The design thread

[futures]

I'm going to lurk this thread, if that's okay.  I am in no way a professional designer, but I mess around with design elements as a way of passing time.  I wish I worked in an environment like Madie & Charlie.

 

Carry on.

[FangsAnalSatan]

Someone slap together a logo for my podcast and I'll ban one member of your choosing, including Juan!

I'm joking obviously, but I do need a new podcast logo and can barely open GIMP before passing out from confusion.

 

Would you ban yourself? If so; I'm down.

[abovetheearth]

it can also be a tips/ask questions thread about designing and/or processes on how to's and what not's.

[BuzzersonKillwell]

Yeah, you don't need to be a "designer" to post, don't be crazy. 

 

Meanwhile... fucking struggling to rework an entire color scheme in R3. You know when you get to locked into the work previously that you have a hard time coming up with fresh ideas since you are trying to stay within budget....

 

that.

[Derek™]

I definitely do not design professionally, but I do enjoy PS tinkering and making things look appealing.  My question to you guys: I'm on the verge of wrapping up general ed at a community college - something I should have done years ago, I regret - but I'm having a difficult time deciding on what sort of school or degree to pursue afterwards.  I'd definitely like to attend an art school or academy -- I really enjoy working with text, color schemes, and either web or print design.  I don't have a portfolio, nor do I feel I have any noteworthy work to showcase.  But it's the only thing I'm really passionate about, career-wise, that I can see myself doing.  I've been eying some AI [Art Institute] schools here in California, but I've also heard some good things about Full Sail.  Any suggestions or advice?

[abovetheearth]

i dont have any info/advice on Full Sail, but i have a few things.

 

the demand for print is just as high/busy as digital.

 

start off at a pre-press plant or doing production art first. the knowledge i gained from that was priceless.

[David The Gnome]

I've got 2 quarters left until I'm done at AI Pittsburgh. I'd recommend it.

[Guest]

when are y'all gonna shut up and post some work?!

[futures]

I've got 2 quarters left until I'm done at AI Pittsburgh. I'd recommend it.

My uncle went there!

[abovetheearth]

i did a silly design for a beer for a start up micro-brew.

 

he requested it on a saturday morning and wanted it by saturday afternoon. also gave no direction. this was awhile ago since i retired from logos.

 

 

some ink drawings for a wedding for a friend on here

 

 

 

cant post professional stuff. id get in troubs

[BuzzersonKillwell]

A degree in design (or a related field) isn't always a pre-requisite for a job, but it has some positives. The best thing about school is the time it affords you to spend on your work. It also generally requires a lot of critiques, which is helpful two ways. One, you'll learn to take criticism and two, you'll get experience articulating why you made the decisions you did which will help in presentations down the road, both internal and client-facing.

 

That said, school can tend to be a lot of theory and not a lot of practice, we've always had a hard time hiring new graduates. Candidates would have solid portfolios, but we really need them to handle production work to start which is something they don't cover well in many programs, which is a bit ironic. Frankly, you can learn the theory stuff with a library card or a solid internet connection. In my experience a good 6 month internship is a much better education than a lot of college programs. 

 

No matter what you're going to need a solid portfolio to land that first job or internship, so if you're looking to turn it into a career that need to be your long-term goal. School is historically the simplest path to a portfolio, but isn't the only option. The only concrete advice I have is get good with type. Understanding typographic hierarchy, layout and all the jazz is the foundation of most design. 

[abovetheearth]

of the last two firms or agencies i was at...prob 3 out of 10 had degrees. in anything.

 

as long as you know what youre doing, and can do it well, and have a solid portfolio, some experience...thatll get your foot in the door.

 

in this town, its who you know. thats what gets you in the door.

 

and all our true designers are all over 33.

[BuzzersonKillwell]

Are we doing 1 day logos? I see you are a procrastinator like me. 

 

I did this last Tuesday for a buddy. I didn't name it. You can probably guess his last name. 
 

[Guest]

That said, school can tend to be a lot of theory and not a lot of practice, we've always had a hard time hiring new graduates. Candidates would have solid portfolios, but we really need them to handle production work to start which is something they don't cover well in many programs, which is a bit ironic. Frankly, you can learn the theory stuff with a library card or a solid internet connection. In my experience a good 6 month internship is a much better education than a lot of college programs.

 

I was lucky to land an internship with I was a freshman in college. I had never even touched a mac or any adobe programs before this, but I was the only student in the graphic design program who was getting financial aid, and they needed to hire a student on financial aid. That internship was the only reason I knew anything about preparing jobs for press. My education was totally lacking in pre-press info... sure they taught us all about making things look good, but nothing about preparing jobs for press.

Here we use CMYK plates, we burn each plate with it's respective color, and then those plates get run through the press for each job. It's awesome to watch.

[BuzzersonKillwell]

Cheers to being broke in college. 

[abovetheearth]

I was lucky to land an internship with I was a freshman in college. I had never even touched a mac or any adobe programs before this, but I was the only student in the graphic design program who was getting financial aid, and they needed to hire a student on financial aid. That internship was the only reason I knew anything about preparing jobs for press. My education was totally lacking in pre-press info... sure they taught us all about making things look good, but nothing about preparing jobs for press.

Here we use CMYK plates, we burn each plate with it's respective color, and then those plates get run through the press for each job. It's awesome to watch.

 

 

do you to computer to plate?

[abovetheearth]

did this for a now defunkt sporting site. circa 2002-3

 

 

then a site header for another site.

 

 

 

weirdest request.

 

 

then ive done these - rock bottom

 

[maneatingcow]

I was lucky to land an internship with I was a freshman in college. I had never even touched a mac or any adobe programs before this, but I was the only student in the graphic design program who was getting financial aid, and they needed to hire a student on financial aid. That internship was the only reason I knew anything about preparing jobs for press. My education was totally lacking in pre-press info... sure they taught us all about making things look good, but nothing about preparing jobs for press.

Here we use CMYK plates, we burn each plate with it's respective color, and then those plates get run through the press for each job. It's awesome to watch.

 

 

My education is about the exact opposite as yours.  I went for Offset Printing, and Design and Copy Prep classes were a part of it but it was all designed to be industry specific.  I went right as Adobe In-Design was starting to become huge, but Quark Xpress was still primarily being used in the Printing Industry.  I never finished the degree due to not taking a handful of general education classes.  After a couple years I was going to go back and finish them up, but all the core classes expired.  Something like 40 of 48 credits were no longer valid.

[David The Gnome]

An illustration submission for the 2014 Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix. 

 

[Guest]

I did this last year, I think this was more like a one hour logo. my brother colin's (possibly failed) podcast... #worstfriends.

 

all of our logos are along the same style, which seems to be pretty popular right now.

 

[Guest]

do you to computer to plate?

 

we use a program called dynastrip to create the imposition files... then export the dynastrip files to a program called rampage, with rampage we can look closely at the files to make sure they'll print exactly how we want them to look, then we release the plates.

 

Everything is calibrated to our printing press, which is nice. I've experienced working with other printers and having the color come out a lot different than intended.

[Guest]

An illustration submission for the 2014 Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix. 

 

 

that's cool. I'm a big fan of subtle textures, they make everything better.

[abovetheearth]

ah. the years of pagemaker and freehand.

[maneatingcow]

Our final project at the Tech was to create a calender and it turned out pretty great won a couple of National and an International Award.

 

http://www.fvtc.edu/public/NewsDetail.aspx?Id=319

 

 

 

 

Where I work this is an example of the quality of Graphic Design they produce -

 

[abovetheearth]

we use a program called dynastrip to create the imposition files... then export the dynastrip files to a program called rampage, with rampage we can look closely at the files to make sure they'll print exactly how we want them to look, then we release the plates.

 

Everything is calibrated to our printing press, which is nice. I've experienced working with other printers and having the color come out a lot different than intended.

sweet. i used to set up front end systems. our plant had like 7 presses in it. at the time a 33"'er which was the largest of its kind. we used Nexxus as the front end rip. it was great. just hit print...it sends next door and burns right onto them. we'd have 7-8 towers going at once.

 

same with matchprints.