Designer Blog

By now, you have probably realized that we at 99designs are totally smitten with the alphabet — arguably the longest ongoing graphic design project in human history. Over the past few weeks, we have gone over basic key terms in typography and explored the history of type technology. Now, without further delay let’s dive into …

Stock. What the heck is it, and why should you care? Stock refers to a licensed image that is available via the web from a third party source. If you are going to use stock, there are a few things to know before implementing someone else’s work into your designs. “A copyright will protect you from …

Aloha, designers! Please meet Community Director, Jason Aiken’s sweet and totally-cute dogs, Job and Lily. Job and Lily have a love for professional swimming and we are going to use one of Illustrator’s brilliant design tools to show off their skills — the clipping mask. What is a Clipping Mask? A clipping mask is a shape (called …

If the number of typefaces out there seems overwhelmingly gigantic, even infinite, that’s because it is. Digital technologies have made the creation, distribution and use of fonts amazingly easy. As a result, brilliant type designers are constantly at work on new, interesting ways to shape our alphabets. You can rest assured that there will be …

As a designer, you utilize artistic elements and principles to help create beautiful and effective designs. This series will make you more aware of what those design principles are and how you can employ them to make your designs even better! This is part II of a three-part series: Back to basics, part I: the elements …

In the previous Words for Winners, we uncovered marketing tips to ensure you build lasting relationships with your clients. So you’ve built your clientele, now what? To become a truly respected and noteworthy designer, you have to constantly push your skills and practice design. In this final part, you will learn how to do just that …

Typography is a designer’s secret weapon. It may not be as pronounced as a graphic component, but master the art of choosing the right type — something fresh and gripping — and you’ll have a distinct edge over your less enlightened peers. Among the designers who do know how to use type, there are two …

In the last Words for Winners, we explored 5 contest strategies designers can use to increase their wins-to-contests ratio. There are things you can do in ensure more follow-on work once you win a contest. We will cover 4 marketing tips to help you land more projects and build lasting relationships with clients on 99designs. …

Here are some awesome Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop tutorials that we recently shared via twitter@99designs. Illustrator Create Courage, the cowardly dog in Illustrator A complete guide to drawing evil vector skulls in Illustrator How to create a grainy abstract lines poster design Create plants vs. zombie type in Illustrator How to create a vector sponge art effect …

Ask any designer and they will tell you that the brainstorming and concepting phase is the most important part the of design process. Every great design starts with an idea, and this holds true not only for logo or illustrative design but also for web design. Whether your final product is a Photoshop document or …