Design advice needed

[jonrussell]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to trial a bit of one to one direct mailing. I have a well designed website and flyer so I will just be adapting the designs of these two slightly and creating personalised showcards aimed at decision makers.

My question is which is the best computer design software to design the above in? Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, other?

I have all the graphics from my flyers and website so the software will really be utilised to arrange layout and add a little creativity. And of course give me the freedom to test and play around a bit.

Thanks,

Jon

 

[XanderMarketing]

For a one page direct mail Illustrator or InDesign are the best tools to do the job.

 

[Nancy123]

I use InDesign tools. Its best one.

 

[Coppock]

technically you should use InDesign or Quark... however I always use Illustrator. Some people I know use Photoshop because it can create some nice effects that illustrator can't too easily, but its your own preference at the end of the day.

Jen

 

[Mass Appeal Designs]

I usually use Illustrator & photoshop together if there are images involved

 

[ShoppingVouchers]

I've always stuck to Photoshop - I had no idea InDesign was so well regarded, I'm obviously out of the loop!

 

[Coppock]

I've always stuck to Photoshop - I had no idea InDesign was so well regarded, I'm obviously out of the loop!

The last I tried it, it was full of bugs!

Its handy for brochures and multiple pages etc - but one off flyers are better on illustrator, or photoshop (never use photoshop if you don't understand the relation between resolutions and sizes)

Jen

 

[Coppock]

It depends on what you know, if Microsoft Paint is all you know then that is the best. I'm a designer so would use Adobe Indesign for the page layout, photoshop to edit the images and Illustrator to create the graphics/logos, although you can do a lot of the more simple graphics in Indesign.

I used to teach adobe at the local college and the above is "bang on".

There are crossovers where you can use one and not the other - but it comes down to skill and preference, plus what effect you're trying to achieve.

Good luck!

 

[jonrussell]

Thank you for your replies. Especially Jen and reynoldsdigital.

I think at the moment my skills are more suited to Photoshop. Although i will download the Illustrator trial and have a little play around using some of the tutorials I have found on lynda.com.

Thanks,

Jonathan

 

[SparkCreative]

I used to teach adobe at the local college and the above is "bang on".

There are crossovers where you can use one and not the other - but it comes down to skill and preference, plus what effect you're trying to achieve.

Good luck!

All true. 99% of people would use Indesign. OR maybe Illustrator if it's only one page. Photoshop would be a strange thing to produce a flyer in, although I'm sure people do. As someone said, it may give you problems with resolution and type rendering (in fact, it's not really a typography application unless you want to do 'effects').

Or you could always get someone who knows what they're doing to work on it for you. You never know, they might return the favour and ask for some help on their web stuff.

 

[am:pm graphics]

As has been said I wouldn't use photoshop for anythng other than image manipulation if possible. Illustrator is great for the design of flyers and InDesign is 'the' package to use (in my opinion) for brochures etc. Saying that we use Illustrator at the moment...we love it

Pauline

 

[London Joe]

Definitely Indesign, we use this for all leaflets we design in house

 

[thedesigntailor]

Indesign is good - especially for large docs but I prefer Illustrator myself.

However the software is £600 and takes lots of knowledge a well as creative skills to use competently.

Surely it would be better to use one of the many clever designers on here. There are plenty of cheap ones who could probably get it done in a couple of hours.*

*I wouldn;t be particularly interested in doing it myself as I specialise in web and aren't very cheap so I'm not plying my trade. Instead offering honest advice.


EDIT = infact if the basic designs are done and theres just a few amends it definately isn't worth buying any learning the software IMO

 

[reynoldsdigital]

Microsoft WORD:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfprIxNfCjk

 

[Christine Hough]

I use mailchimp and just use their online email design. I can upload banner and pics and change the type color and font, also background colours. And I can embed links wherever I like.

I don't think an email needs to be over complicated.
With a banner and clear headings it looks professional enough I think.

This is an example
http://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=86367d8ba62941348ff581398&id=a75153864d&e=