By Guru: Tom

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Below are the latest articles from Tom. The results are culled from all sources Workflow: Photoshop follows.

• Unconventional Sources of Design Inspiration

  • Wednesday, 28 Jul 2010, 11:10 PDT (Yesterday)
  • By: Tom, PSDFan
  

  Unconventional Sources of Design Inspiration
  Generally designers and graphic artists get their inspiration from sites such as Deviant Art and the Behance network. Of course blogs are also constantly pumping out inspiration posts that provide plenty of daily inspiration.
  However, if you’re taking your inspiration from solely online means then it can really limit your creativity. Today I’m going to discuss some of my favorite methods of inspiration, that will help get you away from your computer screen and boost your creativity!
  Produce Non-Digital Art
  As design-lovers many of us have some non-digital artistic talents. It’s very easy to ignore these when you get bogged down with RSS feeds, list-articles and sites like Flickr and Youtube. However, rather than ignore our creative skills we should be embracing them!
  Exploring your offline artistic talents not only makes you feel more creative (doing creative activities often leads to you feeling more…

• Quickly and Easily Recreate a Popular Inked Typographical Style

  • Tuesday, 27 Jul 2010, 11:54 PDT (2 days ago)
  • By: Tom, PSDFan
  

  Final Image
  As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

  Step 1
  Create a new document (600X600px) and fill your canvas with this old paper texture:

  Step 2
  Now go to image>adjustments>hue/saturation and reduce your saturation to -60 and your lightness to +50.

  Step 3
  Now type out some large text in the center of your canvas. I went with Hoefler Text, 192pt, -100 kerning.

  Step 4
  Now download this great image of some fingerprints:
  Fingerprints Photo.
  Then go to image>adjustments>desaturate to grayscale your fingerprints image.
  Go to image>adjustments>levels and use the settings shown below in order to darken your fingerprints.
  Then finally go to select>color range and use the settings shown below. Select the ’sampled colors’ option, and then hit OK. This should select all of your fingerprint shapes.

  Step 5
  Ok, so now you have all of your fingerprint shapes selected. Copy/paste them onto…

• 30 Minute Redesign: Zoneziwoh Show

  • Monday, 26 Jul 2010, 10:57 PDT (3 days ago)
  • By: Tom, PSDFan
  

  Week 18: Zoneziwoh Show
  Zoneziwoh Show.

  In the space of 5 minutes I can identify some of the key strengths and weaknesses of this design, and sketch out a mockup.
  STRENGTHS:

  The header is attractive and reasonably well designed
  The website includes relevant imagery, capturing the visitor’s interest immediately
  The layout follows user expectations (menu top center, content left, ads right etc…), it’s fairly easy to browse because of this

  WEAKNESSES:

  The design is very dark, which doesn’t seem to match the mood of the show.
  The header area looks at first like an advert banner
  Visitor’s must spend considerable effort browsing the site before they get to the most important content (the episodes)
  There is quite a lot of unnecessary content, that neither draws the user further into the site, or serves any purpose.

  My Redesign
  As always, I was limited by the 30 minute time-frame, but I…

• Inspiring Retro Design Projects

  • Friday, 23 Jul 2010, 11:19 PDT (6 days ago)
  • By: Tom, PSDFan
  

  Inspiring Retro Design Projects
  Too often these days the word ‘Retro’ is associated with the Retro Futurism design movement. Whilst I love this movement, it has become a little over-used in recent times. Also, it makes me think – just what happened to plain old Retro?
  Today I bring you several awesome projects showcasing retro style design. These focus less on bright colors and light effects, and more on old-school product design, faded colors, old typography, pop art etc… We hope that you enjoy going back in time with these effects, and find some inspiration in them for your day’s work!
  Alex Varanese: ALT/1977: WE ARE NOT TIME TRAVELERS
  “What would you do if you could travel back in time? Assassinate Marilyn Monroe? Go on a date with Hitler? Obviously. But here’s what I’d do after that: grab all the modern technology I could find, take it to the…

• 30 Minute Redesign: Week 18 Vote

  • Thursday, 22 Jul 2010, 06:26 PDT (1 week ago)
  • By: Tom, PSDFan
  

  30 Minute Redesigns
  I hope many of you saw last week’s 30 minute redesign. If you missed it then please check out the redesign I did of Nick Throlson
  30 Minute Redesign: Nick Throlson
  The idea is that I redesign a website in just 30 minutes, trying to improve upon it’s design aspects. I then publish a case-study of my improvements for learning purposes and email the webmaster the final .psd design. I will be doing one redesign each week, and to be eligible for the following week’s redesign you must leave a comment to the previous week’s redesign with your web address and why you would like a redesign.
  Voting Begins
  After receiving lots of great comments to last week’s redesign post, I’m happy to present the candidates for this Saturday’s redesign.
  Please look over the websites below, and then use the poll at the bottom of this…

• 30 Exciting Examples of Sports Photography

  • Wednesday, 21 Jul 2010, 15:41 PDT (2 weeks ago)
  • By: Tom, PSDFan
  

  30 Exciting Examples of Sports Photography
  Being out in the sun this summer I’ve had plenty of opportunity to get back into sport. Playing it makes me realize just how much energy and excitement is involved – two things which make it perfect for photography!
  Sports photography often captures a tremendous amount of movement, emotion and passion. However, due to it’s often fast paced nature, capturing that perfect moment can be hugely difficult, and take a lot of skill.
  Today we bring you 30 great examples of sports photography. Enjoy!

• An Analysis of Inspiring Portfolio Designs

  • Tuesday, 20 Jul 2010, 08:12 PDT (2 weeks ago)
  • By: Tom, PSDFan
  

  An Analysis of Inspiring Portfolio Designs
  Today we take a look at some of the best and newest portfolio website designs.
  We’ll look over each design, analyzing what is effective, and looking at how the designers use the conventions of portfolio design to push their work and content.

  Guilherme

  Portfolio Do Guilherme combines a pale, grungy background with a very large, bold illustration. This creates plenty of contrast and impact. The typography is subtle, blending nicely with the washed out background design. The navigation draws the users eye through use of super-bright menu tabs, which provide the most color at the top of this design.

  Emily White Smith

  Emily White Smith’s portfolio is really unique. The use of a large textured background creates a lot of detail and color. The content is presented in one of the most unique ways I’ve ever seen, being contained in a central ‘water…

• The Awe-Inspiring Mixed Media Works of Florian Nicolle

  • Monday, 19 Jul 2010, 09:00 PDT (2 weeks ago)
  • By: Tom, PSDFan
  

  The Awe-Inspiring Mixed Media Works of Florian Nicolle
  I’ve loved mixed-media art for years, it often feels raw, rough and creative. The combination of sketched lines, photo-realistic detail, material-based collages and grungy splatters is simply beautiful, and Florian Nicolle’s work captures everything I love about the medium.
  Florian’s work is rough, yet very refined, and delicately put together. If you haven’t encountered his work before, then please take a look at the pieces below and take some inspiration:

• 30 Minute Redesign: Nick Throlson

  • Sunday, 18 Jul 2010, 08:48 PDT (2 weeks ago)
  • By: Tom, PSDFan
  

  Week 17: Nick Throlson
  Nick Throlson.

  In the space of 5 minutes I can identify some of the key strengths and weaknesses of this design, and sketch out a mockup.
  STRENGTHS:

  The overall all design is not that bad, it’s fairly professional, clean and legible
  The header is bold and grabs the users attention, with a professional logo design
  The layout follows user expectations (menu top center, content left, ads right etc…), it’s fairly easy to browse because of this

  WEAKNESSES:

  Whilst the design is reasonably professional, it’s also quite boring
  The overwhelming amount of content in this design means that it feels cluttered, and this makes it harder to read the content
  The blog posts are pushed down, and not given enough attention. As the main reason why people use the website the content is given little precedence.
  There are simply too many unnecessary elements to this design,…

• Create a Quick, Neat Text Effect in CS5

  • Friday, 16 Jul 2010, 10:59 PDT (2 weeks ago)
  • By: Tom, PSDFan
  

  Final Image
  As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

  Step 1
  Creating a new document (600X600px) and paste in this torn paper texture:

  Step 2
  Now with apply a gradient overlay blending option to your texture layer (settings below):

  Step 3
  Now create some central text in your canvas. I used Arial, 132pt, -25 kerning, a1feff:

  Step 4
  Now go to blending options for this layer and apply an outer glow, bevel and emboss and stroke effect:

  Step 5
  Now create a new layer beneath your text layer called ‘brush effects’.
  Download this Great Doodle Brush Set and then use your eye-dropper tool to start applying random brush marks that are the same color as your text’s stroke. The brush marks should appear to be an extension of the outside of your text:
  NOTE: If you only click once using your brush tool the shape…

• 30 Minute Redesign: Week 17 Vote

  • Thursday, 15 Jul 2010, 11:28 PDT (2 weeks ago)
  • By: Tom, PSDFan
  

  30 Minute Redesigns
  I hope many of you saw last week’s 30 minute redesign. If you missed it then please check out the redesign I did of Bocotas
  30 Minute Redesign: eCustom Solutions
  The idea is that I redesign a website in just 30 minutes, trying to improve upon it’s design aspects. I then publish a case-study of my improvements for learning purposes and email the webmaster the final .psd design. I will be doing one redesign each week, and to be eligible for the following week’s redesign you must leave a comment to the previous week’s redesign with your web address and why you would like a redesign.
  Voting Begins
  After receiving lots of great comments to last week’s redesign post, I’m happy to present the candidates for this Saturday’s redesign.
  Please look over the websites below, and then use the poll at the bottom of this post…

• 30 Light Effect Wallpapers to Liven Up Your Desktop

  • Wednesday, 14 Jul 2010, 07:39 PDT (3 weeks ago)
  • By: Tom, PSDFan
  

  30 Light Effect Wallpapers to Liven Up Your Desktop
  Photoshop light effects have been incredibly popular for years, and the community is full of great tutorials and photo manipulations using these effects. However, I don’t often see many great wallpapers using these light effects.
  Seeing as light effects look so damn good and seem to inspire a lot of people, it only seems right to display more of them on your desktop! Today we bring you 30 wallpapers showcasing stunning light effects, to really liven up your desktops.

• Design a Professional Portfolio Web Layout

  • Tuesday, 13 Jul 2010, 10:30 PDT (3 weeks ago)
  • By: Tom, PSDFan
  

  Final Image
  As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

  Step 1
  Create a new document (1000X900px) and fill your canvas with dddad6:

  Step 2
  Now create a new layer called ‘top gradient’. Use your linear gradient tool to create a gradient at the top of your canvas ranging from b1ada9 to transparent. This should give a little extra shadow to your header.

  Step 3
  Create a new layer called ‘white area’. Create a large white rectangle in the center of your canvas. This is where your content will be placed later:

  Step 4
  Now use your rounded rectangle (10px radius) and create a rounded rectangle at the bottom of your canvas. This should result in having a white content area that is straight edged at the top, and rounded at the bottom:

  Step 5
  Now you want to add a highlight to the area where…

 
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