Best Of Web And Design In March 2012

April 2nd, 2012
News

This months round up features a great collection of Photoshop and illustrator tutorials, some of the best tutorials I’ve seen so far this year. There’s also a great selection of articles and freebies. I hope you enjoy the round up. I would love to hear what your favourite posts are from the monthly compilation.

Photoshop Tutorials

Design a photorealistic app icon in Photoshop

In this tutorial, It will explain how to use light and shadow to make realistic artwork – in this case, a record player app icon. Using Photoshop’s powerful layer styles, I’ll show you how to produce impressive results in a short amount of time.

Create a Semi-Realistic MacBook Pro from Scratch

In the following Photoshop tutorial you will learn how to create a semi-realistic MacBook Pro from scratch. First, you will learn how to use the grid and the snap to grid for an easier workflow. We’ll start with some simple vector shapes and several warp techniques along with a bunch of basic tools. Next, we’ll add some color using the Layer Style properties. Finally, we’ll use Layer Masks, Clipping Masks and some discrete Noise to add the final touches for your illustration.

Quick Tip: Create a Royal Gold Text Effect in Photoshop Using Layer Styles

In this quick tutorial it will show you how to create a royal gold text effect using layer styles in Photoshop.

Hell Rider – Manipulation Tutorial

Inspired by the trailer of Ghost Rider I tried to make something similar but not quite the same. In this tutorial you will learn how to work with fire stock images, how to create a dark background and how to make certain light effects. Enjoy

Illustrator Tutorials

3D Gift Box Tutorial in Illustrator

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a 3D gift box in Adobe Illustrator using Extrude and Bevel effects, gradients and expand object elements.

Create a Retro Triangular Pattern Design in Illustrator

Follow this step by step Illustrator tutorial to create the popular retro style pattern design made up of lots of colourful squares and triangles. The process is pretty simple, making this a good tutorial for newcomers to Adobe Illustrator. We’ll be using tools to accurately align our elements, then see how the Pathfinder can easily create custom shapes.

Create a Stylish Switch Button in Illustrator

In the following tutorial you will learn how to create a simple switch button in Adobe Illustrator. We’ll build the switch button using pixel perfect alignment, quality vector shape building techniques, and then color the work with Film Grain effect, Opacity Masks, and highlights.

Create Cute Characters in Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator can be a little tricky to get your hands around, particularly after getting used to the workflow of applications like Photoshop. The differences between layer use and the creation of objects and shapes can be really strange at first hand.

Web And Design Articles

Is Your Website’s Navigation Perfect: Let’s Work On It

The internet has changed the way we live, as websites have become part and parcel of our lives. From browsing for information to paying taxes and shopping for products and services, we tend to spend hours on the internet every day. But have you ever wondered what makes websites such powerful entities.

Designing Landing Pages That Work

Having knowledge on how to create an effective landing page can increase the number of site visitors that take the desired action of the web page. Lets discuss factors and considerations that can lead to a better landing page design.

A Designer’s Introduction to the Command Line

The command line can be a scary thing to most designers. This is the first in a collection of quick tips, in which we’ll break down the barrier to the command line and show you how to use it to speed up your workflow.

10 Thrills We Newbies Experience That the Top Earners Have Forgotten

I know we all want to be like Darren, sipping Margaritas on the beaches of Australia and occasionally opening his laptop to see how much money his guest bloggers made for him today, while beautiful women clean his glasses with $100 bills.

Freebies

Black & White 3D Social Icons

Who doesn’t like freebies? Well, today we are providing you with additional ammunition for your design arsenal. It’s a set of Black and White 3D social icons. This set of black and white 3D social icons is produced by the designer – Neil Sagitov at Lokas Software.

A Clean Mini Social Media Icon Set

Recently I’ve really been passionate about creating mini icons sets. This is a great collection of clean icons from 12 of the most popular social media websites, which can be used within your design projects. The icon set size is 32 pixels by 32 pixels small but great icons.

4 Free PSD Ribbon Templates

Absolutely irresistible ribbon templates designed in fresh, clean style. Sometimes even a small ribbon could strongly change the whole feel and look of your design project. And these high quality ribbons are more likely to improve your web and print artworks. The best part is that you can use these super cool ribbon templates both for personal and commercial needs. Be sure that you will not experience any difficulties when you start editing the ribbon templates. So do not hesitate anymore and download the PSD ribbons now!