themagician
Regular Member
- Mar 25, 2008
- 221
- 1,112
As many of you know, I have been a professional Graphic Designer and Internet Marketer for over twenty-years, running my own graphic studio for most of that time and being responsible for the launch of many products and the creation of slogans and radio advertising copy, including being employed by commercial radio stations for voice-overs for both radio and video.
I have designed many headers and logos for people here on BHW including an ongoing 'special' design for one of the Moderators and judging by the generous comments I receive, clients are very happy with my work.
Several members have also sent thanks for graphic design related downloads and so I know there is a big interest here even though graphic design isn't Black Hat.
...And so, here is a short do's and don'ts tutorial using Black Hat as our example. This is a real beginners insight and while these points should be obvious, it is clear from examples I have seen that they are not. If you want to command in excess of $200 per hour doing graphic design, then don't make these amateurish mistakes.
Enjoy!
1. Do not steal images from the Internet. Any graphic designer can tell where your image has come from. When designing a logo, header, banner etc., you MUST draw EVERYTHING yourself or have permission to use the images. You cannot call yourself a Graphic Designer and expect your work to be considered as professional if all you have done is download an image and stuck a name over it like the example above. This is just getting credit for someone else's work.
2. The design of a professional logo is complex. The complexities are often not immediately apparant and the logo might look simple, however, a trained eye would notice the clever use of colour, strokes and imagery to INSTANTLY get the message over. A professional logo is NEVER two fused images like above where a hat has been plonked on a globe with both images downloaded from the Internet and text slapped over it. A five-minute job is not professional and it shows.
3. Inappropriate use of type-style. Rule of thumb is NEVER to use more than three fonts in any design but the different fonts must go together. The above example is BAD as the type-styles are too different from each other and so look ugly. The example below is MUCH better. Even though the fonts are very different, the 'World' has been offset so it doesn't run along the same line and so gives a 3D-effect which could be enhanced more if necessary with the use of shadow or stroke:-
4. Watch your language spelling. In our example below, 'Black Hat World' are THREE separate words. There is NO SUCH word as Blackhat so the words should NOT be run together:-
5. This example below is just AWFUL! It has an inappropriate image, inappropriate slogan which makes no sense and the over-use of flares and stars all horizontally aligned and with the same rotation hurts the eyes.
6. Don't steal someone else's slogan. If I write an original slogan it is automatically my copyright, so in my design below, where I have put, "The Dark Side of Internet Marketing"...that belongs to me as intellectual copyright and should not be used without written permission. If you don't believe me, check with my copyright lawyers...lol:-
7. Don't misuse type-style. In the example below we are saying 'Go Slow' but the type-style suggests speed:-
8. Image quality must be High Definition even if optimised for web use. Look at the two images below and decide which one you would use as your logo:-
There are many more examples and tips I could give on all topics of graphic design but before I do I thought we should test the water for interest as it is time-consuming.
Finally, if you want your graphics to look the best you must use the right hardware and software.
A friend once designed a logo on a Windows machine using CorelDraw while I designed the same logo with Adobe Illustrator on a Mac and the quality difference with Illustrator and Mac was unbelievable and I got the job.
Graphics can make or break a website. Either learn to do them well or pay someone to do them.
If you want your Website, Forum or Blog to be taken seriously as being professional, don't employ an amateur or use nasty poor quality designs.
themagician
I have designed many headers and logos for people here on BHW including an ongoing 'special' design for one of the Moderators and judging by the generous comments I receive, clients are very happy with my work.
Several members have also sent thanks for graphic design related downloads and so I know there is a big interest here even though graphic design isn't Black Hat.
...And so, here is a short do's and don'ts tutorial using Black Hat as our example. This is a real beginners insight and while these points should be obvious, it is clear from examples I have seen that they are not. If you want to command in excess of $200 per hour doing graphic design, then don't make these amateurish mistakes.
Enjoy!
1. Do not steal images from the Internet. Any graphic designer can tell where your image has come from. When designing a logo, header, banner etc., you MUST draw EVERYTHING yourself or have permission to use the images. You cannot call yourself a Graphic Designer and expect your work to be considered as professional if all you have done is download an image and stuck a name over it like the example above. This is just getting credit for someone else's work.
2. The design of a professional logo is complex. The complexities are often not immediately apparant and the logo might look simple, however, a trained eye would notice the clever use of colour, strokes and imagery to INSTANTLY get the message over. A professional logo is NEVER two fused images like above where a hat has been plonked on a globe with both images downloaded from the Internet and text slapped over it. A five-minute job is not professional and it shows.
3. Inappropriate use of type-style. Rule of thumb is NEVER to use more than three fonts in any design but the different fonts must go together. The above example is BAD as the type-styles are too different from each other and so look ugly. The example below is MUCH better. Even though the fonts are very different, the 'World' has been offset so it doesn't run along the same line and so gives a 3D-effect which could be enhanced more if necessary with the use of shadow or stroke:-
4. Watch your language spelling. In our example below, 'Black Hat World' are THREE separate words. There is NO SUCH word as Blackhat so the words should NOT be run together:-
5. This example below is just AWFUL! It has an inappropriate image, inappropriate slogan which makes no sense and the over-use of flares and stars all horizontally aligned and with the same rotation hurts the eyes.
6. Don't steal someone else's slogan. If I write an original slogan it is automatically my copyright, so in my design below, where I have put, "The Dark Side of Internet Marketing"...that belongs to me as intellectual copyright and should not be used without written permission. If you don't believe me, check with my copyright lawyers...lol:-
7. Don't misuse type-style. In the example below we are saying 'Go Slow' but the type-style suggests speed:-
8. Image quality must be High Definition even if optimised for web use. Look at the two images below and decide which one you would use as your logo:-
There are many more examples and tips I could give on all topics of graphic design but before I do I thought we should test the water for interest as it is time-consuming.
Finally, if you want your graphics to look the best you must use the right hardware and software.
A friend once designed a logo on a Windows machine using CorelDraw while I designed the same logo with Adobe Illustrator on a Mac and the quality difference with Illustrator and Mac was unbelievable and I got the job.
Graphics can make or break a website. Either learn to do them well or pay someone to do them.
If you want your Website, Forum or Blog to be taken seriously as being professional, don't employ an amateur or use nasty poor quality designs.
themagician
