What do I do as graphic design consultant?

I advise clients on their Graphic Design needs. For these clients big or small I design corporate logos, brochures, stationery, leaflets, promotional material. I supply the work printed in full colour or monochrome or just prepare the artwork to be sent to a printer. My commissions can range from full colour brochures involving all aspects of the work from concept to printing. At the other end of the scale I might be designing a logo for a printer's customer, a letter heading, advertising or promotion for a local organisation.

I have adapted from the hand skills, of magic markers and paste-up, learnt at art school and many years of work experience to those of the computer, digital origination, keyboard, and mouse. I use a wide range of programs such as Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Xara and Corel Draw. I also use RiscOS programs Ovation Pro, Photodesk, Artworks and can accept many different file types including Quark Express.

The disciplines of layout and typography are still just as important today as in the days of hot metal,  type paste ups and half tone blocks. When craft skills and typographical rules made sure clarity was of the prime importance.

The basic rules of typography are too often forgotten today with illegible text often closely lined spaced and too condensed by users who have no appreciation of type faces or typography.

The graphic designer's task must always be to consider first and foremost the project brief from an aesthetic point of view rather than just achieving an end result. The latter can be done by any person with basic key board skills but the end result is often not worthy of the effort made. The end result must be both aesthetically pleasing and achieve the aim of the original brief.


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