Graphic Design Videos: The Creative Medium That’s Changing How We Learn, Work, and Connect

Sparkle! Shine! Be noticed! Attract customers! That’s what you want for your product or service. But how do you attain that?

Great graphic design is the key! Graphic design that creates sparkle and pizzaz and magnetizes your target clients to you is what you are looking for. When you begin to look for the right graphic designer, it can seem that there are way too many to choose from. Most will have a graphic design portfolio on line. This is the place to start.

What is it that sets one apart from another? How do you judge graphic design for yourself? It’s not an easy task, because it also involves personal taste, but here are some basic design elements that will help as you look at their portfolios.

Emotional Response. Take the time to look at their work and see how it affects you. Do you like it? Does it make you want to know more, buy more? Do you respond in some way? It is usually an effective emotional response that make us want to act or buy. In the graphic design you are reviewing you want to assess the degree to which the pieces initiate an emotional response.

Use of White Space. Probably the first and foremost consideration is the use of white space in the graphic design. Is the message presented simply with lots of surrounding space, or is the space cluttered and you don’t know where to look next. Examine a number of the graphic design pieces in the designer’s portfolio. Knowing how and when to use white space is a talent and an art. Does this designer have it?

Simple Easy to Understand Message. Just like white space, the message should be simple and easy to understand. Competing messages don’t make for sparkle and notice in graphic design.

Meaningful Unique Bold Graphics. Our brains process visually, so the visual message is very important, often more important than the words. How clear and bold are the graphics in the work of the design you are considering. Do you get the message immediately? Are the visuals different and unique or do you have the feeling that you’ve seen them before. Is the designer using the same “stock” images as everybody else or do they find new and unique ways to present their message.

Effective use of Type or Fonts. Does the type style match the emotional feel of the piece? Does is help the message to stand out. Is it readable?

Benefits. While benefits are a selling point and not really a part of the design itself, they are a very important part of what makes a piece sizzle and sparke, because it’s the benefits that magnetize clients to you. So be sure your designer has included benefits in their design pieces.

Drama. Does their graphic design work have drama? Drama engages the reader, involves the reader, keeps them looking and then remembering long after they’ve seen the piece. This is another part of what creates magnetism.

Spend some time with each online portfolio. Talk to the graphic designer. As for references and then, talk to their clients to get a feel for how well their work has produced results. How happy were they with the graphic design services they received. Would they use the designer again?

With all this information, finding the right graphic design firm to create sparkle, sizzle and magnetism for your product or service should be a cinch.

Long gone are the days when a graphic designer’s tools were pen, pencil, brush, exacto knife and illustration board. Today’s designer relies almost exclusively on graphic design software which is both expensive and constantly changing. At some point or other, the designer has to decide to upgrade his or her present software or change to another brand. And, then the designer must learn all the new functions of this version of software. If the program interface changes then the learning curve for the design professional can be very steep and costly. On top of that, there’s different graphic design software for desktop publishing, web design, illustration, and photography.

For much of the last decade, the desktop publishing arena was ruled by Quark Express. (Before that Adobe’s PageMaker had been King of the Mountain.) Over the past few years, Adobe has been making a serious bid to regain its preeminence in desktop publishing with In Design. If Adobe squashes Quark it will pretty much have a monopoly in graphic design software, having already swallowed up Macromedia and much of its other competition.

At the end of 2005, Adobe concluded its acquisition of Macromedia which made it the owner of Dreamweaver – usually acclaimed as one of the best (and sometimes the most difficult to use) web design software available. Dreamweaver has few challengers in the arena of professional web design. Microsoft’s Front Page still provides services for non-professionals and some professionals who are old-time PC users. Mostly though, Adobe, with the acquisition of Dreamweaver, has attained a semi-monopoly here as well.

In graphic design software for photography there’s only one acknowledged leader – Adobe Photoshop. While other programs exist for the casual user, for the professional photographer Photoshop is the digital darkroom. Other companies exist by producing “plug-in’s for Photoshop, until Adobe buys them.

What about graphic design software for illustration? Again, Adobe is the leader. With Adobe Illustrator used and recognized by the most professionals it usually wins hands down against the competition. And, it’s not always which program is the easiest to use or has the most functions. It is which one is the most compatible in the most places. Corel Draw, Canadian illustration competitor to Illustrator is acknowledged by many to be easier and have more functions – but the files are hard to use anywhere but with Corel. So that limits across program functionality and thus its popularity.

One of the reasons InDesign is gaining so much ground is the ease of use with all of the other graphic design software programs in the Adobe family. You can move between them quickly and smoothly. Adobe now packages them as its Creative Suite and so it becomes one-stop shopping.

But, what will happen if Adobe becomes King of the Mountain? Without challengers, will it maintain the same quality and drive for excellence? And what will happen to the price? Will it even out or just continue upward. If you’re the only ballpark, you can charge whatever rent you want?

There are many reasons to do pro bono work as a graphic website designer. First, beginning graphic website designers or graphic website design students can get valuable experience from doing pro bono graphic website design work for non profit organizations and low budget organizations such as Boy Scout troops, Cub Scout packs, and Churches.

Another reason to do pro bono work as a graphic website designer is tax breaks. The hours you spend working on graphic website design for free can be deducted from your taxes at the end of the year as a charitable donation. Check with your accountant or tax preparer to determine the most reasonable rate, but highest rate, that you can get away with charging per hour for your tax deductible hours so that you can claim them as a charitable donation.

The other reason to do pro bono work as a graphic website designer is experience and to build your portfolio. If you are a graphic website design student or you are just starting your graphic website design career, this can be a fantastic opportunity. Build your graphic website design resume with work that shows not only your talent but your big heart and community spirit. Build your graphic website design portfolio to increase career opportunities. And build experience and education with on the job training and experience in graphic website design.

With the internet growing daily by leaps and bounds, it is no wonder that everyone wants a professional graphic website designer on their side to create an awesome website with even greater graphic design so that they can compete with larger organizations. With all of the churches, cub scout packs, boy scout troops, school activities, day cares, home businesses, small businesses, and children’s organizations out there today, the average graphic website designer should have no problem finding pro bono graphic website design work.

Once you have found pro bono graphic website design work, you need to treat it just as you would any other freelance graphic website design assignment or project. That means you have to find out what the client wants in their graphic design website. Create a creative brief so that you and the client are on the same page with where you are going with their graphic website design project. You also need to set up a work schedule and time line for the client so that an expected completion date can be given to the client for completion of the graphic design website.

Once the pro bono graphic website design project is completed, follow up with the organization to make sure that they are happy with their graphic design website. Then, keep in touch with the organization in the future. This will open up networking possibilities for graphic website design freelance projects in the future with paying clients. It will also open up possibilities for more pro bono graphic website design freelance projects for that and other charitable organizations.

Overall, doing pro bono graphic website design work is a great, fulfilling, rewarding way to gain additional experience, graphic website design samples for the beginning graphic artists portfolio, and tax breaks for the freelancing graphic website designer.

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