How do you choose the best laptop for graphic design? Pretty easy, I might say, since you need to focus a lot on the laptops hardware, rather than its software. In the laptop industry many people tend to choose Dell or Apple, since their brands have made it clear that when you choose one of their products, you won’t ever regret doing so. They are known almost everywhere as being the top of the line in what they do.

But without having to scare away the competition, here are some key factors you might want to take into consideration when choosing the very best laptop for graphic design:

Actual Screen Resolution

This refers to the actual screen resolution a laptop screen can output. It doesn’t necessarily have to do much with the screen size itself. Some 13 inch screen laptops are capable of resolutions of 1280 by 800, but this doesn’t mean you should choose such a tiny laptop to do graphic design with. Aim for something preferably above 15.4 inches in screen size, since newer laptop models tend to pack a lot of pixels in a tight screen space.

Do an actual resolution test and see what resolution works best for you, and your workflow. Open up several programs, including Photoshop, and try to see how the toolbars fit in, how big is the editing space (the image being edited), and how sharp the actual image is at that particular screen resolution. My guess is that after a few experimentations, you’ll come up with the perfect screen resolution to suit your entire workflow.

If you do find a laptop to your liking but the resolution or screen size is too small, one good idea would be to get a second monitor for your laptop, that way you can store all those toolbars on the monitor and work on editing the image on your laptop screen.

System RAM

The system RAM is a very important aspect to look for when choosing a laptop for graphic design. Graphic design implies using programs which tend to use a lot of RAM, so the more RAM your system has, the better those programs will run, the faster you will get the work done and get the best possible performance out of your laptop.

Graphics designers use Photoshop a lot, along with other vector graphics design programs, and they usually run about 3-4 programs at a time, so the amount of RAM the laptop has is crucial to overall performance. You should start at a minimum of 2 GB of RAM, if you only use one of these programs at a time.

But if you intend to multitask and run several programs at a time, your graphics design laptop should carry at least 2GB of RAM or higher. The highest level you can go with current laptops is the 4GB. When you own a 4GB RAM bearing laptop, you are sure to get everything done in the least amount of time possible.

Since vendors tend to charge extra for RAM upgrades on machines bought from them, it would be wise to purchase a machine with a standard amount of RAM, then buy some extra modules and upgrade the laptop yourself.

Laptop CPU – Processor

The best laptops for graphic design will carry a CPU capable of handling most programs which require a lot of calculations. Vector design, for example, implies a lot of calculations to be done, so a laptop with a strong CPU will be needed. It would be wise to aim for processors with more cores than one. Some models have more than one processing core, so this type of processor will do just fine.

A general rule of thumb – the higher you aim on the processor scale, the better your system will run.

Graphics Card

When choosing the best laptop for graphic design work, you’ll know you’ll never choose one that has a built in graphics card that sucks away available RAM to run. You can lose up to 512 megs of RAM if your laptop doesn’t have a dedicated video card.

The system tends to run much slower overall, since it uses RAM for both the running programs, and sharing with the built in video card. Getting a laptop with a dedicated video card is an important step you should not overlook.

Since the laptop you’re getting will be used for graphics design, you don’t have to concern yourself to get the latest and best graphics card installed on it (only if you will be using the laptop for games as well or 3D modelling). A standard graphics card with a memory of 64-256 MB of memory will do just fine.

You would only need a better graphics card if you wish to install a lot of games or if you intend to do 3D modelling and rendering.

The best laptops for graphic design carry a dedicated graphics card with it’s own separate memory.

Conclusion:

The very best laptops for graphic design have a good native resolution allowing you to squeeze in many toolbars and still have room for the editing area, a generous amount of system RAM and a dedicated video card, and last but not least, a higher level of central processing power, with more than one processing core.

The Best Laptops for Graphic Design

If you are looking for the best laptops to assist you with your graphic design projects, you have to check out the best laptops for graphic design. You will find all the information you need to know so that you will make an informed decision when buying a graphic design laptop.

Introduction

The kind of fear which I shall tackle in this article is an every day feeling or phenomenon. Fear is a totally human reaction and feeling disregarding man’s age, looks, nerves, muscles or how bold he/she is. From the psychological point of view, fear is defined as one of the basic senses or emotions that man feels. However, it may accompany anger, pleasure, grieve, or sadness. Generally speaking, fear is associated with those emotions emanating from real tangible or intangible dangers. But, it stands in the opposite side with concern or yearning, which are normally resulting from a surprise, threat, danger of whatsoever.

Fear may appear when a man is exposed to an embarrassing or humiliating situation, or when watching others undergoing such fear themselves, or when receiving some horrific news. Frequency or long exposure to fear may lead a man to a state of lack of balance, especially when a man resists his fatigue, emotional setbacks, agitation, the organic changes he is undergoing resulting from the nervous apparatus, like increased rate of adrenaline, abnormal cardiac beats, which are all accompanied by excessive sweating, dry mouth and other symptoms. But, this is not the case at all. The case is, how can the graphic designer face this fear ? How can her control such fear in a positive way? How can he succeed to make use of his fears in a creative way?

This phenomenon is widely known among graphic designers regardless of their professionalism, but it hits it utmost levels among graphic design students. However, it takes a special form when it is brought to the work with all its problems. It stems from two main sources: Insufficiency of the student, and the expanding gap between what he has learned and the market demands. The other case is the inconsistency between the student and his co-workers, i.e. lack of a language of communication between the two. Insufficient knowledge of the task of the graphic designer, would also create an awkward situation to the designer himself and would lead him to frustration and tension.

Like other creative men, a graphic designer needs to live a unique state of creativity by which he can reach the climax by producing a complete work which realizes the long aimed hopes. Living such a state would require him to bring out a design, which is a simple and direct visual means of communication that penetrates deeply into the conception of the receiver.

But, where can this case be ?

How does the concept evolve ?

How can the graphic designer reach to a state of both creativity and invention? Both states mainly rely on the ability of the designer to overcome the state of confusion and uncertainty, which usually starts with the initial steps of concepts evolution. Afterwards, such state would gradually develop and turn to fear. It is quite essential that the designer should overcome his fears by overlooking this state, which the fear might reach.

To overcome this barrier, the designer should have three main things:

1- Self-awareness ,

2- Self-acceptance, and

3- Self-respect.

These conditions and perquisites can help the designer maintain his ideas, and the tools of executing them. On owning such conditions, the designer will be able to utilize and employ his personal potentialities, and be open to creative and artistic ideas and experiences. They would enable him to explore the truth, and to be responsible in his feelings, behaviors and practices. These main aspects would form an ideal setting to encourage the designer to work either alone or within a team, with a positive effect and outcomes which will guide him towards creativity.

However, creativity, or lets say “creative thinking”, and problem-solving skills largely depend upon the designer’s ability to organize and classify his information, and extract the important and useful pieces of information. To realize this, he should be acquainted with the required work, his environment, the message he intends to deliver, and the means to execute his ideas. All these would grant him a kind of self-protection and defense to his ideas. He would always be strong to break down his confusion and fear.

When would fear & creativity be created?

Both professional and non-professional designers have their shares in these feelings, no matter where they are or how old they are. It is a quite common phenomenon among workers if this creative field. But, graphic designers would reflect these feelings quite differently from the others. They work with high sense of professionalism and efficiency to convey a certain message to a certain audience, to present a certain service or a product in an attractive and distinctive way. Naturally, it is not necessary that the graphic designer has a belief in what he is creating; instead, he should employ his ideas or deigns to satisfy the desires of the client.

Here comes fear and concern. The good graphic designer may wish to realize perfection in his pieces of arts, by introducing a simple and good idea, a unique theme, unused before, and implementing it in a different way using distinctive techniques. We believe that these are the conditions of any creative work on invention, and they reflect the personality of the inventor himself, and therefore they should contribute to create a state of fear or concern which may lead to some kind of imbalance, they would identify the designer’s potentialities intuition and intelligence in overcoming this ordeal.

We must not ignore the correlation between graphic design and the different aspects of life, i.e. cultural, economic, political, social and other, which keep forcing themselves upon the designer. It would necessitate that he become informative and educated in various aspects of life. This would be a vital requisite in any advertising or media equation. The graphic design has become one of the most significant industries today. It is closely related to information technology and computer sciences. Moreover, a graphic designer is measured by his ability to speaking the Era’s language fluently!

Therefore, we realize that the task if the graphic designer whether he was a student or a worker is very difficult, because it requires a great deal of reading, development, competency, personal abilities, and technical skills. It is not enough that the graphic designer knows how to use the design programs, or software, simply because now every one can master them so easily, but he should be able to develop his techniques and qualifications, just like the driver. Still, the most important thing of all is the ability to create and idea and implementing it. This is and integral part of creativity and which would finally contribute to realize higher expectations. The most creative, informative, conscious, and knowledgeable graphic designers are those who can completely controls their fears and concerns. When a graphic designer reaches that level, he would be so mature and most capable of completing the work even if he was under pressure and would reach creativity at the end.

Unfortunately, fear and concern are a wide spread phenomena among higher studies students of graphic design or designers who explore the labor market. Academically, the state of confusion which the student or the employee undergo is but a part of the fear which the academic plan would create, or the method adopted by the executers of this plan or that. It is also attributed to the absence of accurate specialization among people of graphic design, absence of correct understanding to the identity of the designer to be made, multiple producing bodies of this cadre, lack of a clear strategy to gather all these people and identify the components of the producer (or the type of designer) and the wrong mix between knowledge of computer and concept of graphic design.

People working in the graphic design are living this fear, concern and confusion, and what complicates the matter is the absence of the real criteria of the graphic designers, that is accepted in this realm. Moreover, what add to this problem are the lack of taste among the clients and their ignorance of the role played by the designer, the chaos and disorganization in the market, and the mixing between the academic and the non-academic graphic designer.

However, due to the limited scope of this paper, it wont be proper to address this subject elaborately. I will explore it in another paper.

How to identify the sate of fear among the graphic designers ?

There is some kind of integration between the hidden personality and behaviors of the graphic designer, and what he doesn’t want anyone to about him. Therefore, we are looking for a designer who is a real leader, and who can control his hidden shadow, giving the fact that this shadow is a strong and powerful personality currying a large suitcase, he know what is there inside it, he knows as what he takes out of it, and he knows as well what he can put inside. He should be able not to waste the first part of his life filling that suitcase with things, and wasting the other half emptying the same suitcase ! This is what actually reflects a huge instability, insecurity, and a struggle with the first half of his life.. or just accept it the way it is and try to deal with the other half. !

Designer’s shadow is the mask that he wears to hide many facts.. trying to choose a mask which suits the world he is searching for to gain the acceptance or help.

Indeed, we admit that the designer is like any one else, he also has weaknesses and strengths. The other mask which the designer may wear id the strength factor. It reflects his physical, conceptual, social, economic stability, and which we consider the major components for success and creativity. Doubtless to say that fear helps to intensify a state of physical, psychological and conceptual depression which leads to negative results, especially if the designer does not possess the components to absorb the shock, contain the consequences, correct the matters, and to direct them in a way he deems appropriate.

Here, we are not calling for facing fear, but, we call the designer for learning some tricks to contain fear and to terminate it by encouraging hi to identify the objectives and find means to realize them, identifying his own potentialities, upgrading his talents and qualification by increasing his knowledge, experiences, practice and training to realize some kind of physical and psychological comfort. In addition to that, belief in ones abilities and self-encouragement is a kind of an intellectual and mental sport, and some of the main tools that would enable the designer to overcome his fears. Knowledge is an indispensable requisite and nourishment to the mind and soul with useful information in addition to the physical sport would all contribute to face fears, promote one’s experiences and self-confidence.

Fears and creativity: Opposite Powers

Whenever there is fear, there will be stagnation, strangling one’s abilities and willingness to stat far from moving forward, preventing any attempts to resurrect once again with richer production, and would lead to seclusion and

to a paralyzed life, empty of vigor and ambition.

And whenever you see creativity, you find pleasure, happiness, satisfaction, balance, stability, strong-will and above all, challenge.

Now, lets take a closer look to these expression, how did they change and develop, when we tackle fear and creativity. This is similar to asking two little children to draw a picture. One would reject the idea, maybe out of fearing that others might mock at him, while the other is bashful, chaotic, he would take the brush and colors and draws what jumps to his mind uncaring of what others think about his work. This is called challenge. One is challenging to overcome his fears, rejection, failure and as a way of change & innovation.

Creativity is a symbol of life changing. It is a motivation to overcome a feeling of threat of anything that is new, even if was produced out of change. It is a motivation to develop the ability, strengthen the willingness and call for innovation and transformation in both public and personal life. Leaders, businessmen and graphic designers would not become great, successful, and creative if they wouldn’t become innovative and moving forward in firm steps towards adventure and prosperity.

How can you defeat your fears? It is by seeing things as they are in reality, trying to accept them, believing in them, and endeavoring to look at them with different perspectiveH try to handle them in a completely untraditional, way, especially when you embark on building a concept, implement it, and adapt with your surrounding because deep in your heard you know that unusual, untraditional things would make a creative designer of yourself. Hence, creativity is having a designer doing anything without fear, the fear from rejection or failure, and from losing control, and be open to everything that is exceptional and different.

Creativity is a deep belief in that every form of difference or change is a positive state more than a negative one. Because there is a stat of change.. Because there is an ability to see extraordinary things, to find a different and untraditional answer to every question, and the ability to create and to execute an idea, and tackle it in a very unique and unprecedented way.

That’s why we say that fear and creativity are two opposite powers. One of them is confined on itself and vanishes, and the other grows and persist, bringing to the researcher dozens of questions which help him to reach to better results, with a very traditional thinking which thinks in the present and in the future in a different perspective, that is armed with the tendency to innovation, and admiration and interest in everything that is different and unique.

Graphic Design Students are the most fearful segments !

The only thing that we should fear is FEAR itself!

Fearful designers claim that time; concern, fatigue, evaluation and scores are the major barriers in their creativity. For, lack of time, abundance of homework and deadlines result in fatigue, concern, and agitation. In addition to lack of self-confidence, fear of failure, concern of evaluation results and teacher’s opinion all contribute to increase their fear.

Let’s put it like this:

Time + fatigue & stress + evaluation = FEAR

Now, how to solve this peoblem ?

How can we deal with it ?

What is the responsibilities of both the teacher and the student ?

Are they both parties to this issue ?

Are they really the reason behind this state of fear ?

In my opinion, I think that fear for both parties, should complement the process of creativity. Fear cannot protect, BUT it should be eased, and decreased so that I won’t lead to unbearable state of confusion. Lack of sufficient tine should not become a source of agitation to the student. He must be convinced that many ideas may trigger in few seconds, and the remaining time should thus be devoted to executing these ideas and deliver them to the client. Until the delivery time, the student may have more than a ten thousands of opportunities to develop his idea and this is an infinite fact regardless of the nature the homework or work that is required from him/her because the student should have a great control, for postponement of work is his enemy. He should start doing his assignment as soon as he is assign to do it. In this way, he will be able to solve and explain all problems that may encounter him. By adopting this strategy, he will be able to arrange his physical and the mental efforts in a sequential manner that would not lead to any fatigue. It will also enable him/her to surpass all the surprises and unexpected inconveniences, by soundly organizing his time and consider each minute as a time of completion.

The first stem to breakdown the barrier of fear is the assistance that the teacher gives to the student, by overcoming the problem, discussing the ideas and establishing a mature and common dialogue in order not to reach the state of agitation which, in turn, would lead to fatigue, inability to create and idea and implement it.

Perhaps most teachers face such condition, and some cannot diagnose them or know how to treat them, and some others don’t really know if they are existed at all, and thus, cannot treat them once they emerge.

The remedy is simple… enhance your self-confidence, be informative by gathering information and learn from others’ experiences, try and try hard should become your motto in order to build a bridge between the idea and its application.

I believe that fear which is the student may encounter, compels the teacher to follow it up, and handles it efficiently. The teacher must realize that the factors of success depend largely on his way of handling this matter, by stimulating the elements of power and self-confidence inside each one of his students. But, this cannot be realized if the teacher lacks the knowledge and information about graphic design, from the technical point of view. The academic ability of the teacher, his magnitude of knowledge, and his efficient way of delivering this knowledge to his students without any confusion, would ultimately promotes the psychological stability of the student, and would stimulate his potentialities towards creativity and perfection. We have a deep belief in the fact that the creative teacher is a source of inspiration for his students, he can make them work without any stress or fatigue. If the students find that his teacher is creative and innovative, or if he feels that his teacher believes in him and in his potentialities, the student would exert all efforts necessary to overcome any problem and would search for innovative ideas. This can be realized by developing a mature dialogue and communication between the student and his teacher.

However, state of fear that the student undergoes is only a part of a state he shares with his teacher, regardless of the student’s level when he was permitted into this specialization. I know many students whose performance is weak or below the required level, have made great efforts to prove themselves to be innovated and creative. This is reflected in the variation of their ideas and methods of implantation. The main reason is simply that they succeeded to regain their self-confidence and believe in themselves by acquiring knowledge through which they were able to overcome the state of fear, concern and confusion, which usually lead to stagnation and inactivity.

I had the honor to supervise the graduation projects of a 17 of my students, who all differ in their conceptual, informative and technical styles and levels. I closely explored their levels of thinking and stages of development through out the years of study in the faculty. I was a good reader for all their projects and papers. My plan was to implant the self-confidence first inside each one of them, then I try to make them understand that committing a mistake is not a crime, and idea may seem very primitive and immature at the start, but it will grow and develop step by step. I encouraged the collective dialogue when discussing their projects. I encouraged teamwork, to stay away from selfishness and fear from each others until I succeeded to make them realize the psychological comfort.

The result was quite obvious during the completion of the graduation works /projects. They all succeeded over themselves, even those with humble potentialities and performance. They amazed us, as teachers, because they succeeded to learn from each others, to exchange experiences through the team work. They used to adopt the same idea but differed in the techniques of implementing it. They did that with efficacy and a great deal of maturity. They all explored the labor market without fear or hesitation, armed with their deep knowledge, dubious work, self-confidence and the ability to work under pressure and stress. Thus, it was easy for them to occupy their natural positions in the market.

To make this experiences a successful one, I had to transmigrate seventeen of characters, which vary in thoughts, and this required a tremendous ability to initiate some kind of dialogue with each one of them to break the barrier of fear, develop and improve and direct their ideas in order to develop a strategy for the required job with all its associations and annexes. I had to work with then with quite a temper and logic to reach a result which if anybody else, different from them, tried his/her best to realize a kind of job that conforms with the concept and job of a graphic designer, will fail even if he was using same idea and same strategy.

When judgments were given when the experiment proved its success, students, especially those who do not believe in their personal potentiality, said “we were born brand-new!”. They were good example to the students who followed them. I was able to make them realize and believe that fear cannot paralyze our thinking and creativity, and the human being can always overcome any barriers or hurdles to realize creativity and be innovative.

But how can break this fear?

To be creative and a logical his ways to build and implement an idea, the designer should break the barrier of fear. To realize this condition, we found that there are certain skills and principles that should be practiced and acquired first. Now, what does the graphic designer need ? He needs:

- Experience

Acquisition of experience is an integral and essential party of creativity. However, the graphic designer should be open to his environment and feelings, same as the athlete or the physician, both should rely upon their rich background which can provide them with new and guaranteed solutions.

A designer cannot gain the experience unless he learns. Learning helps the individual to retain information and increase his/her self-confidence. Absence of learning would only lead the designer to concern about any coming work, as a new experience or technique. Discontinued learning makes the designer feel that he is disgraceful, ineffective and unable compared to others.

Experience also requires some brave stands from breaching values and standards. But, to be able to handle this situation properly, the designer should have a deep and strong belief in himself, because he sometimes thinks that he has nothing to do with working on a certain theme that falls outside the circle or search theme to which the designer belongs. By adopting this stand, he will be able to abide by the mechanism of search, investigation and calculation in many issues that his position would require dealing with. He should not close his mind, consciousness and state of creativity in him, and should induce his personal experience, along with experiences of others, without any exaggeration, into a rational assessment.

The total submission to rationality may drive the designer to reject the correctional thinking, which entails a collapse in the meanings and thoughts, and ignore the sound utilization of intuition, as a source of exploration, and this will, at the end kills the state of creativity because of that fear.

- Self-awareness

Some graphic designers may deceive themselves by not reading their actions or the results of their actions, and more, they rejecting any recognition of others’ contributions, because of their feelings of inability to compete, and reject both, in principle. Realism is a significant component of a successful designer. To know the meaning of “realism”, he must first realize the components of himself, respect to others, no matter how simple their experiences are , try to avoid arrogance and self-deception, and endeavor to deal with others on the basis of mutual benefit. Self-awareness may also help the individual to speak himself, to express what is inside him, and by this he can kill his fears. Otherwise, he will be suffering from lack of communication with himself or with his work, uncertain of his potentialities, fears criticism and encounter with the audience.

If he reaches to this point, it will be difficult for him to come up with new ideas, a matter which will affect his thinking and which will yield immature or naïve ideas, in return, due to the lack of proper reactions, which are nourished by experience and knowledge. Thus, the designer must insist on his rights, try to acquire skills of correction continuously to determine the shape of a certain case or work, whether creative, innovative, distinctive, productive, subjective or objective, genuine or imitated. Correction helps the designer to continue or to end his state of productivity and creativity.

Self-awareness may also help the designer to have a deep belief in his work and performance, deepens his self-confidence, and increase his confidence in his work, a matter which will enhance his image before others, or vis avis.

What choices the graphic designer have?

Ca creativity generates from fear?

The designer is always advised to encounter the dragon lying inside him, before he is able to overcome his artistic fears and concerns. He should not think of what he should do depending on his ability or inability, but depending on the message or a piece of information he intends to convey to the audience, using the image and words which reflect his amount of knowledge and experiences.

In other words, the designer should put his thoughts directly on paper, close his eyes, use the pencil and start doing some primary shapes and lines.. then he examines them closely, examines his inner mind. Am sure he will find something there.. Something, that will lead him to the right path. This is but a simple example of a way any graphic designer may adopt to reach to his inner should and mind. It is a way to reach to a state of creative work. The designer should look at things closely and should have the courage to do that, and must try to judge in a very rational, realistic, and absolute manner.

But, how can we make choices ?

An individual choice based upon his belief in spirituality ?

The choice to live on earth, which the school that we learn from ?

In respect of the above, the graphic designer is facing two paths:

Either to face the end of the spectrum, or

Be neutral.

There factors help the designer to enhance his abilities to monitor, observe, follow-up, and get the knowledge before implementation, and enhance his courage which controls every choice he makes. All these contribute to help the designer take the right decision/choice after recognizing his state, concern or fears, because both are used frequently and mutually. But, still, they cannot be considered one case. Fear is associated with a certain objective, which the designer can contribute effectively and bravely to face various conflicting factors/forces as “ego”, fear, or knowledge. It will help him to realize that he is not alone, God is with him, and by this, his spirituality will enhance and enable him to overcome his fears. Neutrality is difficult to be adopted, in fact, it is rejected, because facing rationality is a requisite that accepts no neutrality.

Concern realize no aims.. in concern, the graphic designer will have no results because there is nothing to focus on. The danger of concern lies in the fact that it will lead to absence of being, and to a state of unbearable exaggeration, lack of identity and desertion.

The successful designer is the one who can walk in the dark, confident of his steps.. His self-confidence and self awareness will lead him to the light at the end of the tunnel, and will guide him to step on the untrodden and forbidden ground, his feelings and emotions, knowledge in the law of nature, belief in work as a pleasure, suffering m learning, desire, another experience leading him to success. He must realize that what he thinks of is his creativity and what he leaves behind is an impression on others, and try to win their acceptance and appreciation to his work, and know how they describe it, as distinctive and extraordinary!

In brief, the designer has one choice only, that is : realization of creativity through concern and fear about :

Not being described as creative.

Non-acceptance of his work by the audience.

Not understanding the idea properly.

Not searching enough in the idea and method of implementation.

Not using the right technique, because he does not master it.

Fear should not become a barrier to mature designers, who are aware of the requirements of their work. Their experience, search and techniques are all considered supporting factors, which contribute to enhance their self-confidence, and their ability to overcome their fears and confusion.

The choices of the designer make are but an extension to an experience he had during his periods of study or at work, or maybe both. However, both need a certain mechanism, which should be, undertakes by the academic or the professional staff embracing the designer. This mechanism needs a specific strategy to break the fears of the designer during the training courses, upgrade his abilities, competency and culture to lead him to a higher level of self-dependency and ability to handle matters in his professional life, and to confront the new and surprising innovations.

Graphic Designer – Torn Between His Fears and Creativity!

Introduction

So you want to hire a graphic designer? For any clients out there i just want to let you know that every graphic design project is unique. It might sound confusing at first but it is difficult to perfectly predict how the process will unravel. While many projects out there will go through a similar process to reach the final result, the truth is that every project will develop uniquely, and may take varying amounts of time and work to complete. This is a walk through of the graphic design process that i used when creating a design for one of my clients. I have outlined the basic steps that i went through and you can take this as an example of the general stages a designer uses when designing, to end up at a final design visual. This article is a guide for clients wondering about how a graphic designer creates a design and will also give an understanding of why clients must pay what they do for graphic design work. After reading the article you will have an idea of how much work is involved, because there are many parts of the process that clients will not get to see first hand!

Stage 1: The brief

The first stage of any graphic design project is the brief. The brief outlines in words the purpose of the design, the application type and the ideas that it is supposed to represent. At the beginning of the project the client and the graphic designer must communicate ideas back and forth about the design, so that the designer is well informed about it, and can then start the project and take it in the right direction. You can communicate ideas over the phone, via email, or in person, or you might use all of these methods. All in all, the better that the idea has been communicated, and the more information a designer can get about the design, the better he or she will cater for the clients needs. Just remember that information, and lots of it, is the key to a successful design!

Stage 2: Referencing

Its often really helpful for the client to provide some examples of what kind of designs and styles they like at the beginning of the project. Its not a necessity but often this can cut a lot of time from the design process and save money. Its not really cheating if you are not stealing the design. Good referencing is a way of getting ideas for the project from other successful designs without stealing. A reference should be clear, exhibiting either the colour scheme, style or feel of the desired outcome. It is often a great idea to borrow from other successful designs, because there is nothing better than growing and learning with the help of your top competitors. Every design process is unique. You might use a reference, none at all, or maybe even introduce one in the middle of the project. Every design journey is different, and every destination unique. The positive side of using a reference is that the designer will not have to spend hours creating new ideas, doing layouts and changing the design numerous times before coming across a design that both of you are happy with.

Stage 3: Concept visuals

Concept Visuals, or rough concepts are just a very simple representation of the components of the design. You can do a simple drawing or generate some quick ideas with adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. I generally like to use what i will be using for the final design.

A note for unsatisfied clients: Sometimes when a client is given the concept roughs, they will tend to have second thoughts and become afraid thinking they might have gotten themselves into a dodgy deal with an unqualified designer. My advice is: DON’T WORRY! Please don’t judge the book by its cover and assume that your designer is an amateur and that you are paying for someone who is going to mess up your job! This is just the beginning! The concepts and the roughs are meant to be of a really rough quality! The idea is to get many concepts out on paper in as quick a time as possible. If you are truly not sure about the person you have hired, at least you can have a look and judge their standard by looking at the other jobs they have done for other clients. If you are seeing that most of their work is of a high quality you can just relax and take the process as it comes. Just because the concept roughs don’t look amazing, doesn’t mean that the end result will not be! I promise that if you are patient until the end your design your graphic designer will create an amazing piece of art and design into fruition for your company! Its up to you but just be aware that if you decide to go with another designer its an infringement of copyright to take the designs and have them reproduced by the first designer and hand them to someone else. Your new designer will have to start again from scratch and might take extra time and money. Just be aware.

For clients without a reference: Some clients may not have a reference or a fair idea of what they want the outcome to turn out like. That is understandable, after all you have hired the designer, for a reason. Because they are talented at representing ideas visually and know what they are doing, right? In this case the designer will probably get to work and produce a variety of concept visual responses to the brief, one of which will be chosen to develop further. Concept visuals can be really simple, such as a few 5 minute line drawings, or some computer generated ones as well.

Often the designer will get straight to work churning out idea after idea for the design. This is usually how it works, as a designer tries to get all of their ideas out and ‘on paper,’ at the beginning. After the designer is happy with the amount of satisfactory options they have come up with, they will usually send them to the client to be viewed. It’s good for the client to have some options when choosing a design especially if they are still at the ideas stage of the process themselves.

Stage X: Revison

I call this stage X because a revision can happen at any time! While it is more desirable for a revision to happen at the early stages of the project you never really know when it is going to come up. A revision is essentially a change that needs to be made to the project which moves it in another direction or replaces one of the main elements. A designer will usually offer a certain amount of free revisions before the client will need to start paying to make any more major changes.

Stage 4: Rough Visuals

Rough’s or rough visuals, are an important part of any project as they help to map out the various elements of the design and are use to experiment with layout, colour and the rest. In most projects there would normally be a couple of roughs done to show the client. At the end of this stage the client will discuss the project so far with the designer and choose the most suitable option for them. The designer can then begin to work on the final design. By this stage most of the thinking and conceptual work should be close to resolved and the project should be heading in the right direction.

The creation of a rough image: Use a reference, save the file numerous times (if using a computer), and try to get it to the highest professional standard that you can at this stage. You can use your hand drawings in combination with or simply just use Photoshop and Illustrator (or whatever other program you are using). Make sure to create a couple of options if possible so that the client can have a browse and choose the one that they like best.

working with text: Use whatever program that suits you. I usually use Adobe Illustrator or InDesign and import the text into Photoshop for the final blending and style options. Text from Illustrator turns out much clearer/professional than when done through Photoshop. Play around with many of the fonts and settle down to at least three that you think work best. Make sure that they match the style of the company or design that you are making. Be careful with certain jobs for example: posters, to not use more than three different fonts. Work with the fonts and blending options and styles and create a couple of examples for your client to have a look through.

Putting it together: Work with text in conjunction with the image to create a logo that looks ‘right,’ ie: the colours and styles match, and has an overall unique impact that is aesthetically pleasing to look at and advertises they type of business it is designed for well.

Stage 5: The Final Design

For the final stage of the design, the graphic designer is required have a look and re-asses the project as it is so far. Are there any typos? Do the images look as professional as they can? Do the styles match? Do the fonts work? Are the layouts mathematically perfect and everything aligned? Are figures in the right pose or have the right facial expression? Does this truly represent the company as they want to be represented? Will this design suit their demographic? And can i do it any better than i have done? A designer must put together all the pieces so far and really take a look to see if anything should be changed or improved. Trust your designers eye for details and intuitions to help you along with this. Then when it is all looking right, you can call it complete! When you present it to the client, if you are doing it in person it always helps to have the designs printed on professional looking paper and put into a display folder for viewing. If you are doing it online, make sure that you send a low quality and small file, which is still visible if you are unsure about whether you are going to be paid. Not everyone tries to get something for nothing, but you never know. It is wise to protect yourself and get down to settling the contract first by filling in the final parts of the contract such as final payment figures and copyright information. Make sure that it is signed and agreed to by both clients, and then you can finish off the deal by giving the client what they hired you for! The designs.

At the end of the project the designer will be required to send, via post, or electronically the final version of the project in whatever formats are needed. Usually jpeg and pdf is sufficient, of 300dpi or more quality, of the right size for print or other media, and in cmyk and rgb color versions. Depending on the job the client may want you to seek printing services and send the final product directly to them. In this case you should arrange additional costs for the printing process. Make sure that you inform your client of the copyright information that you have asked them to agree to. Most designers will ask for extra payment for licensing copyright on top of the project, or for giving the client extra rights to the artwork or image. There are usually certain restrictions such as the the type of media it can be used for, amount of prints or time in which it will expire.

I hope that all designers and clients out there will get the best out of their client/designer relationships and that many new projects can blossom from this unique process. It is also important to be prepared in case something goes wrong, and a contract will usually solve many problems. Happy designing!

Graphic Designer Services – The Graphic Design Process

Written by Elly Klamo – Graphic Designer, Illustrator & Web Designer.
Owner of My Graphic Design and My Illustration

How do you choose the best laptop for graphic design? Pretty easy, I might say, since you need to focus a lot on the laptops hardware, rather than its software. In the laptop industry many people tend to choose Dell or Apple, since their brands have made it clear that when you choose one of their products, you won’t ever regret doing so. They are known almost everywhere as being the top of the line in what they do.

But without having to scare away the competition, here are some key factors you might want to take into consideration when choosing the very best laptop for graphic design:

Actual Screen Resolution

This refers to the actual screen resolution a laptop screen can output. It doesn’t necessarily have to do much with the screen size itself. Some 13 inch screen laptops are capable of resolutions of 1280 by 800, but this doesn’t mean you should choose such a tiny laptop to do graphic design with. Aim for something preferably above 15.4 inches in screen size, since newer laptop models tend to pack a lot of pixels in a tight screen space.

Do an actual resolution test and see what resolution works best for you, and your workflow. Open up several programs, including Photoshop, and try to see how the toolbars fit in, how big is the editing space (the image being edited), and how sharp the actual image is at that particular screen resolution. My guess is that after a few experimentations, you’ll come up with the perfect screen resolution to suit your entire workflow.

If you do find a laptop to your liking but the resolution or screen size is too small, one good idea would be to get a second monitor for your laptop, that way you can store all those toolbars on the monitor and work on editing the image on your laptop screen.

System RAM

The system RAM is a very important aspect to look for when choosing a laptop for graphic design. Graphic design implies using programs which tend to use a lot of RAM, so the more RAM your system has, the better those programs will run, the faster you will get the work done and get the best possible performance out of your laptop.

Graphics designers use Photoshop a lot, along with other vector graphics design programs, and they usually run about 3-4 programs at a time, so the amount of RAM the laptop has is crucial to overall performance. You should start at a minimum of 2 GB of RAM, if you only use one of these programs at a time.

But if you intend to multitask and run several programs at a time, your graphics design laptop should carry at least 2GB of RAM or higher. The highest level you can go with current laptops is the 4GB. When you own a 4GB RAM bearing laptop, you are sure to get everything done in the least amount of time possible.

Since vendors tend to charge extra for RAM upgrades on machines bought from them, it would be wise to purchase a machine with a standard amount of RAM, then buy some extra modules and upgrade the laptop yourself.

Laptop CPU – Processor

The best laptops for graphic design will carry a CPU capable of handling most programs which require a lot of calculations. Vector design, for example, implies a lot of calculations to be done, so a laptop with a strong CPU will be needed. It would be wise to aim for processors with more cores than one. Some models have more than one processing core, so this type of processor will do just fine.

A general rule of thumb – the higher you aim on the processor scale, the better your system will run.

Graphics Card

When choosing the best laptop for graphic design work, you’ll know you’ll never choose one that has a built in graphics card that sucks away available RAM to run. You can lose up to 512 megs of RAM if your laptop doesn’t have a dedicated video card.

The system tends to run much slower overall, since it uses RAM for both the running programs, and sharing with the built in video card. Getting a laptop with a dedicated video card is an important step you should not overlook.

Since the laptop you’re getting will be used for graphics design, you don’t have to concern yourself to get the latest and best graphics card installed on it (only if you will be using the laptop for games as well or 3D modelling). A standard graphics card with a memory of 64-256 MB of memory will do just fine.

You would only need a better graphics card if you wish to install a lot of games or if you intend to do 3D modelling and rendering.

The best laptops for graphic design carry a dedicated graphics card with it’s own separate memory.

Conclusion:

The very best laptops for graphic design have a good native resolution allowing you to squeeze in many toolbars and still have room for the editing area, a generous amount of system RAM and a dedicated video card, and last but not least, a higher level of central processing power, with more than one processing core.

The Best Laptops for Graphic Design

If you are looking for the best laptops to assist you with your graphic design projects, you have to check out the best laptops for graphic design. You will find all the information you need to know so that you will make an informed decision when buying a graphic design laptop.

Today’s graphic market is more competitive than ever. The need is great to be on top of the pack with adequate skills and information that is up to date. There are skills that are an absolute requirement for the serious graphic design artist, whether creating design for their own projects or for others. There are some basic tools and skills that are needed to have what it takes to produce graphic design that will meet this ever-changing world’s insatiable desire for more and more graphics.

Here is a list of the basic skills needed to meet those needs.

1. Adobe Photoshop: In the industry of graphic design, even the experts are constantly learning. They are on top of the latest and greatest and experimenting with what can be done. They learn through tutorials, seminars, and books. Adobe Photoshop, a pixel based photo manipulation product, is considered the foundation of graphic design. To become proficient, it is imperative that you spend a pre-determined amount of time each week to learn new techniques.

The selection tool offers some complex photo manipulation and design. This product will teach you the technique of layering and adjusting layers, masks and channels. These powerful tools allow for photo repairs such as correcting the colours, scratches, and blemishes.

2. Adobe Illustrator: This program provides graphic design through vector-based graphics. For logo graphics or any other design where crisp, clean artwork is essential, this is the tool of choice. This detail graphic illustrator gives the designer the ability to create poster work and any design print ready.

This program offers such skills as bezier curves, converting a bitmap to a vector image, multi-step gradients, and converting graphic images with text. Like any powerful program, it will take some time to gain proficiency. However, the time spent learning these skills is worth every minute. Invest the time and you will reap great benefits.

3. Quark Express or Adobe InDesign: These programs are what is referred to as page layout programs. No matter what your final product will become, your work area is the page. So, it needs a layout. No matter what type of graphics or text are needed, or if the product will be a book, sales copy, brochures or a magazine, this type of high-end layout program is essential.

To become proficient in these products your skill level must be at the level of creating Master Pages. When this level of skill is attained you will be able to create a 32-page catalogue. This is achieved by understanding how to control text with and around images. This would include setting up the document for the text to flow around and sometimes in the images.

This program will also assist you in setting up pre-press copy and offset printing. If these concepts are foreign to you, go to your local print shop and ask them for a tour. Be sure to test drive this program before you do so you can be ready with a list of questions as you see the process through the eyes of the local print shop. This can be very valuable.

4. Flash: This is a program that enables you to give your product that professional look. Flash is now installed on twice as many computers as other video platform products. When Flash Player is available you can deploy a video platform on the Internet. As the Web becomes more video-basted the need to have a solid understanding of Flash, is imperative and urgent. This program will enable you to create simple animation, and key frames. As you learn these skills you will be empowered though knowledge and skill to be able to make flash movies and interactive Web content and interactions.

5. Typography: This is one of the most important skills that will determine if you will be a good or an excellent graphic designer. This skill is about the type, the clarity and appropriateness of the type that must accompany the text. It is essential that you have a font management system on your computer system. You must know the difference between True Type, PostScript and OpenType fonts. Be sure to get a font reference guide and resource book. This will increase your typography skills to the expert level.

6. Idea Generation: The resource of ideas is essential for any professional. However, in the design world it is imperative. Graphic designers are paid the most and are in the most demand, not just because of their Flash ability, or PhotoShop skills, but also because of their ability to provide innovative ideas. As an Idea Generator you need a plan, and a method. You will need to be around other innovative thinkers. Be sure to read, read, read. This will assist your creative side and allow your creative side to open up and flow. Remember it is the idea generators that generate serious income. Have a plan and work your plan.

7. Network Building: This is perhaps an essential skill that is too often overlooked. The networking is especially essential when you are a designer who works alone in their studio. For some people networking is difficult. This network will be your support group for those times when you need input, encouragement and direction. Even if you feel that you will never need this, prepare the resource so you will be ready.

To build a strong network, attending networking events is a good idea. Attend events and seminars where you can meet and mingle with others of similar interests. Be sure to take contract information. In this day in age, people are more willing to share their email address. Be sure to keep that contact information available for you to seek out their professional assistance.

8. Business Skills: This is a very important skill. There are some basic office skills that are needed for graphic design artists. You do not have to be an accounting genius, however there is a need to know business skills like sales, marketing, tax strategies and database management. The real heart of any business; whether you are starting your own graphic design company or if you are contracting your work out to customers, you NEED business skills. Without the business skills your graphic design talent will not be utilized to the full potential possible.

These are some of the essential skills needed to be a graphic design artist, who is reaping the benefits of positive cash flow. Some of these skills are specific to the graphics and the design capabilities, and some are specific to the business side. We encourage you to take a good look at where you are on the skill level. Do a realistic assessment, and make a plan to gain the skills needed.

The real key is to do something after you read this. Statistically most people, yes, even those who have paid good money for valuable advice, do not take the next step. The next step is action. Simply put it is, Plan and then Act.

8 "Must Have" Graphic Design Skills For Today’s Market

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Graphic design professionals receive their training from a number of accredited schools and colleges. Students looking to enter into careers in this field can do so by researching various educational programs. Students can train for a career in a number of specialized areas in graphic design. With an accredited educational training program students can earn an associate’s, bachelors, or masters degree. Certificates and continuing education are available as well.

Advertising Design

Students can study to enter a variety of careers in the field of graphic design with an education in advertising design. Students can train for the skills to pursue careers working with magazines, journals, newspapers, publishing companies, and much more. With an accredited degree in this area of the field students will need to complete coursework that may include internet marketing, E-Commerce, writing, copywriting, and more. Accredited schools provide students with the opportunity to earn an associates or bachelors degree in advertising design. Students can obtain the knowledge needed to become art directors, graphic designers, creative directors, and many other related professionals.

Digital Design and Animation

Students who are looking to obtain an education in digital design and animation can do so with an accredited educational program. Students can enroll in a number of schools and colleges to earn an associates or bachelors degree in the field. Career opportunities in this area of graphic design include working for television stations, the gaming industry, video production houses, multimedia companies, and much more. With an accredited degree program students will have the option to study courses like web design, architectural design, digital video, CAD, video production, and other related subjects. Digital design and animation degrees can open a world of opportunities to those looking to enter the workforce.

Motion Graphic Design

There are a variety of degree options for those looking to enter a career in motion graphic design. Students can complete educational training for an associate’s, bachelors, or masters degree. Career opportunities will depend on the level of degree desired and school or college of attendance. Career options include video game designer, texture artist, animator, 3D designer, VFX specialist, and many other professions. Coursework may cover subjects such as Flash, Photoshop, Adobe Premier, Final Cut Pro, After Effects, and other related courses. A degree in motion graphic design will prepare students fro employment with television, movies, internet, and more.

Visual Communications

Visual communications degrees can be obtained at a number of levels through various schools and colleges. Students can gain an education that will allow them to pursue careers working as web design professionals. Students can choose to specialize in Flash animation, search engine optimization (SEO), E-Commerce, and more. With an accredited educational program coursework may consist of layout and construction, JavaScript, basic design, Dreamweaver, PHP, Photoshop, and much more. With an accredited degree students can start the career they desire.

Accredited programs allow students to gain an education in a variety of areas in this field. Agencies like the Accrediting Commission for Independent Colleges and Schools (www.acics.org) are approved to accredit a number of programs. Students can learn more about the degree of their choice by researching and requesting more information.

DISCLAIMER: Above is a GENERIC OUTLINE and may or may not depict precise methods, courses and/or focuses related to ANY ONE specific school(s) that may or may not be advertised at PETAP.org.

Copyright 2010 – All rights reserved by PETAP.org.

Graphic Design – Career Training Programs

Renata McGee is a staff writer for PETAP.org. Visit http://www.petap.org to locate Graphic Design Schools and Colleges that provide the education you’re looking for. PETAP.org, your Partners in Education and Tuition Assistance Programs.

When you decide to design your website or get it designed by a professional web designer, it is important to consider the factors including navigation, quality of content and the aesthetics of the website. While the web designer has to take care of all these factors, the graphic design for the website should be given equal importance. Graphic images are the first thing a visitor notices on a website and it is because of the attractive graphic images that the reader is enticed to read the text.

A website designer, who may also be a graphic designer, has to blend the graphics in his web design to create an attractive websites that can hold the interest of visitors and compel them to revisit the websites. In the web design, the web page layouts, site plan and content are directly related to the graphic design created for the websites. The graphics have to be as good as other aspects of web design.

Let us see how the graphic design is linked with various factors of the web design-

Home Page- This is the most important web page of the site. It can make or break the website and so the graphic design on this page should be most attractive and effective. If the Home page is not attractive enough, the bounce rate would increase and the whole purpose of the website would fail. So it is important to have graphics that are attractive as well as informative enough to hold the visitors’ attention. Using colours and images that blend with the core message of the website is best way to make the website most effective.

Content- It is the content which talks about your company, products, services and work but reading long content can sometimes be boring. In order to make it interesting, the web design should be such that the readers are compelled to read the content. With the help of attractive graphic images, you can engage the customers and direct them towards the related content.

Brand Reputation- A good graphic design incorporated into the web design can lead to improved reputation of the company and its brand. The graphics such as logos lead to creation of brand identity and reputation building and so they should be designed carefully.

If the graphic design is blended with all these aspects of web design, the website owner can enjoy the following benefits-

A) Added visual appeal of the website: Colours and images are more attractive than texts and so the visuals are an important aspect of a website. It appeals to the aesthetic sense of the viewers and helps them to connect with the site.

B) User-friendly website: The aspect of usability is supported with the help of good graphic design. Besides other tools, graphic images can also make the website user-friendly.

C) Makes the site look more professional: Many times, despite a good web design and informative content a website fails to achieve the desired results. This is possible in the absence of a good graphic design. With effective graphics, the website can add a touch of professionalism.

Graphic images can be of different types including logos, graphic text headings, background images, photos, bullet points, image maps, divider lines and navigation buttons. The key is to make the graphics effective enough to induce the visitors to visit the website and revisit it.

Importance of Graphic Design in the Web Designing Process

Sigma InfoTech an Australian based Web design, Website Development firm specialising in Website Design, Graphic Design Software Development, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation helps to remain high in the search engines and with it any of the sites can achieve the desired goal of influencing profits.

The very first written word of mankind was the beginning of Graphic Design! And its native land was none other then ancient caves and caverns! The very first symbol they had sketched through cave drawings, paintings, markings on boulders, bone, and ivory are the foremost indication and evidence where graphic design was born, nursed, nourished and grown! Nevertheless, the term Graphic Design was named by William Addison Dwiggins in the early 20th Century.

Anthropologists studying prehistoric periods on cave paintings leads us earlier than the Upper Paleolithic period from 40,000 – 10,000 B.C., where our ancestors were learning how to design signs and symbols that could be communicated visually; moreover they were successful on leaving their marks. The pioneers of graphic design are none other then our own ancestors, who had lived in the caves and sketched their drawing on rocks.

History of graphics design roots to our own ancestors of ancient era where civilization was cultured in caves, and left their drawings and sketches for us on their canvas of cave walls and ceilings.

The earliest drawings known today are from 6,000 years ago, are that of carved stone and pottery containers. Drawings contained in Egyptian pyramids with signs, symbols and letters are known to all and it leads us back 5000 years.

Furthermore, from 600-250 BC evolution on geometrical shape and structures in Europe played a major role for the development of designing and sketching. As an applied art of arranging images and text for an attempt of visual communication; the hand written copy of the Christian Bible “The Book of Kells”, created by Irish monks in 9th century AD with rich illustrations is a good example of the evolution of graphic design.

Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg, a German metal-worker and an inventor, introduced a printing technology allowing the re-use of individual letters. The first book produced by Gutenberg press was “The Incunabula”. This book became the standard in the history of book printing and publishing and was a giant leap for printing and publication; though, block stamping on sheets of paper with text and signs carved, was in use in Europe and Asia long before 14th century; however, Graphic design of this era was formatting and we today have named it Old Style graphic design.

Guttenberg era of graphic design evolution was sluggish, until the 19th century, in Britain the division created between fine art and applied art boosted this evolution, and they successfully published some of the most major graphic design products through the Arts movement. William Morris made a great deal of business of publishing books with stylish printings and contributed a significant role to attract the potential market as well as commercializing graphic design; in addition he was the pioneer for the separation of commercial design and fine arts.

Another painter from the 19th century was Piet Mondrian whose innovation has greatly influenced today’s modern graphic designer. Though he was not a graphic designer, his uses of grids was the origin of modern day advertisement known as the grid system; widely used by graphic designer of our century today.

With the decadence of classical style, modern graphic design engrossed in the early 20th century with designs influenced by fine arts. The trademark of early modern fonts is the sans-serif typeface. In 1928, the book “New Typography” written by Jan Tschichold systemized the philosophy of modern typography.

Furthermore, the fathers of modern graphic design are still considered to be typographers such as Herbert Bayer, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and El Lissitzky as they broke new ground on typography building techniques and stylizing. Modern computer technology has changed typography production altogether, but for the experimental and evolutionary approach their contribution was highly recognizable.

The booming and flourishing period for graphic design was after World War II; as the American economy thrived, the demand of graphic design, particularly on advertisement and packaging sectors blossomed.

I Love NY ad campaign (1973) and a famous Bob Dylan poster (1968) designed by Milton Glaser are examples of applied graphic design culture and its influence. Progressions in graphic design in the early 20th Century were mostly enthused by technological expansion in printing and also in photography. But at the mid of this century, the raising of the computer era in graphic design has faced little backwards as early computers were far weaker and computer memory was limited. However, within the end of this century with the immense development of computers and its corresponding technologies, modern graphic design has evolved into a business that is done almost entirely on computers.

In mid 1980, the arrival of desktop publishing and the launching of software applications like Illustrator and PageMaker introduced an era of designers to computer image manipulation and 3D image creation. Computer graphic design facilitates instantaneous effects of layout or typography changes.

Today, graphic design the visual communication, is yielded in the rich soil of computer ground, fertilized with latest hardware and software technologies. Graphic designers worldwide plough through computers loaded with the latest gadgets and gizmos, software and hardware, academic and technology, information and communication, and are generating the new history of graphic design in their design laboratories.

With express elevation of the hi-tech industry, the future assures more and today’s designer are contributing their name and effort through their creativity for the next generation. History yet has to write all of her pages for new innovation and invention in this field.

Author: Bharat Bista Resources and References: Graphic Design – Custom Web Site Design – Silk Flowers

Brief History of Graphic Design

Within the last 30 years visual communication has evolved dramatically – even the diction has changed. Knowledge of this trade was expressed in terms of lineart, halftones and pmt, now being replaced with bitmap, pixels and files. Along with the terminology, the mechanics of graphic reproduction evolved as well. I fondly remember working in a darkroom where pmt’s were created by laying your image into a vacuum frame and ’shooting’ it through a lens which would transfer the image onto photosensitive paper. This paper was sent through a processor which developed the image on the paper creating what was known as a pmt (photo mechanical transfer).

The pmt was then taken to a light table where it was gathered along with text for laying out a proof. The text was created using a typesetting machine – about the size of a fridge laying on it’s side. Text was produced on photosensitive typesetting paper which also had to be developed through a processor. Both typesetting paper and pmt’s needed to be run through a waxer – a machine which would put a small film of wax along the back side of the developed paper. These waxed pieces of paper bearing images and text were then arranged on a sheet of card stock to form the layout. For colour breaks, sheets of clear acetate were layered on top of the layout card and images that represented different colours were adhered to the respective layers. This time consuming process was required for a client’s final proof.

Once approved, the artwork would find it’s way back into the darkroom where it was loaded into the vacuum frame and shot – this time onto photosensitive negative film. Lineart was simple while photos required superimposing a dot pattern by using ‘halftone screens’ which were place on top of the film negative during exposure. Exposed film then required a 3 bath developing process… developer, stop bath and fixer. Once dry, the final film would be taken to a light table where it was ’stripped’ into position to burn plates for the printing process. 

Nowadays… one simply sits behind a computer, scans documents, types up text and creates a layout for proofs and final print-ready files. 

However, with all of this technology one thing has remained the same – the creative process. Certainly just about anyone with a computer can create documents for print and web nowadays – which seems a little humbling for the trained graphic artist, but not to be discouraged. If anything, this new technology will bring out the best in the designer. As everybody runs around using too many fonts, poor symmetry, photoshop effects, and colors that don’t contrast… it makes way for the true designer to shine on projects that matter. The client that chooses to create their own marketing brochure is probably the same client that gives designers a headache.

They tend to be ungrateful, unimaginative and undecided… not good qualities for a business to be successful. The client that is willing to pay for the services of a graphic designer is one that understands the difference between design and layout. They tend to appreciate the creative process and put value in it as they realize it is best to do what you do best and let others do the rest. 

In summation, I urge graphic designers to find their inspiration and let it flourish. Don’t succumb to the desperation created by the current technological conditions. Embrace the technology and know full well that your designs will stand up against this onslaught of ‘do-it-yourselfers’.

Graphic Design – Inspiration Vs Desperation

John Malcolm is a freelance graphic designer with over 28 years experience.
malcolmDesign of Salt Spring Island, BC Canada

Feel free to visit John’s website for more information.

http://www.malcolmdesign.com

john@malcolmdesign.com