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Everyone is a designer these days

Chasez

New Member
Yes I have a computer, Yes I have Adobe... I'm a designer... One of the things I learned in school. Just finished up a graphic design program and been hesitant to put my name out there as a designer as I'm bit nervous that my quality of work may not be up to par (even though I've got over a decade in the sign & Graphics business) but after looking at this it just boosted my confidence haha. Obviously whoever did this drawing didn't have the same issue that I'm facing.. baha

Chaz
 

artofacks1

New Member
Its an ugly logo but that can easily be redrawn in ai and turned into vector.

Customer of mine supplied this artwork. I asked for vectors and I got a hodge podged ai. file full of raster images. This was artwork that was paid for and provided to him by a "professional designer". They wanted it screen printed on roughly 15 shirts.

I get stuff like this all the time, but you know...sometimes it's just worth bringing up and pointing out that there are a lot, and I mean a lot...of hacks in our industry. No disrespect to people learning the trade, but please don't sell yourself as something you are not.

This logo cannot be easily replicated for screen printing and keep all those colors. It was created in photoshop and not in vectors. Lastly...the artwork is hideous.

But it was "professionally" designed so guess there's no talking out of it. Will have to refuse the job.
 

Flame

New Member
Its an ugly logo but that can easily be redrawn in ai and turned into vector.

First off... OLD thread! haha. That said.. yes it can be redrawn, obviously, but that's not even on topic of the post.

To do artwork requires monies, which were not paid since they believed it was artwork that was already designed and paid for by previous "designer" .
 

oksigns

New Member
ahaha I just noticed the date! Well this was fun while it lasted.

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DougWestwood

New Member
Actual customer quote

"You want HOW MUCH to design my file?!?
My kid got Photoshop on his laptop for Christmas.
I'll have him do it."

With hilarious results.
 

1leonchen

New Member
at least you got a psd vector. or some thing that could be auto traced. and if i was doing 15 shirts i would say white and heat transfer. or corel draw and use simulation process. and if they complain solvent transfer with a contor cut. The fun begins when they files u get are in microsoft word and microsoft paint. then u are screwed. doing a 4 by 8 sign. let alone a store front 20 by 30 or a 8 feet by 8 feet sign.
 

Posterboy

New Member
For 15 shirts I'd run Eco-Print through the Roland, heat press and collect a check.


Good design is a beautiful thing, but a fat bank account is infinitely better.

Agreed. I'm not the fashion police either. I had a customer come in with a photo of a guy passed out on the floor in a puddle of puke and his business hanging out. The customer wanted it printed onto 20 t-shirts for a bucks night.
Heck, if they were prepared to pay me, I was prepared to print it.
 

TheSnowman

New Member
So glad I gave up trying to design years ago. It took too much time, and I wasn't happy with the outcome. Quit trying, sub everything out, focus all my time on stuff that I can do to make money instead of spending my time attempting to make a crappy design myself.
 

klmiller611

New Member
As someone posted a bit earlier, anyone with a credit card can buy a computer, some fonts, and Illustrator or CorelDraw. I frequently say, "they have a computer, fonts and software, therefore, they must be a designer." I cannot tell you how many files I get from folks that are supposed to be "Professional" that are truly crap, either poor design (which is a separate issue) and like this one, not even close to being a vector file. The problem is, even with so-called professional designers, they have not been properly trained, either in school or on a job. And yes, Microsoft Word files as well, don't even get me started on that topic.

Back in the dark ages, when I got my degree in commercial art, there was no such thing as a computer to do any of this work. If you had good instructors, you learned the hard way about quality design, production and precision. I learned the computer on my own, and I think I do fairly well. Outside printers that get my files are always thrilled to learn that the files are coming from me, as they know they will be right to start with, and set up to work in today's world.

However, about 10 years ago, a so-called print designer, who went to work at a place I used to work, brought his film output to a printshop that I did some consulting with, they made him a matchprint proof, and then he was upset that the company logo did not output on the film and was blaming the printshop. When he went back he discovered that it was indeed his fault, he just really did not know what he was doing. What is sad is that when he came to the place from Florida, he was touted as having great print experience. So a bunch of wasted film later, he finally got them the right film. The logo file was not the issue, I had drawn that in Illustrator when I was at the place, it was his lack of knowledge on how film output worked.

The really sad part about it, is that this person, as a side line, was teaching graphic design at the local community college! So, the kids going there did not have a clue to learn how stuff really works. I had several interns over the years, that had never had any real background on how to create art that works. So, I taught them. The ones who payed attention still do things that way and thank me for taking the time, the others, who knows.

We deal with idiots every day, and some of these folks get paid way above my pay grade and don't have a clue. Something is wrong with that picture!

Ken Miller
 

Lazer 100

New Member
I have to say, the invention of the smart phone has made my job infinitely harder in this respect. These "designers" nowadays that are pulling photos from Facebook and emailing them to me from their phone, or even worse sending me a screenshot that they took from their phone (yes that happens), to use for their "high quality prints" is killing me.
 

afarraway

New Member
I have to say, the invention of the smart phone has made my job infinitely harder in this respect. These "designers" nowadays that are pulling photos from Facebook and emailing them to me from their phone, or even worse sending me a screenshot that they took from their phone (yes that happens), to use for their "high quality prints" is killing me.

My sales reps love to send me screenshots...I wish they understood design/production, but they just care about their commissions. I guess you can't blame them for just doing their job.
 

kelly

New Member
Lucky Me

That is a little frightening.

I refused to call myself a designer for years. I knew I wasn't good enough. I would outsource and I even tried hiring a graphic designer at one point in 2010. I got 600 applications all within a 60 mile radius of my shop. I only looked through the first 200 portfolios of which 197 went right into the trash. I interviewed 3 people and hired 1 and found out they were a total flake.

I gave up after that and did the best I could by myself and outsourcing.

I tell customers I'm a great design "appreciator," when they ask me for my "professional" opinion. Not a designer. I have 2 bona fide amazing professional designers in my employ. Found one right out of the gate--so lucky--took me about 3 years to find the second. We get crap art all the time--today especially--that they have to fix. Nothing more frustrating than spending more time fixing someone else's "professional" art than it would have taken to just do it right in the first place, but it happens to all of us. We try not to rub either the customer's or the "designer's" face in it. And I thank my lucky stars every day for my team, while realizing it ain't gonna last forever.
 

UVRay

New Member
designers are a dime a dozen, artist.... that's a different story entirely

I've been in the printing industry for nearly 40 years now and I've worked with some of the best and some of the absolutely worst you've ever seen.

Talent is talent, you have it or you don't. I play guitar and it's really no different. There's a lot of so called "player's" out there that can bang out the power chords of Smoke on the Water (Jake from Two and a Half Men comes to mind), so they think they are or could be the next Guitar God. Same thing with graphic designers.

I happen to be a graphic designer in addition to a printer and any other hat I may need to don at the time. I've been doing it years now, back when it was Illustrator 88 and back when the Knoll Brothers owned Photoshop. A true artist can usually work with various medias, digital, 3D, sketching, carving/sculpting,etc. Just because mom and dad got you a new laptop and you ended up with Photoshop or God help us, CorelDraw doesn't automatically make one a designer.

A true artist knows how to get the job done right, and the artist can just as easily work for a corner sign shop or work at large design houses or agencies. I've had the pleasure of working with artist that were independent that could and did blow the doors off so called chief designers at some high end design house or ad agency. Equally, I've met artist that were in their element at those big high rise agencies like the Richards Group in Dallas. Those guys do the Chick-Fil-A commercials and many others.

I cannot count the times I've been offered "artwork" that was a 47k Jpeg that was 640x480 at 72DPI OR LESS and asked if I can make a poster or anything else with it. There are laws on the books that protect those people from personal injury...fortunate for them.

Sometimes you don't need a good designer, a good prepress person that knows the ropes can often fix screwed up art even if they didn't or couldn't create it themselves. Lord knows there's enough clip art and other free images out there to handle probably 90% of the demand anyway.
 
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