PREFACE

The truth about Commercial Art: there is no viable off-the-shelf solution. Commercial art is created to fit each need. Commercial art professionals: graphic designers, art directors, illustrators, and animators create "custom-made" graphic expressions for advertising purposes. Their "final expressions" are then printed, published, or broadcast across a variety of media to a potential consuming market.

Commercial art professionals have a toolbox filled with "commercial art" tools that require knowledge and skill. If you want to see a demonstration of a these tools, knowledge, and skill, then check-out the commercial art professional's portfolio. The portfolio should demonstrate their choice of tools (Photoshop, After Effects, Flash, Illustrator, Powerpoint; oil painting, acrylic painting, watercolor, pencil, pen and ink); the portfolio should also provide a general sense of style and design, as well as show past experience (print, web, video, digital, writing, editing, photography, illustration).

Each link on this page tries to establish a professional dialogue – a commercial art vocabulary – so the commercial art professional and the client can define a scope of work, and divide duties, and share expectations.

At the very least, these pages: provide a commercial art primer, offer some free advice, and exhibit some shameful self promotion.