Now on to the real stuff!
For this first week we will discuss the Graphic Design side of the house. This is the glamourous side that produces all of the stunning visuals on the front end of applications we use daily. Without graphic design in the computer world, we would be back to the days when computers only displayed text. So to begin with check out these to nice videos I found to explain what graphic design really is.

OK so now that we know what graphic design is, lets apply what we know to what we see in the real world. Here are some examples of excellent graphic design on the web right now.

Graphic design is everywhere.

Vector graphics are like drawing on a computer.

Graphic effects are cool.

Graphic design on business cards.

See how beneficial graphic Design is ?!?!?!?

So now that we see what graphic design can do. It’s time to figure out how to do it.
Luckily for us the great folks at Adobe have created two sweet programs called Photoshop and Illustrator to service all of our graphics creation needs. Now please note that there are many other programs out there in the universe that are capable of completing graphic design tasks. I however can only talk about what I know, which is Adobe.
Trial versions of the programs above can be downloaded from their respective sites and used without restriction for 30 days. For those of you who want to get a taste of Photoshop without downloading it, you can visit Pixlr. It provides the basic functions of standard graphics design programs for these beginning tutorials.

Now comes the assignment. Using Photoshop or Pixlr try and create your own personal version the following image.