Some of you may know that I’m not a traditionally educated designer or Web developer; I learned everything from the Web and it has so far taken about a year and half to master Illustrator to such a degree that I can teach others. I’m not a particularly good designer and I can’t present 40 pages of illustrations on Flickr that is a Bible for other designers, but knowing the tools of your trade guards against sleepless nights wondering “How do I make a grungy brush with flower patterns…?”
If you didn’t realize by my lack of responding to your emails and comments, I’ve been quite out of touch these last few weeks. First I was on vacation—a wonderful Caribbean cruise—and then I was at my company’s sales convention. I missed so many great articles while I was away, not to mention connecting with […]
Did you know you can use Photoshop brushes for tools other than the Brush?
You’ve probably noticed recently that there is a resurgence of the grunge look in graphic arts. If you don’t want to use someone else’s pre-fab textures, you’ll need to make your own. Or maybe you’ve found one you sort of like but want […]
This is a guest post by Esben Thomsen. I’m always looking for guest authors for Creative Curio!
Some time ago I saw Alec’s beautiful wallpaper artwork (shown above) on Flickr.com. He has a big crush on Minion Pro—who doesn’t like stressed o’s? Another awesome feature of Minion Pro, is how many glyphs come with that typeface.
I noticed […]
The first time you design a billboard or a large banner for a tradeshow is an intimidating experience. I had so many questions the first time!
Many of you might be wondering where I have been for the past few weeks. At the beginning of March, I took a cruise in the western Caribbean. It was wonderful! […]
Andi “Toon” Creffield is a friend I met on Estetica Design Forum (formerly graphic-design-forum.com). He invited me to join the forum around the beginning of this blog and I have enjoyed being a member and networking with other designers from around the world. Toon has worked in the web and print design industries since 1999, […]
by Esben Thomsen
In this tutorial we are going to make a PDF icon and I know what most of you are thinking… “PDF icon, what should I use that for? That’s completely useless, just like Illustrator!” But hear me out!
Aside from a lesson in using the three basic Illustrator tools—Pen tool, Selection tool and Direct Selection tool—to […]
