creative Posted November 15, 2007 Share Posted November 15, 2007 Evening guys.... Advice time. I'm seriously getting pished off with my job and when I move to Australia I'm thinking of getting out of the licensing trade all together. 15years serving pints and running bars is taking its toll. Something that has always been in the back of my mind is graphic designing or something in that area and playing around with the photo in the media section sparked it off again. I'm on the lookout for a new laptop and cant decide between a pc or a mac. I know designers use macs but are the differences that noticeable? never used a Mac so I cant compare. What kind of spec should I be looking at etc. Also what kind of qualifications are best to aim for. I'm looking at doing something like the OU so I can fit it around work but just need a bit of direction as to which one will help me in the future. Any advice on where to start would be great! cheers folks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedM Posted November 15, 2007 Share Posted November 15, 2007 My soon-to-be new departmental boss has worked at home for two weeks because our company won't buy him/us Macs to work on. He has two at home and swears the performance difference in Photoshop, Indesign etc is so vast that he cannot get the work done in time if he has to come to work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T11MNM Posted November 15, 2007 Share Posted November 15, 2007 I suppose the first question you've got to ask yourself is; can you actually design? Most graphic designers these days come from an art background and have fantastic artisic skills. I can knock up a half decent logo or website in photoshop but i'd never call my self a graphic designer. Although having seen some so called graphic designers work it would seem any chump with paint shop pro can have a crack and make some money from it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creative Posted November 15, 2007 Author Share Posted November 15, 2007 I suppose the first question you've got to ask yourself is; can you actually design? Most graphic designers these days come from an art background and have fantastic artisic skills. I can knock up a half decent logo or website in photoshop but i'd never call my self a graphic designer. Although having seen some so called graphic designers work it would seem any chump with paint shop pro can have a crack and make some money from it. I like to think I can! I do all our artwork for work etc but just don't have the tools....yet, so need a designer to put what is in my mind into action and we have knocked out some pretty good designs according to others. Always done drawing etc as a hobby and keep thinking now could be the time to turn a hobby into something more. Been waiting on our new cocktail menus, gave the chap a brief and he hasn't done any of it and I could have done in 2 days what he has done in 3 months! i sent it back so many times I have come to the conclusion he cant actually do what I asked and is just passing it off. I have had to go with it as we aren't paying for it but its just sooo frustrating. Off out on Sunday to have a look at lappy so ill have a butchers at Macs then and see what they are all about Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewOW Posted November 15, 2007 Share Posted November 15, 2007 It all depends on your budget really. My advice is get a Mac, even though it costs more than a Windows pc, they are leagues ahead in performance and ease of use, plus OS X is just gorgeous! I'm sure you can get most popular makes of software cheaply nowadays, and Adobe's Creative Suite is the best available IMO. I'm using Photoshop Elements 4 at home and its perfectly adequate for most things. If you have the aptitude and a flair for design, why not give it a go? I was impressed with the image you did in the media section, and so I have done several like it for my desktop images at work. In my opinion, I agree with you that some so called graphic designers don't deserve to be in business, and some that are unsure whether to give it a go really don't give themselves a chance. I'm sure there are appropriate OU courses out there, and I was lucky to have been 'coached' early on, but I was mainly self taught, and its served me in good stead up until now at least. If you want to do it, go for it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T11MNM Posted November 15, 2007 Share Posted November 15, 2007 I've got a black mac book and tbh it's not fantastic. Think it'll be alot better with a memory upgrade but it seems to struggle with things my 2 year old PC would breeze through. Looks cool though, and that's all that counts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creative Posted November 15, 2007 Author Share Posted November 15, 2007 I'm sure there are appropriate OU courses out there, and I was lucky to have been 'coached' early on, but I was mainly self taught, and its served me in good stead up until now at least. If you want to do it, go for it Im self taught as well. Ive used coral upto now as I can get better results than photoshop.. but that will be down to me not using it. Software isnt a problem... cost... well I've been thinking about £1k for a lappy. but its a one off so I want to get it right first time! lol as an edit? would I be wise in getting an all singing all dancing desktop pc. With a £1k budget Im sure I could build a top spec machine that would rival a Mac? hmmmmm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedM Posted November 16, 2007 Share Posted November 16, 2007 With a £1k budget Im sure I could build a top spec machine that would rival a Mac? hmmmmm It's not just about the hardware though. We use InDesign and Photoshop extensively and they just run so much better on a Mac than a PC. Faster and less prone to crashing. You have to look at what GD are using and then work out your options. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyT Posted November 16, 2007 Share Posted November 16, 2007 And 1k isn't eough for a decent Mac mate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorin Posted November 16, 2007 Share Posted November 16, 2007 Well you have two choices. Become a sheep and buy a Mac, or ignore the hype bandwagon rolling by and get a decent PC Laptop instead (you'll get a lot more for your money). Our web designers upstairs bitched and moaned that Mac's would "improve performance" in photoshop and so eventually they got bought nice new very expensive Mac Pro's... Only it's bollocks, I've played around with photoshop on both PC and Mac, for similarly spec'd machines there is no difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tDR Posted November 16, 2007 Share Posted November 16, 2007 Have to agree with Thorin - don't believe the Mac hype. Utter bollocks IMO - I've yet to see a function served by Mac that can't be done with better performance for a lot less money than Mac. The Graphic Design industry is just stuck in it's ways because there was a time (over a decade ago) when that argument might have held some water. It's likely a combination of that and many Mac users being PC illiterate that's led to their survival in that industry. Plus they're 'pretty' which seems to count for a lot amongst arty farty types Either buy or build a decent spec gaming PC - they're inherently good for graphic design work. Lots of memory, decent graphics card and a quad core CPU etc. etc. Cheers, Brian. p.s. it's 'Career'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supragal Posted November 16, 2007 Share Posted November 16, 2007 Historically Macs have always been better at this kind of thing, but MS have s*** themselves over it and pulled their socks up a lot. It depends if you want to use it for other stuff to, if you will be using it for everything get a pc. Also don't get a laptop of any sort, you need a proper machine, you'll never get a graphics card good enough in a laptop and it won't handle the graphic design stuff, plus the screen won't do the job well enough, you need a big top quality screen (as in monitor) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supragal Posted November 16, 2007 Share Posted November 16, 2007 Oh and prepare yourself for a LOT of learning, photoshop, in design and so on are seriously complex products with the ability to do almost anything you can imagine - but figuring out how takes time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
osso Posted November 16, 2007 Share Posted November 16, 2007 if you're looking for a laptop, i would seriously consider the Dell XPS M1330 gorgeous machine with the performance. I am looking to buy one myself soon to replace my desktop machine!! More details can be found at this link... Dell XPS M1330 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colsoop Posted November 16, 2007 Share Posted November 16, 2007 How come you want a laptop are you planning on visiting client sites to design ? A decent pc would be cheaper and would allow you to stretch your budget further so you could get a large monitor and a graphics tablet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedM Posted November 16, 2007 Share Posted November 16, 2007 If PCs are so good why does Adobe CS3 run so badly on them when compared to similar spec Macs? It's not just speed. Stability is a huge factor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Posted November 16, 2007 Share Posted November 16, 2007 My soon-to-be new departmental boss has worked at home for two weeks because our company won't buy him/us Macs to work on. He has two at home and swears the performance difference in Photoshop, Indesign etc is so vast that he cannot get the work done in time if he has to come to work. Wow. And they let him get away with that feeble excuse? Mac users, eh? They're right characters, aren't they. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedM Posted November 16, 2007 Share Posted November 16, 2007 Wow. And they let him get away with that feeble excuse? Mac users, eh? They're right characters, aren't they. On the plus-side he did demonstrate the difference by bring his system in and creating two identical documents from scratch. The Mac was a lot quicker especially as the PC crashed when opening a folder! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorin Posted November 16, 2007 Share Posted November 16, 2007 If PCs are so good why does Adobe CS3 run so badly on them when compared to similar spec Macs? It doesn't. edit: and as for stability I've been using Photoshop since version 5, can't say I ever recall it "crashing" on me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creative Posted November 16, 2007 Author Share Posted November 16, 2007 p.s. it's 'Career'. i know... but I cant edit titles this is my argument about PC and Macs. Are they really so far apart or is it personal preference? For the money I can build a shit hot pc with most of what I need for the money. The laptop would be used so I can be mobile but its no hard and fast. As I said software isn't a problem... already have cs3 etc just need to decide what machine to put it on. Hadn't thought about a tablet..... but makes sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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