I read an article where a hairdresser answered a question she always got: “Any tips for cutting my own hair?” Her response was a two-parter. Part one: Don’t ever. Part two: You’ll probably try it anyway, so here are some tips for avoiding disaster as much as possible.
Creatives get asked a similar question. Sometimes resourceful people need graphic design on a budget, so they consider doing it themselves. Snarky cartoon aside, I totally get it. After looking at the professional design programs out there – usually Adobe Creative suite – they say to me, “I want to design my own stuff. Which Adobe program should I get?”
Part 1
My first and best piece of advice is that you weigh the pros and cons…and probably not make that purchase. For folks who don’t do graphic design as a career, or don’t love it as a hobby, investing in pro tools is usually a waste of time and money.
Time more than anything: the learning curve on these programs is very steep. Instead of cutting your own hair, you’ll be pulling it out. For context, design students at tech schools spend hundreds of hours learning these programs so they can be useful enough for an entry-level design job. If you’re the type who enjoys a learning challenge, then try a free, open-source design program like GIMP or Scribus and see how it goes.
As for money, pro tools are pricey! There’s a monthly subscription of $80 USD, and $600 USD for the annual plan.
Tally up the money plus the hours and days you think it will take to learn the software and create something serviceable. Unless you have nothing but time, and/or you enjoy this kind of tinkering (which some people might!) you’ll probably be way happier paying a freelancer to make you something perfect and painless. I am biased, but this isn’t a sneaky bid for your business. The job is more complicated than it looks; it’s seldom worth attempting to learn someone’s trade in a week – whether it’s welding, haircutting, or graphic design – just to save some money.
Part 2
Now for my follow-up answer: If you’re going to try it anyway…here’s some other advice.
In most cases you can’t get away with picking one program. Adobe is crafty and designed each Creative Suite program with an area of specialization. Each excels at one thing, and is bad enough at other things that you’re forced to get the other programs. Anyone looking to do their own graphic design, professionals and laypeople alike, will need The Big Three: Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator.
Photoshop: Photoshop is mostly meant for editing or enhancing images, such as photos or scanned drawings. Some artists use this program for digital painting, making the art from scratch right in the program. Most people import graphics they made in another medium and enhance them here. Photoshop is not meant for laying out text! Neither can it prepare layouts for printing. Please don’t use Photoshop to make business cards.
InDesign: The name does not give it away: InDesign is a layout program intended for any project that involves text plus images. Brochures, flyers, business cards, magazines, etc. Its features are for making large amounts of text look nice, helping text and pictures coexist, and preparing documents for print. It’s known for handling print projects, but is used for documents that get displayed online as well.
Illustrator: This is where you make graphics that will be part of a composition in Photoshop or layout in InDesign. It’s another place to make digital art from scratch. In this case, Illustrator shines at making “vector” graphics – a kind of graphic that can be blown up to any size and not become blurry, like a photo does. Logos are made in Illustrator, along with diagrams, clipart, and of course, illustrations. It can handle text better than Photoshop, but is still bad for layout.
It is technically possible to do an entire design project in one program. This is what my clients have tried in order to save money. It is incredibly time-consuming, because you are missing crucial features that make it easier to complete the design. Adobe doesn’t intend for any program to be a one-stop shop. They want their money!
If you really want to test drive graphic design, subscribe to all three programs for best results. But think it through before you jump in! It’s probably better and cheaper to hire a pro.
This article previously ran.