With their latest groundbreaking video, created from 3-D data captured by the latest in laser scanning technologies, Radiohead continues to close in on the singularity many of our childhood friends may or may not be sleeping through. The video speaks for itself, so my story ends here. I’ve included a link to the “making of the video” as well. These features are usually boring, but this one is actually cool. Check it out…
I’d like to take this opportunity to summarize some points of extreme importance for you as a beginning designer. I have followed these principles throughout my career and have used them to guide me in the development of your graphic design program. I call this methodology the Michael R. Nelson “12-Point Program for Successful Designers.”
1. Be humble and ready to learn. Even after you complete your program, there is still a vast world of design out there for you to learn, experience, and absorb.
2. Always enter into a design project with clear objectives and criteria.
3. Establish a clear design process with a methodical intent of reducing possible solutions until a clear solution rises to the top.
4. Don’t be afraid to revisit parts of the design process as many times as needed to get it right.
5. Have a clear hierarchy of information in the graphics you design.
6. Respect typography.
7. Make your imagery meaningful. Don’t be overly simplistic with your imagery. Make sure it’s appropriate and communicates your core message.
8. Always push your designs for a higher level of excellence.
9. A successful designer must be willing to self-educate. Never stop learning about design and exposing yourself to creative outlets.
10. Make your own opportunities. Designers do not have the luxury of sitting back and waiting for prospective clients and employers to come to them.
11. Be discriminating in defining what good and bad design is. Whether you are critiquing yourself or work you randomly run across, or you are participating in a formal group critique, hold the work to a high standard and have the confidence to declare it successful or unsuccessful. Allow proven, high-quality work like we cover on this blog define your standards of good work.
12. Don’t let computer programs “own” your designs.
If you can excel at these 12 points, you will be well on your way to becoming a good designer. Let me know how you are progressing through your program and please reach out to me through this blog if you need any direct assistance. All you have to do is leave me a comment and I’ll follow up with you right away. I’m here to do whatever I can to make this learning experience a successful one for you!
All you Graphic Artists out there give us a holler!! The upcoming Ashworth Newspaper is in need of your talents! We desperately need cartoonists. We would like a funny page! Any takers?
If you’re interested, follow up with us on the Ashworth University Forum “Student Newspaper” thread. Click here to view and participate in this thread. Thanks!
Thanks to Carol Esther for permission to use this Photo.
One of my biggest daily struggles is creating graphics using “dummy” images or filler copy, simply because a client is late in providing me with the final art work or copy. This forces me to make blind decisions in Photoshop, because I know they will all change once I receive the real artwork and/or copy. It’s no use coming up with the perfect way to make text fit a page, if the text is going to change in size when you receive the final draft. Working with dummy text or art work is okay for making general decisions, but don’t waste your time with it. If you are already working in your computer program, you are at the stage of making final decisions. Don’t make those decisions until you can be sure that they will truly be final.
I realize that operating efficiency isn’t the sexiest topic a designer can imagine, but let’s look down the road to your future in the industry. Remember, that’s what this course is about: your future. Suppose that you are working with a design team and you are in the comp stage of a project. Let’s add to this scenario that you’re working to get a promotion or a bonus. You’ll look like a hero to your art director if you arrive at critique sessions with twice as many comps as your peers, due to your higher proficiency with the design software. Also, the quality of your work will be higher because you can successfully flesh out ideas and create a better end product. Your final comps will also have more detail and therefore look better than the less-developed submissions of other designers. This is the kind of edge every designer looks for. It’s the kind of edge you need in the very competitive world of design. I want you to have this edge.
Whenever I get a question from a user asking me “how did you draw this?”, I often have to answer that I’ve used the Pen tool. The Pen tool is probably the hardest tool to learn in Illustrator. It just takes time to master it fluently, but once you do, you have this freedom to create. Sometimes we can get a long way using only shape tools like the ellipse, polygon, rectangle or rounded rectangle. With a bit of creative thinking and some simple aligning in combination with Pathfinder’s powerful tools you might just achieve the perfect drawing in no time. Here is another Illustrator tutorial where I show you to draw a simple icon without the use of the Pen tool…
Draw the basic shapes
Before you start you might activate Smart Guides (View > Smart Guides). Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool from the Toolbox and draw a shape as shown in the image above. You can modify the corners of the rectangle using the up or down arrow keys while dragging the shape. Make sure the radius of the rounded corners of the rectangle is big enough. Next, select the Rectangle Tool and draw a small vertical rectangle shape below as shown in the right-hand side image. Now select the Polygon Tool and draw a small hexagon below the small rectangle (see image above).Select the Selection Tool (black arrow) and select the 3 shapes. Click the Horizontal Align Center from the toolbar at the top. Select the Direct Selection Tool (white arrow) and drag a selection over the bottom 2 points of the hexagon.
Resize and align the shapes
Click in one of the points, hold down the Shift key and drag the 2 points downwards as shown in the left-hand side image above. Now select the Selection Tool (black arrow) again and select the small rectangle above the hexagon. Hover your cursor somewhere on the middle of the bottom border until you get the resize cursor icon. Drag the border of the rectangle downwards so it overlaps the hexagon shape.
Many designers help solidify their careers by becoming experts in a specialized area. Typically, these men and women possess a broad understanding and competence in many areas of design. Their career focus revolves around being at the top of the field in one specific area of design. Even for you as a new designer, computer programs like Photoshop and Illustrator are potential areas of expertise. I can tell you from experience that almost every successful designer is generally competent in Photoshop and Illustrator, but a program expert achieves results that few others can provide. The usual response to the work of an expert is, “Wow! How did you do that?” The advanced skills displayed by a program expert are often self-taught and involve a unique way of using these programs. Illustrator presents a great opportunity for you to become such an expert. If no one else can create beautiful graphics quite like you, your resume will set off “Must hire!” bells in the minds of potential employers, and you’ll become an irreplaceable expert and invaluable asset to someone’s company.
There is no secret formula to design success. You will never find in any textbook or manual the qualities that will make your graphics special and distinctly recognizable. That quality is hidden deep inside you, waiting for you to discover and develop it. Consider a designer like Josh Davis. He uses Illustrator-like vector drawing programs in an innovative, bizarre, and brilliant manner. You can spot a Josh Davis design almost instantly, because no one’s work quite is like his.
As a designer, you must seek out a way to differentiate your skill-set or your work. Find something that you can do—and love to do—then do it to the best of your always-increasing ability. You can accomplish this without compromising your other marketable design skills. For instance, a graphic designer who knows more about the packaging materials manufacturing process than any other designer will never be out of a job. Why? It’s because this designer offers a value-added aspect to his or her position. A packaging firm will hire someone like this, knowing that he or she brings two valuable assets to the job: knowledge of plausible, real-world manufacturing and an expertise solving difficult problems in this area.
In my career, I have always benefited from my broad knowledge base. At my current job, I have become particularly useful because of my (1) exhibit fabrication knowledge, (2) ability to create digital interactive in Flash, and (3) expertise at implementing audio-visual hardware in exhibits. And here’s the key message for you in all this: No where in my formal design education was I specifically taught any of these skills! No graphic design school will teach you “Wood Shop 101.” So, I took the initiative and went out and learned these skills on my own. This is what you’ll have to do find your niche in the design world.
The fundamental point I want you to remember is that learning Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign is an excellent starting point for your design education. However, don’t any particular design software limit the scope of your creative growth. As I’ve said before, these are great design software tools, but don’t let them “own” you, meaning don’t let them limit the horizons of your artistic creativity.
I hope I’ve convinced you that, as you progress in design, you need to look for a niche where you can stand out as one-of-a-kind, while simultaneously building additional knowledge areas that will make you a solid design employee.
Michael R. Nelson Graphic Design Instructor
Ashworth University
Thanks to Alex Whittaker for permission to use this Photo.
The Brooklyn Digital Foundry does some great web and digital media work. I think what makes their designs excel is their control of information and how their interfaces gradually reveal only the necessary information.
They also appear to do an excellent job of attracting cool clients, which is a difficult and important design skill to master and taught no where.
Michael R. Nelson Graphic Design Instructor
Ashworth University
Are you in the mood for some Action? I’m talking Photoshop Actions
They are the perfect solution to handle tasks with one click. An Action is a recording of several Photoshop operations and commands. Once the Action is created, one click is all it takes and the task will be executed. It’s very powerful, can save you heaps of time and it’s actually not that hard to create. Oh and before someone asks, this tutorial is written for version CS3. Certain things might be different in previous Photoshop versions.
In my previous article I talked about how you can apply a vintage look on a photo. Someone pointed out, “Wonderful technique. I stumbled across something sort of similar a while ago but it’s too time consuming to keep on applying” Yes, good point of course. I have to confess, I have this effect recorded in an Action, but my tutorial was all about the process on how to create this effect. The surprise that people didn’t know about Actions gave me the idea for today’s tutorial: how to create an Action for this effect, or better how to record an Action. We’ll also look at a few options you can do or add to your Action and how to save it.
Creating an Action
Step 1 : Create New Action
Open a photo where you want to apply the vintage effect on. First make sure the image is on a separate layer on top of the background layer. You could use command/control + j to duplicate it in a new layer. Open up the Actions palette. If it’s not visible on your screen, go to Window > Actions. First click the folder icon Create New Set at the bottom of the palette to create your own set of Actions. Name the Set My Actions or any other name you think is better. Now click the Create New Action icon at the bottom of the palette. Name the Action Vintage Effect and hit Record.
Step 2 : Record the Action
Notice that the red record button in the Action palette is pushed or being active. Every Photoshop handling is now recorded into the Action. Now execute all handlings explained in the Phototshop Vintage Effect article. While doing this, take your time, there is no need to rush. Photoshop only records your actions and commands. The speed in how you perform this doesn’t matter. When you’re done click the Stop button in the Action palette. The Action is now stored in the palette in the ‘My Actions’ Set.
Adding a Pause to an Action
What if there is one command in the action that you’ve recorded that is different for each individual image? For instance you need to make a selection and for each image this selection is different. This is something you can add after the Action is recorded. For example if I want to add a pause for applying the Curves, then I need to toggle the dialogue function on next to the Curves ‘Make adjustement layer’ action (see picture below).
Thanks to friendlyuser for permission to use this Photo.
Book design and layout is one of the least-appreciated niches of graphic design. This niche also presents some of the biggest challenges to a professional designer. Aesthetic demands can sometimes conflict with what the client has asked for. When this happens, a designer must exercise what I call “assertive tact” by offering a clear presentation of why his or her book design concept is best for the project at hand.
One company that consistently produces beautiful books is Phaidon Press. They specialize in books about art, design, and other creative fields. Their volumes are always eye catching and uniquely different from the average book layout. If you go to the art section of almost any large chain bookstore, you will find an array of Phaidon Press books. What makes their books so successful from a design standpoint is that you– and all of us in the field– want to own the books and study them. They are beautiful, edgy, and always very appropriate for the author’s content. I encourage you to seek out some Phaidon books at your nearest large bookstore chain. Or, you can visit their website to get glimpses of their layout mastery.
Michael R. Nelson Graphic Design Instructor
Ashworth University
Thanks to Rick Prelinger for permission to use this Photo.
Photoshop TV is an excellent resource for online tips, tutorials, and best practices for new designers/developers/photographers. Their database of instructional videos are easy to follow and rich with useful applications. The video we’re featuring today covers some of Camera Raw’s features, neat ways to incorporate Smart Objects, as well as a few different cropping techniques. Let us know when you start utilizing these methods in your work.
P.S. These guys have recently changed their approach to displaying videos, but they’re still easy to access. To watch the aforementioned video, simply scroll down to the bottom of the screen linked above and click download. If you have any issues, let me know in the comments section of this post…
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Before you start you might activate Smart Guides (View > Smart Guides). Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool from the Toolbox and draw a shape as shown in the image above. You can modify the corners of the rectangle using the up or down arrow keys while dragging the shape. Make sure the radius of the rounded corners of the rectangle is big enough. Next, select the Rectangle Tool and draw a small vertical rectangle shape below as shown in the right-hand side image. Now select the Polygon Tool and draw a small hexagon below the small rectangle (see image above).
Select the Selection Tool (black arrow) and select the 3 shapes. Click the Horizontal Align Center from the toolbar at the top. Select the Direct Selection Tool (white arrow) and drag a selection over the bottom 2 points of the hexagon.
Click in one of the points, hold down the Shift key and drag the 2 points downwards as shown in the left-hand side image above. Now select the Selection Tool (black arrow) again and select the small rectangle above the hexagon. Hover your cursor somewhere on the middle of the bottom border until you get the resize cursor icon. Drag the border of the rectangle downwards so it overlaps the hexagon shape.
