Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with graphic

What do I want to do to this picture?

patnasty — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 12:40:57 -0800

I have a picture I want to modify in photoshop, and I'm sure there are relevant tutorials out there on the web, but I don't know how to describe what I want to do to it. Basically, I'd like to give it the illusion of depth -- make the back wall seem further away, and give it more of a sense of perspective, so you get more of a feeling of looking into a room, and less like you're looking at a flattened image of a room. Is there a term for that? Googling for photoshop and depth has turned up a lot of stuff about depth of field, but I don't think that's what I'm looking for. I'm not looking to make anything more or less focused, so much as alter the picture's perspective.

Also, I have the black + white original of the pic I linked to, so if it'd be easier to add the 3-D effect I'm looking for first, and then colorize it later, I could do that.

Sorry, no matches for the tag graphic design books across MetaFilter‽

Mr. Anthropomorphism — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 07:19:17 -0800

What are the essential books on the topic of the objective qualities of effective graphic design? I am particularly interested in web design, but anything that pertains to the underlying principles of design and the interplay of aesthetics and content would, I think, benefit me.

I'm not so much after a gallery of "wow, look how easy this is for the masters" but more of a manual that bears re-reading and referencing.

I don't have a mint to spend, but if I could maybe have at least one each regarding layout, color, and typography, I think I would benefit hugely.

What's my font?

Muirwylde — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:35:05 -0800

[Fontfilter] Short and sweet question for you, fontaholics...what font is used in The Logo Factory logo found here? There are two examples of the logo on the page; one top right in the title bar and one lower down, reversed out in white over purple above a podcast button. Some variation of a 'worn typewriter font' and I know I've seen it, but can't relocate it...thank you for your help!

What's the book?

mippy — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:16:36 -0800

I saw a graphic novel in a store today - the sequel to an earlier work, about a female high school student's adolescence, and written by a woman. Any ideas on what it could have been? The book had been published recently. The artwork had a red-haired girl in a hoody on the front, and the back cover referred to the heroine getting into drugs and (possibly) dropping out of high school. Oh, and it was American/Canadian, not Japanese. Because I'm an idiot, I didn't write down what it was, and I didn't have the £9 necessary to take it home from the second-hand bookstore.

how to draw complex spirals

twine42 — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 05:48:23 -0800

How would I go about creating a much larger version of this image so I could print and frame it?

Copywriting Woes

ecorrocio — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 07:44:42 -0800

The A-B-C's of corporate collateral writing: I'm a graphic designer. How do I communicate to my client that willy-nilly editing procedures, and last minute proof-stage rewrites inevitably makes projects run to the last minute? Is there a "standard" procedure for writing/editing? The scenario: Small Company A takes a haphazard approach to writing key copy for brochures and material - a "design it first, then we'll re-do it again and again" methodology. This consistently makes projects run to the very last second, and incurs all kinds of rush charges from printers etc. Plus, it tends to result in disjointed copy.

Small Company B knows how to write/edit. They write copy, circulate, edit, THEN provide it for insertion into the design. The only edits that tend to occur are typos and layout.

How do I turn Company A's approach into Company B's?

Livening up video presentation graphics?

merocet — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:04:15 -0800

What is the best way of creating a moving graphic timeline in a video presentation? Helping a client who is making a video presentation. At the moment I'm going to make a graphic image in Photoshop or In Design that is wider than the video frame and then pan across that from left to right in my video editor, but there's got to be a better way to do it right? I'd like to liven up the graphic by highlighting the points on it as they go past the center of the screen and things like that. So software recommendations? Work flow recommendations? What do they use on the fancy documentaries for this kind of thing?

Whats that design site?

SirStan — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 15:58:50 -0800

Whats that site? Freelance logo and website design by a community. Someone somewhere sent me a link to this GREAT site. It was basically people requesting website designs and logos. They would set a budget (most seemed $150-$600), and the community would post their ideas. The images were shown in a grid (maybe 4 wide?) as thumbnails. The "buyer' could nix the ones they didnt like (and they showed up dimmed, or with an X or something), while asking for changes to ones they liked. Eventually one was chosen.

Anyone know the site?

Been there, did that, got the degree, now what?

b33j — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:54:09 -0800

I've nearly finished my degree. Help me work out my future. I am nearly finished my Bachelor of Multimedia Studies. By 30 October I will have graduated with a GPA between 6.5 and 6.95 out of 7 (say, between 3.71 and 3.97 on a 4 point scale) and more likely the upper end of that range than the lower. Unfortunately, despite the name of the degree, I cannot code a decent webpage, nor work within a 3D package or do more than the simplest of animations in Flash. I’m very good with Illustrator and general graphic design, layout and formatting, mediocre with Photoshop, out of practice with Indesign. I have a DSLR, but my understanding of composition far exceeds my technical ability.

I’ve been freelancing (part-time) during much of the last 3 years, working for academics (in a different field) doing things like: creating databases (and doing the data entry for it - blargh), formatting and editing a new international journal, contacting the authors and reviewers; designing documents for print; creating presentations for international conferences; producing diagrams – that sort of thing.

I enjoy the flexibility and variety of freelancing. I haven’t had any issues with payment disputes, or difficult attitudes with this client base. This is clearly awesome and incredibly unusual. So one of my career plans is to keep doing what I’m doing, only to find more people to do it for. So here are the questions about keeping on doing it:
Q1. How do I increase my client base without outlaying a lot of money?
Q2. What percentage increase in hourly rate can I charge, given that I now have a degree that says I can do what I was already doing without pricing myself out of the market?

On the other hand, what about a real job? I’ve kept track of advertised vacancies for graphic designers (etc) within a 300 kilometre radius. Last week I saw a job advertised, “experienced web designer and coder, graphic designer and data entry operator, $20 per hour”. (I charge nearly twice that now!) Many of the advertised jobs I would qualify for offer a wage less than what I was earning as an administrative assistant. So if I didn’t keep doing what I’m currently doing…
Q3. How can I take advantage of my GPA to land a good paying job, and/or a job with prospects of a good rate of pay?
Q4. If I don’t go to work for someone else now, will the advantage of achieving good results fade, and if so, how quickly?

Australian, female, 42, located near Brisbane (state capital). Any other job / career tips gratefully received.

How much does it typically cost for a good logo and front page for a web application?

tomargue — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:13:25 -0800

Okay, I'm designing a web application with a minimalist look-and-feel. I want a simple, clean, cute logo, and a simple, clean, cute front page. What's a ball-park figure as to what this may cost? A little more detail as to what I'm thinking of...

I'd like the front page to have about maybe 4 main ideas, and when hovering over each idea, more information about the web-application is displayed. However, this idea may change when I start talking to a graphic/web designer about effective front pages. And it may change depending on how much it all costs.

Obviously the price is going to change dependent on my requirements, but at the moment, I don't know whether this is going to cost me $100, $1000 or $10,000. What's an order of magnitude estimate of what it may cost?

What software should I use to design a Webpage logo?

hellodonna — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:09:42 -0800

I am trying to create a professional looking logo for a Web site. I am using GIMP but finding I am very limited in terms of what I can do with it. Is there a software package that I should be using that will allow me to create a good looking logo/header image? I understand Photoshop is the best however, it's really expensive (700.00). Are there any software alternatives or do I just have to pony up for Photoshop? By the way, I have a PC.

Which distro of Linux should I try?

n3rt — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 01:20:04 -0800

Which one of the multitude of Linux distros should someone who's never used Linux before give a go? I''m by no means a PC-phobe [or a Windows-phobe for that matter] but I've just done a couple of system backups and reinstalls of Vista, and am looking at my laptop [Acer Aspire 720Z with 2GB RAM, Intel Core-Duo] with a "hmm, what if eye, and wonder whether I should finally give a Linux distro a try.

My computing background was initially Amigas [hey, configuring Ami-TCP by hand was fun! To a certain extent... :) ] and I'm a graphic designer by profession. I already use a fair bit of Inkscape / GIMP so I'm not scared of new apps to replace anything, I'm just stumped at what to try from the various advice proffered by various techy-types here.

Any advice greatly appreciated - and play nicely! :) [Remembers the Amiga vs PC debate years ago...]

All Comics Big And Small And Dangly.

The Whelk — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:40:55 -0800

Where The New Comics At?: In addition to my many other hats I may be getting a job reviewing new erotica/sexuality/explicit etc comics in the future. I'd get my pick of any comic/graphic novel to review as long as it includes some element or discussion of sex or sexuality or whatever. The problem is that I have no idea what the new releases are and I can't seem to find a centralized list of upcoming titles with enough description. Where should I be looking for new and upcoming titles from big and small publishers, ideally with some description so I can tell what the hell it is?

Is Corel Draw 8 for Windows still gettable?

n3rt — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 23:32:22 -0800

Is it still possible to get hold of Corel Draw 8 for Windows? Abandonware? My friend's father has just purchased a new PC, and utterly adores Corel Draw 8. Unfortunately, the vagaries of time have misplaced his original CD8 media and he's not to be tempted by newer versions or alternatives. He knows how it works and likes it. Lots.

Asking Corel has fallen on utterly deaf ears: so is it possible to still get hold of this? Is it abandonware? [Doubtful knowing Corel]. I've found version 5 supposedly as a/ware, but he doesn't like that either. :)

Any help utterly appreciated.

Please recommend 3D software for doing leaves

jfuller — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:48:33 -0800

Digital graphics artists, hi! I have a painting in mind--a foliate head (aka 'green man') or rather several of them, embedded in foliage. I expect the final form will be in acrylic on masonite because I want it to be bigger than any monitor or color printer I'm ever likely to have. But I want to do most of the detail prep digitally, and it will involve 3D work because I plan to stare at and think about every single one of X hundreds of leaves, sized and rotated to fit in with its neighbors. So I'm fishing for recommendations about which of the free 3D packages I should plan on using. I know the learning curve will be pretty steep and I want to pick one program and stick to it. Free candidates I know of are SketchUp, Blender, and Bryce 5, but I'll consider anything. Does any one of these, or any other one you've used, stand out from the rest for doing complex-mesh organic forms like, um, leaves? If any of them make it easy (or anyway less hard) to texture flat(ish) objects on both surfaces, that's a big plus. Thanks very much! Oh, Windows or Linux. Got no Mac.

Firefox Frustration

chrisalbon — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:47:59 -0800

WebDesignFilter: Why is Firefox resizing my images? My site displays a random image to visitors in the top right corner. When I view the image in IE (in Windows) or Opera (in OSX) the image displays correctly. However, when I view the image in Firefox (in OSX), it is smaller (and therefore blurry).

You can see the problem by following these steps:

1. Visit the homepage: http://warandhealth.com/.

2. If you are in Firefox, the image in the top right is resized (slightly smaller) than it should be. If you are not in Firefox, the image is displayed correctly.

3. If in Firefox, right click on the image and select "View Image". This displays you the non-resized image.

4. Click the back arrow navigation bar.

5. Click the forward arrow in the navigation bar. Now are seeing the resized image.

6. Click on the image once and firefox will display the image in the correct dimensions.

It does not matter if I specify the image dimensions in CSS or even html, Firefox always resizes the image.

Why is this? How can I make firefox display the image correctly?

What was the name of this graphic design website?

Black Spring — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:51:29 -0800

What was the name of the website on which freelance graphic designers could publically upload their logos and banners to match a contractor's brief, on the condition that one of their designs must be purchased after an allotted time? I saw this three or four months back and can't seem to find it now. I'm pretty sure the bidding currency was dollars. The site itself was pretty slick / 'web 2.0' as I remember.

comics for snobs

sponge — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:20:07 -0800

Can you recommend any graphic novel / comic forums or groups that focus on more obscure, non Barnes and Noble titles? Or that are more focused on the art, illustration qualities.

Related: 1, 2.

Thanks!

camera recommendation for graphic designer?

MaddyRex — Fri, 29 May 2009 12:13:52 -0800

What's the best camera for a cash-poor graphic designer? I'm making my big camera purchase & I realize I'll have to compromise on something. I don't know too much about cameras but I know a lot about graphic design & I'm looking for something that will basically help someone with currently minimal photo skills (I promise I'll work on them) generate clean, high resolution images. My price range is around $400. Ideally I'd want something that's at least semi-portable.

How important is it to have a dSLR? One photographer I know recommended the Canon Powershot g10 for a graphic designer. Another told me this was a total waste of money & that I should go straight to a dSLR. Thoughts? Help! Thanks!

I need to go to design school

hamandcheese — Thu, 28 May 2009 21:45:19 -0800

Large-format printing filter: Help me figure out a workflow for getting my very large photographs into a 60" x 90" Adobe Illustrator file. Difficulty: need the job done tonight! I need to build some camera-ready PDFs that will be printed 60" by 90". CMYK, 1 inch bleed, one large 300 ppi photograph plus some small text elements per file.

My problem is that we're talking about HUGE file sizes here. Am I doing something wrong? I exported the files from Lightroom as 30", 300 ppi, and they come out as 200 MB monsters. This is one thing, but then I took them into photoshop to get them up to the 60" dimension I need. Unfortunately, when I save the PSDs, they're 2 freaking gigabytes! These things take forever to work with and even longer to save. I must be doing something wrong.

What workflow should I be using so that I can keep the file sizes down and still achieve decent print quality? I have access to Adobe CS3, and I need to finish this project tonight. I haven't done any large-format design work before. Help me hivemind!

What do I do with my similar design?

grablife365 — Tue, 26 May 2009 07:00:10 -0800

My design is very similar to theirs but I hadn't seen theirs ahead of time. What trouble do I get into if I continue on and sale mine? I have been working on a certain graphic/design to go on clothing for the past few months. Last month or so I saw a similar design created by someone else already on fabric. The two are very similar and I hadn't seen theirs previously. What kind of trouble would I get into if I continued and sold mine? Do I need to make them aware of this? I was unaware of theirs when I began working on it and was under the impression that mine was an original thought. I don't want to throw it out if I don't need to.

A Graphic Equalizer for Images?

jfrancis — Sun, 10 May 2009 17:12:16 -0800

Is there such a thing as a graphic equalizer for images? Can I obtain it? In Photoshop you can high pass filter an image (edges and details) or low pass filter it (blur it). But there isn't continuous control over a range of frequencies.

Does some software exist that I as an average user can get a hold of that does the necessary Fourier analysis (or whatever is necessary) to give me fine control over any frequencies in an image I wish to address?

Sort of a graphic equalizer for photos?

CertificationFilter: Help our web/graphic design team find appropriate certification's for our field.

pghjezebel — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 06:10:37 -0800

CertificationFilter: Help our web/graphic design team find appropriate certification's for our field. Where I work a lot of importance is put on getting certifications. Our boss would like to find a standard certification that everyone in our graphic design department can receive.

Some of us are strong programmers, while others are heavily into the design end of things. We all deal with .NET and 508/accessibility on a daily basis.

Finding something that fits for all of us across the board as well as meets the approval of our boss has been a little tough.

What would you recommend?

I'd like to enroll in the Chinese Graphic Designer 101 program, please.

miss lynnster — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 17:15:28 -0800

I'd love to get tips/resources for 1) learning more about the Chinese language and culture for work travel, 2) doing graphic design for a Chinese audience and 3) learning more about working with Chinese writing (this was helpful, for example).* Thoughts? *Bonus points if anyone can tell me if there are any Chinese typefaces I could access that have a particularly whimsical, fun, or child-like feel. My new job has a factory in China. I will definitely be traveling there at some future point and want to get a head start on studying the language and cultures a bit so that I have more understanding when I'm there. Can you recommend any other sites or tips that would make a tough language easier and less intimidating? I'll probably get the Rosetta Stone for Mandarin, but do you know of a good place to learn Chinese in Los Angeles or online? And if you've tried learning it, what are your tips?

The other thing is that my boss wants to sell more of our toy products in China than we currently are. For this reason I want to learn more about Chinese graphic design and working with Chinese characters. We can get the translations easily from people in the China office, but I want to make sure my designs look fun, appealing and readable to a Chinese audience.

Thanks.

Branding and marketing 101

2or3whiskeysodas — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:06:58 -0800

I've been put in charge of coming up with a consistent look for my print shop's promotions and signage--branding, I guess. We have plenty of people on staff with design skills but none with marketing experience. We're looking to plan a year's worth of promotions at once and need to begin with finding our "look" for 2009-2010. What resources would you recommend? Books? Tutorials? Blogs? I'd be thrilled to find something like a comprehensive step-by-step process. Thanks, y'all!