Aviary.com is a great site (and community) of online apps comparable to high-end computer applications! If you have heard of Photoshop or 3D Rendering software, you have likely heard how expensive they are.
If you are looking for a good alternative to Photoshop but are limited financially, check out their Phoenix image editor it’s got things like:
Layers
Brushes
Filters
They also have a range of other applications, well suited to the graphic artist (whether your a pro in a hurry or an amateur taking their first steps).
Here is another showcase of the kind of graphics you can put together using Colour Gradients, Shapes with rounded edges and Transparency using nothing more than PowerPoint and Publisher. I did a quick mock-up of these designs in PowerPoint before fleshing them out in Publisher.
I’ve also designed them so that by changing the image and the poster slogan the whole feel of the poster changes!
Why not see if you can design a complex poster using only PowerPoint!
Having to make do really encourages one to be imaginative. For years I’ve had access to Photoshop/Flash and a myriad of advanced graphics tools and programs. I am currently limited to MS Office! However with Publisher/Paint, an army of geometric shapes and the transparency function you can still put together some reasonable graphic designs.
