How I design.

Hello viewers,

This is my first designed-based official post and I am going to begin my time on this blog by going into How I design. This is going to cover the basics for any beginner out there. It goes into what program I use to design and what you can make in it.

First of all let me explain the program, since I found out about design I practised using Fireworks, this was mainly in college because I didn't have it at home, so this is where my design evolved. Unfortunately the courses I was doing at the time had hardly any relevance to design so I was basically on my own (It's not a problem though, Fireworks is so simple to get round!). I learnt everything I know about Fireworks on my own during the college courses, which was kind of fun.



Why Fireworks?

I chose to learn Fireworks on two simple factors.
1. I didn't have any other programs to learn on to begin with so it was a no-brainer.
2. By the time someone showed me Photoshop I'd already gotten used to how to use Fireworks and I found Photoshop complex and annoying but now I can switch between the two!

Is it for Beginners?
Certainly! Fireworks can do everything that Photoshop can it just takes a different method to do it. It's simple and clean and can easily be learnt in a few weeks, it takes a lot longer to get your creativity flowing to use it more effectively though.


What can you design in it?
Fireworks can go do everything Photoshop can do, it has similar tools to Photoshop the only downside to Fireworks is that it isn't that good at Photo manipulation, but that's its only flaw in my eyes.

Fireworks has a brilliant set of tools - Bitmap being the first, it allows you to create vivid works with Pencils and Paint if you have a graphics tablet these tools are perfect for it.

If you're not as talented as that and would like to try and design things using the other tools then, this is possible too, Fireworks has a great selection of Vector tools that is perfect for anything, with the ability to manipulate and add to any of the basic shapes, you can make your own desired shapes with the line tools and pen tools.

As for web publishing, you can slice images in two different ways using either the rectangular tool or polygon slice tool, as well as the ability to Hotspot several points on the graphic.

It is the essential beginners program.

@thisrbmatt