It happens. Breathe. The important thing to remember when these menacing moments occur, is that they are merely moments, and they too, shall pass. It is not a personal failure on your part, and this too, is good to keep in mind. It is not something you have done, it is simply something that is happening to you. And there are some ways that have proven effective to folks who have faced these times, and come through them with success. And they all involve taking a mental five.

The Mental Five

What we mean, is you need to unplug and give your mind a rest. Not always the easiest thing to do, we know, especially when you have a design deadline looming in the distance. But believe that one of the worst things you can do, is to panic and try to force your way through it. Take some time, and unwind. Like we said, take a mental five!

#1 - Music or Podcasts

Tyler Hayes recently posted an article on Fuel Your Creativity about the benefits of music during crucial creative times with Music to Feed Your Soul During Crucial Design Moments. It explores the value that music can offer when you are experiencing these blocks. Podcasts have helped us in the past as well. Pick your poison, and let it play.

#2 - Board or Video Games

Speaking of playing, let your mind have a little fun. Take time from the stresses of work to engage your brain in a completely different way. Board games and, more so for us, video games offer an easy escape from the burdens of being blocked, and need to be mentioned here as they are extremely helpful.

#3 - Movies or Shows

Another easy escape that can be made to ease the anquish of creative blockage that helps the mind take a much needed vacation from creation, are movies or shows. Losing yourself in some storyline and letting it touch you, can offer the mind a chance to work on something else as you take in the tale. Feeling something other than the stress that may have brought on the block, in the first place.

#4 - Reading

Books, blogs, comics, whatever you fancy flipping through, go for it. This is another great way to lose yourself and your worries for a taste of something different for a time. Pages can provide that proverbial free passage elsewhere. Afterall it’s all about giving your mental faculties a nice, relaxing stretch.

#5 - Get Outside!

While we are on the subject of stretching, lets venture to the last of the mental five, getting outside. This recharges you in so many ways it’s almost unbelievable (almost…BELIEVE!). When escape is in order, make a literal one! Get away from the confines of your office space, ground zero for your uninspired grind, and reconnect with nature. Breathe in the great outdoors, and smell the freedom they can offer. Inspiration soon to follow.

It seems that as long as you surrender to your senses, and let go in your mind, your subconscious will continue on your quest. It may take minutes, though it could take hours, but the blocks will melt away and the creative inspirations will flood back in giving you the edge you need to complete or at least continue your work. Time may be of the essence, but quality should never be sacrificed to force your way through a creative block. Instead, step back. Your mind is trying to tell you that it needs time off. Ignore at the possible detriment of your design. Too often in creative pursuits, you come across work that comes across as forced, rushed. Creating takes time. Someone once told me, that if you are going to do something, then take the time to do it right. We think that holds true here, as well.

I’ve gotten to know Liam McKay of Function through the web over the last couple of months, and I’m always impressed with him. He is a designer that is constantly growing and improving. Every design he creates seems to top the one prior. That’s impressive; and it’s something I always strive for in my own work.

I’m stoked Liam agreed to this interview. Check out his responses below, enjoy!

First off, thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions for MyInkBlog readers! Tell us a little about your background; where your from and how you got started in design?

Hey, thanks for the opportunity appreciate being asked! I’m from a small city in the middle of England called Coventry, I’ve always been interested in all things design related. Art was always my favourite subject at school as it was more hands on and practical, and from an early age I knew I wanted to do something related to art.

I’d always been familiar with Photoshop as it’s a tool my dad had on his PC, so I’d always play around with it and grew to do more and more until I was making (some very bad) websites. After school I decided to go to College and study Multimedia for two years. It was there where I really decided I wanted to be a Web Designer.

A lot of your newer projects are centered around WordPress themes. What is the big draw of this blogging platform? What are the advantages and disadvantages in comparison to some of the other major alternatives?

WordPress has always been something I wanted to get involved in. The first CMS I’d used was Mambo (now Joomla) which I learned to make my own themes for, but I would always come across WordPress powered sites, and was impressed with them. It was hard to ignore the growing presence of WordPress in the web world. So when it came to building function I decided it was time to properly explore WordPress. A decision that has proved since to be the right one for me, and I now love it.

Your designs are always original and brilliant, where do you get most of your inspiration from?

My ways of getting inspired always change. I’m always interested in looking at other methods of design, I love watching motion graphics, and browsing digital art. And a lot of this work is successful because the artists tend to be very experimental and explore with different styles, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. But you always take things away from experimenting, so even if it doesn’t work out it’s not been a waste of time. For more traditional inspiration I always look for quality sites and two of my all time favourites are Best Web Gallery and Pattern Tap as the quality of work on these are always top notch.

As a designer it can be nearly impossible to balance all the tasks that you want to accomplish at once. How do you try to do it? What does your typical day look like?

Again, I never really have a set method or way of dealing with things, but I try and keep on top of tasks by getting them sorted as soon as possible, for example answering emails as they come in, keeping record of invoices and payments as soon as they come in, that way you never have to ask yourself “have I sent that yet?” - A bit like when you get homework in and you do it on the first night rather than leaving it to the last day

As for a typical day, I tend to work quite late – I get up in the morning and get myself a nice mug of coffee, then catch up on my RSS feeds, twitter and emails. Then I have to take my sister to work, so I tend not to start any design work until after I’m back. But once I’m back I pretty much work from midday to midnight. Obviously I take breaks and eat! And this allows for the occasional TV viewing and XBOX360 Session! But I spend most of the day at my desk, working on client work or personal projects and experiments.

Other than Adobe Suite and the internet, what software, hardware, books, etc make your design jobs much easier to accomplish?

FreshBooks is really the only app I use, everything else I either write down, or record using OpenOffice for spreadsheets etc. I’m really not one for books, I can honestly say I’ve never read a full book in my life, I just don’t have the patience. But I do enjoy reading blogs, and I really do thing that reading blogs helps me get through and keeps me inspired and focused on my job. I’ve learned a lot, especially in the last few months and it’s all from various websites and blogs. I have a graphics tablet which I use from time to time, I really love it but don’t use it as much as I want to, but when I do use it it is a real life saver and time saver!

Which technologies are you not proficient at; that you’d like to improve on?

Well, I really got into XHTML and CSS at my last job, I’m not amazing, but I think it wouldn’t take too much work for me to perfect it, and I’ve learned a lot from working with my Developer at function, Spencer. But really I’d like to get more involved in the development side of things, as at the moment I focus purely on design. And while I’m now familiar with WordPress I’ve yet to design and code a full theme myself, but I’m hoping at some point this year I’m going to change all that!

What’s the best advice someone has given you?

I remember reading an article long before I decided to go freelance which basically focused on the idea that if you know you can make something work, it doesn’t matter what other people say. I was really in two minds as whether or not to go freelance, I was in a okay job which paid well for me at the time, but I just didn’t feel I was being able to do work that I was proud of. But there seemed to be too many complications and worries involved in going freelance, and a lot of people advised against it. It was frustrating, because I knew I could make it work, I had so many ideas, but I put it off for a long time. But after reading the article I finally decided that yes it’s not going to be easy, but I knew I had the dedication to make it work. I wish I knew the link to the article as that would be great here, but I don’t sorry!

Mac or a PC, why?

Mac! I’d been growing tired of my PC for some time. I’ve always used a PC, but I would always have problems, especially with viruses. And your PC crashing when you’re working on design work is the last thing you need. And only the other day I decided it was time to make the move to Mac, so I’ve only have a Mac for about 3 days now – But as soon as I got it home and started it up, it just felt right, and straight away felt like it was money well spent.

It’s early days, so I don’t want to say too much, but I can see why Mac’s are growing in popularity. And I used to be a bit of a Apple hater, but I’ve now got myself a iPhone and a iMac, which is a big change from a couple of years ago when I had a Zune and a PC. I think I’m more happy with my apple stuff!

When you’re not behind the computer designing and blogging, what do you enjoy doing to get away from it all?

Well, I’m only 19, so I’m still very much into enjoying myself. I like to try and keep the weekends free from design work if possible. I have a great bunch of friends who I love spending time with, so I try to spend as much time as I can with them. I really like driving and road trips, and having friends spread all over the country at university it means I get a chance to go on quite a few road trips and spend weekends in all sorts of places. Something I want to do more of I think! Other than that I quite enjoy playing games, although they have to be quite realistic games, I don’t like games with monsters and aliens, I much prefer more “real life” situations, GTA4 and sports games etc. Yeah I’m a little weird like that.

What are your biggest struggles when designing for a client?

I think the main thing I worry about when working for a client is that time where you send off the designs and are waiting for feedback. I get really restless at that point, checking my email every 4 seconds. It plays on my mind a lot. Thankfully people generally have great things to say, but I can never get used to that feeling when you first send your ideas over!

What blogs/websites have you been reading the most lately?

Usability Post is a site I’ve been reading a lot of recently. I think that Dmitry is a wise and talented guy and I love reading his tips and pointers on usability. One of my true favourites of the moment.

Design Shard. I’ve loved watching Max build up his blog, and go through a stunning redesign. His posts really are a real joy to go through. And I urge everyone to stick his site in your RSS reader.

We Are Not Freelancers. I’m really interested in what these guys are up to at the moment and I check them out as often as I can. And I find their recent project, From The Couch quite interesting. They’re great guys and I look forward to seeing more from them.

There’s a bunch more blogs, you can see some of my top picks here. And you’ll find MyInkBlog there of course!

What projects are you working on right now? What’s in the works for Function?

We’re actually looking on building up a network of sites. But we’re not rushing into anything just yet. We have some ideas, and even a cool program / app that we will be launching in the coming weeks hopefully. But right now our main focus really is on our client work and keeping the blog going as much as we can on the side.

Thanks for taking the time to talk to me, It’s been a pleasure, I always enjoy speaking to you and reading what you have to say, so keep up the hard work and I hope your readers enjoyed this little insight!

Have a question for Liam or MyInkBlog? Drop us a comment below.

The Showcase

‘Till Next Time

I hope you enjoyed this showcase. I look forward to the next one; the design world always inspires me!

Hi, I’m really enjoying and learning from your tutorials. Thanks.
I’m in need of a Photoshop/Illustrator routine in which I take photos of fruit or vegetables and make them look like they are inside of a plastic bag. I’ve been playing around with texture effects, but haven’t come up with a satisfactory routine. Can you help? Thanks a million.

I must admit I was a little skeptical at first. I was worried the bag wouldn’t look quite realistic enough, but the final results turned out much better than I had anticipated.

Introduction

This tutorial covers the use of filters, brushes, the pen tool, masks, and maybe a couple other techniques; all in order to create a realistic sandwich bag from scratch.

A Quick Preview

Step 1

The first step is to gather up the components for your design. Below is the wood background I used. If you need yours to be a higher res image or just would like to try a different background, check out one of the many great stock image sites out there. One of my favorites is stock.xchng, and it’s free! That’s also where I found the fruit photo I used. You can download that at this link.

Step 2

Once you have the components that your are going to use, open up the fruit image and extract if from its background. If you are unfamiliar with how to do this, then this article is a good place to start. Once the background is gone, place your fruit on your wood background and re-size it accordingly. You should have something like below.

Step 3

We are going to make our light source come from the top left. This is simple enough, because Photoshop drop shadow style is defaulted to be that way Double click to the right of the layer name to bring up the Layer Style window. Change the settings to a distance of 1 and a spread of 4.

Step 4

Next up, we are going to create the bag shape using the pen tool. If you need to brush up on the basics, Google “Photoshop pen tool tutorial” and you’ll find a ton of great resources. Create a bag shape similar to what is shown below. When making the shape I like to lower the opacity of that layer so I can see the shape in reference to the fruit more clearly. Also, make the top fairly close to straight across. That part of the bag tends to be much less rippled because the zipped part is thicker and less flexible. Lastly, go a little wavier where you think the fruit would bow the bag more. You should have a pretty general shape; something like what is pictured below.

Step 5

Make a selection of the bag shape you just created. To do so, ctrl + click on the thumbnail of the shape in the layers palette, as shown below. Create a new layer and call it ‘Bag Bottom’. Drag it below the fruit layer. We will still need the shape we created later, but it doesn’t need to be visible anymore. Click the eye icon to turn it off. Your layers should look something like below.

Step 6

Your selection you made in the previous step should still be visible and you should be on the ‘Bottom Bag’ layer. Change your foreground color to white and your background color to a mid gray. Click Filter->Render->Clouds.

Step 7

The clouds gave us a nice variation of grays to work from. Now we will need to get some highlights and shadows. To do so, click Filter->Artistic->Plastic Wrap. Use the settings below as a reference.

Step 8

In the long run, this bottom of the bag layer will only serve as a means to add depth to our rendering. It is important then, to keep it as subtle as possible. Something it clearly isn’t right now. Drop your opacity to around 25% so the wood background underneath is easily visible.

Step 9

Now add a layer mask to the ‘Bag Bottom’ layer by clicking Layer->Layer Mask->Reveal All. Then, grab a large, soft, round brush at about 50% opacity and reveal most of the center. Leave the edges mostly as is. This may seem overkill for a layer that is barely visible, but it’s these small details that go a long way to help with realism.

Step 10

In this step we will create the top of the sandwich bag. The techniques are very similar to the last few. Create a new layer, place it at the top of the layers palette and name it ‘Bag Top’. Then follow the same process. Select the shape, render clouds, add a plastic wrap filter. Then drop the opacity to about 30% this time and mask out the middle part of the bag. Below is where I’m at after this step.

Step 11

Our bag is beginning to take shape, however we’ll need another layer to distinguish some of the more exaggerated highlights that occur on plastic. And another layer at the top of your palette and call it ‘Bag Highlights’. Use the bag shape layer you made earlier to make a selection. Change your foreground color to black, and your background color to white. Then render some clouds by clicking Filter->Render->Clouds. For this layer, we want the highlights to be even more exaggerated so you’ll now render difference clouds. To do so click Filter->Render->Difference Clouds. The first time you apply this filter the result is rather dark. You can press ‘ctrl + f’ to repeat your last filter. Repeat the difference clouds filter about 2-4 times until you have a result like below. Keep in mind the bright whites are where the highlights will end up being.

Step 12

In this step we will try to add some dimension to our highlights. Click Filter->Distort->Spherize. Leave the amount at 100% and click ok.

Step 13

Add another plastic wrap filter to your highlight layer. Click Filter->Artistic->Plastic Wrap. Change the settings to something like what is referenced below. Then click, Image->Adjustments->Levels, and drag the white and black sliders towards the middle until you have a stark contrast of highlights like what is shown below.

Step 14

Change the blend mode of the highlight layer to ‘Lighten’. That will make only the white part of the layer visible. Now you should have some nice highlights displayed. Also, add a layer mask and using a soft brush at moderate opacity brush out some of the unnecessary highlights. Especially around the top where the zipper will be. You can also play with the opacity of the layer itself to temper the highlights. You can really overdue the whole look of the bag by leaving too many highlights. So be careful to brush out the right amount, and remember because you are using a mask, it is quite easy to switch your brush to white and paint some back in if you take too much out. Here’s what I got at this point.

Step 15

In an effort to improve the depth of our drawing we will add a fairly big shadow. Make a selection of the bag layer again using the ‘ctrl + click’ method on the thumbnail of the shape layer that is not visible. Create a new layer, call it ‘Bag Shadow’ and place it under the ‘Bag Bottom’ layer. Make your foreground color black and press ‘alt + backspace’ to fill your selection with that color.

Step 16

Grab the move tool (shortcut ‘v’ on the keyboard) and move your shadow down and to the left. Change you blend mode to Soft Light. Then click Filter->Blur->Gaussian Blur and set that to around 9 or 10. You should have a nice soft shadow now.

Step 17

Things are really starting to come together now, but we still have some more work to go. Add a layer just above the ‘Fruit’ layer in your layers palette, name this one ‘Bag Edges’. Make yet another selection of the bag shape. Then click Selection->Modify->Border. Set the border to 1 px and click OK. Change your foreground color to white and click ‘alt + backspace’ to fill that selection with white. Then change your opacity on that layer to around 25%.

Step 18

Grab the pen tool (shortcut ‘p’ on the keyboard), create a new layer at the top and call it ‘Bag Lines’. Make sure the pen tool is set to paths as shown below. Zoom in real close and draw a line near the top of the bag that goes along the same way as the top of the bag. (By the way, if you notice my highlights have changed a bit, it will only serve as a good reminder for you to save your document throughout this process A wise man learns from his own mistakes, an even wiser man learns from someone else’s.) Set your foreground color to white and select a soft, 2 px brush. Click on the paths palette which is usually docked in your layers palette, if not, click Window->Paths. Then click the small icon at the bottom of the palette to stroke the path with the brush you just selected.

Step 19

Select the move tool. Then hold down the ‘alt’ button over the line you just drew. This will give you two triangle looking coursers. This is a shortcut to duplicate a layer. With ‘alt’ still pressed in, click and drag a new line below the first one. Repeat this process for 4 total lines. Then vary the opacity of the layers a bit until you have something like what is pictured below.

Step 20

I felt like the bag would gain some realism with a stronger line across the bottom that would help with perspective. To add it, just repeat the same sort of steps as before. Create a layer for it. Draw the path with the pen tool and stroke the path with a small, soft, white brush. Drop the opacity of this layer just a bit.

Step 21

Make a new layer at the top of the layers palette. Then using the same technique, make a line for the bigger part of the zipper on the bag. This time use a hard brush (100 %) with a size of about 10px. Also change the color to something a little more exciting than white. I chose yellow (I know big surprise ).

Step 22

Grab the eraser tool (shortcut ‘e’ on the keyboard), then zoom in real close and delete some of the line that went past the edges of the bag.

Step 23

I felt like the zipper line could use a little depth. So double click on the zipper layer to bring up the Layer Style window. Add Bevel and Embosss, and an Inner Glow. Using the settings below as a reference.

Step 24

Copy the zipper line you just made and paste the new copy just underneath the other. You can do so, by pressing ‘alt’ while clicking and dragging out the new copy. Alternately you can right click on the layer and chose ‘Duplicate Layer’.

Step 25

I made a few minor adjustments and branded my sandwich bag. Below is my finished results.

Conclusion

It took quite a few steps to achieve this look, but hopefully it was worth it. Let me know what you think; drop me a comment below.

I love discovering awesome Photoshop brushes. So it’s good news that I keep learning about new Photoshop brush sites. However, the market for any service can very quickly become over saturated with too much of the same. Despite the volume of these type of sites, I try to give each one a fair shake to see if they separate themselves in any manner.

BlendFu separates itself in a number of ways. First off, they have a lot of brushes; upwards of 1,400! Secondly, they are high quality. Most of the brushes are top-notch and high resolution. Lastly, I love the brush previews. When scanning through the well-categorized brushes you can expand and collapse the preview. This gives you a look at the brushes in the set and the resolution they are set for. You can also see the total number of brushes and the designer who created them.

You’re sure to find some awesome brushes there! Also, if your a designer, you can upload your sets; to get your design work seen and your name out there. Definitely give BlendFu a look.

This tutorial will cover a lot of ground (that may or may not be a bad play on words ). We will use both Illustrator and Photoshop to create a cool winter background. The focus will be showing you how to create custom patterns in Illustrator and custom brushes from these patterns in Photoshop. I think you’ll find a lot of these techniques very useful.

Before we get started, here’s a peak at what the finished tutorial looks like.

Step 1

You will need a shape that can be used as a pattern. That pattern will then be placed on a circle in order to make some cool and unique looking snowflakes! While experimenting with shapes, I quickly realized the best designs were created through trial and error. The shapes that resulted were part calculated and part random. If you’re interested in experimenting, (and I recommend that you do) go ahead and make a shape similar to the one below. I used a combination of the pen tool, simple shapes, and the pucker and bloat filter to create mine. However, since the main focus of this tutorial will be on the steps forthcoming, when I get into patterns and brushes; I’ve placed the shape I used for download here. It is also pictured below.

Step 2

Select your shape. Open up the brushes palette, window » brushes. Click on the small arrow in the top right of the palette. Select ‘New Brush’ from the list of options that appear. Select ‘New Pattern Brush’ from the list of brush options that come up. Click OK. Next up, the pattern brush options window will appear. Rename your brush something applicable. Change the colorization to ‘Tints’, just in case you want to change the color of the pattern you create within Illustrator. Leave the rest as the defaults and click OK.

Step 3

Grab the ellipse tool and make a simple circle, while holding down shift to keep the proportions even. Make the stroke black and the fill none.

Step 4

Select your newly drawn circle and then click on the snowflake pattern brush you created. This will drop the pattern in perfectly along the circle. Illustrator is awesome! Next up you’ll have to resize the shape to suit your needs. Most snowflake renderings I’ve seen have six points, so I made my snowflakes have that many most of the time. If you have too many points resize the shape smaller, if you have too few, then make it bigger. Alternatively, you could change the size of the stroke, to affect the number of times the pattern is repeated.

Step 5

Now we are going to take our Illustrator shape and turn it into a Photoshop brush. This way we can take advantage of all the cool things brushes in Photoshop can offer us. Create a new document in Photoshop. With both programs open, go to Illustrator and grab the direct selection tool, then click and drag the snowflake into your Photoshop document. Click enter to place your vector smart object into Photoshop. Then click Edit » Define Brush Preset. In the window that opens type a name for your new brush and click ok.

Step 6

For the background I wanted it to be filled with a bunch of different looking snowflakes, so I designed 3 others. This step is optional, but it’s good practice regardless. Here are the three shapes I came up with.

Step 7

Create a new document in Photoshop at the size of the background you’d like to create. Make a radial gradient going from dark blue to a lighter blue. I used #36589f for the dark blue and #7894c9 for the light blue.

Step 8

Make your foreground color white. Then add a new layer, Layer » New Layer. Then grab your brush tool and select the newly made snowflake brush you’d like to use. Next up, we need to adjust the settings to scatter the size, amount, opacity and angle of the flakes. Use the images below as a reference. However, keep in mind they are there mostly to give you an idea of what values to play with. Feel free to experiment.

Step 9

Now that you have all your brush settings adjusted, go ahead and brush on some flakes. I’d suggest going fairly light, especially if you made three or four different snowflake brushes. Also, we are going to layer some things, so your design could become too cluttered quickly. Here’s where I’m at:

Step 10

In this step we are going to add a simple blur to the layer we just made, in order to help with depth. Because I often change my mind when designing, I like having the most flexibility possible. Therefore, I’ve gotten quite fond of Photoshop smart filters. To set one up, right click or ctrl click (on the mac) on the snowflake layer, then select ‘Convert to Smart Object’. Next click Filter » Blur » Gaussian Blur. Change the radius to something around 1.7 pixels and click ok. Now if you find that layer has too much or too little blur; you can double click on the smart filter within the layer panel and alter it to your liking.

Step 11

If you’ve made different snowflake brushes, repeat the last two steps for each flake on separate layers. I also played with the opacity of each layer until I got the effect I wanted. You should have something like the image below.

Step 12

I realize how tedious this may be, but this step is pretty much identical to the last one except that you won’t add a gaussian blur to these layers. If you had four snowflakes total, then add four new snowflake layers. With similar brush settings, just don’t blur these top layers. It’s also a good idea to play around with the opacity of each individual layer. Until you have a storm of snow that you like.

Here’s My Finished Product

Conclusion

Combining Illustrator and Photoshop can produce some incredible results. I hope you’ve learned a lot from this tutorial. I’d love to get some feedback; drop me a comment below.

It’s been another fantastic month in the design blogosphere. Here’s my collection of the best articles, tutorials, freebies and more from the design community for the month of October. Enjoy!

Articles

1. 20 Excellent AJAX Effects You Should Know

I must admit, I love AJAX effects. This is an awesome list of 20 that can come in handy.

2. 50 Stunning Examples of a Great Redesign

Sometimes a company’s logo, website, etc… just gets tired and needs an overhaul. Liam over at Function put together this list of 50 redesigns that are fantastic.

3. Are You A Design Whore

Funny title! But a good article on designers trying to be jacks of all trades, but perhaps we are masters of none.

4. Project Management Apps / Creative Freelance Series

Fuel Your Creativity has an awesome freelance series discussion going on right now. The link above is for part I of the 4 part series. Also available are Billing / Invoicing / Contracts and Collaboration & Proofing / Approval. The last part, Paid Services (non-management) is coming up soon.

5. Networking On-line for Potential Clients

Calvin of Mayhem Studios takes a look at the advantages of networking through social media sites, and gives you a great list of links to check out.

6. Setting Your Prices: 10 Questions to Ask Yourself

Every month I find something good at Outlaw Design Blog. This month, it was 10 questions to ask yourself when setting your prices as a designer. This is an issue every freelancer has struggled with.

7. 10 Principles of the Logo Design Masters

Logos are without question one of the most difficult challenges designers’ face. It’s so hard to brand a company into such a compact design. This article is filled with advice from some of the best in the industry.

Tutorials

1. Create A Swirly Type Treatment

Fantastic tutorial on logo design in Illustrator. Well explained and a lot of helpful techniques

2. Designing A Portable Gaming Device Poster

This tutorial walks you through designing a cool gaming poster.

3. Design A Halloween Pumpkin Wallpaper in Photoshop

This is a best of October, so it’s only fitting I add at least one tutorial about a pumpkin This is a cool tut that focuses on image manipulation to create a nice wallpaper.

4. How to Illustrate a Wooden Frame on a Wall Scene

Another fantastic tutorial by the guys over at PSDTuts. This is one of the more realistic wood techniques I’ve seen.

Freebies

1. Free Hand Drawn Doodle Icon Set For Bloggers

Chris over at Spoon Graphics Blog has put together these awesome hand-drawn icons for free download.

2. Splatters

Free Photoshop brush splatters; always handy

3. Exclusive Illustrator Watercolor Brushes

Some more cool Illustrator brushes from Grant at Colorburned.

4. 6 High Res Watercolour Brushes

More watercolor brushes. This time they are for Photoshop.

http://qbrushes.com/photoshop-splash-brushes/six-watercolour-brushes/

Contests

1. Thank You Poster Contest

A new poster design contest. I love contests, and I’m biased of this one, because I get to be a judge

2. Wordpress Coolest Blog Competition

http://wpwebhost.com/blog/wordpress-coolest-blog-competition/

A cool contest for the best Wordpress blog. The best part is the prizes!

New Found Sites

1. Sprye Mag

Jon Phillips of Sprye Studios and Freelance Folder fame has started up this awesome new design blog. It will focus on inspiration, freebies and resources that help designers and developers.

2. FBrushes

Free Photoshop brushes… what could be better? The site is nicely designed and the brushes are high quality.

3. Directory For Designers

The Arbenting Design Blog team brings you this new site. A directory of designers in most every important social network.

That’s A Wrap!

Another awesome month in the books. What did I miss? I love comments

Below I’ve assembled some of the coolest and most unique examples that I’ve found. Hopefully you can find something to draw some inspiration from for your next project!

Brochures & Booklets

Boston Museum Brochure
The cover is minimal and bright. The font choices are gorgeous, I would definitely grab this brochure

Country Codes of the World
A map of top level domain choices done up an awesomely creative way!

2008 Calendar
Spectacular use of colors to reflect temperature and mood. Beautiful simplistic feel.

plAAy Program
This colorfully creative brochure can double as a poster because of the innovative way it’s folded.

Granex
This black and white brochure is simple and elegant. Great font, spacing and alignment. One of many fantastic designs by Ivan Kasaj.

North Star Fund
Awesome brochure with a creative cutout and sick typography.

X Communications
I love the colors, simplicity and use of shape repetition in this brochure.

Encounterfest
The perfect blend of color, texture and retro. This brochure conveys it’s message very effectively!

Suikerbosrand Brochure
I’m a sucker for monochromatic designs. This is a powerful example of how effective they can be.

National Rehabilitation Hospital
Fantastic corporate design by Begley Hutton.

Examples Found on These Sites

• Flickr
• vi.sualize.us
• Margins and Columns
• DeviantArt

Adobe

Slate

Tennessee Theatre

Mozilla

Mayflower Brewing

Project Vino

Bird Malaysia

Limelight Networks

Fall for Tennessee

Galaciofolia

August

GoMediaZine

Helmy Bern

ElectriCurrent

Navigant Consulting

Further reading on dropdown menus

• Drop-Down Menus Horizontal Style
• Suckerfish Dropdowns
• Sons of Suckerfish Dropdowns
• CSS Horizontal Navigation List
• Multi-Level Dropdown Navigation Menus: Examples and Tutorials



]]> http://www.myinkblog.com/2008/10/23/15-websites-with-slick-dropdown-navigation/feed/ http://www.myinkblog.com/2008/10/23/15-websites-with-slick-dropdown-navigation/ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MyInkBlog/~3/428032574/ http://www.myinkblog.com/2008/10/21/a-design-of-the-times/#comments Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:56:16 +0000 Angie Bowen http://www.myinkblog.com/?p=1891 It's in our nature, as we move through time to note the trends that shape said times. And furthermore, one might say, it's in our nature to cycle through these timely trends from time to time. We see it in so many aspects of our culture. Fashion, entertainment, design. Each one sharing this retro-revisiting that brings back popular past elements to recapture something from our formers. ]]> It’s a deSign of the times!

It’s in our nature, as we move through time to note the trends that shape said times. And furthermore, one might say, it’s in our nature to cycle through these timely trends from time to time. We see it in so many aspects of our culture. Fashion, entertainment, design. Each one sharing this retro-revisiting that brings back popular past elements to recapture something from our formers. Fashion is known for going retro, as it is common for tv shows and movies to re-make or re-imagine plots, series, or films from yesteryear, but you can really see the trend towards the dialing things back in design.



Now, we’re not saying that designers have no original concepts or personal styles, far from it. In fact, it’s these concepts and styles that are blended with elements from before that make the piece retro, and not a re-make or re-imagined copy of something from the past. It’s that borrowing of design details that you see rampantly recycling through the community, and it’s done with awesome effectiveness. And these throw-backs to an earlier time seem to be resonating with the masses.



From tastes in typography that turn back time, to color schemes that scream out from yesterday, to textures and filters that take us all back, these elements are apparent throughout the design field. Just as they did in the past, they fluctuate and cycle, but always applying a touch of the familiar as we search the sea of cyberspace and beyond. Cropping up across all genres of design, restyling the old with nuances of the new to create beautiful blends that bridge the gap of the generations they’ve crossed. It seems a workable way to offer an homage to the designs and designers that have inspired and shaped you. And as we said, it’s in our nature, and we have to stay true to our nature.

The above images as well as those featured below are all designs by James White, an amazingly talented designer whose focus on retro design elements has given rise to some astounding work.







Retro Website Designs

We thought we would finish off with some of our favorite retro website designs. Hope you enjoy them like we do, if not, just pretend, it’s the retro thing to do.


CSS Tinderbox


Adaptd Web Design & Developement


MediaBOOM


Booreiland



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