paulscottondesign
41 Years Experience
Marbella, ES
Male, 58
I have been in the graphic design industry since 1981 working in London, Los Angeles & Spain. My career started in the traditional way on a drawing board, using Rotoring Pens, Magic Markers, Pantone Pens & Letraset working as a Designer/Visualiser/Artworker. My design career has taken me through the music, toy, t-shirt, packaging & print industry. I am now a freelance graphic designer (British) based in Spain with many clients worldwide ...now using Photoshop, Illustrator & InDesign on a Mac.
UPDATE...I have now written a guide to becoming a graphic designer. It is available as Kindle or in print ...check it out here... AMAZON LINK . Back in 1981 I did work in the music and video industry in London so got to design record sleeves, t-shirts and posters for new record and video releases. But didn't design a movie poster as such. All this was before computers so a lot of the design work was done as marker pen visuals then I was off to a photo studio to direct the photographer with the product or models ...all fantastic for me as I was only 19 at the time. Coming up with a design was not difficult ...if you are creative a passionate about design (as I am) ...the design process flows. In 1988 I was working in Los Angeles designing purely t-shirt graphics ...again this was beore computers were used for design work and so all my designs had to be hand drawn ready to be burnt onto the silk screens. This was more difficult than doing marker pen visuals as the drawings (including hand lettering) had to be accurate). I remember the LA Dodgers were in the World Series in '88 and I was on standby to design their official celebration t-shirts if they one. They did win and had to work through the night doing 2 versions ...one in English and one in Spanish because the 'pitcher' was Mexican ...so it was for the Mexican fans. I already had sketched out ideas so knew what to design.
Nowadays coming up with design ideas is a lot easier as we have the internet at our fingertips to do research ...as long as you do not copy, ideas are out there to get inspiration from.
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UPDATE...I have now written a guide to becoming a graphic designer. It is available as Kindle or in print ...check it out here... AMAZON LINK . To be honest, I don't really know. I guess the only way is to do as the guy on the link is offering ...to have someone like him draw the people (a big job) or have an ariel view photo of people in the shape they are required ...other that that I am not sure ...you may have to Google the answer.
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UPDATE...I have now written a guide to becoming a graphic designer. It is available as Kindle or in print ...check it out here... AMAZON LINK . Hi, I guess I have to very honest here and say I do not know ...it has never happened to me before and I have not known it to happen, so unfortunately I cannot help with an answer. Also Word it not a program I use so cannot help there too.
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UPDATE...I have now written a guide to becoming a graphic designer. It is available as Kindle or in print ...check it out here... AMAZON LINK . Did you agree on a price and are you following her brief? ...and did you take 50% up front? Unfortunately at the end of the day if the client is paying you and the brief hasnt changed from the original, you need to get it right for them.
But if you have had many attempts and they are still not happy you need to ask them if they have seen any designs that they like the look of for you to see the exact style they are looking for. But if that doesnt work you may have to say that you have already put a lot of time into it and need ask for more money if they want you to continue.
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UPDATE...I have now written a guide to becoming a graphic designer. It is available as Kindle or in print ...check it out here... AMAZON LINK . Well I am not sure how college courses last for nowadays. I was at art and design college back in the late 70's and had a 3 year course to get my qualifications.
I do not recommend going straight into being freelance ...you need to get experience within a company or design agency first to get a realistic view on how it works in this industry. So I guess (if you havent already) enrol into a design course first, then after a few years you really need to find a job within a company before thinking about being freelance.
Hope this helps
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UPDATE...I have now written a guide to becoming a graphic designer. It is available as Kindle or in print ...check it out here... AMAZON LINK . To be honest I am not up with the qualifications and educational background these days as I done all my college training in the late 70's (well before computers) and so it has changed drastically since then. You need to contact your local college or university to speak about what requirements you need to study for and what is available at the college to get you that far.
Salary ranges can vary according to your experience ...for example, straight from college you will be classed as a junior and the wage will be low ...you need to work your way up the ladder to earn good money. I do not recommend going straight into freelance work, I suggest getting some agency experience first as it is a tough world out there in this field and lots of competition worldwide.
The benefits of being a graphic designer is that you get to do what you love every day and be creative every day ...but be warned you do get very boring and not so creative jobs to do a lot of the time depending who you work for.
The potential for advancement depends again on who you work for ...but usually takes quiet a for years working hard to get to the top. I started in 1981 forking for great companies around the world ...but only now (after 8 years working for myself) my company has merged with a large media company and has probably secured me an early retirement (fingers crossed) ...so you have to be very patient as I have ...unless you get a lucky break early on in your career.
Hope this helps.
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UPDATE...I have now written a guide to becoming a graphic designer. It is available as Kindle or in print ...check it out here... AMAZON LINK . Hi Jasmine, yes that question has been asked before and her is the same answer I gave ...hope it helps:
No not really, but it does help. But the main thing about being a designer is being creative. It doesnt matter how good you are on the Adobe software, if you are not creative then it means nothing. Its like saying 'I know how to use a oven so does that make me a chef' ...no it doesnt. There are too many people out there that think just because they have a computer with photoshop etc that are now suddenly designers ..sorry but it doesnt work like that. I may sound harsh but I see so much bad design out there that has been done by so called designers ...I know all potential designers have to start somewhere ...but the first starting point is to be creative ...not the software you use ...and being creative on paper is a good starting point.
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