Hi all,
I am new to graphic design. However we are not new to drawing and painting. Looking forward to a long-term membership here.
Thank you for your time.
Welcome to the forum, Splatter.
Your first post triggered some spam alerts, but I think it was because you inadvertently added four spaces before a paragraph, which is a shortcut the forum software uses to use monospaced type. I’ve removed the spaces, so all is good now.
Hey thanks for touching base with me. I am currently searching the site. Im looking for info that I can surprise the wife with. We are looking to get setup for at home design making.
Can I ask, design making what?
The printed stickers on my truck are what I would like to create outside of drawing. I had a neighbor create them. He says he uses cad.
Illustrator would be the way to go for a pro – looking at that sticker with the addition of an imported bitmap from photoshop (though the texture in the numbers could, theoretically be done in vector).
However, I imagine you would want a cheaper option. Affinity is a cheaper option and for what you need, just as good. There are free options available for vector editors, but I know nothing about them. I believe, gimp is one.
Ok thank you for your recomemdation. What can we use to draw on?
GIMP is raster
INKSCAPE is vector
There you go. Told you I knew nothing about them. Thanks for clarifying.
I will look up the differences between the two and see what would better suite our needs. We definitely want something that could overlay like the stickers I posted. The wife decorates the house more then anyone lol
Anyone have recomendations for a tablet or computer we can draw on then send the art out for printing?
Thanks!
What’s your budget?
The “send the art out for printing” is a bit of a hangup.
Depending on where you send it for printing, you are gonna find that most of the professional signshops that print car vinyl are looking for Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop art. Your neighbor using “CAD” …well, that’s serviceable, but unless done right, can cause horrible production issues.
I hate to offer this suggestion but maybe something like Canva works for you. It’s geared toward the non-professional artist and has its own print division that handles files from its software. It might take some savvy to figure out what will work for what you want to make.
For stickers, even though you might create something beautiful in a raster software, you do need to make a vector die-line for it to be cut. Or pay to have it done. There are also options for using sign vinyl, in which case the whole design has to be vector.
But just any old Surface, with any low-end software is not going to make it easy to get stuff from a local sign source. I have nothing against Affinity. It seems pretty robust, but it isn’t mainstream yet. None of the freewares are mainstream.
Is this just a personal thing or do you plan to go into the ‘design’ business for a wider audience?
If we could start out around $2500 that would be nice.
The wife has mentioned she would like to sell her work if possible. Happy wife…
If I understand correctly the cheap software and computer will limit who will print for us? If so what is a goal to aim for?
And yes the cad sticker he made is grainy. Lol
Not at all.
2500 you are not limited by computer specs.
Software is harder to learn.
And understanding preparing for print.
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Well we are quick learners. The kind that do not sleep until it’s figured out. If need be I could have her take a online class.
Canva
And any computer that connects to the internet.
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Good deal. I will look into canva.
Thank you all for your help here. I will be back with questions as time goes along.
Please don’t. It’s more trouble than it’s worth.