Archive | Tools & Tips RSS feed for this section
Collaboration! Two samurai (artists) are more powerful than one.
Archived; click post to view. Excerpt: Illustration Collaboration Hey Go Media faithful! As Go Media has evolved over the years, we’ve learned that collaboration with other artists and designers can be a very powerful tool when trying to deliver the very best product to your client. Different designers have different skill sets. When Go Media [...]
Continue ReadingFudgegraphics’s June 2011 Wallpaper: A case study
14. October 2011
Archived; click post to view. Excerpt: Hi, I’m Franz — a London-based freelance graphic designer and founder of the design blog Fudgegraphics. As a personal project, I create a new desktop wallpaper each month featuring the current calendar month. It’s a pleasure to share some insights into the creation of ”Rise – June 2011 Calendar [...]
Continue ReadingDistressing Techniques in Adobe Illustrator
12. January 2011
Archived; click post to view. Excerpt: Simon from Studio Ace of Spade here. Jeff Finley asked me to compile a list of some common distressing techniques as a supplement for his eBook “The Designer’s Guide to the Apparel Industry.” Distressing graphics is a pretty integral part of designing t-shirts. This tutorial will demonstrate three easy [...]
Continue ReadingAdobe Illustrator: Opening Tricky Files
7. October 2010
Archived; click post to view. Excerpt: Sometimes files just don’t want to play nice. And usually when that happens, there’s a deadline looming. Knowing ahead of time how to get out of a tricky situation can make the difference between having time to do the job at an easy pace, or pulling your hair out. [...]
Continue ReadingAdobe Font Finder
25. February 2010
Archived; click post to view. Excerpt: Fonts. What designer doesn’t have too many? And we are always on the hunt for more. The internet is a goldmine for fonts, but it’s not always easy to find just the font you’re looking for. It’s always good to have another font tool in your arsenal, and with [...]
Continue ReadingPantone In Your Pocket
6. October 2009
Archived; click post to view. Excerpt: Pantone has recently released myPantone, a new color guide app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The $9.99 app allows you to choose from these PANTONE color system libraries: PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM (coated, uncoated and matte) PANTONE Goe (coated and uncoated) PANTONE Pastels (coated and uncoated) PANTONE FASHION + HOME [...]
Continue ReadingScale Objects in Adobe Illustrator Via Keyboard
2. October 2009
Archived; click post to view. Excerpt: I’m a big fan of resolution-independent vector art. I’m also a big fan of keyboard shortcuts. It’s been driving me a bit batty that there is no way in Adobe Illustrator to scale objects using just the keyboard. I use this method all the time within InDesign, and feel [...]
Continue ReadingFaking Depth of Field in Photoshop (w/Ps action)
21. September 2009
Archived; click post to view. Excerpt: Here’s a quick technique that I use to fake depth of field in Photoshop and add realism to my images. I’ve seen this technique mentioned in various tutorials I’ve read, so it’s really nothing new. But it’s a good trick that I feel you should know. 1. Create a [...]
Continue ReadingQuick Global Swatches In Adobe Illustrator
16. September 2009
Archived; click post to view. Excerpt: Global swatches in Adobe Illustrator: they’re awesome. If you’re not aware of the power that is a global swatch, they are special color swatches that are applied like regular swatches, but when the swatch is changed, all vector objects using that swatch are also updated. Similar to Symbols in [...]
Continue Reading











21. December 2011
18 Comments