~ Enhancing website graphics with CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite ~

One day in 2010, while searching for a Brazilian radio station that played songs from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, I stumbled upon the website for a radio station based in São José do Rio Preto called Radio Melodia.

While I found the music I was looking for, the station’s website bothered me. The design, graphics and typography were not adequate, and weren’t doing the great radio station any favors.

I sent an email to the station’s director and asked if I could redesign the station’s logo free of charge. I knew Radio Melodia didn’t have a big budget; it had few sponsors and survived on donations from listeners. He accepted my offer immediately and I got to work redesigning the logo with CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite.

Keeping the main elements of the old logo (music note, heart and slogan), I tried a new shape, changed the typography, applied extrusion effects to the heart and used the Mesh Fill tool for the background.

Watch a tutorial explaining how the logo was redesigned: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZV_c3Et75o

Radio Melodia’s listeners responded positively to the changes, sending numerous emails congratulating the station for the redesign. The enthusiastic response from listeners was the motivation I needed to continue with the improvements. I suggested a radical step to the station’s director – I proposed a complete overhaul of the website and all its visual elements.

Since I’m not an expert in website design and production, I looked to the station’s website developer for guidance. I asked him what format he preferred for the new files. He told me to create them in CorelDRAW, because then I could convert the files to JPG, PNG, GIF or PDF as needed.

I created the layout for the new site (Fig. 3), which was used as a reference for all changes.

Then I began to produce the hundreds of smaller graphics that would make up the new website design, as seen in examples below (Fig. 4 and 5).

Gradually, the new site was taking shape. CorelDRAW was instrumental in the redesign, because it gave me all the necessary tools to bring my creations to life. I enjoyed using the suite for this project because it was easy to add special effects to my graphics, such as roll-over effects on link buttons, glows, shadows, extrusions, perspectives and more. Combining the features of CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT™ to transform vectors into bitmap images was also a breeze, because the complementary applications were easy to use and very intuitive.

 While the website has undergone some changes since the redesign, the graphics I created in CorelDRAW still enhance the site, including several special graphical inserts that I created for temporary use on special dates (Fig. 7).

 Below are some other examples of graphics, including forms, banners and smaller images, produced with CorelDRAW for the website (Fig. 8 and 9).

I had a great experience with CorelDRAW Graphics Suite. Its comprehensive toolset and numerous resources are perfect for creating all kinds of jobs, including graphics for websites, printing, placards, signs, banners, books, newspapers, magazines, folders, flyers, business cards and more. Moreover, I found it convenient that I never had to worry about file compatibility. In addition to its native format (.cdr), the files created in CorelDRAW can be saved and exported to all other popular formats, such as .eps, .ai, .bmp, .tif, .png and .pdf.

As a designer, CorelDRAW Graphics Suite is the perfect tool to push the limits of my imagination.