graphic design

The Sometimes Humorous Side of Being a Designer

This article is made to be more funny than anything, just because of how people think when they know, or are friends with a graphic designer. Sometimes it can be really frustrating when being a designer, because a lot of people assume that you can do things that...

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Blend Colors Easily With Fireworks

This is a really cool feature found right inside of Adobe Fireworks. What is great about this feature is that when you blend the colors, they are safe for the web. Many times when I am building site composite, or a piece of web work I would like a mix of two major...

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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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The Color Replacement Tool In Photoshop

This tool is a very handy tool for replacing color in a photo inside of Photoshop. It is found behind the brush tool and goes as far back as CS3. This sort of works like making a new layer and setting it to color in the layers panel. That is an old trick from before...

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How to Control Your Image Size

Image size really makes a difference in the look of your documents. The size of your document and its resolution are determined by where your image is going to be viewed. Print This includes magazines, flyers, posters, and anything else that is printed. The higher the...

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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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Multiple Masks on One Layer in Photoshop

This is a great method to get great masks in Photoshop. You can actually have 2 masks on an image at the same time. You can use a vector mask and use a custom shape to mask out an image, creating a clean mask for sharp edges. The pixel mask is great for creating...

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Is There A Gap Between Your Ears? Lesson Not Learned

After being constantly attacked last week for ruining their logo, Gap decided to revert back to the old logo that everyone knows and loves. They admitted that is was a wrong step for the company, and that the customer comes first, which is great. They should come...

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Create a Dark and Gritty Effect in Photoshop

Create a Dark and Gritty Effect in Photoshop

First, take your image and duplicate the background layer, so you can go back to your original if you need to. Hide the background layer and work from your copy. Go into the channels panel and hold down the command key (CTRL on the PC) and click on the RGB channel to...

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