Designer Blog

Anyone who works in Photoshop knows it comes packed with cool filters which can really create some nice effects. Thanks to the Photoshop Coder who created such sweet tools… if only designers could create their own filters. Ahha! But you can. ;) Creating your own filters can not only help your workflow when designing in …

Who’s the master? You’re the master… after you become proficient with selections in Photoshop. ;) In the last selections tutorial, we demonstrated the Marquee Tools and now it’s time to learn the Lasso Tools. The Lasso Tools allow you to draw and pinpoint specific areas of a document. If you like drawing with pencil and paper or cutting and pasting objects from …

If your niche is business card design, or you would like it to be, then this is the article for you. :) There are many factors to keep in mind before starting the design process and deciding on things like typeface and color. Here are 4 important tips that will help you get started with a successful …

The power of layers in Photoshop, and how they interact with each other, is amazing! But how do designers combine layers? That’s where Layer Blend Modes come in handy. Layer Blend Modes make Photomontages look believable and not like they were simply pasted together. Throughout this tutorial, I will show the different blend options and the cool ways they …

While designing, designers will inevitably be faced with the need to select and extract specific elements from an overall graphic. Do you need to remove an image’s background or cut out a specific portion from a photo? Well, have no fear… the Marquee Tools Selections are here! There are so many ways to make selections and …

In my last tutorial, we explored the RYB Color Wheel by Johannes Itten. Although it is taught in most schools today, it’s not exactly designer-friendly. The problem is that the complementary colors on the RYB Color Wheel mixes hues of Brown instead of Gray. The Real Color Wheel, by Don Jusko, mixes hues of Gray and it’s important that …

Let’s set a familiar scenario: you’ve made a great design BUT, despite your hard work, something just doesn’t look right. Ah ha! That’s what it is… the color scheme. It’s not complimenting the design, it’s taking away from it. If this scenario is all too familiar, then it’s time to color the world and create compelling color …

As a designer, it’s important to bring your final design to life by showing your client what it will look when printed. Don’t hurry the process at this point… you took time to create an awesome design so spend a little more time showing it off. Here are a few program tools and steps that can help …

In this tutorial, we will use InDesign to create a print-ready, cut out Business card. Although you can use other applications, Indesign does a great job for Print designs. Let’s get to it! Open up InDesign and create a New Document. Since we are designing a 2-sided Business card, we will enter 2 pages in the …

There are several colors of black in the digital world and you want to avoid choosing the wrong black, so it doesn’t smudge or look blurry when printed. In this tutorial, I will talk about the different colors of black that you should use, and not use, in Print design. RGB vs. CMYK RGB (Red, …