It’s been some years since I last met up with a friend of mine, and from what I remembered; he was trying to start his own business. It was sort of like a lifetime dream project and as I drove to his house I found myself wondering why he hadn’t yet made any progress. Meeting up with him and after chatting for a little while, I asked him about his venture, only to find that he hadn’t really got on with it because of a number of small obstacles that kept cropping up, topping the list was his failure to get the perfect design for his logo and his overall business outlook.
As I drove back home, his reasons for giving up kept coming back to me, and I could not help but feel sorry for the guy who had not been able to achieve his desire all because a professional graphic designer and a professional logo designer were putting him way off his budget. That was when it hit me! He should do it himself! After all, in this day and age, is there anything that can’t be done through the internet? As soon as I got home, I went online to look for the best DIY graphic designing tools. There were some simple steps that I thought of first explaining what the Graphic design should look like, and in that, I started reading about the available designers and what they do to help me become a DIY graphic designer.
Design Blogs:
My first step was to search up the design blogs, to get my readers to get familiarized with the How’s and What’s of graphic designing. In my search, I found that if you had a decent idea, with the help of the online available tools, you could easily transform it into a fantastic design, and with no cost either!
Graphic Design Blog
Image: GraphicDesignBlog
This blog covers everything from Graphic design to freelance to web design, illustration and advertising. www.graphicdesignblog.co.uk turned out to be very informative.
Ad Goodness
Image: Frederiksamuel
This turned out to be another trove of info for me as I went around in my search. www.frederiksamuel.com/blog/
We Made This
Image: Wemadethis
By the unusual name alone I was intrigued to look it up, and I found this site to be extremely creative and gave me quite a few ideas. www.wemadethis.co.uk
Graphic Design Books:
Next up, I went around in the good ol’ fashioned way of searching and started hitting the books I could find about the art of Graphic design.
The Little Know-It-All: Common Sense For Designers
Image: Goodreads
Author: Silja Bilz
This book has recommendation as a must have if you want to know anything about Graphic design. Everything from light, color and perspective to law and marketing are covered in succinct, beautifully carved chapters. Once you pick it up, you just can’t put it down!
Just My Type:
Image: Amazon
Author: Simon Garfield
This book will make you realize that a well-chosen font can make your design connect with the customers on a subliminal level, and that there’s so much more to the fonts.
50 Best Logos Ever:
Image: ImageAndText.co.uk
As the name implies, this book is like a pot of Gold for every Graphic design novice who wants to know all about it because it is a definitive guide to the worlds’ greatest logos.
What Tools Can I Use?
Some of the most powerful tools at a graphic designer’s disposal are also the most basic. From stylistically matched icon sets to small code library to make it easier to design data-driven documents, even the smallest tools can make a job a thousand times easier! For instance:
Image: Tableausoftware
Tableau Public: This is a site that offers tool for creating infographics and interactive data. You can also publish it on the internet, and the tools are designed for maximum ease of use. http://www.tableausoftware.com/public/ is where you can also find help.
DesignMantic: This website has a large variety in designs that can be easily used in designing business cards and your very own fabulous logo. And the best part is that it has DIY tools that leave you completely capable of doing everything yourself! Visit them at https://www.designmantic.com/business-card-design/create
Image: Timeline.knightlab
Timeline JS: Timeline JS is an open tool for creating visually rich and interactive timelines on your personal pages. Give them a peek at http://timeline.knightlab.com/
Filling the Color:
My next lesson was that having the perfect color coordination can make your design come to life…literally. It can either make or break your look and for this reason I started my search for the best color palettes available online to put my designing in for the filling.
Design Seeds:
Image: Design-Seeds
Here on this site I found a fantastic work of colors, in every shade and every hue imaginable. These guys really have the chops; get to know them on www.design-seeds.com
Laughing Jacks:
Image: Colourlovers
Calling themselves by this friendly name is a group that works splendidly well with colors. I was mightily impressed with their tones. See them at www.colourlovers.com
Adobe Color:
Image: Color.Adobe
On this site I found the wonders they’ve worked with all the shades you may want to see. It is really amazing the way color can change so much! See them at www.color.adobe.com
Get Your Own Icons:
After my rendezvous with colors, I found that I had to create icons on my page for it to be interactive, and to be able to tell people how to go where. To get a nice batch of icons, you may visit the following:
The Icon Deposit:
Image: Icondeposit
Here I found a vast variety of every genre of icons, even the ones I did not know I had to use! But the selection was quite something and I recommend you to visit www.icondeposit.com
Flat Icon:
Image: Flaticon
This site claims to be the largest database of vector icons, and I don’t doubt their word. They have got a Lot of icons and you can select any you like. www.flaticon.com
Delicious Icons:
Image: Deliciousicons
As the name itself suggests, you are sure to find some amazing, tantalizing icons in here, because they are going to help your page become navigable. Visit them at www.deliciousicons.com
Design Crowdsourcing:
What seemed to me as a boring word, turned out to be the jackpot of my searches! I found that by posting my idea on a website, I could get so many other people, who would be better at their work than I alone could ever be, to work with me and create the perfect logo, website, monogram, business cards for me!
99designs:
Image: 99Designs
This website offers itself as the number one marketplace for design, of any kind, to be entered in contests. See them at www.99designs.com
Crowdspring:
Image: Crowdspring
Here also you will find a lot of space for entering logo designs, web designs and crowdsourced writing projects. They are at www.crowdspring.com
Eyeka:
Image: En.eyeka
Creators, graphic designers, and filmmakers participate in design contests and video contests launched by agencies and brands. This is also a great place for Crowdsourcing your idea, just like I tried to do mine. eyeka.com
Designer Portfolios:
Along the way, I came to find other such DIY designers who were doing a fabulous job, and as I got inspiration from their work, my own designs got better too.
Joe White:
Image: Yeoldestudio.co
This man has a great portfolio full of really impressive designs. His creativity is apparent enough and needs no urging once you see him at http://yeoldestudio.co.uk/
Matt W. Moore:
Image: Mwmgraphics
Matt here has a wonderful display of colors in every design of his and he does a superb job at creating an in-depth feel to the image. Check him out at www.mwmgraphics.com
Your Local Studio:
Image: Yourlocalstudio
On this page, I found the beauty of color combinations, which were done to the hilt. I liked his work a lot, check him out at http://yourlocalstudio.dk/
The Art Of Marketing:
This is perhaps the trickiest part of any design campaign. To be able to make yourself known to the public is the crux of all this hard work. Thankfully, we have such social media networking websites these days that it is not hard to put yourself out there, and in my researching I found a couple of designers who had really nailed it.
Jacquie Severs:
This woman works as a graphic designer and is extremely creative, not to mention the fact that she has an awesome networking on Twitter
Massimilano Fares:
This is another artist who has a wide range of followers and has projected himself excellently through Twitter.
Stuart Hodgson:
On his page, I found that he works not only as Graphic designer, but also as a photographer. His work is brilliantly displayed, and he can be followed on Pinterest.
Lartigue Design Freelance:
David Lartigue works as a graphic designer and a freelance web designer. His display is impressive on his Pinterest.
After covering all the steps, I found that one could very easily become a DIY graphic designer for oneself, and just because a professional designer would be costly, is no longer a reason to let your project slide away. If you can work up your mind to bring out ideas, then the best way to get yourself an overall designing is DIY: do it yourself!
