Animated interface elements don't just attract attention, they enhance user experience and help guide user flow. They reveal the functionality and process of a user interface much better than static text. Like any other element of good design, UI animations should have a purpose without being too noticeable. They should be functional above everything else. If you're looking … [Read more...]
30 Brilliant Logos That Turn Simple Letters Into Hidden Genius
Letterforms have always played a central role in logo design. At the most basic level, they’re just there to represent a name, an initial, an identity. Simple enough. But in the hands of a skilled designer, letters can be shaped, extended, and reworked to carry meaning, turning something functional into something more expressive. Monograms: A lot of this kind of expressive … [Read more...]
25 Funny Illustrations That Designers And Agencies Will Relate To
The Instagram artist known as Cauliflower Time undertook a 100-day project where she illustrated funny problems that designers and creatives face on a daily basis. Titled 100 Days of Pencils, the series is an accurate representation of agency life and the bowel-numbing experiences that come with it. The artist uses a pencil as the primary product of her pitches to showcase … [Read more...]
Artist Shares His Everyday Life With Wife Using Comic Illustrations
Picture this: It’s a cold winter night. You’re snuggled up in your quilt with the TV remote in one hand and a tub of popcorn in the other. Life couldn’t be better. Suddenly, out of nowhere, your wife presses her ice-cold feet against the warmest part of your body and you scream like a banshee, much to her sadistic delight. Situations like these, and more, are perfectly … [Read more...]
You Can Get Sued For Using These 8 Colors In Your Designs
Companies can trademark colors, granting them exclusive use in their industry. For example, Mattel's Barbie Pink (Pantone 219 C) is trademarked in over 100 categories. Tiffany & Co.'s blue color has been trademarked since 1998. Its custom Pantone number, 1837, is the year the company was founded. … [Read more...]
11 Famous Logos That Look Ridiculously Similar
In the competitive world of logo design, where distinctiveness is key, noticeable similarities between logos often ignite discussions about the line between inspiration and outright imitation. As brands compete to differentiate themselves in a bustling market, their logos occasionally reveal surprising resemblances or secretive connections. Such instances prompt a closer … [Read more...]
35 Creative Invoices Designed To Leave A Good Impression On Clients
A good last impression is as important as the first one. In the design/creative business, every single item of stationery you present to a client speaks volumes about your capabilities and attention to detail. Most designers, agencies and studios put a lot of thought into designing creative business cards, letterheads and envelopes. But when it comes to invoices, few of them … [Read more...]
41 Minimal Logos With Hidden Meanings
There’s something deeply satisfying about a logo that’s both simple and smart. As designers, we know how deceptively hard that is to pull off. You try to reduce, refine, remove, and somewhere along the way, the soul of the idea can slip through the cracks. But when it works? When a minimal logo manages to be clean, memorable, and packed with meaning? That’s design … [Read more...]
A Day In The Life Of A Designer
What does a day in the life of a designer look like? YouTube channel The Futur has released a short video that takes you through 24 hours in the life of Matthew Encina, creative director at Santa Monica-based design consultancy Blind. You get an un-romanticized look at the everyday hustle of a designer/creative director, the routines, the challenges, the tools they use, and … [Read more...]
Gorgeous Animations Of Hand-Lettered Logos Where Every Frame Is Hand-Drawn
Mantas Grauzinis is a freelance illustrator and animator based in Vilnius, Lithuania. He loves good stories and "splashy, smoother than butter movements". His passion for the latter can be observed in a series of slick animations of hand-lettered logos created by him, that are extremely satisfying to watch. … [Read more...]
The Winners Of The A’ Design Awards Have Been Announced And They’re Brilliant
The A’ Design Award & Competition have announced their list of winners for 2016-2017 and most of them are pretty damn cool. The categories included packaging, furniture, architecture, interiors, apparel and more. We've shortlisted some of our favourites below. … [Read more...]
A Useful Guide To Different Font Formats That Every Designer Should Know
There are many choices of font formats but not a single one works across all browsers. You will have to use multiple font formats to deliver a consistent experience. These include TrueType Font (TTF), OpenType (OTF), Embedded OpenType (EOT), Web Open Font Format (WOFF) and Scalable Vector Graphics font (SVG). … [Read more...]
This Guy Sucked At Photoshop, He Spent 10 Years Mastering Microsoft Paint To Illustrate His Book
"Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way." - Edward de Bono Boston-based artist Patrick Hanes has worked exclusively in Microsoft Paint for over 10 years. By his own admission, he "sucks at Photoshop and other programs". He honed his craft in MS Paint working long overnights at a hospital reception … [Read more...]
Beautiful, Colorful Animal Logos Based On Circular Geometry
California-based designer Anuja Kanani has come up with a series of colorful animal logos using circle geometry. Being an animal lover, she wanted to undertake this design experiment to highlight their elegant structure and form. For each logo, Anuja initially sketched a basic structure guided by circles. She then defined the animal using just line forms. Programs used were … [Read more...]
Dad Photoshops His Baby Into Dangerous Situations To Freak Out Relatives
Dublin-based designer and dad Stephen Crowley decided to use his Photoshop skills to have some fun with his family and relatives. He photoshopped his 18-month-old daughter Hannah into situations that would give anyone a heart attack - like driving a car, holding a kitchen knife, climbing a ladder alone, etc. The images went viral online when Stephen shared them on Reddit where … [Read more...]
Google AutoDraw Turns Your Rough Scribbles Into Beautiful Icons For Free
Google's latest A.I. experiment is a web-based drawing tool called AutoDraw that converts your rough scribbles and doodles into beautiful, symmetrical icons/clipart that you can download for free. It works on your phone, computer or tablet and uses artificial intelligence to guess and suggest a more polished icon or symbol to replace your drawing. … [Read more...]
‘Draw This Again’ Challenge Proves That Practice Makes Perfect
DeviantArt users conducted a ‘Draw This Again’ meme challenge wherein they invited artists to re-draw their old artwork and present them side-by-side for comparison. The objective was to showcase the artist’s dramatic progress over the years and highlight the fact that drawing skills can be improved considerably with practice. Here are some of the best entries. … [Read more...]
This Clever Pen Tool Technique Shows You How To Place Anchor Points And Curves In Illustrator
The Pen Tool is one of the most powerful tools in Adobe Illustrator and also the hardest to master. You don't always know where the anchor points have to go and where the bezier handles are supposed to be directed. Too many anchor points result in choppy curves and can also cause printing errors. The bezier handles need to be in the right direction and at the right length to … [Read more...]
Smooth, Clean Animations Of Beautiful Hand-Lettered Logos For Design Inspiration
Russian designers Starov Evgeniy (lettering artist) and Alexey Dubnichenko (motion designer) have come up with a series of impressive animations of commercial lettering work they've created over the last year. The objective of this collection is to show lettering logos in a new perspective. … [Read more...]
Photographer Creates Epic Outdoor Scenes Using Miniature Models And Landscapes
Vatsal Kataria is a New Delhi-based commercial photographer and creative director. He loves doing conceptual photoshoots and his forte lies in miniature photography. His photos look like they've been shot at exotic locations on a high budget, but they're actually small scale models and landscapes made to look like the real thing. … [Read more...]
This Animated Video Brilliantly Explains Layout And Composition In Graphic Design
Layout and composition are the foundation of design. They give your work structure and make it easier to navigate. Without a well-composed layout, your elements would basically fall apart. GCFLearnFree has come up with an excellent animated tutorial on the five basic layout and composition principles that can help transform your work and sharpen your eye for design. Check it … [Read more...]
Work-From-Home Designer Earns $1 Million Selling Fonts and Graphics Online
Nicky Laatz is a designer, entrepreneur and stay-at-home mom who runs her business from her home in Cape Town, South Africa. She creates fonts, graphics, templates, add-ons, etc. and sells them on Creative Market, an online marketplace for community-generated design assets. She's the first person to have crossed $1 million USD in sales on Creative Market. Watch her inspiring … [Read more...]
Audi Hires Photographer To Shoot Their $40,000 Car, He Uses A $40 Toy Car Instead
Audi Middle East commissioned Mexican photographer and art director Felix Hernandez to shoot a series of photos of their $40,000 Audi Q2 crossover for Audi Magazine. Felix, known for his realistic miniature photography, created a small-scale desert and roadway in his studio and produced a series of striking images using a 1/43 scale model of the Q2. Challenges: Making … [Read more...]
30 Great Font Combinations For Your Next Design Project
Designers often spend a lot of time deciding which typefaces to pair up and most sites don’t offer a real preview of what the text will look like. To make life easier for everyone, designer Poppie Pack from Canva has created a set of mock-ups that show different headline and body font combinations for a variety of design projects. Pack has also specified the font size and … [Read more...]
Designers Create Beautiful Animal Logos To Raise Awareness For Endangered Species
European designers Bodea Daniel, Cajvanean Alexandru, Petar Shalamanov and Martigny Matthieu have come together to create a series of striking animal logos to raise awareness about endangered species. They've used different design styles and techniques like golden ratio, negative space, blend modes and minimalism. Each logo is accompanied by a caption that describes the … [Read more...]
Beautiful, Minimal Photographs Of Sunsets For Color Inspiration
'Sky Series' is a gorgeous collection of sunrise and sunset photos by New York-based photographer Eric Cahan. He captures the natural polychromatic colors of the sky during dawn and dusk, and records the exact time and location of each photograph. … [Read more...]
How To Convert Your Hand Lettering From Paper To Digital In Adobe Illustrator
Yesterday, we featured Mackey Saturday's 60 second tutorial on how to create a custom logotype. Today, we'll be focusing in depth on the process of converting your hand-lettering to vector, with the help of this brilliant tutorial from designer Jenn Coyle at Hello Brio Studio. Watch below. … [Read more...]
25 Clever Logos Of Common Verbs We Use Every Day
Following up to the previously published 25 adjective logo collection, Spanish designer Lucas Gil-Turner has created a series of impressive logos for the 25 most commonly used verbs in the Oxford English Dictionary. The list was released by Oxford University Press researchers after the analysis of over a billion words. Lucas has created illustrative and representative logos, … [Read more...]
Designer Who Created The Instagram Logo Shows You How To Design A Logotype
A logotype is the name of a brand or a company designed in a visually unique way for use by that company. The logos of Google, Coca-Cola, Facebook, Disney, Cadbury, Nokia and Philips are examples of famous logotypes. The wordmarks are created using a custom or an existing typeface. If you're looking to create a custom logotype, check out this handy tutorial by Skillshare … [Read more...]
10 Tricks To Cut Out Anything In Photoshop
A young monk artist went up to his teacher who was reciting Photoshop keyboard shortcuts under a Himalayan tree and asked him “Teacher, when will I become a master artist like you?” The teacher replied “When you can select all the feathers of a morning sparrow without missing a single one, only then will you be a true Photoshop master.” (source) … [Read more...]
25 Images That Prove Why Good Design Is Important
“Good design is invisible. Bad design is everywhere.” is a well-known concept among designers. It means that you don’t always notice great design because it brings the focus on the product, business or service and enhances their value. Bad design, on the other hand, sticks out like a sore thumb. Today’s post is an epic list of design fails that validate this concept and make … [Read more...]
50 Beautiful Color Combinations For Your Next Design Project
Looking for some nifty color combinations for your next project? The design team at Visme, an online tool for creating presentations and infographics, has created a list of 50 beautiful color schemes you can use in your designs. These color presets are available within Visme to use in any charts or graphics that you create with it. Check out the list below. … [Read more...]
Learn Basic Photoshop Tools And Tricks With This Handy Cheat Sheet For Beginners
If you're using Adobe Photoshop for the first time without any training, all those tools and features can seem a bit daunting. Once you get used to the interface and spend a few hours on the program, you'll realize it's actually not that hard. To become a pro, you'll need practice, patience and an in-depth knowledge of most of the features the program has to offer. … [Read more...]
Adobe Pokes Fun At Annoying Bosses Who Micromanage Their Designers
To promote their stock photography service, Adobe has come up with a witty ad that spoofs hovering art directors who micromanage their designers. The 1:44 clip features a stereotypical art director providing constant inputs to his designer, who uses Adobe Stock to keep up with his demanding boss. Watch below. … [Read more...]
Sketch vs. Photoshop
Blogger Helga Moreno has come up with a handy infographic that compares the time-tested Adobe Photoshop with the relatively new Sketch app, on the basis of their usability for web design and development. The infographic lists the key features of both apps and compares them on relevant parameters. … [Read more...]
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