We don’t ask the sewing machine’s brand when we see a beautiful dress. We don’t ask the oven’s make when we relish a lovely pizza. We don’t ask which pen was used to write the manuscript when we read an un-put-down-able classic.
But we do ask the make on certain occasions. For instance, when we see a brilliant photograph, most people would ask, which camera is it? Also, when I have made some posters, people have asked me which tool have I used to make this poster.
The problem is nobody believes that graphic design or photography is an artform. *coughs* Not that I am an artist-artist per se, by any stretch of the imagination, but I have been asked this question a lot.
Which tool do you use to make that poster? Do you use Photoshop? Do you know Illustrator? Corel Draw? Some advice on how to use them, please? You must be good at drawing.
Well, I do know Photoshop and Illustrator and InDesign and stuff but how does that matter? And, No, I am not good at drawing. I am just a last page of the notebook doodler like most of the people.
So, recently my 7-year-old Dell Studio Laptop died. (I hope it will rise like a Phoenix again) But because of its motherboard failure, I am unable to use it to do any graphic designing work. So, should I hang my boots and stop doing things I like to do as a hobby? No, I turn to the next best thing available. No, it is not a Graphics Editor Software. It is not a high-end pen tablet where you just think of something and voila! it appears on the screen.
I switched to PowerPoint. The good old slideshow software which most of us just hate because of the bad quality presentations we all have to go through at some point or the other in life.
PowerPoint is amazing. It is, of course, the most basic thing available which doesn’t give you many options to edit, and exactly for that reason, it is the most underrated piece of software. I have used PowerPoint to make Posters and Logos. Recently, mostly for my Toastmasters Club’s Weekly Invitations and some logos for friends, but for a normal person, it can do a helluva job easily.
Just drop some background images, which you can easily find from allthefreestock.com. Add some text in a font of your choice from dafont.com. Add some icons from thenounproject.com. What else do you need? And if you indeed want to edit something, feel free to hop over to pixlr.com/editor/ which works great like Photoshop.
Considering you’re not a high profile graphics designer, like 99% of the world. These resources can get you what you want, with just PowerPoint. And there is no tutorial needed too!
Here are some of the posters I made. Solely using the above-said resources.
Featured Photo by Igor Ovsyannykov on Unsplash
