I read an article where a hairdresser answered a question she got all the time: “Any tips for cutting my own hair?” Her response was a two-parter. Part one: Don’t. Don’t ever. Part two: You’ll probably try it anyway. Here are some tips for avoiding disaster as much as possible.

I’m in a similar position sometimes. Resourceful businesspeople need graphic design, but have a small budget. So they look into doing their own graphic design. After a bit of research they’ll find that programs made by Adobe are most commonly used by professionals and are so far the best available. They see the term “Adobe Creative Suite” a lot. Apparently there’s a bunch of different programs that designers use. That’s when they talk to me: “I want to design my own stuff — which Adobe program do I buy?”

My first answer: Don’t. For one thing, Adobe programs are pricey. These products are subscription-based, starting at $50 per month for the full suite. A reasonable fee if you only need it for a month, but one that adds up if you want to use the programs indefinitely. Also, professional graphic design programs are very difficult to learn if you’ve never worked with this kind of software before. Oddly enough, diving into Adobe with no prior experience can have the same results as cutting your own hair — only instead of cutting your hair, you’re pulling it out.

Before you invest in design software, seriously consider how much graphic design you intend to output. Make sure it’s worth the money and time spent both learning the program and doing the work. I would suggest that in the long run you’ll save money, time, and stress by hiring a freelancer. And you will likely be much happier with the work, too. Yes, I am totally biased. But I’ve also encountered many clients with the same cautionary tale.

Now for my follow-up answer: If you’re going to try it anyway…yes, I have some advice.

In most cases you can’t get away with picking one program. Adobe is crafty and designed each program with an area of specialization. Each program excels at one thing, and is rubbish enough at other things that you’re kinda forced to get the other programs. Anyone looking to do their own graphic design, professionals and laypeople alike, will need The Big Three: Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator.

Photoshop — Photoshop is mostly meant for editing or enhancing images, such as photos or scanned drawings. Some artists use this program for digital painting, making the art from scratch right in the program. Most people import graphics they made in another medium and add to them. Photoshop is not meant for laying out text. Neither can it properly prepare designs for printing. Please don’t use Photoshop to make business cards.

InDesign — The name does not give it away: InDesign is a layout program intended for any project that involves both text and images. Brochures, flyers, business cards, magazines, etc. Its features are for making large amounts of text look nice, helping text and pictures coexist, and preparing documents for print. It’s often used for print projects, but they don’t have to be; many online, interactive publications are made in InDesign.

Illustrator — This program is where you make the graphics that will be used as part of a composition in Photoshop or layout in InDesign. It’s where you make digital art from scratch. Illustrator is known for its ability to make “vector” graphics — a kind of graphic that can be blown up to any size and not become blurry, like a photo does. Logos are made in Illustrator, along with diagrams, clipart, and of course illustrations. It can handle text better than Photoshop, but is still bad for layout.

It is technically possible to do an entire project in one program. This is what my clients have tried in order to save money. It is incredibly painful, because you are missing crucial features that make it easier to complete the design. Adobe doesn’t intend for any program to be a one-stop shop. They want their money!

My advice is this: If you really want to try your hand at graphic design, subscribe to all three programs for best results. You can also find free, downloadable programs for graphic design — they’re not great, but might do the trick. Most importantly, think it through before you jump in! Consider if it might be better to hire a pro.

Over the last couple months I took on an interior design project, and now that it’s mostly done I’d like to show it off a little!

To give some context, I help run the family business, which is a dance hall called Sugar Swing. We recently moved in to a new venue, and our vision was to turn one of the rooms into a staff lounge. This was a big deal for us, because the previous place had just one tiny office crammed full of everyone’s stuff. It took a couple months to get this space up to snuff in between my other work. Thankfully I had some help from friends along the way. Now our instructors, organizers, and other staff have a place to crash!

The “before” picture:

This photo does not do justice to how crappy the room looked initially. Here it’s been halfway painted already. But it needed a lot of mudding first — so imagine the walls cracked and marked up.

And after! It’s not Pinterest-perfect, but a massive improvement. A little bare right now, but it’ll look more lived-in over time. The new paint colours are tan and grey, which is what we had leftover from our other renovations. A friend gathered some Pinterest images that showed this colour combination is doable — you get a cozy den sort of vibe. So that’s the look I aimed for throughout the process.

There are some tricks and features going on that helped keep the renos affordable and will hopefully keep it comfortable too. The concrete floor was gross and covered in stains, so it needed to be covered; floor paint was a really cost effective way to spruce it up. We trashed the flourescent lights and replaced them with cheap but nicer flushmount incandescents. And cubbies! One of our staff very kindly donated the Ikea shelves, which will really keep the space welcoming and people’s stuff from piling up.

Speaking of donations, a lot of people helped me make this space. Two different people gave us couches, and a very nice fellow helped my husband pick up and move them. A number of our staff/dancers helped with planning, mudding, and installing light fixtures. I couldn’t have done it without them.

Looking forward to having the giant corkboard populated with weird and wonderful paraphernalia. I’m also hoping to gather up some small art pieces over time — there’s a ledge that runs on three walls and is perfect for display. So far we just have one piece by Edmonton artist Jeffrey Dekker:

The building in this print is Edmonton’s Orange Hall, the tiny hall Sugar Swing first operated out of many years ago! It’s a shout-out to where it all started for us.