hello! i am a graphic design rookie (as I’ve been using affinity but started learning indesign and illustrator). lately, ive become interested in the intricate style of japanese magazines - especially those focused on fashion and cosmetics.

since i do a lot of 3d fashion/clothing texturing, i grew interested in making a magazine in this style during my free time! however, i am not sure where to begin design wise. i have bought many copies of the nicola magazine (fashion magazine) and have been studying them a lot.

for example, i tried breaking down the structure of a spread more or less (last pic). as you can notice by the pictures above, there’s no fixed style through the pages so it can get a bit overwhelming to figure out.

would anyone have tips or advice when it comes to approach a style like this? i would love to hear it, please! i have been planning a few articles, have been collecting information and writing but i find this style is a bit intimidating. any advice can help, thank you in advance 😁👍

It’s hard to see a way out of the endless reaction machine we have all become part to. This digital ping pong game of giving attention to an increasingly redundant amount of stimuli is just plain not good for us & we know it! It’s all digital slop & it isn’t even directly for us anymore, it’s for computer clicks. The good thing about this acceleration is that it shows the value of the obvious alternative. While the nature of how we get our information has changed forever, there are eternal formats that are waiting in the wings to be dusted off & used again! The magazine is just one of many! x SEAN

Hi all,

A little bit of history about me is I graduated from a UX bootcamp when I was 30. I started a family shortly there afterwards and my pregnancy made me really sick, so I was never able to break into the industry with a paying job. I did however, work on a real client website and had it shipped. I also did two websites for my current company right now that has also shipped (redesigning company website and building a digital publication website).

I have been doing a lot of self reflection and just being honest with myself. I don’t love all of UX just some parts of it and I don’t think I would be fulfilled. The reason why I say this is because I recently took a UX Design volunteer position at a nonprofit and I’m not enjoying it as much as I thought I would.

I love website design and have started learning how to do some graphic design. I love designing layouts and I want to move into branding too.

Fast forward, I am 34 years old and I am thinking about going back to school for a graphic design degree. That being said I am really worried about ageism, AI, this job market and salary. I hate the thought of starting over salary wise but I also hate the thought of not being able to do what I am interested in. Pick your poison right?

I am considering going the freelance route but I would be lying if I wasn’t scared of all of the above. I really didn’t think I would be here doing all of this again 🥹

I would really appreciate any kind of perspective, guidance 🙏

Hi, I'm a junior graphic designer with a couple of years of experience at one company.

I want to redo my portfolio and make some new pieces, but I figured I should ask for critique for this one.

I can't really put my work projects into my portfolio as I want to do social media and POS things, not (souvenir) product design. Because of that I only have my student works in it.

My questions are:

Are my projects too juvenile for someone with 3 years of experience?

Does the design of the portfolio look immature?

How many projects should I include? I feel this has way too much.

Would you put B2B email newsletters into it?

That's also one of my responsibilities, but I haven't seen anyone put those in.

Ps: I just quickly translated it from my mother language, it might have some problems.

Besides the obvious shift in the background on the south end causing the white line. I think I'm nearly there. The text is bugging me. I want to keep the main body true to traditional way Sandberg formatted his lines. The title and author lines can be changed, the signature bottom right I don't like. But I spent a long time editing the main image.

Main audience: the head photographer of one the oldest art museums on the USA and his wife a head librarian for an ivy league and child who I already got him a better gift.

The font is killing me mostly , but please and thank you in advance.

This is my third draft of my portfolio and the last one i'll be looking for critique on, tho I will still apply all feedback given!

No AI was used in anything

Last draft:

https://www.reddit.com/r/portfoliocritique/comments/1x9jwlp/critique_of_the_second_draft_of_my_pdf_portfolio/

There’s a lot of negativity around the profession but can we celebrate the good news, the positives of the industry, sharing some personal experiences whether freelance, agency or in-house

This is an Illustration of a map of lower manhattan, followed by an illustration of James' route and the places he visits. he is a finance bro. It is part of an assignment where I must create 3 personas for a brand, in this case, the brand is citibike. This is one of 3 "posters." the only room i have left for text is on the left side.

Hello, i was a student and had a project about visual redesign and we had to redesign a (book covers, posters or advertisements) and will turn in into minimalist design im gonna ask help what to use and any book covers or advertisements (poster) will do!

Hello! I’m a recently graduated graphic designer and It’s been kinda difficult landing any jobs (freelance or in a company/studio), so any feedback on my portfolio would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance ;)

Hi folks! Graphic Designer for over 20 years now, I used to be the one that always got the call backs and jobs. Wide variety of experience (Publishing, Fashion, Packaging, etc).

But lost my job a few months ago and for the first time in years I have not had any call backs. I was recently told that all CV's now run through AI before even being accepted by HR or whomever is doing the hiring.

This blows my mind! I remember it used to be that it would go to HR, they would scan the CV's and then pass it onto the hiring manager of the team/department and then they would decide which CV's were of interest to pursue before calling to set up an interview.

Is this really the way it is now? AI first? I remember we (me/manager etc whomever was hiring) would also look first at how the CV was designed (do they understand the basic elements of design/text etc). Did they do anything creative and different to catch our interest? But apparently now someone said with AI I need to forget all that and just give a plain CV with zero creativity (Not like I was doing anything crazy either though I know others who did).

So my questions for hiring managers: what are you looking for in a CV now? Do you all use AI first to filter out CV's? Does the design and creativity of a CV no longer matter? I was at my last job for 10 years (company restructured as we lost a major client) so this is all new to me.

Hey there!

This is my second ever full brand project (a donation) for a local kitten org! They currently don’t have any creative strategy - so I don’t have a whole lot else to offer in terms of context. They’re a woman owned brand, and their leadership crossed multiple different generations - so I’m looking for something that’s playful but not too youthful, and established but not stiff.

I feel like I’ve made a lot of progress as I carve this out, but I’ve run into a few crossroads, I hope yall can help me clear some things up!

a) group: a1 was my OG, I played with the type a lot as this typeface was originally italic - skewed everything back, and I think there’s a lot of character here, but it also feels a bit off to me. a2) is the same type, and the non italic form of the type. I think a2 is winning for me right now, maybe I’ll bring a1’s “a” over. You can also see the original logomark in a1) - feel free to let me know whether or not you prefer it!

b) group: another logo form, same type differences as the a group. a) and b) are both asking the same question, but with some new context if it helps you all visualize the direction.

c) group: two variations on the second logo form. c2) was my original, but I felt it was lacking some energy.

d) group: moving the logomark around! d2) feels a bit more playful to me, while d1) feels cleaner.

at default I’m looking for responses like a1/b2/c2/d1 - not at all necessary though!

thanks!! if you have any overarching opinions on these I am so genuinely all ears! any feedback is appreciated :)

Wanting to go from a full-time, comfortable position to something where there’s more creative freedom and control, but what are your must-do’s to secure before making that leap?

Savings? Client size? Promotion? Any guidelines that helped you make the transition into a full-time freelancer?

So after some years I've come to the conclusion that I am a hobbyist and not a professional designer. It is not my day job, I have never had a full time job in it over many years, I basically do it for the love of it and only specifically within my niche subculture. I spent many years pretending I was still in school when I wasn't to get a discount, threatening to cancel my membership to get discounts, now the last available option is to guinea pig some new software and I still only get it dropped to $50/mo. This just isn't sustainable in this economy. I know that affinity is free now, and I have also used open source freeware alternatives as well. I know the switchover won't be totally smooth, and that I'll have to relearn some things, but what I'm looking for is advice from people who have done this process about something I might be overlooking. Something I can be pretty bad about.

How does Behance work without an adobe subscription? Any issues? Is it free? Can I even use it without Adobe? What if I migrate my Adobe portfolio website to Behance before cancelling, will I lose it after I cancel? I'm sorry this seems like it should be a Google question itself but I'm literally getting conflicting answers from looking this up .

Theoretics aside, how can people with personal experience attest to the functionality of using Photoshop or illustrator proprietary files in free programs? What's the best thing for me to do about replacing acrobat?

Is it a huge pain to cancel and restart it again say I suddenly got called up to work full time or even on a contract but they required Adobe product usage for the work?

What's the best why to make any Photoshop plugins or actions I use work?

Most importantly what am I not thinking of? What's gonna hit me like a ton of bricks that you didn't consider til you thought you had this process figured out?

Thanks for any and all advice.

I am looking to buy a laptop during the upcoming black friday sales. My budget is 500£ to 600£ ideally and 700£ at most (but since I am looking to buy at sale so this amount can be more flexible if I find a good deal hopefully) in london. I am in my final year of Bachelors in Graphic design and need to start working on my thesis project ASAP but my laptop keeps getting louder and anything I open stops responding after a few minutes. I also have it plugged in at all times to function at a normal speed at all. I use Photoshop, Illustrator, After effects, Premiere pro the most, and other adobe suite softwares on rare occassions. I use my laptop for basic design stuff, illustrations, comic art, for 2d animations and video editing. Since I am in my final year, of course I am looking to expand my skillset more but am still shy of 3d animations. As of now I am looking to keep the new laptop with me for atleast 5 years.
Preferance: I don't like macs. I have tried using my brother's and did several video editing projects on it as well but I still prefer windows. If the search comes to nothing though, then I will opt for it as I need to hurry and have hit a wall in my search. Please give any suggestions you can and thankyou to anyone who responds.

Well, it happened to me. Someone took my project at work and fed it through AI to “improve it.”

I was assigned a project with strict rules of how they wanted it to look. Put this copy on this page, put this logo here, that sort of specificity. Those rules came down from non-designers in a completely different department.

I knew it would look like shit, suggested a few specific edits to make it more appealing, and was denied. I made it to spec and was told it was shit.

The department reviewing the work (which was completely different from the department ordering the work) HATED it. They ran it through AI and wanted to discuss those improvements.

I feel defeated.

Saw this "Job Listing" earlier this week. The market's so bad we got companies like this popping out of the woodwork. Ignore these if you see em please, keep human designs alive!

hi all! i'll try to make this quick, but sometimes reddit feels like a great place to be vulnerable and connect with strangers for advice. i'm a senior designer currently working for a widely known analytics software company, residing in OC California. i've made it very far in my career without a bachelor's degree (currently recieving financial help through my company so I can finally graduate in less than a year!). I've been WFH for the last 6 years, but specifically this year I've been given many moments where I am trying to figure out what company I'd like to be apart of as a bigger picture for me.

the job i have now, i am very lucky to have as others remind me and i have to constantly remind myself, but i have a very hard time being content for just a paycheck. my entire life i've been involved in art and indulged in it in other ways across various media forms. one thing that I started to note is how movies, music, and how an overall production makes me feel. I love the idea of creating something for others to see and or hear, but i've never picked up an instrument or a camera. I realized what could be a great fit for me is working at a production company. I've been looking to see design careers at Warner Bros and I can align with some of the postings there. overall, I've decided I want to work for a large production / entertainment industry and will do whatever I need to get there.

i'm asking for advice on how to get there. some more relevant information to note is in a year I will be a "late" college graduate, with 8 years of professional design experience, and moved to Seattle, WA. i'm one of those people who lacks serious patience, when I have a revalation or a solution I want to act on it ASAP (adhd brain). for this year, on top of finishing school and preparing for my move - i want to take my goal very seriously.

a few questions on my mind:
- are there any steps I can make when it comes to an industry shift? coming from the tech world especially.
- if any of you work in the entertainment industry, any tips on what I can do in the time being to become more knowledagable and better advertise myself?
- since I have access to LA, are there any networking events or entertainment events to pursue in the coming year to get myself out there?

even if i'm not asking the right questions, I am open to all advice. thank you all <3

I'm planning on starting up a small flower business, and I made some more logos for it. I think my favorite overall as an icon is option 2, but I love how 1 can be broken down into different elements. I also had fun with the negative space in options 6 & 7, but let me know what you guys think or what you'd change

The business will be called 'stems', so most of the logos either have an s directly in it or hidden in some way, like #2 (the inside of the circle + the bottom petal's outline)

im taking this design class and they wanted to use letters in a design piece. i love this song in spanish called gerund which is basically the ing (walking, loving, cooking) equivalent in english. it is about a moment in a party or wathever when two people met, and i wanted to capture that, but no so sure about what else should i add or modify. i scan some doodles i found on some cds i have and i added to the piece...

Just dropping by to see if anyone has any advice on how to deal with clients like this, where the team doesn’t seem to be aligned on the same vision. Everyone gives different feedback, and it feels like they don’t communicate with each other before sharing their thoughts with me. Instead, they just throw references at me without properly explaining what they want or what isn’t working. It’s been driving me crazy, but I’m still trying to stay calm and help them with their branding.

Every work that I send back after a revision, they took less than a minute to review it and come back with comments like “not good enough.” I always prepare questions to help them give more specific feedback and from my experience so far, whenever they see something they don’t like visually, they immediately send another reference without properly reviewing the questions or going through the prototype I’ve shared. Has anyone dealt with clients like this before? How do you handle situations like this, and at what point do you decide it’s no longer worth continuing the project?

I'm a new graphic designer in the professional world. Graduated last month and wanted to get some design experience under my belt to one day become a creative director somewhere. I got this awesome opportunity to work with my brothers company and another company sponsoring a beer can. Super sick!

After a couple weeks of meetings and designs, my brother sent an AI design of a can as a means to get some ideas across and now everyone's gravitating towards that design and it's a design that is honestly outside of my design abilities. I can admit that.

While I would hate to give up on such an awesome opportunity, it seems fruitless as the last two meetings have been about what to change on the AI design while shooting mine down.

Should I bow out? I'm really struggling with this right now after this last meeting and feel like I need to step out and let them handle it.

I have many years of experience as an in-house designer for a niche market involving apparel. I mostly take existing logos from companies and get them set up in different formats to be applied to clothing. I also do the purchasing for that. Beyond that, I do social media for multiple retail locations and various advertisements, business cards, flyers, web graphics (but no website design), etc.

How would I put all of that into a portfolio? Does anyone have examples of one from a similar situation?

I don't really do much logo design. My ads are mostly quick social media posts or small magazine 1/4 page things, and they are not that awesome. I just need to earn more money.