In order to define your style, first you need to know how many styles there are and what's the difference between them. There are basically 3 types of graphics I've found in my experience. They all are beautiful in their own way. They all need creativity from the designer's part, and if they are well designed, they can become a source of income. These 3 types of graphics are:
1. Image Only Graphics
2. Text Only Graphics
3. Image & Text Graphics
IMAGE ONLY GRAPHICS
These can be anything, from a picture to a drawing, to a collage. To me this kind of image is challenging to create and it normally takes me a lot of time to complete. In my experience the key to getting people to buy your image-only graphics is: Beauty. The end result for me is normally a sense of awe for the image itself and the beauty it portrays.
Different people find different things beautiful. Because of it I decided to only create image-only graphics I find beautiful. The pictures I take and the designs I make are not really designed for a certain target market. These images are created just for the sake of beauty.
Competition is fierce when it comes to image-only graphics. There are lots of people who can really draw. In fact, I've seen some drawings that look like photographs. Also nowadays almost everyone has a good quality camera in their phone. This only increases the competition in the image-only market.
So you have been warned. If you want to get into the image-only arena, expect lots of competition. But don't worry, in the future I will give lots of tips on how to design a good image-only graphic that people will gladly buy. This is only an introduction to the different styles of graphics I've found in my experience.
TEXT ONLY GRAPHICS
Although these may be easy to create, it is difficult to design a good one. About 95% of my work is text-only designs, so I have a bit of experience.
Competition is not that much, I suspect because it is relatively difficult to design a text-only graphic that will sell well. The key to designing a good text graphic is: Emotions. Since much of the text can't really be stylized, the real product a text-only design is selling is that abstract idea of an emotion. These emotions can include: happiness, pride, determination, optimism, and many many many more.
Besides emotion a good text-only graphic also needs to be designed around a specific target market. If you define a particular target market and combine it with the emotion you have chosen, you will have a good text-only image.
For example, let's say you've chosen the emotion of happiness and you've also chosen that your target market will be carpenters. You can say: What sentence will make a carpenter feel happy? Answering that question over and over will give you an arsenal of text-only images designed to be bought by and for carpenters.
I will go more into dept about how to create a good text-only graphic in later posts, but for now I will stop it here.
Although these may be easy to create, it is difficult to design a good one. About 95% of my work is text-only designs, so I have a bit of experience.
Competition is not that much, I suspect because it is relatively difficult to design a text-only graphic that will sell well. The key to designing a good text graphic is: Emotions. Since much of the text can't really be stylized, the real product a text-only design is selling is that abstract idea of an emotion. These emotions can include: happiness, pride, determination, optimism, and many many many more.
Besides emotion a good text-only graphic also needs to be designed around a specific target market. If you define a particular target market and combine it with the emotion you have chosen, you will have a good text-only image.
For example, let's say you've chosen the emotion of happiness and you've also chosen that your target market will be carpenters. You can say: What sentence will make a carpenter feel happy? Answering that question over and over will give you an arsenal of text-only images designed to be bought by and for carpenters.
I will go more into dept about how to create a good text-only graphic in later posts, but for now I will stop it here.
IMAGE & TEXT GRAPHICS
I won't really talk much about them because my personal experience is very limited when it comes to image-text graphics. I know there are lots of those in different POD websites' marketplaces, but I'm not qualified to give any kind of advice on this particular topic. Most of the image-text graphics I've seen are wedding or just any kind of party invitation templates. Although I'm pretty sure there's more than just that. Probably I haven't looked hard enough.
I'm not going to touch on this topic because I wouldn't be able to give you advice on which colors would work best, or what kind of emotion you will need to convey in order to create a good and solid image-text graphic.
Sorry for that, but I know my limitations and I refuse to give any kind of advice that hasn't personally helped me and my different POD stores grow.
I won't really talk much about them because my personal experience is very limited when it comes to image-text graphics. I know there are lots of those in different POD websites' marketplaces, but I'm not qualified to give any kind of advice on this particular topic. Most of the image-text graphics I've seen are wedding or just any kind of party invitation templates. Although I'm pretty sure there's more than just that. Probably I haven't looked hard enough.
I'm not going to touch on this topic because I wouldn't be able to give you advice on which colors would work best, or what kind of emotion you will need to convey in order to create a good and solid image-text graphic.
Sorry for that, but I know my limitations and I refuse to give any kind of advice that hasn't personally helped me and my different POD stores grow.
Now that we've covered the 3 main graphic categories, we'll need to talk about you.
It is important you understand these categories and decide which type are you currently interested in creating. This doesn't mean you will only create that particular type of graphic for the rest of your life. You can start with one and then move to another. That's how I got started.
It is important you understand these categories and decide which type are you currently interested in creating. This doesn't mean you will only create that particular type of graphic for the rest of your life. You can start with one and then move to another. That's how I got started.
When I began creating graphics one of the first things I did was to be honest with myself. I knew I wasn't very talented creating images (In fact, I barely knew how to use photoshop at all back then). I checked out my competition and was amazed at the astonishing work some designers were able to create and realized that competing with them wasn't going to be easy.
So be honest with yourself. Are you capable of creating top-notch images? If not, maybe you could consider creating text-only graphics while you work on your image-creating skills. Maybe you'll find a hidden talent you didn't know you had.
Take some time and do some thinking. Define your style. In fact, I personally think you should try creating all 3 styles for some time and stick with the one you feel the most comfortable.
If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve this series of tips, please post them in the comments section. I'll be happy to hear from you guys.
See you in the next one.
So be honest with yourself. Are you capable of creating top-notch images? If not, maybe you could consider creating text-only graphics while you work on your image-creating skills. Maybe you'll find a hidden talent you didn't know you had.
Take some time and do some thinking. Define your style. In fact, I personally think you should try creating all 3 styles for some time and stick with the one you feel the most comfortable.
If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve this series of tips, please post them in the comments section. I'll be happy to hear from you guys.
See you in the next one.
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