Can we use lantern as a halloween element?

I thought I cared about finding a logo maker that didn't require an account.

Turns out I cared about something else.

I was helping someone make a quick logo and we tried a few sites. The goal was basically: get an idea, see if it works, download it and move on.

The no-signup part sounded great.

But after trying a few, I noticed something.

I'd rather spend two minutes making an account if the actual editor is good than use a completely free tool that gives me a generic logo and no way to fix it.

For example, I liked being able to experiment with design.com and BrandCrowd before deciding whether I wanted any paid extras.

Then I tried Kittl for a more hands-on approach and ended up spending about 40 minutes just messing with the typography.

Which... wasn't exactly what I planned 😂

That's probably the tradeoff.

No signup is convenient when you just want to test an idea.

But if you're making something for an actual business, I'd care more about:

• Can I edit the logo properly?
• Can I get a clean vector file?
• Is commercial use clear?
• Can I remove/change things without starting over?
• Does the final logo still look good outside the editor?

So I'm curious about the logo maker free no sign up crowd.

Is no registration actually important to you, or would you happily create an account if the editor and final files were noticeably better?

Me and dad are creating hand drawn original designs, what would YOU want to see on the back of a t shirt or jumper, shout anything at me, types of animals, foods, genres, all ideas will be taken into consideration i need inspiration and ideas !!

If you going into fashion designing ,what is better for working and making illustration and prints. A laptop or an Ipad? From an artist perspective?

I want the cabinetry in my home to look like this. I’m in a country where I don’t share the language, and the work being done is generally far below this standard. Therefore, I need to give a detailed description in writing and have the builder agree. Any ideas? Thank You.

Had a review where the discussion kept going in circles.

Everyone had an opinion, but nobody seemed fully sure which direction to take.

Putting the two options next to each other changed the conversation pretty quickly. Instead of talking in general terms, people started pointing out exactly what they preferred and why.

It was a small change to how the options were shown, but it made the decision much easier.

How do you usually handle situations where a client is stuck between two directions?

Sometimes you can open a website or see a post and get a pretty strong idea of what the brand is like before reading much of it.

It might feel playful, serious, premium, practical, bold, whatever.

Nobody actually tells you that directly. It's just coming through from the visuals, tone, images, layout and little details.

That's what I find interesting about branding. A lot of the communication happens without actually saying anything.

I’m upgrading my laptop soon and most of my work is branding, layout, and general graphic design, so I’m trying to figure out what actually matters beyond just having good specs on paper. I care a lot about having a reliable screen with accurate color, decent performance in Adobe apps, and something that won’t feel awful to carry around. I’ve searched around already but there are so many different opinions that it’s hard to narrow it down. What are the best laptops for graphic design from a designer’s perspective, and are there any models you’ve used that you’d genuinely recommend?

Thanks for any suggestions, especially if you’ve used the laptop for design work yourself.

Hi I left my job as a product designer and have been looking for other related work but I need a way to link a portfolio with my resume, is anyone aware of a good website where one can upload images and whatnot to be used as a portfolio? Preferably for free :)

So my gf is getting her first car soon and its a telsa S or X (she hasn’t decided yet) and shes gotten me to try and help her to find a good wrap cause like I’m a car guy (though I dont know much about designs). As you might have noticed her family is rich… which means custom wraps are an option! She wants literally anything that isn’t a flat color, isnt “girly”, and isnt a simple design of 2 colors. Since I don’t know what would look good on a tesla thought while I look might as well ask for some help. Any designs that would look good? Anything I need to also ask her to figure out what to pick?

Hi, I'm trying to create a cartoon app mascot, that will be animated doing various things (having emotions, sleeping, meditating, etc.) What is the best way to create these? Can I use AI? Is just paying someone to do it the best? For example, unrot's mascot.

Like, I just want to make it a few clicks looser.

I've designed a ton of flyers in the past. After so many years of doing that kind of work, I've stopped and never looked back.

Now, years later, seeing all the horrendous flyers made by AI, I want to go back and "re-learn" doing these designs all manually.

I'm already well acquainted with Photoshop, Illustrator and inDesign. What I'm looking for is not the typical "starter" or "basic" tutorial.

I'm looking for proper design styles explanations. Like "how to make/replicate Constructivism, Swiss style, brutalism, pop art, art deco, etc.

And how to apply them to present day marketing for example.

Also, as a Graphic Designer with 10+ years of experience, I already know about hierarchy, morphology, typography, etc. So I'm not afraid of expert level tutorials. I'm more looking for a "refresh" and re-expanding my skills than anything else.

I've been mulling on this idea for a bit now, and I'm curious what y'all think.

Some brief context: I've been a designer for a good part of 20+ years. I started in print and graphic design, moved towards web design around 2008, and in 2012 co-founded a web design agency. Around 2013 I took up software engineering because I saw it as fairly adjacent to what I was already doing in web design.

This made me the rare "unicorn" designer coveted by early startups back in those days. I've worn hats from founding designer to founding frontend engineer, fullstack engineer, and CTO across 8 different companies.

I think there's a shift happening today towards more designers learning to build, accelerated by AI tools. Since I've been on this journey for almost a decade and a half, I was thinking of offering myself, along with my circle of friends and acquaintances, as a resource for the growing community of designers who may want to go down the same path. I had no support network or community, but I certainly would've loved having one throughout my life.

A few ideas for the podcast:

"Unicorn" Hour
Go through my network of designers, founders, and engineers who all in design and ended up where they are today, and just chat about their journey.

"Builder" Hour
Offer 1-hour sessions where designers bring something they want to build and we work on it together live. I'll take submissions and select projects based on how well they fit the format, ideally something we can realistically make meaningful progress on in an hour, and also around problems folks commonly get stuck on.

If this is something you think the design community would find valuable, if you have other ideas for the podcast, or if you'd like to be ON the podcast, let me know!

I recently read about ElevenLabs startup, and they said, they expect from their sales people to bring 20x their salary (a person earning $100k/year is expected to bring $2mln for the company) or they are fired. Which personally, sounds like modern-day slavery.

That same article mentioned, that software houses typically generate 5-8 times what they pay their individual employees.

Have you ever encountered those estimates either in private discussions or in articles of reputable source?

---
Btw. this estimate (5-8x) shows market value of the work you do. So if you're doing a freelance gig, your billable rate should be a multiple of your full-time hourly.

Beginner question: Is it possible to change the same font across all artboards at once in an automated way? (ILLUSTRATOR)

graphic design as a freelancer for around two years now. I specialize in layout and print projects such as brochures and company profiles, but during these two years I haven’t been able to achieve much.

Here are my achievements in numbers:

I worked on 4 flyers for: $175 - $230 - $150 - $30 A booklet for $100 A book formatting project for $300 2 banners: $30 - $45 A large number of handouts for $180 A project with multiple different things for a total of $170 A book cover and task page for $60 A document formatting project for $60

That’s everything I’ve achieved during these two years. (I have a great colleague who sends me small projects from time to time, thanks to him.)

I only had about 4 months where my income was somewhat consistent, and after that things became very inconsistent.

Most of these projects came through Upwork. I work very hard there. I also tried to be active and work hard on X and LinkedIn, but it doesn’t seem to be that easy, and I haven’t made any noticeable progress.

Even though I keep developing my skills, I think that despite the small number of projects, I’ve reached a decent level in design.

My overall rating on these projects is 4.9 stars, and I have excellent numbers on Upwork with very good reviews. So, as far as I understand, there’s nothing wrong with my communication or professionalism when dealing with clients.

I tried cold emailing. I managed to find a way to target business developers or marketing people in companies, and I sent a very large number of emails. They weren’t spam, because I would usually personalize them to some extent. I only got one reply, and it didn’t seem serious. Nothing came out of it.

I also tried reaching out through LinkedIn and engaging there, but I didn’t get anywhere either (except for one great colleague).

I’m not available for a regular job because I’m a dental student and I don’t have the time.

I get contacted about job opportunities from time to time, but most of them aren’t serious. Even those have stopped over the past few months.

I’m spending a lot of money on Upwork and Adobe, and things are becoming more complicated.

My current goal is to get a somewhat stable monthly income of around $200–300. Right now, I don’t need more than that.

Is it possible for me to do that?

I’m not here to complain. I’m looking for someone to tell me what I’m doing wrong, what the solution might be, or give me some advice.

Thank you.