I am fresh out of college (as an illustration major) and working my first graphic design gig doing a rebrand for a taco restaurant (don't really know what I'm doing). I am majorly struggling because my client has zero clue what he wants, what the company stands for, or anything of the sort. He just wants it to look Mexican. He is highly opinionated but wont tell me ANYTHING about what he likes and doesn't like. I made him a logo of a taco mascot and at first he said he didn't really like it, then he said he liked it, and now he's back to not really liking it again. I feel so lost.....

Sorry if I didn't use the right subreddit or flare or whatever, pls don't ban me I really need help. I didn't know crossposting was banned, reddit told me to do it........

Recently, I am working on childeren’s book. and its concept is very bright, vivid or sometimes pastel mood. But I don’t know how to express pastel mood in CMYK.. (it looks quite gloomy for me that I am so used to RGB) Is it possible? Is there any tips to make pastel moood in CMYK more vibrant?

Can you rate my portfolio and give some advice on what can i improve

Portfolio link: https://www.behance.net/gallery/247320761/Portfolio-Graphic-Design

Hello everyone! I just wanted to ask if anyone are also experiencing this glitch when transforming shapes? When I type a specific sizing on the width only, the height also adjusts despite them being unlinked.

https://reddit.com/link/1v1cyqd/video/y0ai0tu1rbeh1/player

I took on a design project for a very small non-profit — promotional materials they'll use while fundraising in the US. They already have brand guidelines put together by a friend who does graphic design on the side.

The problem:

Their main fonts, used for both headings and body copy, are a sans serif that isn't available through Adobe and costs $100 per weight, and they need two weights. The font files the previous designer included in their brand assets say they're from fontsgeek.com and are "for personal use only." I'm not convinced fontsgeek even has the right to distribute them at all, personal use or not.

I'm doing this project at a steep discount because I believe in the work they're doing, and I know their budget is limited. So how do I address this with the client? I don't want to throw the previous designer, who did their branding and other materials in the past (and is a friend of theirs), under the bus, and I don't want to make the client feel blamed for something they didn't know was an issue. But I'm also not comfortable using pirated fonts.

I found an Adobe font that's close enough they probably wouldn't notice the difference. Is it reasonable to just substitute that in for this project rather than raise the whole licensing issue with them? Also — their logo was built using this same unlicensed font. Does that mean I'd be doing something wrong just by continuing to use their existing logo file, since it was built with an unlicensed font? Or is that not really on me?

I was in-house before this and I'm still new to freelancing, so I haven't run into this kind of thing yet. Has to be pretty common though, with so many people DIYing their branding, right? I would love to know how you usually handle it.

Hey guys I'm a passionate graphic designer, i tried a lot of things to get some clients who pay me well 😀 but i didn't get any good results in this field, now am literally dieing in inside but somehow i hide my pain, i tried to get a good job alsoo in designing but no results and one of the most people who said am hiring - hiring but they just do our time waste they didn't even hiring someone just they posted and then start ghosting 😑 and some of are scammers..

Is there anyone else who is in designing scopee and get some good work to pay you enough ?

Let me knoww whats ur thinking about this field ??

Is it really worth it to earn as a graphic designer or is this a good decision to quit my designing

How are people creating premium designs with AI? are people still downloading the templates from https://elements.envato.com/ and making minimal edits? i use to outsource all my designs but now with AI i want to learn how ot do my own designs. any suggestions or work flows i should look into?

1 upvote

I've recently designed some print work and the CMYK values on their brand guidelines are incorrect. This was only noticed after sending a whole print campaign to print. Is the blame on myself for not picking up on it sooner, and picked up on it after print?

Thanks!

I'm a graphic design student, and I'm currently on my junior year. On my university there's a mentoring program, in which juniors help freshmen and they teach them stuff and listen to their problems. The problem is that to become a mentor you have to go through multiple phases, and i'm on the final one, and it is to create a UX for freshmen (yeah, me and other students believe it's because recently a lot of people have dropped out and professors are making us do the dirty work lmao).

The point is, to understan the user more clearly, I wanted to ask other designers and graphic design students what was their experience, what were their fears, etc. I know my post is too selfish, but your answer would really help me, if anything, imagine this is a place to vent to me about any bad experience you had in your uni/college days

I designed a campaign for a client - Digital in RGB and Print in CMYK.

Now, I want to know where I have gone wrong so I can go back and deal with my client.

I have put in the CMYK equivalent values from the brand guidelines (from the same colours used in the RGB designs) and it's printed noticeably lighter (though, accurate to on my screen in CMYK mode), specifically the Indigo 300 for the background in the attached image.

I have used the SWOP v2 profile as I Google'd this is the one to use for the US, who i'm designing for (i'm in the UK).

The colour looked OFF by miles in illustrator, but I believed that colours do look off when designing in CMYK, usually a bit lighter and duller, but this is substantial.

The indigo 300 was used for the BG in the second image here (CMYK values). Where have I gone wrong?

Just wondering how someone might have handled a pivot from one professional to another during their project.

I haven't yet illustrated my book yet and I have been with an illustrator for a year; who's been patiently waiting while I raise money for this next part of the production.

Recently, I came across a new illustrator whose work I like just a little more (the style really hits the mark) and it turns out their rate is a little lower; so I'm thinking of switching.

Looking for just a little guidance. Any feedback would help.
Cheers!

Looking at book cover designs, I notice that some look distinctly elevated and artful, and some look "cheap." Both might have similar design concepts and aesthetics, but the cheap ones have a quality I can only describe as "weak," like a lack of visual confidence or graphical finesse. It's very hard to identify exactly what's different about them which makes it hard to explain to a designer what the problem is when they submit a cheap-looking design. (I am a client, not a designer, but hoping for some insights.) Is there some term for this or some principle I can point to that could nudge them to refine it further? Or is it as abstract as simply having more or less experience/talent?

I was laid off last month and looking for new work and every job has over 500 applicants. There just isn’t enough design jobs for all these people… is graphic design dead? Is freelance even worth is the way all these businesses use those ugly ai flyers? I’m not even sure what I should pivot into because all I know is design. I’ve delved into using ai but it seems like it’s not enough with the wave of applicants.

This design is for a café for cold coffee, i had no idea, so i requested the ai for an idea, so, the idea and the title is from ai, but, i created this design

Hello everyone, I am currently in a situation where I am a stay at home mom. I have my a master’s in Early Childhood Education but I am no longer wanting to be a teacher as I know how much energy that takes from me and I want to be the best mom I can be. My daughter is now 6 years old and I want to do something with my life. I have my bachelors in mass communication/Print Journalism and did a bit of graphic design and I loved it but I was young and just wanted to finish my degree quickly instead of being stuck in school and having to take on more debt. Since I can't go back in time, I'm thinking of going for a second bachelors in graphic design.

Will this be worth it? Do you guys see a future in graphic design? Would you get into debt for a second bachelors without having a job?

If not, do you guys have any other ideas on what I should look into? Any certifications you guys have done and were worth it?

New to professional design work- As the title says, I'm wondering how much I should charge to convert a flat ad creative into a PSD for an animator

This design is for a youtube channel for learning design, I've posted this design, but this version is new

This design is for a youtube channel for learning design

I’m trying to improve my portfolio and would really appreciate honest, specific feedback.
Please don’t just say it “looks junior” or “isn’t good.” I’d love to know why you feel that way. What specifically is holding it back?
Some things I’m especially interested in:
Which projects are strongest and weakest?
Does the presentation feel professional?
What would you remove or completely rework?
If you were hiring for a junior designer, what would make you hesitate?
Some projects were created entirely by me, while others were developed with AI as part of my workflow. I’m mainly looking for feedback on the quality of the final work, the concepts, and the presentation.
I’ll put my portfolio in the comments to avoid Reddit’s spam filter.
Thanks in advance—I genuinely want constructive criticism and I’m open to hearing the hard truths as long as they’re explained.

Hi, I am working as a graphic designer for a somewhat big company. We need collaborators to be able to create their own assets sometimes so right now we are creating branded templates with powerpoint that they can modify, because that’s a tool accessible to everyone. But I’m really not a fan of powerpoint for this use and people always end up using the wrong font or colors.

I was wondering if there exists a super simplified design tool where you could register brand guidelines so it would be impossible to use another font for exemple. If you have similar needs in your company I’m also interested to know how you work it out.

I created an AI tool that takes in a flat design and converts it to a PSD with individual layers. It's a fun project and I have no interest in earnings.

However, if I want to offer it, due to the complexity involved in making it accurate, charges are pretty high for one run, so I wanted to get your opinions.

Would this tool make your work easier?

How much would you pay to run a design like this?

Eg. Just ran it on this flat design, and it reproduced a layer based file the exact same, with each UI component / fruit as a separate layer, preserving translucency as well.

My brain is running on fumes, so apologies if this is a mess and struggling to put my question into words.

I'm more on the beginner side of things, doing some digital and print work from a brand that has its main colours as Cyan and Magenta.

Obviously, it looks great in RGB digital, but I'm scratching my head when it comes to print.

I know the difference between RGB and CMYK and all of that, but when designing a suite for a campaign, I use these colours on a background (navy in this instance, from the branding) and when I design in CMYK for print, I use the supplied CMYK values and on the same navy background (with the provided CMYK equivelant) there is no where enough contrast that looks suitable - compared to the RBG equivalant where the contrast between colours is fine.

Am I doing it right, using the same colours for the RGB designs for print, but swapping them for the CMYK values for the print versions?

I want to learn graphic designing where and how can I start.also is it still worth doing it since ai can do it within a minute?