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.

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!

Top 10 Google Logo Designs in 2011

Dec 27, 2011 by admin    1 Comment     Posted under: Graphic Design Tips

If you have ever used internet, you would most definitely be aware of the world’s largest and strongest online company, yes you are right, we are talking about Google! Interestingly, Google have a tendency to switch logos every now and then as a part of Doodle4Google program on various noteworthy occasions. This strategy is targeted on making Google’s web search a more fun and enjoyable experience on the internet.

Did you know that Google had already changed their logos about 231 times in the year 2011 on all or most of their web properties? Normally, you will see Google logos designed specifically to different countries as people from that particular region use their local Google search engine home page (us being in India will use www.Google.in). One of the most favorite and talked about logo design this year was a Doodle created on Giò Pomodoro’s 81st Birthday from Italy.

This sort of move by Google towards their corporate identity and logo design is distinctive and one of kind, along with fun and graphic designers get to learn quite a lot. Here in this article, we have taken some references from the DesignCrowd and made available about top 10 Google logo designs published in the year 2011.

#1 – Giò Pomodoro’s 81st Birthday (Italy)

Giò Pomodoro was an Italian sculptor and Google designers did an awesome job of creating out of the world logo published below.

#2 – Holi Festival (India)

A lovely and creative example of using negative space in logo design

#3 – Jim Henson’s 75th Birthday (Worldwide)

With this logo publishing, Google is celebrating the birthday of inventor of the Muppets, Jim Henson.

#4 – Mothers Day (Worldwide)

An awesomely elegant, detailed and beautiful logo design for mother’s day by Google!

#5 – Birthday of Constantin Brancusi (Selected Countries)

This logo was designed by Google from sculptures on the birthday of Constantin Brancusi who was a Romanian/French sculptor.

#6 – Tom Jobim’s Birthday (Brazil)

This logo was created by Google for Tom Jobim’s birthday, a Brazilian songwriter, on the theme of a Brazilian holiday and was only available to those in Brazil.

#7 – Spring Day (Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria)

Google logo designed for a one fine spring day, and was named as Martisor.

#8 – Panama Independence Day (Panama)

Google logo with the cute and weird national bird – ‘the harpy eagle’ for Panama’s Independence Day.

#9 – Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s 91st Birthday (Australia)

The Google logo below depicts an Australian poet and activist and the “first Aboriginal Australian to publish a book of verse”.  Logo was inspired by traditional Australian Aboriginal art.

#10 – Hideyo Noguchi’s 135th Birthday (Japan)

Google logo design for the birthday of Noguchi who was a Japanese scientist that discovered “the agent of syphilis as the cause of progressive paralytic disease”

Top 10 Designer & Creative Resumes

Dec 21, 2011 by admin    No Comments    Posted under: Graphic Design Tips

People keep on switching jobs, or freelance graphic designers are forced to apply for different projects on a regular basis due to rough financial times.

Is there a way graphic designer can stand out from the pack and take hold of the interest of design firms as they are normally flooded with tons of resume applications? The most attractive way of grabbing an attention would be to design a resume sample for job rather than penning it. A well designed and creative resume templates will definitely go a long long way at grabbing the opportunity you are waiting for and get you hired for the profession you have eyed all this while.

An eye catching and creative resume design could at least get you few moments of glimpse from a job recruiter that might become the deciding factor between getting the job you have applied for or not.

Here you can have a look at top 10 designer resumes that will motivate you to create an out of the box resume for your own job application.

1. Francis Homo Resume
   
2. Doni Kristian Dachi Resume
   
3. Branko Resume
   
4. H Sercan Tunali Resume
   
5. Duhkine Resume
6. Jolie Odell Resume
7. Pixelprop Resume
8. Sofiane Yaya Resume
9. Varks Resume
10. Yingzhu Luqiu Resume

Let us know about your thoughts and design tips on the creativity of these graphic designers.

Free Generate Box Design for Your Website

Dec 11, 2011 by admin    No Comments    Posted under: Graphic Design Tips

Today we are offering free download file of generate box design from skillful Rafal Tomal, who has been working as a lead graphic designer for Copyblogger Media.

You can use this great resource as an Email or Lead Generation section or for newsletter functionality on your website.

The Generate Box is available for free in 4 different colors for your design projects: Blue, Green, Orange and Red. Every color pattern consists of the matching badge and headline gradient.

Download: Free Generate Box Design
File Size: 0.728 Megabytes
File Type: Zip File

Free Call to Action Banners for Your Website

Dec 8, 2011 by admin    No Comments    Posted under: Graphic Design Tips

In this article we are providing free download file of call to action banners from an experienced graphic designer. Rafal Tomal who works as a lead designer for Copyblogger Media has creatively designed these banners.

The zip file available for free download includes both JPG & PSD files. Call to action banners are included in about 5 different color styles as well.

Feel free to use these banners for any of your website, or commercial/non-commercial design projects.

Download: Call To Action Banners
File Size: 1.46 Megabytes
File Type: Zip File

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.

Richard Newland Quits as a Design Head of HSBC

Nov 23, 2011 by admin    No Comments    Posted under: Graphic Design Tips

Richard Newland has left the group of HSBC Company as the global head of design and retail network development at HSBC. Richard was with HSBC for almost seven years and will now be operating as an independent customer experience specialist.

He had been contracted to work on the creation and deployment of the HSBC’s global retail branch design formats with global workplace design along with HSBC Premier and Business.

There has been no announcement on a replacement for Newland as informed by a spokesman for HSBC bank.

‘My time at one of the world’s biggest brands has been fantastic, working with some wonderful people on some truly global transformation projects. However, the time is now right for me to find a new challenge’ says Newland.

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

People’s Choice Design Award Winner; Design Matters

Nov 4, 2011 by admin    2 Comments    Posted under: Design Firms, Graphic Design Tips

The People’s Choice Design Award was announced by Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum at its annual gala on Thursday, October 20, 2011. Debbie Millman from Design Observer’s, and the originator of the popular Design Matters was the winner of this promising award.

Debbie Millman was behind over 100 shows on Voice America between years 2008-2009 before moving onto Design Observer in August of 2009 and has produced over 33 design podcast interviews. Ever since Curtis Fox started producing the Design Matters show, interviews have been recorded at the School of Visual Arts studio.

According to me Debbie Millman, Design Matters was unveiled in the month of February of 2005 with a basic concept and a telephone. She thought that it would be an awesome way to find out about design tips and know more about the brilliance of designers all over the world.

Design Observer is an exclusive publisher of the show; Design Matters and all podcasts are available for free on iTunes. The current producer is Curtis Fox of Curtis Fox Productions and show is backed by the School of Visual Arts and Sterling Brands. Technical support is endowed by Rainy Orteca and data research by Jennifer Simon.