Entries Tagged as “Design”
Magnetic Photoshop Frame
For you designer types out there I created a series of do it yourself Photoshop magnets that you can use to frame a photo or a piece of your child's art on your refrigerator door.
All you need for this project is a pack of magnetic paper available from an office supply store, or online from retailers like amazon available for about $10 a pack.
Download the Photoshop frame file, and print onto the magnetic paper, and trim the pieces out with a razor knife. Enjoy!
→ Respond NowTags: Design · Freebies
Creating a reusable message style in Photoshop
As a designer, I have a massive collection of layer styles and gradient styles that I refer to in order to speed up my design process. I started with some free styles I got from Designer Folio and have added a ton of my own styles to the list based on projects I have worked on.
One style that has always been missing was something that looked like an error message that you might find in many css frameworks. Typically these look like solid blocks of color with borders on the top and bottom. Granted this is not a difficult thing to design but it is time consuming and when your quickly changing up a design it can really bog you down. At least it does for me. You can always short cut the design by adding a stroke border all the way around but that's not always what I want to show a client.
Figuring out how to create the 1 pixel rule at the top and bottom of the solid block of color is the only real trick. If your interested in knowing how it was done check out the mini tutorial below. If not, you can download the sample layer styles now. Figuring out how to make the 1 pixel rule at the top and bottom of any block was a real productivity booster and it allowed me to explore and test comon design elements very quickly while not feeling bogged down in the process.
Example of included styles
Creating the effect is actually very simple. First start with a base of any color on a separate layer. I like to use a bold color that is similar to the color I intend to use. I only do this to make it easier to spot the correct layer in the layers palette later on should I need to make a change.
Figure 1
Next, you can apply one of the starter styles and modify it to your liking. All the effects are editable and non destructive.
Figure 2
As I said earlier, the effect is very easy to create from scratch. The only trick is figuring out how to make the border appear on the top and bottom of an element without using a stroke. To do this, I added a drop shadow and an inner shadow only I changed the blend mode to normal, set the opacity to 100%, angle to 90 degrees, distance to 1 pixel, and reduced the size to 0.
Figure 3
This effectively gives you a one pixel stroke at the top and bottom of your design elements. Now add some gradients and other types of fill, and now you have the ability to rapidly create many types of design elements like menus, footers, sidebar details, table rows and cells, and etc. The style is actually very versatile and can spawn all sorts of new creative ways of increasing your design productivity.
Download The Photoshop Layer Styles
I packaged up a small handful of these basic layer styles that you can use as a starting point in your own work. Note, these were based on 72 dpi resolution document. If you design at higher resolutions, then you will need to adjust the distance of the drop shadow and inner shadow to suit your needs.
Download the Photoshop layer styles for free
→ Respond NowTags: Design · Photoshop · Inspiration
Free Grayscale Textures
As a designer I understand the value of great free textures. Textured images are a great way to add some pizzaz to a design project. That's why I decided to give back to the design community by offering these textures up for free.
I originally shot these images for use in various video projects I had going. Because I used them as video mattes they are all in grayscale. This made it easy to matte the textures to a background to create the desired effect.
Your free to use these textures for personal or commercial work. The only restriction is that the images cannot be redistributed on any other site or as part of a collection for sale or free. You are NOT required to provide a photo credit, but if you can do so without mucking up your project I would love you long time. Please Enjoy!
Share the goodness with a retweet!
→ Respond NowTags: Design · Freebies · Photography · Inspiration
Apple's Obsession With Removing Buttons
It seams that as of late, Apple has been obsessed with removing buttons from their devices. They are acting like the crazy parents obsessed with removing all sharp corners from their house when they have a child. Was Steve Jobs attacked and injured as a child from a rogue button?
In the last two years Apple has been grooming consumers for a buttonless revolution. The iPhone, though having buttons itself focuses more or non tactile usability. Earlier this year we saw the laptops go buttonless. Now the iPod Shuffle.
I personally did not care much for the buttonless laptop. I felt the system did not work as good and needed more time being tested for usability. Apple has always been on the forefront of design and usability and being able to put them into the same package has always been a strong point for them. This time around I am not so sure. I know I would feel more comfortable recommending an last years model to someone purchasing a laptop for the first time.
The 3rd generation iPod announced today really makes me wonder if it's really necessary to reinvent the wheel? Unless of course your making a better wheel. Maybe I am being quick to conclusions as I have not actually seen the new iPod Shuffle but let me point out a few things that I noticed right away. A few things that have me concerned about this product.
Why on earth would you take the buttons off of the device and put them on to the headphone cord? I don't know about you, but I personally think the earbuds are mediocre at best. The first thing I did when I got my iPod was buy some real headphones. Putting the controls on the cord just means that if you buy a shuffle you have to stick to the earbuds supplied until third party manufactures catch up and ship an alternate product. No doubt you will have to pay a premium for them to boot. Do we really need another iPhone headphone debacle? Didn't we learn something from this or do we need to do it all over again.
→ Respond NowTags: Design · Software · usability
Donating to Homeless Women and Children
I'm not one to volunteer all to often. There are however a few times when I set some time aside for a worthwhile cause. Like helping homeless woman and children get back on their feet and turn their lives around.
I recently offered up my web design services to help Women's Empowerment, a local not for profit organization that does just that. Help Homeless women and their children get back on track.
Many who know me well, know that I am fairly critical of the homeless. So it may at first appear odd why I decided to volunteer my time to help them. The whole answer can be a long one, however the short and possibly surprising answer is that I spent most of my childhood and teen years being homeless or forced into a less than normal living arrangement. My brother's and I were casualties of a lifestyle that we had no control over. Like I said, it could be a long story. One that I will spare you from here.
My motivations to help were based largely on helping the children. In this case, to help the children you have to help the mother's too. So it just made sense to me to support the group.
Project Background
When approaching a project like this, I wanted to make sure the members at Women's Empowerment could update the site without knowing HTML or have additional software like Dreamweaver or Contribute. Instead I opted to use the free open source web software called Mango Blog. It's a great blogging tool that I have been involved with for the last few months. Using software like Mango Blog, I was able to quickly develop a simple website and push the limits of what I know about the software to do more than it was intended.
It was a fun challenge to undertake. Especially doing the design and code in just over a week. A true testament to the speed and flexibility of a great application like Mango Blog. I think the end result turned out quite well despite having to cut a few corners in order to make the launch deadline.
Have you donated your services to a group you feel is worthwile? If so please leave a comment below, and If you donated a website please leave a link. I would like to see what others are donating to.
→ Respond NowTags: Design · Mango · General
