Hi, I'm a noobie - Help!

[MrTieDye]

Hey All,
I'm just looking for some advice. I contacted a designer I know and asked for help. They said no problem, don't worry about the price, I'll take care of you. Well it took 1 month for them to return my call. Now I've been waiting for 3 weeks again. My project is falling very far behind. I had no idea some designers had no respect for the customer. I would at least like to know you got my voice mail or my email. As far as I know this person will never call me back.

I already have what I think is a good layout for this DVD cover I'm doing. I'm wondering if anyone would look at it and tell me what they think. I'm not a designer, so I'm sure my work isn't very good. Any pointers would be great, or pointing out my biggest problems would be great.
I don't want to post the work unless I get the ok for someone to look at it.

Thanks,
MrTieDye :confused:

[morea]

unfortunately, some people in ALL professions are like this. We recommend working with a contract that spells out your rights and responsibilities, as well as the responsibilities of the designer you are working with... it generally helps to keep the project on track, and is really in the best interests of both parties.

(In the designer's defense, he or she may not be giving this project much priority because he/she is considering it a "freebie", and freebies don't pay the bills.)

You are welcome to post the work for critique in the showcase section of the forum, but there are a few caveats to be aware of when producing your own files without design training:

You will need to design a file in the correct design software (usually Adobe, Corel or Quark, not Word and most printers I have worked with do not accept Publisher files). This software can be very expensive and can take a lot of time to learn well enough to produce a printable piece. You can usually download "free trials" of these programs which will allow you to work with them for a limited time before requiring that you purchase them, but if you are not going to be doing a lot of design work, it is probably not worth the hefty investment in time and money.

Even if you can create a file that looks just the way you want it to on screen, design looks very different on screen than it does when printed. You will have to take into account that any images you use should either be vector images or have a resolution of 300 dpi. (http://www.graphicdesignforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41)

Any images you take off the web will usually have a resolution of 72 dpi, and are often subject to copyright.

Preparing a file for production according to a print shop's requirements can be very tricky if you are not familiar with the process.

Also, even though it may be obvious (and I am not talking down to you, this largely goes unrecognized) good "design" follows specific principles... it is not just "making things look pretty". That's why designers have to invest lots of years of study to be properly qualified to call themselves "designers". Software does not make a person a designer... there's a lot more to it than that.

Anyway, if you would like to post in the showcase, I am sure that you will get some feedback from members here... but this board is usually a lot more active during the work week than on weekends, so please be patient with us and consider bumping the thread Monday to make sure it gets proper attention.

Also, if you do decide that you would like to hire a designer to complete this project for you, we do have a classified section here on GDF where you could post the job description and what you are willing to pay for the work. As this is a professional forum, we do not allow requests for free work here.

Hope that helps some!

[morea]

incidentally, I can not tell from your post if you are familiar with posting images on forums, but you can host the images for free on www.imageshack.us and use the "direct" link supplied there to post the images here.

Once you upload the image, copy the bottom link imageshack supplies (labelled "direct") and then post it as follows:

for example, if the link given is: www.link.com

you would enter this code: http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/3906/linkil1.gif

[MrTieDye]

Thanks Morea! I just started a new thread under Showcase.