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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
The best kind of logo, in my opinion, is one which relies on an image or shape to convey the company or brand. I would call it archetypal communication. Above is an amalgam of five of the most famous of such symbols (actually four, the fifth is from a text logo!), can you spot where [...]
I was asked to come up with a logo for Toby Beresford an application developer that specialises in third party apps for Facebook. The client wanted something neat, simple and modern that could have a shiny web 2.0 effect put on at a later date. I find it better to start off with Adobe Illustrator [...]
This is one way of reproducing a striking image without having to pay for it! The logical way of doing an image made of dots would be like this: Make sure that your image’s width and height are divisible by 10 pixels (the above is 450 by 300 pixels). Nice round numbers make the following [...]
How many famous faces can you spot, who are they, what’s the background they’re superimposed on? I did this to illustrate an article I wrote commenting on the music industry. I used paths, marquees with a feather of two pixels and a brush eraser with a hardness of 0% to cut out the heads. It’s [...]
Finding a graphic element to illustrate an abstract or dry subject is a creative challenge. You find yourself being pulled in one direction to beautify your work and in the other to explain the subject in hand. I am continually searching around for images, illustrations or graphics that will compliment articles with heavy corporate or [...]
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