Graphic Design Software
The standards in the graphic design and publishing industries are Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark, InDesign, PageMaker, and Dreamweaver. These software tools are essential for many designers, artists, illustrators, and media professionals in producing content.

A quick tally of the cost of all these programs is staggering if you are on a limited budget. If you are a student or individual thinking about attending a graphic design college, you may want to experience some of these programs to see if you have the ability and talent to use the software. But then, the factor of high cost comes in once again.

The Alternatives
For students or perspective students investigating a career in graphic design or media, there is a free and legal alternative in using free design software. These programs can allow you to experience and get familiar with the process of using applications that are similar in nature to the “big guns” of design programs.

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free image authoring and photo retouching software program very similar to Photoshop in features and operation.

It supports the operating systems XP, Vista, Mac OS X, and Linux. GIMP has an active community which helps to improve the program through plugins and add-ons. GIMP is free of charge and is supported by donations from its users.

INKSCAPE is an “Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format,” according to the description found on Inkscape’s website.

Inkscape is a full featured editor that supports markers, clones, alpha bending, and other operations that allow for advanced graphics manipulation.

NVU pronounced “N-View” is a web authoring system that is similar in nature to FrontPage and Dreamweaver. It allows you to edit HTML pages.

NVU has a number of extensions and is community supported in its development. The developers of NVU say that creating web pages with their software is as easy as using a word processor.

SCRIBUS is an impressive professional desktop publishing program that is similar to PageMaker. It supports CMYK color, ICC color management, color separations, Spot Colors and PDF authoring.

Help Support the Developers and Their Work
These programs are freely available for download and are free of charge.

The quality of these applications is astonishing once you realize that the efforts behind these design programs have been fueled with voluntary time, resources, and research.

Donations to the developers of these applications will help them to continue to expand and improve their products. Don’t forget to show your appreciation by sending in your donation.

You may not be able to afford to buy the big name software design programs, but the ones listed here are pretty close to the mark. As you prepare to go to the graphic design school of your choice, these free applications may help you to understand the basics of software design tools.

On August 26, 1959 a small little car was imagined and designed in the mind of its inventor, Alec Issigonis. The car is known worldwide, has been featured in movies, and its name — the Mini Cooper.

Now fifty years later minispace.com, dedicated to all things about the “creative use of space” and acting as a gathering place for creative people and designers, is announcing its open call for the MINI Space Design Competition.

……………………………………………And what is the theme? The topic of “50“.
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What to Submitt

• Content should be created for use as a background image for the minispace.com website and as a stand-alone image
• Designs can incorporate any still media such as photos, illustrations, graphics, or digital content as long as the rights are owned by the designer of the piece
• The design may include MINI elements, but is not required. Including MINI material will not increase your chances of winning
• Do not use the MINI car logo in your design
• Entries should be 1280 x 800 in dimension and in JPG format
• Up to 9 entries may be uploaded to the contest site

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Sometimes Less Is More
The great composer, Beethoven, is often noted for his rich orchestral compositions. But as gifted and talented as Beethoven was, he understood while every musical instrument was available for use, he didn’t have to write parts for all of them all of the time; he also wrote relatively simple piano solos and pieces for smaller ensembles.

Composing Music and Composing Websites
A parallel can be drawn for web designing–you may have at your disposal flash animations, frames, multiple links, bright graphics, hundreds of fonts and background images, but that doesn’t mean you have to use all of them while “composing” your website. Web design is more than the whole of its parts; successful web design means understanding what is appropriate and fitting for any particular project.

Functionality, Appeal, Simplicity, Texture (F.A.S.T)
Have you visited websites that were difficult or extremely hard to navigate? Most likely, you left that site in under a minute. To design an effective website, it must function properly, be simple enough for anyone to navigate, have aesthetic appeal for visitors, and offer interesting textures in the form of color palettes, fonts, graphics, and images.

Match the Mood of the Website With the Content
As a web designer, you are an artist commissioned to produce a piece that your client is happy with. If your client runs a business, take into account what sort of business it is. If it is a children’s clothes outlet, design the site accordingly. Be sensitive to what the website should represent. You and your client will be happier.

SCION is a modern-thinking brand on the forefront of youth culture and innovation, known for engaging its consumers in an interactive quest for creative ideas. One of SCION’s trademarks is its support of organizations that also seek to connect with children and young adults in expressive, artistic ways.

In its mission to advocate community outreach and foster creativity in the younger generation, SCION now joins forces with Cut&Paste in the FRESHLY SQUEEZED WEB DESIGN CHALLENGE (”Contest”). The website design competition will benefit J.U.i.C.E., a non-profit weekly after-school program that allows the underprivileged youth of Los Angeles to express themselves artistically through dance, music, visual arts, and MC skills workshops.

As J.U.i.C.E. focuses its resources on programming and operations, they need your help: SCION’s new online competition, the FRESHLY SQUEEZED WEB DESIGN CHALLENGE summons all web designers, illustrators, graffiti connoisseurs, coding geniuses, hip-hop enthusiasts, and creatives all around to help J.U.i.C.E. refine their online presence with a brand new homepage design. Web designs submitted for the competition should embody J.U.i.C.E.’s urban aesthetic and youthful spirit, while adding to the site’s functionality as a user-friendly vehicle for communication.

So, help city kids, put $5K in your pocket, and get your work seen. Submit your designs for a new and improved Web site for J.U.i.C.E., a nonprofit hip-hop arts program for LA’s urban youth, and you’ll be entered to win five grand, courtesy of SCION. All entries must be submitted no later than 11:59 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on April 10, 2009. Visit the site to learn more.

Attention advertisers, designers and in-house corporate marketing departments! The 39th Creativity Annual Awards opens June 1, 2009. At this time you may pre-register for the competition and be put on the mailing list receive a Call for Entries. If you have entered in the past, you may update contact information. Starting in June you can submit your best work from 2008-2009 and see how it stacks up against international competition. Creativity is Courage…now prove it!

Categories include print, publications, packaging, alternative media, new media and Web design, illustration, photography, typography, commercials in TV and radio, film and video, green marketing and political. Each category supports numerous subcategories. Ad agencies, publishers, graphic designers, photographers, freelancers, illustrators, producers, directors, web designers, and corporate art departments from any nation or U.S. state or territory may submit original advertisements and designs that have appeared in print between June 1, 2008 and May 31, 2009. Anyone associated with the entry may make submissions.

Student work must have been created during the 2008-2009 school year. Instructors and professors may submit work on behalf of a student. Non-English entries must include an English translation. Non-English video or audio entries must be dubbed or subtitled in English.

Deadline is midnight EDT July 15, 2009. Visit the site to learn more.

The Adobe Design Achievement Awards (ADAA) celebrate student achievement reflecting the powerful convergence of technology and the creative arts. The competition - which showcases individual and group projects created with industry-leading Adobe creative software - honors the most talented and promising student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers, developers, and computer artists from the world’s top institutions of higher education.

Contest is open to all individuals age 18 years or older who are full-time matriculated students in an accredited institution of higher education in the 50 U.S. states, Washington D.C., Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Switzerland, France, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Republic of China, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, India, Portugal, Spain, Thailand, Malaysia, Brazil, Russian Federation, Poland and Turkey, who hold citizenship status or have official work or student visas for the above countries. For group entries, everyone who worked on the entry must be listed on the entry form and must meet these eligibility requirements.

All entries must be received by Adobe no later than 5 p.m. Pacific time on 5 June 2009. Visit the site to learn more.