Ask HN: I'm not good at graphics, where should I search for some help? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: I'm not good at graphics, where should I search for some help?

7 pointsgiulivo13 comments

hi,

I'm working on a social app, it's almost done but I'm not good at graphics.

I know the basics of gimp, but I can't really make a nice logo, nor a nice photo to use as background. I'm not good at choosing the colors either and stuff like this.

Which resources (maybe on the internet, or books) would you suggest me to look at?

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I have to say, like everything, if you don't have the right tools, or even know how to use them, your life can be difficult. It's why you hire people.

Another aspect is you need to know what it is you're looking at expecially when you look at examples. That means not just knowing how it was placed on the page or what the file type is, but what effort was required to build it.

Those are pretty much the ground rules - take it from someone who studied art and design and spent 7 years as an art director.

if you are looking at a png image for example, was that png image generated from a vector program like Adobe illustrator or Inkscape, or was it a sample from a bigger image or has it been put together pixel-by-pixel in photoshop, or was it sketched out by someone and scanned or is it a photograph? What part do gradients, layers, blending media play in it? What possibilitites does CSS3 give us to reproduce some common effects... I could go on. A good artist will know the answer to that within a few seconds.

The best thing I could recommend is get yourself a friend who does that stuff for a living, then get them excited in what you are doing. Then, drop the question...

hi chris and thanks for posting your thoughts

I'm wondering, do you know if there are there "places" on the internet where such a kind of "networking" can happen?

You can find graphic artists at very reasonable rates on elance.com (be sure to check their ratings) I would advise however that you also consider working with a UX designer who has experience with the design of navigation/workflows and who understands usability best practices. Having a well designed and usable (intuitive) product will make your product stand-out and will make users more likely to enjoy the experience and return for more. This is especially true when it comes to social apps. I would also advise that you make it easy and enticing for your users to leave feedback. This feedback will be the key to understanding and identifying their needs. Then you can consider how to best meet those needs (if possible with the help of a UX professional). Here is some great advice from a successful start-up founder: http://www.slideshare.net/missrogue/the-10-mistakes-ive-made...

If you are really on a shoestring (i.e. you cannot afford a graphic designer), then I would really recommend Inkscape - which is to Illustrator as Gimp is to Photoshop. It's a bit foreign if you've never done vector graphics before, but if you're working on logos it really is the way to go. For colors & palletes, go over to colourlovers.com - that's a good place to start anyway. If you are only after the odd pic or two, any of the stock photo sites is good and relatively inexpensive. Also, there are a ton of sites such as deviantart.com where you can find free graphics and fonts, etc. or at the very least you can find some really talented artists that might be able to get it done for you.

I second Inkscape. I love it. It's so useful and you can really create a lot with it. It helps to be a bit artistic; however, I think with some practice you could still do it sufficiently well to put a decent logo together. For instance, you could find fonts and designs you like and tweak them to fit what you want using Inkscape.

Also, as long as you aren't spending too much time, I think learning a new skill is always helpful. It never hurts to learn.

The Non-Designer's Design Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0321534042/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=de...;

Should give you some basic ideas. For the logo or other important stuff, maybe hire someone to do it.

I think what's really difficult is developing an internal feedback loop so that you can critique your own work, and thus improve it. I simply don't have the sense that some poeple do, for instance, that one design is 'good' and another isn't.

hi David,

thanks for the suggestion, I managed to find the preview online and it looks great.

Also, hiring someone is currently out of my possibilities but I'd be happy to share my idea with someone who does have some graphics skills to see if likes the project and would get involved.

Are there "places" on the internet where such a kind of "networking" can happen?

Seeing your other comment/submission, another book you might find interesting is "Start Small, Stay Small". Here's a talk I gave about it, in Italian:

http://www.bettersoftware.it/conference/talks/start-small-st...

This article http://flyosity.com/tutorial/crafting-subtle-realistic-user-... specifically and that blog in general have been massively helpful for me in improving my design skills. I highly recommend you give it a read through.

Get David Kadavy's Design for hackers book. Also see Paul's blog - http://paulstamatiou.com/startup-web-design-ux-crash-course

It will take time to get good. Meanwhile, copy what you like.

[www.bing.com/search?q=logo+design]

The logo is a distraction.

Get traction for your app, then hire someone who knows what they are doing.

Or invest a few bucks now in something good enough.

Or learn graphic design and launch in five to seven years.

http://99designs.com/

http://prizes.org/

etc. Crowdsource it out. I've seen some amazing designs on prizes for less than 300 bucks.

You can also put requests in at conceptart.org or even throw an ad on craigslist. Just make certain to see examples of their portfolio before negotiating a price.

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