launch my career

[sanika76]

I passed out my graduation(BFA) in 1997
started off my career as a graphic artist, but had to live due to some family probs in 2001.Now i am ready to launch my career once again.
I know flash and photoshop....to the elementary level.but i am not sure whats going on exactly in the market.
Can you guide me for that? :confused:

[skilled1]

same stuff really, alot more flash based eBusiness stores, other that that, not much really lol

[carousel30]

yeah... i agree, though depending how INTO flash you were pre-2001, you definitely missed out on the ActionScripting part of it developing into a full-fledged language.

Other than that, there's been Operating System changes, but Photoshop is still Photoshop, just a little... enhanced.

Market-wise, I would say that a lot has changed. You probably are talking about having 'dropped out' right after the boom. People have returned to the idea of Web sites being a (or in some cases) THE crucial face of a business. Because of that, there's a certain amount of practicality that's present in all modern business Web sites, whereas before, gimmicks were a common thing (think Southwest.com's 'ticket counter' interface) because the bulk of business was still coming from other channels.

But, graphics-program-wise, everything still works the same. If you were a good designer in '97, you might want to be looking around a lot at what's current, but you'll still be a good designer.

[CrazyMerlin]

Yes, I agree also.

You really need to get into actionscript if you are going to make a run at the flash market.

Most people I talk to now have high-speed internet so the limitations on image size and color depth have lifted somewhat.

One big area is templates...flash and static, but particularly flash. Custom made templates can go for a lot of money...just look at templatemonster.com and look at the one off's. Some of them go for almost $2000.

Good business there.

[sanika76]

Thanks for your advice.Any way if I have to diversify my skills, and me more acceptable in the market, what are the other softwares i should learn.
Will ASP, java....QuarkXpress...help me.
If there is any other software which You think I should learn, Pls let me know.
your suggestions are valuable to me.

[Poxicator]

Quark Xpress is still widely used, mostly Quark 4 and 6.5 generations.
InDesign is a better page make-up app but lacks the widespread user base.
Pagemake is defunct.
Illustrator and Photoshop are at CS2 now with plenty of web integration
Macromedia was recently bought out by Adobe so Freehand is prob dead too now.
Therefore Flash, DW and Fireworks are alll under the Adobe banner so I guess Fireworks has a certain noose around its kneck.