The easiest way to make professional graphics yourself?

by Matt D.

Posted: 15 years ago 14 replies

WEB DESIGN

Hi, what is the easiest way to make product graphics yourself if you are not a designer.
Let's say you know how to use Adobe Photoshop, but you're far from the expert.
Is there any software to create good webpage templates, banners, ebook covers... I have cover pro actions and they are great, but where can I learn to make them look professional.
What would you use if you were not a web designer? Thank you

I want to do everything myself, so hiring a web designer is not an option here.

#easiest #graphics #make #professional

Bex7175 15 years ago

Hi Matt,

While creating professional graphics is something that people do spend a lifetime trying to do, there are ways in which to have some success.

Firstly, as much as this seems like a cop-out answer, I'd say go to Google. I just did a quick search for 'create professional banners' and 'create ebook covers' as a couple of examples and there are literally hundreds of websites that will help to create graphics, or offer tutorials in Photoshop to help.

The drawback is that many of these options that are free will place a small ad for their own site. Also, while there are many on offer and some produce good results, it can take a while to filter through the auto-banner creators around to find the ones that work most successfully. It's worth a bit of research, especially with things such as ebook covers that can be a bit trickier to create than a straightforward banner.

If you're more keen to get down to the nuts and bolts of it in Photoshop then I'd say that with some practice even a novice can produce some good, if simplistic, results. The key is practice. My suggestion would be to find some really good tutorials to create the specific things that you're looking for to go on your website(s).

It can seem daunting to create great graphics on your own (I confess I'm more likely to hop over to websites such as Elance.com that offer fairly reasonable prices for professional designs), but don't let that put you off. If you have enough time and patience to do some research and to spend some time practising I'm confident that you can come out with some really great results.

Bex
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- Matt D. 15 years ago
  
  Ok thanks, I guess the only way to do this is to learn it yourself I will have to spend some time, but that's ok, anything can be done, if you believe it.
  
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  andi_gt2005 15 years ago
  
  Another way is to look directly on Youtube for some tutorials.
  
  Thanks
  
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indigo 15 years ago

+1 to andi_gt2005 to look for tutorials.
Or you may use design tools which come bundled with set of pre-made and customizable templates. For example, as for virtual covers you may look at True BoxShot 3D Software | 3D box shots and software box covers which comes with a set of preset templates of virtual covers. You may start with one of them and then modify and adjust it according to your needs like shown in the demo: TBS Cover Editor Live Demo Video | True BoxShot 3D Software
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Software 3D box shots
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cma01 15 years ago

If you want your graphics to look professional, it is going to take practice.

Google Photoshop tutorials and walk through them.

Find graphics that you like and try to recreate them
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heary Banned 15 years ago

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- Aronya 15 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by heary
  
  Some people didn't know that you can set up YourName.com at Blogger.com and essentially have it hosted there for free! No more YourName.blogspot.com!
  
  What does this have to do with the thread?
  
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BrainDance 15 years ago

There is more to design than the technical, but for the technical you can use sites like PSDTuts.com and related to get source files for projects that you can edit and "play" with in Photoshop/GIMP.
Getting an action or a program that will turn something flat into something 3d isn't nearly enough to learn, that is simply button pushing. For practice, start with a specific object or image or product,start small, visit tutorial sites, Adobe Exchange for freebies.
practice, don't be afraid to push buttons in the programs you are using, it can always be undone. if time and finances allow, you can always go to a local school to get the basics.
Great advice has been given in this thread!
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jjw93 15 years ago

searching for tutorials via google and specifically youtube is what i find helped me the best when i was beginning
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Brian T Burkard 15 years ago

Hi Matt,

I agree with andi_gt2005. If you have Adobe Photoshop or some other photoshop software, Youtube has a lot of great tutorials. I personally have Adobe Photoshop and I found some Youtube tutorials that taught me how to make a nice header for a website I was designing. What is nice is you are getting a step-by-step visual tutorial that will show you how to make graphics with whatever software you are using. Good luck to ya!
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- balsimon 15 years ago
  
  You can also start by finding "blanks" of the kinds of images you want to create. Then you work on your graphics and when you're done, you fit it (using skew, reshape, etc.) to your blank.
  
  For example, if you want to create an ebook cover... I just did a couple of quick searches on the query "blank ebook cover," and found what looks to be a pretty good source. (I have no relationship with this site at all - it just looks pretty good.)
  
  Blank eBooks - Free Web Graphics Gallery
  
  I may use them myself unless I find someone I'd like to outsource to. But despite all the wonderful things you hear about outsourcing, it is not without its pitfalls. There is a balance of time/reliability in doing it yourself, versus money and potential unreliability if you outsource.
  
  After all, if the person you've outsourced the work to doesn't come through in a timely way, it can cost you money - especially if you pay part or all up front - and a more than a little time wasted waiting for delivery and then trying to get the finished product. Sometimes a supplier can be very unreliable, so I'd suggest going that route in a small way until you find someone you can rely on.
  
  Because my warning aside, and even though you said you want to do it yourself, unless graphic design is or will be a core competency for you, if you can afford it and if you can find a reliable person to do the work for you, then a good designer is definitely the way to go.
  
  My 2cents.
  
  Regards,
  Bal
  
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Orlando Web Design 15 years ago

tons of tutorials on the website and on youtube =)
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MovieFreak 15 years ago

Adobe Photoshop + reading and watching tutorials + browsing Deviant Art and similar sites to get ideas in the beginning.
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megashape 15 years ago

Actually when you have the basics, from there it's easier to get professional because the only thing you got left is to practice, just start working, work hard, criticize yourself and try to make the most out of every thing you get done, you should notice changes at your creativity level slowly.

By practicing I mean, just pretend to having a client of some random site you've surfed on, and design it for him, the best you can, make a few of those, who knows maybe you could even sell them later on, but the main thing you should concentrate on is practicing, like in every other thing in this world.
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Alex P 15 years ago

A quick search on Google should give you tons of places to find tutorials to start with. A good place to start is Datutorials (nope, not mine, I just like it a lot ), this site has well over 10.000 photoshop tutorials in various categories, as well as several thousand others for HTML, CSS, Java, Flash, PHP ect, I used it a lot when I was starting out some years back:

Enjoy, hope it helps
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