dezign Musings

30 Fresh New Free Fonts to Jazz Your Designs

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 08:22:00 +0000

Well my last blog post on free fonts, A to Z Free Fonts became quite popular, among other traffic sources it received around 30k Views from Stumbleupon. com and it is continuing till today. A lot of readers asked me to post more font related articles and looking at it's popularity, here we go again! :)

Below you will find a mix collection of awesome free fonts ranging from professional serifs and sans-serif to more fancy and experimental fonts. Also please be sure to check the licensing requirements of each fonts whether for personal or commercial use.

And in case you missed, you would like to check: A to Z Free Fonts

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Anonymous Pro

Giro

Matchbook Font

Coldi modular typeface

Neighbourhood Type

Pavadee Font

Free Font: Yanone Kaffeesatz

Aeroportal Font

Sliced AB

Slimbo

Orbitron Font

St Transmission

Deibi

Public Gothic Family

Oval free font

K5

BADABUM

Keeparty

Costura

Denne's Aliens Font

TWenty One

Khmer-font

Monkey Love free font

Roman Initials

Polkadog - free font

Palm of budhha free font

St Bookashade Font

Sausage

(In Illustrator AI format)

MONOCROMO

Teodoria Vector Font

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Illustrator Tip: How to Remove White Background in Live Trace

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 07:14:00 +0000

Live Trace in Adobe Illustrator is a automated and a quick way to easily convert any bitmap or raster image into vector graphic. A lot of raster images or logos have a white background and most of the time when you live trace, you only need the image with transparent background. So in this tip, I will quickly show how you can easily do away with white background using "Ignore White" command.

Just to show you a example, lets use this Shopping bag image from sxc.hu. Open a new document and place the image, File > Place in Illustrator.

Next press on the Live Trace button on the option bar and click on Tracing option dialog as shown in the image below.

In the dialog box choose the settings that you prefer,(I just choosed Photo High Fidelity for Preset and all other settings to default) now, click the checkbox ON for Ignore White as shown in the image below. Remember to check the Preview button to see the changes.

If checked, the Ignore White checkbox allows users to decide whether Illustrator shall leave/omit the areas that include white transparent and if unchecked they shall be filled in with white.

Click on the Trace button when you're done. And here is your image without the white background. Below I have added a blue gradient n the background, just to show you that now you have your vector shopping bag without the white background.

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2 Free Photoshop Brush Viewer Apps

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:20:00 +0000

Photoshop brushes are awesome you can make your own custom brushes and there are lots of cool free brushes available on web, in fact too many to install them all just to see what they look like! So, if you ever wanted to view your Photoshop .abr file (Brush set) without having to open the Photoshop and installing them read on to find 2 nifty opensource free apps which allows you to do just that!

ABRviewer
You can have the preview of a set without having to install it, without having to run photoshop! You can even adjust thumbnails size and you can have the preview of the actual size of the brush… you can also try it out!
This software is able to generate images for every single brush and can also generate the general image from the panel of the thumbnails you have visualised.

ABRView
All you have to do is download the utility, run it, and double click on the brush set you want to preview. (If it's in a non-standard place, you may also need to tell the utility to look in that folder)

You can adjust the preview sizes, or if you want to see the full size images on their own, just look in the "ABRViewImages" folder next to the program and you'll find all the brush images.

Not only that, but the program automatically produces set images, so if you create brushes you can produce a brush set profile image at the click of a button!

Personally, I use the first one, ABRviewer, but I think both of them are neat tools, just like how you can view the fonts! So try it, if you are not already using it, or if you are using or know about any other app, feel free to share with us!

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30 Brilliant Photoshop Text Effect Tutorials

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:23:00 +0000

Photoshop combined with a designer's skill can do awesome stuffs! And, one of those awesome stuffs are Text Effects, one can create some amazing text effects in Photoshop! With this article I tried to look around the web to see some stunning text effect tutorials because no matter what your skill sets are we all need to keep sharpening our skills, experiments and learn something new!

Add Fantastic Color to 3D Text

Kaboom! Exploding Text

Realistic Chrome and Glossy Plastic Text Effect

Patriotic Text Using Displacement Masks

How to Quickly Create a Stylish Retro Text Effect

Great Gooey Photoshop Text Tutorial

Slow Shutter Effect

How to Create High Quality Metal 3D Text in Photoshop

Creating Very Cool Folded Typo

Scanline Text

Old School Type – Line Gradients

6 Quick’n'Dirty Photoshop Text Effects From Scratch

Awesome Milk Typography Effect in Photoshop

Shiny Calligraphy Text Effect in Photoshop

Write Message In Sand

Transparent Glass Lettering in Photoshop

Paint Graffiti on Wall in Photoshop

How to Create Eroded Metal Text with Photoshop

Text In Stitches

Create a Spectacular Grass Text Effect in Photoshop

Text Effects - Plastic Text

Watercolor Text Painted on a Wet Paper

Aged/Distressed Type Effect in Photoshop + Free Action Download

How to Create Inset Typography in Photoshop

3D Text effects

Design a Slick 3D Ice Text Effect

Multi-colored effect

Create a Layered Glowing Text Effect

Candy Coated Photoshop Tutorial

3D Textured Text Effect

And, this one is written by yours truly as guest author! :)

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Easily Create Sticker Text and Graphic Effect in Illustrator

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:33:00 +0000

In this tutorial, I will show you how to create sticker style effect in Adobe Illustrator. Sticker effect is quite common and I am sure, you might have seen it used in various designs. So lets get started and let me tell you, it is quite easy and you can create a sticker style text in no minutes and you can apply the same technique for any graphic illustration as well.

Step 1

Type down the text, make sure to use a little thicker font, I used Arial Rounded MT Bold. Select the text, right click, and choose Create Outline, so that we can apply gradients to the text (I wonder why doesn't Adobe make the text go with gradients without converting the text into outline). If you don't want to use gradients in text, you may choose not to convert your text into outline.

Step 2

Apply gradient to text, I decided to use shiny web 2 style gradient, you can see the values of CMYK in the image below.

Step 3

With the Rectangle Tool (M) create a square or rectangle fill it with any color you like except white and select it, right click and choose Arrange > Send to Back so that you have a background below the text. You could do this at the Step 1 itself.

Now, select the text, Copy it (Ctrl/Comm + C) and Paste in Back (Ctrl/Comm + B). While the text you just pasted is selected, change it's Fill color to white (with no stroke) and go to Object > Path> Offset Path and choose the settings as shown in the image below or any setting that suits your text.

Note: You can also offset the path via, Effect > Path > Offset Path, which is actually a better way because later if you want to edit it, you can always do so from Appearance Panel. Also, if you have not turned your text into outline in Step 1, you will have to offset the path via Effect Menu.

Step 4

While the path you just offset in Step 3 is still selected, open your Pathfinder Panel and hit Add button.

Next, if you wish you may also apply gradient to the offset path. For the Left Slider I choosed the color of gradient as shown in image below and for Right Slider the color is 0% for CMYK.

And, then apply some Drop Shadow (Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow) to the selected path.

That's about it! Quite easy right?!

Also alternatively, instead of applying the drop shadow, you can duplicate the offset path, send it back, offset the path again to around 2 pixels, change it's fill color to black and bring down it's opacity to around 10 or 13%.

In the similar way, you can create the sticker effect on any graphic illustration or shape. But the steps are slightly different.

Take any illustration and give it a background.

Select the illustration with the Selection Tool (V), Copy it (Ctrl/Comm + C) and Paste in Back (Ctrl/Comm + B). While it is still selected, Ungroup it via Object > Ungroup (Ungroup it till it is completely ungrouped, that is till you see the Ungroup button is greyed).

Whilst it is still selected, open your Pathfinder Panel and hit Add button, as shown in the image in Step 4 above. And, change it's Fill color to white (with no stroke) and go to Object > Path> Offset Path and choose the Offset Settings that suits your illustration.

You can see your Offset Path as shown in the image below, if you click on the eye button of your main illustartion in Layer Panel.

Finally apply some Drop Shadow as mentioned above.

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A to Z Free Fonts

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:29:00 +0000

This article presents a collection of free fonts arranged alphabetically. Well, I had this idea to showcase some cool free fonts but, just one font for each letter in alphabets. So I searched through my font's folder and bookmarks to feature 26 free fonts I hope, the title is not misleading. ;)

There were many awesome free fonts for many letters and it was a challenge to feature just one, but for some letters like, "H", "I", "O" there were few choices and surprisingly, for letter "X" there was no free font that was very appealing, or maybe I needed to browse more.

Anyways, below you will find 26 free fonts. I tried to put together a list of some known, some unknown, some professional, some fancy, some serif, some san serif, some script... in short a collection of mixed fonts, so that there is something for everyone and everybody finds something new.

Also, you would like to check: 30 Fresh New Free Fonts to Jazz Your Designs

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The name of the font is on the image itself. Click on the image to view the original source.

Is there no proper free font that starts with letter, "X"?!!

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45 Useful Collection of Free Photoshop PSD Files

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 09:26:00 +0000

Sometimes a design project comes with a very pressing deadline and has to be finished within little time. For such rush projects, some great design resources and freebies are quite useful. And, especially if it is a source .psd file it comes in a lot handy cause you can easily edit or modify it to fit it well with your design. Also, it can be easily mixed and matched! I browsed deviantArt and I found some really great gems, this awesome free .PSD files can be really useful to designers for any design project, plus I think, this freebies can also serve as a learning material as well.

Pencil PSD

Globe Resource v.2

Apple .PSD

Free Product -Software PSD Box

Cassette-PSD-File

notebook psd

Curl Preview Border

Designers Icons

Hearts Take Flight

Headphones Resource

15 illustration frames

Deluxive Creative Pack

5 Red Roses Pack

5 Sunflowers Pack

Coffee cup Resource

DVD Case Inlay - PSD

15 illustration frames 2

Skate Longboard template

iPod Touch PSD

stiker PSD

Christmas stock 1 of 5

FREE RENDERS

Documents + Letters

Fruits

Item Coffee PSD

Photoshop 3D Cube

Lined Paper

Paperbag .PSD

Only Photoshop

My Moleskine

Post-it - psd

Free Film Frame

T-Shirt PSD

Tag PSD

Talk icon

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

XBOX 360

Torn Paper Snapshot Border

Web 2.0 stickers - psd

DVD Label - PSD Template

PLASMA TV

FREE Product Box PSD

Buttons PSD

DVD Case+Art - PSD file

Pixel Arrows PSD

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Creative Process - Making an Ambigram in Illustrator

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 15:26:00 +0000

Ambigrams can be quite fascinating. I saw some brilliant ambigrams and was inspired enough to try and make one myself. For those who don't know what ambigram means, here is a definition from Wikipedia:

"An ambigram is a typographical design or artform that may be read as one or more words not only in its form as presented, but also from another viewpoint, direction, or orientation. The words readable in the other viewpoint, direction or orientation may be the same or different from the original words."

To simply put, a ambigram is one where the word looks/reads same when upside down, or flips to create a whole new word.

There are many types of ambigrams, but the most basic is a rotational ambigram - visual representation of a word that when rotated 180 degrees (i.e. flipped both vertically and horizontally), spells the same word as before.

Rotational ambigram is the one that I tried to make. As it was my first try, for the words I decided to make an ambigram from my name, Sonali as I thought it is short 6 letters word and might be easy to make. Oh and if you still don't know, yes, my name is Sonali meaning golden or someone like gold. :)

Just like any designs, creating an ambigram doesn't have any set steps or rules, it depends on what you want to write. A good ambigram is one which is is legible and readable. I also think, making an ambigram is a good brain exercise as you have to think not only how you're going to write it but also how it would appear when inverted and you've to be quite creative.

I used Adobe Illustrator to make my ambigram, but you can use any app. that allows you to edit text. Also, you can sketch your ambigram with traditional methods, but I'm more of a digital person and I figured out using a font as a base would be the quickest method to make ambigram.

I don't know, how many of you would be interested, but I really wanted to share my process, so, below is a brief overview, a walk-through on how I made an ambigram of my name, Sonali.

Font:

After trying several fonts, I zeroed in on using a font named, Old English Text MT. Rather than Uppercase I decided to use lowercase alphabets. I Outlined the text and Ungroup it.

Planning:

The idea is to convert a font into an ambigram.

The word, Sonali has 6 alphabets and I figured out that "S" would have to look like "li" when rotated 180 degree. "O" should become "a" and "N" should be "N" when I rotate it to 180 degree. Here is a visual presentation of the idea.

For letters S and li:

The challenge was to convert S into li ans li into S. In the image shown below you will see the steps on how I created S and li. I used Illustrator's Selection Tool, Knife Tool for cutting the text and Transform Palette to flip the objects horizontally and vertically.

For letters o and a:

This one was easy as letters o and a are quite similar, in the image below you will see the steps.

For letter N:

This again was easy, the task was to make N look like N itself when you rotate it to 180 degree. I took only the left side of n, duplicated it and flipped it horizontally and vertically. After that I added the middle part and some frilly bits with Pen Tool.

Below you will see my final ambigram. You might have noticed above, that I have added some frilly bits to the text along the way to give it a finishing touch.

And here is the animated version so that you can see, it looks same when you rotate it.

That's about it and it's my first try with an ambigram and I think, it turned out good! I hope you enjoyed the above creative process.

So have you ever made an ambigram or are you planning t o make one? Either way it's fun to make an ambigram. Personally, I didn't follow any tutorials for this, just skimmed through some of the resources. Plus, like I have mentioned above, there are no standard steps to make an ambigram. But you might like to check following articles and tutorials to get you started with an ambigram:

How to Make an Ambigram on Wikihow
Make an Ambigram
Advice On Learning to Create Ambigrams
How to draw ambigrams - Ambigram tutorial and walkthrough
Typographic Doppelgängers

I have also written a article on Ambigrams for Vectortuts - A Clever Collection of 40+ Inspiring Ambigrams which features some brilliant ambigrams, (logos and otherwise).

*Top image credit:ambigram.com

Winners Announced: 1500 Free Business Cards Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:14:00 +0000

So, now it is the time to announce the winners of Comment & Win: 1500 Free Business Cards Giveaway, contest started on 1 August. I wish more readers took part, but nonetheless it was fun and I hope those who won it enjoys the prize giveaway.

So without much-a-do the 3 lucky winners as selected by a random generator are:

Deb
Andy M.
Nora

Congratulations!

Winners, please Send me your Email Address by filling via this Contact Form and I will be forwarding your email address to Bizcard Business Cards.

A Big Thanks to all who participated and Bizcard who sponsored this giveaway.

I might do more such giveaways on my blog, so if you didn't make it this time, be sure to take part next time.

Stay tuned, Subscribe to my blog, if you have not already or get all the updates delivered directly to your Inbox all for free, so that you don't miss a thing.

Create Interlocked Text & Shapes in Illustrator

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 11:25:00 +0000

In this Illustrator tip, I will show you how to create interlocked or interconnected text. So let me tell you how:

Step 1:
Quickly type down the text with the Type Tool (T) that you want to interlock, I wrote "abcde".

Step 2:
Select the text with Selection Tool (V) and Create Outlines (Type > Create Outlines or you can right click on the text and choose Create Outlines). After that select the outlined text again and Ungroup it via Object > Ungroup.

Step 3:
Now change the fill colors of the text and arrange them with the Selection Tool (V) in the way you want them to interlock.

Step 4:
Select all the text with Selection Tool and in the Pathfinder Palette click on the Divide button, highlighted with the red circle in the image below.

Step 5:
And, now you are almost there, select the section of the text with Direct Selection Tool (A) that you want to overlap and click with Eyedropper Tool (I) on the fill color (make sure fill is active on the color swatch) of the text that that you want to be overlapped or matched.

And, repeat the Step 5 till all the text you want is interlocked or interconnected...

Step 6:
Since we have divided the text, our text is in bits and parts you may want to join them together, so after you are done overlapping the text, with the Direct Selection Tool(A) click on one of the alphabet and goto Object > Same > Fill Color and then choose Object > Compound Path > Make . Repeat this for all the alphabets.

Alternatively, you can also Merge the entire text after Step 5, to do that just select the entire text with Selection Tool (V) and from Pathfinder Palette choose Merge.

And, that's about it... all your text is interconnected! Quite easy, right!!

In the similar way, you can create interlocking shapes as well, except that the shapes are not type so you don't have to Create Outlines as mentioned in Step 2, but you will have to Expand (Object > Expand or Object > Path > Outline Stroke) the fill and/or stroke, all other steps remains the same.

Jean-Claude Tremblay (in the comment below) also suggested a nice method with Live Paint here is how I think it can be done:

1. Follow all the steps mentioned above till Step 4
2. After that, select the entire text and goto Object > Live Paint > Make
3. Now select the fill color and the part of text that you want to be overlapped and with the Live Paint Bucket Tool(K) fill the color.

I like that in Illustrator there are more ways of doing things!! :)

Comment & Win: 1500 Free Business Cards Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:23:00 +0000

Folks at Bizcard Business Cards are giving away 1500 free business cards to 3 readers (that is, 500 business cards to each readers) of dezign Musings. The winners can upload their own artwork or select one of the many designs they offer.

About Bizcard Business Cards

Bizcard Business Cards is an online printing company. It helps individuals and small business create a strong brand identity using business cards, postcards or similar products. Users can select designs from hundreds of templates or upload their own artwork. From its inception the company has decided to differentiate itself by providing a higher quality of print products, implementing several eco-friendly practices such as eliminating the usage of harming photo processing chemicals, and continuously improving itself based on customers' feedback. Bizcard also plants a tree for every order they receive.

How To Win?

To win is very simple, just leave a comment telling us, what is your favorite design style, what kind of design do you like.

Make sure to leave your Twitter ID (url/address) in the comment, because that is how winners will be contacted.

Additional bonus points if you tweet about this giveaway, for e.g. - "Comment and Win: 1500 Free Business Cards Giveaway - @dezignMusings" just make sure to add @dezignMusings to your tweet, so that I know.

Till When?

On 15th August Saturday, Contest will be closed and winners will be announced on 16th August Sunday.
3 Winners (500 cards / each winner) will be chosen randomly on a random generator.

Please Note:
The giveaway includes free shipping to the USA and Canada. For other countries, shipping must be paid by the winner.

And of course, Subscribe to my blog, if you have not already or get all the updates delivered directly to your Inbox all for free, so that you don't miss a thing.

Testing and Trying Disqus Commenting System (Edit)

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:25:00 +0000

Well, I am testing the Disqus Commenting System for my blog, if everything works fine, I will be using it henceforth. Blogger's default commenting system is something that I don't really like much and I really wish they change and improvise it!

There are some other third party commenting systems like, Intense Debate and JS-Kit, but I finally chose Disqus. I think it is cool, the only disadvantage with Disqus that I found is: if you remove it or decide not to use it all the comments (given to you whilst using this system) also disappears, I hope Disqus finds out some workaround for that too.

Anyways, let's see how it works!

Edit:

As you might notice, I have removed Disqus after using it for couple of days. Although, it is far more better than Blogger's commenting system, it has a limitation as I have mentioned above, that is your comments would disappear if you decide not to use it.

Secondly, couple of days that I used it, there was a problem with Disqus's server (tweet), it was down for half an hour and not only the comment box but all the comments disappeared, so I just thought, what if there server had a major problem? I just feel, it is not a good idea to use it with Blogger/blogspot blogs because the comments are not sync and saved locally like they have with Wordpress. I just think, it is not a good idea, to have somebody else have control over your blog's comment. I just hope, Blogger improves it's default commenting system!

35+ Fresh Floral & Swirl Photoshop Brushes

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:12:00 +0000

Photoshop Brushes are one of the most essential design tool for any designer. Apart from default Photoshop brushes there are variety of brushes made available to designers by design community all over the interwebs. There are various style of brushes, my personal favorite are floral and swirl style brushes. I tend to use them a lot in my various design projects. They seem to be evergreen and never out of fashion, you can use them as it is or mix and match them, you can either make a whole design out of them or maybe just use them as a decorative element along with other design elements, if used well they can really enhance any design.

In this article, I compiled a list of some fresh floral and swirl brushes that I think are not only beautiful but useful for any design project. Please, click on the image for the original brush and download link.

Hope, you enjoyed this post. If you find it useful please share the link!

Create a Stylish Colorful Text Effect in Illustrator

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:19:00 +0000

In this tutorial I will show you how to make a cool colorful text effect using a vector image. This tutorial will focus on showing you the technique, cause I think, once you know the technique you can explore and experiment it further to suit a type effect or a project that you're making. Apart from the text effect, in this tutorial I will also show you:

how to offset the stroke or the double stroke in text/type
how to use appearance palette and blending mode
and will give you some tips along-the- way

So without much a do let's get started.....

Type The Text

First thing first, open a New Document in Illustrator, write down some text with Type Tool (T). I wrote the word, "IMAGINE", I adjusted it's kerning a bit, so that there is enough space between each letters. Colors of fonts etc. is not much important at this stage, so choose any.

Tip: Select a lil thick or broader font for this text effect. Also, keep the loose kerning between each letters, so that when we apply the offset strokes, the letters don't get mixed up.

Select a Vector Artwork/Image
Next, select any vector image, you can use any of your own artwork or any vector image that you have or from sites like iStockphoto, Shutterstock or from the free vector resource sites like Vecteezy etc.

Also,for this text effect you can even use a raster or bitmap image as well, but I will highly recommend you to use vector image, so that our text is in pure vector format. For the purpose of this tutorial I used the image shown below from Shutterstock. I like how colorful and abstract it is.

I select the entire artwork (Ctrl/Cmd + A) with Selection Tool (V) and copied it, Edit > Copy (Ctrl/Cmd + C), then I paste it, Edit > Paste (Ctrl/Cmd + C) in my current document. Now, while the artwork is still selected, drag it and move it into Swatch Palette. You should see your entire vector artwork/image as "New Pattern Swatch" in Swatch Palette. Now, you can use this image just as how you would use a Pattern Swatch in Illustrator, but remember since it is a image, it is not a seamless pattern and cannot be used for tileable purposes. You can also use a seamless pattern swatch for his text effect but, it will look very uniform, that is why I am using a vector image, so that all he letters looks a bit different but still have some uniformity as far as word is concerned.

Now into the Text

Select the text with Selection Tool (V) and apply the Pattern Swatch, that we just created in Step 2.

Tip: If you want some interesting part of your image/pattern to be shown, hold down the Tilde Key (~) while dragging the pattern filled text with Selection Tool (V) or rotate, scale or shear tool, at the most Selection Tool (V) will do the trick. If you want to know more about transforming Patterns, check my tutorial on Vectordiary.

Apply the Stroke to the text, by selecting the text. I applied a shade of pink (which I think I might change later and of course it is editable) with the Weight of 1pt.

Offset a New Stroke

We will create a another stroke which is a bit offset or away from the first stroke that we applied above. So, now it is the time to open your Appearance Palette if it is not already opened. I think Appearance Palette is the most important palette in Illustrator and should be opened all time for all your Illustrator projects.

Select the text with the Selection Tool (V) and on the Appearance Palette click on a button on Right and select Add New Stroke. Then choose the color of the Stroke, I choose same Pink as the earlier stroke. After that, goto Effect > Path > Offset Path from the Top Menu Bar. In the Offset Path Dialog Box choose the settings as you need, remember to click on Preview, so you can see the changes from different settings. I chose to Offset the Path to 5px and Rounded for Joins and Miter limit of 4.

New Fill Color and Blending Mode

In the same way, now we will apply a New Fill to the text and then will apply Blending mode. So again Select the Text and from Appearance Palette, choose New Fill. For the Fill color I used a lil vibrant Gradient Swatch (which you can find from Illustrator's default Swatches named: Spectrum) I adjusted the gradient with Gradient Tool (G).

Still keeping the Text selected, I changed the Blending Mode of Gradient to Color. You can access the Blending mode from Transparency Palette (if not already opened find it from, Window > Transparency).

Tip: Try different Gradients or Solid fill colors and Blending Modes cause each blending modes will give different results depending on the image and fill colors you have chosen in Step 2.

One of the best thing about Illustrator is that, almost everything is editable. In this example at any stage you can change, text, fonts, pattern image, colors, blending mode, stroke weight anything that you want and for that Appearance Palette comes in very handy, it is like....what I would say a mirror? yes maybe because it reflects everything that constitutes a artwork. I am using CS3 but I have heard that in CS4 it has more advanced features, which is great! Here is how my text looks like after I changed stroke colors and weight, you can also see how all the attributes are reflected in Appearance Palette.

Experiment

I tend to do a lot of experiments and in a quick image below, I changed, the text and Fill color just to see how it looks:

Finally...

Below, you can see my final image, wherein I kept everything same as the image shown above except that I changed the Blending Mode to Multiply, adjusted a bit of Gradient fill, added some swirly vector elements to jazz up the text and added a background color and that's about it!

If you have any questions feel free to ask. Hope you enjoyed the tutorial, and of course stay tuned for more! :)

12 Cool New Sites Just for Icons

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 07:16:00 +0000

Icons, which designer doesn't love them?!! Well, I am a self-proclaimed icon fan and with this post I will like to share with readers some great sites where you can find some cool icons all at one place plus some other icon search engine sites where you can search for the icons that suits your projects. Also there are some great sites, whereby you can convert the icons from one format to another depending on your OS etc. Feel free to share with me, if you know of some such websites!

We Love Icons
In there own words, We love icons sole purpose is to provide you with one place to go to find links to the best freeware icons on earth.
It is a new gallery for icon resources where you can find cool, all new and high quality icons all for free.

I Convert Icons

Ever wanted to convert a icon which is compatible with your OS? iConvert converts and creates Windows, Mac and Linux icons in one step!

Iconerz

Iconerz is again another site where you can browse and download the new icon packs for free. Icons are separated according to categories to make browsing easier.

Iconfinder
As the name says, here you can search the icons almost around 58,757 of them with the keywords or browse 100 icon sets.

Iconlet

Iconlet is simple search engine for free icons, images. Just type name in search window and you will get a list of available icons, images which you can use in your project.

Icon Generator

Icon Generator is a little application that lets you generate a CS3 or Web 2.0 style icon, only 3 step. Pick color, type characters, and save it. Just create 4 different sizes of the icon.

Bradicon
This is yet another simple online tool that will allow you to transform any image you have on your computer in a icon.

Convertico
ConvertICO is a Free Online Converter - fast and easy to use which allows you to convert PNG to ICO and ICO to PNG format files.

Iconlook
One more site to search for icons, you can also browse by Tag Cloud, Random and Popular icons.

Icons-Search

The Icons-Search is an Icon Search Engine that helps you to find quality icons available on the Internet. You can find icons for Windows Vista and XP, Macintosh, Linux, icons for Desktop, Software, Website, Mobile, Presentation, in sizes from 16x16 to 256x256 in PNG format and sizes from 16x16 to 128x128 in ICO format.

Iconza

Iconza is a site where you can find collection of free icons that can be custom colored and reduced in size to your taste. You will be able to pick icons that will fit right into your design.

And finally, Shareicons
The Share Icon is becoming the de facto standard visual representation for sharing content from any source to multiple destinations: over email, to bookmark or memetracker sites, to your friends on social networks, and more every day.
The Share Icon is free to use! This package contains pixel based graphics in many sizes and vector graphics in .ai, .svg, and .eps formats.

If you found this post useful, feel free to share!

Drawing Inspiration from Minimalism in Photography - Appealing and Engaging

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Fri, 22 May 2009 11:47:00 +0000

If we see Wikipedia's definition, "Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features." What I like about minimalism is, it is art of less, it is about expressing what we want to with few essential elements. I also feel minimalism doesn't need to be plain or boring, with the use of few elements we can make it elegant and classy at the same time. Sometimes, it worries me to see especially when it comes to graphic and web design there is a tendency to clutter up the things, too many unnecessary bling-blings or too heavy graphic oriented designs which sometimes mars any beauty that a particular design might have. Anyways, with this post I am not featuring websites with minimal themes, we will keep it for some other time, besides it is the subject which has been talked about often on so many blogs on internet.

Instead, I chose to feature, some of the Photographs centered around minimalism. Like I have told earlier in my posts, I am extremely fond of Photography and when it comes to inspiration in designing and arts we can derive inspiration from some similar and unrelated fields, photographs being one of them. From this photographs one can get the inspiration for colors, contrast, perspective, shadows and highlights, and most importantly with minimalism in photographs we can see how much of the white space is important, it actually accentuates the subject and brings out it's beauty without taxing your attention span!

Though, I am aware that everybody can have a different definition about minimalism especially when it comes to Photography, but here I am trying to feature some of the images, (around 30 of them) which I feel have not only the minimal theme but are beautiful, appealing and engaging the eyes.

Simply, Quiet Life

Ikebana di Lucio Farinelli

I Want to Ride My Bicycle

Sensation

Tentacles

Red Converse at the wall of the red line

Chocolate & Cherries / Mon Cheri

Slavin@'s Photograph

2005-09-27

Me trying out urban minimalism

Ploade

Connection

Disco

Marbles

Refreshing Minimalism of Flavours

Simplicity

Mentor

Forty Shades of Green

Success

Hope you enjoyed the selection and found something that you liked. Next, I have plans for some more design related, articles, tutorial/tips, so stay tuned!

Photoshop Quick-Tip: Use the Togglebar to Access the Palettes & Toolbox Temporarily

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:10:00 +0000

I am sure you might already know about how to do away with Palettes, Toolbox and Option Bar, by pressing the Tab Key (for more checkout Tip #10 of my article on 15 Photoshop Tips (I Bet) You Don't Know).

What I want to share with you is, after you hit the Tab Key, you can temporarily access the Palettes by just hovering your mouse arrow on the right edge, as shown with red arrow on the image below. You will see a grey colored Toggle Bar appearing when you hover your mouse arrow on edge. Similarly, you can have access to Toolbox when you hover the mouse on left edge. Just try it and you will know what I mean! :) And, the same is true for Illustrator as well.

Freebie Resource: Movie Fonts

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Mon, 04 May 2009 17:18:00 +0000

If you ever need the fonts based on actual Movies, that is the font used in the logo of the popular movie, TypeNow.net has the huge resource based on such fonts. And, to make it easy, the names of the fonts are the names of the movies they represent. And, that is not all, it also houses a collection of fonts based on Music/Bands and Games too. And also some more Miscellaneous fonts. So check it out, but of course please be aware of any copyright issues when using these fonts, they are meant to be for fun!

More at: TypeNow.net

Creating a Photo-Realistic Line Drawing in Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:27:00 +0000

Have you wondered how to create photo-realistic line drawing, here was a nice tutorial I found over at dekeOnline, Creating a Photo-Realistic Line Drawing, the tutorial is divided in 2 parts and the end results seems quite attractive.

Although the site requires you to sign in (of course it is free) to read the tutorial, the tutorial shows you some good techniques which you might have overlooked plus Dekeonline has some more nice articles and tutorials on Photoshop so I guess registering is worth it.

And, for a change, I tried my hands on the above mentioned tutorial [something like leading by example ;-)], in the image below you can see my results (I named it Killer Instinct....creative huh?!!). Since, I was not intending to print it, I took some liberties and tweaked some of the steps depending on a reference image, which I had downloaded long time ago and always wanted to make something out of it, the above tutorial seemed quite apt for that image. Don't know, if I did good but it was a experimental piece on one of last Sundays, but I definitely learned a couple of good tricks, especially using the Underlying Layer Sliders in Layer Style dialogue box to taper the properties of photograph.

My Experiment: Killer Instinct

Anyways, I also searched for more such tutorials and my quick search showed the couple of tutorials, that also looks good but the technique is different and the end results are also very different, may you like to follow:
Turn Photos of People into Line Art

Photo to Line Drawing

So, that's about it, not much but something to keep you busy if you like! :)

Go Awesome Be Creative

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:15:00 +0000

I had read this article around year or so back, sometimes it is rare that things you read long back is still on your mind, so I guess what is written is impactful and I will like to share it with you. I think, some of you might have also read this but, if some of you still don't know, it is a cool piece written over at gapingvoid - on "How To Be Creative".

There are around 37 tips, on how to be creative, written in fun, clever and enthusiastic way! I so love this cartoons as well!

Ignore everybody.

The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you.

You don't know if your idea is any good the moment it's created. Neither does anyone else.

Good ideas alter the Power Balance relationships, that is why good ideas are always initially resisted.

Good ideas come with a heavy burden. Which is why so few people have them. So few people can handle it.

This is really a awesome, nice, fabulous thought. You should always listen to your inner instincts, besides creativity is all about expressing oneself. But, of course, ignore everybody should not be misinterpreted, you still should be nice, polite, courteous and good to people. ;)

Some of other great tips that I like are:

If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.

Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.

Don't try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether. (I love this!)

Never compare your inside with somebody else's outside. (Never.)

Worrying about "Commercial vs. Artistic" is a complete waste of time.

Power is never given. Power is taken. (Exactly!)

Don't worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually. (Check for More).

Whilst we are talking about creativity another nice article that I read recently was, Creativity on speed, it says,

One of the best ways to be truly creative--breakthrough creative--is to be forced to go fast. Really, really, really fast. From the brain's perspective, it makes sense that extreme speed can unlock creativity. When forced to come up with something under extreme time constraints, we're forced to rely on the more intuitive, subconscious parts of our brain. The time pressure can help suppress the logical/rational/critical parts of your brain. It helps you EQ up subconscious creativity (so-called "right brain") and EQ down conscious thought ("left brain").

It is not about the kind of time pressure we get from trying to get real work done under unreasonable deadlines, but about a specific technique for using speed as a creativity driver. You may like to read more about it.

I also feel, I should improve on the speed, it is really a great exercise to work faster.

Another interesting perspective On Being Creative, written by Randy Thom:

1. Learn your craft thoroughly, reading everything you can about the traditions and conventions of the craft, as well as experiments on the modern cutting edge.

2. Begin each project with few assumptions about the methods you will use. Let the needs of the project, most of which you won't know until after you've gotten your feet wet, determine your approach.

3. Experiment as early and as often and as inexpensively as possible. Make lots of mistakes when mistakes are cheap.

So, what are your thoughts on creativity? or is there any interesting article that you have read, share with me!

Nice Informative Resources on Viget Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:17:00 +0000

It usually happens that I am searching or re-searching for something, I end up finding something absolutely cool and informative. I don't know how, but I bumped into this wonderful site called Viget Labs few days back (possibly, some of you might be already knowing about it, so I am not talking about something entirely new, but just sharing what I discovered recently), which I found useful as it has so many informative articles. Oh and of course, the design of there website is a beauty!

Viget Labs has 4 series of Blogs, each blog has unique topics and design theme that are nicely wrapped together: 1. Advance (Strategy) 2. Inspire (Design) 3. Extend (Development) 4. Engage (Marketing).

Me being me, I was obviously eager to see what is on there Design Blog - Inspire and scrolling down I chose Tips and Tricks Section from there Categories (oh I know, I am greedy). I will just note down a gist of few articles I read, enjoyed and enriched my knowledge but of course there is lot more I need to catchup.

Typography Talk: Typography is the Foundation of Good Web Design
A article demonstrating the power of typography with three "pillars of web typography:" legibility, hierarchy, and expression.

The Geometry of Design
A book review, illustrating the process of utilizing geometry in design from sketch to final implementation. I loved this topic!

Mrch Is Shrtct Mnth: Learning Web Design Shortcuts
A printable calendar for March, which you can download and learn a new shortcut every day. Programs covered: Photoshop, OS X/Windows, Illustrator, Textmate, CSSedit, and the shell. I also liked the part written in "instructions".

Photoshop Type Time Savers
A quick tip video showing how to: 1) quickly convert between point type and paragraph type And 2) change fonts on multiple layers at the same time.

Breaking Bad Habits in Photoshop
I like this article address the bad habits or the lousy techniques and how we can fix it! Really worth a read! My bad habit which I need to fix is: "Not saving swatches and styles". (psst)

How To: Make The Viget Inspire Author Thumbnails
Whilst you are there you will notice, each of there writers/authors have user thumbnails or call it a avatar. And, if you are curious, how it is made, they have a article on that as well!

How To: Make the Viget Inspire Background
An overview of how they put the Viget Inspire background together.

Typography Tuesday: Hierarchy
Another fantastic article on typography!

Phew!!
So, as you will notice, there are just too many to list here, you will also like to check there CSS category as well! You may also want to check there other articles on CSS, Web Trends, Flash, Javascripts and more! Hey and there is one on Pimp Your Twitter Background if you're a twitter addict.

So, in short, just don't take my words as it is, go and check it out on your own and I am sure there is something for each one of us!

Beautiful Illustrations by Karen Ingram

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 15:37:00 +0000

Just saw this beautiful illustrations by Karen Ingram. I liked some of her illustration at first sight itself, so poetic, full of flow, soothing and natural, a appealing style!

CARLOS MAGAZINE

RED TULIPS (and Mummy)

Some enchanting Parakeet illustrations.

MONK PARAKEETS II

MONK PARAKEET AND CROCODILLIANS

BLENDING BOUNDARIES

Personally, I am just enriched looking at this artwork, but if you want, Karen is running a Postcard Project where visitors can request available postcards, free of charge, quite generous and kind to give such a beautiful artwork for free.

Check Karen Ingram's Website to see more of there works.
found via Netdiver.net

Points of View

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 10:05:00 +0000

So, what is your point of view ?!

via ffffound

15 Neat Print and Use Freebies

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 05:43:00 +0000

In this post, I will share with you links of some of the nice printable freebies available in PDF format (will need Adobe Reader) which one can download and use.Some of this templates are easy to customize or write your own notes.I think, this can also get you inspired to create your own! Most of all are free for personal use, make sue to read the terms of use respectively.

1. Cute Animal Stickers
This are some very cute and well-illustrated animal stickers.Available for download as pdf, print on a self-adhesive A4 sheet, cut and you have stickers to decorate your home, office, car etc.

Stickers

2. Party Invitations And Place Cards
Full-colored, customizable templates for party invitations and place cards, available in pink and orange colors.

Party Invitations and Place Cards

3. Free 2009 Calender
A beautiful 2009 calender. You need to sign up to download this particular freebie.

Free 2009 Calender

4. Printable Mini File Folder
A pdf template of a mini file folder, which you can print and trim and use. How creative!

Mini File Folder

5. Halloween Card
A Halloween card, in high res. pdf to print for yourself, or maybe to give to give to you friends.

Halloween Card

6. BookPlates
This are some cute bookplates.

BookPlates

7. Four Seasons Gift Tag Template
Free downloadable gift tag template for you to print, trim, and dress up your parcels.

Four Seasons Gift Tags

8. Memo Sheet
This is a ready to use image template, print it out and cut around the outer line, available with a matching envelop as well!

Munch Memo Sheet

9. To-do list
Make notes to self or some planning with this lovely To-do list print freebie.

To-do lists

10. List Pad and Tags
Very beautiful and cue list pad and tags.

List Pad and Tags

11. Snow White Coloring Pages
Some very cool Snow White illustrations which are available for download to print and use it as coloring pages.

Snow White Coloring Pages

12. Free Printable 2009 Desk Calendar
The calendar pages that you can print, cut on the guidelines and use. You can also use decorative paper (wrapping paper, scrapbooking paper, anything you like) to mat the pages and pin them on a board.

2009 Printable Calender

13. Coffee Memo Sheet
Another printable stuff, available in image format, print it out and then cut around the outer line.Find the matching envelop as well.

Coffee Memo Sheet

14. Free To-do list and Labels
Another set of cute to-do list and labels.

Matrioshka "to do" and Labels

15. Self-Mailing Notecard
A free downloadable self-mailing notecard that you can easily print out on an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper.

Self-Mailing Notecard

Hope, you enjoyed the post, feel free to share with us if you know about more such freebies!

Fresh and Promising...

noreply@blogger.com (dezign Musings) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 07:44:00 +0000

Just had to write this post as I am so excited to find my lil blog being listed as 30 Fresh and Promising Blogs To Follow by Six Revisions. It is such a honor to be listed by such a fantastic weblog which I have been reading for a long time and going back for more. It is a thrill to be listed along with other blogs some of them are already a huge name. Quite thankful to Jacob Gube for putting this together.

This recognition was particularly important to me because somewhere down the line I often ask myself if I am investing my time productively or am I on the right track with my blog cause of late there are so many design blogs and so much of brilliant information scattered all around. I am sure those who writes blog might have gone through the similar questions one or the other times, cause knowing about certain things is one thing and writing and expressing about it is a bit different (though related) thing. It is only the passion (-passion to explore, learn and share) for design and arts which is a driving force.

I have a vision where I want to take my blog towards, so I hope to fulfill that. Basically, I want my blog to retain a playful nature, have a surprising factor, so that it doesn't become monotonous and remain informative at the same time (along with making mistakes, breaking rules and having fun of course). To share with my readers something that I discovered, something that I learned and at the same time learning from them as well! To me the best part of designing is: I am enjoying what I am doing, so everything is totally a exciting experience!

Ah, when I am talking about my glories (haha), last month, a Photoshop tutorial that I wrote for a other site was one of the 50 Stunning Photoshop Text Effect Tutorials suggested by mighty Smashing Magazine.

Also, was listed on a website CSSWOW . Apart from that many people keeps giving me the compliments for my blog especially, the header graphic and the overall looks, feels good! Though, personally I want to fix many of the things on my blog from design point of view but certain things are a bit difficult being on the Blogger platform, but those are the things about to change. it is just the matter of time.

One of the best part of being on internet is you can shout on the roof top about your small or big achievements without blushing or worrying if anybody is laughing at you so Yo! maybe time permitting, I might make a whole list of my blog or any of it's post being linked elsewhere, as a way to say thanks! :)

*Image Credits and Special Thanks: Happy Day