Paul Goode: Freelance Graphic Designer

Est. 1969. Solving problems with creative design for the good of mankind…

I just wanted to share with you my recent experiences with Adobe CS3 and the Bridge application in particular. For some time I’d been getting performance problems on my Intel iMac that were only partly resolved by restarting the machine. I had come to the conclusion that it was a lack of memory issue as, being a busy designer, I am running a lot of applications at once as I flip and switch from one to the other. That’s almost the full suite of CS3 apps, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Acrobat, Bridge and Dreamweaver, as well as Entourage, Word, Firefox, Safari, iTunes and Font Xplorer all running in unison. After a while the Mac would start slowing down and switching applications became agonisingly slow.

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Ever wondered what qualities differentiate a good designer from a great designer? What assets to their personality will they have and what makes for a truly creative mind?

Over the years I’ve worked with many graphic designers, yet in my opinion, among them, truly creative thinkers have been few and far between. Sure, there are many who can learn how to use the tools of the trade to become competent creative artists, but as designers, our greatest asset and tool is our brain. Study, learning, exploring, experience and good mentoring can help unlock our natural potential, but I believe that creative thinking is not something that can be taught at design college. For those of us born with an inherent design thinking, this becomes our way of life and not just a tool implemented for the workplace.

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Hello there and thank you for dropping by. This is my new online home where I can share with you not only my graphic design portfolio, but also my well articulated and intellectual musings, or, more likely, inane ramblings on my design experiences and life in general :))

I wanted to create a website that was more interactive and immediately appealing, where the visitor (that’s you that is) can get a sense that there’s someone real here that you can talk to, exchange ideas with, get advice from and have a bit of craic with. I had designed a sleek and elegant website earlier this year to celebrate my 10 years as a freelancer… however… it wasn’t long before I began to dislike what I’d created. The main problem with it was there was no personality in the design and any visitors would soon scan through the static brochure pages and be likely to think, yes, nice work, but so what?

As with any job, I had a problem and needed to solve it. This incarnation of my site is my current solution. So, what have I done this time that’s so different?

Okay, well, for starters, it’s me here talking to you, I hope that a sense of my personality is coming across to you and that you can see I love what I do and take great pride in any project I produce. You can leave a comment on any of my posts if you like what you read or see, as said above, let’s communicate and exchange ideas.

Then of course, there’s the matter of selling my work and design skills. So I’ve made things as easy as possible for you to view by creating categories for Corporate Identity, Websites, Brochures, etc. I have given my personal thoughts and background information on each project.There are also Case Studies for more in depth analysis of certain projects.

If you’d just like an overview of what I do, then view the Gallery page and get a taste of what I’ve been doing over the last 10 years or so. No words… just images.

Finally, you can make direct contact with me on my erm… Contact page ;))

Ciao for now!

Paulo

After two days of hard slog I’ve finally got my online portfolio sorted. Phew! After two days of tinkering with WordPress, optimising all my images, writing reams and reams of endless design related guff, making lots of mistakes, suffering a minor panic attack after thinking I may have lost a day’s work, drinking way to much coffee, relief at realising I’d just saved my “lost” day’s work… I can sit back, relax and ponder on whether what I’ve just created is “good enough”… and… as it’s me talking to myself here… I’ll probably be chopping and changing things again first thing in the morning…

So, before I go to bed I’d just like to thank Muse, Rory Gallagher, Astral Projection, Bolt Thrower, Queens of the Stone Age, Cardiacs, Shpongle, Aphex Twin among many others who have helped me get through the last couple of days :)) I thank you.

Right… on with the blogging! Hopefully there’s someone somewhere out there reading this and actually liking it :))