In this post, we’ll be sharing with you a collection of useful tutorials that will help you to to use Adobe Illustrator in a variety of new ways. Whether you are a pro or a budding novice, you are bound to find something that will help you. Below we present a collection of some of the latest, most useful and highly creative tutorials for Adobe Illustrator. Realistic, Vector Bubbles In this tutorial you’ll learn how to create colorful, realistic bubbles. [...]

When we talk about image editing or photo enhancement, Adobe Photoshop is the first thing that comes to our minds. The software itself is hard to learn and harder to master though. Thanks to the many tutorials available though, even novices can learn the tricky tecniques used by the pros fairly easily. Selecting the best tutorials from a pool containing tens of thousands is very difficult. That is were we come in. To make things a bit more easier for [...]

It’s undeniable. Branding is the life blood of any business. Even for small businesses, you’ve gotta build brand identity, or be ready for your company to go belly up. A big part of many company’s brand identity is the logo. It’s like the face of your company. You need one that’s good looking and instantly recognizable. To that end, colour can make a big impact on not just how your logo looks, but as a result how your company’s perceived. [...]

The advent of the Pop Art movement in the 50′s didn’t just impress the wealthy, it changed the culture. So iconic and profound were the inspirations and meanings behind this movement that it’s art is still featured, studied and produced to this day. In this article, Adriana Marinica shares some of the history and details surrounding the rise of Pop Art, as well as bringing attention to some of the more interesting pieces the movement has produced over the years. [...]

A freelance career offers a plethora of opportunities and rewards for web designers like you, just itching to make it on your own. At the same time, it can lead to a lot of headache, even failure, if you don’t grasp a few basic skills that extend beyond your creative talents in graphic design. With a focus on the entrepreneurial spirit, let’s discuss the 5 critical points that you must know before becoming a freelance web designer. Grasp the Business [...]

The most successful and important proposal in my life was a quick win. With the ring decision aside, it was based on three fundamentally important ingredients: clarity, timeliness and problem-solving power. My intentions were clear and unambiguous, the offer was made in due time and solved a relationship evolution dilemma that all couples inevitably face, sooner or later. Simply put, it was a win-win that both of us have been enjoying ever since. But can this personal success tactic be [...]

Designers are one of the most interesting professionals of the world. They love their work and do it at their best; however, most of them absolutely freak out when the project comes down to the invoicing process. Basically, all creative professionals find it difficult to handle the money matters, however, money is what they work for and money is what runs all the business. Therefore, it is absolutely crucial for designers to deal with this nightmare in order to run [...]

What a great year 2011 has been for the Photoshop community. With so many new tutorials being published daily it has never been easier to learn a new creative techniques that will help reduce your learning curve substantially. In this yearly round-up we have collected the best of them. It covers Illustrating & Painting, Photo Manipulation, Poster Design, Text Effects, Abstract Drawing and finally, Special Effects. We have purposely omitted any GUI tutorials, these tutorials are strictly for graphic designers. [...]

2011 has been Speckyboy’s best year yet in terms of growth. More great readers and followers, more great authors, more great sponsors. However, at the core is (hopefully) great content here on Speckyboy. And just to recap some of our best content, here are our top 20 Speckyboy posts of 2011. Top 20 Speckyboy Posts of 2011 45 Free eBooks for Developers and Designers This post covers visual design, accessibility, CSS, JavaScript/jQuery, mobile, optimization, UX, and much more. All of [...]

Colour. It’s something that we all use in our web or print work and finding the right colour to highlight, emphasise and stand out from the crowd can be easier said than done. Trying to make a decision about which hex code to use got me thinking, how many colours are there? 3 or 4? Depending on whether you work predominantly in web or print your answer might be 3 or 4. Red, green and blue or Cyan, Magenta, Yellow [...]

In my previous post I mentioned that I was currently developing a website and as part of those developments I wanted to look at introducing a house-style. It seemed like a way to introduce consistency and, for the less web-savvy CMS editors, make editing easier. With anything like this I try and research what is already out there and to see what other organisations have in place. After a bit of Googling, I didn’t find much out there, yes there [...]

As creative professionals are always seeking inspiration from all kind of medias, the t-shirt design field community is huge and highly inspiring. There are lots of communities created out there where you can create and share your ground-breaking t-shirt. The most memorable t-shirt designs are typically quirky, attention-grabbing and more often than not amusing. But not always. Sometimes they are very detailed with a hidden meaning. You just have to look a little closer. In this showcase you will find [...]

Every chef has their favorite tool. Mine happens to be a wooden spoon I’ve had since forever. I call it “Suzie” (because I’m a weirdo). Some people actually keep their wooden spoons in the family for generations – talk about a collector’s item! Today, I’m going to share some tips on how the tools you select as a designer can help improve your creative process, and aid you in creating work you can really stand behind. You’ve Gotta Have Standards [...]