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Subject:Re: Graphic design use From:Tom Johnson <johnsont -at- FREEWAY -dot- NET> Date:Fri, 25 Sep 1998 13:20:12 -0400
Cyndy feels intimidated by her new responsibilities and is looking for
words of wisdom.
I've been there. Here is what works well for me. You take it and run with
it as far as you can. When you get stumped, turn it over to a true artist.
When you get something really close to what you want, then the artist or
designer has that much more to work from. You can save a tremendous amount
of time by doing your own thumbnails and rough layouts. As your skills
improve, you can carry each project further and further (or is that farther
and farther. I always did have trouble with that one.) You do need to plan
ahead and know about how far you will be able to carry the ball so you can
quickly hand off the project when the time comes. Your agency will need to
know what to expect and when they will get it.
We are to the point where we do all the layout for our brochures, including
medium resolution photographs. When we get everything the way we like it,
we turn it over to the artists at our printer. They tweak it, touch up the
photos and make it flawless. They are more than willing to work that way
and it saves us time and money. Of course, my work in college for the
university publications department gave me some good background experience
in publishing (does anyone still use a pica stick and a proportional
wheel?). Without that, we would have had a much harder time getting to
where we are now.
Anyway. Take advantage of the opportunity. We've made some big improvements
in our brochures from when we had to try working with agencies in Detroit.
Not that they were bad, but it took way too long to shuffle materials back
and forth and time was usually an issue.
Tom Johnson
Traverse City, MI. Where the air and water are clean, but it gets really
cold in the winter.
business johnsont -at- starcutter -dot- com
personal thomasj -at- freeway -dot- net
On Friday, September 25, 1998 11:17 AM, Cyndy Davis
[SMTP:kivrin -at- ZDNETMAIL -dot- COM] wrote:
snip
> But here is the crux, since I am willing and enjoy the graphic work I do
now I have been "promoted" to also handle all of the product graphic design
for our company. This is in addition to the writing and web work that I do
now. It will now be my job to create a master look for our company and each
product. While I appreciate my boss thinking so high of me, I am
intimidated since I don't have *that* kind of design experience.
>
> Has any other tech writers seen themselves in this position? Any words of
wisdom?
>
> Cyndy Davis
> Lenexa, Kansas
>
