LETTERING + GRAPHIC
DESIGN LEARNING
This week’s freebie is a set of 10 hand drawn vector spider webs to add a little more creepy crawly to your Halloween designs this year. 😉 Set includes corner webs and full spider webs to make positioning, cropping and usage a piece of cake. A bonus couple of dangling spider vectors also included for good measure. 🙂 All vector elements are included as an ai, eps and psd file for versions of Illustrator and Photoshop, CS3 or newer!
Happy October! I had so much fun creating the September wallpaper, I think I’m going to make wallpapers a new regular monthly post (it’ll also keep me from having the same wallpaper for 2 years – eek!). Since it’s Halloween month here in the US, I had to go a little spooky with this one 😉 . In the spirit of ghosts and goblins, I created some hand drawn skeleton lettering for your October desktop wallpapers! The download includes two common resolutions: 1920×1080 and 1280×1024 with and without dates; preview images below!
It’s time for another Text Drive post! (I can’t believe the last one was in June!) I mentioned a couple weeks ago about being gifted this amazing book on shadow typography and thought that would be a great topic for a text drive post. Shadow type is best used as a headline with simpler, supporting fonts for your main body copy. Because it has so much character, long sentences can become difficult to read, while short headlines make perfect use of each detail and call attention immediately to what’s being discussed. As with all text drive posts, below you’ll find two fonts in a similar genre (shadow type)Â – one for free (Nexa Rust) and one for a fee (Eveleth) – read on to see what I love about each one and which fonts I’d pair them with!
Keeping with the brush/india ink theme this week, this week’s freebie is a pack of 20 vector brush textures! Add quick texture to portions of your artwork or use as dividers. To add a faux screenprinted edge effect quickly, apply a brush texture to each side of a color filled rectangle. All textures are 100% vector and can be used with any version of Illustrator or Photoshop, CS3 or newer. Preview below; ai, eps + psd included in the download!
Happy September! I made the realization the other day that I haven’t changed my desktop wallpaper in nearly two years! With my current waterbrush obsession, I decided to take our relationship to the next level by creating some new waterbrush script artwork for my desktop! This week I’m sharing the love by giving away these hand lettered September desktop wallpapers so we can all ring in fall properly. Choose to have yours with or without dates in two common resolutions, previews below!
Happy almost-end-of-the-week! This week’s freebie is a set of 3 vector hipster badges all as ai, eps and psd files. All free fonts were used in the badges, so just be sure to open the .rtf file included in the download first. Download and install those fonts, then open any of the badge files and they’ll show up the same way as in the previews. Easy peasy. Download link/inspiration ideas for how to use your spankin’ new hipster badges below!
As the summer begins to wind down, things are already feeling busier! I’m finding myself constantly searching for a sheet of paper to scribble notes on, to-do reminders, or phone numbers to call. If this is you too, you might want a prettier sheet of paper to make your list a bit more achievable..I know I do! For that reason, this week’s freebie is a set of 3 watercolor notecard printables – print two notecards per any 8.5″x11″ or A4 cardstock or regular paper. The final printed size for each notecard is 5.5″x8.5″, full preview + download link below!
Have you ever run into a situation where you know adding a little – just a little bit – of subtle texture could take something you’ve done to the next level? This happens to me allll the time, which is why this week I want to give away a couple of vector mini grit textures. Each texture’s grittiness is on the smaller/finer side to work perfectly with more detailed artwork. And because they’re vector, no matter what you use em on, they’ll never lose resolution and can infinitely scale for any size you need them. Check out a few ways you can use them below!
I was going to say a few months ago, but I just checked, and last year (holy moly), I shared some geometric photoshop patterns. They’ve been downloaded almost 20,000(!!!) times, so I thought it might be time for some Illustrator ones! This week’s freebie is a set of 4 geometric Illustrator pattern swatches to use on whatever you please 🙂 I’m also sharing some quick tips + tricks on using them you may not have heard before – read on to see!
In celebration of my brand new Watercolor Texture Kit Vol. 2, this week I’m giving away 3 watercolor greeting cards! Fill them in and use them for whatever you’d like – they’re any occasion and can be printed using any home printer along with 8.5″x11″ or A4 paper or cardstock. The final cut + printed size is 6″x4″ which fits perfectly into any A4 sized invitation envelope. Trim + score marks are included, so cutting and folding are a cinch 🙂
It’s time for another Text Drive post! To be honest, there’s nothing I love typing with more than a beautiful script. There’s something about the way all the letters connect so seamlessly, so beautifully, all at the same time. While brush scripts are definitely in the spotlight these days, there’s something to be said for more subtle, personality driven, simple scripts… Scripts that have *just* enough decoration where you scale them up or zoom out a bit and take them in. Bonus points when you’ve got a great quote to typeset 🙂 As with all text drive posts, here are two similar fonts, one for free (Daydreamer) and one for a fee (Mulberry Script) as well as a little summary of what I love about each and what fonts I’d pair them with!
We may not be fashion designers, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for graphic designers with apparel design. At some point in time, the majority of graphic designers have to mock up some kind of apparel to get quoted and executed by a manufacturer. It’s no surprise why – as branding experts, we need to be able to carry a brand through a variety of applications, and especially at events, apparel is key.
I’m currently working on some clothing designs for a company that will be at the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. They’re in the process of finding a manufacturer for their clothing and had asked for mockups to present to potential manufacturers to get accurate quotes. They sent a few pictures of styles of clothing they were interested in, all at different sizes and resolutions. To keep the focus on the design of the clothing and keep everything similar, I redrew the clothing in Illustrator, then implemented the vector graphics on top.  Having redrawn it in illustrator, all the clothing was kept consistent look-wise and the manufacturers were quickly able to see which panels would be printed with design or kept the base color. In this week’s tutorial, I’ll share my exact process for executing a vector t-shirt mockup and also give away 2 free vector t-shirt mockup files!
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