Best Of Web And Design In September 2013

September 29th, 2013
News

There’s so many design blogs and good content to read on the web it can be a tough task to read every great blog post.Therefore we have decided to highlight the best design tutorial and web/design article from the online blogging community. There’s some really great articles certainly worth your time. Please leave your thoughts in the comments section on what’s been your favourite blog post, which you have read through some point in September.

Photoshop Tutorials

Create a Sci-Fi Racing Driver Scene (Using Innovative Photoshop Techniques

I love tutorials that go beyond the basics and teach some really innovative techniques. This tutorial is a perfect example of that. I’ve been using Photoshop for over a decade, and our resident author Dek Wid taught me a couple of really handy tricks in this lesson.

How To Enhance a Photo with Color & Lighting Effects

Often when post-processing a photograph the aim is to carefully fine tune the levels and colour balance to capture the real life scene, but sometimes it’s worth taking the edits a little further to enhance an image with hyper realistic effects. Applying colour casts, increasing the contrast and adding lighting effects can give an image an intense mood just like we see in magazines or on billboards.

Create 3D Rubber and Glass Text in Photoshop CS6

In this tutorial, we will explain how to use the vector editing and 3D capabilities of Photoshop to create rubber and glass 3D text. In the process, we will show you how to create the materials, modify the lighting, render the scene, and finally, how to enhance the color of the final result.

Dramatic Shadows in Photoshop

Illustrator Tutorials

How To Create an Ornate Compass Rose in Illustrator

The process makes use of lots of simple but really useful techniques in Illustrator to build up layers of detail. Follow this step by step guide to create a detailed black and white compass rose illustration with various symmetrical pattern effects.

How To Create a 3D Text Effect in Adobe Illustrator

In the following tutorial, you will learn how to create a 3D text effect in Adobe Illustrator using only a piece of text. For starters you will learn how to create a dark, textured background and how to easily center it. Moving on, using a simple piece of text, taking full advantage of the Appearance panel and cleverly adjusting some of Illustrator’s basic effects, you will learn how to create this bold, 3D text effect.

Vector Breaking Bad RV in Illustrator

It will show you how to create an illustration inspired by Breaking Bad.

How to Create a Geometric, WPAP Vector Portrait in Adobe Illustrator

The following is a tutorial on how to create a WPAP (Wedha’s Pop Art Portrait) portrait in Adobe Illustrator, by the WPAP master himself!

Web and Design Articles

So, You’re a Web Designer, Right?

What is the role of a web designer nowadays? An article about the changes that came with the awareness of responsive web design and the new workflow of designing in the browser.

Increase Work Productivity at Home: 10 Powerful Tips For Freelance Designers

Because of the long to-do lists, when designers get behind in their work they tend to feel very overwhelmed. By following some simple tips, designers can stay on track throughout the day, making them more productive and giving them the freedom to truly enjoy a freelance position.

How to Stay Motivated and Avoid Work Ruts

I love my managers and my team. My projects are pretty awesome too, BUT every now and then, I find myself hitting a brick wall in terms of motivation. Staying motivated can be a real challenge; anyone who has been part of a long outreach project or has had to target a difficult niche knows what I mean. Here are some lessons I’ve learned over the last couple years that have helped me stay on track and get out of a motivational rut.

A Complete Guide to the Table Element

The <table> element in HTML is used for displaying tabular data. You can think of it as a way to describe and display data that would make sense in spreadsheet software. Essentially: columns and rows. In this article we’re going to look at how to use them, when to use them, and everything else you need to know.

Image Compression for Web Developers

As images continue to be the largest part of webpage content, it’s critically important for web developers to take aggressive control of their image sizes and quality in order to deliver a fastest loading, responsive site for their users. Hitting this sweet-spot is not free; you can automate a ‘good enough’ value most of the time, but for the best savings, you need to test quality levels using your human eye. This article will provide a bit of reason, history, and technique to understand and properly address image compression issues for your website.