no joke. There was something like 85 in my graduate class (in graphic design). I'm pretty sure 4 of us have jobs in the field.

Not trying to say you can't do it. If you have the desire and talent, then you'll be fine. Just a heads up.

oh man.
i'm so sorry they are huge!!

haha
alrighty

well here are a few oooold illustrations i just dug up






















there is plenty more, but i'm tired of digging.

all design work can be found here

honestly one of the craziest years of my life.
graduated college.
got a good job.
moved away.
fell in love.
got dumped because of her dad.
got the car of my dreams.

Photoshop is the professional standard and it's that way for a reason. It's better in every single department besides price. If you are an amateur and want to goof around, then yeah, gimp is great. But if you are a professional, or are on your way to becoming one, then Adobe wins every time. The tools are infinitely more accurate. There is a wider selection of them. The interface is easier to use. The program itself and it's preferences are much more customizable. Photoshop is part of a suite of other highly powerful programs which, to me, are invaluable. Illustrator is an amazing program which i use every day of my life. Also on that subject, Photoshop (because it is the pro standard) is the most compatible with other programs, which is also essential. One of the biggest things for me is the color accuracy you get with ps. Gimp has been notorious for getting colors wrong, especially in cmyk. It is good to print out work for a client and see that it is the same as on your screen. PS is also better with tablets by a long shot. Especially in cs5.

anyway, i could go on and on about this, but it's my day off so i want to actually spend a day AWAY from photoshop!!

well thank you :)

well thank you! i'd totally fly my rear end out of here, but my bank account just became good friends with a new car, so that probably wouldn't be the wisest of choices right now!!

All the best

Seems I don't have anything to do tomorrow, which is totally lame!
So if you have some brilliant ideas, or happen to be a beautiful young woman that i can whisk away for dinner and a movie, let me know!

Hey everybody!

Just thought I'd show some work and see if there is any other type-nerds out there.
My list:

Din, Helvetica Neue, Univers, Caslon

Here's my portfolio site (that needs updating badly!)
http://www.nathantrafforddesign.com

hey bud.
i used the bamboo tablet for a few years, and just the other day finally upgraded to the intuos 4. The tablet will be strange and odd at first, but i'm telling you right now that once you get used to it, it will change your life. You can always use a mouse and the tablet at the same time. The bamboo actually has a mouse that comes with it. But once you get used to that pen, especially if you are a traditional artist at heart, this is the tool for you.

I design and illustrate for a living (http://www.nathantrafforddesign.com), and i cannot do any sort of design without first sketching it out on paper. That's just the old-school artist in me. That being said, it is such a natural transition to take a quick snapshot of that sketch and put it onto your computer, then use the tablet to create a refined digital version. Do that enough times and you won't even need to bring the sketch onto your computer.

It's just another tool for an artist to utilize.

Hope that helped. All the best.

love to hear about thirsty young designers! lets see some stuff!

I'm an art director here in austin. This is my portfolio site i used to get a job:

http://www.nathantrafforddesign.com