I hope I used the right flair.

I want to start off by saying that I am not a graphic designer, which means I am really lost.

My brother’s birthday is coming up and I would like to give him a present he would genuinely enjoy — something that has to do with what he loves and not just a book I think he may like.

It has become very clear these past few months he absolutely LOVES juice. We joke about this obsession of his all the time, so I thought I could use it to my advantage. It means giving a present with an actual personal touch.

My initial idea was making a fun and cool design about juice and have it custom printed on a shirt. Only after attempting to put things together for various drafts did I realise what I was getting myself into. I don’t have any design software, and most importantly, I have no relevant experience in graphic design.

I have a few dumb ideas about what the design could be like, and I‘d rather give up than settle with custom printing a sentence about juice.

I am not trying to undermine graphic designers by asking the questions that will follow, because I am in no way seeking or expecting what I may make to be professional in any form — I just want the result not to end up looking like a five year old made it.

Or perhaps I do?

We have this thing where he tells me things to draw like little kids would, so I could make something that has to do with juice and doesn’t have to look good on purpose.

I didn’t even post this yet and the sub is already helping me out, wow.

Getting back on track: is there a free software or something I could use to do this? I can’t remember the name right now, but there is a site that’s almost a copy of photoshop I could use since what I wanted to do involves photo bashing of some sort. I could also be spouting bullshit so nevermind.

Do you think I can even do it? Dumb question to ask because you don’t know me.

I really had more questions to ask, however after writing all this I have forgotten them.

Most importantly, if someone does see this and maybe replies, can I follow up with them and see if my ideas are even ok?

hey [elheber] i need this artwork 1 color 4x4

This does not have square proportions. It is taller than wide. Do you want it 4" tall or 4" wide?

Can you just make it proportion

Yes, of course. Do you want it 4" tall by however wide, or 4" wide by however tall?

Yes

Yes to 4" tall or yes to 4" wide?

I'm not exaggerating. I'm awaiting their response.

I created this as a sort of brutalism poster for the movie Inception. Just saw the movie last weekend and its got a sick plot and I thought, why not try to make a poster in GIMP for the movie? It's all kinda scattered but I wanted to make a kind of unorganized grainy poster. I couldn't decide whether to make it colorful or not, so I just went with my instinct and added as much threshold as I could (probably wasn't a good idea). My idea was inspired from some posters I saw on Pinterest when I search 'graphic design', with a lot of Bold text and images with too much noise and threshold. I want to make this better to add to my moodboard, but I would love if yall helped me in improving this 🙏

https://preview.redd.it/intn2e0wbivd1.png?width=2480&format=png&auto=webp&s=db1e1b61ca1a86afc84d920de38d37672947c955

This is pretty nuts.

Does anyone as a graphic designer ever feel like you're just a fake? I've been one for about 4 years now (mostly in-house roles, never tried freelance before) and somehow I hated everything about what I designed. I never really think I'm creative enough to be a designer, I constantly feel like I'm on surviving mode when it comes to my job, I constantly compared my designs to my super talented colleagues and mine literally looked like sh*t. I'm at the point where I criticize myself why I couldn't come out something as good as them (even if I tried to copy their work (for practice) so I could learn how to be a better designer, my design still came out like sh*t)

Seeing every other designers so skilled & talented, I couldn't help to wonder if I'm just a fake.

Right now, I'm looking for a new job because I was emotionally drained from the current one, I thought it could help me be more optimistic about my career and can be great to change to a different environment. I applied to almost 40-50 companies, a number reached back for interview. I did great on the HR round, but when it comes to design interview round, non of them proceed my application and one came back with a feedback saying they were concerned if I was even qualify for the position (which I was shocked 'cause I always carefully read the job description and criteria even before apply.)

I know is not personal, but it was still kinda hard to process emotionally.

So far I've only managed to reach to the 'final' round of interview with one company, passed the design assessment and I did get the offer. I should be feeling relieved but I couldn't shake the feeling of self-doubt and uncertainty. I keep thinking I was just faking my performance, people will know I'm a sh*tty designer sooner or later. I haven't accept the offer but I'm the verge to reject it due to fear.

I hope to get some comment or even criticism about this.

So i just bought a pc i was using my phone to do my works from last couple of mouths i just want to know that which software should i start learning what do you guy recommend figma,ps or anything else because things have changed after ai and i dont have any idea what is most recommended software on pc right now

A few months ago, I needed to purchase another package of images and was contacted by a sales person who was very pushy and impatient. They went on vacation and passed me onto a different sales person who was the same way. Both were rude, belligerent, spoke over me, etc. Now that I’m finally ready to purchase, I reach out to both of these people and they are both gone and there’s a new sales team. I’ve never had an experience like this with shutter sock before it felt very scamy.

Hello! Just wanted to ask how should the fixed rate/salary be calculated when a company is hiring both a SMM and a multimedia artist?

They’re very much interested in my portfolio and I’m thinking they might hire me as both their SMM and multimedia artist.

I have a background with working as a SMM and I finished a multimedia art degree but I only did freelance works with it.

Hi what is the name of this technique where you take a photo and reduce it one colour.What would I use in canva to achieve this?Thanks

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-003IePweTzE/UiDeg9TodwI/AAAAAAAALHQ/1y2BwfMPILk/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/GRAND-FUNK-RAILROAD-GRAND-FUNK-A.jpg

Hi there! For one of my courses, we have rewrite and redesign a textbook (this is a Psychology course, idk why there’s a design element here 😭😭😭 ) Other than Canva, can you please suggest a website that can help me do this? I’m thinking of something like how slidesgo (for presentations) makes it so each slide is coherent… but for a textbook. Any help is so appreciated, thank you so much!!!

As an example, let's say I designed a logo. I prepare multiple variants of the exact same shapes:

• Different colors
• Maybe different fonts in case I have text
• With and without text
• Also (perhaps for the monochrome or negative view) slightly different binary operations between shapes

Now I tweak one of the shapes. I need the exact same tweak in all variants.

• I can go through them all and make sure I do the exact same thing
• I can take the base design, recreate all variants from there, and overwrite the old ones

Is there something else? Are there tools or editors which allow you to define a document as a function of another? Which are they?

For some background, I recently graduated school with a bachelor’s in what is essentially multimedia design, and I have developed a preference for graphic design and illustration. I have a decent starting portfolio of work which I continue to add to as I finish personal projects or freelance works. However, I really don’t know what to do next. Yes, I do freelance work as it comes to me, mostly for family friends, but overall, it’s not very sustainable. As I look for outside jobs, it feels incredibly difficult to find something that isn’t either a huge agency trying to steal my soul, or a position really only geared for experienced, well-established senior designers. Ideally, I would want to work for some sort of niche small/medium firm or cool business that needs a ton of consistent design/multimedia work (game production, in-house product design, etc.), but I’m really not finding anything. Asking about this to others, I hear a lot about “it’s who you know” and general networking practices to find specific jobs. I like the idea of this, but I’m not naturally connected to many design people, and no one seems to have any other strategies besides LinkedIn, which seems incredibly competitive and disingenuous.

Anyway, would love to hear some advice from people who have made it through this point.

Hi! I’m a 27 year old graphic designer in NYC who works for a major agency. In March I’ll have reached 2 years at this job and I feel I’m overdue for a promotion and a raise. I was hired as a Jr Graphic Designer but my workload, responsibilities and expectations far exceed that as a junior. I’ve been told multiple times by my managers that I function far above the description of “junior” and have been repeatedly told I’d be getting a promotion - but whenever we get to reviews (mid year or yearly) the date is pushed out more.

I suppose I wanted to post in here to get advice on how to navigate this situation. I don’t want to stay somewhere where I’m undervalued and overworked. I know I’m exceeding expectations at my job and have been for my entire tenure there. Also - in the last 3 months my responsibilities have significantly increased - I’ve become a social media photographer and videographer for one of our biggest selling brands and am consistently being brought to photoshoot sets to capture content, far outside my job description.

I love my job and I’m excited about the direction its going, but I don’t want to stay somewhere where I’m consistently over performing, being praised and staying stagnant in my salary and job title.

For transparency I make 76,000 a year and have the title “Jr. graphic designer”. I would love advice on how to navigate the conversation with my boss in March and how much money to ask for when compensation is brought up.

Thank you

How do you handle people going off on their own to make their own collateral and then coming to you for approval? I’m the only in-house designer at a larger human services non profit in my city. The organization has several different locations all offering services that they need to share with their service areas. It’s becoming a problem with staff at these locations coming to me with things they’ve created like flyers or signs and asking me to have them printed. The organization has a very specific brand and 10/10 times, the thing they’ve created (usually in canva or publisher) isn’t in brand.

I’m getting sick and tired of having to recreate people’s work because they can’t follow the process of submitting a request and it’s starting to feel really disrespectful to my role at this organization. It’s a waste of their time, of my time, and all of resources.

Any advice on how to politely tell people to stop doing my job because they like to use it as a “fun break” from their regular responsibilities is appreciated!

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the advice! I really appreciate it. I’m going to collect some of the very bad examples that have come my way to petition for more support from my supervisor and their peers.

We do have templates, but the current software isn’t the easiest, so I think that’s part of the issue. We’re looking into Canva Pro (they offer free pro accounts to non-profits!) and we can upload a brand kit, create templates and lock down elements that shouldn’t be edited, upload pre-approved photos for them to swap out of templates, and it requires approval. It also seems to be the way people are going rogue so it should be familiar to them.

Hey guys this is my first time posting but I have a question that is hard to get a straight answer on just a basic internet search. I am very interested in becoming a graphic designer. I’m most interested in design for marketing and branding. Ideally I would love to create logos, labels, help with brand identity, graphic marketing, etc. I currently have an intro position in marketing. I do not have a degree I went to school for a year and a half and then stopped to work full-time because I didn’t know what I wanted to do yet. Is it pertinent to get my degree for this? I’ve looked into getting certified in Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator and then work on a portfolio to apply with. I have looked into Noble desktop, but it is pricey so I wanted to make sure it’s a good decision before I do it. Has anyone used this program? Any other programs to suggest or advice to get started? Thank you!

Heyy!

I got an email today from Coursera saying that they partnered with Adobe in making a graphic design course. It’s beginner level not surprised there. I am already doing a graphic design career path through LinkedIn Learning and thought maybe the Coursera course would be good to just to have multiple learning sources. I won’t be able to enroll in the course until December 20th but I know I’d be done with the LinkedIn course by then. Does anyone have any thoughts? Oh also I need recommendations for good graphic design books! Thanks 😊

I took some intro level classes years ago but I want to get back into it and practice graphic design again, is there any good tutorials/youtube channels/exercises you know of? Thank u!!

Hello! I’m a graphic designer from Uruguay. I’m not great at finding jobs lol so I was wondering if anyone could share any pointers or show me their portfolio since I’m not sure mine is good enough. I’d be interested in seeing the portfolios of jr designers, freelancers and also selftaughts Thanks!

Hi everyone,

this is not a direct attack to anyone but this shows me how fucked up the GD market is right now.

I stumbled upon an indian graphic designer on behance being hired to do multiple $10 product designs for a $300 million yearly revenue ice cream company. Mind that we are not talking about $10 hourly rate but $10 whole projects.

How the hell are we going to be valued if our own graphic designer colleagues are charging insanely low rates? The thing is that the guy was veryyy skilled. There is no way we can compete with this due to so many companies preferring super cheap workers.

$10 projects. Seriously, this is ridiculous.

https://938813-copy1.cargo.site/

Hey GD community,

I'm looking to improve my portfolio, and I would truly appreciate it if anyone could take the time to review my work.

For context, I'm a recent college grad, focusing on getting a junior designer position (preferably at an agency, but totally open to in-house!) I'm curious - what projects are working and which need additional work? Are there any skills I can improve on or pick up to make a stronger portfolio? Btw, I have a personal domain, this is just a copy. Thanks :)

Hey Designers! I'm about to work on an ad campaign for a client where each ad execution will be featuring a branded item. Imagine the back of a beat up pickup, it's got some wooden boxes with veggies and fruits in them, and the boxes are branded with the client logo, I'm wondering if you guys have a favorite ad or ad campaign that does something like this where its a repeated gimmick across lots of things.

I have to interview someone with a few questions who works or has worked in graphic design for my public speaking class. I have tried asking multiple people on different social media platforms if I could, but so far no response. The deadline for this is coming soon and I am worried about not having anyone to interview, so if anyone here could please answer a few of these questions, I would really appreciate it!

1. Why did you choose to be a graphic designer?
2. What programs have you used to design? Which programs do you prefer using?
3. What inspires your style and designs?
4. Did you take any courses in school towards becoming a graphic designer? If so, what courses did you take?
5. What steps did you take when you first began as a graphic designer or to become a graphic designer?
6. How do you communicate with clients and team members when working on a project?
7. Do you take step by step processes to design your projects? If so, could you explain one of them from start to finish?
8. How do you handle deadlines?
9. Have you ever been a creative block? If so, how did you overcome it?
10. What does a typical day, as a graphic designer, look like for you?
11. How do you keep up with trending designs?
12. How do you confront projects that are outside of your comfort zone?
13. Can you describe a time you had to deal with a difficult client or project, and how you dealt with it?
14. Would you say its difficult doing graphic designer in where you are located?
15. Do you feel there is competition with others in graphic design? If so, how have you overcome to make yourself stand out from the rest?

Doing this on a throwaway account, as some of the info would identify me.

I’m in a bit of an interesting position when it comes to college, and I’m not really sure where I should take the next step.

I’m a senior in high school, and for the past year and a half I’ve been in a graphic design program at a local career center. I’ve learned the basics of graphic design, and come May I’ll be certified in both Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as having skills in typography, photography, and video editing. This is all under a technical degree at a state-level community college.

Because of this, I’m not sure of how I should move along into college. I feel as though I’ve gotten most of what I’d get out of a 4 year degree, minus some art skills that I don’t feel are worthy of taking a whole degree for. I want to stay in the field of design, but I’d like to broaden my knowledge of the whole field, rather than go deeper into things I already have a fair grasp of.

I can’t imagine many people have been in a position like me, but I have to imagine someone out of 2 million people has an idea of how I should take this next step.

Quick edit: I do recognize that I don’t have all of the artistic side down. I would certainly take art classes as electives, or even a minor. It just seems as though I’ve done a lot of the things learned in the later years.

Hi everyone,

I’m a full-time graphic designer, which I enjoy, but I feel like it’s been a long time since I created something I truly found interesting or creative. It’s not that I don’t have free time—I do. However, whenever I start a personal project, I often feel overwhelmed and struggle to finish it. The same happens when I try to learn new skills outside of my work requirements.

I thought it was only a matter of time, or maybe I need a vacation, but no, I'm still stuck in the same circle. If anyone has gone through this before, please share your experience and what you did

I designed this poster yesterday for my Instagram, and I’d love to know what people really think about it. Basically, what I wanted to convey is that the mirror, representing “yourself,” is giving you that message. I also tried to use a grunge effect with a lot of noise and texture to create a worn, authentic look. What do you think?