Action Illustrated / Digital Art Solutions - opinions?

[BrazosDesigns]

Hey all,

In an effort to try and speed up the design process, etc. I saw the Action Illustrated and Digital Art Solutions at the ISS show.  Are either of these worth it?   Suggestions?

Small shop trying to work on the most time consuming part of our job..

Thanks! - Darren

[larryk]

Depending on how demanding your customers are either could be a good fit for you. We have used Action Illustrated for a very long time and it is a real time saver at times. Plenty of great templates and most of the clipart is acceptable for maybe 90% of our customers. Easy to use and understand plus they have some good help to walk you through the process until you get the hang of it.... DO NOT GIVE THEM FULL RETAIL! Play their game with them and they will drop the prices a bunch. The more you say NO the lower the price will go. Good luck with whatever you decide on.

[BrazosDesigns]

HI Larry,

Thanks for the info.  I ended up getting the Action Illustrator pro-studio, 23 volumes, and a few other things and 'worked' on it to a price I thought was fair.  I made sure that the price included the printed volumes, as well. 

Now to wait for the big box of stuff to come in.   They also had the yourartpages.com listing that will be customized with my business name.  We'll see if customers will actually cull through that to get ideas to speed up the process.

Any other words of advice?

Thanks!
Darren

[larryk]

Just have fun with it and get creative...... You can make some designs with that software that will amaze your customers and keep them coming back for more. Congrats.