In the following quick tip you will learn how to create a simple price tag icon. It’s another tutorial that focuses mainly on the Appearance panel. First, you will need some basic tools and shape building techniques to create the starting shape. Next, using the power of the Appearance panel and a nice, free font along with some basic effects and techniques you will create you own price tag icon. Let’s get started.

Step 1

Hit Command + N to create a new document. Enter 600 in the with and height boxes then click on the Advanced button. Select RGB, Screen (72ppi) and make sure that the "Align New Objects to Pixel Grid" box is unchecked before your click OK. Now, turn on the Grid (View > Grid) and the Snap to Grid (View > Snap to Grid).

Next, you’ll need a grid every 5px. Go to Edit > Preferences > Guides & Grid, enter 5 in the Gridline every box and 1 in the Subdivisions box. You can also open the Info panel (Window > Info) for a live preview with the size and position of your shapes. Do not forget to set the unit of measurement to pixels from Edit > Preferences > Unit > General. Al these options will significantly increase your work speed.

Step 2

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 150 by 60px shape and fill it with R=255 G=222 B=190. Remove the colors from the stroke.

Step 3

Reselect the shape created in the previous step. Pick the Add Anchor Point Tool (+) and add two new anchor points as shown in the following image. The Snap to Grid will ease your work.

Step 4

Make sure that your shape is still selected and pick the Direct Selection Tool (A). Select the top, left anchor points and move it 30px down then select the bottom, left anchor point and move it 30px up. In the end your shape should look like in the second image.

Step 5

Pick the Ellipse Tool (L), create a 10px circle and place it as shown in the first image. Select it along with the other shape and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. The resulting shape should look like in the third image. This is the only shape that you will need to create your price tag. Move to the Layers panel (Window > Layers) double click on this shape and name it "Price Tag".

Step 6

Select "Price Tag" and go to the Appearance panel. Select the existing fill and go to Effect > Stylize > Inner Glow. Enter the data shown below and click OK.

Step 7

Select "Price Tag", move to the Appearance panel and click on the Add New Fill button. Obviously, this will add a new fill for your shape. Select it from the Appearance panel, lower its opacity to 25% and fill it with the linear gradient shown below.

The yellow numbers from the gradient image stand for opacity percentage while the white numbers stand for location percentage. Make sure that this new fill is still selected and go to Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a -3px Offset, click OK and go to Effect > Stylize > Inner Glow. Again, enter the data shown below and click OK.

Step 8

Select "Price Tag" and add a stroke. Make it 1px wide, set its color at R=196 G=154 B=108 and go to the Stroke panel (Window > Stroke). First, check the Round Cap and the Round Join buttons. Next, check the Dashed Line box and enter 0.75pt in the dash box and 3pt in the gap box. Now you should have a dashed stroke.

Return in the Appearance panel, make sure that the stroke is still selected and go to Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a -3px Offset, click OK and go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow. Again, enter the data shown below and click OK.

Step 9

Select "Price Tag" and go to the Appearance panel. Make sure that no fill or stroke is selected and click on the Add new Stroke button. This will add a new stroke for your shape. Make it 2pt, align it to outside and set its color at R=196 G=154 B=108.

Step 10

Select "Price Tag" and go to the Appearance panel. Select the stroke added in the previous step and click on the Duplicate Selected Item button. This will add a copy of the selected stroke. Select it, set its size at 1pt and the color at R=255 G=245 B=235.

Step 11

Reselect "Price Tag" and go to the Appearance panel. Make sure that no fill or stroke is selected and click on the Add New Fill button. Select this new fill and drag it in the bottom of the Appearance panel. Fill it with the liner gradient shown below and go to Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a 2px Offset, click OK and go to Effect > Distort &Transform > Transform. Enter the data shown below, click OK and go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow. Again, enter the data shown below and click OK.

Step 12

Reselect your entire path and go to Effect > Stylize > Rounded Corners. Enter a 5px radius and click OK. Move to the Appearance panel and make sure that the Rounded Corners is in the top of the Appearance panel.

Step 13

Pick the Type Tool (T), click on your artboard and add a price. Use the Arcade font with a size of 35pt and set its color at R=169 G=124 B=80. With this text still selected go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow. Enter the data shown below and click OK.

Step 15

Finally, you can use different sets of colors for your price tag or you can increase/decrease the value set for the rounded corners effects.

Conclusion

Now your work is done. Here is how it should look, I hope you’ve enjoyed this tut.

Vectortuts+

If you’re in the north of the northern hemisphere as I am, it’s coming towards winter. With the holidays coming up, we’re hoping for a white holiday! In today’s tutorial, I’m going to show you how to create a very basic snowy seamless pattern. It is aimed at those who are new to Adobe Illustrator and goes over some great tools that you can benefit from in future projects.

Step 1

You’ll need to enable Smart Guides for this tutorial, as it will make things a lot easier. You can do this by going to View > Smart Guides (Command + U).

Use the Rectangle Tool (M) to draw a long rectangle. With the Pen Tool (P), grace the mouse around the center of the top line of the rectangle until it highlights the center point and says “intersect”. This is where you can add a new point exactly in the center of this line.

Then use the Pen Tool (P) to click on the top corners to remove the points so you’re left with a triangle.

Step 2

I’m going to use the triangle to create a pine tree shape. So select the triangle and Copy (Command + C) and Paste in Front (Command + F). Using the Free Transform Tool (E), move the shape on top of the other and while holding Shift + Alt, grab the corner of the boundary box and reduce the size.

Duplicate both shapes and do the same and then duplicate all four shapes and repeat until you have a pine tree shape, as shown below.

Step 3

Select All (Command + A) of your shapes and using the Align panel (go to Windows > Align if not visible) and select Horizontal Align Center.

To combine the shapes to make them one, use the Pathfinder panel (go to Windows > Pathfinder if not visible) and select Unite.

Step 4

Adobe Illustrator comes with a variety of options in terms of color if you’re not so great at picking colors out of thin air. One of the options are it’s many Swatch Libraries. You can access these from going into the drill down menu in the top right of the Swatch panel, then Open Swatch Library > Nature > Foliage.

By clicking on the folder at the beginning of the groups of color, it will add the collection to your Swatch panel. I’ve selected “Foliage 1″ and “Foliage 7″. You can then close the Library with the X in the corner to give you more space.

Step 5

I’m going to create groups of three trees with varied colors. So Copy (Command + C) and Paste (Command + V) the shape and use the Free Transform Tool (E) to alter it’s width and height. Alter the colors of the trees to whatever you desire and then you’ve got one set of trees, Group them (Command + G).

As you can see, I’ve created a variety of Groups here, but only used about 4-5 different shades of green.

Step 6

Another way of accessing further color options is using the Color Guide panel. To use this, first select a color from your Swatch panel. I’m going to be using a light gray as I’m wanting to create the snow in this scene. This will be your starting color.

Use the drop-down menu in Color Guides to then select the set of colors you’re aiming for. In this case, I’ve opted for Monochromatic, as I’d like to maintain similar shades of gray/blue.

Once selected, you can see a variety of shades and tints. You can alter this view and range by going into the drill down menu and ticking “Show Warm/Cool” or even “Show Vivid/Muted”. What this will do is give you a different selection of colors similar to the “Monochromatic” color guide you’ve selected. Yet, in this instance, I’m going to keep it on the default of “Show Tints/Shades”.

Hold down Command and select the colors you feel will fit into your scene and then go into the drill down menu and select Save Colors as Swatches. This will add your selected colors into a folder in your Swatch panel.

Step 7

Using the Rectangle Tool (M) again, I’m going to draw a much longer, slim rectangle. Duplicate it and change the color, duplicate again until you’ve got five rectangles with varying colors.

Select all of your rectangles and use the Align > Horizontal Align Center option to centralize them all and then Group them (Command + G).

Step 8

I’m wanting to give the impression of rolling hills and as you can see, our rectangles are not so rolling! So to do this, I’m going to use Warp Options to assist me. Select the Group of rectangles and go to Object > Envelope Distort > Make with Warp (Alt + Shift + Command + W). From the drop down Style menu, select Twist and I’ve used the options shown below.

Step 9

As I’ve got hard edges on the top and bottom, which aren’t looking so “rolling”, I’m going to use the Direct Selection Tool (V) to select one of the points and drag it down a little to create a slight curve in the top of the warped shape.

Step 10

Duplicate your Envelope shape and move it towards the bottom. Remember to use Align > Horizontal Align Center to ensure it’s all flush at the sides.

Step 11

There will be a gap between the two envelope shapes, so I’m going to add a Rectangle (M) in the background with the fill color of the rolling hill in the bottom of the shape. If you’ve forgotten which color it is, use the Eyedropper Tool (I) to get the color.

As you’ve got Smart Guides enabled (Command + U), you can hover over the bottom left corner until it says anchor, and has a hollow square on your cursor, then draw your rectangle accurately over the area, finishing in the top right corner.

Put this shape behind your envelope shapes and then Group them (Command + G).

Step 12

Now to create a simple snowflake. Using the Line Segment Tool (\), hold down Alt + Shift and drag down to create a perfectly vertical line.

Hover over the line until it’s highlighted and your cursor says “path” and add some additional lines at the top of the line. As you’ve used Smart Guides and started the lines on the “path”, all lines should be flush on the main line.

Step 13

Select the decorative lines from the top of your snowflake and duplicate them. Then we’re going to reflect them and put them at the bottom of the line. Go to Object > Transform > Reflect and select it on the Horizontal Axis and click on OK.

While your decorative element is selected, move them over to the bottom of your snowflake shape. If you grab the lines at the “V” shape, which is aligned at the top of the snowflake, you can use Smart Guides to find the end point of the stem.

Once done, Group up all the lines (Command + G).

Step 14

Now to make the actual snowflake. In order to do this, I’m going to need to rotate and duplicate the lines we have. However we can do this without drawing any additional lines by using the Transform Effect.

Select your snowflake group and go to Effects > Distort & Transform > Transform. I’ll explain the figures I’ve placed and why.

There are 360 degrees in a circle and a snowflake has 6 prongs to them. Therefore the Rotate Angle will be 360/6 = 60 degrees.

As stated, a snowflake as 6 prongs; our initial shape has 2 prongs already. Therefore the copies value will be 6/2 = 3, then minus 1 (which is our initial shape) which leaves us with 2. We’ll only need it duplicated twice.

Step 15

Place your tree groups around the rolling hills and duplicate the snowflake design across the area. By using the Free Transform Tool (E) to alter the length and even the width, you can create a variety of different styled snowflakes. Remember to rotate some of them with the Free Transform Tool (E) and alter the colors as shown below.

Step 16

Group up all of the elements of the design (Command + G) and then drag and drop them into the Swatch panel. This will make it a seamless pattern you can then use!

Conclusion

You’ve now created a simple snowy seamless pattern, using some basic tools and effects. I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s tutorial and I wish you all the very best for the holiday season!

Vectortuts+

http://fino.com.mt/Shopping/

http://theavenuemalta.com/

We spend good part of our time in front of a monitor, most likely we have more than one computer, not mentioning iphones, graphic tablets and all the other ultra modern devilries that invade our desks. We are all part of the generation that need a mouse to leaf through an album with the family photos (goodbye to dear family albums with the pages left to yellow) and Facebook to send birthday wishes to a friend. 20 examples of great “sketch” inspired sites included!

Yet, in the middle of this digital era, the best allies of a web designer are common tools that can be bought with the change under your couch cushions. I’m talking about making pen, pencil and paper a part of the creative process that other “non-digital” designers have been using for ages: sketching.

With this article we’ll treat an argument that certainly many of you will have at heart: we’ll see in fact how sketching can help us arrange the ideas, design an effective layout and – why not- give a fresh and original touch to our design.

Step 01: Sketching As Part of the Planning Process

Imagine this scenario: We have just finished an exhausting briefing with our client and now it’s the moment to rearrange the ideas. We know the preferences and needs of our client; On this basis we should be able to set the layout we have to design. The problem is the quantity of information we have to consider! We defined that in the homepage we have to put a slider and a visible call-to-action which invites to a contact, the pages of the site will be seven and we must also include the latest news in the homepage and so on.

At this point, I assure you, opening Photoshop with the pretension of creating an effective layout is useless; without a plan for what you have to draw in the detail, you’ll be blocked and forced to essentially design without enough foresight to make intelligent decisions. This often means more work later on, fixing what could have been done right the first time with just a bit of work sketching.

Sketching offers something unique to web designers… it helps us organize large amounts of information into manageable pieces that we can design around.

Instead, if you have the fortune of being able to metabolize concepts and ideas in a design, most likely you’ll forget something important, with the result of having to put your hands on the layout again for the second time. And, you probably also know that there are layouts that even with a small change get completely altered and lose their communicative and aesthetic effectiveness… a really frustrating result indeed.

A few pieces of advice on how to proceed without losing your head? Get pen and paper…

1. Mark the key words that must distinguish the company and that you want in front of your eyes during the project phase, so that not to lose the focus on want you have to represent graphically. Avoid complicated phrases and concepts, be organic: the more immediate you are, the more your mind can process the information quickly and easily.
2. Always in a schematic way, possibly as a list, write down the information useful for the design phase. What you have to do is record on paper only the information and concepts that you’ll need once you open the graphic program.
3. Ration out the information in stages, so that every phrase is as straightforward as possible. If you still have to design the layout of the homepage, don’t take notes on the contents to be included in the contacts page: avoid confusion and distraction. Note the information on different sheets of your notebook, so that you can be concentrated on one single step at a time.

This first phase of sketching regards the elaboration of the information in a schematic and simple way. You’re probably thinking that all this rigor and discipline has nothing to do with creativity and imagination and you want a change of scenery? Okay, let’s move up to the next step.

Step 02: Sketching As Part of the Creative Process

We said that the sketching is a creative process, but want does this mean in practice?

We can consider the sketching as a “middle land” between the information in our possess and the layout we’ll end up planning. In this territory, hostile and magic, we find colors, fonts, boxes, ideas, inspiration, textures, images, sensations, doubts…and much more. Useless saying that in the middle of all this it’s easy to be confused and to find the right idea, the idea that works and that makes us proud to be a designer.

I think that there’s nothing more irritating than finding oneself in front of a blank sheet, waiting for inspiration that is supposed to come from who knows where, and winding up with creating ugly layouts (then if you’re really lucky like me, you’ll be engaged with a colleague that takes the most of the situation to tell you that your work sucks without bothering to sweeten the pill so that it doesn’t hurt your sensibility as a creative).

One of my own sketchbooks… we’ll revisit this later.

Personally I passed some rough times with a few clients: inspiration didn’t want to come and my graphic proposals made me be ashamed of myself. I passed hours looking at gallery sites, feeling even more depressed because it seemed like everybody were able to create beautiful layouts, the only person who wasn’t able to put two rectangles together in a nice way was me.
In my case the ease of the pressure was made easy with the help of a pencil.

Give the kicking start to one’s creative process on paper frees in fact your imagination, allowing you to work in a more spontaneous and stimulating way.

Especially if the project you’re working on is huge and rich of technical details, considering all this, the first phase can certainly be castrating for the creative flux, not to mention the debilitating fear “to fail” that affects many designers: caught in the craving to do fast and well, we often remain paralyzed in front of the monitor unable to rearrange the ideas and channel them in the right direction.

Therefore, before starting to work on whatever kind of graphic program, get pen and paper and… sketch! Scribble, jot down a couple of ideas, start tracing a kind of abstract design to get familiarity and after free your intuition. You’ll analyze afterwards the ideas, now just let yourself go and avoid logic and rationality, they won’t help you in this phase.

Outline the layout, put down a couple of notes , erase it all, start again: during this process your mind works fast and frenetically, so take note of everything before this intuitive phase dims down! You’ll discover that giving complete freedom to your ideas is pleasant and relaxing, besides useful.

Make Mistakes… on Purpose

The first idea will rarely be the right one, be prepared to accept it. Sketching helps you to unblock yourself and seize different graphic opportunities that could be right for you immediately and lightly, but this doesn’t mean that you won’t commit mistakes in this phase. The positive thing is that even if you make mistakes in this phase you can always tear the sheet, sharpen the pencil and start all over again on a new sheet. Throwing away a layout created with Photoshop, just because you realized that it’s not the best solution for your case is without doubts demotivating.

Sketch, Don’t Wireframe

At such matter, I advice you not to confuse sketching with the creation of WireFrame: we’re talking about two different things, even if I see there’s some confusion about the argument. A few days ago a web designer told me, quoting his exact words “ah, you use pen and paper? I do everything online” , mentioning a site that permits to create mockups with a mathematical precision, with a complete control on colors and typography.

Well, this is not sketching, this is completely another thing. Clicking with the mouse on some buttons to make appear some rectangles doesn’t permit you to give a shape to your ideas and free your creative flux, try to believe. With this statement I don’t doubt the utility of a good wireframe, I just want to underline the differences between these two approaches.

Embrace Chaos

Put away your craving for precision, ruler and compass! In this phase there’s no room for order and rigor, so don’t limit the creative flux, blocking yourself on margins and white spaces, you can think about them later. In the same way, don’t worry if you’re not particularly artistically gifted and your manual abilities hardly allow you to hold a pencil: sketching is used for reordering the ideas not for forming gifted artists.

At this regard we must add that even if sketching was born as a free mean of expression of imagination and creativity apart your graphic abilities, this doesn’t mean that the sketch doesn’t also have, in a certain way, an artistic value. Let’s see together what I’m talking about.

Step 03: Sketching As Part of the Design Process

The tendency of many web designers to sketch has given the kicking start to a real graphic style that recalls somehow the aesthetic aspects of the sketching: we have brushes that mime its spontaneity and lightness, not to mention hundreds of fonts in hand-written style easily found in the web. Thanks to such resources creating today a layout in sketch style is quite easy, but besides this designs that use this graphic style usually have a touch of originality that make them appealing and out of the common run.

The sketch style, just because it’s associated to an activity common to many creatives, is often used in sites of freelancers or of communication/design agencies that want to transmit this concept graphically.
Anyway, even the combination of some sketch elements to a more traditional graphic can give a fresh perspective to otherwise ordinary designs.

Let’s see how some sites have used this style in an effective and original way and how this has influenced the aesthetic and the effectiveness of their layouts.

Kunal Chhajer

http://www.kunalchhajer.com/

The site of the web designer Kunal Chhajer reflects exactly the concept of the sketch style. The graphic is light and pleasant, it’s enriched in an original way by some designs that make the layout unique. The style is also recalled in the use of a hand-written font in the navigation menu. All these details give to the design the creativity that a designer wants to express in his personal site.

Creative With a K

http://www.creativewithak.com/

In the Creative with a K site there’s a massive use of sketches and doodles, just to clearly show the “creative nature” of the site. In this case even the peculiarity of the layout, so atypical, makes the site special and unusual, even if it’s difficult to consult.

Lega-Lega

http://www.lega-lega.com/

The site Lega-Lega is an online store of shirts with prints a bit out of the ordinary and it’s aimed definitively at a young market. The addition of some sketch details give a creative and perky cut to the site.

Beavory

http://beavory.com/

Beavory is the site/blog of Karen Mack, Israeli illustrator. The style of her site is deliberately based on a style that recalls her creative nature in a pronounced and original manner. Every detail, from the structure of the layout based on irregular lines – as if they were drawn with a felt pen- to the icons of the social network traces completely an effective sketch style.

Bowtie

http://bowtieperiod.com/

Bowtie is a digital studio that decided to represent itself really in a creative way on the web. The animations of the site, together with cute, uncommon drawings, make the layout attractive and strongly extravagant. They call themselves “creative” and, to prove it, they use elements in sketch style.

MakoMako

http://www.makomako.cz/home/

The layout of the band MakoMako is completely created in sketch style, so that the same structure of the page is based on a sheet of paper with irregular lines, and in the homepage as part of the design, we find besides the usual graphic details based on sketches and hand-written fonts, a pencil. A curious and a very unusual look for a band.

Stan The Snowman

http://stanthesnowman.com/

Now that’s almost summer a lot of its charm vanishes, but the graphic effectiveness of the site Stan the snowman however is out of the question. In this case the addition of stylized images and of a calligraphic font gives a spontaneous style to the layout, playful and informal. And it traces the concept of activity, based on writing greeting cards.

Greenaway Pro

http://www.greenawaypro.co.uk/

The festival Greenaway Pro 2011 site combines in a particular and attractive way the sketch style and the grunge style, giving to its layout a really original imprint. Also in this case the choice of this particular graphic style tends to express an informal, spontaneous and eccentric look . Perfect for a festival that deals with music and surfing, right?

Julian Laval

http://www.julianlaval.com/

Julian is another freelance web designer that wanting to highlight his graphic skills, exploited the communicative power of the sketch in a really creative way. Of course, it’s not only this that makes his site special, but even the curious and deliberately uncommon nature of his drawings. Like many other sites in this style, colors are limited to a gray scale, to make the illustrations more realistic.

Little Creatures

https://www.littlecreatures.com.au/

The site Little Creatures is completely designed in sketch style and thanks to the peculiarity of its sketches, so little refinished, the page is so attractive.

Le Carnet Ordinaire

http://carnetordinaire.com/

Carnet Ordinaire is a site that is like a diary, with travel notes, annotations and personal considerations. Considering the eccentric and intimate nature of the site, the sketch style is the most appropriate one: the layout is based on the image of an opened moleskine, enhanced by sketches and stylized drawings. Even the background is made more original with some cartoons inserted in opacity and by the presence of a pencil , left casually near the moleskine.

Wing Cheng

http://www.wingcheng.com/

The Wing Cheng portfolio is a perfect example of the fresh perspective that the sketch style can give to a layout. The page structure is based on an ajar moleskine, from which the pages fall down. The effect is made more dramatic thanks to shadows that frame the design and the use of calligraphic fonts for every content of the layout, from the titles of the projects to their description. But the real peculiarity of this site regards the exposure of the projects, also sketched in pencil in a really creative way.

Kuztown University

http://www.kutztown.edu/acad/commdes/faculty/

The Kutztown university of communications and design couldn’t find a better way to address effectively to creatives or aspiring ones. The layout is certainly unusual for an academic reality: the background in water color style, the page based on a page of a book, the illustrations in water colors, the particular fonts of the navigation menu… all original and certainly expressive details.

Dan Whittaker

http://www.dannwhittakercreative.com/

Dann Whittaker in his site shows a graphic style common to many web designers. A casual and spontaneous look, based on a page book layout and on a consistent use of details in sketch style. In the complex, the layout is very effective and pleasant aesthetically.

Chernobyl Heart

http://www.chernobylheart.org.uk/

In the case of the Chernobyl Heart site the sketch style is used to highlight graphically the concept of childhood: here we’re talking about children and we see it through some small stylized sketches that copy their way of drawing. Effective and pleasant.

Demain j’arrete

http://demainjarrete.stpo.fr

The sketch style is perfect to present on the web comics and illustrations, so that the layout represents visually and creatively the nature of the site. In the Demain J’arrete case, the whole site has a “charcoal” graphic style, starting from the gradient of the background to the irregular lines that contain the layout and the navigation menu.

Nature Shop

http://www.natureshop.co.nz/

Adding a couple of sketch details in apparently casual way, can give that special creative touch to a minimal and essential site. The result, visible for example in the site Nature Shop, is extremely pleasant.

Ready to Market

http://www.readytomarket.net/

The layout of the Ready to Market is an example on how mixing a modern style with some stylized and comic details can give a new and stimulating result.

Cou Cou Shop

http://www.coucoushop.ch/

The Cou Cou Shop is very nice and pleasant to see. One of the most particular elements of the layout is without doubts the footer, that shows a stylized landscape of Switzerland. Even the sketch of the bag from different angles is a very original detail.

Upside Down-Town

http://upsidedowntown.me/

Colorful, unusual and whimsical: the site of the learning center Upside-Down Town invests a lot on the originality of the sketch style. Every element of the layout, especially in the heading, points to the visual effectiveness of drawings, sketches and colors that highlight graphically and in a pleasant way children’s world.

Conclusions

We saw how the sketching process can help us to process ideas in a creative way and at the same time, how some sketches can give a different and original perspective to our layouts. Make sketching a habit when you start to work on a new design project – and not only- can come extremely handy also in other fields, like in the copywriting – and in time you’ll develop a flexibility of mind that will turn useful in your work. Therefore to conclude: turn off the computer and get paper and pen!

I finish sharing with you two personal sketches: a sketch of my current portfolio and the first ideas I put down for this article, during a really boring train ride.

Now, it’s your turn, I want to see your sketches!

Webdesigntuts+

Twice a month we revisit some of our reader favorite posts from throughout the history of Phototuts+. This tutorial was first published in October, 2009.

This tutorial will outline how to shoot a basic product shot. The emphasis will be on background, lighting, and the positioning of the product itself. The subject chosen to work with is simple – a shoe – it offers a great example to highlight the basics of lighting and shooting an isolated product photo.

Step 1: Gather Your Equipment

Table

Anything will work. You can use two sawhorses and a damaged door or your kitchen table. Most product shots are outlined in Photoshop (called “white seamless” shots) and the background is eliminated anyway (as you’ll see in some of the photos below, It doesn’t matter what is in the surrounding area!)

White Background

I’m going to use a large 4′ x 8′ foam board for my background. You can make anything work; a bed sheet, picture frame matting, two white cards, or anything flexible.

Stands

I am going to use four Century stands and one background stand. One Century stand has an extension arm on it and the background stand has an extension arm on it. Whatever stands you have should be fine.

Flashes

Any flash system with three heads will do. I am using Alien Bees (800 and 1600 heads).

Tripod

Make sure your tripod is sturdy enough to hold the camera at any level or angle. Don’t skimp here. I don’t use a level for most product shots so don’t worry if your tripod doesn’t have one.

Clamps

You will need at least 5 strong clamps with protective rubber covers. If all you have are the cheap plastic ones, you should wrap the ends with duct tape so they grip better.

Lens

The lens you use really depends on how big your product is and how close/far away you are to it. For this, I am using a 24-85 and will be shooting at f11 – approximately 4 feet from the shoe.

Camera

I shoot with a Nikon D-300. I take it off of the ‘auto’ setting and use ‘manual’ only. My focus is set to AF/AE button (not the shutter release button). This keeps the camera from re-focusing each time it takes a photo. Since each camera is different, I encourage you to read the section in your manual titled “Auto-Focus”. My aperture is set to f11, the shutter speed is 125th/sec and ISO is set to 200. I have my camera set to a custom white balance, but since that is a matter of preference, you can set it to “auto white balance” or a “flash white balance”…

The more stable you build your set and all that goes with it, the fewer problems you will have doing any shot.

Step 2: Preparing the Background

Get the background stand with the extension arm and position it on the rear side of your table. Swing the extension arm into a 90 degree angle and tighten so that the arm can support the background.

I took my 4′ X 8′ card, folded it in half from top to bottom (making a 4′ X 4′ surface – but you can use 2 cards or fabric). I now take one section of the card and lay it flat on the table and clamp securely to the table (this is your horizontal surface).

Unfold the card so that it now becomes your background and clamp it to the extension arm on the stand we positioned behind the table.

The horizontal surface and the background need to be completely flat and smooth with no wrinkles or creases so that the lighting will cast evenly. If you have sand bags, place those on the feet of the stand to prevent the stand from moving.

Step 3: Positioning the Product

Get one Century stand and an extension arm. Position the extension into a 90 degree angle and tighten. Place the stand left or right of the table so the extension arm is over the center of the background.

To hang the shoe, use a piece of fishing string (cut long enough so that it is twice as long as the distance from the table top to a height of one foot above the arm), and some duct tape.

Then get a piece of wire (I used a coat hanger and cut it to the same width as the inside of the shoe)

Next, find the center of your string and wrap a small piece of duct tape around it.

Tie the string into a knot around the tape so the tape will not slip out of place on the string.

Now tape the wire to the knot of tape on the string in the center so that the wire and the string are coming out both sides of the duck tape equally.

This is the finished ‘rig’ that will suspend the shoe.

Get the shoe and clean it well. Securely fasten the rig into the bottom heel of the shoe so that the ends of the rig have a good grip on the inside walls of the shoe.

Gather the strings coming off the rig and lift the heel of the shoe off the table to test if the rig has a good grip. It is important that it is secure, so do whatever it takes (bend the rig, push it around to get it in place).

Make sure the shoe looks good by using paper to fill the toe and keep the tongue up and in place. Tuck the shoe strings into the shoe to give it a clean look.

Now place it on the table just below the extension arm.

Take one end of the string and wrap it over the extension arm which will pull the heel of the shoe off the table to the desired height. I suspend it about 3 inches off of the table to help light the bottom of the shoe – important when shooting a product of any type.

Now while holding the string to the arm, wrap the string 3 or 4 times around the arm and clamp it securely to the extension arm.

Now that the shoe is hanging unevenly, get the other end of the string and wrap it over the arm so that the heel of the shoe is level, Now clamp the second string to the extension arm and place sand bags on that stand.

Step 4: Lighting the Shot

Basic product shots require 3 lights (top/overhead light, and front/side umbrellas).

The Top Light

Take one head and mount it on a boom arm to the Century stand. To diffuse the light, I am using two sheets of wax paper cut long enough so that I can tape them loosely over the reflector (I do this rather than use a soft box because I only have an 8-foot ceiling here).

Position the light over the top of the shoe and place a sand bag on the stand.

To set your top light exposure, place the light meter over the shoe, test your flash and keep adjusting until the meter reads f11. Once it is set, turn the top light off.

The Umbrellas

Get two century stands and dress each of them with a head, reflector and umbrella. Place the umbrella lights at a 45-degree angle to the shoe and towards the front of the table approximately 3-5 feet from the shoe.

Turn power on to both of the umbrellas. Again, place the meter over the shoe and adjust the power so that both heads are equal and the combined exposure is around f/11. As you can see, mine is at f/8.9 but that is close enough… the important thing is that both lights are equal!

Now turn on all of your lights.

If you don’t have a light meter, take test shots with your camera and even visually through a trial-and-error process.

Step 5: Setting the Camera

Take your camera, set your preferred white balance, set the aperture to f/11 and the shutter speed to 1/125, mount it on the tripod and place it approximately 3-5 feet from the table directly in front of the shoe. I adjusted the tripod so the camera sits just above the table height.

Fill the frame with the shoe, focus, then plug in your sync and take the photo.

Step 6: The Final Product

The final photo needs to have the background stripped to white. I do this in Photoshop with the selection tool, but I am not going into detail in this tutorial on how to do that. Here is the final shot:

The shot will always need fine tuning in some way or another:

1. If one head appears to be putting out more power than the other, adjust as necessary (you’ll know if there are shadows or one side of the shoe is darker than the other). Also make sure the umbrellas are set at the same distance.
2. If the top of the shoe is too bright, adjust that power down.
3. If you are over exposed check to be sure the ISO on the camera is the same as what was measured on the light meter.
4. If the color seems to be off, you may need to adjust your white balance.

Now that you’ve put the setup together, you can have fun, experiment, and try different products. Turn on/off and move around the different lights to see what exactly each light is doing and this will give you a basic idea of how the outcome can be adjusted.

I covered flat lighting first since this is what most e-commerce sites are using. Feel free to experiment – remember that knowledge is king and practice makes perfect, even if it is a little boring!

Phototuts+

In the following tutorial you will learn how to use the Drop Shadow effect and the Warp options to create a simple banner. The design is perfect for web and print and can be customized with different fonts and colors. Let’s get started!

Step 1

Go to File > New. Enter 510 in the width box and 170 in the height box then click on the Advanced button. Select RGB from the Color Mode drop down menu then click OK. Now that you created your document turn on the Grid (View > Grid) and the Snap to Grid (View > Snap to Grid).

Next, you’ll need a grid every 10 px. Go to Edit > Preferences > Guides & Grid, enter 10 in the Gridline every box and 1 in the Subdivisions box. You can also open the Info panel (Window > Info) for a live preview with the size and position of your shapes.

Don’t forget to replace the unit of measurement to pixels from Edit > Preferences > Unit > General. All these options will significantly increase your work speed.

Step 2

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M) and create a 350 by 100px shape. The Snap to Grid will ease your work. Fill this fresh shape with R=169 G=124 B=80.

Step 3

Select the shape made in the previous step and add a first stroke. Make it 8pt wide and set the color at R=232 G=193 B=155. Select this stroke (from the Appearance panel) then open the Stroke panel (Window > Stroke) and click on the Align Stroke to Inside button.

With the shape still selected go the the Appearance panel, open its fly-out menu and click on Add New Stroke. This will add a second stroke for the selected shape. Select this new stroke. Make it 4pt wide, align it to the inside and set the color to R=60 G=36 B=21.

Step 4

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 100 by 100px shape and place it as shown in the first image. Again, the Snap to Grid will come in handy. For the moment fill this new shape with any color. Select it and go to Object > Path > Add Anchor Points. Pick the Direct Selection Tool (A), select the anchor point highlighted in the second image and move it 30px to the left. Fill the resulting shape with the linear gradient shown in the final image.

Step 5

Select the shape made in the previous step and add the same two strokes used for the other shape.

Step 6

Grab the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 50 by 10px shape and place it as shown in the first image. Focus on this shape. Pick the Delete Anchor Point Tool (minus) and click on the bottom, right anchor point. Fill the resulting shape with R=60 G=36 B=21.

Step 7

Select the shapes created in the last three steps and go to Effect > Transform > Reflect. Check the Vertical button then click on the Copy button. This will add a horizontal flipped copy of the selected shapes.

Step 8

Select the copies made in the previous step and move them as shown in the first image. Once again, the Snap to Grid will ease your work. Select the gradient from the larger shape and set the angle to 180 degrees.

Step 9

Pick the Type Tool (T), and add your text. You can use the “Batik Regular” font with a size of 60pt and set the color at R=60 G=36 B=21.

Step 10

Select all the shapes created so far and group them (Control + G). Select this new group and go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow. Enter the data shown below and click OK.

Step 11

Finally, reselect the group and add the Warp effect (Effect > Warp). Experiment until you find the one you like. Here are some examples.

Conclusion

There you have it, an easy way to make a simple banner. Experiment with different styles and finishes and see what you can come up with. I hope you’ve enjoyed this tut.

Vectortuts+

In the following tutorial you will learn to create a lollipop icon. By using some simple shapes and the Distort & Transform function, you will see just how easy it is to make a great looking icon.

Step 1

Create a 255 by 255px document. Pick the Ellipse Tool (L) and click on your artboard. Enter 80 for both width and height then click OK. You will get a 80 by 80px shape. Fill it with any color.

Step 2

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M) and click on your artboard again. Enter 78 in the width box and 25 in the height box then click OK. Select the resulting rectangle and go to Effect > Stylize > Rounded Corners. Enter a 2px Radius and click OK.

Step 3

Select the shape made in the previous step. Go to Effect > Warp > Arc Lower, enter the data shown below then click OK. Reselect this shape, then go to Effect > Warp > Arc Upper. Enter the data shown below, click OK then go to Object > Expand Appearance.

Step 4

Select the shapes created so far. Pick the Selection Tool (V) and click on the border of the circle. It should become emphasized. Now, open the Align panel (Window > Align) and click on the Horizontal Align Center and Vertical Align Center buttons.

Step 5

Reselect the shapes created so far and click on the Unite button from the Pathfinder panel. Fill the resulting shape with R = 239 G = 65 B = 54.

Step 6

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M), create an 8 by 123px shape and fill it with R = 230 G = 231 B = 232. Select this rectangle along with the shape made in the previous step then pick the Selection Tool (V). Click on the border of the red shape (again, it should get emphasized) then click on the Horizontal Align Center button from the Align panel. Now, your two shapes should be placed as shown in the final image.

Step 7

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M) and draw a shape like the grey one shown in the following images. It should cover the left half of the existing shapes. Duplicate it (Control + C > Control + F). Select one of the grey shapes along with the thin, tall rectangle and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. Now, select the other grey shape along with the red shape and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel.

Step 8

Select the two shapes made in the previous step and group them (Control + G). Select this group and go to Effect > 3D > Revolve. Click on the More Options button, enter all the data shown below then click OK. With the group still selected go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow. Enter the data shown below and click OK.

Step 9

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M), create a shape the size of your artboard and fill it with white. Enable the Grid (View > Grid) and the Snap to Grid (View > Snap to Grid). Now, you’ll need a grid every 15px. Go to Edit > Preferences > Guides & Grid, enter 15 in the Gridline every box and 1 in the Subdivisions box.

Reselect the Rectangle Tool (M). Create a 15 by 375px shape, fill it with the grey to white gradient and place it as shown in the following image (the Snap to Grid will ease your work). Duplicate it (Control + C > Control + F). Select this copy, move it 15px to the right and fill it with the other linear gradient. Select these two shapes and group them (Control + G).

Step 10

Select the group made in the previous step and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform. Enter the data shown below, click OK then go to Object > Expand Appearance.

Step 11

Select the group resulted from the previous step and go to Object > Transform > Rotate. Enter a -45 degrees angle and click OK.

Step 12

Finally, you need to mask the group of shapes from the previous step. First, open the Transparency panel. Create another shape, the size of your artboard and fill it with the radial gradient shown in the first image.

Select it along with the group, open the fly-out menu of the Transparency panel and click on Make Opacity Mask. Now, your group should look like in the third image. Finally, select this masked group and lower its opacity to 3%.

Conclusion

And there you have it. A lollipop icon from just a few simple shapes. Try experimenting with different colours and backgrounds to see what you can come up with. Have fun!

Vectortuts+

In this Quick Tip tutorial you will learn how to use Illustrator to make a simple web form design. By following a few easy techniques you will have clean and modern register form in no time!

Step 1

Create a 570 by 370px document. First, turn on the Grid (View > Grid) and the Snap to Grid (View > Snap to Grid). Next, you’ll need a grid every 10px. Go to Edit > Preferences > Guides & Grid, enter 10 in the Gridline every box and 1 in the Subdivisions box.

You can also open the Info panel (Window > Info) for a live preview with the size and position of your shapes. Do not forget to replace the unit of measurement to pixels from Edit > Preferences > Unit > General. All these options will significantly increase your work speed.

Step 2

With the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 450 by 370px shape and fill it with the linear gradient shown below.

Step 3

Focus on the top side of the shape. Pick the Add Anchor Point Tool (Plus) and add two anchor points in the points highlighted with yellow in the first image. Next, pick the Direct Selection Tool (A), select the anchor points highlighted with red and drag them 70px down. In the end your shape should look like the final image.

Step 4

Re-select the Rectangle Tool (M) and create a 330 by 90px shape and place it as shown in the first image. Fill it with R=77 G=195 B=255 then send it to the back (Shift + Control + Left Bracket ).

Step 5

Return to the grey shape. Select it, go to the Appearance panel, open the fly-out menu and click on Add New Fill. This will add a second fill for your shape. Now, you need a pattern for this new fill. Go the Swathes panel, open the fly-out menu and go to Open Swatch Library > Patterns > Basic Graphics > Basic Graphics_Textures. Reselect that new fill, click on the “USGS 7 Vineyars” pattern then change its blending mode to Multiply and lower its opacity to 5%.

Continue by adding a white stroke. Make it 3px wide, align it to the inside and lower its opacity to 50%. With the shape still selected, open the fly-out menu of the Appearance. This time click on Add New Stroke. Select this fresh stroke, replace the color with R=120 G=120 B=120 and make it 1px wide.

Step 6

Reselect the entire path. First, go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow. Enter the data shown below and click OK. With the shape still selected go to Effect > Stylize > Rounded Corners. Enter a 7px Radius and click OK. Make sure that this effect is located above the strokes in the Appearance panel. You can simply click and drag it.

Step 7

Let’s move to the blue shape. First, add a new fill. Select it and use the linear gradient shown below. Change its blending mode to Overlay and lower its opacity to 50%. Add a third fill. Make it black, change its blending mode to Multiply, lower its opacity to 12% then go to Effect > Artistic > Film Grain. Enter the data shown below then click OK.

Step 8

Continue with the blue shape. Add a 3px, aligned to inside stroke (R=225 G=244 B=253) and lower its opacity to 50%. Add a second stroke, resize it to 1px and change its color to R=0 G=112 B=185. Reselect the entire path and go to Effect > Stylize > Rounded Corners. Enter a 7px Radius and click OK.

Step 9

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M) and create a 270 by 40px shape. Fill it with the linear gradient and place it as shown below.

Step 10

Focus on the shape made in the previous step. Select the fill from the Appearance panel and go to Effect > Stylize > Inner Glow. Enter the data shown below and click OK. Add a white stroke. Make it 3px wide, align it to outside and lower its opacity to 50%. Add a second stroke, resize it to 1px and change its color to R=167 G=169 B=172. Reselect the entire path and go to Effect > Stylize > Rounded Corners. Enter a 3px Radius and click OK.

Step 11

Select the shape made in the previous step and make two copies (Control + C > Control + V > Control + V). Place them as shown in the following image.

Step 12

Reselect the Rectangle Tool (M) and create an 120 by 30px shape. Fill it with R=77 G=195 B=255 and place it as shown in the following image. Add a second fill for this shape and use the linear gradient shown in the following image. Select this new fill, change its blending mode to Overlay and lower its opacity to 50%.

Step 13

Add a third fill for the shape made in the previous step. Make it black, change its blending mode to Multiply, lower its opacity to 10% then go to Effect > Artistic > Film Grain. Enter the data shown below then click OK. Add a 1,5px, aligned to inside stroke (R=225 G=244 B=253) and lower its opacity to 50%. Add a second stroke, resize it to 1px and change its color to R=0 G=112 B=185. Reselect the entire path and go to Effect > Stylize > Rounded Corners. Enter a 15px Radius and click OK.

Step 14

Finally, let’s add the text. I’ve used Copper Std font with a size of 30pt for the “Register Form” and 20pt for the rest of the text. Follow the colors shown below then add the discrete Drop Shadow effect for each text.

Conclusion

There you have it, a simple and slick looking register form. You can use the techniques you’ve learnt in this tutorial to make additional web elements and designs.

Vectortuts+

Street photography emerged in the late 20th Century as a means for capturing everyday life, for documenting social activity, and to “hold a mirror up to society”.

Hopefully this tutorial will provide some useful advice for street photography as well as highlighting some of the ethical and practical issues that will help you get started on you quest to document life on the streets!

Step 1. What Is Street Photography?

Street photography meets the desire to document social activity, aiming to capture the essence of life in a specific time and place, highlighting single acts of human behaviour, often providing snapshots of real and literal moments of life.

Photographers such as Henri-Cartier Bresson and Garry Winograd are past masters of this documentary style, but anyone is capable of capturing their locality—you just need to have an eye for detail and an awareness of what’s going on around you.

Step 2. Which Camera to Use?

There’s no right or wrong camera to use for street photography, it’s all about personal preference. You need to bear in mind that manoeuvrability and general mobility will be far easier if you don’t have lots of equipment; so maybe limit yourself to just one camera and a lens or two if you feel it necessary. This will also make you more inconspicuous and less like to stand out as a photographer (but more of that later on).

Traditionally, it’s best to use a fixed lens, something fairly wide like a 28mm or 35m, although that means getting fairly close to your subject. You might want to start off with a 75mm or 50mm so you can keep a bit of distance to build up confidence.

Step 3. Capturing the Place You Are In

Before heading out, consider the place you’re going to shoot. Does it have a particular mood or style that you want to try and capture in your shots? Maybe it has a particularly high tempo and vibrancy that you could aim to exemplify or maybe it has a more sleepy and quaint demeanour?

Think about any particular features or landmarks and consider whether you want to represent them as points of reference for the location, or whether you’d rather leave them out so you shots are more ambiguous.

Step 4. Go Out and Find It

There aren’t any definitive places to recommended for going out to shoot street photography, you’ve got to go out and find it! Don’t wait for it to come to you, you’ll find far more interesting subject matter if you get out and get involved with your surroundings.

Maybe set a route to walk around the town, keep a look out for anything interesting, and have an eager eye for what’s happening all around you. Have the camera settings decided and ready so you don’t waste time fiddling about and know how your camera works so you can change any settings in reaction to what you’re seeing.

Step 5. Instinctive Decisions

You’ll find that the more time you spend in areas like this, the easier it becomes to catch the goings on around you. Your eye will be trained to spot points of interest. Street photography involves a lot of instinctive decisions, particularly with regard to composition.

For me, the best way to approach this is to forget any compositional rules and just go with whatever feels right to you, different photographers will see things differently and have a different take on a subject, so shoot what you see.

Step 6. What’s Your Motive?

The motive for your photography is important to consider before you go out, otherwise you’ll be spending time making lots of decisions on the street and missing out on potential shots.

Consider whether you want to take the stance of honest documentary shots that capture a place for what it is, highlighting the style and mood of a place and it’s inhabitants. On the flip side, you can look to be more creative and capture and highlight the things that people might not notice, to create something artistic from something that might not usually catch the eye.

Step 7. Photographing in Public

When entering into street photography it is important to understand the moral implications of what you are doing. In most countries, taking photos of people in a public place is totally legal and you’ll only need permission if you’re going to use the photos for commercial use – but please check the relevant laws and regulations for where you’re planning on shooting.

It’s important to keep in mind that asking someone if you can shoot them will affect how they behave in the shot and, if you’re looking for a natural style, shooting in covert might be a better option. Be inconspicuous, not suspicious.

Step 8. When Not to Shoot

When considering who and when you shoot, make sure you have thought about where you’d draw the line personally. Consider illegal activity, confrontation and other people’s children—these are all probably best avoided.

Once you’ve set your boundaries you can start getting involved with the scenes and moments that you do want to capture. Be aware that some people react positively to a camera, which can make for a great shot, but others really don’t want to have their photo taken. Respect their decision. If you do get confronted, be polite, smile and co-operate fully with the other party.

Step 9. Black and White, or Colour?

You’ll see from the examples that I’ve chosen for this article that the majority are black and white. This wasn’t necessarily a conscious decision, but traditionally, documentary and street photography have been in black and white.

Shooting in black and white will highlight the action in your scene, it will draw the eye into the points of interest and maximise impact. That’s not to say though that there isn’t room for colour in street photography, I always shoot in colour and then convert later, but consider whether colour will add anything to the shot, if not, stick with black and white!

Step 10. Get Up and Go!

So there you go, hopefully you’re up to speed with the ins and outs of street photography and you’re ready to get out and capture your own neighbourhood.

Don’t spend too long thinking. Obviously if you have a certain motive, or want to capture a certain mood, then employ those whilst working, but the best thing you can do is to grab your camera, get out and start shooting.

You never know what you’re going to find, and it’s the perfect chance to find out whether all those articles you’ve been reading have given you a better “instinct” for photography!

Phototuts+

In the following tutorial you will learn how to use text and the Round Any Corner script to create a simple sticker effect. This effect can be applied to a variety of graphics, including shapes and symbols. Let’s get started!

Step 1

First, download the Aaaiight! font and move in your Fonts directory. Then, create a 700 by 300px document, pick the Type Tool (T) and click on your Artboard. Enter your text, follow the data shown below, change its color to R=53 G=103 B=74 then go to Object > Expand. Select the resulting group of shapes, click on the Unite button from the Pathfinder panel then go to Object > Compound Path > Make.

Step 2

Next, you need to add discrete roundness effect for the shape made in the previous step. In order to do it you’ll need the Round Any Corner Script. Save it to your hard drive, select the entire shape then pick the Direct Selection Tool (A). Hold Shift and click on one of the anchor points to deselect it. Now, with the rest of the anchor points still selected, go to File > Scripts > Other Script. Open the Round Any Corner Script, enter a 10px Radius and click OK. Double click on the resulting shape (in the Layers panel) and name it “vectors” (or whatever word you used).

Step 3

Select “vectors” and go to Object > Path > Offset Path. Enter a 10px Offset and click OK. Select the resulting shape, fill it with R=17 G=65 B=75, name it “vectors.dark” then go again to Object > Path > Offset Path. Enter a 5px Offset and click OK. Select the resulting shape, fill it with R=196 G=216 B=207 and name it “vectors.light”.

Step 4

Duplicate “vectors” (Control + C > Control + F). Select this copy along with “vectors.dark” and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. The resulting shape should look like in the second image. Rename it “vectors.dark”.

Step 5

Make another two copies of “vectors”. Go to Edit > Preferences > General and enter “1″ in the Keyboard Increment box. Select the top copy and hit the down arrow and the right arrow once (to move it 1px down and to the right). Reselect both copies and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. Fill the resulting group of shapes with R=75 G=114 B=80.

Step 6

Now, make two copies of “vectors.light”. Again, select the top copy and move it 1px down and to the right. Reselect both copies and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. Fill the resulting group of shapes with white.

Step 7

Make a new copy of “vectors.light” and Bring it to Front (Shift > Control > Right Square Bracket). Replace the fill color with the linear gradient shown in the following image. With the shape still selected go to the Appearance panel. Open the flyout menu and click on Add New Fill. This should add a second fill for your shape. Select it and use the same linear gradient but with a different angle. Take a closer look at the gradient. The white text stands for Location and the yellow text stands for Opacity.

Step 8

Select “vectors” and go to Effect > Stylize > Inner Glow. Enter the data shown below and click OK.

Step 9

Select “vectors.dark” and go to Effect > Stylize > Inner Glow. Enter the data shown below and click OK.

Step 10

Select “vectors.light” and go again to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow. Enter the data shown below and click OK.

Step 11

Finally, for the background, use the Rectangle Tool (M). Create a shape the size of your Artboard (700 by 300px), Send it to the Back (Shift > Control > Left Square Bracket) and fill it with R=196 G=216 B=207. Select this rectangle, add a new fill and use the radial gradient shown in the second image. Select the second fill (from the Appearance panel), lower its opacity to 25% and change its blending mode to Color Burn.

Conclusion

So there you have it, a simple way to make a sticker text effect. Try playing around with different fonts and shapes to come up with new and interesting variations on this style!

Vectortuts+

In this design tutorial, we’re going to create beautiful simple and elegant interface for a Résumé Website in Adobe Photoshop that works great for mobile phones and iPads. As we go through this tutorial, we’ll work with: Simple shapes (rectangles, lines, arrows, etc), layer styles (lots of them actually!), character and paragraph styles, and so many other design and Photoshop techniques that you can adapt to your Website interface design workflow. The fully coded version is available on ThemeForest as Stylish CV, an HTML theme

About the Author:

IvyStudio is a popular new author at ThemeForest thanks to this particular design. Passion for web creativity and communication are the key element of Ivy Studio. We love to create clean design and useful interface with a great attention to details. Enjoy our site www.ivystudio.it to see our works and feel free to contact us if you want!

You can also grab the fully coded version of this file at ThemeForest so you can see how it’s built!

Step 1

To keep everything aligned we’re going to use 960s Grid System (Get it from here). Once downloaded, open up the file “960_grid_12_col.psd”.

The height of the current document is smaller than our final design. So, we’ll go to Image > Canvas Size > Height: 1558px.

We like to work without the “pink stripes”, then if you want hide it, you have to go to layer panel and deselect layer visibility.

We also need to make sure that our Rulers and Guides are viewed. So, we’ll go to View > Extras / Rulers / Snap (so that our objects snap in alignment with our Guides).

Step 2

Let’s make our background now. Go to the layer panel, right click on the background layer and select “layer from background” and rename it “bg”.

Now, right click on bg layer, select “Blending Options”, go to “Color Overlay” and choose as background color: #dbdbdb.

Now select bg layer and create a new layer from Layer > New > Layer and rename it “noise”.

Now we’ll apply a simple Noise texture. Select layer noise and then fill it (by clicking Shift+Backspace) with this color value: #ffffff.

Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise > Amount: 50%, Distribution: Uniform. Change this layer’s Blend Mode to: Multiply, and take its Opacity down to: 15%.

Let’s create a soft shadow effect using the Rectangle Tool (U). Create a rectangle of 780x1800px, set Fill to 0%, and in the blending options palel, set the “Drop Shadow” effect like the next image.

Step 3

Let’s start creating our header. Using the Rectangle Tool (U), create a rectangle of 780x170px and fill it with color: #7db222 (feel free to choose the color you want, it will be the same for all the tutorial). Then set the Blending Options panel like in the images below:

Step 4

It’s time to type the title of our Website. Grab the Horizontal Type Tool (T), type your Website name according to the following character settings:

• Font Family: Delicious (get it from here)
• Size: 90pt
• Weight Italic
• Anti-aliasing setting:Smooth
• Color:#fffffff
• Kerning:Optical
• Tracking:-50

Then apply a Drop Shadow to our text using the settings shown in the image below:

Now add the subtitle. Grab the Horizontal Type Tool (T), type your and according it to the following settings:

• Font Family: Delicious (get it from here)
• Size: 32pt
• Weight Italic
• Anti-aliasing setting:Smooth
• Color:none (Fill to 0%)
• Kerning:Optical
• Tracking:-50

Then apply a Drop Shadow to our text and Color Overlay, using the settings shown in the image below:

Step 5

Let’s start creating our block. Using the Rectangle Tool (U), create a rectangle of 780x360px and rename it “personal_bg”. Go to the Blending Options panel and set Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, and Color Overlay, like in the following image:

Step 6

Now create the box for our personal photo. Using the Rectangle Tool (U), create a rectangle of 220x220px and fill it with color: #ffffff. Then apply a Layer Style to it, according to the following image:

Step 7

Create the box of social icons, using the Rounded Rectangle Tool (U), create a rectangle of 40x165px with radius: 5 px,rename it Social Box and fill it with color: #7db222. And now create the fold. Using the same tool to create a rectangle of 20x20px with radius: 5px, rename it Social fold, put it under “personal_bg” layer, then hit Cmd+T (Ctrl+T) to rotate it of 45°. Now set the following Blending Options settings:

Step 8

Now we’ll place the social media icons. We’ll start by downloading this vector social media icons, and then placing five icons (24x24px) like in the image below:

Step 9

Create now the “Contact” button. Using the Rectangle Tool (U), create a rectangle of 170x50px, fill it with the color: #7db222, and rename it “contact”. Select the vector mask of this layer and grab the “Add Anchor Point Tool” and create a single anchor point in the middle on the shape’s left side. Then select th “Convert Point Tool”, click on the same anchor point and move it on the left.

Now the shape is ready, so as usual, add the following Blending Options effects:

Now duplicate “social fold” layer and rename it as “contact fold” (Obviously it must be under the “personal_bg” layer).

Step 10

Now add the “Contact” text on the button. Grab the Horizontal Type Tool (T), type your text and according it to the following settings:

• Font Family: Delicious (get it from here)
• Size: 32pt
• Weight Roman
• Anti-aliasing setting:Smooth
• Color:#ffffff
• Kerning:Optical
• Tracking:-50

Then apply a Drop Shadow to our text using the settings shown in the image below:

Step 11

Create the title for our section. Grab the Horizontal Type Tool (T), type your text and according it to the following settings:

• Font Family: Delicious (get it from here)
• Size: 36pt
• Weight Roman
• Anti-aliasing setting:Smooth
• Color:#7db222
• Kerning:Optical
• Tracking:-50

Then apply a Drop Shadow and Color Overlay to our text using the settings shown in the image below:

Step 12

Now the content. Grab the Horizontal Type Tool (T), type your text and according it to the following settings:

• Font Family: Delicious (get it from here)
• Size: 26pt
• Weight Roman
• Anti-aliasing setting:Smooth
• Color:#7db222 (green) / #a4a6a6 (grey)
• Kerning:Optical
• Tracking:-50

Then apply a Drop Shadow and Color Overlay to our text using the settings shown in the image below:

Step 13

As in the previous steps create our block. Using the Rectangle Tool (U), create a rectangle of 780px width, and variable height (depend by the content) and rename it “content_bg”, and put it under the “personal_bg” like in the following image.

Step 14

Create the title for our section. Grab the Horizontal Type Tool (T), type your text name according to the following character settings:

• Font Family: Delicious (get it from here)
• Size: 36pt
• Weight Roman
• Anti-aliasing setting:Smooth
• Color:#7db222
• Kerning:Optical
• Tracking:-50

Then apply a Drop Shadow to our text using the same title’s settings in “Personal Details” section.

Step 15

Now add the first subtitle (green). Grab the Horizontal Type Tool (T), type your and according it to the following settings:

• Font Family: Delicious (get it from here)
• Size: 26pt
• Weight Roman
• Anti-aliasing setting:Smooth
• Color:#7db222
• Kerning:Optical
• Tracking:-50

Then apply a Drop Shadow to our text and Color Overlay, using the settings shown in the image below:

Step 16

Then add the second subtitle (grey). Grab the Horizontal Type Tool (T), type your and according it to the following settings:

• Font Family: Delicious (get it from here)
• Size: 22pt
• Weight Italic
• Anti-aliasing setting:Smooth
• Color:#a4a6a6
• Kerning:Optical
• Tracking:-50

Then apply a Drop Shadow to our text and Color Overlay, using the settings shown in the image below:

Step 17

Finally the content. Grab the Horizontal Type Tool (T), type your and according it to the following settings:

• Font Family: Helvetica
• Size: 17pt
• Weight Regular
• Anti-aliasing setting:Smooth
• Color:#a4a6a6
• Kerning:Metrics
• Tracking:0
• Leading:28pt

Step 18

Create now the year layer. As the “Contact” button, create the same shape using the Rectangle Tool (U), but now with the new dimensions 100x36px. Duplicate the “Contact fold” layer, as usual, to create the “Year fold”.

Step 19

Now add the “Year” text on the button. Grab the Horizontal Type Tool (T), type your text and according it to the following settings:

• Font Family: Delicious (get it from here)
• Size: 25pt
• Weight Roman
• Anti-aliasing setting:Smooth
• Color:#ffffff
• Kerning:Optical
• Tracking:-50

Then apply a Drop Shadow to our text as the “Contact” text and finally you must have a result like in the following images:

Step 20

As in the previous step, create our block. Using the Rectangle Tool (U), create a rectangle of 780x and rename it “contact_bg”.

Create the last stripe using the Rectangle Tool (U), create a rectangle of 780x15px and fill it with color: #7db222.

Step 21

Create the title for our section. Grab the Horizontal Type Tool (T), type your text name according to the following character settings:

• Font Family: Delicious (get it from here)
• Size: 36pt
• Weight Roman
• Anti-aliasing setting:Smooth
• Color:#7db222
• Kerning:Optical
• Tracking:-50

Step 22

Now add the label text. Grab the Horizontal Type Tool (T), type your text and according it to the following settings:

• Font Family: Delicious (get it from here)
• Size: 26pt
• Weight Roman
• Anti-aliasing setting:Smooth
• Color:#7db222
• Kerning:Optical
• Tracking:-50

For both then apply the usual Drop Shadow effect.

Step 23

Create now the text field. Using the Rectangle Tool (U), create a rectangle of 210x33px and fill it with the color: #f4f4f4. Go to the Blending Option panel and set the value like in the following image:

Now use the same process to create all text fieds, only for the big field on the right the dimensions are 300x200px.

Step 24

Now create the “Send Message” button. Using the Rounded Rectangle Tool (U), create a rectangle of 210x33px, radius: 5px, and fill it with the color: #7db222. Add the Blending Option effect like in the following image:

Step 25

Finally create the text of “Send Message” button. Grab the Horizontal Type Tool (T), type your text and according it to the following settings:

• Font Family: Delicious (get it from here)
• Size: 22pt
• Weight Bold
• Anti-aliasing setting:Smooth
• Color:#ffffff
• Kerning:Optical
• Tracking:-50

Then apply a Drop Shadow to our text as the “Contact” text and finally you will have a result like in the following images:

Conclusion

That’s it, folks! We’re done with our Website interface design. We really hope you’ve found this tutorial useful. And if you’ve any comments, please leave them below, and will make sure to respond to them. Also, don’t forget to check out the follow-up part on how to get this design live!

Webdesigntuts+

http://www.sum-tech.co.jp/audio/

Camera shake is a problem that all photographers face. Although lots of lenses come with VR (Vibration Reduction) or IS (Image Stabilization) technology, not everyone can afford this feature – and even the best of us don’t have a totally steady hand. Here are a few tips to help you out with reducing the affect of camera shake.

Step 1. Elbows In!

Try to hold a good, strong stance – legs shoulder width apart and standing tall and strong, holding the camera tightly into your face. The key is to tuck in your elbows, which will help support your upper body and reduce any chance of movement in your arms.

It also helps to either exhale or breathe in and hold your breath for the duration of the shot, as even the expansion of your lungs may cause that slight unwanted movement.

Step 2. Hold That Stance

There are two other popular stances which you could employ to help with stability. The first involves squatting down with one knee pointing up, using the knee as a rest for your elbow. Again, remembering to hold the camera tightly to your face and breathe out!

The other option is to lie flat on the ground, using your elbows to prop you up. This gives a lot of stability as you are totally grounded, but it’s often difficult to get the shot you want because of the angle. But you never know, it might provide an interesting view!

Step 3. Get Leaning

One of the best ways to stay steady ‘in the field’ is to find a solid structure to lean or rest on such as a wall, fence, or lamp post. Depending on the height, you could actually rest your camera upon said object – but often it’s better to just lean, taking some of the weight off your feet and giving that much needed stability.

Another tip that will help is to get as close to your subject as possible. The less you have to zoom, the lesser the impact of movement will be.

Step 4. And Of Course… Carry a Tripod!

The last and least practical of solutions is to carry a tripod with you. This will guarantee stability and reduce any risk of camera shake.

Obviously it’s not always convenient to carry a full size tripod, so it might be worth investing in a pocket-size mini tripod, which will give you all the stability of a full size tripod without all the inconvenience.

You could also try using a cable release, or the timer on your camera, to avoid any vibration moving through the camera as your depress the shutter.

Share Your Tips!

These are just a few of the techniques I employ to help out with this problem. Do you have any of your own? I’d love to hear them, so please do leave a comment and share your ideas!

Phototuts+

http://www.ascent-soft.ro/ro/bine-ati-venit.html/

http://ideeeas.com/

In this Quick Tip you will learn how to create a simple but original flower ornamentation with the help of the Bloat effect and a set of convex regular polygons and stars. This effect is quick and easy. So, let’s start.

Step 1

First, after starting the Illustrator program, let’s press the button combination Command + K. In the window of Illustrator preferences choose “Units”. After it, set all the values into “Pixels” and press OK.

Start out with a blank canvas, and create a polygon by using the corresponding tool of any radius and the number of sides as you want. For this you may click on the blank space of your document with the polygon tool chosen. I have used 150 pixels for radius and 7 sides. Let’s fill our figure with red and turn on a black stroke with Stroke weight 7 pixels (or as you want).

Step 2

Here we need to consider some mathematical expressions. As we know from geometry, any interior angle of a convex regular polygon with n sides is equal to (180-360/n) degrees. Also any exterior angle equals (180+360/n) degrees. And also any side of regular n-gon equals (2R*sin(180/n)), where R means the radius used in the step 1.

Let us calculate with the help of Windows calculator the interior and exterior angles (consequently: A and B), and the side (S) of our polygon and memorize these quantities.

A diagram for these calculations is here.

If n=7 and R=150 pixels, then A=128.571 degrees, B=231.429 degrees, S=130.165 pixels.

Step 3

Now let’s create a new polygon with another color of fill (for example, a yellow one) and the radius of the value of S, which has been calculated one step earlier. Also let’s take the number of sides n=6. Activate the command View > Snap to Point, if it was deactivated. This command allows two points of two different objects to stick to each other while moving one of the objects to another. Besides, set the Stroke to deactivating mode (no stroke). Place this second polygon as it is shown on the picture.

The corresponding sides of the polygons and two corresponding angles must coincide with one another.

Step 4

Copy this second polygon as many times as (n-1) and rotate all the copied polygons by using Object > Transform > Rotate command with the “B” angle. (You may do the second, the third, etc rotations by pressing only the “Copy”-button in this command). Fill the received polygons with the colors as you want and attach them to the sides of the first (red) polygon, as you have done it one step earlier. You need to receive the following picture.

Step 5

By opening the Window > Layers palette, we see that our first (red) polygon is located in the bottom of the list.

Let’s move it on the most top. Use the command Object > Arrange > Bring to Front.

Step 6

In the Window > Layers palette, press the button combination Command + A which allows you to select all your work (all polygons). Then click the top red polygon selection circle while holding the Control button down. So, you will select all the polygons with exception of the first red (central) polygon.

Now do the command Effect > Distort & Transform > Pucker & Bloat. The following rule will be right here. The more the percentage of Bloat effect, the larger the petals of flowers. You may set the percentage level from 0% to 200%. At approaching this level to 100%, the flower-petals will be coming together to the centers of the polygons. You may set here the value you want. I have set 150%.

Now select the central red polygon and accordingly do the Bloat effect for it at the percentage level of 75%.

Step 7

Select all the work by pressing Command + A. Do the command Object > Expand Appearance. Simply speaking, this command transforms the selections of the polygons into the selections of the flowers. Please pay your attention that the central red flower has been expanded into the group of separately: the fill and the stroke.

Step 8

Here we have one problem. The yellow flower lies under the green one and simultaneously under the violet one. We need to place the part of the violet flower under the yellow one. You can make it by using the following commands. We need here to copy and paste in front the yellow and violet flowers. Select the yellow flower. Then press Command + C. Then press Command + F. Do the according acts with the violet flower. After it you will receive the following set of layers.

Step 9

Select two top flowers: the top violet and the top yellow ones.

Go to the palette Window > Pathfinder and do there the command Shape Modes > Intersect. Then fill this intersection of two flowers with yellow (the same color of the yellow flower). After it, fill the stroke of this intersection with yellow too. Not deselecting the intersection of two flowers, by clicking the left mouse-button and keeping holding it down, drag the yellow square on the white one.

Step 10

The stroke of the central red flower has rough corners, as we can see it from the picture.

In order to edit it, we need to ungroup the fill and the stroke of the central flower, because as we remember from the step 7, they are grouped together after the expansion. So, let’s do it. While the red flower is being selected, go to Object > Ungroup. After it, select only “Stroke”-path of the flower. Then do the next command. Window > Stroke > Show options, by clicking in the top right corner of the palette (see the picture).

And select here “Round Join” option in the sub-menu “Corner”.

Step 11

By the same way, you now can expand your work and make an original frame. For this you could use not only polygons, but also stars. Star Tool is located in the same group as the Polygon one. While using the Star Tool, you will need to set two values of the radii (with numbers as you want) and set the quantity of star rays (also with a number you want).

Place the stars so as you see on the picture below. That is, place your stars so their corners is touched to one another.

Apply to your set of stars the “Bloat”-effect with the level of percentage as you want. And after it, group it.

Step 12

Select the group of star flowers. Then do the command Object > Transform > Reflect > Horizontal > Copy. Now you need to move this copy by the axis Y (Vertical) on a distance, which will allow to intersect the most left pink star flowers with each other. This distance is defined by your preference. Pay attention please that the movement distance by the axis X (Horizontal) equals zero. Also, please, pay attention: the increasing of X begins from the left side to the right one, the increasing of Y begins from the upper side to the bottom one. For the movement do the command Object > Transform > Move and enter the values of horizontal and vertical positions. (Your object is moved by the entered values. So, enter zero for the horizontal position and negative value for the vertical one).

Step 13

Group these two sets of star flowers (without central flowers made from polygons). Do the command Object > Transform > Reflect > Vertical > Copy. Move it accordingly by the axis X. (Enter positive values for the horizontal position, and zero for the vertical one).

If your artwork goes beyond the black borders of the workspace, you will need to decrease the dimensions of the flowers. Select the exterior flowers (without the central group) and go to Object > Transform > Scale.

Now you should place the central group of flowers in the geometrical center of the exterior group. You can achieve this by selecting this two exterior groups of flowers, grouping them again, and with holding Shift down selecting the central group of flowers, and go to the palette Window > Align. There you should select the both commands: Horizontal Align Center and Vertical Align Center (shown on the picture by the arrows).

Step 14

Let’s colorize the background with gradient filling. For this make the rectangle with the help of Rectangle Tool (M) in order to all your work is located under the rectangle.

Then set the Stroke into none and open the Gradient palette (Window > Gradient). Set the type of the gradient into Radial one. You will see the picture as the following.

Now, let’s change the tedious black and white gradient colors into something nice. First, double-click on the White Gradient Slider and choose the color you want in the opened sub-window (for this click there on the Swatches button). Second, do the same with the Black Gradient Slider.

Then set the percentage of opacity for your gradient to the level about 20%.

Step 15

When your rectangle is selected, send it to the back by pressing Command + Shift + Left Square Bracket.

Conclusion

If you do this work by using the help of the Illustrator grid (as I do), now you can turn it off by doing the command View > Hide Grid. After this you may save your work, File > Save (or Command + S). I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial. Thank you for your attention!

Vectortuts+

http://http://terminal-phantoms.com/

http://maritalmediation.com

http://walther-pm.de/en

http://www.supportbeat.com

SupportBeat is an online platform that connects those who need, with those who want to give.

It exists to make the process of doing good easier by connecting you with with those who need. Finding time to help others in need is hard. Most of the times you may just need someone to tell you to get started, to remind you of the opportunities out there. Even if you have the inclination to do good, you are let down by the lack of information, and you have no idea how you can help someone.

This is where SupportBeat comes in, connecting you to the people who need. SupportBeat is an extensive resource of non-profits, and their needs. You can choose who you want to connect with, who you want to help, and how much you want to do.

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Today, Zorana Gee, Adobe Photoshop Product Manager will walk us through a simple design project using Photoshop CS5 Extended’s 3D tools. In this tutorial you will receive a brief introduction to the 3D workspace in Photoshop and receive some great tips on how to incorporate 3D into your Photoshop workflow.

Zorana has been on the Photoshop team for over 10 years and has been involved with Photoshop Extended from the beginning. Zorana was instrumental to the 3D effort as well as driving many feature improvements within Photoshop. She is the author of 3D in Photoshop: the Ultimate Guide for Creative Professionals and the iPad app, Photoshop 3D Guide. Zorana speaks worldwide representing Adobe and the Photoshop family line of professional products.

Part 1

Part 2

3D in Photoshop: the Ultimate Guide for Creative Professionals

Check out Zorana’s book 3D in Photoshop: the Ultimate Guide for Creative Professionals to learn more about Adobe Photoshop CS5′s 3D capabilities.

Psdtuts+

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The general purpose of adverting is to convey a message directly and effectively about a product or service; often the best way to do this is to strip things down to the bare essentials. Minimalism has long been one of the most powerful trends in advertising, and with the broadening dominance of digital media, print ads must speak to their market quickly and efficiently. This post brings together a selection of 20 minimal printed advertisements, stunning examples where less is most certainly more.

1. SanDisk

Image: minimalist-approa.ch

This charming minimalist ad compares compressing data on to a SanDisk Flash Drive with the beguiling art of placing ships in glass bottles.

2. Boysen Paints

Image: adoholik.com

Boysen Paints boast environmental certification in acknowledgment of their efforts to reduce the ecological impact of their products. This beautiful ad links the company to nature, with a colourful splash of paint forming the petals and pollen tube of a hibiscus flower.

3. Lego

Image: adsoftheworld.com

This wonderful minimalist design reflects the power of Lego’s famous building blocks to fire the imagination, with an incredibly simple arrangement of cubes creating a submarine’s periscope emerging from the deep blue sea.

4. Dolce and Gabbana

Image: nadinejolie.com

Scarlett Johansson adopts a Marilyn Monroe-style pose in this ad, with a minimal, milky colour scheme, drawing attention to Dolce and Gabbana’s red lipsticks.

5. Canadian Paralympics Committee

Image: penn-olson.com

The Canadian Paralympics Committee employs a no-nonsense approach to this advert for the 2010 team, emphasizing the athlete’s strength and confidence.

6. Wii

Image: wiichat.com

This early ad for the Nintendo Wii is minimal in the extreme, giving very little away about the console other than the statement ‘playing – believing’. There has been some dispute about the authenticity of this advert, apparently taken from the pages of a German games magazine, but if real it is a brave and intriguing piece of print advertising.

[onlymembers]

7. Volkswagen

Image: dsgnwrld.com

Dutchman MC Escher was, and still is, one of the most popular visual artists of the 20th Century, famous for his mathematically inspired prints of impossible architecture. This ad places Volkswagen’s 4Motion vehicles in the gravity defying forms of an Escheresque construction.

8. Subaru

Image: scoobyblog.com

Unusually for a car ad, this minimal design doesn’t feature the vehicle itself, but instead shows a stitched-up road apparently damaged by the ‘unkind’ wheels of the Subaru Impreza.

9. McCafe

Image: adsoftheworld.com

This ad for McDonald’s McCafe coffeehouse subsidiary features a coffee bean in the shape of a burger.

10. Chicago Tribune

Image: theinspirationroom.com

This minimal ad is from a series that reflects on the integrity and importance of the Chicago Tribune’s journalism, laid out with simple phrases and illustrations. The surface of the design, constructed with pages of the newspaper, has a pleasingly handmade feel.

11. 3M Scotch Brite

Image: adrants.com

The message behind this ad for 3M’s Scotch Brite rubber gloves is somewhat ambiguous, but the simple design is minimalist and fun nevertheless.

12. FedEx

Image: gunnjerkens.com

This superb ad for FedEx merges New York’s Statue of Liberty with Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, signifying the company’s intercity logistics.

13. Play-Doh

Image: puppiesandflowers.com

Razor blades, chainsaws, medical pills and this meat cleaver featured in a print campaign for Play-Doh, along with the reassuring message for parents that the children’s modelling product is ‘safe no matter what you make.’

14. Stihl

Image: desigg.com

Stihl make real chainsaws and outdoor power tools, and this sublime print ad is almost subliminal in its minimal design. A circle saw is busy cutting the shapes of stairs and landings from solid blocks of concrete.

15. Coca-Cola

Image: samprofeta.wordpress.com

A twist of lemon peel is set against a plain, pale background, with the fruit skin forming the distinctive shape of Coca-Cola’s classic letterform. The ad is for Coca-Cola Light Lemon, a soft drink launched in 2005, and discontinued in the UK later in the same year.

16. Dig2go

Image: ibelieveinadv.com

This minimal ad concept is for Dig2go audiobooks, which, as the design suggests, enables listeners to read with their ears.

17. World Trade Center Piano Concert

Image: paragonanubis.wordpress.com

In 2007, a piano recital of compositions by Rachmaninov was performed in memory of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. This advert for the event cleverly and sensitively uses piano keys to echo the outline of the Twin Towers.

18. Huggies

Image: ibelieveinadv.com

This fresh minimal ad is for Huggies’ baby wipes, which are ‘like having a bath anywhere.’

19. Jeep

Image: ibelieveinadv.com

The silhouettes of an Eskimo and Bushman merge in this minimal ad, with the cross-over discretely forming the shape of a Jeep 4×4, suggesting the vehicle is suitable for adventure at all ends of the Earth.

20. LA Bicycle

Image: brainbox.ro

This ad for La Bicycle’s folding bikes is pure minimal simplicity, a folded sheet of white paper representing the ease of collapsing and constructing the cycling machine.

[/onlymembers]

Article Source

http://www.mustardmonkey.co.uk

Mustard Monkey is a web portal that focuses exclusively on the promotion of home related products. We have created a unique website that is designed to support British retailers by increasing the number of customer acquisitions and product sales that they currently receive.

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