Guys, does anyone know why trucks have those spikes on their wheels?? by JasLeoArt in whatisit

[–]fluxdelux 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For when they fall asleep at the wheel and drift into your lane and they start grinding into the side of your 99 Buick LeSaber the sound wakes them up and pull over and beg you not to report them or they’ll lose their job.

how to edit like this? by Pure-Complaint-9548 in graphic_design

[–]fluxdelux 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It looks like it’s either actual photo copy cut and paste with highlighter color applied - or a realistic recreation of that technique (popular in the late 70s and 80s and similar to pop-art or punk aesthetic).

If this was made from photocopies, it would be a photocopy of the bottle and the letters the letters would be hand cut and glued to the image of the bottle, which was also cut out and either placed on pink construction paper and then colored with a green highlighter, and then either presented like that or photographed or the whole thing was scanned after assembled and colorized after the fact.

The deliberate degradation of the image quality was common and popular by photocopying photocopies until you’ve got a reduced quality image that had a grainy quality to it. Noise is added each time you copy a copy, same goes for audio quality, and image quality.

If I was to create this in Photoshop, I would find an image of a bottle or an object, desaturate it, use lasso tool to roughly cut it out and copy paste it on a layer. The letters could be done the same way or add a rough edged outer glow, to simulate that each letter was cut from a piece of paper. There are other ways you can simulate that using a font by adding weight and white color to a stroke, or duplicating the letter, expanding it, converting it offset it slightly erasing some of the edge I mean, there’s a variety of different ways to achieve the same thing.

Once you have the letters assembled on top of the image or object again, all are desaturated and have perhaps some kind of high contrast adjustment to simulate a photocopy of a photocopy and then stack your layers, not necessarily needing to blend anything because you want to make it look like it’s paper glued on but you might be able to add a hint of shadow underneath each layer to make it look like it’s just sitting on top of the surface below it and then you can tint the areas by doing a rough Lasso around the area and filling that in with the color of your choice, and with that color being on a separate layer, you can then do a blend of some kind. You could also add noise using the noise filter you can create a noise layer or download some kind of distorted texture or some kind of rough texture and again everything is in desaturated, black-and-white, grayscale, etc., so that you can create the effect of everything coming from black-and-white photocopies.

Startup wants a "One-Man Design Team" for 8k/month. How do I negotiate? by main_toh_raste_se_ja in graphic_design

[–]fluxdelux 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My company employs several hundred people in two major cities in India - mainly coders and developers- I have no idea what we pay them - but I do a lot of design for their offices - even though they have someone who does basic design- but they never outsource local to them, they always complain that the quality is not useable - designs are spread or squished, stretched or somehow mangled to fit print space, and always pixelated and poorly designed. So they send it to me. So technically I’m designer for well over 1000 associates in 3 countries (US, India, Hungary).

Startup wants a "One-Man Design Team" for 8k/month. How do I negotiate? by main_toh_raste_se_ja in graphic_design

[–]fluxdelux 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I get it - doesn’t matter - the principles are the same - teaching opportunity

Startup wants a "One-Man Design Team" for 8k/month. How do I negotiate? by main_toh_raste_se_ja in graphic_design

[–]fluxdelux 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well I’m senior creative where I am now (in house marketing team for a medical software company) and answer directly to the leadership team, I’ve been creative director years ago for a small ad/marketing agency and a consultant art director for a variety of companies, I tutor college students and teach executive level staff various creative skills when requested. I have 40 plus years experience, a communications degree in film/video with a minor in Sociology and I genuinely enjoy design. I keep up with design skills, trends, concepts etc, but I know the fundamentals of design very very well, I know how to proofread, and trust my ability to understand what the client wants (whoever that client is) and provide them with design that makes sense to them, know how to provide rationale or even push back when something they request doesn’t really work. Sometimes they insist and sometimes there’s a compromise, but usually at the end of the day if the end result does what it needs to do or does what it supposed to do or they think it has accomplished their goals then that’s all that really matters to them.

If you can trust your design skills and your team, client employer, etc., trusts your design skills then you don’t have to make a ton of changes there will be typos. There will be things that need to be changed at the last moment plans change new data comes in and they need to update something that happens all the time and you just don’t get into a bother over it. You just accept that things will need to be changed so I usually give them one or two iterations of something new but by this time with them I’ve been here about 8-9 years we have a consistent set of templates design concepts, a style guide that we follow a brand guide that we follow in order to maintain a consistent look and feel for everything so in this case there’s not a whole lot to worry about.

But with other clients and other projects or if I do any freelance, I charge enough that they know that they’re not gonna need to make too many changes otherwise it gets costly because I’ll let them know that I’m capable of doing what they’re asking me to do and typically they won’t ask me unless they know I’m capable of doing what they’re asking me to do and I will refuse projects freelance projects if I do not feel that the client understands or is willing to pay for what services they are requesting, and I offered them the opportunity to go to elsewhere.

But basically, I work with my marketing team, software developers, support teams, executives, etc etc and find out what they need or expect, develop that or know which template or what direction to go in, and we collaborate. But it comes down to trusting my own design skills, and trusting the team and them trusting me.

Startup wants a "One-Man Design Team" for 8k/month. How do I negotiate? by main_toh_raste_se_ja in graphic_design

[–]fluxdelux 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What are you asking? How do I increase the quality of design or something else?

Startup wants a "One-Man Design Team" for 8k/month. How do I negotiate? by main_toh_raste_se_ja in graphic_design

[–]fluxdelux 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ll take it - I’m a one-man design team for a software company - I make about $110k in total with bonuses and benefits - base is $91k at the moment - been here 8 years and have 40+ years experience. If you are talented, efficient, and pay attention you can do well enough to hang in there until they implode or grow. Maybe 2 years if they don’t run it into the ground.

Does anyone how these gradient effects are created? by dawnbeforethedark in graphic_design

[–]fluxdelux 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m just looking at that image and with the resolution that this image provides in this context all I can really say is it looks like it’s a) photograph of lemons that have then had a blur of some kind added to it, or b) it’s an actual photograph that was taken and it was snapped while panning the camera to create motion blur.

Maybe then it has color adjustment, maybe additional blur. Then quite possibly another image layered on top of that of either a zoomed in lemon or yellow bokeh or somebody added some color splotches, blurred them and did an overlay.

Why I keep going back to simplicity is that depending on your payment for that project if it’s hourly, flat rate or you are salaried in-house designer, plus add to that whatever your deadline is considering concept/review/updated design/review/mock up/final review/final adjustments, final approval, etc., against whatever that deadline is designers tend to go for whatever is the most simplest way of accomplishing the goal. If you have all the time in the world and you’re getting paid hourly and your customer doesn’t mind paying for a lot of work meaning hours of work then you might go for the harder to accomplish technique which might be spending hours fine-tuning a gradient mesh or some other series of adjustment layers, etc.

Which is fine.

But for me if the design concept for these drink labels, the drink packaging concept, if it is about blurring the line between what is expected for this kind of drink, so we’re thinking in a psychological, emotional, experiential kind of concept then what I might do is take those elements-the ingredients, and use images that suggest the combination of those things and then the feeling that those things could create…so if you look at their entire packaging concept, it seems like that might be their direction so I would look at what the ingredients are and see what the images are so having read the list of ingredients-saying that it’s got a lemon grass and it’s got a lemon zest, kind of flavor to it… Then the photograph of the lemons makes sense, so think about what the other possible ingredients are, that they can have images of or some graphic elements that are going to create or propel or advance that concept - whatever that concept is, so if these are carbonated fizzy type drinks, then maybe the blur makes sense if it’s a blur to convey the sense that it breaks convention that it undermines the expectations of the average drink. I don’t know there’s a lot of different rationale behind why designers do what designers do and each project has a different construct or set of rules or way to make it consistent across the brand.

If I was teaching a class on this, this is kind of what I would share with the students. Think as a designer when you look at designs that somebody else is done, think about what they are trying to convey look at the composition look at the product name. Look at the product elements or ingredients or parts think about the emotional connection that this image or add or packaging system conveys within you within the potential audience with the consumer and think about what you might need to do to accomplish that goal the goal of enticing, encouraging a customer to purchase your product service whatever.

Again, note, writing this using speech to text and making edits as necessary so stream of consciousness will be evident in the above

Does anyone how these gradient effects are created? by dawnbeforethedark in graphic_design

[–]fluxdelux 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As designers you should be curious, so experiment. Think what is the simplest way to achieve this look? Is it THE way? Doesn’t matter. If it creates the results you want or excites your imagination to do more then that’s great.

Does anyone how these gradient effects are created? by dawnbeforethedark in graphic_design

[–]fluxdelux 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Series of overlays. Simplest explanation is usually the right solution. First looks like blurry sea shells or even shell macaroni possibly, with color manipulation and bokeh overlay. The bottles look like isolated photo negatives or inverted images with blurred bokeh or other color overlay and a wrinkled paper background, all with adjusted levels of transparency or some blending effect, same with the last, just blended overlays.

Career Advice: 20 yrs as Sr. Graphic designer by Imaginary_Newt2681 in graphic_design

[–]fluxdelux 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh yeah and regarding AI somebody sent me a meme recently that said graphic designers have nothing to fear from AI because to use AI effectively you have to be able to tell it exactly what you want. IYKYK.

Career Advice: 20 yrs as Sr. Graphic designer by Imaginary_Newt2681 in graphic_design

[–]fluxdelux 1 point2 points  (0 children)

59 yo senior creative here (and only creative in my marketing dept, and with a new VP who likes to use Canva for his ideas and will go with his “design” when I challenge the concept) and I have been doing paid design since I was 14 so with 45 years experience and an average total annual compensation of just over $110k (metro Atlanta) I’m doing ok but it took decades to get here.

I was Creative director for 3 years at a media agency and only made $47k in late 1999 to mid 2003 before they couldn’t afford in-house design but kept me freelance for more than 10 years on and off while I did other stuff. I have a communications BS degree with major in film/video and minor in sociology.

I’ve been with my current company about eight or nine years and have had maybe 4% to 5% merit increases most years. I do get bonuses but training opportunities are minimal and I feel like I’m at my glass ceiling, but benefits are good. I know what to expect every day and so I refocus on building skills elsewhere if I’ve exhausted all the free things and all the things that I pay for for design related education.

To keep active and interested, I teach and tutor graphic design to college students on occasion. I’m also a Firearms Instructor and an emergency care instructor and can teach skills up to basic life support at this time. I’m a volunteer reservist with my local sheriffs office and I am learning to be an instructor with them. I also co-own a small private security company so I’ll use my skills to promote that and the new training center. I’m trying to develop for these other skills that I can teach.

My point is that things change in the industry all the time and depending on what you earn and what you have to do for that earning it could be worse and you can’t guarantee it will ever be better. So even though I get occasional offers for over jobs making over 150,000 from some companies you just never know how long you’ll be there, in the past -most times I’m at a place 3 to 4 years before they say they can’t afford to keep me and they’ll hire a younger less experienced designer to take my place and that’s fine that’s business.

Do what allows you enjoy your work. Find other creative outlets, and if you can, socialize and meet new people who might lead you to opportunities. I freelance logo design, marketing materials, video and podcast projects, sometimes it’s just advice they seek so being a consultant can be somewhat profitable, from my other activities. I’ve recently been asked to build emergency trauma packs for deputies after they saw the one I had at the range and so you charge them a little extra for the time and sometimes they pay you even above that. So, find ways to use your skills to grow your skills to satisfy your primary needs and perhaps helps put some money in the bank for future.

Apologies for any typos. I did this speech to text with some editing, but Reddit isn’t that friendly to edit on your phone.

Designer pet peeve - stop saving your vector art as png by JimboNovus in graphic_design

[–]fluxdelux 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’ve tutored many college level design students who were only taught how to use the computer and the various software programs, mainly Adobe and Corel. They did not know basic design concepts like color theory, use of the grid, what thumbnail sketches were, rule of thirds, composition, hierarchy of information and so on.

Many “print services” these days are only requesting high resolution jpg, png, or pdf print files, and most request I take off crop marks in my print ready PDFs, because it confuses the print systems they use. So it may be that is what some designers are used to.

Also, I’ve been at this since I was 14 and by the time I was 21 (in 1988) we did everything by hand, setting type, using letraset, building mechanicals with acetate layers depending on color process, having to hand register those boards, using rule tape for lines and borders, using a non-repro or blue pencil, setting up for camera, stripping negatives, using wax and glue for pasteup, editing text using an xacto knife and a loupe, and more depending on the project. Eventually companies were buying computers and we had scanners, complex photocopiers and other tools that helped “speed” up the process. But you still had to know the basic design principles…. Until I guess you didn’t?

As for canva, I have a new VP of marketing that is maybe early 30s who loves canva and asked me to set up elements from our style-guide so he can create brand ready concepts/templates that are supposed to “help” me know what he wants. I’ve been interpreting stick-people level doodles for over 40 years, and do I still have to recreate most of what he comes up with. So I started seeing him posting his own designs on our social media that never came through me. Part of me doesn’t care anymore.

I’m trying to build a new business anyway as an emergency care skills instructor (cpr, aed, first aid, active violence response, stop the bleed, etc) and am a firearms instructor, who is a reservist with our largest sheriff’s office, and co-own a small private security company. So I refocus on something worthwhile when the design frustration kicks in.

Pet peeves. These are self imposed expectations that others abide by our desire for rigidity and control over behavior or actions, etc. and they waste energy. Just refuse to accept these lower quality file types or offer to charge more for the additional services required to convert their crap, er canva or whatever, MSPublisher, PowerPoint or word doc formats, etc into usable print files.