I started my career as a graphic designer and I like to say that I cut my way into it with an exacto knife blade. Yup, it was that long ago with the hot wax and the knives so I guess that says a little about how long ago it was. I have experience laying out large publications, complex prepress work, designing large scale graphics for trade shows and bus billboards. I can help you with your brochures and rack cards as well as any other business identity you are trying to create. Please contact me if you have a project you would like to discuss.
Metal up your type
The purpose of design is to communicate a message and therefore I believe special effects should be used only if there is a reason to use them. This means it’s probably rare that you’ll need to create metal type but as a designer you should know the concept of how to do it even if you’ll only do it once in your career. Above is an image of a banner I did for our college website to congratulate one of our star alumni who played in the Superbowl. To match the emblem for the Superbowl it called for some silver type. In addition...
read moreTangerine Tango Sunrise?
Apparently every year Pantone (the world authority on color) picks a color. For 2012 it’s Tangerine Tango (Pantone 17-1463). You can download the color palette from their website. I was a bit intrigued by the color choice for this year and realized they might be right. I have been leaning towards warm charged colors for a little while now. I wondered what would have happen if I did a little color overlay on a sunrise I recently took. Below is the that tangerine tango overlay and here is a link to the original. It’s a subtle...
read moreGoogle web font plugin for Photoshop by WebINK
A little while back I posted about free web fonts from Google and how I used them in a small project. I found a nifty free little plugin for plugin for Photoshop CS5 from WebINK that allows you design with Google web fonts right inside Photoshop CS5. First create an account with WebINK and download their plugin. Once downloaded you’ll activate it through Window > Extensions > Extensis. You will have to sign into your account. Once loaded you will get a list of all the premium WebINK fonts but you can switch and from the drop down...
read moreVehicle graphic detail
After 40+ years Chapman’s Dog Grooming of Antioch is going mobile! Here is a closeup of part of the graphics I am doing for the mobile grooming vehicle. The image of the dog is high resolution so it’s enough for printing on the door of the vehicle and the grass and bubbles were created in Adobe Illustrator so they could be scaled at various sizes. It’s not complete yet but I will be posting updates as the project moves along. I have to credit tutsplus for the wonderful tutorial on how to create realistic...
read more2012 EPS Adobe Illustrator Calendar
I thought I would share this 2012 calendar template I did for my parents dog grooming buisiness. After 40+ years they are now taking the business on the road and going mobile. This calendar was a handout in december and a way to alert existing customers of the change. If you have Adobe Illustrator or another program that reads EPS files feel free to download and reuse. 2012 EPS...
read moreHow to draw a vector-based jack o’lantern in Photoshop with shape layers
Happy Pumpkin! Since it’s season appropriate I thought I would share what I taught my photoshop class on how to make a Jack o’lantern using the pen tool and shape layers. Below is what the final image looks like that for the most part would scalable as a vector based graphic before I turned it into a bitmaped image for display purposes here. Download layered PSD Start with a outline of what you want to do. Below is the sketch I started with and took a picture with my cell phone to get it into Photoshop. Then select the pen tool...
read moreHow to draw a cute ladybug in Photoshop
Step by step When drawing from scratch I usually draw my little cartoons with a combination of Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop but I decided to not stick with what was familiar to me and try to do the whole drawing in just photoshop. I used mostly used shape layers tracing a drawing that I sketched out on paper. I will show you below the steps from inspiration to completion on how to create this bug on the right. Hopefully you can take these steps and create your own cute little creature using these techniques. Step 1 I still have...
read moreBeginning Photoshop CS5 hands-on course in Antioch
I will be teaching 6 hours of hands-on training in Adobe Photoshop CS5 at the Antioch Recreation Department. You’ll start with a basic introduction of the interface to feeling comfortable with many of the tools. You’ll fix photos and create your own artwork from scratch. Registration Information...
read moreCollege website gets a makeover
I’m excited to be able to show a sneak peak of my colleges new website due to go live on Tuesday! I originally revamped the site in 2003 and it was good for the time but then the content outgrew itself. This new launch was a year in the making with the first half of the year doing nothing but usability testing with our various audience profiles with several different navigation structures. You can read about the process of the usability study here. The main goal was to have a website that was easy to find information and still provided a...
read moreEstimating time by weighted average
Anyone who knows me is going to find it extremely strange that I of all people should post a math formula! When it comes to managing your projects though there doesn’t seem to be any way around it. Your client is always going to want to know how long the project is going to take. You’re going to want to know too since you don’t really want to work for peanuts. It’s difficult at times when the projects are complex and lots of factors involved. I was discussing this with a friend the other day and it made me remember a...
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