Photoshop & Illustrator
The Graphic Styles Feature in Adobe Illustrator
In this video, I am going to introduce you to one of my favorite features in Adobe Illustrator: Graphic Styles. Graphics Styles allows you to save different color schemes, fills, strokes, patterns, orientations and similar styles, so that you can...
Developing a Custom Font, Part 1
Developing a custom font is the ultimate in branding. And being able to create a font from concept to a finished font file is a valuable task for any freelance or agency-based designer. In the first part of this tutorial series, I will discuss tw...
Make Your Own Credit Card Payment Icons
In this video tutorial, I will show you how to create credit card icons in Adobe Illustrator CS4 that you can use to help your clients communicate which payment methods they will accept. To begin, I will show you how to create the foundation ...
Well-Designed and Colorful Background Images
Background designs can change the feel of an entire site. Whether you want it dark and trendy or light and happy, a well-designed background can get the job done. In this video tutorial, I will show you how to make a colorful background design in...
Create a Carbon Fiber Background in Photoshop
Dark-themed websites are popular with designers today and many online merchants have started to create dark-themed online stores, too. As it turns out, from graphic design perspective, nothing sets the mood for these dark websites like the site...
Illustrator CS5 Enables Perspectives
Until the recent release of Adobe CS5, there has been no good way to illustrate in perspective. Prior to CS5, if you did manage to set up a working perspective grid, any further illustrating would likely have been a tedious and time-consuming pr...
The Art of Illustration Building, Part 3
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been showing you how to replicate the beautiful illustration of the home page at IconDock. In this final installment, I will show you how to complete the illustration and add in some last minute finishing touche...
New Artboards, Grid Tools, Shape Builders, and More in Illustrator CS5
One of my favorite programs in the Adobe Creative Suite is Adobe Illustrator. With the recent release of Illustrator CS5 came a host of new features and tools that make Illustrator an even better application. In this video tutorial, I'll introduc...
The Art of Illustration Building, Part 2
Last week, I published "The Art of Illustration Building, Part 1", a tutorial on how to recreate the beautiful illustration found on IconDock's popular stock icon website. This week, I'll be taking the Photoshop document created in that tutorial a...
Puppet Warp and Color Selection in Photoshop CS5
The recent release of Adobe's Creative Suite 5 brought new and exciting features into the latest version of Photoshop. In this tutorial, I will continue to talk about some new Photoshop features in CS5 that make image editing and manipulation much...
The Art of Illustration Building, Part 1
Detailed illustrations are very popular in modern web design. One website that utilizes a beautiful illustration is the popular icon store, IconDock. In this multi-part video tutorial, I will show you how to recreate the IconDock home page illust...
Make Adobe Photoshop CS5 Work Better
When working with multiple files in Photoshop, designers often find themselves jumping through little hoops just to get the application to perform simple tasks, such as opening, saving, and closing files. With Adobe Photoshop CS5, working with mul...
Create Your Own Email and Contact Icons
A email or contact icon is a common element on many websites. In this tutorial, I will show you how to make several mail and contact icons in Adobe Illustrator CS4. To begin, I will show you how to create one rectangle and two triangles that...
Selection Techniques in Adobe Photoshop CS5
Outlining or isolating sections of an image is a very common Photoshop task that in the past was often a tedious and time-consuming chore. But thanks to improvement in Adobe Photoshop CS5, it is relatively easy to isolate product images. In this ...
Create Windows 7 Inspired Graphics in Photoshop CS4
With the release of Windows 7 came an increase in the popularity of glass or "Aero" inspired site design. In this video tutorial, I will show you how to create a Windows 7 inspired menu bar in Adobe Photoshop CS4. To begin, I will show you how...
Photoshop CS5 is Aware
With Adobe's recent release of Creative Suite 5 and its CS5 applications came a host of new and exciting features. For the next several weeks, I will be producing tutorials on what's new in CS5, giving you an in-depth look at all of the new change...
Vector Glass Effects in Illustrator CS4
A few months back, I produced a popular tutorial about creating glass elements in Adobe Photoshop CS4. That post generated some questions about how to get a similar effect in vector (rather than raster) format so that it could be scaled across d...
Create Symbol Icons in Adobe Illustrator
When communicating through icons, you sometimes need additional elements to get your message across. For example, saving "add," "new," "remove," and "cancel" icons could be every effective for a user account form or even a checkout form. In t...
Adobe Illustrator Brush Tools Basics
Adobe Illustrator has a wide range of tools that can allow you to create dazzling effects. But many of these tools are a mystery to even somewhat experienced designers. In this video tutorial, I will show you how to create custom brushes (with th...
Understanding Adobe Illustrator's Type Tools
Text is an important element in graphic design that is often crucial to properly conveying information. Knowing the tools available to manipulate and create text can lead to cleaner and more methodical design. In this video tutorial, I will show ...