tutorial Archives - Page 26 of 28

How to Save Logo Files for Print and Web

In last week’s tutorial, I shared how I’ve shown logo options to freelance clients in the past. This week’s video discusses what happens after the logo has been approved by your client. We’ll take the approved logo and save it in file formats for print and web to cover any scenario for your client. We’ll be using Illustrator for all of the formats, and we’ll go over why that is. Below, you’ll find a checklist you can use as reference for your current or future projects. Let’s get started!

February 17, 2015

6 Comments

Illustrator, Tutorials, Typography

Create a Hatched Drop Shadow Text Effect in Illustrator

Hatched drop shadow text effects are becoming more common in typefaces these days – Trend was one of the first to offer a layered font with a faux hatched drop shadow which motivated others to offer them. But what if you want a hatched drop shadow on the font you’re using, not trend? What if it’s for a one-off headline where lots of text doesn’t need it, it just needs to look beautiful in one powerful instance? That’s when we start making art instead of adjusting type, which is why this week’s tutorial isn’t on a text layer style; we’ll be customizing our hatched drop shadow to fit an artistic style.

February 12, 2015

14 Comments

Branding, Business, Color, Tutorials

How to Show Logo Options to a Client

So, you’ve been hired by a client to create a new logo for their brand. They’ve given you a brief on what they need it to feel like, what the brand stands for and maybe even provided you with some examples of things they like. You’ve promised them 3 options to choose from and after research, sketches, and some tweaking, you have the 3 options you want to present to them. But you don’t just want to give them 3 jpgs and ask them to choose, that’d be crazy! How do you present your options in a professional way to make the client feel like you really cared about their project and thought about the logo’s future use? In this week’s video, I share a real example of a pdf I created to show logo options to a past client.

February 10, 2015

3 Comments

Products, Resources, Tutorials

How to Take Your Design to Print: 3 Options

You can go through all the work of designing something beautiful, but when it’s time to print, how can you be sure the print execution matches the beauty of the design? I’ve gotten a few requests on what the step by steps of design to print are once the design is finished, so I’m here to give answers!

February 3, 2015

15 Comments

Freebies, Photoshop, Tutorials, Typography

Create a Retro Text Effect in Adobe Photoshop

Happy Tuesday! In this week’s tutorial, we’ll create a retro text effect in Adobe Photoshop from scratch, inspired by the 80’s. I’m also giving away the exact style we create as an .asl file (layer style file) and in the tutorial I’ll show you how to save your own layer style and install it so you can have the exact settings that were mentioned. So it’s a 2 for one this week! Tutorial + freebie 🙂

January 27, 2015

0 Comments

Branding, Color, Tutorials

Choose Color for Any Project in 3 Steps

Happy Tuesday! I’ve gotten a few requests lately on how I choose color when I’m designing, so this week, I thought I’d share my process which consists of 3 easy, but important steps.

January 13, 2015

8 Comments

Freebies, Holiday, Illustrator, Photoshop, Roundups, Tutorials

Free Every-Tuesday Holiday Assets

If you’re in a pinch for some holiday design goodies, you’ve come to the right place! Here’s a roundup of every-tuesday content from the past two holiday seasons, enjoy!

December 23, 2014

2 Comments

Holiday, Tutorials

How to Create a Holiday Greeting Card in Adobe Illustrator

Happy Tuesday! In this final tutorial for the holidays, if you haven’t sent out cards yet, I’ve got you covered 🙂 No need to run to the store – in this tutorial we’ll create a holiday themed printable greeting card using Adobe Illustrator. We’ll create manual trim + score marks so you can print your card easily on your home printer, and design it from scratch in a few short minutes. Let’s get started!

December 16, 2014

0 Comments

Holiday, Photoshop, Tutorials

How to Mask an Image Inside of Text in Photoshop

Happy Tuesday! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Spence, Nuna + I went low key + celebrated just the 3 of us together. After dinner, we spent the rest of the evening sipping blackberry rum fizzes, dipping italian herb bread in oil + vinegar we brought back from Sonoma + binge listening to Serial while Spence read coding tutorials + I doodled 🙂 ah, days off are the best!

But it’s back to the grind for now.. I’ve been thinking about fun holiday themed tutorials I could make this year and this was one of the first ones that came to mind. You can use it on greeting cards, e-cards, gift tags, wrapping paper – you name it! And you can use the same technique all year long. In this week’s tutorial, we’ll mask an image inside of text in Photoshop in a few quick and easy steps. Click on to get started!

December 2, 2014

1 Comment

Tutorials

How to Create a Holiday Lights Pattern Brush in Adobe Illustrator

Driving through our neighborhood on the way home Friday night, I couldn’t help but notice the vibe in our subdivision had changed…holiday lights were going up! I love this time of year; it just felt like it came sooner than usual this year. To ring in the start of the holiday decorating season, in this week’s tutorial we create a string of vector holiday lights, then create a pattern brush out of them for unlimited hang-them-where-and-how-long-you-want-them use 🙂 Let’s get started!

November 18, 2014

5 Comments

Tutorials

How to Create a Basic Christmas Ornament in Adobe Illustrator

Can you believe it’s November already?! Even I can’t believe I’m already beginning holiday content! I know a lot of readers like creating their own seasonal stationery or craft items, so in this week’s tutorial, we’ll create a basic Christmas ornament using Adobe Illustrator. It’s quick + easy + perfect for holiday projects in a pinch. Don’t forget to pick up the hand drawn snowflake set from last year here 🙂 Let’s get started!

November 4, 2014

3 Comments

Hand Lettering, Photoshop, Tutorials, Typography

How to Vectorize Hand Lettering

Happy Tuesday! Chances are you’ve heard of hand lettering recently – it’s everywhere! Many tutorials on hand lettering are paid ones, but I have the best readers, so this one’s free 🙂 In this week’s tutorial, we go over the basics of converting some hand drawn lettering and make it digital by vectorizing it. We’ll take a scan of a hand lettered word, optimize its contrast in Photoshop, then vectorize it in Illustrator. Vectorizing will help us to have our lettering fully scalable, re-colorable, and allows us to digitally customize it without compromising resolution. Let’s get started!

October 28, 2014

15 Comments

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