design

Mac Vs PC-Which is Better For Design?

Mac Vs PC-Which is Better For Design? This has been an age-old debate for the longest time. What platform should designers use for their work? Why do we care? Can the equipment you choose make a difference in your work? There are many questions to ask and plenty of...

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Grow Your Design Business: A How-to Guide

Grow Your Design Business: A How to Guide Figuring out how to grow your design business should be your main focus. You have the talent, and you have the expertise, but where is the steady flow of clients that you are looking for? One of the hardest things for...

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Your Designs Are Not Your Own

Your Designs Are Not Your Own Many people go into the field of design because they love art and they love computers, and they want to make money creating artwork. This is a common misconception about the field of design. I am even guilty of making this mistake. I...

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15 Essential Serif Fonts for Professional Designers

15 Essential Serif Fonts for Professional Designers This is a list of 16 quality serif fonts for professional designers that you will find in most professional graphic design work. These are all found in body copy of books and magazines. They are all beautiful and...

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Why You should Choose Design as a Profession

Why You should Choose Design as a Profession I have a lot of friends that hear about my job and think "I would love to do what you do!" I love the enthusiasm, but I don't think a lot of people really know what is involved in graphic/web design, illustration, or...

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A simple App that you just have to check out: Wunderlist

I am always looking for neat ways to keep track of things. I am the type of person that likes to make checklists and check them off as I go. I am forgetful sometimes, that is just part of my personality. However, that doesn't work so well when having multiple clients,...

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My Predictions For Design and Development in 2011

I like how so many people like to say that web design and graphic design is going to do this and that. Honestly, I don't think anyone knows where the world of design, web design and web development is going to to be by the end of the year. Some people say that we need...

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The Importance of Including Sketches in your Portfolio

As art artist, designer and illustrator, I have come to understand the importance of sketching. Sketching is the proverbial drawing board. It is the place where our ideas start, and where we can put them down on paper. I have found that sketching helps tremendously in...

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Creating Glow Effects in Your Designs With Photoshop Part 2

Yesterday, I covered some basics regarding glow effects and how to use them to your advantage. Today, I will cover some more advanced techniques that will help you to achieve some really cool effects. I created a new document with the dimensions 1024 x 768 and filled...

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Creating Glow Effects in Your Designs With Photoshop Part 1

Creating Glow Effects in Your Designs With Photoshop Part 1

Glow effects can really add drama to your designs and really make them stand out. Contrast is key here, so it is always a good idea to use a really dark, or even black background. You can add these types of effects to anything such as text, lines, shapes, etc.To do...

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Easy Width Control in Fireworks

We have all had this problem when making a web site - You are creating a mock-up of your web site, and you have a distinct number of menus. You want to create buttons that are the same width across as the header and that are spread out evenly across your site....

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Using Variations to Make Color Decisions in Photoshop

Sometimes when we are editing and color correcting a photograph, we realize that a photo could use a little something, or that a color is off, but we can't figure out where we need to make the adjustment to get the look that we want. Photoshop has a tool built in that...

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Places to go for creative Inspiration November 2010

Yanko Design- Never Miss the Keyhole Fast Company - An Amazing Collapsible Lamp My Modern Met - Beautiful Watercolor Landscapes The CSS Awards- The Best Free Fonts of 2010 The Photo Argus- 60 Breathtaking Fall Images for Your Inspiration Andre Jolicoeur Illustration...

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Create Amazing 3D with Textures In Photoshop

In Photoshop CS5, the new Repousse Panel is fantastic, in that you can create 3D from almost anything. You can create a 3D object from a selection, a path, text, a mask, etc. What is really cool is that you can create your own textures, or you can use images as...

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Create 3D Gothic Text In Photoshop

Create 3D Gothic Text In Photoshop

This tutorial is just in time for Halloween, with an eerie background and 3D text with textures. In Photoshop CS5 the Repousse abilities give you a lot of flexibility, especially with textures, so you can create some really interesting work. This is only available in...

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Create Easy Patterns in Fireworks CS5

I really love to work with Adobe Fireworks when making graphics for the web. It is simple, intuitive, and has a few features that give you a little more control than what you find in photoshop. It is almost like Fireworks is a combination of Illustrator and Photoshop...

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Things to Remember During an Interview

The economy is in a rough place right now, despite what the media says about no longer being in a recession. None of us can afford to bomb an interview, so I thought I would share some tips and things to think about when going for a big interview. 1. Be confident, not...

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An Example of Excellent Branding: Enexis

Enexis is a branding brainchild of the branding and design powerhouse EdenSpiekermann. EdenSpiekermann was founded b the famous and ingenious Erik Spiekermann, co-author of Stop Stealing Sheep & Learn How Type Works. This book is considered a must-have for anyone...

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Should Pentagram Sue? Would it do any good?

I recently came across a case involving Pentagram, where one of their designs were blatantly ripped off by a famous clothing company Sean John, owned by the famous rap artist known as P Diddy. Sometimes you can argue that a work is inspired by someone else's work, and...

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Quiktip- Control the Opacity of Gradients In Illustrator

Quiktip- Control the Opacity of Gradients In Illustrator

You can control the opacity of each individual color of a gradient inside of Adobe Illustrator. This is fantastic for flexibility with colors. Simply click on the color swatch of the gradient, and there is an opacity setting on the gradient panel. You can also double...

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