My name is Ron Blacksmith and I’m a freelance graphic designer. I have been creating designs for web and print for some time now for clients across the United States. If you have an idea for something that you would like to have designed for you, please go to the Contact page on this site and send me a message. I’ll take a look at what you want done and get back to you within 24 hours of receiving your message.

I can promise you a great design without breaking your bank account! I will send you a personal quote for your job that includes:

• Unlimited revisions until YOU say the job is complete!
• Constant updates through email correspondence allowing you to see the design and make changes right away as I put it together for you.
• No payment until your job is complete (and YOU tell me when that is)
• Payments are payable through PayPal. I generate an invoice on PayPal’s website and send it to your email address. You open it and follow its link back to PayPal. There you use your PayPal account to pay OR use a credit card. I never see any of the transaction.
• After payment is confirmed I will send you all of your design files to your email address. You take full ownership of the design!

Should you have any questions please write to me using the Contact page on this website.

Original artwork of old, beat-up flippers that was scanned and provided to me so I could re-create them. The newly completed artwork was done using Adobe Illustrator CS4 and saved as PDFs.

Using a Photo or someone else’s Artwork

Anyone using someone else’s image in their work with the intent to obtain financial gain is subject to lawsuit. Altering something beyond the artist’s ability to tell if the photo is theirs or not depends if you alter it to the point where you don’t get caught.

The truth is that the answer is ‘no’ you cannot do it. The only way you can is to contact the owner of the image and have them actually send you written permission which you would save by hiding it somewhere forever in so you have proof in case of being sued.

Zombie design. It’s the worst. You have contacted a person who calls themselves a ‘graphic designer’. They are very enthusiastic and promise the most unique artwork ever seen on the planet.

Not knowing what to expect but feeling much more at ease with this person after the initial contact, you wait for the first look of your design to show up in your email in box.

It arrives minutes later. Shouldn’t it have taken a little longer? You open the email and the file it contains. It seems as though your designer used the first Font to show up in his design software to type out your message. Then he went to Google images and downloaded an image that he owns no rights to and applied it to your design.

In fact, that was the design. Now he has sent you his creation and is looking for payment believing the job is complete and won’t know any better.

You found yourself a Zombie designer. They can’t create anything. They steal and plagiarize. Awkward? You bet it is!

It can be tough making sure that the person you find to help can actually do the work required. The best way to avoid this dilemma is to get educated (just a little!)

Use the internet to search how the work is done for your specific job. Read a little bit and write some things down as you do. When you find a designer, ask them some questions and see if they match what you found and if not, why not? There may be an actual reason but, if not, you want to go elsewhere.

Often times a client will want a design created quickly but not provide enough information upfront to allow me to be expedient with its creation. For example, a logo is wanted and they are sure that they want the text to be blue but they are not sure of what blue nor are they sure about what text they really want shown.

Then, half way through the design process they ask to have the fonts changed or a specific letter altered so that it will have an image or effect on it as above in the ‘A’.

This will be your design when it is done. Take your time. Gather up all of your information first from text, font style, colors and anything else you can think of including drawings, sketches or other graphics used for reference.

Also, once your design has been completed, what are you going to do with it? Post it on the Internet? Print it on a T-shirt or print it on paper? Something else? These answers matter. For the best results make sure you know the answers.