williams | silverpeakarts.ca

There are lots of pre-made web buttons floating around out there you can grab whenever you need a “button” look. But when you have to create something specific, perhaps a little more realistic than the standard glassy button – or a little less symmetrical – then you have to roll up your sleeves and do it yourself.

Think of it this way… do you want the same buttons as everyone else or do you want to create unique graphics for yourself or your clients? Whatever the answer is there is no harm in knowing how they are built using Adobe Illustrator.

Finished Image

January 6th, 2009 | Tags: adobe, button, clipping mask, CMYK, coke sign, gradient, graphic artist, how to, illustrator, Outer Glow, print production, RGB, tips, transparency mask, tutorial | Category: graphic artist's resource, illustrator, tutorials | Leave a comment

Note: This Photoshop® tip assumes a basic knowledge of photoshop. I have found that this time-saver has worked over the last 3 versions of Photoshop.

This TIP is one of my most used, and has saved me hours of computer time.

If you have to do the same thing to a great number of files use your ACTIONS palette to record the changes and then BATCH process either an entire folder of images the same way or just one at a time. Either way it’s a great time saver that I have used for watermarking, resizing, adding effects or whatever to large or small groups of images at the same time or – since the action is saved – at a later date. You can even export the actions to transfer to other computers. More »

January 9th, 2008 | Tags: actions, batch, palettes, photoshop, pixels, tips | Category: graphic artist's resource, photoshop, tutorials | Leave a comment

If you are designing for direct mail and require a Canadian postal indicia, this link is a good place to start.

Canada Post

david

December 17th, 2007 | Tags: design, direct mail, graphic artist, postal indicia, print production, printng, resource, tips | Category: graphic artist's resource | Leave a comment

LPI, DPI, PPI… yes, graphic artists – like any profession – have their own lingo. But we confuse even ourselves sometimes. Sometimes the artist is so focussed on the design that the production considerations go out the window. It happens, but here’s your ticket out of such jams. With a little forethought, you can design your image to the highest necessary resolution without overkill and be prepared for all the other media as well. More »

December 17th, 2007 | Tags: annual report, brochure, DPI, graphic artist, help, lpi, magazine, newsprint, photoshop, PPI, print, resolution, resource, tips | Category: graphic artist's resource, print production | Leave a comment