Let's make a graphic design on a budget thread!

[rdej47]

Being DJ's/promoters/producers we all know the importance of great graphic design. Unfortunately anything of quality comes at a high price. I think we should pool our resources together and share our simple tips for graphic design. I'm a big believer in less is more, I think this thread could easily be a huge resource for simple design tips, font choices, spacing, colour combinations, the do's and don'ts of graphic design. Or even if you already have a logo teach you how to easily adjust the look of it yourself.

Now I know we have graphic designers on this forum and i'm not trying to undercut the work you guys do, but I think this would be good for people starting out to help develop their own idea and logo. Once they have an idea down they can use that for promoting their first gigs, then with that income from their gigs, take their logo to a designer for professional refinement.

[dj stifffy]

Firstly I think this should be in "off topic" secondly.... I highly recommend photoshop.... allthough it is very pricey it is very worth it..... I find if you have an idea for text say flame text for example... type it into google "flame text photoshop" and there will be tutorials.... play around with this over and over changing presets and you will learn.... combine all this shit together to make something unique.... practise makes perfect and makes you faster...

[EchePalante]

I dont have time to do this on my own, id rather pay someone to do it for me :P and im too lazy.

[KS2]

Yeah Photoshops not as difficult as it looks if you use tutorials to do one thing at a time.
There's a free program that's similar called GIMP.

As for the actual design I reckon simplicity with style is the key. Keep whatever it is looking classy.

[djfil007]

My preference is Illustrator (svg / vector based graphics). Photoshop is great for photo polishing/edits and image trickery... but to create something from scratch, I think it's easiest to use Illustrator (or equivalent). I'm on Mac, and in the app store there is iDraw for $25 or 30... great app. But again, there's loads of tutorials for Photoshop or Illustrator to help the learning curve.

[MyUsername]

I recall someone here on DJTT giving the facebook of a graphic desinger who does everything for free. It was in a thread were somebody was wondering what DJ name he should take. That's all I remember.

[Agastya]

My preference is Illustrator (svg / vector based graphics). Photoshop is great for photo polishing/edits and image trickery... but to create something from scratch, I think it's easiest to use Illustrator (or equivalent). I'm on Mac, and in the app store there is iDraw for $25 or 30... great app. But again, there's loads of tutorials for Photoshop or Illustrator to help the learning curve.

I can confirm this. You really want to use vector based design software. The advantage of this is that you won't have any resolution problems with resizing. All your designs can be easily adjusted and if you need to print stuff like flyers and posters you'll always get good quality result. Adobe Illustrator is a very good software but it comes at a very high price. But I think the older versions are also available for less.
Or you can go for Inkscape, it's open source and free and has mostly the same functions as Illustrator.

Use Google to find plenty of tutorials to use these softwares.

[elio_xh]

I can confirm this. You really want to use vector based design software. The advantage of this is that you won't have any resolution problems with resizing. All your designs can be easily adjusted and if you need to print stuff like flyers and posters you'll always get good quality result. Adobe Illustrator is a very good software but it comes at a very high price. But I think the older versions are also available for less.
Or you can go for Inkscape, it's open source and free and has mostly the same functions as Illustrator.

Use Google to find plenty of tutorials to use these softwares.

+1 for Illustrator. It has a similar interface and feel as Photoshop but in my opinion better for starting things from scratch. I don't know about the prices because my university has a full adobe license so i don't have to worry about that but product wise it's great and there are many tutorials out there.

And adding on to this, you don't really need to be the most skilled graphical designer to get something nice out of either Illustrator or Photoshop. As stated before, there are so many tutorials out there that can help. My mother is an administrative assistant and her boss asked her to redesign their business card and she did it all off youtube videos.