Creating icons and illustrations using custom brushes in Illustrator

simple bike icon thumbnail

If you ever need to create a simple but effective illustration or icon and are bored of the effect you are getting with just an outline, it may be an idea to use custom brushes in Illustrator to give your lines a bit of character. Here is a simple trace of a motorbike that was [...]

How to create a simple flat web button

flat-button-thumb-150-button

Here is an in depth tutorial explaining how to create the flat web button below in Photoshop and introducing the concept of the web designers’ secret penultimate pixels! Go cmd/cntl-N or File > New… to create a new Photoshop document of the size of your button. This one has a width of 175 pixels and [...]

Doing eye-catching designs in Illustrator

Eye-catching-swirl-spiral

I’m always on the look out for simple eye-catching ways to communicate a message. I think this is a great example of a visually appealing background that could be used when there are no images, graphics or other ways to improve the typography. This is especially useful in direct marketing (email or mail shot). How [...]

Design and marketing in a recession

Recession needn't give us an uncertain future

Recession, credit crunch, slowdown – these are bywords of the moment and you would be forgiven for thinking that we’ve got to tighten out belts and prepare for hard times ahead. The natural inclination for some businesses might be to scale back on marketing activities in an effort to save money. But, last week it [...]

Adding graphics and images to your designs

smile-birds

I am always looking for new ways to add eye-catching imagery to my designs – in the web, on print or wherever. This happened to me recently: I had a brief that meant I had to look for a smiling face image. It was difficult to think of something original. I did an internet image [...]

Get your message across with graphics and photography

till-display-s

Everybody knows that your marketing message will be enhanced by the creative use of graphic imagery. A competent graphic designer will be able to communicate your message to your market. But have you ever wondered what is the best way to make the graphic communicate the message? The above picture provides an answer. And it [...]

Improving photos with Photoshop by a Graphic Designer

city-south-bank-s

The above picture is one of my snaps taken very quickly at the end of clearish autumn day. I have improved this picture with Photoshop by selecting certain areas and altering the colour, brightness and contrast. I first thing I did was to copy the photo to a new layer (Cmd/Cntl-J) I then use my [...]

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