[du_jleon]

Hello all,

I am a student and trying to get experience with anything that can be published on the internet (trying to build a portfolio in web development and design), so I thought I should start dabbling with Graphic design. Therefore I have two questions:
1- Should I even try to deal with it or just hire someone to do all my Graphic Design for now?
2- If I should start, than what program do you recommend I use for Graphic Design?

With great appreciation,
du_jleon

[BetaWar]

1 - It is up to you, you may be able to complete all the projects you would need someone else to do easily (depending on what you are looking for). So it really depends.

2 - Most people use Photoshop, Fireworks, Illustrator and a few other programs (I believe you get them all with Adobe Graphics Design Suite). If you are looking for something cheap, I suggest the Gimp (located at gimp.org), it is free and has many of the same things as Photoshop does.

[Solaris]

Get into Photoshop, see if you can follow some tutorials online -- there are so many out there.

As far as html, css -- I recommend the same thing. Start simple and take your time. Eventually you will gain speed and learn some tricks and develop a style.

Paying someone is cool if you have extra cash, but the knowledge you will get from learning yourself is invaluable.

I stay away from Dreamweaver and use the old Homesite for writing code.

[Toxicterror]

Quote

1- Should I even try to deal with it or just hire someone to do all my Graphic Design for now?

depends on how much time you want to spend on learning how to use photoshop / gimp or whatever

[calebjonasson]

the adobe package is the first choice from me and it is what i have been using since day 1. The way that the technologies are all combine make workflow very easy.
ie export something from illustrator directly into photoshop.
also whether or not you choose to hire someone all depends on how good you are when it comes down to graphic design. I recommend reading up on web 2.0 styles and different ways to get users to get the attention you are trying to recieve.

[du_jleon]

Thanks to all of you for the direction...I think I will counitue to practice.

[Superandomness]

If you can't afford the really expensive programs, try the GIMP (free, similar to Photoshop) or InkScape (also free, similar to Illustrator). Both are very decent programs, I use them even though I have Photoshop sometimes.

Another available software is Paint.NET, but I don't know a ton about it.

This post has been edited by Superandomness: 27 May 2009 - 02:36 PM

[papuccino1]

You should SERIOUSLY try out Paint.NET.

That program is sick bro, it's easy to use, nice to look at to boot.

Photoshop is a Lamborghini Formula 1 race car. Incredible but hard to master.

Paint.NET is a cool hot-rod red Mustang convertible. Fairly powerful, and simple to get the hang of it.

[Ostralis]

If you're looking to go into professional web design, as are most artists today, you're going to have to have Photoshop, Illustrator, and some program that you can code your layouts in. Illustrator would be used for some vectoring, that sort of thing, but programs like this (like papuccino said), take time to learn.

Best of luck in your venture, if you have any other questions contact me through my MSN.

[girasquid]

If you're on a Mac and frustrated by how bogged down Photoshop tends to get(a couple officemates have been complaining), I've heard very good things about Pixelmator.

[Nikhil_07n]

papuccino1, on 28 May, 2009 - 07:50 AM, said:

You should SERIOUSLY try out Paint.NET.

That program is sick bro, it's easy to use, nice to look at to boot.

Photoshop is a Lamborghini Formula 1 race car. Incredible but hard to master.

Paint.NET is a cool hot-rod red Mustang convertible. Fairly powerful, and simple to get the hang of it.

Now that's SOME explanation.

[OliveOyl3471]

I use Ulead GIF Animator 5. It wasn't very hard to learn, but I had some good teachers.

It's hard to find in the U.S. I had to order mine from the Internet. It was $40 at the time but I had a student discount. I think the regular price was $50. That's less than Photoshop, I think.

I tried Gimp once but couldn't make much of it. It might be easier if I used it more, but I prefer UGA5 anyway.

Here's a link:
http://www.ulead.com/ga/

You can get a free 14-day trial and see if you like it

[SixOfEleven]

Since I've become serious about graphics I use GIMP and Paint.NET. For a while I owned Corel Draw and Paint Shop Pro. I don't use either anymore.

There are some good CSS tutorials here, worth checking out. I used the link roll-over tutorial when I re-did my site.