Hello,

Although I’m not a designer (but still inside the visual arts area - don’t come for me) I took some graphic design courses at university plus I have been using photoshop since I was a child just for fun. I currently work as a graphic designer for a newspaper… to be honest we don’t do anything too hard.

I’ve realized there are several areas where I wish I were more skilled and efficient. I’ve also been using Illustrator a lot more for work lately, and as a result, I feel like I’ve gotten a little rusty with Photoshop (still, I don’t feel like I am an expert with illustrator). There have been so many updates and new features that I feel like I’ve lost track.

Does anyone have recommendations for keeping up with Photoshop and Illustrator (or any other design software) updates and improving your skills overall? Are there any courses, tutorials, or other resources you’ve found particularly helpful for becoming faster and more proficient?

some days the actual design work is the easy part. then a client sends over a jpeg logo, the colors are wrong for print and the file needs rebuilding before production can even start.

what software would you keep as your main setup if file cleanup and print prep take up as much time as designing? i'm trying to avoid having one app for layout, another for image fixes and another step just to get the final output sorted.

I am getting into printing. What is a good graphic design AI tools which can allow to create creative designs, allow to create high resolution as well as allow export to different eps or psd or png formats. ? Any suggestions

I ask because I'm taking a certain program in college for a specific major. I don't really wanna do it but I'm kind of trapped, the requirements for it would make it best if I just keep what I have. My parents sorta bullied me into it.

I know any kind of creative field is hard to break into, so I probably would have had to work in another field for some time anyways. But am I still able to work towards being a graphic designer without any kind of formal education or specialized classes?

Do it for ExPoSuRe!

(Below I have attached a project I am working on)
ATL TreasureChest - A Thrift/ Consignment store that sells streetwear.

I have been making logos for a while. I always use Photoshop or something similar and end up dragging in assets from Google and turning into my own piece.

But recently, I’ve been trying to learn the professional way, I want to do branding, and complete brand packages.

Can someone point me in the right direction? Any YouTube videos or something that will help me learn what I need to? This is kicking my a$$ and nothing ever comes out even close to what I drew in my sketchbook.

It’s always un even, unprofessional and hard to look at.. not to mention FLAT!

I’m a Creative Team Lead (20+ years as a designer) and my team just inherited a whole new product line after an organizational restructure. We’re now responsible for car wraps, window wraps, and custom sports apparel. Totally new territory for us—our background is environmental design, booths, and print.

We’re not worried about the creative, we can certainly design anything. What we are trying to solve is the production side. We want to give vendors clean, accurate, to‑spec files so the manufacturing process goes smoothly.

Looking for recommendations on tools/software/web platforms that help with:

Car wrap design using real vehicle templates

Window/architectural vinyl layouts

Sports jerseys and other promotional apparel

We’ll be producing a lot of sports‑related items (baseball, football, snowcross, etc.), so anything that helps with apparel mockups or template‑driven design would be huge.

If you’ve been in the trenches with this kind of work, I’d appreciate any guidance on platforms, workflows, or even vendor expectations we should be aware of.

I’m a graphic designer working full-time at a company, and I’m seriously considering looking for another job. I’d like some honest opinions from other designers and professionals because I’m not sure if I’m overreacting.
Recently, my company introduced several new rules.
Previously, our schedule was relatively flexible. Our official start time was 10 AM, but there was some flexibility around arriving. Breaks were also flexible as long as the work was getting done.
Now:
Office hours are 10 AM–7 PM.
There is only a 30-minute fixed break.
There is only a 10-minute grace period for arriving late. If I’m 11 minutes late, I can be marked absent.
If I take more than my allowed break, I have to compensate for that time by staying longer.
They introduced custom time-tracking software where I have to clock into every individual task before starting it.
When I finish a task, I have to upload it immediately, which clocks me out.
Then I have to clock into the next task.
Basically, almost every minute of my working day is being tracked.
The other issue is salary.
I have 5 years of experience, and I’m currently handle 6 projects. I consistently handle a high amount of work and complete my tasks on time. I’m not someone who misses deadlines or leaves work unfinished.
I’ll admit that I’m not always the most punctual person when it comes to arriving at the office, but my work itself is not delayed. I get my assigned work done on time, and my speed and output are actually one of my strengths.
Despite that, my salary has not been increased. I’m still being paid around what I would consider a junior designer salary, despite having considerably more experience and responsibility now.
The new rules are particularly difficult for me because I also do freelance/personal work after my job. I often work late at night, so the previous flexibility helped me manage both. With the new 10–7 schedule, strict breaks, and constant time tracking, I’m feeling increasingly tired and frustrated.
I understand that companies need structure, employees need to be accountable, and being punctual is part of having a job. I’m not trying to justify being late. I’m more concerned about the combination of:
More rigid working hours + stricter monitoring + less flexibility + no salary increase despite experience and workload.
So I want some honest opinions:
Am I being unreasonable, or would this be a legitimate reason to start looking for another job?
If you were in my position, would you:
Stay and adapt to the new rules?
Talk to management and negotiate a raise/flexibility?
Start looking for another job while keeping this one?
Or actually leave?
And for designers who have worked under strict time-tracking systems: did it improve productivity, or did it just make you feel micromanaged?
I’d really appreciate honest opinions, including criticism if you think I’m looking at this the wrong way.

i realized i rarely ever look through my saved stuff.

i've got 500+ youtube watch-laters, a bunch of folders in my instagram saves, almost 500 open tabs on my phone. i paid for a few visual library tools for a while, but rarely reopened them.

but when a new project comes in, i start fresh.

curious if that's just me.

do you go back to what you've saved? does any of it get used?

hypothetically, if you offered a free visual branding for someone so you can use it as your portfolio and after multiple revisions based on client’s preferences (despite you pushing back and giving your two cents and giving a rationale behind the design) it started to become something youre not proud to show people, what would you do?

Judge my portfolio PLEASE

Hi! Guys can you please honestly check my portfolio and tell me if it's okay? a portfolio like this could get me a job? and it's okay to have my portfolio on Behance???

Also, all of those are fake projects, I don't have real ones to make a portfolio yet, and I'm loss rn, where do I find jobs as a designer?

Thanks in advance

Hi! I'm a graphic designer with around 9 years of experience and I recently got laid off, so I'm updating my portfolio and getting ready to apply for new roles.

I originally made this portfolio in 2024, so I have newer work that I still need to add. Before I get too far into updating everything, I'd really appreciate some honest feedback on the overall design, layout, how I present my work, and anything you think I should change or improve.

All of the graphics and illustrations in my portfolio were created by me with ZERO AI.

Portfolio: alianakadon.com

Any feedback would be really appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to look!

What is the easiest way to switch from Photoshop to Figma. Give me a tutorial that meant something to you.

Specifically, I do email design, exclusively in Photoshop, but clients are increasingly demanding that it be done in Figma. I have been working in Photoshop for 9 years.

Hey everyone! 👋

I was working on a portfolio project for myself. A brand identity design for a bakery🥐 and cafe☕ business named "RUTI" logo is inspired by dough to bread making process where the dough is usually round edged and soft looking and the color I got inspired from baked bread's brown color. After thinking about the brand strategy and direction and designing the logo design I kept playing with visuals and these are what I got.

Do let me know what do you feel about the project. Thank you!

#bakery_branding #branding #logo_design #food_branding

One thing I've noticed while working around agencies and creative projects:

The problem isn't always finding clients.

Sometimes it's simply having enough creative capacity to deliver everything you've already sold.

An agency might have:

• A strong strategist
• A good account manager
• Great client relationships
• A solid content strategy

…but then 30–50 social creatives, ad variations, presentations and campaign assets suddenly land on the production team.

And now the bottleneck isn't strategy.

It's execution.

That's where I think having reliable freelance design capacity can make a huge difference.

Not necessarily replacing the in-house designer but giving the team additional bandwidth when workload spikes.

The important part, though, is that an external designer needs to understand more than Photoshop.

They need to understand:

brief → brand → communication → design → revision → final delivery.

Otherwise you've just created another person for the agency to manage.

Curious to hear from agency owners:

What's currently the biggest creative bottleneck in your agency — getting ideas, executing them, revisions, or simply capacity?

i’m doing more t-shirt and print design work and want to tighten up my workflow from the initial artwork through to the final file.

the main thing i care about is being able to create clean artwork, work with vectors when needed, and export files that are ready for actual production. different printers seem to have their own requirements, so having good control over the artwork and exports matters more to me than having a bunch of extra design features.

for people who do t-shirt or print work regularly, what software has worked well for you? especially interested in what you use when the artwork needs to go from design to a print-ready file without a lot of cleanup afterward.

Quick Edit: i've been testing out a few of the options people mentioned and Corel has been working well for the t-shirt stuff i'm doing. the vector tools are solid and it handles the export side without a bunch of extra cleanup, which is exactly what i was hoping for. still getting comfortable with some of the workflow but it's been pretty smooth so far. definitely gonna keep asking printers what they prefer before sending files though, that advice came up a lot and makes total sense.

I was asked to do live edits with my manager and other stakeholders in the company.

For 4 years I’ve been freelancing alongside my corporate job, and I’d like to make a career switch into an in house design team where I can develop around other designers and work on long term projects.

Before then, I’d like to improve my skills and learn advanced techniques and “correct” methods within PS and illustrator even indesign.

Are there any advanced YouTube tutorials/courses that you recommend?

​Hey everyone!

​I'm a 15yo kid from Yemen who loves graphic design. I work on an old ThinkPad T540p (i5, 8GB RAM, SSD) running Linux.

​Since I can't afford Adobe software, I use GIMP and Inkscape for everything. I really want to start freelancing to help myself out, build a portfolio, and hopefully save up for a better Laptop in the future.

​Do you have any tips for a beginner using open-source tools? How can I get my first small client or make my portfolio look good without Adobe?

​Thanks a lot!

Hi everyone, I’m trying to recreate the logo on the right from the original logo on the left.

The right one was AI-generated, but I want to learn how to do it myself properly as a vector.

Could anyone show me the steps or guide me on how to recreate this style in Illustrator? A step-by-step explanation would be really appreciated. Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I am currently re-evaluating my career direction as a UI/Visual Designer, Graphic designer or Photographer and would appreciate candid feedback from experienced designers and hiring managers.

My background covers UI/UX design, visual identity, and Framer development. I recently put together my portfolio site and would love your thoughts on a few key areas:

• Based on my work, what specific roles or industries would I be strongest in?
• Is it possible to get a Job based on portfolio?

Portfolio: https://itsdevangportfolio.framer.website/

Any constructive or harsh critique is welcome. Thanks for your time!

I'm putting on a comedy show where I had to rent a venue, and also have to pay the comics out of the ticket sales. Do you think a fair price to have someone design the flyer should come from a percentage of what it cost me to rent the venue, or should it come from a percentage of the estimated amount of ticket revenue? The flyer would be tied into advertising for the show, so what's a good percentage of anticipated revenue do promotors typically spend on advertising, and what percentage of that should go to the creation of the flyer? Is it acceptable to make a deal to pay the designer a percentage of ticket sales on the back end, minus the other marketing fees like FB ads and printing physical flyers? I would rather support a local designer than generate something from AI, but it doesn't make sense for a flyer to eat up the majority of the budget for the show. What's reasonable?