Bookmarked! Best readings of the week #2
Every week the design community releases a lot of useful articles, tutorials and showcases that can charge your creativity in different ways. With this series we want to share high-quality contents from the community to provide interesting information for our readers. It's just a small selection, but we are sure that it can help you to find cool stuff that covers a wide variety of topics. Enjoy it!
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Below a collection of brilliant articles that we have found in the last week. We suggest you to bookmark and read them. Take your time, get inspired!
Adobe Illustrator is a fantastic application for crafting typographical masterpieces. However, whether you?re creating a simple paragraph for a print ad or a complex typographical piece of art for a website, there are several tips and techniques you should know for how to manipulate type within the program.
Read the article
When I saw the bad-ass poster design for the upcoming movie The Expendables, I just had to open up Photoshop and have a go at recreating it. Follow this step by step guide on how to create the menacing winged skull design for yourself, complete with an overkill of weaponry surrounding a sinister looking skull face.
Read the article
In this graphic design tutorial, we will combine Photoshop, Cinema 4D, and Illustrator to produce a composition that includes elements such as 3D text, 3D light bulbs (which we will create from scratch using only a reference photo), and florid ornaments.
Read the article
Software applications and stock art designs often need box designs to help with the marketing. We frequently use box designs on Psdtuts to promote our exclusive freebie or premium sets. There are several ways to create this sort of design. You can use software, actions, or even do this yourself. In today?s tutorial we will demonstrate how to do this by hand, in Photoshop. Let?s get started!
Read the article
When Adobe started announcing some of the new features of the CS5 version of Photoshop they showed the Puppet Warp tool in which they played with an elephant's trunk. I was really impressed with that tool but never used it that too much, because of that I decided to give it a try, especially after seeing a screen cast with Russell Brown in which he was showing how to manipulate a rope with the Puppet Warp Tool.
Read the article
As the worlds of web design and SEO merge ever closer, we've been seeing design-specific elements produce a positive impact on SEO for the sites that employ them. It's terrific news for SEOs who love design and are capable of and passionate about making it part of their repertoire.
Read the article
No. One word, a complete sentence. We all learned to say it around our first birthday, so why do we have such a hard time saying it now when it comes to our work?
Read the article
Over the past several years, I have taken an interest in usability and web design. One of the areas that seems to be often overlooked when it comes to design of a site is the design of the URIs on that site. Modern CMS systems allow for varying degrees of URI customization, but the defaults are often not as usable as they could be, and URIs are often placed last in the design process.
Read the article
Recently, I asked all my friends* on twitter what sorts of articles they would like to read about here on GDB. One friend suggested a sort of checklist-style article about preparing for a redesign. Hence the following article. If you would like to suggest a topic for discussion and exploration here at GDB, head on over to our contact page, facebook fan page, or @mention me on twitter and we?ll try to help you out! (Also, to whomever requested this topic, I misplaced your name, so if you would kindly remind me, I?ll add your name and twitter account in here.)
Read the article
Futuristic illustrations of skyscraper cities and flying vehicles are very common, but what we don't get to see very often is what happens if mankind faces extinction. Tokyogenso came up with his vision of this future.
Read the article
An in-Depth Guide to Working With Typography in Illustrator
- written by Joshua Johnson
- topics: typography, illustrator
- designshack.co.uk
Adobe Illustrator is a fantastic application for crafting typographical masterpieces. However, whether you?re creating a simple paragraph for a print ad or a complex typographical piece of art for a website, there are several tips and techniques you should know for how to manipulate type within the program.
Read the article
How To Create The Expendables Winged Skull Poster Art
- written by Chris Spooner
- topics: design, graphic, tutorial
- blog.spoongraphics.co.uk
When I saw the bad-ass poster design for the upcoming movie The Expendables, I just had to open up Photoshop and have a go at recreating it. Follow this step by step guide on how to create the menacing winged skull design for yourself, complete with an overkill of weaponry surrounding a sinister looking skull face.
Read the article
Create an Artistic Scene with 3D Light Bulbs and Type
- written by Ionut Ciursa
- topics: tutorial, 3d, cinema 4d
- designinstruct.com
In this graphic design tutorial, we will combine Photoshop, Cinema 4D, and Illustrator to produce a composition that includes elements such as 3D text, 3D light bulbs (which we will create from scratch using only a reference photo), and florid ornaments.
Read the article
Create a Glossy High Resolution Box Art Icon with Photoshop
- written by Tanmoy Dey
- topics: icon, tutorial, photoshop
- psd.tutsplus.com
Software applications and stock art designs often need box designs to help with the marketing. We frequently use box designs on Psdtuts to promote our exclusive freebie or premium sets. There are several ways to create this sort of design. You can use software, actions, or even do this yourself. In today?s tutorial we will demonstrate how to do this by hand, in Photoshop. Let?s get started!
Read the article
Cool Text Effect with the Puppet Warp Tool in Photoshop CS5
- written by Fabio Sasso
- topics: tutorial, photoshop cs5, text effect
- abduzeedo.com
When Adobe started announcing some of the new features of the CS5 version of Photoshop they showed the Puppet Warp tool in which they played with an elephant's trunk. I was really impressed with that tool but never used it that too much, because of that I decided to give it a try, especially after seeing a screen cast with Russell Brown in which he was showing how to manipulate a rope with the Puppet Warp Tool.
Read the article
7 Cutting Edge Web Design Trends (that Can Actually Improve SEO)
- written by randfish
- topics: seo, web design, trends
- seomoz.org
As the worlds of web design and SEO merge ever closer, we've been seeing design-specific elements produce a positive impact on SEO for the sites that employ them. It's terrific news for SEOs who love design and are capable of and passionate about making it part of their repertoire.
Read the article
No One Nos: Learning to Say No to Bad Ideas
- written by Whitney Hess
- topics: tips, freelancing
- alistapart.com
No. One word, a complete sentence. We all learned to say it around our first birthday, so why do we have such a hard time saying it now when it comes to our work?
Read the article
Guidelines for URI Design
- written by Jacob Gillespie
- topics: article, uri design
- blog.echoenduring.com
Over the past several years, I have taken an interest in usability and web design. One of the areas that seems to be often overlooked when it comes to design of a site is the design of the URIs on that site. Modern CMS systems allow for varying degrees of URI customization, but the defaults are often not as usable as they could be, and URIs are often placed last in the design process.
Read the article
6 Questions to ask yourself before attempting a redesign
- written by Preston D Lee
- topics: freelancing, redesign
- graphicdesignblender.com
Recently, I asked all my friends* on twitter what sorts of articles they would like to read about here on GDB. One friend suggested a sort of checklist-style article about preparing for a redesign. Hence the following article. If you would like to suggest a topic for discussion and exploration here at GDB, head on over to our contact page, facebook fan page, or @mention me on twitter and we?ll try to help you out! (Also, to whomever requested this topic, I misplaced your name, so if you would kindly remind me, I?ll add your name and twitter account in here.)
Read the article
Illustrations of an Abandoned Earth
- written by Paulo Gabriel
- topics: inspiration, illustrations
- abduzeedo.com
Futuristic illustrations of skyscraper cities and flying vehicles are very common, but what we don't get to see very often is what happens if mankind faces extinction. Tokyogenso came up with his vision of this future.
Read the article
More from Articles
A Guide to the Warp Transform Tool in Photoshop 2020
Articlesby Tony Thomas
​The warp transform tool has been a fixture in Photoshop for a long time and has remained mostly unchanged since it's introduction, until this year when Adobe updated their Creative Cloud software suite for 2020. So what has changed, what has been improved and what does this mean for backwards compatibility?
Read more
Essential Tips for Creating your own Custom T-Shirt Designs
Articlesby Tony Thomas
​At some point we’ve all thought of an awesome idea for a t-shirt design that we’d love to get printed. Maybe you’re ready to make that design a reality? Cool! But if you’ve never designed specifically for printing onto textiles before, here are some top tips to help you get started.
Read more