Graphic design software

Biography

How long have you been in this profession?
Since 1976.

Why did you choose this profession?
Being an artist is not a choice. It just happens, naturally. When you do not expect it, you are already inside.

How did you get started?
In the middle of the 70s, I read an ad in the newspaper that a printing shop was in need of a designer. I had never worked in that profession before, but I decided to take the risk. During the first days in my new job, I realized that I was in my true habitat.

What are your most important accomplishments?
Honestly? What I like most is doing the task itself, attempting to reach the goals and trying to find the best solutions. Once finished, I never feel completely satisfied and feel that I could have done it better. The day I say to myself, "here is my masterpiece", I think it is time to retire.

Describe a special moment in your career.
This actually happened even before I became a professional. In the school where I did a quick course about "Lettering for small posters", the teacher asked students to do the layout of a poster announcing the concert of a famous Brazilian singer who would perform his show in the city of Santos. A few days later, walking down the street, I saw my job posted on the walls and poles of the city! It was an unexpected and indescribable feeling!

History with CorelDRAW

How long have you used CorelDRAW?
Since the early 90s, when CorelDRAW 3 was released.

How did you come across CorelDRAW?
One day, a representative of a Graphic Services Bureau came to the advertising agency where I was working and he demonstrated the wonders of CorelDRAW. I became so impressed with the capabilities of the software that I still remember the words I said to a colleague by my side: "Dude, we are facing the future of graphic arts". And I was right.

What are your top three favorite CorelDRAW features?
I think the fairest way to answer this question is: whatever I am trying to do, CorelDRAW offers me the right tools, so at that moment those are the features I like the most.

What are the CorelDRAW features that allow you to distinguish your designs/arts?
I do not think I have a definite style and I do not pretend to have one. The most important thing is trying to make jobs look unique. What must be highlighted is the art itself and not who produced it.

How do you feel about CorelDRAW?
Some friends say, in jest, that I breathe CorelDRAW all day long.

Biography

How long have you been in this profession?
I started my career in Advertising industry immediately after I completed college in 1983. I joined an advertising agency as a Media Executive and quit my job as Media Incharge in 1991.

Why did you choose this profession?
Well, it was not decided by me to come in this profession. I came into advertising just because I got my first job in an advertising agency. My interest was then developed in the industry.

How did you get started?
I used to see the creative artists working with great visuals, which I liked very much. I was always fascinated with their thought processes and the designs they created. We used to have brand positioning meetings for our clients' products. Though I was not involved in the creatives, I used to be there to understand the target audience to plan the media for the advertising campaigns. In 1991, I decided to quit my job to start my own business. However, I came into designing only after my wife, a qualified Commercial Artist, joined my business. That was in 1992 to 1993. Since then, both of us have been running a design studio, mostly in print media.

What are your most important accomplishments?
Together, my wife and I have created over 5000 pieces of art in the past 20 years, which averages to almost one piece of work per work day. These include most of the categories in print media, such as brochures, leaflets, corporate identity, designs for outdoor media, packaging designs, point of purchase materials, exhibition displays etc. About seven or eight years back, I got an assignment for creating a book with about 1200 pages. It was a medical reference book for the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), Pune. Considering the time we had to create the book, I decided to use CorelDRAW for the project. I was much more comfortable using the application than any other. I was able to complete the design of the book in time and everything on the production front worked well too. It was a great day for me when I finished that job.

Describe a special moment in your career.
I can think of three special moments in my career. And all are connected to CorelDRAW. After I started a design studio, I got a designing assignment from my previous employer. Computers and the use of graphic applications was not so popular in those days. When I presented the digital design to my employer, he was amazed and surprised at the job I'd done for him using the computer and CorelDRAW. His appreciation was very special for me. After a few years, I got my first student to teach CorelDRAW from his advertising agency. It was August 2007 when I received a letter informing me about my selection for the World Wide Beta Testing Forum from the Corel Corporation. This was another special moment for me. And today I am being interviewed as a Corel Master - another special moment.

History with CorelDRAW

How long have you used CorelDRAW?
I started using CorelDRAW Version 2. However, Version 3 was the first time I used the software to create commercial designs.

How did you come across CorelDRAW?
I saw a few people using CorelDRAW to create designs. I was interested in understanding more about the application.

Do you have any interesting/funny/noteworthy stories?
These days there is a segmentation in design styles. In the early days when I first started my business, I used to get inquiries about jobs such as creating simple letters in CorelDRAW. I did these types of jobs for free but had to start charging for them as I started getting of the same type. I believe that computer novices and pros are easier to deal with. The intermediates are most difficult. I had one client who was excited with what I did with my computer and CorelDRAW. He wanted me to rotate a 2D scanned picture in a 3D way. I mean he wanted the picture to turn around for his sales literature. And his innocent question was that if you could create such amazing things, why can't you do that for me?

What are your top three favorite CorelDRAW features?
The Print Merge in CorelDRAW was the number one feature for me. I enjoyed a monopoly in this area as no other CorelDRAW user in my region could use this feature. I have used it to integrate more than 70 fields in a single job. Those were the Management students' result sheets with variable data of their names, semester wise subjects, marks obtained by the students and more. The imposition tool is another tool which I find very useful and is my favorite. I don't know why this tool isn't used as much by other CorelDRAW users.

As an artist, my wife loves the Mesh fill tool and has created amazing illustrations using it. I know it's a difficult tool for non-artists who don't understand the way it works. Not being an artist myself, I am unable to create with this tool, but still I love it.

What are the CorelDRAW features that allow you to distinguish your designs/art?
A perfect artist who has technical knowledge of printing, understanding of computer logic and experience with the CorelDRAW application can do wonders. Unfortunately, a person with all of these qualities is rare. CorelDRAW has all the capabilities to fulfill all our design and reproduction needs. It's very difficult to name only a few features from CorelDRAW that help distinguish our designs.

How do you feel about CorelDRAW?
I am emotionally attached with CorelDRAW and I have been with it for almost 20 years. The first license I purchased was version 3. Since then, I've never looked back. It has made my career and helped me earn a living so I have never had to look for an alternative. CorelDRAW rocks.

Biography

Born and based in Germany, I learned to draw as a young child. An autodidactic study of numerous scientific subjects, including anatomy and optics, helped me develop my knowledge of shape, perspective, and figurative representation - all of which contribute to good illustration. After an apprenticeship in advertising, I began doing airbrush artwork and portraits on commission in my sparetime, while working for several sign making employers. In 2007, I took a job as a corporate publisher and marketing assistant for a European IT supplies enterprise, and since then I use the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite daily, taking full advantage of it in my work with graphics design, marketing materials and digital illustrations for my clients.

How long have you been in this profession?
I've been a self-employed designer since January 3rd, 2012.

Why did you choose this profession?
For two reasons: 1. Art, design and illustration are my passion - there's probably nothing I know better. 2. I am a blockheaded do-gooder, and self employment was the only way to combine my passion with my interests.

How did you get started?
I'd planned my business years before, but the year I started was simply the right time for my concept. It sounds like the common story: after some frustrating occupations I decided to dare the big step and took the chance. I'd done some freelance work besides my previous employer at the time, so I was lucky to have some clients when I started.

What are your most important accomplishments?
Just from the beginning it was self evident for me to have higher standards for myself than demanded by my clients. It is most important for me not only to satisfy a client but to surprise him. With every task, I try to get better results than before - it's natural that creativity should never become regular, it's always a process. So my foremost accomplishment is always the highest possible quality, dynamically and increasing.

I also provide my accomplishments under the aspects of "sustainable development", and I take this topic very serious! It's an integral part of my business, and clients who are concerned with this issue are glad to hand over the ecological, economical and social responsibility with a clear conscience: they are able to reach marketing goals without eroding their own sustainable strategy. At the end, I bear the responsibility that I did my best to leave a better world to following generations, and that's neither restricted to my spare time nor the amount of my contribution, as small as it ever seems to be.

Describe a special moment in your career.
I'd been working as a Call Center Agent for four years, and that time was a very tough lesson for me. It was a really exhausting job, and I tried to overcome the stress with humor: I drew small comics and caricatures for my workmates to motivate them, and they created a so-called "Wall of Shame", where they pinned my works. One day, the boss saw that and got really angry (well, most caricatures showed himself...), he ripped the works off the wall and claimed them. Many years later after I'd quit the job, I got a phone call from a Call Center Magazine: the publisher wanted a comic series for his magazine. I was really surprised when I asked the publisher how he knew about me, and he told me that he had met my ex-boss at an exhibition, where he was raving about my caricatures! That showed me once again that no one should judge people solely on the basis of their reaction.

History with CorelDRAW

How long have you used CorelDRAW?
I first came in contact with CorelDRAW back in 1995, where I absolved my apprenticeship in sign making and advertising. CorelDRAW was very popular in the sign making business, and it was easy to use and fast to learn. Over the years I was employed by several sign makers, so I've been working with CorelDRAW continuously. The first time I exhausted the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite fully for print and online graphics design was in 2007, where I was hired on as a corporate publisher. I found out that NOTHING is impossible to create with the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite, and I remain faithful to it down to the present day. CorelDRAW always helped me to reach my goals, and therefore I have never doubted it won't satisfy my needs and demands in my self-employment business.

Do you have any interesting/funny/noteworthy stories?
Of course! In my employment as a corporate publisher, there was a workmate who had to technically process my raw designs, but he wasn't working with CorelDRAW! That was an insurmountable obstacle, it seemed. He was very biased and blockheaded, and I made a bet with him that I would be able to prepare my designs so everyone could work with them. You have to know: CorelDRAW isn't able to export files to the PSD extension without rasterizing text layers. I wrote a CorelDRAW macro, which exported the CorelDRAW files to the appropriate format, and the macro batch "injected" the text layers into the exported file. It was a challenge, but it worked great and super-fast, and my workmate lost his bias... and a crate of beer. We got on quite well with each other since then.

What are your top three favorite CorelDRAW features?
Mesh Fill is my favourite. I never thought it could be so easy to achieve reallistic illustrations within a vector editing application. Artistic Media brushes offer a lot of potetial, and with a tablet device, illustrations like comics are really fun to draw and it works a lot faster than drawing them by hand, scanning and tracing them. To be able to automate tasks within CorelDRAW is also a real time saver. This feature makes CorelDRAW not only easy and fast to use, it extends it's capabilities to incredible flexibility.

What are the CorelDRAW features that allow you to distinguish your designs/art?
My designs reflect the CorelDRAW advantages as well as my personality: I always try to do as much as possible but to keep it as simple as necessary at the same time - just like CorelDRAW is. On the other hand, I have a high quality standard of myself and I like to create my designs to be as detailed, but also tidy and clean as possible.

How do you feel about CorelDRAW?
CorelDRAW is like a good old friend for me: we had good and bad times, but I always relied on CorelDRAW and never regret it. Like in every good friendship, I've learned a lot, and patience, understanding and compromises keep the friendship going steady. The only thing I'll ever miss is having a beer with CorelDRAW!

Biography

How long have you been in this profession?
15 years.

Why did you choose this profession?
I have taken art classes all my life and throughout grade school, high school and some college. I knew I wanted to work in some sort of art or design setting, yet with no real formal education my options were limited.

How did you get started?
I started working for a local Imprinted Apparel Company as a screen printer. After learning the basics of the business and production, I started teaching myself the pre-press end of the business and learned to do art and color separations using CorelDRAW and a stat camera. Once I had the knowledge, I decided to start my own business catering to screen printers in my area, which quickly turned into clients worldwide.

What are your most important accomplishments?
First and foremost, my most important accomplishment was becoming a father. I would have to say besides my family, growing my business from a small manual one-person shop into a fully automated screen printing and embroidery company is definitely at the top of the list for major accomplishments.

Describe a special moment in your career.
Working with Photographer Elliot Landy on a project for an exhibit, "The Music of the 60s", at the Provincial Museum of Alberta was a very special moment for me in my career. This job helped to take my shop and skills to the next level and separate me from my competitors.

Another very special moment was participating as an Industry Expert at the CorelDRAW Unleashed User Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. Being a self-taught CorelDRAW user and having two conference classes full of patrons, as well as having my class voted for a repeat session at the end of the conference, was a huge highlight in my career.

History with CorelDRAW

How long have you used CorelDRAW?
I have been working with the CorelDRAW graphics suite since the early 90s.

How did you come across CorelDRAW?
An old fraternity friend of mine had CorelDRAW installed on his family computer and he approached me to design some t-shirts knowing I was a good illustrator. Showing me in CorelDRAW how we could scan in my sketches and easily change colors and orientation, which took seconds compared to redrawing by hand. I was so amazed at what CorelDRAW could do back then that I became hooked. You couldn't pull me away from the program, I wanted to keep working and learning.

Do you have any interesting/funny/noteworthy stories?
In the late 90s I was approached by one of my customers to work on a design for one of their clients. It turned out that I had designed a ship's crest for the Egyptian Navy. They had come to Mayport Naval base to pick up a ship they had purchased from the United States and came to us for their designing needs. I still watch CNN in hopes of seeing my art on the sides of the ship.

What are your top three favorite CorelDRAW features?
My top three features are the Interactive Transparency Tool, Custom Media Tools and most of all, the ability to customize CorelDRAW to fit my personal designing needs.

What are the CorelDRAW features that allow you to distinguish your designs/art?
I really do not have any certain style of art that separates me from other artists where certain features would make my art distinguishable. All the tools in CorelDRAW enable me to achieve the look I am after on any design. If I had to pick just one tool, The Interactive Lens tool would most likely be the one. This tool enables me to reach the photorealism I have been after in my more recent renderings.

How do you feel about CorelDRAW?
CorelDRAW is the best graphics application on the market. I would recommend CorelDRAW to everyone looking at getting into digital graphics on both a hobby or professional level due to the power of the software and ease of use. Stay Correlian, my friends!

Biography

How long have you been in this profession?
I have been into graphic design since 1994.

Why did you choose this profession?
I was always interested in arts and drawing. I like to express my ideas and imagination in a creative form.

How did you get started?
Along with my studies in maths and physics from Bombay University, I simultaneously started taking computer classes in graphic design and soon realised CorelDRAW was the best avenue to achieve my goal. In 1998, I started my own company, Graphix. I also taught graphic design to scores of students over the years. For the past eight years, I have been engaged in web design, catalog and book design for publishing companies.

What are your most important accomplishments?
Seeing one of my students succeed and being appointed as an art director in one of the largest publishing house in Mumbai is my great accomplishment. Also, being part of the Beta testing team for CorelDRAW X5 and X6, and a member of the advisory council for CorelDRAW X6 are some of my important accomplishments.

Describe a special moment in your career.
Being awarded and recognized as Technical Evangelist for CorelDRAW by Corel (India).

History with CorelDRAW

How long have you used CorelDRAW?
Since 1993.

How did you come across CorelDRAW?
While taking graphic design classes at a local training institute.

What are your top three favorite CorelDRAW features?
With the X6 version, I would vote for 64-bit support, Styles & Opentype support.

What are the CorelDRAW features that allow you to distinguish your designs/art?
Powerclip, Contour, Fit text to path.

How do you feel about CorelDRAW?
I always keep saying 'CorelDRAW rocks!'

Biography

How long have you been in this profession?
Since 1997. I registered my own company as a frelancer in 1997 and have worked with it full time since then. Prior to 1997, I freelanced as an illustrator but I was more into fine art as painter. I have made numerous solo art exhibitions for art galleries, as well as directly comissioned artwork for companies, private homes and public art in conjunction with architects and interior designers.

Why did you choose this profession?
I decided as a thirteen-year old while juggling with oranges, that I had to decide what to do in life and asked myself the question (while jugglinging the oranges): ”What do I like to do when I am all alone?" I decided then to become an artist.

How did you get started?
In my early 30s, I wanted to take a break from art and did other things for a year or two, then the lust to make illustrations, design, drawing and art came back and I felt I remembered what it was I wanted to work with.

What are your most important accomplishments?
To have met my girlfriend Mia, and actually become a freelancer to begin with and start my own business. Its not an easy thing to do - to stop all other things and go 100% into a business as uncertain as illustration, art and graphic design.

History with CorelDRAW

How long have you used CorelDRAW?
I started using CorelDRAW and PHOTO-PAINT in 1997.

How did you come across CorelDRAW?
Prior to 1997, I first heard about CorelDRAW from a colleague at work - I believe in '95 or '96 - and then I saw a package in a book store. I bought that, in a time when everyone seemed to use illegal copies. I loved it and then bought an upgrade after a few months - close to 1998.

Do you have any interesting/funny/noteworthy stories?
All though I never care about status or feel inferior to anyone or any big corporations, all the same, in 1997 I had a big corporate client meeting with an almost 200-year old Swedish company, with their power symbols cluttering the walls, once built to show off or even intimidate a visitor. Suddenly feeling a bit nervous, and to empower myself there on the street, I told myself: I am my own boss, and they can loose their job the same day. To me that instantly removed the nervousness. It was all about loosen up and not feeling inferior. Which is very important when having a meeting. You have to be ready to lose or win without regret.

What are your top three favorite CorelDRAW features?
Really difficult to choose only three. In PHOTO-PAINT I would say Brush Settings Docker, Lens objects, Batch Process and the Brush tool. In CorelDRAW, I would say Bezier, Powerclip, Colour Management and Styles.

What are the CorelDRAW features that allow you to distinguish your designs/art?
I have such a variety of clients, therefore it's the versatility of the suite, as well as individual tools and features combined.

How do you feel about CorelDRAW?
Joy, security and freedom.

Biography

I was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, on August 24th, 1965. I have an 11-year old daughter who actually learned to use CorelDRAW when she was only five years old!

I started with graphic design at age 15. Of course, at that time it was all hand drawings. I studied Advertising, Media and Journalism, and from there I started to use the computer in my daily work. When I discovered CorelDRAW in 1989, I changed my way of working and my task performance increased.

After teaching at various institutes, in 1995 I founded my own school where I taught the first Official Course of Graphic Design for the Printers' Association of Uruguay. In 2005 I went to Madrid, Spain, where I worked for six years, then returned to my country.

How long have you been in this profession?
Since 1980, starting with hand-made drawings.

Why did you choose this profession?
Because I want to share good things with other people.

How did you get started?
With a secondary school newspaper. Later, I worked as designer at an advertising agency.

What are your most important accomplishments?
There are many. To have developed the first official course on graphic design for the Printers' Association of Uruguay. To have trained teachers to do graphic design. To have my drawings featured on the CorelDRAW X4 box. To be the creator of one of the images selected for the CorelDRAW X5 box.

Describe a special moment in your career.
The return to my country after six years in Europe, and to be selected as a BetaTester for CorelDRAW.

History with CorelDRAW

How long have you used CorelDRAW?
Since 1989.

How did you come across CorelDRAW?
My teacher travelled to America and brought back a new vector design program. Immediately, I was sure that it was what I had been looking for.

Do you have any interesting/funny/noteworthy stories?
Many! A user once asked me if Illustrator had a calendar, I said that I could do it in a minute. He laughed, saying that no one makes a calendar in one minute. Then I ran the CalendarWizard macro and did it in 30 seconds. Another time, a user of Illustrator sought to measure the edge of a drawing. I opened the file AI and measured the length using a macro in a second. Another time, a Mac user said, "How could it be possible that I've spent over $15,000 dollars on Macintosh computers and cannot make a simple barcode, and you can do it without any problems on a much more simple computer!?"

What are your top three favorite CorelDRAW features?
Mesh Fill. PowerClip. Bitmap manipulation.

What are the CorelDRAW features that allow you to distinguish your designs/art?
I do realistic and colorful drawings. My advantage is that the work I do comes printed exactly as it should be. That is, it's exactly as the customer needs and exactly as I did it. No other program gives me this accuracy and security in the result.

How do you feel about CorelDRAW?
For me, the program has better node handling and is more complete for all kind of jobs (magazines, brochures, illustration, books, web, etc.), so I do all my jobs every day with CorelDRAW suite. I choose CorelDRAW because it's the best software for design, and brings me the security of having the exact result on every job.

Biography

How long have you been in this profession?
More than 10 years professionally, but I grew up working in a family owned sign shop, so I was exposed to it as a child.

Why did you choose this profession?
In high school I thought I wanted to be an architect, but while attending college I worked part-time for a different sign shop located near campus and realized this is what I wanted to do.

How did you get started?
I started by sweeping the shop floors at the family business as a kid, and as I started showing interest in what my parents were doing, they began teaching me how to layout signs. Before long I was creating simple layouts, and by high school I was creating logos.

What are your most important accomplishments?
Winning the grand prize for the International CorelDRAW Design Competition ranks pretty high up there. My family also won the Citizens of the Year Award in Pontiac, Illinois for helping host the 2009 Walldog meet, where hundreds of artists were invited and painted 19 murals in four days. Our family also won the Studs Terkel Humanitarian Service Award in 2010.

Describe a special moment in your career.
Growing up in this industry, I always looked up to the men and woman who lead projects at a Walldog meet. To me, they were the cream of the crop. In 2010 both my brother Ben and I were asked to be project leaders for the first time. It was definitely a high point for both of us. We must have done a good job, because the next year we were asked to be project leaders once again.

History with CorelDRAW

How long have you used CorelDRAW?
Since 1992.

How did you come across CorelDRAW?
When the family sign shop began using computers to design and produce graphics, CorelDRAW became a part of that system. We've been using it ever since.

Do you have any interesting/funny/noteworthy stories?
Believe it or not I am actually red-green colorblind.

What are your top three favorite CorelDRAW features?
The Freehand Tool, the Shape Tool, and the Powerclip Tool.

What are the CorelDRAW features that allow you to distinguish your designs/art?
I really enjoy making vector illustrations, so for me the freehand tool is fantastic. I switch between that and the shape tool and I feel like I can draw just about anything. It's flexible and intuitive, and for me has become about as natural as drawing something with a pencil or pen.

How do you feel about CorelDRAW?
You often hear people in our industry say that design software is just a tool and that creativity comes from the person behind the mouse, keyboard, or tablet. But in my opinion, it doesn't hurt to have the best tools available. And CorelDRAW without a doubt is the best design software I have ever used. Just when you think you know all the little tricks and features, you find something new.