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Home2016 (Page 8)

March 2016

Business, Products, Resources, Roundups

In Tuesday’s video, I shared my graphic design story and today I wanted to share what my current design workspace looks like, as well as some of my favorite desk items that I use every week, if not every day. I’ve definitely gone through my fair share of printers, tablets and computers, so listed below, you’ll find names and links to all of my top picks and why I chose and use what I do 🙂 I hope this helps anyone who may be on the fence with anything desk-related (I did a lot of thorough research before I started adding to cart, so I know how helpful a user review can be). I’m an open book, so if you have any questions about anything listed, feel free to ask!

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Business, Personal

If you’re an every-tuesday email subscriber, you’re already aware my ebook on tips and advice for obtaining a full time graphic design job will become officially available later this month. In preparation of its launch, I wanted to dedicate this month’s Tuesdays to sharing portfolio tips I’ve learned from my own experiences in a free portfolio tips video series. The first video will be next Tuesday’s post, but this week, I wanted to start things off by sharing my own graphic design story.

I’ve had a few comments and emails asking how I got started, how I knew graphic design was the right major for me, and what I would tell people who might be on the fence about a career in graphic design (and if jobs are available for graphic designers) today. I sat down in front of my computer in a very non-typical/non-screen-only recording this week to answer all of those, so it could be like we were sitting down together, just having a conversation as friends. So here it is, from beginning to now, along with some tips I picked up on the way 🙂

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Color, Roundups, Skillshare, Textures

My newest Skillshare class, Watercolor Textures for Graphic Design, went live on Monday, and I’m so excited to share that nearly 1,000 wonderful creatives have already enrolled in the class! Creating watercolor textures from scratch – the act of sitting with a brush in hand, swirling colors together in unique ways – is one of my favorite times to relax and kind of let the art be made without thinking too hard. It’s definitely easy to lose track of time once you get started, but also awesome to then have so many cool new textures to work with. If you’re ever short on ideas on how you can start using those newly created textures, today I’m rounding up a bunch of inspiration with ways to start applying your watercolor textures in graphic design. Read on to see them all!

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Color, Patterns, Skillshare, Textures, Tutorials

Happy Tuesday! This week I’m excited to announce my newest Skillshare class, Watercolor Textures for Graphic Design. If you’ve ever wondered how watercolor textures like this and this are created, color enhanced and removed from their backgrounds, this class covers it all! We even finish the class creating seamless, repeatable watercolor texture patterns you’ll be able to apply to any of your Photoshop designs in just a couple of clicks 🙂 As a special gift to blog readers and youtube subscribers, this week I’m sharing the class trailer, as well as one of the videos from the class you wouldn’t otherwise get to see without enrolling. If you’ve never tried Skillshare before, you can watch the full class for free (and any other Skillshare classes for an entire month) using this link. Hope to see you in the class!

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Hand Drawn, Illustrator, Patterns, Tutorials

A few months ago, I shared how anyone with any version of Adobe Illustrator can create a seamless pattern. Once Adobe created CS6 a few years back, they included the pattern tool and it was a giant game changer for anyone who loves to create vector patterns. Not only did it make the entire pattern creation process faster, it eliminated Illustrator’s tendency to get glitchy with those white hairlines that would sometimes appear in our patterns.

In this week’s tutorial, we’ll go over everything the pattern tool can do, all the different pattern styles you can create using the same elements, and we’ll do it all by using the same menu. Head’s up, this tutorial only applies to CS6 or newer versions (CC) Illustrator users. Let’s make some patterns!

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Fonts, Roundups, Typography

If you’ve been an Every-Tuesday visitor, you know there are a lot of typography loving posts here, like Typins (typography pins) and Text Drive (a purchased version and a free version of a similar font style), but I’ve had yet to create a post series about current fonts that I’m crushing on or putting on my ‘gotta buy it!’ list.

Checking out new and old fonts and lettering styles is something I spend time every week doing, so starting today, Font Crush is going to be a new post series where I share some of my favorites I’ve recently come across. If you’re a self professed letter lover like me, I hope you’ll be just as inspired with this new series. So! Without further ado, here’s Font Crush #1!

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Crafts, Hand Drawn, Hand Lettering, Tutorials, Typography

In last week’s tutorial, we created some formally bad ass sophisticated hand addressed envelopes for your classiest of occasions. In this week’s tutorial, we’re going in the opposite direction with 3 different layouts of a playful, fun and whimsical hand addressed envelope. Get your closest family and friends excited pre-event with this mailbox gift of an envelope and add a few more styles to your lettering arsenal at the same time. In this video, we go over embellishments to fit the theme, letter structure to give off the proper party vibe, and we walk step by step through a variety tips for hierarchy, layout and style mixing. Links to every material mentioned listed below!

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Hand Lettering, Holiday, Illustration, Roundups, Typography

I’ve always thought that Valentine’s Day is, by far, the most fun holiday to make (or buy) and send cards for. I mean, what could be better than showering your loved ones with hilarious puns? 😉

If you’re in a pinch this year, I’ve got just the thing to help! Check out these eight adorable, simple, and totally DIY-able Valentine’s Day cards for those of you who love graphic design and/or handlettering.

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Crafts, Hand Drawn, Hand Lettering, Tutorials, Typography

There’s nothing quite like receiving a beautifully hand addressed snail mailed card, note or correspondence. There’s also nothing quite like creating that very same mailbox surprise for someone else.

I looooove hand addressing envelopes in all kinds of different styles (suited for the person and the occasion, of course). It’s one of my most favorite things to letter and I can’t believe I haven’t created any video on it yet! That’s all about to change this week and next week with a two part envelope address lettering series! We’ll start this week with sophisticated lettering for more formal notes (for delivery to traditional folks or for classy occasions) and we’ll cover playful and whimsical lettering next week (reserved for the hippest of family, friends and events). All of the materials mentioned + links included below!

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Fonts, Freebies, Hand Lettering, Typography

Happy February! This month is an extra special month for me because on the 28th, I’ll be turning 30, and saying farewell to my 20’s forever. It’s funny how fast 10 years go by and how fast they don’t. When I was 20, I had just transferred from my community college in upstate NY to SCAD in Savannah, GA, where I didn’t know a single person. I was still working the customer service desk at the local grocery store during school breaks, eating dorm food for the first time, and navigating a new city by foot and by bus with my (very) untrustworthy natural sense of direction.

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Patterns, Resources, Tutorials

This week’s tutorial isn’t the sexiest thing ever, but it’s extremely useful if you work on multiple machines, need to share digital assets with clients + fellow designers, are a super organized person looking to be more digitally organized, or have an old computer you’re in constant fear will crap out on you at any moment. This one’s for you!

One thing’s for sure, if you’ve been designing for any length of time, a program has crashed on you at some point and when you reopen, things look a little different in the swatches, brushes and patterns department. If you never saved these digital assets pre-crash, they are lost (along with that pleasant mood you had 5 seconds before) in file purgatory.

In this week’s tutorial, we’ll dull the pain of lost assets by going over exactly how to save patterns and brushes in Illustrator and Photoshop so you’ll know where to find them if you ever need a reinstall, or if you just want to share them. Read on to see how!

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