Below you’ll find a collection of individual articles and series from Creative Curio that readers have found helpful and interesting.

For Newcomers and Seasoned Designers Alike

• Real World Example series
  • line
  • shape
  • space
  • scale
  • texture
  • value
  • color
  • There was a second part to color, too, The Color Wheel and Color Theory.
• What do you Consider Good Design?
• How to be a Better Designer: Keep Learning

For InDesign Users (Especially beginners!)

What is a Pica? and Using Points and Picas

Getting Started in InDesign series:

• You Still Use Quark?! InDesign basics
• Making Changes Easier with Master Pages
• Avoiding Disaster with Paragraph Styles
• Avoiding Disaster with Character Styles
• Understanding InDesign Layers

InDesign Project Walk-through series:

• Grids, Guides and Baselines
• Set­ting Up Mas­ter Pages and Styles
• Work­ing with Text and Images
• Lists, Tabs and Final Details
• Bleed and Layering Master Pages

For Photoshop and GIMP Users

• Mastering Masking series
  • Mastering Photoshop Masks: The Basics
  • Mastering Photoshop Masks: Layer Masks
  • Mastering Photoshop Masks: Expert Techniques
  • Mastering Photoshop Masks: Quick Masks
  • Mastering Photoshop Masks: Vector Masks
• Experimenting with Brushes

For Illustrator Users (Especially beginners!)

• Illustrator, A Beginner’s Guide
• Customizing Illustrator for Maximum Efficiency
• All About Views and the Artboard in Illustrator
• Using Expert Features of Illustrator: Glyphs and Pathfinder
• Everything You Need to Know About Creating an RSS Icon in Illustrator

The Popular Shortcut Shindig shortcut collections:

• Essential Photoshop Shortcuts
• Make Your Life Easier with a few Photoshop Functions
• Shortcut Shindig (Photoshop)
• Shortcut Shindig: InDesign
• Shortcut Shindig: Illustrator

The Creative Curio Theme Design Process

These few posts are from the design process of my current theme, where I documented my progress.

• Ideas for My Blog Design
• Wire Frames and Experiments
• Researching Alternatives
• Doodles are the Key to Success
• A Return to the Redesign
• Details, Details, Details

How to Create Aged Tape from Scratch is connected to the redesign, too. It’s a little tutorial on how I made the main navigation buttons.

A Simple Golden Lettering Effect with Photoshop Layer Styles gives you a step-by-step guide to creating the golden style used in the Creative Curio and Extras titles.