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It looks like you almost have it right. After you have hosted the image on ImageShack, make sure you copy the address under the category which says "Direct link to Image" .

heres a buisness card for you, nubie
Welcome to the neighberhod!


PS. yahoo photos stinks!

I was thinking more like this ....but thanks fungus
Thank you all for the great advice ....No matter how small you deeds are they are still kind deeds and you never know how important they are to people . You may just say or do the right thing at the right time to alter someones life for the better!!
Keep up the great work.
Splodge , Rey , Tofu ,and Queen you guys are the best ! Thanks for not making me feel stupid! Tofu excluded ofcourse!!1
Just kidding bud...(you rock)

What do you think of the logo?????

It's a beautiful image but way too much for a logo.Need to simplify. Think of apple computers. You see the apple and you know exactly what it stands for. But yet it is so simple.

maybe a gradient with masks?

thanks for the advice....good advice
back to the drawing board

It would make a cool album cover. (I mean CD) Boy am I old.

to be a graphic designer you have to study hard( and i don't mean only in school) and have talent, that bee logo shows all of the inexperience and incompetence that this field of work is filled with (no offense to you, young starter). There's thousands of so called graphic designers, just a few that really are. And those few make good money. In Italy is very difficult to do this profession and make big money, i started my own company 3 years ago, only this last year i'm seeing some ok money, was tough at the beginning. To consistently keep your graphic designer business going on you have to keep studying and practicing for the rest of your working life or you'll be left behind with no job. I recently completed my new company website, so give it a look please.

Supa is right about the experience.I would not sell myself as a graphic designer if I were you. I would say photo retoucher / illustrator. That is how I sell myself because that is what I like to do. I also do graphic design but I would rather just work with the images.Get some Graphic Design training under your belt and see if that is something you were meant to do. Good Luck with whatever you choose and never give up but know your strengths and weaknesses.

Ouch...does something smell pompous in here? We all put our images together one pixel at a time. The range of talent in the field of graphic design is enormous--I go from thinking I'm the cat's pajamas to thinking that I suck I suck I suck--every day. I see ads on the train that were obviously done in Photoshop--and the shadows are wrong, or you can see halos, or the color matching is off...and I think, "Damn--I don't know how that designer got the job." Then I look at the stuff in here and I'm blown away--the entry I spent hours on and felt so great about looks simple compared to whatever marco or claf turned in that day. So then I think, "Man, I'm just faking it. How can I compete with talent like this?"

I'm sounding kind of preachy here, but I say the same thing that I say to my ten-year-old all the time--the only thing you ever have to judge yourself against is your own ability. Judging yourself against what other people can do is gonna make you either vain or insecure.

And, as far as carreer paths, I think that one can't be late for one's own destiny. And, of course, life is long and learning never stops, whatever you do. The one thing that will shut your ass down in a hurry is listening to people who tell you you're not good enough. That's nonsense. Make like Guru and step in the arena...

Stepping off soapbox now--just remember that inexperience don't always equal incompetence--no offense to you, old timer.

i knew someone would feel offended in some way, now ask yourself, why are you offended? By the way, your subway example fits perfectly my line of tought. Too many rely on nepotism to get thru in this field.

Tiff and Sup both have valid points. (good God Sup, your web site is phenomenal!!!) See what I mean, Tiff. Sup's got 26 wins at PSC and a great business.

Sup, surprised you have time to write in forums but sharing valuable experience is how this thread started out. Turned out to be a very interesting one too as we're hearing from designers all around the globe!

I wouldn't call myself offended...I just think that people in a position to be mentors (like you) have a responsibility to the nubies of the world. Without getting too into it, I'll use myself as an example. I'm more of a traditional artist than a graphic artist, although my income is split pretty evenly between the two types of work I do. When I was about fifteen, I decided against law school in favor of art school. My goal (at the time) was to graduate high school, go to art school, move to NYC and work for Andy Warhol's Factory. My parents, when I told them about this dream, reacted as if I'd told them I was gay or something--"We'll always love you, but what kind of life is that going to be?" and, "Why would you throw away your future like that? Do you know how low your chances of success are in that field? Do you know how much competition there is? Why not just go to law school and then keep painting as a hobby?" And so forth. Sadly, Warhol died about two months before I graduated, but I still carried on with my plan, and came to NYC to be a painter. I ended up waiting tables and tending bar for years, with only a coffee-shop show or maybe a group exhibition now and then to supplement the tips. After several years, I started making a name for myself. At that point, I was bartending across the street from the WTC. The majority of my regulars were people who worked in the towers, mainly youngish people in their 20s and 30s, trying to get ahead in their fields much as I was trying to get ahead in mine--working 80-hour weeks in order to get where they wanted to be. The sad thing was (and is) that a lot of these people were only doing it for the money. People used to say, all the time, stuff about how they admired my dedication to my dream--"I think it's great that you're willing to risk it all for something that might not ever go anywhere, I always wanted to be a bass player myself," that kind of thing. Of course, there were also those day-trader guys who looked down their noses at the insignificant bartender. There are always those people.

On 9/11, I had the day off, because James and I got married on 9/13 and I had stuff to do. I was on my way to get my wedding dress when the first plane hit. When the smoke cleared (sorta) several days later, the other bartender and myself started a list of the dead regulars--looking back, that was kind of a sick thing to do, but there was this need for concrete information at the time. We stopped when we got to 78, because it was just too upsetting. Anyhow, a lot of the dead folks were the same people who always wanted to be a bass player.

You may be saying "how does this relate to the forum topic?" Well, I guess I know a lot of people who died without ever having pursued their ACTUAL dream, either because someone told them they couldn't, or because they told themselves it was unrealistic, whatever. So I've had a lot of time to think about what it is that makes a person settle for the "consolation prize" life. And, maybe I'm wrong, but I've decided that it's usually related to self-doubt. So, therefore, we all have to watch what we say to people--especially those of us far enough down the road to be considered experts or pros in our fields.

So, instead of saying, "You'll never make it, there's too much competition and only the very best should even try," maybe we should be saying, "When I was new at this, such-and-such really helped me." I'm not trying to say I'm all pious--I'm clearly an idiot like everyone else. But I've gotten some comfort from remembering that I said, "Well, shit, go get yourself a bass geetar and get to it, man--this ain't a dress rehearsal," to that one guy. I don't know if he got one or not. But I'm glad I didn't say, "Take it from me--if you'd pursued that bass thing, you'd be back here with me slinging suds."

Bah--maybe I'm taking this one a bit too personally. But I think we need to watch what we say about other peoples' dreams--it's easy to crush them.

Queen,
I don't think Supa is being pompous as much as brutaly honest. The example that you gave about the train is also not really about graphic design. Getting shadows to look right and cleaning up halos is not graphic design. It is more retouching. Pre-press and illustration. Graphic design is more coming up with the idea and composing things a visualy interesting composition while trying to make the message clear to the viewer. You don't even need Photoshop for that. Graphic design is not easy, and not many people do it extremly well. Lot's of people do it ok, but only a small few are great at it. I am not one of those great ones. This is why I said that nubie maybe should sell himself as a retoucher or Illustrator. It seems like he is more interested in the image creation than the designing aspect. If he is interested in the desin part , then he should get some more training and submerge himself in it. I work inside of an ad agency. I have an in-house studio although I work for another company. The graphic designers come up with the ideas and layouts and they depend on me to make the images perfect. or to illustrate an idea that they had. They usualy throw something quick together knowing that it is not perfect and hand it to me. Then I take it , recreate it, create realistic shadows and make things look real or I illustrate an idea that they made a quick sketch of. I bring thier idea to life. You would be surprised how much Photoshop skills most designers don't have. I love what I do and would rather do that than Design. I also do illustration Freelance on the side and you can make real good money doing that. I don't think anyone was trying to crush nubies dreams as much as guide him. Supa maybe was a little defensive but it is a cut throat business out there and Supa's comment was easy compared to the people and critisism out there in the real world. You have to have a tough skin if you want to succeed and as I said, Know your weaknesses. It is better to know your skills and sell what you do best than to try and sell your self as something you are not. I like to golf but I sure as hell am not going to quit my job and sell myself as the next tiger woods. Know what I'm saying?