Questions tagged [workflow]
Questions about optimising workflow for professional graphic designers. Workflow describes the process that a task undergoes, from initiation to completion. Ask anything related to the workflow of a graphic design project.
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Version Control for Designers / Alternative to Version Cue
I've just been searching around the net for version control that has some support for graphic/Photoshop files. We're currently using BitBucket which is free and unlimited when it comes to file size ...
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2
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How can I write requirements for a graphic designer?
A friend of mine is in need of some graphic design work. I'm trying to explain to him that his make-me-something-like-X-but-different-approach is not a very good way to communicate his needs. We tried ...
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Best workflow for icon design: Start big, or start small?
When designing icons that need to be delivered at several sizes, do you start at the smaller size, then scale up to the bigger sizes? Or do you start big and scale down?
There's several advantages to ...
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8
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Best way to send layouts with editable text to writers/editors who don't have design software
Here's a common design workflow problem, probably most relevant to in-house designers, but also to agencies who have a lot of non-design writing or research staff, or freelancers who work with in-...
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1
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Is it possible to use a fully open source workflow for print design?
Is it possible to use only open-source tools in order to produce professional level artwork? Has anyone actually done it? If not, where are the current gaps?
Assume I'm producing a small multi-page ...
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4
votes
1
answer
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How do I partially break a clipping mask border?
I’m looking for a non-destructive way of allowing an image to be partially "clipped" by a clipping mask, like so:
I view the above image as having three parts…
a Person (top layer; being clipped)
a ...
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2
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Delivering a graphic design to a customer
I work as a photographer but recently I've been working on stretching my skills and took on a project to create a graphic design for a non-profit. The designs are complete and the organization was ...
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2
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How can I fit as many letters into as tight of a space as possible in Illustrator
I have a text which I outlined and broke into individual objects.
I want to fit this text into as tight a space as possible without overlapping, rotating or moving the letters around. The text doesn'...
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10
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How do I speed up my design work?
I've been a designer for 6 months, having previously had a 1st class honours degree in Graphic Communication. My issue is that I am a Very good designer, but I work too slow. It's beginning to drive a ...
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3
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How to structure logos with different color combinations in Illustrator?
I'm sure this is a common problem, but I haven't found an efficient solution yet.
I've created a 4 color logo and I want to create a few versions of it with different colors for use on different ...
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10
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Is it frowned upon as a designer if you don't use "top" software?
This question crosses my mind from time to time as I am a Windows user and have often thought about going down the cheaper route by using a Linux based OS such as Ubuntu and getting free software that ...
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5
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How to quickly and easily create a grid with Adobe Photoshop?
Suppose I need to draw a grid in Photoshop, each square being the same size, and a certain amount of pixels tall and wide, and the grid lines having a certain pixel width. Like this:
Currently I do ...
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29
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4
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Is there an advantage to doing a full image mock-up versus diving straight into writing the HTML/CSS?
In the past, many companies and web designers had a workflow that was two or three parts, minimum -- design, markup, backend. These are generalizing and the lines may blur a bit... but I'm sure you ...
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4
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Client wants me to teach them InDesign
My client wants me to teach them how to do basic editing in InDesign.
This is after, against my better judgement, I had agreed to give them the source files of the documents I created in favor of ...
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2
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How to avoid the tragic fate in the Oatmeal cartoon "How a web design goes straight to hell"?
This is a famous web comic about a common experience in web design:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell
It's based on the author's personal experiences and describes a typical / caricature ...
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2
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What is your ideal workflow for web development?
More than occasionally if I am tasked with creating a website from scratch, it seems doable right up until I begin working on it. Then it feels like a mountain of work that is bigger than I can ...
user8795
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3
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Fastest way to custom design a race course map?
Here's a decent example of what I'm trying to do - a print version of something like this:
I need to pick-and-choose which crossroads and street labels to show, add custom icons, plot the actual race ...
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9
answers
4k
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Methods for improving color choice and combinations?
I often struggle choosing proper color combinations. I'm self-ware enough to realize that I'm most comfortable with, and often settle on, colors which could be seen as more corporate or retro - blues, ...
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7
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Learning to draw: start in the pen and paper realm or the digital space?
My question is should I start with paper to learn to draw or learn to digitally draw with Photoshop or Illustrator or any image manipulation application.
I am thinking of using a book or some other ...
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5
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Web-based workflow solutions for graphic designers (hosted and self-run)?
There are some common tasks in almost every graphic designer's workflow that are made immensely easy by the Internet, but are often clumsy to handle through traditional channels like E-Mail.
...
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6
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How do big design companies share art files
Many projects with many files all uploaded by humans on one server will get messy, by definition. Even if they have a structure, when 1000 of people work on projects there will be made mistakes.
How ...
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2
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Version Control for Design files
Can someone describe their workflow they use to handle multiple versions of a file ?
For example,
if more than one person worked on it
or you explored an idea with the design then realized you have ...
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15
votes
2
answers
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What is the best way to make arrows in circular shape?
I need to make (actually re-creating) a diagram for a repeating process consisting of 5 steps.
Here's how it might look with two arrows:
I need to do basically the same thing with 5 arrows, ...
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3
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Illustrator: Quick way of removing redundant anchor points after unifying shapes?
Except for manually removing redundant anchor points that gets added when unifying two or more objects, is there a quicker operation to wipe in-between anchor points?
EDIT: To complement Lollero's ...
- 1,455
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3
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356
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The role of the designer in content – should he have one and how big should it be?
I'm a designer, not a marketer, and not a writer (at least not professionally). A lot of the work I do involves working with material in a field that can be above my head. Because of that, I'm content ...
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1
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How to fit a vertical headshot into a horizontal frame
I am frequently asked to make vertical headshots fit into a horizontal size, to display on my company's website. I'm often given low-quality images with sharp cuts to the person's shoulders or ...
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11
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5
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Is there a way to make my files editable for a client without InDesign?
A client needs me to design a brochure for her. The problem is that she wants to edit and change the text and maybe also change some of the pictures herself.
However, she doesn't have any of the ...
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6
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How far (and how often) in the process do you let a client see a work in progress?
Before you start typing on your keyboard, I know it's good practice to let a client know what you're doing by showing them WIP (Work In Progress) pictures of the artwork you're doing.
But sometimes ...
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3
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How can I localize an InDesign file?
I'm looking for some method for automating the localization process for an InDesign document.
Basically, I want to be able to take the contents of the file, translate it into a few other languages (...
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1
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Best workflow for editing massive posters/banners for print in Photoshop?
I have a very large poster that is 98" by 90" and I would like to know some good tips for making edits to the file
I tried to make it a smart object and then decrease the image size, only to increase ...
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3
answers
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How to get motivated when drained
I know many work in where they enjoy but lately after spending all day at work I get home and all my thoughts and ideas for my freelance projects all day become annoying after I am drained and ...
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Illustrator: locking a single object – what's the quickest/most efficient way to re-unlock only that object again?
I find my workflow for temporarily locking/unlocking single objects to be very awkward. I often refrain from this operation since the process of re-unlocking only that, one, particular object at a ...
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4
answers
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How to be creative in a short space of time
This question has come about as a follow on from @Scott's "How do you break out of current creative mind sets?"
I work in a (smallish) company that produces all it's in house content such as email ...
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4
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8k
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How do I keep file sizes down when editing PDFs?
I have a set of white label PDF forms that I need to brand for our company. The initial document is 6 pages, 316KB, and already has a full set of fillable fields. In a perfect world, I just open up ...
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10
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What are some of the benefits of having a Mac vs a Windows PC in a design environment?
I work in a b2b business and everyone here is on Windows PCs. A co-worker is pushing to move the design department from Windows to Mac. I worked on a Mac about 15 years ago when I worked for an ...
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8
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How do you create a client website design mockup/image?
For all the graphic designers who do web design too: How do you produce client design mockups for review and then convert them into HTML/Wordpress etc?
Are they created in Illustrator/Photoshop and ...
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3
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How to guide the workflow in a collaboration? How to not kill the other’s motivation?
While working together, how can I discuss my ideas and objections without killing the other person’s motivation?
I want to do a design project with a friend, for study purposes, but I experienced ...
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1
answer
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Adobe Illustrator: Can I Suspend Rendering of Complex Objects or Bypass the Progress Bar?
Towards the end of a project (or when revising an old one, or whatever), there comes a certain point sometimes, where multiple tools & effects have been used on several layers and any false move, ...
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6
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6k
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Is there a gesture-like exercise for drawing faces?
Many people told me doing gestures is great as a learning tool, gives you the pencil mileage, feeling for shape, form and proportion, and so on.
I started doing them, basing my tries on this, this ...
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votes
1
answer
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Resizing content in InDesign vs. Photoshop
I've put together a book full of different types of images: raster, vector, and mixed. Everything is placed with their original dimensions and fit to frames.
Do I need to resize all the placed ...
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votes
3
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Best workflow to save an image in 3 different sizes
In Photoshop, I want to create 3 different sizes of the same logo. There will be some differences in the look of the logo depending on target screen size.
I believe the slice tool is what I want but ...
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3
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387
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How much effort should I put in to optimizing (cutting up) images for the web?
I often get designs from our artists which contain large complicated images that can be turned into a background-color, some tiling, and overlaid smaller images. The problem is, doing this often takes ...
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2
answers
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How to add some perspective to AI files placed in InDesign
I'm working with 50+ floor plans drawn up as AI files (Example image 1).
I need to keep the artwork intact in the AI files for future updates, but need to add perspective to these when placed in ...
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2
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4
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2k
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What benefits are there to workflows using Images at 32-bits per channel?
To be clear, I'm referring to images that have a color depth of 32-bits per channel.
Has anyone ever used images this large in a workflow – other than as RAW files directly from a camera?
If so, why ...
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1
vote
1
answer
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Modern image/assets saving workflow for Print and Digital using Adobe CC
my departments are setting up some new file naming conventions. We use a CMD system to autogenerate a number of folders from a dynamically created Job Number. Currently, we have the following ...
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3
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What is the best way to create partially extracted photos?
This is from a magazine but I was just wondering how this effect is done please see pink arrows showing areas of image that extends beyond where the background has been cropped. So its kind of like a ...
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votes
3
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Illustrator files with linked PSD files working over the network makes PC slow to a crawl
Me and my buddies have a small design studio going on here at our office.
We always work from the network when working on any of our Adobe files.
Our server is on Windows 2012 Standard with 9TB ...
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2
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Efficient use of Illustrator's export File Dialogue
When I File > Export using Artboards from Illustrator the (OSX)file dialogue is always pointing at the directory where the Illustrator document is located. If I need to export to a different directory ...
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