

Ask YC: what do you use for graphic design? - lisper

Question for you web startup developers: what tool(s) do you use to do your graphics design (logos, buttons, form elements, etc.)  For YC startups in particular a lot of them seem to have a very similar graphical look-and-feel which makes me think that there's one graphical design tool for the web out there that all the cool kids are using nowadays.  What is it?
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pg
The YC startups don't have any single tool they prefer as far as I know. The
reason they look similar is what they put on the page, especially the
frontpage. That's partly influenced by YC. E.g. we encourage every startup to
think about which link on the frontpage they most want visitors to click on
(usually "sign up" or "try it" rather than say "about us" or "terms of
service") and to make that link most prominent.

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AndrewWarner
Do YC startups use the same design shop? Seems that, beyond clarity, they have
a similar look. Also, do you publish publicly the ideas the influence YC
companies' layouts?

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pg
They can't afford a design shop. They all make their sites themselves.
Sometimes founders who are good at web design help other startups. Bryan
Kennedy (Likebetter) and Devin Hunt (Fuzzwich) both helped me with News.YC.

I've never written about how to design a startup site, but I might one day.

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dc2k08
I use Illustrator and Fireworks. I use photoshop for some special effects but
try and stick with vectors as long as i can until the gif/jpg stage so as i
can transform them easily.

A lot of the most frequently used special effects in PS can be used in
illustrator now in vector format which is handy like drop shadows etc. PS was
never really built to make graphics, just to manipulate photographs but it
serves the purpose to some extent. you might use it for blending a photo into
a gradient for a banner and things like that but you can also do this in FW.

If you want to learn how to make graphics for web - get Fireworks and/or
Illustrator, it'll make the job a lot easier and Fireworks has the best engine
of the three for compressing images for the web. you'll notice the difference.
The three all work together though.

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SwellJoe
Inkscape and GIMP. But I'm not particularly good at it, so take that as you
will.

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Hates_
Photoshop

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oldgregg
paint.exe

