Beginner interested in advertising design

Submitted by frankie on Fri, 2006-05-26 01:50.

Member's Forum

Hi, I'm quite new to the adobe programs. I have a basic handle on photoshop (thanks to lynda.com tutorials) and I'm wondering if anybody has any good references where I could learn step by step how to create something like an advertisement layout. Basically, a book, dvd, or website that would have a bunch of tutorials that would teach me lots of functional tricks that i could apply to designing ads, presentations, stuff like that. I basically want to develop some methodology and organization in creating things of that nature.

Secondly, I haven't messed around with adobe illustrator, and I was wondering what's the difference between illustrator and photoshop (I know, dummy question).

Thanks,

Frankie

Hi Frankie, First of

Submitted by RohanJM on Fri, 2006-05-26 05:11.

Hi Frankie,
First of learning the programs is only 25% of the battle. I suggest you get your feet wet in some good books on graphic design... and you can always check out BeforeAfter Magazine at : http://www.bamagazine.com/ they have some really great and practical content on graphic design. Also my advice is at first dont be scared to emulate popular design styles just to get yourself started your personal creativity will soon automatically step in. When you design something focus on the message and keep it simple the rest will fall into place. Also a good book to check out is Scott Kelby's Photoshop CS Down & Dirty tricks.

All the best,
Rohan

^^As Above.....

Submitted by Babynoff on Fri, 2006-05-26 08:13.

Unless you are willing to go to college and learn that way, I would also suggest the book method. If you find the right books you will learn a great deal, and you may come to understand the concept of design which is never a bad thing.

Your knowledge of software will help, but your learning should not stop there.

Oh and Illustrator is a vector program (basically turns everything into a maths equation) and Photoshop is a Bitmap program, ideal for making images but not so good for line drawings and text.

Hope this helps.

Richard Ramsay :: Graphic Designer

I agree with Rohan, don't be

Submitted by Ivan on Fri, 2006-05-26 09:28.

I agree with Rohan, don't be afraid to copy popular styles. The best way to learn is to do a lof of work. Come up with projects for yourself, do pro bono work for friends. Get yourself a book on art history and design history. Everything has been done before. You need to be able to recognize styles.

thanks guys

Submitted by frankie on Fri, 2006-05-26 13:04.

Thanks for the prompt answers people. So it seems that illustrator is more geared for drawing. One thing I should have made clear was I am not a profesional artist, I actually haven't studied art in college, and my painting skills are very basic.

Babynoff makes a great point about not being limited, what could be a good book for me to learn basic design, and be able to apply it to the adobe programs?

Ivan, any book that you have on art history and design history that you can recommend?

Rohan, excellent link, I will have some fun with that page.

Thanks,

Frankie

Illustrator is a vector

Submitted by mck on Sat, 2006-05-27 07:36.

Illustrator is a vector drawing program. Sort of like when you draw on a grid, when you draw something in Illustrator, it is saved something like:

Draw line 5x, 9y

It doesn't matter what resolution you print or view the line at, it will always be sharp, because the line can be redrawn to any scale. Therefore it is in vector.

Phootshop on the other hand is a raster program. When you draw something in Photoshop, it is saved as:

1x, 1y: 4 R 50 G 255B
etc.

and so on for all the pixels in the image. This obviously takes up a lot of space. It's how digital photos are made up: every pixel shows a different color, and the pixels together make up the photo.

Since 1 pixel can't be expanded (even making it into a 4-pixel clump doesn't work), you need a lot of them for the image to be sharp when printing. This means either a high-resolution digital camera (minimum 5 megapixels for printing on an A4 printer) or entering a high resolution (about 300 dpi for most things, but maybe higher for magazines) when you're going to make something in it.