When you say the words “Graphic Design”, it doesn’t really cover what’s all involved with the terms graphic design.
For those who have been in this business for a while, you’ll agree. When someone says what do you do for a living, and you say “I’m a graphic designer”, and their reply is usually something like “Oh, so you make logos and stuff.” Uh, yeah. That’s it.
Once again, if you read this first blog post, you’d know that I cut my teeth making websites back when there were no books, and certainly no schools with classes on how to make websites. I just kinda had to learn it.
So goes with the graphic design. I started with everyone’s old favorite “Paint Shop Pro”. and learned to make buttons and backgrounds. But through the years, you hear that the program to use is Corel Draw and the whole world moves that direction. But a few years later, it’s Photoshop all the way. Once I made the switch, I never turned back. Probably over 20 years ago as of this writing.
Graphic design is more than just making logos, business cards, and trifold brochures. Yes, that is part of it, but it can be so much more.
Through connections I made within a local networking group, I bought a full solvent printer. Full solvent prints the full size vehicle and car wraps. We worked this business “Wrap This Car Dot Com” out of a rented garage by Forbes Field, and quickly went out of business in 2009 when the economy crashed.
I learned how to do graphic knockouts, and create line art in Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator skills come in useful cutting vinyl graphics and stickers (which we still do today) 🙂 When your art is blown up the size of a van, imperfections were noticable. So I got pretty good at it without anyone teaching me the ‘official’ way to do things in Photoshop and Illustrator.
I still cut custom t-shirt vinyl and calendared vinyl stickers.
As you read in a previous blog post, I worked for a company named Personalized Brokerage Services. They catered to those who sold retirement products, insurance and investments. We acted like a clearing house for products being sold, applications were reviewed so they would go through compliance. It was an eye opening business, it was fast paced, and you had to crank out really quality work. We had something called an “Image Kit”. After a client wrote their first piece of business with our company, our marketing team would create a new logo, business cards, letterhead and brochure. And we didn’t charge the client, it was all for free. As long as they continued to write business with us. That was the catch.
We made websites, LED sign boards and even videos for our clients, especially if they wrote a lot of business. They get a few perks for their effort.
It was a blessing to work with such talent in this marketing department. They really were at the top of their game, graphic designers, copy writers, videographers and me, lol. We had a standard, whiten the teeth, eyes, remove blemishes from all photos sent by clients.
We used lights and green screens in the video department. I’ll go over my videograpy skills in a future blog post.
After 2 years, I left the company to finally step out on my own and try my hand at being an entrepreneur. It’s been over 10 years now.
