Design Techniques
Rust, Cracks and Stone Textures
Thanks to DesignM.ag for these excellent compilations of Photoshop brushes and textures
150 Free Rust Brushes for Photoshop
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.
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.
Avoiding The Cliché
When I file through stock images laden with more handshake photos or world globe images than I can shake a stick at, I groan audibly. Check this post at Just Creative Design with another in his series on over-used graphic elements, in this case cliché stock images used in web design. You’ll probably agree with most of them as I did. Its important to note that cliché is not necessarily bad. In the right circumstance a cliché image may be the best choice. But don’t go there immediately if a little thought will cultivate a better alternative.
If you need to find cool, compelling images for your next web design or corporate brochure think more metaphorically and see where it takes you. Adopting a theme that fits the client’s business activity or identity is a good way to go about that. Below is the cover for a corporate brochure and matching web page I designed for a law firm. We chose the theme of “Focus” due to the firm’s specialization in a particular segment of law. Being able to depart from the gavel and scales of justice sameness was OK by me. If you have to use a more cliché image look for the treatment of that subject that stands out as unique. Better yet take a stock image and put a little time into making it unique with some of your own customizations in Photoshop or Illustrator.
Killer Texture Site
[CG Textures] claims to be the worlds largest FREE texture site. Who knows maybe they are. They have a ton of ‘em thats for sure. The “bone” texture category was kind of unexpected. It warrants a visit if you’re looking for a cool texture.
Over-Used Graphic Techniques
Thanks to Jacob Cass over at Just Creative Design for this well thought out post. Top 7 Most Overused Techniques and Elements In Graphic Design. Good choices and a valid point that these techniques are neither bad nor good. I would add to his list the “wet floor reflection”. I personally think hot, popular trends can be used judiciously as long as you endeavor to give them some sort of individuality or twist. Many of these techniques can be employed in a vast number of ways. And if you design for clients as I do, you may get requests for that particularly “hot” look. I look forward to the rest of Jacob’s 6-part series.
Better Black and White
Improving your black and white photos is anything but black and white. If you’ve tried to find good techniques for doing this you know they are as numerous as the pixels in your image. So add this tutorial to your list, but don’t rush, its a good one and worth learning.
Adobe TV
Very impressive site with the promise of lots of useful content. Love the interface too.
From their April 9th press release:
“Adobe TV is the online video source for anyone with wants to see how Adobe tools are being used to create stunning work,” said Bob Donlon, executive producer for Adobe TV. “It brings together experts from Adobe and the creative community to inspire and teach how to get the most from the software that is empowering the delivery of high-impact print, online, video and mobile communications. It’s also the perfect showcase for Adobe’s broadcast video technologies in action.”
Adobe TV
Borders Under a Minute
Nice little tutorial for creating quick photo edges. A very flexible technique.
Borders Under a Minute | Effects Photography Tutorials Videos | Planet Photoshop
Testing – One, Two, Three
Found this site for testing web pages in multiple browsers. If you design web sites you know how frustrating and time consuming browser testing can be. Though the results can be a bit slow, having all the browser screen results at a glance is pretty handy. And since I design from a Mac I don’t have access to Explorer 6 or 7. This site gives me screenshot results from any browser I choose on any platform.
http://browsershots.org