Creating Flyers and making them innovative and eye-catching

[frankyk]

I'm a novice in graphic design. I have the tools necessary such as Adobe CS4 and Illustrator but I'm not sure how to really utilize the power of each product.

Right now I'm trying to make a holiday flyer and I have some general ideas that I can lay out on a piece of scratch paper in terms of what I want the flyer to look like but I don't know how to put these thoughts onto a computer screen.

Basically, what's the best approach on making flyers for a novice in this area? I would like to make something unique and innovative but I don't feel like I have the knowledge to do so, though I have the ideas.

Also, should I invest in a 'pen' that is connected to your computer so you can draw your thoughts onto a computer or something?

 

[meatycheesyboy]

Let's quickly get some terminology out of the way. Adobe is the company that makes the product and CS4 is akin to the version number. As such, there is no product called Adobe CS4. That would be like saying you have Microsoft 7 for an operating system. I am going to make an assumption and say you meant to say that you have Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Adobe Illustrator CS4. These are usually shortened to just Photoshop and Illustrator or Photoshop CS4 or Illustrator CS4, like Windows or Windows 7.

If you have the ideas in your head but don't have the necessary skills to implement them then the gap is in your software knowledge, in which case, you need to start doing research and training to gain familiarity with the products and with their capabilities.

I would suggest reading the manuals as a good starting place. After that you can go buy or check out books. Many people use the Classroom in a Book series of books. Here are links to the Photoshop and the Illustrator books in the series.

http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Photosh...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260517743&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Illustr...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260517776&sr=1-1

Another option would be online video/print training. I use http://www.lynda.com and like them quite a bit. Google will give you many more tutorials both video and print.

As for the question about best approach, that will depend on what your ideas are. If your flyers are going to be a combination of photography + type then you can use either Photoshop or Illustrator. If it they are going to be paintings or drawings + type then Photoshop would be your tool of choice. If they are going to be illustrations + type then Illustrator will be the tool you should use. The answers to these questions will become much clearer after you've learned the basics of each program and become more familiar with the capabilities of each.

As for the question about the pen tablet. That really depends on what your projects are going to entail. If your flyers are going to be freeform colored drawings/paintings then a tablet might be useful but if your flyers are going to be illustrations and typography then you can probably get away with just a mouse.

 

[madFive]

^^ Most of this info is correct. It takes a few months for most people to gain proficiency in Adobe Creative Suit apps. You're going to be really pushing it to turn out something decent-looking before this year is over.

Most likely, you will want to do the majority of the work of creating a flyer in Illustrator, so I'd learn that one first. This is where you'll lay out all the elements and do your text work. Start by learning the layout of the program controls, how to separate each type of element onto its own layer, and how to set up a multi-page file etc. Next thing you'll need to know is how the text controls work. Play with the Character menu to get the hang of line and letter spacing (leading and kerning). Learn the basic drawing tools - you'll probably want to lay out boxes and circles and maybe some more complex shapes to separate the elements on your flyer.

If your flyer needs photos or bitmap textures in it, collect the images you need, use Photoshop to touch them up, then import those into Illustrator to place them in the flyer (do NOT try to do your text or layout in Photoshop!!).

If your flyer is going to be more than 3 or 4 pages, you might want to take your elements into InDesign to do the type and layout, but that’s another app that takes a while to learn, and I’m guessing you don’t need anything that complicated.

Lastly, no you don't need a stylus pen for anything you're doing there. These are only used by certain types of digital artists who want a hand-painted look to their art-work, have a lot of training/practice in drawing by hand, and have a LOT of time to tweak every little detail in their custom art-work. Since you're just starting off and a little pressed for time, if you need any such custom graphics I'd suggest you either use stock photo's/art or pay a trained artist to create those for you.

Oh, and if you want to post your sketches on here, we'd be happy to pick them apart and tell you how to do each little piece.