10 Steps To The Perfect Portfolio Website - Smashing Magazine Advertisement You may have a personal portfolio website for a number of reasons. If you’re a freelancer, then you’d need one to showcase your work and allow people to contact you. If you’re a student (or unemployed), then you’d need one to show prospective employers how good you are and what you can do, so that they might hire you. If you’re part of a studio, then you might use one to blog about your design life, show people what you’re doing and build your online presence. A personal portfolio website is all about promoting you. You may want to take a look at the following related articles: What makes for a good personal portfolio website? 1. Your logo is usually the first thing a user sees. It doesn’t necessarily have to be your name, but if you’re trying to promote yourself online, then it’s a good idea to go by your name. 3Mohit goes by the alias of CSS Jockey. 4Jason Reed uses a signature-style logo of his name. 2. Things to ask yourself when writing your tagline: What are you? 3. 4. 5.
10 Websites To Learn Photoshop Online Photoshop is hard. There are all kinds of commands, actions, effects, and tools that you’ve got to figure out, and the learning curve is one of the steepest you’ll ever encounter. (But it’s still better than the alternatives!) Fortunately, the web is chock-full of amazing resources that you can use to catapult yourself past the dreaded newbie/intermediate phases. With deliberate practice, you’ll be a Photoshop ninja in no time and your confidence will shoot through the roof. Here are 10 such resources for learning Photoshop on the web. Lynda one of the best educational sites on the web. Searching for “photoshop” results in over 450 unique tutorials, most of which are video courses that you can go through at your own pace. Lynda’s Basic plan costs $20 per month but comes with a 10-day free trial, so give it a try and see if you think it’s worth it. 2. TutsPlus is simply incredible. 3. Phlearn is probably the most popular Photoshop-centric resource of them all. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
30 Fonts Perfect for Vintage and Retro Style Design | Freebies - StumbleUpon A Vintage or retro style design is meant to transport it’s audience decades into the past. Designers try to do this by using various design elements such as textures and patterns from a certain time period. But it’s also important to use accurate typography from the time period you are trying to represent. In this post, we’ve rounded up 30 excellent vintage and retro fonts that you can use in your designs. Matchbook Bazar, Medium Embossed Black Ugly Qua Hill House Shrewsbury-Condensed Bold Caslon Seaside Resort Fontleroy Brown Fusty Saddle Dirty Ames Bolton Dymaxion Just Old Fashion Riesling Goudy Bookletter 1911 Opera-Lyrics-Smooth Carnivalee Freakshow Circus Ornate Upper East Side Brandon Grotesque Regular (free until April 15) Ballpark East Market BP Script Rocket Script Arwen Anagram Louisianne Lemon Chicken Anastasia About the Author Henry Jones is a web developer, designer, and entrepreneur with over 14 years of experience.
60 Photoshop Actions for Photo Touch-Ups and Enhancements - Web Design Blog Get the FlatPix UI Kit for only $7 - Learn More or Buy Now In the past we have written on Photoshop actions for touchups related to photography enhancements. But it is common for designers to release their actions for free attribution on certain projects. And many of these newer releases are difficult to track down without scouring the Internet for links! Thus I have put together this collection of 55 fantastic new Adobe Photoshop actions for photo enthusiasts. Idiot Actions Faded Sunlight Nothing but Memories Retro Touch Polaroid Generator Cookie Dough Effect Kream Action Vintage II Cool Vintage Nature Summer & Winter Old Series Vintage Actions AFW’s Bluezy Swagger Jagger Color Action Caramel Haze Vintage Pack of 50 Actions Simple Vintage Pink Action Variety Pack Neon Vintage PS Actions Pack AFW’s Vintage Color Colors Five Vintage Pack Spring Mini Actions Vintage Breeze Colored Highlights Vintage Colours in Photoshop Actions Vintage Actions JJ’s Vintage Set Retro Actions Set Bright Vintage Action HDR Tools More PS Vintage
8500+ Free Photoshop Brushes. Weekly Roundup from DesignFloat | DesignFloat Blog - StumbleUpon Hey guys, the time for Friday roundup has come and we want to share some useful resources featuring free Photoshop brushes with you. We all know that brushes turn out to be the essential tools for web designers and help to add the desired atmosphere and create stunning websites. Using this Photoshop tool, it is possible to give the design the impressive touch and make it catchy. Additionally, we’d also recommend you to check out the compilation of 60 free Photoshop gradient sets, which you can easily use to improve your graphics. 1100+ Abstract High Quality Free Photoshop Brushes High Quality and Useful Photoshop Brushes 15 Awesome (Fresh) Free Photoshop Brushsets to Spice Up Your Design 22 Free High Quality Doodle Photoshop Brushes Set 40+ Beautiful Photoshop Cloud Brushes 50 Free Photoshop Brush Sets You Should Bookmark 60 Most Wanted Photoshop Tutorials, Brushes, .PSDs and Resources 100 Excellent Trees and Grass Brushes for Photoshop 100+ Most Useful Free Photoshop Brushes for Web Designers
Light Stalking & 10 Must-Have Photoshop Plugins That Are Free If you’re looking for new and creative ways to edit or enhance your images, plugins can make your Photoshop workflow go so much smoother. Whether you want to add some noise or create some stunning color effects, we’ve got a fantastic list for you – and all completely free! 1. virtualPhotographer by optikVerve Labs For those who haven’t grasped all the nooks and crannies of Photoshop yet, or simply don’t want to spend hours tweaking an image, virtualPhotographer is a simple plugin that has over 200 presets for you to apply to your images. There is also a very nifty split-screen preview function that allows you to see the before-and-after of your edit. 2. This incredible plugin works with Photoshop to process and save PNG files much faster, and also saves them in a smaller size. 3. If you haven’t mastered the idea behind curves yet, this plugin has eight common presets to select from, allowing you to choose which one compliments your photo the best. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10 .
100 free textures for photo editing in Photoshop | Techniques | PhotoRadar How to use Lightroom: 8 mistakes every photographer makes (and how to fix them) Adobe Lightroom is an incredibly powerful image organisation and editing software package. Of course the downside to having such a powerful tool at your disposal is that it’s possible to make some pretty significant mistakes, especially when you’re first learning how to use it. To help out we’ve drawn up a list of the most common mistakes that photographers make when using Lightroom and have some advice about how to get things right from the outset. 8 reasons why cheap kit lenses are the perfect lens The low-cost kit lenses you get with digital SLRs or compact system cameras don’t have much of a reputation, but is that fair? Full-frame lenses: 4 quick tips for the first-timer All lenses create a circular image, and your camera’s sensor simply records a rectangular portion of this. Lightroom Lens Correction: how to fix common lens and perspective problems
20 PSD Tuts That Will Turn You Into A Photoshop Guru :: Reflex Stock Pho... Many people can use Photoshop, but only a select few can call themselves gurus. Learn all the methods in the 20 tutorials below and you’ll be well on your way to joining this elite. Rather than focus on tuts for beginners, intermediates or advanced users, we’ve simply chosen ones which produce jaw-dropping effects. All of them are easy to follow, although most do require at least some prior knowledge and experience. 1. Colorful Plexi Text Effect Follow this tutorial to create dazzling, multi-layered, semi-transparent lettering, with a Perspex-like quality. 2. 3D Pixel Stretch Effect File this tutorial under “simple but effective”. 3. Turn a simple cityscape into a torrentially flooded wasteland. 4. Become the master of light and glow on Photoshop with this brief, easy-to-follow guide. 5. Use masking tools, layers, gradients and lines to turn your favorite piece of 3D text into something more colorful and commercial. 6. 7. This tutorial is so versatile. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.
Sagaki Keita (click images for detail) Artist Sagaki Keita was born in 1984 and lives and works in Tokyo. His densely composited pen and ink illustrations contain thousands of whimsical characters that are drawn almost completely improvised. 20 Unique and Creative Logo Designs Logo is a symbol or emblem commonly used by companies and individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition. This post features our favorite examples of unique, memorable, and creative logos designed by talented artists from all over the world. Killed Productions Logo Clever logo designed by Sean Heisler for Killed Productions. Spartan Logo Brilliant logo by Richard Fonteneau designed for Spartan golf club. Twins Logo Creative logo with “2″ instead of “N” designed by Action Designer. Steps Logo Jason Sanzone managed to incorporate “steps” into the actual logo. Zip Logo Zip logo designed by Mike Erickson features “zipper” instead of “I”. Look Logo Brilliant and memorable logo designed by Zain Zayan from India. Swing Studios Logo Creative literal logo designed by struve for Swing Studios. Pause Logo Logo designed by volkan ek? Foot Logo Perfect example of creative logo design by Dalius Stuoka. B Logo Creative bee inspired logo designed by William Patino. Goodduck Logo Catch 5 Logo Sushi Logo
Resource Roundup: 15 Sources of Seamless Background Patterns Creating background patterns can be a bit of a pain in the butt if you don't have the patience to do it properly... That's why finding professional sources for pre-made background patterns can be a huge time saver. In the collection below, we have carefully gathered 12 websites where you can download awesome background patterns. Patterns, Patterns, and More Patterns! Today we're bringing you over 100 background patterns to use in your own web designs. Illustrator Files (drag and drop into your web designs).PAT Files (drop these files into your Photoshop or Fireworks "Presets/Patterns" folder).PNG, .JPG, or .GIF files (you can make these into patterns from Photoshop or Fireworks, or just use them directly in your HTML docs). From straight edged grid-like patterns to wild and funky multi-colored sets, we've got something for everyone here! Graphic River Graphic River is a site dedicating to allowing designers to sell their design elements to other designers for a few bucks. Brusheeezy Flickr
20 Unique And Creative Ice Cube Trays EmailEmail Who said that ice cubes should be cube-shaped? Silicone ice cube trays can create any shape we want – from snowflakes to brains and guns. So, why not spice up your next party with one of these creative custom shaped ice cubes? 1. Lego Ice Cubes Everyone loves Lego! 2. Beautiful snowflakes in your drink! 3. We humans are well known for our highly-evolved sense of humor — as evidenced by Brain Freeze, the ice tray that makes 4 frosty brains. 4. This unique ice tray creates magic wands fit for a fairyprincess – sparkly glittery reusable drinking straws withstar-shaped ice cubes at the tip! 5. What’s that squirming around in your drink? 6. Chill your beverages to the bone! 7. It’s a tropical straw with a frozen twist! 8. Need to dig up a clever party accessory? 9. Planning a princess party? 10. Ice ahoy!! 11. Twilight descends, beverages are poured. 12. It’s time to kick back and chill and here’s a cool way to do it! 13. Feeling a little anxious? 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.