Legal Issues

Editing graphics brings legal aspects along with it. You need to know if what your are doing in the way of creating or editing graphics has no legal implications. When you are getting images for a logo, poster or picture you need to make sure that you have the rights to use that image appropriatley, the rights can be gained from the legal owner of the image. Failure to get the rights and continuing with the use of the image could result in a law suit against you and/or the business. Some things you need to think about are:

• Copyright - copyright is a obtained by buying it legally. it is used to show that you have legal ownership of an item, such as images, ideas, company names etc...
• Obtaining Permission - before you start to produce or legally sell someone elses work you need to obtain copyright permission. Permission is better the sooner you can get it as there is not a guarantee it will be granted so the sooner you know then the sooner you can change your plan. Should you make a product that you can sell, then expect to have to pay for copyright permission. When applying for permission you may want to include the following:

1. Full description of the work you want to use
2. How it will be used
3. Name of the author and the work you wish to use
4. How many units you predict to sell
5. Will it be altered in any way
6. Assurance that the work will be attributed and displayed appropriatley

The main implication that a graphics designer could face is that they could receive a "civil suit". They may receive this if they do not obtain permission from the legal owner of the image that they use.
even though graphics designers can get sued, they also haev the right to sue other people should people use their work without getting permission. A real life example of this:
A rgaphics designer created an identity for business cards for a client. The client took this design, and tweaked it a little, and reprinted the business cards, claiming that the design was comlpetley different and refused to pay the designer. To read the full story go to here

Limitations of Image Software

Adobe have designed a software called the Adobe Suite, and it is designed to let the user have the functions of all the tools in the software package ready to use. For example, Photoshop cannot vectorise images, how Illustrator can. If a user needs to edit an image, to reduce the glare, remove red eye in photographs, or edit the colours for a professional photoshoot then they would use Photoshop to do this, rather than Illustrator.

For capturing images, cameras, video cameras etc, they would already come with software that allow the user to import the photos from the device onto the computer.

When trying to resize images that you have made in Photoshop they lose quality as they are bitmapped, meaning is it more difficult to scale larger or smaller, but because Illustrator uses vector images then they are easier to scale as the image is just mathematical instructions and all it needs to do is change the numbers in the instructions.

Photoshop and Illustrator can both save images in different file types. All file types availiable in Photoshop are raster images as it uses bitmap and these are larger than vector because each pixel has to be stored. Photoshops default file type is extremely large as is has to store all of the editing data used, layers, filters etc. For Illustrator the file types are tiny compared to Photoshop as it uses vector images, so if you were to draw a simple shape, it would be a small mathematical equation rather than individual data for each pixel.

Evolving Output Media

One of the biggest evolving output media would have to be monitors. Monitors are going to start being created that have a larger definition. This will give the designer to chance to edit the more smaller parts of their image with much more ease.

HD monitors give videos a more realistic look, sharpening the edges and giving more vibrant colours. They are getting higher and higher contrast ratios all the time, for example although the human can barely tell the difference of anything over a 60,000:1 contrast ratio, monitors are still being made with contrast ratios such as 80,000:1 and they will be getting higher. A contrast ratio basically tells the difference between the darkest black and the lightest white. If a monitor has a 60,000:1 contrast ratio, it means that the white is 60,000 times lighter than the black. The same applies for any different contrast ratio.

LED monitors can give you a huge resolution, for example the top resolution right now is 1080p, (1920x1080). The letter "p" stands for "Progressive Scan" and this means that the image is not interlaced. 1080p is normally a widescreen model TV as it gives 1920 pixels horizontally, and 1080 pixels vertically.

In the future I expect that touch screens will become a new technology made openly availiable to everyone for their monitors, either watching TV or using on PCs. This will give graphic designers new oppurtunities to handle graphics with greater ease, getting rid of the need for a mouse and simply introducing the use of hands. A touch screen monitor will help a graphics designer to also create images, different stylus' can be used, each having its own effect (brush, pencil, pen etc) allowing it to feel as though they are drawing the object on paper. The keyboard could be built into the monitor, along the bottom for example so the option is still there to use a keyboard.

Printers are becoming faster and are being able to print better quality images. These advancements are going to be useful to a graphics designer who is needing to produce posters/flyers. Posters can often be large in size and this will require a higher image quality to make sure it looks as good as it can without any distortions. Printers can be more efficient now, saving on ink which can be quite expensive for a graphics designer, and also saving elctricity.
The colour ranges are becoming better in printers, giving a more dynamic looking print. Larger printers will print off larger images, up to A1 size, and still keep the quality as though it is on an A4 size. The biggeset right now is A1 paper, although in the future it may even become bigger.

Custom Briefs

We were set the task of creating briefs for a company that required something to be designed. I recieved a brief that asked me to create a logo for a zoo that incorporated an animal from the zoo in the logo, aswell as using the zoo's name. It stated that it wanted the text to be bold and easy to read.


Here is my partners review for my design:

This design is almost exactly what i asked for. The text is bold and it stands out, but it is simple to read. The design is also simple but it also shows the zoo name and it show us an animal that is related to a zoo, so therefore this all meets the requirements that i asked for. However there is one change that i would have liked to make which is i would have liked a better animal that more people like rather than a snake, e.g a more popular animal such as a monkey or a tiger. All in all the design is exactly what i asked for and meets all of the needs i wanted it to. There is not too much colour which means it will not cost a lot to print on things such as letters or memo's. Also they added slight annotations to the image but only pointing out the obvious points, but it does show some.


For my brief I used a recording studio that needed a new logo. It needed to use a drawing of headphones and it needed to use either the full name of the studio or just the initials. I asked for it to look 3D also.


It has fulfilled the requirements I set, it has used headphones, use of the name and looks 3D. There has been a good use of design notes, saying specificly what type font and what size. Few colours are used so the printing costs would be low. I understand the idea and it does have potential, specificly the second idea using the headphones wrapped around the initials.

EnCert Logo

For the EnCert logos I am trying to include natural objects, such as grass, wind, water etc... This is the first of three logos that I have created.

Microsoft Posters

Here is the first poster I have made for Microsoft to try and introduce Windows 7 to the public. It is a simple poster, with few elements.

Road-Side Food Posters

Here are the posters I have created for the Organic Food stand on the motorway. I gave the company the name "Organi-Burgers" and created two sets of posters for it. This is the set of signs that will be set out one after the other on the motorway, so as you drive past one you see another one.

Next is the poster I designed that has all the information on it. Just one single poster to be placed on the side of the road.

I tried to keep them simple, with not too much text on due to the fact that people will be driving past at high speeds and will not have the time to read a lot of information. I made it so that the text stands out from the backgrounds.