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New to graphics design

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Orionpkmyz

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 8, 2010
16
0
I apologize if this has been discussed before. I searched the forum and found the mega thread How to get started in graphics design? and others that give advice to people who want to make money doing this, whereas I do not want a career in graphics design. I enjoy making arts & crafts (think scrapbooking) and am interested in "digitizing" them, so to speak. Which software do you recommend for creating motifs, designs, clip arts, etc? Illustrator or Photoshop? Both, or something else? And how would you recommend that I get started in learning it since I've never used either of them before (I've only created stuff in MS Paint lol). Take a class? Books? I know there are lots of free tutorials online, but they're so specific and I'd like to have a general basic knowledge of the program. I'm just doing this for fun and would love to be able to express my creativity on the computer too!

Thanks.
 
graphicsward

graphicsward

macrumors member
Aug 22, 2009
56
0
books

I'm a fan of the "Classroom in a Book" series. A book that comes with a CD. They give a nice overview of what a particular program can do. Then the tutorials online can teach you any specific thing you can think of. The biggest two programs to get to know starting would be Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. They are expensive but if you spend a few bucks on the book and download the trail version you can figure out if you want to invest.
 
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knightndey

macrumors newbie
Oct 13, 2011
2
0
Las Vegas
I'm self taught and all I did was get the programs (I use adobe photoshop, illustrator in addition to several rendering and CAD programs) and I learned what each tool did or couldn't do and how it applied to what I needed to use it for. And I have watched some tutorials in the last few years for special effects I might want to learn and then apply it in the way I need it.

Now I have been doing this for years and maybe the book and classroom method is the way to go. But playing around and experimenting worked for me. I would show you my site, but as a new person here I don't want to take a chance on posting the wrong way.
 
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YESimBLUNTED

macrumors member
May 25, 2011
87
0
In my cubicle somewhere in this rat maze
You can always try Lynda.com which has great tutorials which will give you an overall look at the software as opposed to a specific tutorial.

As others have said there are hundreds of books covering software (especially Adobe products).

As far as what you want to do with your scrap booking, try these s/w programs out as they have free trials from adobe's site. Most likely you will use Photoshop AND Illustrator, and most likely a good layout program like Adobe InDesign for once you have all your "pieces" together.

Good luck
 
THX1139

THX1139

macrumors 68000
Mar 4, 2006
1,928
0
It depends... do you want to learn how to design, or learn how to use the software? Because those are totally separate things.
 
O

Orionpkmyz

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 8, 2010
16
0
Thanks everyone for your reply. I will check out Lynda.com and the books and give both Photoshop & Illustrator a try.

@THX1139: I want to learn to use the softwares to design :)
 
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