EpicDJ, don’t be afraid to go DIY. A lot of what I do now came from wanting to not have to pay someone for things in the past.
I remember when I put a hot mix cassette into local stores back in 1994. I paid $600 for 100 cassettes and felt like I overpaid. From there I tried to design my own labels and inserts. I looked for solutions so I could make the cassettes at home on my own using some decent-quality cassette decks and a DAT. I later used a local Kinko’s to print and then manually cut the inserts. I found web sites selling simple plastic bags I could put around the cassettes so I would not have to pay for shrink wrapping.
Granted I didn’t sell cassettes for too long (nor did I ever make any money), but I kept using these new skills to make nice graphics for CDs, flyers, etc. Later this spawned into web design/development and now it’s my normal career.
You did well on your first attempt. Look into free services like pixlr and even freeware like GIMP if you do not want to shell out for Photoshop. Design print pieces in CMYK and web-based stuff in RGB.
Everything on that layout is clean, clear, and legible. Photo is great. Too many amateurs go nuts on text filters and such and thus they end up with a mess. Keep it up.
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