print side of things which is a great bonus.

Here's the latest thing that's portfolio-worthy (IMO anyhoo):

The flowers are Pohutukawa which are known as the New Zealand Christmas tree, hence their inclusion in a Christmas campaign.

- My tumblr/blog: heyparso.com

 

[Battlezone]

Finally! An OT I can get where I can get in on the ground floor!

I am an Independent Art Director. Been working independently for about three years now, have been a creative for eleven years now. I specialize in branding and identity systems, and exhibit and event design. My most recent project was the multi-city launch of the Windows Phone 7 line at bars around the country. Currently working on the branding for a local winery, and I'm also working with a local film production company on some films.

I'm also working on rebranding myself as I move from working on my own, to starting my own agency in the next few years.

Since we're sharing, you can check out my blog and portfolio at www.blackartdirector.com. Hope this design thread sticks around longer than the last few.

 

[soultron]

My goodness. This is fantastic. The type makes it feel as if the image is liquid in motion.

 

[Chittagong]

My goodness. This is fantastic. The type makes it feel as if the image is liquid in motion.

Thanks! I'm still undecided whether messing with three letters was too much, and whether just changing one would have achieved the gliding effect. Maybe not.

 

[Skilotonn]

Good stuff Chittagong!

I was really big into art when I was a kid 11 years ago, and I'm definitely looking into getting back to old habits sometime late next year when time frees up.

 

[GorillaJu]

Thanks! I'm still undecided whether messing with three letters was too much, and whether just changing one would have achieved the gliding effect. Maybe not.

Personally I'm not a fan of the S and L. I'd choose differently. The E is great though and the illustration is ace. The S looks like its from a completely different typeface from the rest of the letters and that's exacerbated by being between the two blockiest letters, taken even further by them being stretched.

Edit: and the OS talk doesn't belong in a graphic design thread. Tech / software fetishism has nothing to do with design except among those who lack the education to consider themselves designers.

 

[FStop7]

Change your typeface to Helvetica Bold.

That'll be $5,000.

 

[histopher]

Great topic. Would it be cool to post things here to get crits?

 

[Chittagong]

Personally I'm not a fan of the S and L. I'd choose differently. The E is great though and the illustration is ace. The S looks like its from a completely different typeface from the rest of the letters and that's exacerbated by being between the two blockiest letters, taken even further by them being stretched.

Edit: and the OS talk doesn't belong in a graphic design thread. Tech / software fetishism has nothing to do with design except among those who lack the education to consider themselves designers.

Thanks for the thoughts, I have had similar thoughts myself. The idea was that there would be two bends in the logo, a lage and small one, with the S being on the bottom between the two of them, while letters around them would be pulled towards the camera. But yeah that S ends up looking lonely.

histopher - go for it!

 

[Always-honest]

Great topic. Would it be cool to post things here to get crits?

Sure, why not? Gaf loves to be a critic

 

[HTuran]

Thanks! I'm still undecided whether messing with three letters was too much, and whether just changing one would have achieved the gliding effect. Maybe not.

No, it looks great. The type could easily stand alone without the shapes above.

 

[noah111]

Will keep an eye on this thread, as a lover myself.

 

[Krauser Kat]

People saying photoshop make me want to strangle someone. i hate getting huge .PSD when most if not all of it can be done more concise and with better print quality in illustrator while using placed images.

Freelance, Design/Illustrator work prepress printing company as my day job. We get some people who expect us to create full illustrations for products for less than 100 dollars. Sometimes my salesmen even accept it.

 

[guidop]

Cool thread. Current Multimedia student, 3rd year. Just doing myself up a folio will post some pics of my work if anyone is interested. Most of my stuff is of decent quality but there are things I really hate about all the work I've done. For some strange reason I never do work outside of Uni, I prefer to read about and look at other peoples work

 

[Odinson]

I fell in love with GD in high school when I took a class that taught screen printing and Illustrator. I went to IADT in Tampa for four years. Got an AS in GD and a BA in (web development) Fine Arts.

For the past five years I have been working at an archaeology and historic preservation firm in Tampa. I work mostly with maps all day but I also do any and all in-house graphics.

My favorite program to work in is Illustrator. I love to draw and it just clicks with me how smooth you can make lines and how much it's like drawing. I really want to get into motion graphics / video editing. I'm also working on a t-shirt line. I do freelance for friends and family but also want to get some clients going soon.

 

[Harry Dresden]

I work in a Marketing Department at a local community college. I also freelance for the Visitor's Bureaus in and around the county.

I just finished doing a big layout for one of the city's visitors guides.

Programs of Choice in Order of Use

- InDesign
- Photoshop
- Illustrator

For the school I do all the catalogs, handbooks, brochures, posters, etc.

 

[Refreshment.01]

This has been eating my single neurone from sometime.

What's the brand and model of some desktop monitors with a lot of cred among graphics designers? The ones im talking about are touch sensitive and quite expensive, always seen a picture of a designer using an stylus to draw on them.

 

[guidop]

This has been eating my single neurone from sometime.

What's the brand of some and model of some desktop monitors with a lot of cred among graphics designers? The ones im talking about are touch sensitive and quite expensive, always seen a picture of a designer using an stylus to draw on them.

wacom cintiq

 

[Buckethead]

A client recently made me ugly up a site I made.

I'm still super salty about it.

Can I vent to you GAF?

 

[Eight Diagram Bat Fighter]

Because you don't have a preference it's pointless? Right. And since when did I say it anything couldn't be done on Windows? I said it makes my workflow easier and is why I prefer Mac.

The same preferences can be done on both systems, so yes, pointless. And I wasn't directing anything towards you, just adding to what you had to say. Relax.

Can we just have one graphic design thread without the OS bullshit.

This.

 

[Dead Prince]

A client recently made me ugly up a site I made.

I'm still super salty about it.

Can I vent to you GAF?

link or picture of this site.

 

[Oppo]

Well.... ok I will step carefully here...

... but if we are talking graphic design then it is possible to have a sober, considered conversation about the Mac vs Windows differences, in light of the fact that we are all interested in using them as proper creative tools.

For context: I've been doing graphic design and web design since, I guess 1996 or so.

Here are some points to consider, having used both over the years, and tending to use Mac (but with a Boot Camp partition) these days:

&#8226; font support on Mac is still a bit better. for ligatures in particular. almost never actually necessary, but if you look at the Zapfino font on OS X you'll see what I'm talking about.

&#8226; Preview and TextEdit are superior to NotePad/WordPad and whatever the default image app on Windows is these days

&#8226; OS X uses PDF for internal clipboard content as well as most of the display chrome, and this native understanding means weirdo things that fail to Copy/Paste (accents, odd glyphs) tend to carry over more precisely than Windows; I frequently Print to PDF when preparing mockups

&#8226; f®éàkÿ åçç£n&#8224;s are still way easier to type on Mac (I am Canadian and the ability to manipulate french properly is important for lots of jobs)

&#8226; Adobe's Mac support has been very sub-par in recent years, only very recently making strides to catch up as of CS 5.5 to the actual Mac OS (removal of Carbon) which meant that basically from 2001-2010 almost everything actually ran a bit faster on Windows

&#8226; cmd-shift-3 is the same as PrntScrn but cmd-shift-4 gives you an OS-level pixel ruler and capture tool which I still use almost every damn day, if only to measure distances - again, replaceable/duplicatable on Windows but you have to take the time to find the utility

&#8226; QuickTime has saved my ass many times

&#8226; OS X's Quick Look is unbeatable speed-wise and will preview even vector/AI files

I mean at the end of the day it's like skiis vs snowboards, both will get you down the mountain but one might be a little more to your liking or particular needs/desires. Frankly I think a lot of design folks use Macs for aesthetic reasons, and because they are creatures of habit. People are still hanging onto their copies of QuarkXPress and that program has always been garbage, in my opinion.

EDIT - also Windows gave us this absurd 96DPI which has been a thorn in my ass

 

[Kyaw]

Would anyone like to give critique to my work please?

I would like to ask this again: Are there any software that lets you do what Excel does but prettier?

Is it silly to ask for such things?

 

[VNZ]

Would anyone like to give critique to my work please?

I would like to ask this again: Are there any software that lets you do what Excel does but prettier?

Is it silly to ask for such things?

That would be Numbers.

 

[Kikarian]

Would anyone like to give critique to my work please?

I would like to ask this again: Are there any software that lets you do what Excel does but prettier?

Is it silly to ask for such things?

I'm sure there may be a program to do that thing, but I can't think of one.

 

[Kyaw]

That would be Numbers.

Windows equivalent?

Also does it allow you to make custom background/boards to put in numbers?

Think Excel + Illustrator

 

[seipherzero]

I'll plug my portfolio since I just finished it last week: portfolio.

Never went to school for graphic design, it's just part of what came with my marketing job. The graphic design aspect is kind of irregular too since I have a range of different responsibilities in my job description. I was already experimenting with personal projects in photoshop during highschool, so the move to other Adobe products wasn't too hard. I mainly use Illustrator (print, ui, vectors) and Photoshop (web graphics, photo editing).

 

[Oppo]

I wouldn't mind getting some critiques on the work I did for a nerd site/podcast but I don't want to run afoul of the GAF rules and come across as a marketing goon/linkwhorish....

 

[cbox]

snip!

I use a combination of suitcase, bridge and some other windows apps to improve my workflow. I've remembered mostly all the alt commands to add selective characters, and the character map is always close by.

The things I like about osx are expose and quick look, everything else I prefer on windows 7, even the aesthetic look.

It really boils down to personal preference, especially today.

Here's some gag spare time work I do on the side when I'm bored.

and a website I launched earlier this year, all graphics and code were done by me, solo.

http://www.caninecustoms.com/

 

[Refreshment.01]

wacom cintiq

Exactly, incredible you figure it out with such a vague description.

 

[Dead Prince]

Exactly, incredible you figure it out with such a vague description.

all the cool people talk about it.

 

[Eight Diagram Bat Fighter]

Well.... ok I will step carefully here...

... but if we are talking graphic design then it is possible to have a sober, considered conversation about the Mac vs Windows differences, in light of the fact that we are all interested in using them as proper creative tools.

For context: I've been doing graphic design and web design since, I guess 1996 or so.

Here are some points to consider, having used both over the years, and tending to use Mac (but with a Boot Camp partition) these days:

&#8226; font support on Mac is still a bit better. for ligatures in particular. almost never actually necessary, but if you look at the Zapfino font on OS X you'll see what I'm talking about. (back in the day, yes. It's about the same now.)

&#8226; Preview and TextEdit are superior to NotePad/WordPad and whatever the default image app on Windows is these days (How do you know it's superior if you don't even know what is the default app for windows?)

&#8226; OS X uses PDF for internal clipboard content as well as most of the display chrome, and this native understanding means weirdo things that fail to Copy/Paste (accents, odd glyphs) tend to carry over more precisely than Windows; I frequently Print to PDF when preparing mockups

&#8226; f®éàkÿ åçç£n&#8224;s are still way easier to type on Mac (I am Canadian and the ability to manipulate french properly is important for lots of jobs)

&#8226; Adobe's Mac support has been very sub-par in recent years, only very recently making strides to catch up as of CS 5.5 to the actual Mac OS (removal of Carbon) which meant that basically from 2001-2010 almost everything actually ran a bit faster on Windows (depends on the specs of the machine.)

&#8226; cmd-shift-3 is the same as PrntScrn but cmd-shift-4 gives you an OS-level pixel ruler and capture tool which I still use almost every damn day, if only to measure distances - again, replaceable/duplicatable on Windows but you have to take the time to find the utility (5 second search on google.)

&#8226; QuickTime has saved my ass many times (and has crashed computers even more times, horrible codec support, .h264 gamma increase is horrible.)

&#8226; OS X's Quick Look is unbeatable speed-wise and will preview even vector/AI files (and display them completely wrong a lot of the time.)

I mean at the end of the day it's like skiis vs snowboards, both will get you down the mountain but one might be a little more to your liking or particular needs/desires. Frankly I think a lot of design folks use Macs for aesthetic reasons, and because they are creatures of habit. People are still hanging onto their copies of QuarkXPress and that program has always been garbage, in my opinion.

EDIT - also Windows gave us this absurd 96DPI which has been a thorn in my ass

There are good and bad with each OS. And again, there are not enough to outweigh one or the other making the argument overall, pointless. Let's stick to the design talk.

 

[Typographenia]

I am pretty resistant to doing my design work on computers. I would much rather do everything by hand, scan it in, and then just do some final adjustments.

That's not to say I can't use the CS stuff, but I don't like working digital nearly as much. I pretty much have to start with pencil and paper if I want anything half decent for a final product.

 

[John Rabbit]

I love the Neue Helvetica® font family.

you won't if you ever use it for a client.