November 2016

Holiday, Illustrator, Patterns, Tutorials, vector

Create Seamless Pattern Wreaths in Adobe Illustrator

I really hope you’ve been enjoying these holiday Adobe Illustrator tutorials! They’ve been extra fun for me to share, and today’s video is no different. In this tutorial, we’ll create seamless pattern wreaths, once again utilizing the free holiday vector pack. These are really impressive looking and so, so easy to create! In the video, I walk you through the one thing to keep in mind when you make yours and then show how easy they are to use! Read on to see the full video!

November 29, 2016

16 Comments

Desktop Wallpapers, Freebies

Freebie: December 2016 Desktop Wallpapers

Happy almost Thanksgiving! (here in the states, anyway 🙂 ) Since we’re hitting the end of November, it’s time for your free December 2016 desktop wallpapers! This month’s wallpaper pattern design was originally created with concentrated watercolors and a no.1 round brush on Canson 140# cold press watercolor paper. It was then scanned into the computer where final touches, recoloring and dates were added in Photoshop. The download includes the wallpapers in two common resoutions: 1280x1024px and 1920x1080px, with and without dates. I’ve left the year off of the ‘no-dates’ versions, so you can use it for any December in the future, too!

November 23, 2016

10 Comments

Hand Drawn, Holiday, Printables, Tutorials, vector

Design Holiday Gift Tags in Adobe Illustrator

Get ready to add some extra beauty to your gifts this year with some custom designed holiday gift tags in Adobe Illustrator! Creating stationery items in Illustrator is honestly one of my favorite parts of graphic design. This week, keeping with the holiday theme, we’ll utilize the free holiday vector pack once again. Grab that vector pack, Adobe Illustrator and about 10 minutes and you’ll have your new gift tags ready for print. Read on to see how!

November 22, 2016

7 Comments

Fonts, Hand Lettering, Typography

The Making of the Espresso Roast Font Trio

Happy Thursday! This week was a big week as I finally completed and released the Espresso Roast font trio. As you can imagine, a trio of fonts that all work together and pair stylistically is not a quick accomplishment. This was my first time creating a font trio, so I wanted to post a little about my process to help any aspiring font makers out there 🙂 Here’s a peek inside, along with a font previewer, so you can play with Espresso Roast directly in the post!

November 17, 2016

59 Comments

Holiday, Illustrator, Tutorials, vector

Create a Holiday Postcard in Adobe Illustrator

Piggybacking off of last week’s tutorial, this week we’re creating a holiday postcard in Adobe Illustrator! We’ll be using the free vectors from the holiday vector pack, so be sure to grab those if you haven’t already. Today is extra exciting, because I just released my newest font Espresso Roast, which we’ll be using, as well. It’s a font trio, so you get an all caps version, a script version and a symbols font. It’s full of fun personality and was designed so all styles pair perfectly together 🙂 Read on to see how to create a complex wreath design quickly using a few easy tips!

November 15, 2016

1 Comment

Personal

Battling Self Doubt as a Graphic Designer

Ever battled self doubt as a graphic designer or as a creative in general? I’m going to go ahead and assume the answer is yes to that one 😉 It’s definitely one of the most common emotions we go through on our creative journeys, though when we’re in the thick of it, it’s easy to feel like we’re the only ones. If you’ve ever thought about throwing in the towel, wondered if this is the right path, or thought that maybe you just aren’t creative enough to keep chasing the dream, this post is for you.

November 10, 2016

93 Comments

Holiday, Illustrator, Patterns, Tutorials, vector

Create Custom Holiday Gift Wrap in Adobe Illustrator

Welcome to the first holiday tutorial of the season! To kick things off, I thought it would be fun to create custom holiday gift wrap in Adobe Illustrator. Since gift wrap is essentially a repeating pattern, we’ll be walking through all of the steps of a seamless pattern using the pattern tool. Be sure to pick up last week’s free holiday vectors to follow along exactly! This pattern tutorial is a little different; not only will we create a seamless swatch, I’ll also share how to apply any background color to your pattern quickly (without re-entering the pattern tool)! Once our pattern is complete, we’ll export it and use an online service to upload and customize our gift wrap. By the end of the video, you’ll have everything you need to create your pattern and also get your custom holiday gift wrap printed for real! Everything you need included below!

November 8, 2016

5 Comments

Freebies, Hand Drawn, Holiday, vector

Freebie: Holiday Vector Pack

Happy November! This year is seriously cruising by. Before we know it, we’ll need to start sending out holiday cards, and if you’re feeling ambitious, diy’ing some printable design work. I’ve got a bunch of holiday design tutorials planned, so I want to make things super easy on you this year. This holiday vector pack includes all the vectors you’ll need to create every upcoming tutorial! These come as vector-only since we’ll be working mostly in Adobe Illustrator. Working in Illustrator will allow us to use our artwork at any size we please, without ever losing quality or resolution. Get a head start with any projects you have in progress and grab all 33 unique vectors below!

November 3, 2016

25 Comments

Illustrator, Tutorials, Typography

How to Create a Letterpress Effect in Illustrator

Last week, we created a realistic foil stamp effect using only illustrator and a seamless foil texture. This week, we’re borrowing some of the same tips, but simplifying. If you don’t have a texture on hand, but still want to add an element of cool, a letterpress effect is a great option. The letterpress effect simulates the impression a polymer plate makes on paper when it’s pressed into it. Letterpress has become increasingly popular over the last 5 years, but fun fact: letterpressing was never meant to be a final print effect. Letterpressing first began as a ‘test’ print before metal plates were developed which create stronger, deeper (and more expensive) impressions. In this week’s tutorial, adjust the settings for however strong of an impression you’d like as we create a letterpress effect entirely in Illustrator.

November 1, 2016

6 Comments

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