Though Photoshop has grown over time to become a many-armed beast of a program, it was first created with the modest aim of helping users to modify and improve their digital photography. In this post we return to Photoshop's roots with a wonderful collection of digital photography and photo editing tutorials.
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Here’s the compilation of 15 essential sites for sourcing free stock images. Check out whether you miss out any.stock.xchng
DigitalDreamer
by WPstudios on Jun.24, 2009, under Inspiration10 Designer freebies sites
Great one to see before and after redesigns!
Click on Fanta below forLink:
Recently we were working on a project in which we were asked to use the font “Licious Script” by Baseline. Now if you know anything about us, you know that we absolutely LOVE working with type and lettering, so we’re up for any project that requires the creative usage of a font. The unfortunate side to this project is that Licious Script is by far one of the worst fonts I have ever seen. Forget about the technical aspects of tracking, kerning, leading, and the like…let’s focus more on the fact that it appears to have been run through Illustrator’s “live trace” function about ten times. How could a font be sold at such poor quality? If you examine the font a little bit more closely, you’re able to see exactly where the problems lie.
Take this sample of RS. It doesn’t take much to notice how poor the curves are on a face like this. If you view the entire character set it will be quite obvious that the font is intended to be silky smooth; the name is “Licious” for God’s sake. Why would the creators of this font not put in the extra hour or so to correct these paths?
What bothers us is not the fact that a cheap font is treated as such, it’s the fact that this is just another example of people losing respect for the craft of type design. Obviously we’re not the only ones out there that still care about quality, there are plenty of companies that promote only the best (Veer for example, not to mention all the great studios and freelancers we’ve met and admired.) Hopefully this doesn’t become a trend in the field of type design.
From: One Twenty Six Design Blog
From LogoDesignerBlog.com
You probably have a check list, at least in your mind, of what goes into making a good logo design. You may know how to design a logo and you’ve probably studied some of the greats however are you forgetting these four critical factors when you design your logos?
Below are 4 logo design tips for areas that are often overlooked in logo design:
- Ownership marks
- Anchor point clean up
- Colour functionality
- The correct files
Does the logo need an ownership mark?
Especially if you’re doing a logo for a product or service that belongs to a particular brand, they may require you to put some kind of mark on it indicating its ownership: a registered mark ®, a trademark ™ or a service mark ?. On that note you may want to read up on copyright issues in logo design.
If the logo you are creating requires one of these, work it into the design as the Multimediums example above, don’t just tack it on at the end. First you have to decide if you want to use the same font as you have for the rest of the logo or would a more plain sans serif be better?
Then kern the mark close to the other text or the image in the logo. Baseline adjust it so that it looks like it belongs in the design. You may even consider knocking it out of a solid color area of the logo, like in the Weaver logo above.
What does the logo look like larger?
You know that you have to make sure the logo will work at smaller sizes, but have you considered that your logo might need to be blown up to fit on a billboard or tradeshow exhibit someday? Creating professional logos isn’t just about how good it looks, it’s also about how functional it is technically.
Zoom in as close as you can and check to make sure there’s no funny stuff going on with anchor points or handles (divots, extraneous points and the like). You may not notice these details when it’s small, but blow the logo up and they’ll be the first things your eye is drawn to.
Will the chosen colors work?
Sometimes the client will tell you what the corporate colors are, but if you get to decide, choose colors that will match a variety of applications. Some colors are too neutral in their value (yes, value, not hue) and either don’t stand out very well or don’t match well with most other colors.
PMS300, for example, is an often used color for logos, but I will tell you from personal experience that it is a very difficult color to work with and I end up using the pure black or knockout (white) version of the logo instead! You have to consider how colors work for more applications than just the stationary system you may create to go with the delivery of the logo.
Do you have four high quality files ready to give the client?
Deliver high quality files to your clients includes taking into account all the ways the logo might be used. Create a spot color-based file, a pure CMYK (i.e. no spot colors!) file, a pure black and a pure white (knockout) file. That’s four files total that you should deliver to a client every time. You can tell if you’re using a spot (aka Pantone or PMS) color, a spot color converted to a process (CMYK) color or a pure process color by looking at the Color Swatches palette.
Clean up these files, too. Go into the Color Swatches palette and delete any extra color, gradient or pattern swatches that weren’t used in the actual logo. You can also delete extra brushes and graphic styles to further clean up the file.
You may want to add this to your check list of what makes a good logo:
- How is the ownership mark incorporated?
- Does the logo reduce and enlarge as expected?
- Will the chosen colors work in most contexts?
- Do the files have the technical flexibility for any possible use?
Bio: Lauren Marie runs Creative Curio, a website focused on learning, discussing and exploring the realm of graphic design. Lauren is an in-house designer in corporate America and a self-diagnosed Twitter addict. Follow her @creativecurio.
Posted on 24 March 2009 | Category: Logo Design Tips, Resources
Layers magazine Tip of the Day
Finally, in CS4, the answer is no! Select an object, and apply a Radial Gradient Swatch from the Swatches panel. Then open the Gradient panel (Window>Gradient) and in the first field on the right, enter a number that's less than or greater than 100%. Doing this changes the ratio of the height of the radial Gradient as compared to the width. In other words, the Gradient is no longer circular, it's elliptical. If you enter a number of degrees other than 0 in the Angle field to the left, the elliptical Gradient will rotate. Wow! An easy way to create a rotated elliptical gradient, something that's been on my Illustrator wish list since Gradients were first introduced in Illustrator 5.
Whipping a Classic Miracle: What do you think? (Full Article Here)
Miracle Whip, the zingy alternative to mayo, has apparently seen better days in terms of mayo-alternative ubiquity and has re-entered the market positioning itself to the 18-to-34-year-old demographic. Which typically means some sort of social application, in their case Zingr, but that’s the least interesting part of this. The new label and logo are remarkably Old School, reversing the order of Before/Afters in consumer packaging by ditching the swirls and overly friendly and loopy typography for an almost disarming simplicity. Apparently all the thrift shopping of vintage stuff by the 18- and 34-year-olds has finally paid off and that oldish look can feel new again. Fingers crossed, this will be the first of many consumer brands to revert back from the crazy scripts and wild backgrounds.
By Armin on Jun.02.2009 in Consumer Products
Self promotion is what it is all about....Here is a collection of many examples
Check out all 7 pages....Links are all on this page
by Graham Smith of imjustcreative.com
This is from the "Best Ad" blog.
I am glad they put this together....
Follow this link.
The Role of Sketching in the Design Process
Great article by Sean HodgeAs a tool or skill, sketching has its role in the design process. That role will vary depending on the end-product being created, the size and scope of the project, the individual designer's style, experience, and workflow, and the client's expectations. Find out more about how sketching is used in the design process within multiple design disciplines.
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