Doodling Can Help Memory

Saw this today on Yahoo Health.  Maybe this explains why when I draw or paint while watching a movie or listening to a book on tape I can later look at the drawing and remember where the story was at that point. Interesting. With more and more “senior moments” happening to me every day I think I’ll keep my drawing pad by the phone now.

Take Note: Doodling Can Help Memory on Yahoo! Health.

Saturday, February 28th, 2009 Business of Design No Comments

Photo Makeover

Excellent set of techniques from Blog.SpoonGraphics to apply to just about any photo in Photoshop and make it better.

Monday, February 2nd, 2009 Photography, Photoshop No Comments

Photoshop User Awards - The worldwide Adobe Photoshop competition.

Monday, February 2nd, 2009 Design News, Illustration, Photography, Photoshop No Comments

Photoshop Malpractice

Many of us Photoshop veterans (I guess with 18 years PS experience I’m a legit veteran) have learned about bad practices the hard way. But you don’t have to if you start with this collection of common PS user mistakes. I agree with the post and the big pay off in avoiding these is in efficiency and achieving top notch professional results.  Worth a look.

12 Common Photoshop Mistakes, Misuses and Abuses | The Design Cubicle.

Friday, January 16th, 2009 Design Techniques, Photoshop No Comments

Pepsi Packaging

This is not new news but I held off on an opinion about the new Pepsi packaging design to see how they rolled it out and integrated the new look with their marketing.  My initial reaction to the design was negative as with most people.  But sometimes good design grows on you and takes on a life you didn’t expect.  Would the new packaging be a flop or pure genius?  Well, personally, I think the pure genius category is out.  It looks like the logo of a knock off brand – close but not quite right.  After seeing commercials and looking at displays, I like it less now than before.  From a “does-it-work” standpoint for their brand continuity, and marketing goals, I can’t imagine that it does except to create a lot of “what-were-they-thinking” buzz. The variations on the so-called “smile” are confusing and the overall look seems to distance them from any previous brand identity and equity they banked. I’m predicting a short shelf life for this “un-logo”.

This video kind of amuses me. I guess they figured it might improve if they kept it in motion.

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Find more videos like this on AdGabber

Pepsi Unveils Packaging to ‘Digital and Social Media Influencers’ - AdGabber.

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 Branding, Design News No Comments

Logo Design Resources

Wow!  The title below speaks for itself.  I’ve only just begun to go through this list.

The Ultimate List of the Top Best Logo Design Resources.

Free Photoshop Plugins You Might Actually Use

Sometimes the exhausting Free-Everything-for-Photoshop lists can be, well, exhausting.  Who has time to check out 500 sites worth of Photoshop freebies and wade through tons of marginally useful stuff to find the gems.  Maybe I’m just getting too old.  Thanks to Photoshop Roadmap for this list of 15 free Photoshop Plugins which is thoughtfully selected, presented and previewed.  Not to mention many of these free plugins seem pretty useful.

Monday, December 22nd, 2008 Design Techniques, Photoshop 1 Comment

Alltop

So what would you say if I could point you to a site that had all the top news and blogs listed for any subject you’re interested in, say Photoshop or maybe design news?

Check it:

http://photoshop.alltop.com/

http://design.alltop.com/

Pretty cool huh?!

Monday, December 22nd, 2008 Design News, Design Trends, Photoshop No Comments

Free Photoshop Brushes

I honestly don’t know why anyone would need to buy commercial Photoshop brush packages these days. I needed some cloud brushes and didn’t want to take the time to make them. A simple Google search turned up not only several free cloud brush sets, but tons of free brush sites. And I often find digital artists and illustrators offering their brushes as free downloads. Below are some sites that’ll get you started if you’re looking to beef up your Photoshop brush collection.

Brusheezy

BrushKing

PSBrushes

Qbrushes

GetBrushes.com

photo-shop-brush.com

myphotoshopbrushes.com

Falln-Stock – a really interesting deviantART gallery of object oriented PS brush sets

The Art of Daarken – a fantasy/scifi artist gallery site with a nice set of custom paint brushes (click on tutorials >> custom brushes

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Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 Illustration, Photoshop No Comments

Artists of Photoshop

If you want to OD on Photoshop inspiration this is the place to do it –  Artists of Photoshop. The site features Photoshop artists apparently submitted by viewers and rated by viewers.  Each featured artist image is a link to their web site where you can peruse their full portfolio.  Be prepared to spend some time if you are a photoshop junkie.