5 Tips for Graphic Designers to Sketch Wonderful Icons

Jan 18, 2012 by admin    No Comments    Posted under: Design Tutorials, Graphic Design Tips

Summary: An effective guide on the process of wonderful icon designing.

Icons help us in navigating and emphasizing on some of the key aspects of web content as they are more of general separators and indicators. Icons work similarly like road signage’s and you would know that very well if you have ever been on the road, driving.

Icons help you in guiding through web application or a website to locate necessary information and resources in a timely manner.

Web icons should be clear in first few seconds of scanning, and express the apparent meaning of the web content. They do not distract from general web content while making navigational process simpler outlining important features of the website.

Image Courtesy: Charles Chan

The main values of icons usefulness are general project draft, steady lightning, outlook, considering the market, symbol, etc. Here are some of the important design tips for creative icon designing.

1. Consider clear symbol – Make it a point to portray the exact web icon for better presentation of web content.
2. Widen your potential market – You should be able to display supple and precise images as icons in place of comprehensive clip arts. Icons published on the page should be identifiable and fit the exact business areas. Simple and recognizable icons should go well with your web projects.
3. Use remarkable color blend – You should consider testing different colors and shades. Attention grabbing colors with the unusual images will fetch your visitor’s interest with the desire to click on those icons. Design and create outstanding icons. Keep in mind that flash colors are annoying for the plain interface.
4. Always think about prospective clients – Think about using common images that are standard and easily acknowledged by website visitors from any part of the world. You web icons are considered universal regardless of traditions, religions, boundaries and groups.
5. Follow a streamlined process – Work on a basic concept and draw a sketch with the help of effective colors and forms. Seek help of a neighbor or a friend in order to find out if you were successful in designing a great web icon concept by grasping their attention within initial 1 or 2 seconds.

You can add some wonderful icons to your website and instigate visitors by being creative and artistic, in our opinion.

5 Useful Business Tools for Graphic Designers

Jan 15, 2012 by admin    No Comments    Posted under: Design Tutorials

Graphic designers will find hundreds and thousands of useful design tutorials on how to work with different business related tools; however you will hardly get introduced to new and effective business constructing tools.

In this article, we have tried to introduce 5 useful business tools for graphic designers who want to freelance in the design industry.

1. RememberTheMilk.com

Busy graphic designers get beleaguered quickly when there is no task manager available to keep track of different projects. Remember the Milk is an incredible online task manager, which means you can browse it from any part of the world. At times, you have so much to do that you tend to miss on important deadlines while working on numerous design projects.

2. EchoSign.com

Ever tried EchoSign.com to get contracts signed online? It is presumably the easiest and most convenient option available over the internet to get job contracts signed over the web. You wouldn’t need to print or sign a contract over and again every time a new project is started by you.

3. Skype.com

Skype is a great instant messaging service along with a feature of making free video calls to other subscribers. It’s an incredible voice over internet protocol app which can be used to make cheap international calls using your own professional number assigned by the company.

4. MailChimp.com

You should definitely consider using email marketing as it is the most effective way to engage web traffic. Mailchimp is one of the best email marketing options offering the tools you might require in creating a mailing list where you can send appealing newsletters and can also analyze traffic right after every newsletter campaign.

5. TextMate at MacroMates.com

Used by almost every Mac developer, TextMate is perhaps one of the best text editors available online these days. And keep in mind that if you work online, you should be aware of how to use a text editor.

We would love to hear from you about any of the business tools you might have used out of the ones mentioned here or any alternatives. Please feel free to leave your thoughts below in comment section.

Top 10 Fascinating Romance Illustrations

Jan 12, 2012 by admin    1 Comment     Posted under: Design Tutorials, Graphic Design Tips

Do you think you can ever imagine love or chalk it out on a piece of paper? Here are the top 10, and best romance illustrations showcased in this article that you would ever come across. Portraying love is actually a tough job and a great deal because you would have to express everything about love on a piece of paper with your artistic graphic design skills.

You would be amazed to notice all sorts of sentiments and vibrations that surround our daily lives. There are numerous occurrences in our day to day life that may act as visual illustration or depiction of love. Take a closer look to figure out all such romance illustrations scattered around you.

Please note that you can use Adobe Illustrator to design some of your creative illustrations while we are only going to publish what we think are the best pictures from some renowned graphic designers that depict “love”. You might have seen “N” number of love pictures over the internet; however we have put together a list of top 10 fascinating romance illustrations for our readers to view and enjoy!

1. This photo was taken by Ruy Barbosa Pinto on June 6, 2004 in Salvador, Bahia, BR, using a Konica Minolta DiMAGE.

2. This illustration was taken by Aleci and titled “the kiss”.

3. This image was taken by Linda Palm van Meel and titled as “Kiss from a tree”.

4. This photo was taken by ajpscs on September 7, 2008 in Yurakucho 2 Chome, Tokyo, using a Nikon D300.

5. This photo was taken by Ivan Tonev and titled as “Love is everywhere”.

6. This photo was taken by Josh Libatique on July 22, 2010 in Dumbo, New York, US, using a Nikon D90.

7. This image is taken by Bogomolov Denis and titled as “love-story”.

8. This image is taken by Dmitry Laudin and titled as “gangster wedding”.

9. This image is taken by Ahmed Habis and titled as “Emotions between the two lovers in the street, but there is always someone watching!”.

10. This photo was taken by John B. Mueller on July 30, 2010 in Santa Monica, California, US, using a Nikon D700.

We would love to hear from you in the comments section below and expect that you would appreciate our effort and expression of love!

Find & Design New Fonts Here

Dec 2, 2011 by admin    No Comments    Posted under: Design Tutorials, Graphic Design Tips

Typography is an awesome way of taking your designs to the next level. With our research, we have tried to find a pair of solution where you can search and create your own designer fonts for your next creative project.

Here are the resources you need:

FONTSHOP

If you’re looking to find new fonts, this is a great tool to use. It’s a great resource for designers chock full of amazing fonts – some for purchase and some great ones for free.

Not only can you search fonts by type or designer but they have a whole host of resources to help you learn how to use type well: a glossary, a blog, even a newsletter.

FONTSTRUCT

But if you really want to step it up to the next level, start creating your own fonts.

Brought to you by the people at Fontshop, with this program you don’ t have to depend on other people’s fonts, you can invent them yourself.

Fontstruct provides you with a grid and lets you create your own fonts with a series of geometric shapes – the options are almost infinite. Then download your font straight onto your computer!

It’s easy, creative and ups your design to the next level. Best of all – it’s free.

Awesome Graphic Design Illustrations from Chow Hon Lam

Nov 17, 2011 by admin    1 Comment     Posted under: Design Tutorials

Chow Hon Lam is an experienced illustrator and, an awesome t-shirt designer from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Popularly known as Flying Mouse in the designer world, Chow just got done with his personal creative project “Flying Mouse 365”, of designing 1 illustration a day for straight 365 days.

Chow has had the chance of working with some of the major brand names today such as Lotus F1, AirAsia, Nike, KLUE, Martell VSOP, Dave Mathews band etc.. He hopes to put a smile on your face with his incredible graphic design skills with Adobe Illustrator. Here are some of his prominent illustrations published below:

Let us know your thoughts on Chow’s lovely graphic design illustrations in comment section below.

Top 10 Incredible Beer Label Designs

Nov 15, 2011 by admin    1 Comment     Posted under: Design Tutorials, Graphic Design Tips

Have you ever wondered why alcoholic beverages and their bottles have some of the best best label designs? Not sure about you, however I have always wondered about why wine containers, beer or whisky bottles dig up the coolest designer labels.

In the collection gathered below, we have tried to focus on some of the top beer label designs. Hope you like them!

1. Minister

3. Work beer

4. Shepherd Neame

5. Sailor beer

6. Sigtuna Ace Of Spades

7. Kürzer Alt

8. Water Malt Hops Yeast

9. Spooks Ale

10. Northwestern Style Pale Ale

Top 10 Icon Design Photoshop Tutorials – Part 2

Sep 16, 2011 by admin    No Comments    Posted under: Design Tutorials

We hope you enjoyed reading our first part take on List of Top 10 Icon Design Photoshop Tutorials – Part 1 and continuing with the series, here we have another list you can use to learn icon designing using Adobe Photoshop. We hope you will enjoy the second part of top 10 design tutorials listed below:

• Windows XP Style Monitor Icon: This tutorial will help you in creating a simple monitor icon in the XP style.
• Design a Glossy Download Icon: This tutorial will teach you how to create an eye-catching glossy graphic of download icon.
• Apple iTunes Icon: Effectively design the iTunes icon with this tutorial that is found on all iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches.
• Draw Magnifying Glass: Learn how to design magnifying glass with this tutorial, which you can use as an icon or a button on your web-page.
• Vista Aero Thumbnail Icon: With this tutorial design a glossy border around Vista icons.
• World Icon Tutorial: This tutorial will help in creating world icon in Adobe Photoshop.
• Glossy RSS Icon: In this tutorial you are going to learn how to create a colorful RSS icon for your website.
• Glowing Orb with Dial: Trying out styles and layers to design a dial effect and cool glowing orb.
• Home Icon: Use this tutorial to learn how to design a home icon.
• How to Make a Folder Icon: Learn how to make a nice folder for your web-page or desktop.

This is a second part of Icon Design Photoshop Tutorials series and there are still 2 more parts remaining to follow. Stay tuned for some more icon design tutorials.

Top 10 Cartoon & Comic Fonts for Free

Sep 14, 2011 by admin    1 Comment     Posted under: Design Tutorials, Graphic Design Tips

Getting bored of plain and simple fonts? Want to use some new cartoon and comic fonts? Are the traditional fonts too out-dated for you? Continue reading below to find out top 10 cartoon and comic fonts available for free for your commercial or non-commercial use (please do not forget to read font designers copyright manual before using these fonts, that’s if there is one available)

Comic fonts such as Comic Sans MS have been available for years and are quite popular among graphic designers, however in this tutorial we have tried to gather a list of unique top 10 cartoon and comic fonts that can be used in your artwork.

Here’s our list of the Top 10 Cartoon & Comic Fonts available for Free!

• Que FONTita!
• Burrito
• Oogie Boogie
• Pokemon
• Clink Clank
• Denne’s Aliens
• Fighting Spirit
• Armor Piercing
• Eyesis
• akaHoggle

Please feel free to share your creative artwork using these cartoon and comic fonts with us in the comments section below.

List of Top 10 Icon Design Photoshop Tutorials: Part 1

Sep 14, 2011 by admin    2 Comments    Posted under: Design Tutorials

Well you know you can always count on world wide web for quality icon designs for free, however most of the icons and designs have limitations such as; not the size or color you want, copyright restrictions for commercial projects and transparency or format constraint.

Due to all the above-mentioned limitations, you should consider designing your own icons that will help you brush up photoshop skills and gain important knowledge. Trust us; making designs on your own will provide immense satisfaction.

You can learn icon designing using Adobe Photoshop with the help of top 10 design tutorials listed below:

• Adobe Photoshop CS3 Icon: Learn how to make a slightly altered looking Adobe CS3 Icon swiftly.
• Angry Emoticon: Learn about special effects while converting an ordinary orb into a fantasy art piece.
• Create a Glossy Home Icon: Learn how to design your very own glossy home icon in Photoshop.
• Perfect Shine Button or Icon: Design a cool looking button or an icon to suit your need.
• Design a High-Gloss Graduation Hat Icon: Make a professional, shiny, clean graduation hat icon in Photoshop.
• Create a Jaguar Style Folder Icon: Learn how to cover an object in a Jaguar style fur texture.
• Create A Mockingly Smiley: Simple way to create a glossy mockingly smiley in Photoshop.
• Create a Shiny Lock Icon Design: Wherever you wish to place a lock icon, this tutorial will show you how to create an attractive one for you to use!
• Create Icons tutorial: Create a glossy looking icons.
• Design a Cool Yellow Helmet Icon: Learn how you can design helcom icon from a photograph.

This is a first part of Icon Design Photoshop Tutorials series and there are still 3 more parts to be published. Stay tuned for some more icon design tutorials.

Beginners Guide to 10 Best CSS Books

Aug 29, 2011 by admin    No Comments    Posted under: Design Tutorials, Graphic Design Tips

Learn Cascading Style Sheets using some of the best CSS books available in the market for beginners.

The best and most well-informed way is to grab a CSS book, as you know there is quite a lot to study about Cascading Style Sheets. CSS books work wonders for beginners, and some of them also offer a lot of vital information for experienced CSS designers.

Here is our list of 10 (favorite) popular CSS books out there:

• CSS: The Missing Manual by David Sawyer McFarland

We had fun reading the Missing Manual series as the author had made most of the CSS topics easily understandable by the beginner. The book covers all the fundamentals of CSS styles along with complex stuff like Cascading Style Sheets or CSS layouts. Easy-to-understand details and examples make this CSS book a must for beginners starting out.

• CSS Cookbook by Christopher Schmitt

Trust us, this is an awesome book for learning CSS, however some might not agree to it. If you get to learn a lot by reading this CSS book, nothing can beat the results. The CSS Cookbook talks about making amendments to your web-pages with CSS, instead of targeting on CSS style syntax and properties.

• Teach Yourself CSS in 24 Hours by Kynn Bartlett

Sams Teach Yourself CSS in 24 hours is the book you need to learn CSS swiftly. It has all you require to get the CSS basics right and in no time…

• CSS: The Definitive Guide by Eric Meyer

Well this is the one that we have always recommended about CSS to beginners. CSS: The Definitive Guide is the first book on CSS styles and the only one you need, if you think you can’t afford more than one book. It is not really the best authored book, however with a little bit of work around to understand what’s exactly being taught, you will definitely find it lying on your desk after gaining years of CSS experience.

• Cascading Style Sheets by Example by Steven E. Callihan

This book guides you throughout building CSS documents with the help of on-site scenarios, few easy-to-follow and quite simple steps. Another grand hands on CSS book!

• Core CSS by Keith Schengili-Roberts

Core CSS is an awesome reference manual for different levels of CSS and best for designers who want to understand Cascading Style Sheets from every technical aspect, as it includes information about basic tag references and browser support functioning.

• CSS Mastery by Andy Budd

Also used by CSS experts, it is a lot more than a beginner’s guide. CSS Mastery helps you understand basic level and then take your CSS knowledge to a professional level. By learning CSS styles using this book, you can flourish your career as a web designer.

• CSS: The Designer’s Edge by Molly Holzschlag

This book sets a lot of emphasis on CSS as a colorful and designer’s language. CSS: The Designer’s Edge is a great resource for programming literates, however not really for those who have never worked with programming languages.

• CSS Pocket Reference by Eric Meyer

CSS Pocket Reference is quite well written guide for taking references here and there by Eric Meyer. Having all the fundamentals in a condensed form this reference book might not be perfect for learning CSS.

• CSS for Web Designers Only by Donna L. Baker

This is the CSS book to use as it focuses heavily on the outcome of web-pages after making the code. Beginners will love this book because proper color illustrations let the CSS flourish extensively. Go get it!

What’s your take on finding books that will help beginners in learning CSS?

If you weren’t fascinated by any of the CSS books mentioned above, please let us know what would you suggest to beginners in order to learn and gain knowledge of Cascading Style Sheets?

Finding a good book on CSS can be difficult, share your thoughts and help everyone!!