Graphic design for the faint of heart and wallet

Over the past few years, I’ve written a series of articles discussing some workarounds for individuals who are learning about or not confident in graphic design. The beauty of the trade is that there is always something new to learn, including ways to be more efficient. Let’s consider this article a spiritual successor where I summarize software alternatives, free resources, automation, and the pursuit of curiosity and improvement as ways to help you design on a budget.

Software

There’s a retiree, Tatsuo Horiuchi, who wanted to be an artist but instead of spending money on supplies he figured out how to “paint” with Excel. Just as Tatsuo was able to produce art in Excel the same goes for graphic design software. Ultimately, as a designer, you need to create a print-ready PDF; how you arrive there is irrelevant. I like to divide graphic design software into three categories: 1. Professional Tier: Here you find

Adobe Creative Cloud, the cornerstone of media design. As the golden standard of the industry it’s used near ubiquitously. However, other options exist. While lesser known, Affinity by Serif Labs is a new collection of professional creative software. And smaller competitors persist in their niche markets such as Quark, Corel

DRAW and Microsoft Publisher.

2.Freemium Tier: There is an entire subset of free, open-source software, including GIMP, Inkscape, Scribus, Gravit, Sketchbook, Krita, PicMonkey,

and Pixlr. Although these options lack some of the professional software’s advanced features they are serviceable alternatives for anyone on budget. 3.Hustle Tier: If a designer knows what they’re doing almost any software will work. Word and Pages are taught to many students who only need to go as far as basic document publishing on a desktop printer. I’ve seen Power

Point used for educational poster design as it is intuitive for lecturers who already use it to create their slides. Another popular option is

Canva, which is an online design tool that is fairly robust for a novice designer who needs to produce both print and web assets.

Resources

I’m a big proponent of working smarter, not harder. There are a ton of sources online where you can access free, legal content for your design. Many of these sites use creative common licenses, so make sure to review the license placed on the item before using it. For public domain photos and videos check out Pexels, Pixabay, and Unsplash. Sites like Freepik / Flaticon, Noun Project, and Vecteezy provide editable vector files for commercial use where you only need to include an attribution in the final work. Utilizing these resources can be a huge timesaver as someone else has done the legwork. Automation

Any task you can automate saves you time. Software javascripts, embedded in many Adobe products or downloaded from sites like Scriptopedia, take challenging or boring tasks and instantly perform them. Photoshop Droplets, Acrobat Actions, and Microsoft Macros also provide avenues for automation in specific programs. Education & Curiosity

Strive to be constantly learning. It is impossible to know everything about these rapidly changing pieces of software. I frequently use Google to learn new ways to solve problems I encounter during my design process (and for inspiration); it’s amazing what a few specific search terms bring to light. Online learning platforms like SkillShare, LinkedIn Learning, or even YouTube offer tons of tutorials to help hone your creative design skills in any program you wish to master. You’re also welcome to pursue avenues that provide more practice. Using freelance platforms like Fiverr or just working on personal projects challenges you in new and interesting ways. Whatever you create, you can contribute to the resource sites listed above, which allows others to share and use your work while concurrently building your portfolio.

Final Thoughts

Graphic design is a skill that can be nurtured without having to step foot in a classroom. Like any skill, it is one that can be taught formally or pursued as a personal interest. You don’t have to be a master in order to produce fantastic work; you just need to know where to look to find the best information and get the biggest bang for your buck.

Olivia Parker, B.Tech, MPC completed her Masters of Professional Communication in 2014 to complement her Bachelor of Technology (2013) from Graphic Communications Management at Ryerson. She presently is the Innovation & Support Specialist at Taylor Printing Group Inc. in Fredericton.

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