AUTHOR

Koyel Mukherjee

Just a regular nerdy girl who loves comic books and anime and who also happens to be into writing and painting.

Where Do You Need Graphic Designs For Your Business?

Running a company is not an easy task. When you are an entrepreneur, you have to oversee a number of departments and manage them efficiently. Advertising takes up a very significant portion of your marketing growth hacks. However, what would distinguish you from your competitors in your efficiency in correct marketing. In other words, you can rise above your competitors by utilizing the maximum benefits or resources in the marketing sector and making use of Graphic Design for Business. As you must be already aware, graphic design has gained significant popularity in the last decade. Most of the firms, established or startups, are using graphic design services to boost their sales growth. Creation of logos and webpages with proper color schemes and textures has skyrocketed in the past five years. More and more startups are entering the field with carefully crafted digital illustrations. So, how do you hope to survive in that competition? How to utilize graphic design services in other ways that most of the companies don’t or haven’t done yet? What else can you do with your subscription of unlimited graphic design services?Let’s take a quick glance at other places Graphic Design for Business come in use! Brand T-shirts! Who doesn’t love to show off their branded t-shirts? You can create customized t-shirts made for your brand. Branding forms an integral part of growing your company, whether you believe it or not. Your target consumers should be able to identify your brand, should be more like a “fan” to express their interest and satisfaction with your products or services.It does not matter whether you own a music studio company, or an automobile company. Having printed t-shirts endorsing your company name and logo is bound to catch the attention of a large number of people. Moreover, t-shirt is a part of brand merchandise that you may use to subtly promote your brand and spread its name not just limited to online contents, but in dressing and apparel sections as well! Business Cards The trend of giving and receiving business cards can be dated a long way back. A business card is small yet formal and highly professional. Creating a business card, however, requires planning in order to make it attractive yet formal. Some of the things that one needs to keep in mind for a business card are: Your first impression is likely to be your last when it comes to business cards. That will be the make or break moment for you. If your card does not appeal to the receiver, they may not want to contact you. Think about the perfect size and shape that suits your needs. It is safe to have the traditional rectangular outlook. However, you may opt for a more modern layout with rounded edges if the need arises. Your design should have consistency with the colors or the design you use in your logo or your webpage. In fact, don’t forget to incorporate your company logo in your business cards! Make sure that you do not have any misspelled words or typos in your card. It is recommendable to make sure that your paper quality is good. Otherwise, it leads to a poor impression of your company. Packaging Graphic Design for Business Product packaging has always been a part of marketing. Even with the rise in online shopping, consumers are very much attracted to the color and texture used in packaging. Incorporating brand goals and agendas have also gone a great way for brands. The packaging industry has flourished a great deal with various types of designs and illustrations. With graphic designing, you can see the package design and how it will appear on various materials or shapes before sending them for print. It is to be noted here that the packaging designs for each product type is best kept different from each other. For example, if you run a soft drink company, it is advisable not to opt for the same illustration of your pet bottles, cans, or tetra packs.In fact, some company would even go to the length of having different label designs for pet bottles of different pricing. This added variety helps to catch the attention of a wider range of audience and improves the quality of marketing. Most of the consumers also prefer online shopping, that gives you an added benefit of using graphic designing services to enhance your product pictures and videos on the e-commerce sites. Moreover, the packaging colors are shown digitally, which results in zero quality loss in colors. Graphic designing services are extremely beneficial if you can utilize it to the maximum level. Using digital illustrations and designing can increase your range of potential clients to the highest degree, from every sector. Even if you own an automobile industry, think about how many other industries you are spreading your business too! T-shirts, product packs, and other various customized products! In case you are wondering if you should take some expert opinion before investing into an unlimited graphic design services, Draftss is here to help. They have a team of professional graphical designers who can provide you the best consultancy regarding Graphic Design for Business. For a one stop solution for all your designing needs, visit here.

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Things To Consider While Hiring New Graphic Designer

Why do you need a Graphic Designer? Starting with a new business is exciting and challenging at the same time. You have a new adventure before you, and you are not entirely aware of all the hardships that are bound to crop up your way. Experiencing something in practice is far different from watching your ideal businessperson succeeding! As an entrepreneur, you are required to continually think about your startup growth and the best growth hacks, at least for your business’s initial stages, when your firm is still taking baby steps. One of the top ways to grow your company has always been through promotion and advertisement. Promoting and branding your business has proved to be extremely beneficial for any company. The more effectively you engage with your potential clients, the more you will earn customers! Clients prefer those products and services for which they form a reasonable opinion. Branding Requirements One of the basic concepts that you might need to grasp about startups is branding effectively. That inevitably brings us to the question, what does branding essentially comprises?Branding is nothing but the way your audience views your company. It is mainly dependent on the way you project your business, how you interact with your clients, the nature and manner of your services, and the way you interact with collaborators and competition. One of the chief methods of branding has been through graphic design. A proper design can accomplish many things for you! Some of them being: A good logo can help you stand out and speak of your agenda through a simple yet elegant design. Great user interface design can make your website easily accessible and gain more viewers. Well-designed landing pages with engaging content have proven to be more effective in attracting an audience. Product packaging and advertising design aesthetics matter a lot when you want your customers to prefer your brand. It is for this very reason graphic designing jobs have become popular in the modern-day. Graphic design packages are provided to cover extensive services altogether, and while looking for the best service providers, here are some tips that might come in handy! Selecting The Best Graphic Designing Company There are numerous firms out there who would claim to provide you with the best services. However, since your company is just starting, you cannot afford to have shoddy work, but need to maintain your budget at the same time! Therefore, take your time and think about specific factors while choosing: Support for small business: One of the primary features that you should look out for as a startup is to find out if the designer has graphic designing packages for small businesses. Usually, these packages are beneficial as you will gain many services at a lower budget. Custom logo design services: When you are collaborating with or hiring your designer, please make sure they provide custom logo designs. Many designers may design only for advertisements or social media promotion. It is advisable to talk to them beforehand. Often, a logo requires updating and improvements according to the changing trends. Talk to your designers about whether they would invest their time and effort in designing corporate logos too. Transparency regarding terms and conditions: The company or person you are working with should provide you with a clear idea regarding the exact nature and extent of the service you are getting. In case you opt for unlimited graphic design services, it is essential that you go through their services list. It is recommendable to sign up for monthly design packages that leave much flexibility for you. Web graphic designs: If your designer provides you with landing page designs and other graphic illustrations, please make sure they create a smooth and user-friendly interface. You can be very vocal about your exact requirements. That is helpful to both parties. Having frequent communication: It is easier to work with designers who communicate with you! It helps you to stay updated regarding the work accomplished. Communicative service providers also provide you with suggestions and ideas that could be extremely beneficial. Meeting with the deadlines: It is one of the essential qualities your designer should have. Talk to them beforehand about the time they would probably require for individual designs. It is advisable to be flexible enough to allow more time according to their needs, but they are expected to meet the deadlines mutually agreed on. What Makes A Perfect Graphic Designer There could be countless theoretical views regarding how the best graphic design service provider should be. However, it is ultimately all about the “clicking together” between an agent and the client. In case you find out a designer or a firm that is suitable for you, it is recommendable to keep working with them. However, the need might transpire when you might need to stop working with a specific designing company for various reasons. There could be problems regarding the quality of work, overpricing, inability to meet basic requirements, and deadlines, or it could be something like being disrespectful towards your firm. In any case, if you need to terminate business with them, it is recommendable to send an official notice for the same. Your official notice should state your time and reason for termination and it is your responsibility to clear any pending dues. On the other hand, it is recommendable to start looking for new companies or designers. Draftss is a famous firm that takes care of startups’ needs and supports them through quality designs at reasonable price packages. It is worthwhile to check out their official webpage if you are looking out for a trustworthy Graphic Designer!

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Graphic Designing For Menu Cards And Banners

Owning a restaurant or any business related to food and beverages can be hectic, especially when you need to expand your business. The best way to grow in the food and beverage industry is to have exposure among the people and advertisements – Graphic Designing may help. While starting from scratch, you have to know your target customers first. In case you own a fast-food plaza, students or office employees would likely be visiting to grab a burger or fries. However, if you are up to set for a fine diner with a terrific aesthetic, then it is more likely to get visits from families or couples. What To Do? However, the fact remains that if you do not advertise your business adequately, you may not achieve your target growth. Since your growth depends heavily on the number of people you can attract despite the competition, your business must reach out to the maximum people. Other than television and newspaper advertisements, it is advisable to opt for graphic design services. Illustration for advertising is gaining momentum in this digitized world day by day, and it is best if you can make the most out of it! Let’s look at how you can use graphic designs to grow your business in restaurants and fast food corners! Your Banners And Signs Let us think very practically about this. What is the first thing you notice when you go out to eat, other than the ambiance? The banner and name, of course! Even if you are not aware of the meals they produce, the nature of their service, or any reviews, but you might get intrigued by the banner they use! However, you might not enter a few based on the signboards or name headings. Therefore it is essential that you take care of the signboards bearing your name. How To Do It? It is recommendable not to use very bright or loud colors for your signboard. In case you are using neon lights, try to keep the colors to a minimum, using only up to two colors. It helps to declutter and appeals more to the human eye. Graphic designing can help you create and analyze various styles and combinations digitally before applying the perfect one! For special events such as anniversaries or foundation day, you might want to create banners to promote your business. Banners make use of designs and different typography to impress the viewers. Moreover, special events can attract several customers if you can present them out adequately. Menu Card Graphic Designing Menu cards are the first thing your customers will see once they enter your restaurant or food plaza. Since they will be placing their orders based on the item descriptions or the appeal of a written format, here are a few things you might want to check out! What To Do? • It is advisable to have legible typography on your menu card. Even if you use plenty of curves or fancy styles on the cover page, it becomes essential that your customers can understand the item names and their components properly.• It is recommendable to use visual images alongside your food description. Proper editing of the pictures can make your dishes look more salivating and appealing to your customers. You may even enhance the colors and texture with graphic design.• Even though it is not mandatory, it is advisable to have a kids’ menu as well. Children may not have the same aesthetic sense as adults, and therefore you need a differently styled menu card to appeal to their tastes. It is advisable to use colorful texts and pictures and catchy food names for a kids’ menu. Social Media Advertisement For expanding your business further, it is advisable to indulge in social media advertising. Since social media is used by a large number of people all over the world, your restaurant name can spread far and wide. However, to make your advertisements stand out, it is recommendable to consult graphic designing services. They can give you consultancy regarding the use of minimalist yet effective designs! Having an official Facebook page or an Instagram page can also allow your customers to provide feedback. It is advisable not to get disheartened with any negative review or feedback, but to work harder on your shortcomings! In case you require consultancy regarding the best types of graphic designing and how to apply them effectively, you may visit the official web page of Draftss. It is a company that provides unlimited graphic design services at a reasonable price. So go ahead and start working on your food business!

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Common Mistakes To Avoid While Graphic Designing

It is ubiquitous to make mistakes, especially in the domain like Graphic Designing, whenever you are venturing into some unknown world or exploring something new. It is nothing to be ashamed of, or feel humiliating. The essential part of making mistakes is learning from it! What you can take from your experience counts way more than what you have achieved and Graphic Designing is no different a field! “Practice makes perfect.” Graphic Designing is a digitized form of art that requires focus and dedication to gain mastery over it. Nearly every successful designer once started as someone who made mistakes, but learned from them! While some people learn through their mistakes, others learn by looking at others’ mistakes who walked on their path before. Even though the first way of leaning ensured a first-hand experience, the second method saves time and energy, which you might need later on.Hence, it is recommendable not to repeat your preceding artists’ mistakes, but to explore further and find out more! Some of the common mistakes usually done in graphic designing are discussed below. It is wise not to repeat them, but think of innovative ways to overcome the challenges so that you can have even better designs! Instructions in commercial designs Graphic designing jobs mean communication between the designer and their hiring client. It is essential that as a designer, you understand what your client is looking for in the design. If the instructions provided are not clear to you, it is wiser to talk or send further queries, but please do not start working before getting a complete grasp of what your clients essentially need. Designing mistakes in logos, webpages, banners, brochures, business cards can disgrace the company’s reputation, and you may not get further opportunity to collaborate with that client in future projects. Hence, it is advisable to make sure you go through all the requirements before applying your creative skills! Overdoing the typography Visual aesthetics demand a perfect balance between all the major components in a graphic illustration. Although typography or fonts play a crucial role, overdoing it might lead to cluttering and ruining your graphic design. Usually, experts suggest sticking to one or two types of font in any layout. Even in the case of webpages or blogs, it is advisable to have a uniform font. Apart from this, you need to realize the purposes of the design. If you are designing a webpage, your fonts should be legible, and please check for readability. If you are designing for logos or banners or T-shirts, you may opt for 3-D lettering designs that are catchy and not meant for reading! Design according to the mood Every designer has the unique styles that they wish to preserve. However, when you provide graphic design services, you might sometimes need to tweak your styles a little to accommodate your client’s requirements! Some designs, such as business cards, brochures, or formal pages, need you to keep a minimalistic design. It becomes essential to keep your layout de-cluttered. This entails that you might need to leave blank spaces into your design. It makes your design look neat and formal. However, if you are designing for things such as events, logos, banners, e-book covers, or packages, you can get informal and incorporate more color combinations or typography. Meeting the deadlines and expectancy It is mandatory that you try to submit your work on time and with the best effort, you can make. Under-delivery is not acceptable if you wish to create a career out of graphic designing jobs. Talk to your clients beforehand about your deadlines and the time you might need. Meeting the deadlines doesn’t mean you can compromise on your work quality. In case you want to provide unlimited graphic design services, make sure you pen down all the terms and conditions for your clients to understand. Besides, it is recommendable to be ready to make corrections as per request. Your client might decide to change one or two things in the first design you provide. Please be flexible enough to incorporate their ideas in the best way possible. Stock images and copying Often it so transpires that you take inspirations from other artist’s works and decides to create something similar. However, copying the entire thing is something you should avoid. That falls under cribbing, and especially for logo designs, some artists or companies can sue you for doing it.To avoid this, draw references from two to three sources or artworks so that you can create something unique and not entirely similar to one work! Moreover, it is advisable not to use copyrighted images from the internet or many stock images that make your design look like a dump for copy and paste options! If you have already made any of the above-listed mistakes, you will probably be aware of the impact these can have on your designs or your designing career. In case you haven’t, it’s best to avoid these errors as much as possible!Do not be disheartened even if you are suffering from temporary setbacks! You have a long way to go, and it is just the beginning. You may even take ideas from professional designers such as Draftss. Don’t forget to think outside your boxes and create unique designs for yourself!

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6 Steps of Graphic Design Process That You Need to Know

6 Steps of Graphic Design Process That You Need to Know

Graphic design plays a vital role when developing goods and services for clients. For efficient graphic design, an artist must follow a sequence of steps. It is a way to ensure that you are delivering exactly what the customer needs. For any design team, having a validated graphic design process will lead to better designs, greater performance, and, most notably, a lot of possible frustration. Read on if you are a leading graphic designer or want to know the detailed phase sequence data for the method of graphic design! The graphic design process in 6 steps As with every other project, it is important to ensure the proper flow of activities and to create a procedure. No matter what sort of designer you are, you should follow this graphic design process to produce the highest quality outcomes for all projects you experience. 1. Collecting Data You may want to include as much relevant data as possible to remove any ambiguity. Before beginning something, you must know exactly what your client wants and needs. Collect all the information, such as asking project-specific questions, taking notes, and, most importantly, understanding their objectives or goals. 2. Research You must include as much valuable information as possible, depending on the project, to minimize the time spent on this process. However, to build a deeper understanding of the audience, it is also extremely necessary for designers to go through the testing process. The research phase of the graphic design process also involves items such as designers who may want to develop a mood board or series of similar designs to keep their ideas flowing. After that, a graphic designer should have a good understanding of what you want to look for to fulfill your client’s full goals or objectives. 3. Develop a plan Let them brainstorm some ideas before jumping into a project, & introduce them to you. This innovative process in graphic design will decrease any dissatisfaction. For optimal clarity, if the project owner has powerful ideas about how the final designs should look, they should add some unique links or inspiration to the brief. Determine which one you want to move on with when the planner raises 3–5 ideas from their brainstorming session. This will create a seamless workflow process for graphic design that gives you the best results quickly. 4. Build Design Concepts & Represent Your final concept should effectively express what the clients’ brief demanded based on your primary research & idea creation. It should also be distinguished from what else is on the market already. The concept should be initial, memorable, personal to the customer, & perfect for the target audience. By creating your design ideas on your previously developed plan, you can now begin using your creativity as a designer! It may be the most exciting & creative step in the graphic design process. 5. Concept Refinement To research your drawings alongside you as you work together, catch one of your teammates. It’s worth asking for an outside perspective. Take a pen & circle the ideas you think have the most significant potential for development. This gives the user plenty to think about. By the end of the process, it helps create a more stable, more informative interface. When configuring them, it would be better if you digitized the drawings. At this point, you don’t want to spend unnecessary time digitally refining the designs. Focus on digitizing the theme of your designs, whether by simplified vector versions of logo designs or rapid poster layout drafting. There is always room for progress. It’s a good idea to frequently print your drawings, take a break from them, and review them with a fresh eye. 6. Production and completion You can begin production now that the final design is ready, whether in print, paper, or the internet. Still feel proud at the end of the process and admire the accomplishments of your client for a successful outcome. Certainly, the graphic design process can not be completed in 6 stages. Among those levels, it takes a considerable amount of work. But, by following them, you will ensure a proper flow of your efforts. A result that both you and your customer will admire. It’s critical that you have a graphic design process set up. This will decrease the deadlines for your project. You can contribute to better designs and affect the bottom line for the better most of all. Look at how you can manage your team here.

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Is Minimalism Always Preferred in Graphic Design?

Jobs in the Graphic Design industry are rising in demand day by day. However, this results in a massive competition of the design and among all the designers out there. In case you are a new designer venturing upon the path of digital art and design aesthetics, one of the significant pieces of advice you might have received is probably opting for minimalism. Before deciding on how to apply minimalism in design, you may have wondered what it is exactly. Or why is it so high in demand? Let us take a brief look around the use of minimalism in graphic design to explore this. The other question that most designers often find fostering inside them, is minimalism always preferred? To answer that, we should take a look at what minimalism generally implies in graphic designs. Then what is required considering is what precisely a professional designer should opt for while collaborating with clients. What is minimalism in graphic design? Graphic design requires the use of software and tools to create illustrations. The visual aesthetic of a minimalistic design lies in the use of less style and more of the principle of design. Usually, minimalism uses only the essential tools and shapes and a minimal palette. The sole objective of a minimalist design is to create a unique design using fewer elements. In other words, less is more! Going for minimalism can bring much aesthetic appeal to your designs. It can make you stand out if you can think outside the box and use less material to depict powerful and engaging content. The most vital thing one ought to remember is to use less but meaningful designs. Thus, the white space you are providing in your illustration should be planned and impart a sense of utility. When you are deliberately opting for fewer materials, use only those strokes that add to the utility! Designing the outlook of a webpage or a blog While most of the designing hacks would probably suggest you to go for minimalism whenever applicable, what you require understanding is that the mood or purpose of your design matters.While creating a landing page layout for any website or blog, your chief motive should be to project its agenda through your design. In other words, it is recommendable to have a design that suits the mood of the product or service being provided. Take, for example; you are designing the landing page of a tour company. Let’s say they are seeking clients for a vacation to any tropical islands or somewhere like that. Your design should speak or reflect a holiday mood in this case. If you put up a somber and minimalistic design, it might not attract many potential clients! It is not to say that a holiday mood or a party mood can only be created through a jumbled assortment of fonts and images! However, it is best if you reserve a minimalistic outlook for a more formal setting. Incorporation of colors While it is a fact that too much of anything can spoil the whole setting, but underusing of elements might not always have the desired effect either. It can be more effectively understood for a logo design. While it is recommendable that you should limit the number of colors to a maximum of two to three, however, a minimalist logo design would demand you to limit it to one. What You Can Do? In case only one color suits your logo’s purpose and can be used to depict the brand agenda in the desired manner of projection, then it is recommendable to go on with it. However, there are cases there only one color might appear bland or have a missing visual appeal. In those cases, it is wiser to incorporate two or three colors to project the required vibes. Often, more colors can be incorporated according to the needs and requirements of the company. Minimalism is not a rigid rectangular box within which you have to stay confined. As a designer, it is up to your discretion to afford to use a minimalistic principle and where you should not. It would be completely wrong to state that minimalism is the best designing technique for any graphical illustration. Minimalism in graphic designs is only one of several strategies you can use to grow as an artist. It is advisable to aim for a perfect blend of different types of graphic design aesthetics as per the requirements. In case you want to provide unlimited graphic design services, it becomes essential that you practice various kinds of designs and use your creativity to master them! Ultimately, designing is an art. Just like any other art form, there is no right way to do it! If your style is a minimalistic one, and if you can pull off different moods and aesthetics with that, then that’s fine. However, if you cannot, it is recommendable not to fret over it. Better to harness your creative skills to explore other illustration principles as well!

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Begin Your Journey With The Top 5 Graphic Designing Software!

Graphic designing allows a platform for artists to showcase their talents while earning at the same time. If you are looking forward to building a career out of graphic designing jobs, then you are off to a great start! In the 21st century, plenty of designing software is available, including free software. It encourages young and aspiring artists to explore their talents further and master their skills with minimum investment.Here are the top 5 designing software that is especially good for beginners and amateurs who are trying to improve themselves. Adobe Photoshop Developed by Adobe Inc. Adobe Photoshop is extremely compatible with Windows and MacOS. The software became so popular since its creation in 1988, that it became a “generic trademark”, and people use it often to mean graphical editing.Rise of phrases such as “to Photoshop an image” or “the image is Photoshopped” has grown significantly higher in the present day. What makes Adobe Photoshop so desirable? The answer lies in the different features and easier user interface. It allows you to work on different layers and supports masking, alpha composition, different color models such as RGB, CIELAB, CMYK, spot color, and even duotone. You can even select your preferred graphic design color format while working with vector and 3D graphics! Whether it’s editing images or creating digital art, Adobe Photoshop is a first choice if you are going to create professional designs for commercial art! Adobe illustrator Adobe Illustrator was primarily designed for MacOS back in 1985. However, it is compatible with Windows as well.Illustrator has several tools that can be used to draw, paint, type, reshape, cut and slice, graphing, moving and zooming, and some other additional features solely meant to benefit artists.Moreover, you get different types of brushes that cater to every need. This graphic designing software is a must-have if you are looking forward to graphic designing jobs! CorelDraw graphics Suite CorelDraw graphics suite is essential in commercial art especially for graphic designing for logo and designing for websites. This software is extremely compatible with Microsoft Windows, even though it was designed for MacOS too, it led to poor sale.CorelDraw is a top-notch preference for poster designing, and other advertisement design purposes. It is a great place to start with your graphic designing career! Inkscape This application software allows converting your sketches into vector or videos. It enables you to edit creatively according to your requirements!It is software compatible with Smartpads and Tabs. It has plenty of features that also allow you to convert your handwriting into DOC format, enabling you to edit and compile your notes. Moreover, this application software can identify up to 15 languages, making it highly popular! Canva App Canva app is application software chiefly designed to benefit commercial artists. It is an excellent choice if you want designs for logos, banners, or other marketing tools.It also provides you with enough design content such that you need not search outside the app for vector images! Of course, if you wish to refer to or edit outside images, you can. However, that won’t be necessary! Canva is amazing if you want provide unlimited graphic designing services to your clients. It can be installed in your phone, enabling you to edit and create on the go!As a pro marketing designer tool, it is definitely a first choice for startup companies and amateur artists. Practice makes perfect. Hence, no matter how many software you download, ultimately you need to sit with them and practice designing until you can master the art!Therefore, start with your practice today, and do not worry even if you don’t get it perfectly done in the first attempt. It is advisable not to engage with clients until you are confident enough to create digital art for commercial and advertising purposes!

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Collaborating With Other Designers

Sometimes, in the designing world, the need can arise when required for a collaborative project. Of course, you may be an individualistic person who works best when left alone. However, with the rise in demand for content designing for companies, you might find yourself unable to pave a successful career in graphic designing jobs if you cannot work with other people! Working with other people has different pros and cons, just like everything else in this world. However, you need to think of the best ways to transform the cons into something beneficial for you at a certain point. Collaborative projects with other designers can help you to learn more, share perspectives, and gain more knowledge in your work field. Whether you are designing for promotional content for a client or merely engaging in the joint production of digital illustrations, there are some hacks to help you to maintain professionalism along with a warm sentiment. It usually helps when you are a communicator or diplomat by nature. However, if you are an introvert or often find it difficult to express yourself adequately, then here are some tips crafted especially for you. Understanding the aim of the collaboration Every collaborative project has some specific purpose or goal. It is the very reason you are jointly working. Hence, it is essential to identify them and cultivate interests that suit the aim of the project. It is essential to maintain transparency regarding the understanding of both. If you already know the people you are working with, then that helps a lot. However, the chances are that you may not know your team members personally. In that case, it is advisable to talk and understand how they have understood the purpose of the project. Find a standard schedule Even though it is not mandatory to always work simultaneously, it is still better to find a typical schedule to allocate at least an hour or so to discuss your plans and progress. It promotes team spirit and professionalism. Holding frequent meetings, keeping tabs on each other’s progress, helping out with the problematic parts can engender trust and understanding among your team. After all, teamwork is not just about working together; it is also about co-operation and mutual help. Compromising on ideas In case you are a freelance artist who works alone, you might find this point a little less comfortable to undertake. However, you might have to give up on some small creative ideas to incorporate others’ wishes for successful project management. No doubt, you must be great at your job. However, collaboration with other designers entails that you need to respect their ideas too. Of course, you can have everything without compromising either, but sometimes that can lead to a jumbled mess. That is not to say that your ways are inferior. When incorporating ideas, you need to test and check, which works best for the ultimate aim. Just in case your opinion or method falls slack or seems to be lacking in something, it is recommendable to have the courage to step down. A group venture often means that your style gets diluted with different other styles, and their ideas can often seep into your mind. While you can consider it as contamination of your originality, it is also viewable in a positive light as expanding your artistic horizon. The points mentioned above can help out if you collaborate with another or several artists for the first time. However, with more experience, you will be able to master your communicative skills and work with ease. Even unlimited graphic designing services can be achieved through your team! Accommodation of creative ideas will come spontaneously to you, and you can handle group projects better! However, as you keep up with collaborative projects, you are likely to meet different types of designers with a different mood and work ethics types. No two people are the same. Hence, you need to deftly give respect to their originality and creativity, while at the same time, have them co-operate with others. Being a skilled designer doesn’t necessarily mean that you are a natural communicator. It’s okay if you fail in your first attempts. Keep trying and working on your social skills alongside your designing practice. Proper communication is often the key to a blossoming career!

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Figma Plugins

Figma Plugins to Help You Design Better

Figma is growing insanely great as an incredible collaborative platform for Figma plugin designers or any other designer. It is no secret that Figma is now one of the flagships for design & prototyping tools. Its edge over Adobe XD or Sketch is that Figma is an online tool that allows users to work in real-time & collaborate with others. In Figma, plugins provide intuitive & straightforward ways to boost your capabilities. With the name of the layers, grouping, adding special functions & adding useful content to mockups, we help optimize & automate routine &  repetitive tasks. They are like Batman’s butler, Alfred. At the right time, always assist. Currently, there are nearly 420 plugins in Figma. Here are the top Figma Plugins 2020 to help you design better! Wireframe: Wireframe is the best plugin in Figma to create beautiful user flow prototypes & basic structures so that no other kits, files, or skills are needed! In the early stage of a project such as planning & brainstorming, if a designer wants to simplify the process, Wireframe Plugin plays a significant role. It makes it easier because designers should spend time thinking about extraordinary design ideas, not on the basics they already know.  The Wireframe has a list of pre-designed wireframes (templates) for Web & Mobile divided into categories that can be added directly to the Figma page by clicking on the frame. Color Palettes: Find the best color palette straight into your design from the massive list of best color palettes. Fill beautiful color from “Color Palettes plugin.” With Color Palettes for Figma, you can hunt for your favorite palette number, color code, or name from the Color Palettes plugin & apply it to your design. Logo Creator: No need to go out & roam here & there to get a logo or inspiration. Head to Figma Logo Creator plugin with pre-build logo collections, browse the plugin & select the best logo or craft that uses different components. Create a beautiful logo by choosing various shapes or choosing the best logo from pre-build collections of 300 + logos.  Autoflow: Autoflow renders drawing flows easily. Select two objects, hit a hotkey & a line between them will be drawn magically. To use 1. Select two objects 2. Right-click & locate Autoflow in Plugin menu 3. By hitting ⌥⌘P to run the last plugin, wire up all your screens. Product Planner: Product Planner makes it easier to start the process, planning products, product insights, identifying risks, setting goals & identifying & solving issues. Use the pre-built template appropriate for your tasks. Figma believes in unfettered collaboration as well as the power of shared understanding. Able: While looking & feeling like Figma design, Able makes accessibility easy! With as little effort as possible, add color contrast & color blindness to your workflow. Open Able & compare the contrast between the two layers you select automatically. This way, you can have Able open & select layers to compare without re-running or updating the plugin.  Remove BG: Automatically remove the background of images with just one click — using the remove.bg API. Note: This plugin will require you to have a remove.bg account. Figmotion: Figmotion is a Figma plugins animation tool built into Figma. This makes it easier & handier to enter animation since switching to a separate motion tool such as Principle, Haiku, or After Effects is no longer necessary. Figmotion makes the animation hand-off more manageable for developers & is being built with web technologies in mind. Isometric: Isometric enables you to create isometric layers without manually setting them up. How to Apply Isometric: 1. Pick Your Layer 2. Right Click > Isometric 3. Select Your Perspective Content Reel: Do you need content for layouts? You can easily pull text strings, avatars & icons into your designs with Content Reel. First, select one or more layers in your design file, then pick from the Content Reel palette to apply.

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Designing For Video Game Interfaces

Do you ever wonder how video games are made? How you interact with the story-line, the way you progress through the levels, and the way you can interact with other players? Video games transport you to another world altogether, where you find a different set of rules, and your presence in the virtual world of gaming is dependent on the game developers’ user interface or UI. Video games are the largest growing market in the motion graphics section! It is one of the most in-demand job sectors ever. The UI sector of a video game that interacts with the players helps them navigate the game, gather information, or complete goals requiring development and upgrading by designers.The narration and art direction decide the design of a video game; the visual aesthetics is mainly dependent on the illustration style and mood generated by the graphic designers. Break into the “fourth wall.” What is the fourth wall? It is the barrier between the actions being conducted and the person in the viewing position. The fourth wall exists for films and theaters mostly, and there are sporadic instances of breaking the barrier. However, in video games, that barrier gets broken as the gamer themselves become a part of the narrative. Their decisions affect the game’s outcome, and players feel a part of the world created through the illustration for gaming. Dark user interface: why is it famous for gaming? Depending on the game content, various types of the user interface are used. Many factors require research before deciding on your perfect interface. The age groups and the players’ tastes are all taken into account while deciding on the interface. In case you have decided to stick to a dark user UI, let’s first try to understand what is it exactly? Dark UI typically comprise elegant and dramatic settings in the game. However, the game purpose should be kept in mind before deciding on a dark UI. Usually, this type of interface is preserved for war adventures, magic realism, dark-themed games involving violence and actions. Your visual aesthetics will have an impact on the minds of the gamer that could be long-lasting. Therefore, it is advisable to follow some directions to enhance the game interfaces. • It is recommendable to have a brightly colored background that facilitates character contrast, text reading, and foreground object viewing. Studies reveal that it is easier to read dark fonts on a bright background than light fonts on dark backgrounds. It is also easier for company logos to stand out. However, in the case that you, as a game designer, want to shift over to a darker theme, whether to build an aroma of suspense and mystery or to reduce the digital eye strain, you could use a dark background. • In case you have decided to go with a dark background, your number one priority should be to optimize the readability and maintain proper contrast. It is advisable to select your colors wisely and consider the devices on which the game will probably run. • A dark UI helps in creating focus and maintain the concentration level. Most of the game-play is done in dimly light areas to enjoy the game environment. Therefore, using the dark theme helps in the complete involvement of the player’s mind. Even though there are countless horrors of spending too much time playing video games, it has also proven to increase concentration and decision-making capabilities. Working together as a team, the ability to accept failure, starting from scratch once again, are some of the perks that video games provide. In case you are a video game designer, you might also need to learn advanced graphic design if your game demands heavy use of 3-D graphics or to meet specifications of the company. Sometimes, a lot more pressure can come upon you when the graphics have to be well suited to game optimization. Either way, to successfully develop a game, you need to master your digital illustrations perfectly. Often, looking for inspiration outside of the game world also brings in fresh ideas and innovative concepts. Draftss is a company that provides unlimited graphic design services to its customers. Perhaps a look around their web pages and blogs could boost up your creativity!

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Graphic Design Courses

The Best 10 Useful Graphic Design Courses Online

The entire world is moving toward a more digital space. That has made illustration art, too, an integral part of business dynamics today. Graphic design is a technical skill that does not require curious graphic design students to play a significant role in this highly demanding digital art if their interests lie within. To pursue or self-learn a profession in Graphic Design, people can opt for focused courses that specifically target the areas of graphics on which the candidates feel the need to learn more. Some of the online graphic design courses that have been supreme to their competitors in the vast space of the internet have been mentioned below. Top 10 Online Graphic Design Courses 1. Graphic Design Masterclass (Udemy) Udemy is one of the best graphic design courses to learn designing skills from. They help you to understand & learn the essential tools & capabilities of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator & InDesign, the whole package design process, solid logo design & ad design principles to create compelling campaigns & logos & the difference between Adobe Illustrator & Affinity Designer. Work through a workbook of 7 pages of vector tracing & feel confident creating an intricate illustration of the vectors. 20 downloadable resources give access to over 15 hours of video content. Duration: 19.5 hours of video on demand Rating: 4.6 Cost: $130 2. Online Graphic Design Courses (Shaw Academy) Shaw Academy‘s online graphic design courses include learning the elements & principles of design, logo design & an introduction to Adobe Illustrator, new knowledge – creativity in Adobe Illustrator, photo manipulation in Adobe Photoshop, film poster design in Adobe Photoshop, an introduction to Adobe InDesign & a summary of Print & Pre-Press Basics & InDesign. Duration ion: 16 Weeks Rating: 4.9 Cost: Free for four weeks otherwise, $8 3. Graphic Design Specialization by CalArts (Coursera) The graphic design certification program of CalArts (California Institute of the Arts) is geared towards beginners & teaches them the essential skills necessary to create sophisticated graphic design. A capstone project to add to the professional portfolio, work experience in interface design, motion graphics & editorial design will be equipped with communication through image-making & typography. Duration: 5 to 6 months, 4 hours weekly Rating: 4.7 Cost: free trial for seven days, then $49 / month 4. Become a Graphic Designer (LinkedIn Learning) Lynda’s course on LinkedIn is an excellent choice for learning about graphic design. This course helps you discover the right set of skills needed to build or advance your career as a graphic designer, build a foundation in the design elements: typography, color & layout, examine the design process for visualizing ideas, learn how to use industry-leading tools that every graphic designer should know — hands-on exercises in InDesign, Illustrator & Photoshop. Get a shareable certificate to showcase your accomplishments. Course authored & taught by industry-leading professionals & experts. Access all the course content for free 30 days after you have signed up. Download & watch the course videos at any time on your mobile app — flexible timelines to get the learning done at your own pace. Duration of video content: 22 Hours Rating: 4.5 Cost: free trial for one month, then $19 / month 5. Free Graphic Design Courses (Skillshare) Skillshare is a learning platform offering free online graphic design courses. In Graphic Design, there are many classes covering topics such as Logo Design, 3D Illustration, Brand Identity Design, Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe Illustrator CC, Adobe InDesign CC, Affinity Designer, Geometric Grid-based Design, etc. Each Skillshare course has a project where students can exercise their skills & get feedback. Gain an opportunity to share & collaborate with an increasing community of more than 7 million creators. The skillshare app (available for both android & iOS platforms) provides access to course content from anywhere at any time. For the initial two months after signing up, all course material is free of charge. Duration: Self-paced Rating: 4.5 Cost: Free 6. Graphic Design for Entrepreneurs – Design 11 Projects (Canva) The School of Canva Design offers various courses in design. This course is aimed at entrepreneurs who want to have full control over their branding but don’t have time to spare to learn complex applications in graphic design. Canva’s start-up, intermediate & advanced users can find tools & tricks to accelerate their workflow when creating business graphics. In this course, you will receive hands-on projects to equip you with practical skills & knowledge. If you are searching for a complete course on Canva, which explains in detail every tool & facet of the application, you should not take this course. It’s a course offering practical projects in real-world settings for entrepreneurs.  Duration: 3.5 hours of on-demand video Rating: 4.4 Cost: $43 7. Graphic Design Course (Alison) Alison offers plenty of free courses that will take you step-by-step through your choice of design topics. Find out how designing is a form of problem-solving & graphic design history in this free online course, Graphic Design. This graphic design short course is fit for those who wish to enroll in graphic design courses, those who are already training & exploring the field & those who wish to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the main theories, principles & practices. Duration: 1.5-3 Hours Rating: 3.0 Cost: Free 8. Introduction to Graphic Design (Kadenze) This quick introduction to graphic design course from Kadenze will transform your comprehension of everything from fonts & letterforms to posters & marks. Explore the visual systems, handwritten alphabets & online publications informing the practice of graphic design. Learn how avant-garde artists, architects, poets & painters shook the world by reinventing mass media. Duration: 7 Sessions / 6 hours of work per session Rating: 3.5 Cost: Free 9. Graphic Design Fundamentals: Getting Started (Creative Live) This is one of the best graphic design courses out there. It helps you identify & apply fundamental graphic design elements, attach essential design skills to your toolkit & control the creative process through varied projects. It teaches

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How Is AI Changing Graphic Design?

There’s probably no field that hasn’t been touched and disrupted by artificial intelligence and its adjacent technologies. According to Gartner, by 2021, 80% of emerging technologies will be based on AI. Together with machine learning, natural language processing, deep learning, and neural networks, AI has the potential to transform and tremendously alter any industry, including graphic design. Much like with other creative jobs such as writing, artificial intelligence will not replace human graphic designers, but serve them to enhance the quality of their work, speed up processes, and boost their productivity. Let’s discuss the ways in which AI is changing graphic design and the impacts of this shift. It Helps Designers Create Better Designs Faster At the moment, we’re still a long way from so-called artificial general intelligence (AGI), a concept based on the idea that a machine can develop the capacity to understand and perform intellectual tasks, and use critical thinking – just like humans do. One of the most powerful abilities of artificial intelligence is the speed with which it processes, analyzes, and interprets massive data sets, which in this case means producing alternative designs and suggesting design adjustments and improvements. This makes a designer’s job much easier because they can create the most effective designs quickly and A/B test different versions. For example, rapid prototyping tools save designers a lot of time by being able to move design ideas from the whiteboard to reality in no time. Airbnb, the US hospitality giant, not only uses AI to evaluate how trustworthy their guests are but also to test design concepts. The company’s AI-assisted design and development tool transforms hand-drawn design and elements into the working code. Similarly, Uizard is an AI-powered platform that teaches machines to understand graphical user interface and renders mobile app sketches into clickable prototypes, while also automatically generating code. It reduces costs and time to market. It Automates Repetitive and Low-Value Tasks Although graphic designers get paid for being creative, a great portion of their workload consists of tedious, repetitive tasks, and legwork. Sometimes designers have to create a number of different versions of the same design without repeating themselves. And that’s almost impossible to do manually. This is where AI comes in. Nutella, the famous hazelnut spread, leveraged an AI algorithm to generate 7 million unique jar designs. They were aligned with its brand identity for the Italian market. It would take a lot of time and resources to pull off such a huge effort manually. Similarly, companies use AI to localize their content and create the same designs in different languages, so augmented intelligence systems help Netflix localize and personalize show banners. In other words, this powerful system decodes the original version and produces personalized and localized graphics in no time. Not only can designers benefit from AI – people who want to build a fully functional website without knowing the first thing about web development and graphic design can now do it on their own. Wix, a DIY website-building service powered by AI, allows anyone to create a website from scratch using a simple drag-and-drop functionality as well as a number of personalization features. What’s particularly great about this platform is its ability to adapt the final result based on a number of parameters, that is, to customize a website taking into consideration its purpose. In other words, it’s possible to pick among different types of websites such as e-commerce, portfolio, blog, etc., and the platform will adjust different elements and customize the new website accordingly. Companies frequently use images of people in their marketing visuals, and instead of using stock photos, they can simply generate realistic-looking faces of people who don’t exist in reality. A website called thispersondoesntexist uses AI’s capacity to analyze massive amounts of data and combines it with a new generative adversarial network (GAN), a neural network consisting of two sub-models – the generator model whose task is to generate new images and the discriminator model trained to distinguish whether the examples look fake or real. That’s how the average viewer can’t tell the difference between a real or AI-generated face. There are similar tools for creating, for example, images of vacation homes that look plausible and close to reality. It Improves User Experience 88% of people are less likely to visit a website again after bad user experience. That’s why developers and designers try their best to make sure that a website they build is intuitive and user friendly. And since they need a lot of information from users themselves, AI can come in handy to analyze all the collected insights and feedback and suggest the ways to make particular website elements fit user requirements. For example, eye-tracking technology paired with AI helps designers fix usability issues by collecting information on how website users navigate the website and which areas of a web page they’re focusing on and which ones they ignore. Similarly, user experience can be tremendously improved if a website features an AI-powered chatbot. Not only can they help website visitors navigate a website and find answers to their product-related questions, but these AI assistants are now helping with a number of other tasks such as complaint handling, payments, onboarding, as well as collecting customer feedback. As personalization is another important factor when it comes to user experience, AI and its analytics capabilities allow for tapping into a huge pool of user information and understanding the preferences of every individual user. For example, from which device a particular user accesses the website, at what time of day or week they’re most likely to visit, or whether they will find a particular image or ad appealing and attractive. All this can enhance and personalize user experience, thus making sure that a website meets visitors’ needs. Artificial intelligence is still in its infancy, but it has already managed to revolutionize graphic design. However, it’s very unlikely that it will steal designers’ jobs. Instead of that, it will automate monotonous and repetitive tasks so that designers

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