The 6 Best Free and Low-Cost Design Sites to Make Your Products Irresistible

So you’ve got a killer product coming out, and to save money, you’re designing and marketing it yourself, but you want to create irresistible, un-ignorable marketing content. You want the kind of imagery that’s clean, memorable, and simplistically expresses your brand...without killing your wallet.

(Especially since the ‘trep life is all about feast or famine.)

As such, the Geek’s got you covered with websites that offer some of the highest quality design tools on the web for free or affordable prices.

Top 5 Schools Series: Want to Sharpen Your Inner Artist? Start Here

Have you been hearing the rumblings lately about art degrees being meaningless in the current economy? You haven’t been taking them seriously, have you?

If not, great. If you are, stop it – especially if you’re considering art school yourself. Nothing could be further from the truth.

There is always a need for art in our society.

Graphic designers will always be needed for corporations, entrepreneurs, musicians, and politicians who need branding (or rebranding), as well as filmmakers (for movie posters).

Digital media artists and web designers will always be necessary – the Internet will forever grow as long as new servers are being built; and entrepreneurs, corporations, schools, etc. will always need blogs and websites built, new social media accounts branded, and CMS (content management systems) built.

Also, thanks to our very vain culture, digital artists will always been in demand for photomanipulation for print publications (gotta have that “beautiful” cover shot). Vanity aside, they’ll also be needed thanks to our ever-growing self-publishing industry: indie authors need professional book covers to compete with the traditional market.

Traditional artists also have incredible value.

Skilled sketch artists are always in demand for storyboarding films and games, as well as helping our criminal justice system in identifying culprits.

And don’t forget the comic world. Pencilers, colorists, and line artists make comics the fantastic medium it is – they give the story its immersive body. The proliferation of web comics has increased that demand as well.

Painters are equally necessary in the film and gaming industry for matte backdrops, character design and prototype modeling, world/realm designs, and much more (just ask Yoshitaka Amano, official artist for the Final Fantasy series).

If you’re looking for a good art school, here are the 5 best art schools in the U.S.  

What Digital Media Powerhouse Bill Hudson Can Teach You About Being a Jack of All Trades

Entertainment Industry entrepreneur and Full Sail student Bill Hudson

Two-time Full Sail University graduate Bill Hudson is a walking advertisement for the school, and a darn convincing one.

The entertainment university vows to take their students’ dreams seriously and arm them with all the skills they will need to enter the industry, whether as basic freelancers, as employees of larger companies, or as full-time entrepreneurs.

Baltimore native Hudson came to Orlando in 2005 and embraced the vow wholeheartedly. He got:

• a Computer Animation Bachelor of Science degree in 2008,
• an Entertainment Business Master of Science degree in 2009,

and if that wasn’t enough, he is currently enrolled in the Media Design Master of Fine Arts program.