Working With Layers. Vector Tips by Cheryl Graham

Every major vector program has the ability to create files with layers. Some artists use layers copiously, others not at all. Layers help organize a file, and provide some pretty nifty editing options. A well-organized file benefits the contributor as well as the designer...

In the example below, the three layers contain the three major elements of the file. It is logically organized, and therefore easier for the buyer to edit. If the designer just needed the dart, for example, she could simply delete the other two layers and use the dart by itself. Continue to full article.

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Working with Clipping Masks and Free Transform in Adobe Illustrator

"You’ve probably heard of a Clipping Path in Photoshop. Well, a Clipping Mask in Illustrator is pretty much the same thing (Corel Draw calls it a “Powerclip,” and in Freehand, “Paste Inside”). It’s a vector path that masks, or “clips” out part of the image. Clipping Masks provides vector artists with more flexibility when building and organizing files. For designers, they can be scary at first, but are easy to de-mystify... Here we go:

In Photoshop and InDesign, Clipping Paths are often used to isolate an irregular shape in a photo to create a “cutout”. Since irregular vector shapes can be easily made, why would you need to use a Clipping Mask in Illustrator? Most of the time, they’re used to crop a set of irregular shapes into a neat, simple shape. In this regard, it can be helpful to think of them as “cropping masks.” Except with one benefit: the cropped or excluded part of the image doesn’t really go away, it’s just hidden. Let’s have a look. Full Article (via iStockPhoto)

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Switching Between CMYK and RGB Color Modes in Adobe Illustrator

In the articles section of iStockphoto.com, I found a great material about using color modes when working with vectors. 

The article explains how to find out what is the color mode that you are currently using (CMYK vs RGB), how to change it and when. If you are not familiar with using color swatches in Adobe Illustrator, you may consider checking it out too. Full Article

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Why Vector ?

An eye opening material from iStockPhoto, on What vector illustrations are? & How to use them? If you are a newbie in digital illustration and using royalty free illustration, then this article is exactly for you. 

"First, a little technical information. There are basically two kinds of digital still images: raster (also known as bitmap) and vector. Raster images are made up of pixels, tiny colored squares arranged in a rectangular grid, forming an image. Vector graphics, on the other hand, use mathematical calculations to plot points — and paths connecting them — to describe the image. The resulting shapes, or objects, can be easily manipulated, colored and re-sized without loss of quality. Whereas a raster image may have, say, 1895 pixels from point A to point B, a vector graphic simply plots the two points, calculates the distance between them and draws a line (for this reason, vector files are typically much smaller than bitmap images)." Continue Reading

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Holiday Card Project 08

"This year marks deviantART's fifth annual Holiday Card Project! With the goal of bringing a little cheer to patients in the hospital during the holiday season, the Holiday Card Project connects deviants from all around the world and applies their tremendous artistic abilities in designing and creating get well holiday cards.
Last year the Project received well over 1300 holiday cards sent in by more than 750 deviants from 50 different countries/political regions. The cards were then divvied up and distributed in-person by dA members at the UCI Medical Center in Orange, California. Extra cards were given to various hospitals in the U.S. and abroad for their staff to hand out to patients.
The idea behind the Holiday Card Project is to simply try and do something nice for others. However, if that isn't enough incentive, every deviant who submits a card will be given a free one-month subscription to deviantART, as well as being entered into a drawing for additional prizes."
Please read the following text for more information on the Holiday Card Project.

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Mind Mapping

A great article from Digital Arts Magazine about how to deal with mental blocks and creativity frustrations.

"Break down creative blocks, develop visual solutions and discover ideas that push the boundaries of design by mastering mind mapping." Full Article

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Manga Studio 4

Smith Micro Software, Inc. Consumer Group today announced the immediate availability of Manga Studio™ Debut 4 and Manga Studio EX 4 for Windows, the world's leading manga and comic art software used by artists and hobbyists to create professional, ready-to-publish comics and print cartoons from start to finish.

"The global manga phenomenon is growing rapidly and today thousands of manga artists around the world delve into a wide range of subjects, including comedy, action, sports, business and romance," said Sarina DuPont, Product Manager for Smith Micro Software. "Manga Studio has become one of the world's most popular comic solutions because it saves artists time and resources, while offering users powerful tools to enhance their creativity." Read More Designer Today

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Typography Trends

"Design is about communication, and the written word – whether printed, hand-written or electronic – is a key part of this. Learning to work creatively and effectively with type is a crucial skill for graphic designers to master: while informed and imaginative font selection, placement and treatment can all work wonders in getting your message across, ill-considered use of type can drown out a message and damage the effectiveness of your design."

Full Article Digital Arts Magazine

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How to manage your fonts ?

"Digital font technology has come of age. After nearly three decades of research and development, many of the problems caused by software bugs and platform incompatibility have been resolved, and the frustrations of limited character sets and typographic control have been largely overcome. At long last, designers have access to refined file formats and easy-to-use management systems and, with the introduction of OpenType, digital typography has become a pleasure..." Full Article Computer Arts Magazine

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Understanding CMYK print production

"With an understanding of how CMYK printing techniques can be combined, Rodney Dive explains how to overcome some common design problems and increase final output quality.

When you send a document to an output bureau or the printers, it goes through a number of processes during the transformation from its digital form into printed matter." Full article

Article: Computer Arts; Image: genctel.com

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When Illustration Meets Type

"The artists and designers producing fascinating work at the creative frontier where illustration meets typography.
When it comes to conveying ideas, concepts and even descriptions of the world around us, words are extremely limiting. Meanings just cannot be definitively tied to them. That’s where design has a part to play: ensuring words carry their intended meaning into the minds of the waiting public...


According to one school of thought, the larger and bolder a message is written, the more likely it is to be heard. That might be true in laboratory conditions, but we’re surrounded by so much legible information that, unable to assimilate it all, we shut it out. Getting the message across now requires more work and more imagination. It calls for wit, for flair. It calls for illustrated type." Read full article.
Article: Computer Arts Magazine Illustration: zombie-keeper

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Color: Creativity & Inspiration

"Inspired and well thought-out colour usage can produce visually balanced work with a pleasing sense of order – here are our essential tips for creatively handling color. " Article hightlights: Harmonious colors, Color in context, colors of the nature, Adobe Kuler, etc. Full Article (via Digital Arts Magazine)

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Logo Design Trends

An informative and inspirational article on current logo design trends with great visual examples.

By Bill Gardner (Logo Lounge).
"Trend-watching, until recently, has largely been an exercise in watching connections form between direct associations. Photoshop releases a new filter, and voila - entire raft of logos take on that effect. A particular illustration style is featured in a successful advertising campaign or movie, and in what seems like minutes, the flavor of that art starts to enhance corporate identities.Periodically, something truly surprising and unexpected pops up. Finding those little treasures are one of the great perks of categorizing 27,000 logos, as LogoLounge and a talented panel of judges just did in preparation for our fourth book. But there's always that natural undercurrent of influence that touches this design and that, a drift of scent, a faint change in air temperature. It's there, but almost not." Full Article

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What Is New In Adobe Illustrator CS4

A brief outline of the new features in our favorite vector editing software Adobe Illustrator CS4.

Multiple Art Boards
Transparency in gradients
Gradients exposed
Blob brush tool
RIA and Flash CS4 support
Enhanced GUI...

Separation preview feature
Panel-based editing
Smoother, more polished workflow
Improved direct editing experience

More details about those features, here and a comprehensive review here.

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Stock Libraries

"Trawling image libraries for the perfect image doesn’t have to be a chore: here are eight ways to find the perfect picture.

You know the story: your project requires high-quality images, but you don’t have the time or budget to shoot your own. But when you head online to buy the images you need from stock libraries,

 you end up losing hours in searches that turn up millions of pictures that are just short of the mark and take forever to search through, or a scant collection that doesn’t give you enough creative options." Digital Arts Magazine. Full Article

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Digital Illustration: new opportunities

An eye-opening article from ComputerArts Magazine.

"Lawrence Zeegen investigates how illustration has been reborn for a new audience, with a new generation of illustrators who are taking it into new territories

Illustration is a force to be reckoned with. Not content to break back into a marketplace once dominated by the photographic image, illustration has fought hard, forced itself under the spotlight and stepped into the limelight. A rebirth, once attributed to the flexibility that digital kit offered, has now reached a vital second phase – a new stage of extended opportunities in the development of the discipline." Read more.

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Creative Brief

Composing a creative brief has always been an important step in the graphic design process. Digital Arts Magazine posted a great article with tips and some useful creative brief links...

"Not every client will be an expert on the design process – that’s your job. A solid creative brief makes all the difference to a job, and here’s how to get one.
Many designers have experienced the horror of a client seeing a design for the first time and then complaining, “But it’s not what I asked for”. It’s a nightmare scenario – and one that’s easily avoided by agreeing on a clear, functional brief." Full Article via Digital Arts Magazine

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Adobe CS4 on Vista?

Adobe is readying a new version of its Creative Suite, that includes Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and other applications for print and Web design. Only this time there's a twist: The new version of Photoshop will support 64-bit memory addressing for the first time -- but only if you're running Windows.

Simply put, more bits means you can access more memory, which means you can work with bigger files. By taking advantage of 64-bit CPUs, Adobe is making it possible for designers and photo manipulators to work with really, really big images at high resolutions. Think posters, advertising displays, or even billboards.
Full Article PCWORLD.ca

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EskoArtwork Studio plugin for Adobe Illustrator

EskoArtwork announced the introduction of Studio, a plug-in environment for Adobe Illustrator that brings interactive 3D packaging design to the familiar Adobe Illustrator software at its pre-Drupa press event, held in Ghent last month. EskoArtwork is also introducing Studio Toolkits, a collection of supporting simplified structural design solutions.‘In packaging design, the world is certainly not a flat place and there is a clear demand for more 3D capabilities as communicating with a 3D design greatly benefits the turn-around time of the design process. Very often existing 3D tools are too complicated and simply not suited for a packaging design workflow,’ explained Kris Van Bael, product manager 3D and Visualisation, EskoArtwork. ‘EskoArtwork introduces the perfect solutions to solve these issues. Studio and the supporting Studio Toolkits are closely integrated with Adobe Illustrator and come equipped with built-in EskoArtwork packaging knowledge. Studio reduces the need for multiple costly mock-ups, helps to spot design-errors faster and takes away the guesswork from 2D flats.’
Full Article

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Computer Arts Poster Design Tips

"Discover the essentials of project management and dealing with agents with these two posters to download and print out.

If you’re keen on the monthly top ten tips feature in the magazine and would like to pin it up on your wall, but don’t want to tear your magazine apart, then here’s just the thing for you..."

Full Article

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