How to write copy that people will read...

An expensive brochure, a full page print advertisement, a gorgeous website, instruction manual or sales letter.... Whatever it is, if you don't get the message across it's a waste of time and money. So how do you write copy that people will read? Have a look at this article. And designers, don't be too critical of the layout. It's the content that counts in this one :)
http://www.viacorp.com/how-to-write-things-people-will-read.pdf

Photoshop vs Illustrator - A student asks....

Recently on my Facebook site, I received a question from a young designer, Lilly Blue:

"I am an artist and have recently fallen in love with illustration. I am wondering if you could offer some advice about which program would be best for someone beginning with original images? Is it beneficial to understand and utilize both programs?"

My reply and subsequent discussions have been posted here for your interest...

My Reply: Welcome, Lily and thank you for posting your discussion topic. It's a beauty actually - because everyone has different opinions on which program is best and will argue the point endlessly. For me personally, I've always used both and couldn't survive without one or the other! And I would ALWAYS recommend to any new illustrator or designer to learn both programs.

But that doesn't mean you should go out and get them both straight away! If you are using original images and want to create the sort of fantastic illustrations posted on the wall earlier from the Smashing Magazine Site, Photoshop is probably your guy. If, however you want to create, say, logos or illustrations from an original drawing with a transparent background to be reproduced in print, signage etc, you'd be better off with Illustrator.

Let me try and give you a bit of background info to help you decide what you need right now.
Illustrator is aimed at complicated drawings, logo creation, single page designs using lots of type or anything that may need to be re-scaled without losing any clarity. It uses and creates vectors - drawings made up of points that produce very smooth and accurate shapes. They have transparent backgrounds, are scaleable and infinitely changeable to any size or shape and application. In fact, even text can be 'converted to outlines' to become a vector shape in Illustrator.

Photoshop's primary function was originally designed to handle raster images that are based on pixels, such as photographs. It is often used for colour correction, sharpening scans and "touching-up" photos and artwork - as you've no doubt seen on magazine covers and the like. But you can also create awesome original illustrations and layered photographic illustrations by experimenting with a large library of effects, brush filters and layers.

Photoshop provides some vector based tools including type and a drawing tool similar to the ones in Illustrator, but ultimately once you've finished, all will be rasterised - put simply - turned into one single image made of pixels. And you always need to be aware, that when you create an image in Photoshop and then try to make it a lot bigger, it will blur because of the pixels. [Just like blowing up a photograph]. No good creating a gorgeous A4 size poster in Photoshop if it has to be reproduced on a billboard - but there are methods you can use to make all that sort of stuff work....

Illustrator on the other hand, uses mathmatical calculations, so no matter how big you make your image it will never lose clarity. So..... When it comes to logos, I believe they should, whenever possible, be initially designed in vector format [using Illustrator or another vector based program] so you always have a scalable image file that will not lose resolution when re-sized. You can have fun with them in Photoshop later.

Bottomline - If you're a beginner you'll probably have a lot more fun with Photoshop. It's a very powerful program and I'd say easier to learn than Illustrator.

I hope I haven't confused you. If the vector raster issue is making your head spin, have a look at the following article. It's kinda long and boring but excellent.
http://www.eastbywest.com/pub/vectorbitmap/

If you want to read more about the difference between the two programs, there's heaps of blogs out there. Have a look at this one for starters:
http://www.zimbio.com/Adobe+Photoshop/articles/315/Photoshop+vs+Illustrator

And I'm sure a lot of the guys here on the Buzz Design House Page will have heaps of tips and ideas to contribute. Anyone interested? :-) Linda

Lilly Blue: Thank you for such a clear, detailed, rich and informative response! For the first time I finally have a grasp on the difference between the programs. You are a gift - Lilly :o)

Thoughts on Illustration and it's relevance in today's market...

Design is not art, and I wouln't treat is as such. But! I have always believed that illustration used in a design [which is, effectivelly art for a purpose] can be a powerful tool that can be used as well or better than a photograph, to visually communicate a story or idea in a design piece.

Being a designer that has 'dabbled' in Art, I have had the opportunity to incorporate some of my own artwork into design pieces - and the client always ended up with a wonderfullly unique piece of work that had no danger of 'popping' up somewhere else in somone else's work.

Unfortunately....sigh.... Illustration is quickly becoming a forgotten art in the cut-throat business world and a completely underutilized communication tool.

I would love to continue to use illustration in my design work, but this has proven to be quite a challenge. Clients prefer photography over illustration because they see it as somehow being “more realistic” or “more honest,” even though photography has become increasingly more unreal. [aka...the furore of photoshop retouching and so on and so forth].

Stock illustration houses are killing the demand for original illustration and the acceleration of the design process brought on by advances in technology has made clients impatient and unwilling to go through the sketch and idea development phase that has always been a part of commissioning original illustration.

I 'd love to see more designers encourage an illustration revival with clients but I fear that, just like other once popular, but now outmoded practices, this will not happen.

I actually wanted to be an architect

Hello out there everbody! My name is Linda Jakeman. I am a 46 year old (!) graphic designer, illustrator and copywriter with over 20 years experience in the design & advertising industries.

And yes, it's true I wanted desperately to be an architect as a kid (a famous one, of course), but I love what I do... and look forward to expounding on this and many other design related topics on this very blog site! I also remember wanting to be a journalist or a writer, but we can't be everything, can we?

One thing I never had any doubt about was how much I loved to create. My 'professional' beginnings were humble and hard earned, however, through young motherhood - creating murals for local schools & shopowners, chalking up blackboard menus at pub drive-throughs and clubs, painting caricatures for private clients and doing the odd freelance design job to get by.

One day I decided that I wanted to be a 'professional' graphic designer but realised if I was ever going to be taken seriously, I needed to get back to school. Not so easy with three children, an overworked husband trying to build his own business & no spare funds to pay for tuition... I needed a plan- a very creative plan!

I started slowly, driving to Brisbane one night a week to study part time. After 12 months and a two week stint at 'summer school', I set about persuading my husband that full time study would work far better, finish far sooner.... and allow me to get a great job!

So, in spite of initial howls of protest, I nevertheless enrolled in the full time course at Design College Australia under Julie Phitzner in 1998. At the end of 1999, I achieved my Adv Diploma in Visual Communication & Design, during which time I was also selected for an additinal 3 months at AWARD School (Australian Writers & Art Directors) where I was taught advertising communication & copywriting by some of the best Art Directors in QLD. I was on my way!

But you know what they say... Be careful what you wish for in case you get it! In 2005, after years of constant, never-ending pressure in a small but extremely busy agency, no holidays and very little time at home with my family - I decided it was time for a change - so I cast off the corporate digs and went back into my own studio. I formed my own agency - BUZZ Design House - and have been slowly building relationships with a small but strong client base since. If you're interested check out my website @

Now, this blog isn't just for designers. It isn't just about design. It's about a designer's journey and as it happens, I'm that designer. I think I've got a pretty interesting story to tell and hope some of you out there might agree :-)

So with this in mind I'll attempt to take you on my journey. From convoluted beginnings, full of stops and starts, to here - still convoluted, still full of stops and starts; blogging away into cyberspace @ 1.30am on a Tuesday morning, possibly talking to no-one but myself, but certainly doing so with great gusto and enthusiam!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Getting to this point has been a long and bumpy road with lots of ups and downs and lessons learnt along the way. And I'd love to share them. So let's get started .... back to where it all began....