4 Mistakes Graphic Designers Make

The world of graphic design is great and artistic but not every graphic designer seems to have it nailed down. Just like any industry, there are certain unwritten "rules" one must obey or risk being frowned upon by fellow graphic designers. As a Chicago graphic design firm, we know all about these rules and hope to inform you of them as well.

Don't worry if this blog sounds pretentious, this little one can do to get around that. Just buckle up and enjoy the ride, my friend.

1. The first unwritten rule is to not use Publisher. Using Adobe Creative Suite can be expensive but you know what, there is a reason they are; these programs are good and perhaps the best ones used by graphic designers. Using Publisher is not the way to go to avoid the high costs of Adobe.  With these programs, your products will come out the best. 
2. The second unwritten rule is to have widows on your products. No, we don't mean women who have lost their husbands; we mean those single words that hang out on their own. Why is this bad? It just looks tacky and shows lack of creativity as well as falling to an old fad. Give the word a few friends and post something else with it. 
3. Low resolution images. Wow, this is one of the biggest and worst unwritten rules to break. Images from the internet have a dpi of 72 while images in print have a dpi of 300. When using a 72 dpi image, the gaps that exist are filled with color and the image comes out fuzzy. 
4. Not enough color. Yes, black and white whatever can look good but to do it for every stinkin' project you do is not only overkill but shows lack of design skill. Use that color! You will see more pleased consumers by using that color. 

If you are in need of graphic design work, then contact Integraphix - a Chicago graphic design firm who has 24 years of experience in the field. In addition to graphic design, Integraphix can offer web design, internet marketing, and more. Contact us for a free evaluation. 

2012 Holiday Gift Guide for Graphic Designers

In honor of the holidays, we came up with a holiday gift guide for graphic designers, which is what we did last year. Below is a list of some of our favorite gift ideas for graphic designers for the 2012 holidays. If you are shopping for a graphic designer and are stumped on what to buy, consider some of our suggestions:

1- A Lynda subscription: We know a ton of great graphic designers with tons of knowledge in the field, but no matter how much they know they always want to know more.  A subscription to Lynda.com is a perfect gift for that graphic designer in your life. Lynda is one of the best online resources available sharing tutorials and video lessons on popular techniques for graphic and web designers. Lynda has two packages available for their monthly subscription plans.

2- Digital Arts magazine subscription: Why not purchase a magazine of Digital Arts for the graphic designer in your life. Digital Arts is a great magazine for designers covering a wide range of topics from digital creative to feature tips and inspiration to reviews. Each magazine issue comes with a CD containing free stock photos, fonts, vectors and tutorials. This is the perfect gift that keeps giving year round for graphic designers.

3- Tablets: Okay, we'll admit it!  Our graphic designers here at Integraphix have an obsession with tablets. A tablet is a computer input device that has a pen and a drawing surface for digital illustration. The tablet is used in place of a mouse and is used to create complex designs efficiently and in a timely manner. As designers in Chicago, we strongly suggest all graphic designers to at least pick up a tablet and try it out for a day! We're sure you'll see how much potential it has to enhance your design capabilities!

4- iStock credit purchase: As web and graphic designers, we are constantly scrolling through different art and stock photos for our projects. If you are looking for a good gift idea for a graphic designer, consider purchasing credits to iStock.com. IStock has the largest library of stock photos and is a very popular resource for designers. 

5- CSSEdit 2: If you are looking for different types of software for the graphic designer your shopping for, check out CSSEdit 2. This program is specifically for Mac users and gives designers the ability to easily make changes to CSS coding. This software allows graphic designers to easily make minor edits to web designs. It’s a great resource for designers that may not have web developer capabilities.

6- App pillow: A silly and fun present that would make any graphic designer smile on Christmas day is the “app pillow.” App pillows are simply square, plush pillows that have different symbols that represent the products in the line of the Adobe Creative Suite. Each pillow is colorful and has abbreviations that represent an Adobe product. Not only is it a comfortable creative gift idea, but it can be purchased for under $20!

Looking for more holiday gift ideas?  Feel free to comment below or contact us.  

Adobe updates Creative Suite...again.

Chicago Graphic Design Company

Chicago Graphic Design Company

Just when we get the hang of a product, does its creator decide to upgrade it. Apple does it. Microsoft does it. Now Adobe is jumping on the bandwagon of updating their products 6 months after initial releases. Adobe announced yesterday that is is releasing version 5.5 of the Adobe Creative Suite of design products that includes Photoshop, InDesign and Dreamweaver. The emphasis was on adding tools that aid designers in creating mobile content for tablets such as the iPad. This announcement is also coming RIGHT on the heels of Quark's announcement that they've updated to version 9.0 (who uses Quark anymore?) to support iPad and ePUB formats for the likes of Kindle and NOOK.

What does it include?: Version 5.5 of the Web Premium Suite includes new HTML5 and Flash tools that let designers create multimedia projects for Android, Blackberry and Apple products. It also includes ways to embed video, audio, 360 Degree rotation, slideshows and more to InDesign layouts and the ability to export them for tablet viewing. 

With this release, Adobe is announcing a new timeline for product development: They're now going to be rolling out major software upgrades every 2 years with updates coming at about the year mark and announced a new subscription plan that lets users pay monthly for the programs they use. Don't need Dreamweaver? Pay monthly for Photoshop ONLY. Great deal yes? I think so. Graphic Design Students everywhere are saying thank you. Users will also have access to all the latest versions of software and can purchase or short-term 'lease' software for temporary employees, freelancing graphic designers or interns.

Adobe CS5.5 Master will be retailed at $2,599, Design Premium at $1,899, and Design Standard at $1,200.

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