Of the 27,397,260 business cards printed every day, 88% will be thrown out in less than a week. But that doesn't happen because business cards are ineffective as a marketing medium. In fact, it only takes 2,000 business cards to increase a company's sales by nearly 3%. That's a shockingly high return for just one marketing resource. So why do so many cards end up in the garbage? The fact is, a lot of business cards have crummy designs. No one wants to hold on to something that looks and feels … [Read more...]
How to Print Like a Pro: Understanding Double-Sided Printing
January 12, 2016 By 2 Comments
You're ready to select print options for your new marketing supplies. But every time you pick something out, it won't work. The printer says the stock isn't compatible with the imprint method, or you can only coat Side 1 of your design, not Side 2. That would be fine, except that you're trying to order folders—which obviously have more than two sides. The printer isn't much help, either; they're just babbling on in their techy jargon, which sounds like it's just a bunch of made-up words. … [Read more...]
How to Create a Personal Logo That Makes Your Friends Jealous
November 10, 2015 By 15 Comments
Creating a personal logo is the easiest task you'll ever undertake as a graphic designer—and the hardest. The good news is, you can be as free and expressive as you like. After all, you are the brand in this scenario, which means you know more about it than any other client that you'll design for. But that means expectations are high, and the pressure is on. As a graphic designer, your logo isn't just the centerpiece of your brand identity; it also doubles as a sort of portfolio piece that … [Read more...]
31 Techniques for Creative Two-Letter Logos
October 13, 2015 By 4 Comments
Letters are very strange creatures. They're the building blocks of our entire system of written communication, but when you get right down to it, they're really just pictures. They deliver a direct message to the reader, but they're also visual elements that can vary in color, shape and personality. This makes them especially popular when it comes to the look of a company's logo; just a couple letters can convey a world of meaning. But it also makes them very tricky to work with. Though it has … [Read more...]
200+ Cool Personal Logo Designs for Inspiration
September 29, 2015 By 5 Comments
When a client's corporate brand and personal name are one and the same, you're not just designing a logo for the company. It represents the individual behind the brand. One wrong move could tarnish your client's name—literally. The best personal logo designs turn an individual's name into a cohesive brand identity (instead of just something their parents picked for them when they were born). To get you inspired, we're sharing some of the best examples of personal logos. You can browse them all, … [Read more...]
How to Use the Golden Ratio to Create Gorgeous Graphic Designs
September 15, 2015 By 8 Comments
Want to be on the same creative level as Leonardo Da Vinci, Salvador Dali and the designers of the Parthenon? They all have one simple concept in common. The Ancient Greeks were one of the first to discover a way to harness the beautiful asymmetry found in plants, animals, insects and other natural structures. They expressed this mathematical phenomenon with the Greek letter phi, but today, we call it the golden ratio—also known as the divine proportion, the golden mean, and the golden … [Read more...]
15 Easy Tips for Cropping Photos Like a Pro
September 1, 2015 By 11 Comments
If you think that cropping a photo is just as simple as cutting it down to the size you need for your print layout, then you're missing out on all that the crop tool has to offer. Think of the crop tool as an invisible frame that draws the eye towards the most important aspects of your photo. Making the right cuts in your photo can have a drastic impact on the visuals and can even manipulate the way the audience engages with it emotionally. If cropping has only been an afterthought in your … [Read more...]
Create a Realistic Emboss/Deboss Effect in Photoshop (Tutorial)
August 27, 2015 By 9 Comments
The coolest thing about embossing and debossing is that it's completely exclusive to printed paper. You'll never see a truly "embossed" imprint on a web image—but that makes it difficult when you want to show off your embossed print design on a computer screen. In the following tutorial, we'll show you how to use a simple Photoshop technique to create embossed and debossed effects that look so much like the real thing, nobody will be able to tell the difference. We'll be applying the … [Read more...]
How to Slim a Face in Photoshop with Just a Few Easy Steps (Tutorial)
August 18, 2015 By 7 Comments
Ever hear the phrase "the camera adds ten pounds?" Any number of things can go wrong during a photo shoot and make the subject look heavier than they actually are. Maybe the lighting was off, the angle was bad, or the subject's posture was unflattering. But there's a simple way to fix those mistakes and bring out your subject's natural beauty. There's nothing we hate more than when designers reinforce unrealistic body expectations by using Photoshop to slim down models until they look nothing … [Read more...]
How to Turn a Photo Into a Beautiful Painting in Photoshop (Tutorial)
August 4, 2015 By 1 Comment
The best thing about Photoshop is that it allows you to do things in a few minutes that would normally take hours or days to complete. Case in point: instead of spending half a lifetime painting a picture, you can use Adobe Photoshop to make a photograph look like a hand-painted masterpiece in minutes. Converting a photo into a painting takes more than just using Photoshop's default tools. You need a variety of filters, brushes and design techniques to actually make it look realistic. … [Read more...]