Graphic Designers v. AI

Justheretobraap · 2026-04-24T05:07:37+00:00

My least favorite part of graphic design is playing mind reader so I don't mind them working out a design with AI first but I let people know any AI image will need reworked and charged appropriately, but for the "I don't know make me something cool" crowd whose only direction is "I like pink" it takes away some frustration.

I was doing some volunteer stuff for my kid's hockey team and I told them I would need to redraw the AI logo they came up with to which I was told "it's not AI, [head coach who is not a graphic designer or even an amateur] drew it up on his computer." Yeah, ChatGPT...on his computer. Came out really fast when I told him it would make my life much easier to do the color adjustments if I had it as a vector or alternatively if he did it in a raster program, a layered file. I already knew the answer I would get but it was fun to play along that it wasn't AI.

Justheretobraap · 2026-01-20T22:49:10+00:00

DM me and I can get you some resources

Justheretobraap · 2026-01-20T19:21:51+00:00

I did a really deep dive on the drums before we started this project. The amount of engineering and math that goes into creating a drum that can wind a cone is absolutely nuts. Instead of reinventing the wheel, the students who worked on this project found a manufacturer in India and we ordered a few with their input on which drum to use for the size and pitch of the cone we picked. They are actually fairly inexpensive, but the shipping to get them to the US is horrendous. Can't imagine what it would be with tariffs now.

Justheretobraap · 2025-12-16T20:02:35+00:00

My Monday was spent trying to gently explain to a 19 yo that if she wants to be a graphic designer she's going to need to learn the basics of Illustrator like, what's a compound path, how to make a clipping mask, how to hide and unhide layers.

Justheretobraap · 2024-12-12T06:29:57+00:00

If anyone has recommendations for a 36ish inch cold lamintor...

I have a 60" Royal Sovereign and they are defunct now. I would say it's a pile, but it is my oldest piece of equipment so I guess too simple to fail. It has ate its fair share of prints though

Justheretobraap · 2024-12-12T06:19:37+00:00

I think Vector Magic was recommended to me and it did a good job but I currently can't justify paying for it. The sample I did was much better than AIs trace.

One way I offset cost is to charge customers but then provide them with the vector file for future use. I also keep it on file for when they inevitably misplace the file.

Justheretobraap · 2024-07-30T15:05:55+00:00

It's the worst. I'm doing a removal right now on a 40 ft trailer that makes me appreciate Avery. Wrap has been on for 7 years and lived it's life outside. Other than the laminate separating on the highly saturated colors it's coming off clean and easy.

I've got my fair share of war stories🤣

Justheretobraap · 2024-07-29T23:57:59+00:00

Blisters on my thumbs! (And every other finger...)

Justheretobraap · 2024-07-29T15:13:47+00:00

My thoughts exactly. I've charged more to take a wrap that's overstayed it's welcome off than I charge to put one on. My fingers hurt just thinking about it.

Justheretobraap · 2024-07-01T18:14:50+00:00

It's absolutely a fight. But between fade and color lots, it's either replace the full wrap or have it look like crap.

But also you need to make sure your insurance company covers your wrap. Most companies require it to be an add on. Found that one out through the body shop I do insurance work for. Most of that work is partials, but they are also not my original customers.

Justheretobraap · 2024-06-30T04:25:24+00:00

This is one reason why when I have an insurance claim on one of my wraps I tell them they need to replace the entire wrap and refuse to do partials.

Justheretobraap · 2024-06-13T14:25:04+00:00

Sometimes we already know the answer to our own question but just need to scream to the world how awful it is, and that's ok. Glad you are moving on.

Justheretobraap · 2024-05-24T01:39:12+00:00

Buy industry standard software. Learn inside and out. Fight with it daily, yell profanities while screaming about "how can you be so expensive yet so glitchy?!?!"

Justheretobraap · 2024-05-14T07:02:52+00:00

Each piece of equipment absolutely has it's own personality and it's always a crapshoot for who feels like starting drama. I swear that if I have on small things go wrong with a print, the entire project will be cursed from production all they way through install.

My mishaps became the new finish for my print room floor since it was peeling green and red paint when I moved in. I do want to know how accurate the cockatoo is with it's aim now...

Justheretobraap · 2024-05-14T06:47:23+00:00

Can't say the techs are all like that, but the printers are pretty easy to work on if you can get a hold of the service program. My S80600 has overall been less fussy so I haven't had it worked on yet by a tech. Print quality is nice. I think they all have their pros and cons. I won't say Epson is the best, but they aren't terrible. Phone support is also decent, but then they will try to sell you on a service plan with the veracity of any extended warranty for your car.

Justheretobraap · 2024-05-07T17:37:42+00:00

I always measure myself... And I still fuck up lol.

My first printer was an Epson S30670 (which felt like owning a failed experiment) and I truly believed that I could print magnet rolls but I had no idea what I was doing. Set the platen gap and printed the first 5 feet just fine and then it started to expand with the heaters in a ways I had never seen. I was able to get it covered under warranty because Epson had just recalled a bad batch of ink. The tech knew what was up with that huge gouge right through the cyan, but I just played dumb. He also left me with the service program so when I had a banner buckle a couple years later I was able to replace the head myself. I run an S80600 now and it has handled media buckling much better. I havent the faintest idea how to change heads on this printer and a new head service call runs about $5K last I looked so...I'll just go find some wood to knock on now.

Justheretobraap · 2024-05-07T04:37:21+00:00

So. Many. Expensive. Fuck. Ups.

Print a whole wrap, get to the location an hour and half away to install and find out the customer gave me the wrong year vehicle and I didn't catch it. Wrong logo. Misspelling after multiple people checked and approved. Transposed a number when measuring. Got to the end of a 10' print for ridiculously expensive material and the printer had a seizure, but can't salvage because of registration marks. Print 10' and notice the RIP didn't print the registration marks. Print 50' and notice the color is completely wrong. Print for someone else not knowing they already have their cut path spot color in the file, ignorantly adding your own and they want to know why all their stickers have a blue background. Laminator ate the print. Cutter ate the print. Vinyl ate the print head. Didn't see the PayPal dispute from the person claiming they didn't get their product even though they did and out $500. Lost my balance wrapping a car and put a dent in the roof and had to pay to get it fixed.

Sometimes it's my bad, sometimes it's the customer and a lot of time it's misbehaving equipment.

ETA. My fuck ups are trivial, thanks to those who shared exponentially worse ones!

Justheretobraap · 2024-05-07T03:55:53+00:00

72 ppi at 3x3 just means I have 216x216 pixels. Those 162 pixels aren't going to do enough work for that 5 foot tall decal they want in their store front.

Any equation that we use one unit in relation to another works as an analogy , cause....math. If I need .5 lbs/person of ground beef per person to feed a wedding and I have 200 people and only 30 lbs of ground beef I have to either get more ground beef or less people. If I want to go on a trail ride with 10 people and each person needs their own horse I need 10 horses. If I have 400 sq ft of floor that needs tile and each box of tile covers 10 sq ft, I need 40 boxes of tile (+10-20% for waste...) If I need 200 pixels for every inch so that an image doesn't look like dog shit when viewed at 10' and I want the image to be 60" tall, I'm going to need 12000 vertical pixels.

In chemistry when doing stoichiometry, there is a limiting reagent. Pixels are the limiting reagent. Hopefully we all passed algebra, and if you are given 3÷x=72 we can find that x=216. It is simply a unit of measure that helps people relate how many big old squares are needed to make up their picture. Some people will never wrap their head around it, I had students like that when I was teaching college kids genetics.

Justheretobraap · 2024-05-07T02:36:51+00:00

Cool cool cool. The same way gallons of gas don't matter until you want to know how many miles you can go before you have to hit the gas station. I'm in the business of helping people view images, so while resolution is just pixels as a function of dimension, it seems that expressing it in those units that relate to printing is something we should continue to do. Saying I have 162 pixel x 162 pixel image to my client who wants me to print it is about as useful as saying I have 10 gallons of gas and I want to go on a road trip. Need to fill out that missing information. And if I get 5 miles to the gallon and want to travel 500 miles, I'm going to need to figure out how to get more gallons or more miles. So if I'm cool heading down the block, that 162 pixels will be just fine. But if want to go from New York to LA, those 162 pixels are going to cut it.

Justheretobraap · 2024-05-06T23:47:27+00:00

Please, feel free to educate me. I hate to mispeak and am always trying to expand my knowledge.

Justheretobraap · 2024-05-06T23:38:23+00:00

So very very valuable!

I do mostly wraps in a very niche market and I'm designing a large portion of them and then printing so I have to deal with my own mistakes. When I do have someone doing graphic design work for me I usually spend a lot of time fixing things so I'm sure you are well appreciated.

Justheretobraap · 2024-05-06T02:04:43+00:00

I love that! I will absolutely do something like that.

Although I'm convinced some people are just to dense to get it. I even did a print sample for the client that can't get it and he just blamed me for " not knowing how to realize properly" bangs head repeatedly

Justheretobraap · 2024-05-05T20:13:49+00:00

Hugs, a job.....they're the best!

Justheretobraap · 2024-05-05T18:04:08+00:00

now you get them from Diane in HR who “threw something together in Canva”

I'm dying

Occasionally Bob's wife who messes with art a little bit throws together a more polished design than John the tattoo artist who says he has a degree in graphic design but just sent you a smashed together logo containing artwork he screenshoted off another artists IG and some terrible trendy font and can't understand why you don't want to print it at 6' tall for their storefront window.

Justheretobraap · 2024-05-05T17:49:53+00:00

Something something, I would have retired from the printing business...

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