I have been designing web pages since 2000. I started out learning html and creating very bad websites. Hey, we have to start some where right? I would dabble with hex codes to change background, text and border colours. If I wanted images I ‘borrowed’ them from other websites and then ‘make them my own’ with terrible image editing skills.

I then went on to some web design courses through TAFE. That’s where I met Photoshop. It was like some one had given me a license to, well, do anything I wanted with graphics. I learned all about layers, the clone brush and layer masks. This was enough to get me started and and enough to get me into trouble.

I’ve built up a skill set that can get me out of trouble if I need to create or adjust an image. However the limitation of Photoshop is that it is for the creation of bitmap images. Bitmap images, when resized beyond it’s originally created size, become blurry and distorted. The ‘opposite’ of bitmap images are vector images. These can be resized without losing any clarity and are easy to work with as you can zoom into them very close without images becoming jagged and difficult to work with.

I have never had any training with vector image applications such as Adobe’s Illustrator. I decided to recently search for a free vector image creation application to play around. That is where I met Inkscape. Inkscape, from what I can glean, is a free alternative to Adobe’s Illustrator.

My interest in learning vector graphics is mostly for the creation of logos. Logos can be used in a myriad of places thus they need to be flexible with size. For example, if a logo is created at about 800 x 800 with Photoshop it can really only be used at that size or smaller. If a logo is created at the same size with a vector image application it can be used, theoretically, at any size.

I have been creating a few logos with my new found skills to get used to the vector image creation workflow. Below are a few examples of what I have come up with.

David Spencer Web Design logo prototype.

Dabbling with vector graphic creation. David Spencer Web Design logo prototype.

 

David Spencer Web Design - Logo Prototype

Dabbling with vector image creation. David Spencer Web Design logo prototype.

 

David Spencer Web Design logo

Dabbling with vector graphic creation. David Spencer Web Design logo. This is the logo I decided to use for this website.

 

Jessica Nash - Birth & Postnatal Doula logo.

Dabbling with vector graphic creation. Jessica Nash – Birth & Postnatal Doula.

Let me know in the comments what you think.