Are you in need of a desktop publisher / layout designer?

[Shadavar]

Hi All

I'm looking to change my career into something a lot more enjoyable than my current situation, so I though I'd try freelance DTP and layout design work for the RPG market.

I come from a design background doing everything from vinyl signs to packaging design, though it's been a few years. I'm currently a hobbyist/semi-professional photographer and retoucher and use Photoshop often if not daily. I've been using CorelDRAW since version 2 (why back in the 90s) and have InDesign, though I prefer Corel. I understand colour processing, spot colours and colour separation for printing, PDF creation, etc.

If your are interested, I'd love to do a 4 page sample based on your requirements.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Regards
Guthrie Ward

[LazarX]

The major problem here is... that there really isn't a market for you to work for. There are a couple of big publishers with their own staff, and everybody else that's essentially mom and pop with their own operations and low output who'll generally be doing all their own stuff.

If you're looking to set up your own graphics shop, your bread and butter is in the commercial market, not games.

And quite frankly, having worked in the Manhattan DTP scene, Corel absolutely totally blew back then when it came to pre-press and I can't imagine that it's gotten any better since.. Stick with Adobe.

[Lilith]

Normally I'd redirect you to RPGFreelancer.com but that site was part of the hack that took down ENWorld, so you might want to go to this RPG.net forum and advertise your skills there (you'll want to provide links to examples of your work). Best of luck!

[Marc Radle]

LazarX wrote:

And quite frankly, having worked in the Manhattan DTP scene, Corel absolutely totally blew back then when it came to pre-press and I can't imagine that it's gotten any better since.. Stick with Adobe.

Agreed. Corel = Bad :)

Professional level graphics / layout & design should be done using Photoshop for pixel based image work, InDesign for the actual layout and Illustrator for vector images.

[Scott Betts]

Do you have a portfolio that we could take a look at? Even if it's just a few samples of work you've done?

[Shadavar]

Thanks for the info, I'll def look into using Adobe's suite more, it's just that I work faster in Corel as I've been using it for years.

I don't have a portfolio as such as that's why I'm offering to do a 4 page sample. Mainly because I don't have artwork to play with. But I have designed some stuff for RPGNow and my own use. Here are a few links to my public Dropbox folder:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26642775/TUCPH_01.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26642775/TUCPH_01_Aquaman.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26642775/TUCPH_01_Batman.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26642775/TUCPH_01_Superman.jpg

And here's my stuff on RPGNow:

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/56476/Comprehensive-Character-Record-Sheet?te rm=Comprehensive+Character+Record+Sheet

If you have any other questions and/or suggestions, please don't hesitate to ask.

[Irontruth]

LazarX wrote:

The major problem here is... that there really isn't a market for you to work for. There are a couple of big publishers with their own staff, and everybody else that's essentially mom and pop with their own operations and low output who'll generally be doing all their own stuff.

Not quite true, there is a market, it's just not terribly large or lucrative. I know people who make decent money for being single, young and relatively healthy.

Especially as long as things like Kickstarter stay busy with monetary contributions, more small designers are able to pay to add things like editors, artists and layout work.