September 2010
Best Of Web And Design In September 2010
The monthly wrap is another good collection of some great Photoshop tutorials which i’m sure you should check out will I’m sure will teach you some new Photoshop skills. If your more of an illustrator guy rather than Photoshop their certainly is some illustrator tutorials, alongside a showcase of some of best freebies from September 2010.
Learn Design Socially and Effortlessly
How Do Most Designers Get Inspired?
How do most designers get inspired each day? They might look at CSS galleries, read tutorials, or check out sites such as DeviantArt and Ffffound. This is what I call ‘active learning’. You are actively seeking inspiration, and expending effort to become inspired.
However, I’ve begun to realize that whilst these are all valuable sources of inspiration, they have their limitations. If everyone is reading the same tutorials, or checking out the same galleries then it becomes harder for us to be unique.
I’ll admit, this article was partially inspired by this great article at WebDesignerDepot:
This Week’s Featured Authors
Congratulations to this week’s featured marketplace authors!
ActiveDen Featured Author: Avalonweb
Our current featured author here on ActiveDen is Avalonweb who joined in April 2009, has a portfolio of 20 items for sale and has racked up 1510 sales!
View Avalonweb’s Portfolio
New Tuts+ Feature: Authors Can Promote Their Marketplace Items
If you’re a marketplace author, you can now promote your marketplace items at the bottom of any tutorial or article you’ve made for Tuts+. This is a great chance to get your items in front of thousands of people, so if you’ve worked with Tuts+ before please fill out this form to start promoting your marketplace items on your Tuts+ posts.
The “Jeffrey Way” image above is what the promotion will look like. You can add the marketplace you are most active on, and it will show a full row of your most recent files.
Envato Pronunciation Guide
After the Envato meetup in Chicago, it became apparent that no two people pronounced anything related to Envato the same. That’s why we’ve developed the official Envato pronunciation guide. Special thanks to Lance for making this guide a reality.
Envato
en-vah-toe or en–bot-o
Really, either one works, but the closer you get to making it sound like a Spanish word (en–bot-o), the cooler it sounds. The only truly incorrect pronunciation is in-vay-toe (I’m looking at you, Jarel).
Tuts+
Tuts-plus
Toots are baby farts. Yes, it makes sense to say toots because we’re just abbreviating tutorial, but it just sounds silly. It’s tuts, like cuts, but with a t.
How to Design a Modern Blog Layout
Final Image
As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:
Step 1
Create a new document (1000X1450px). Fill the top 450px of your canvas with 267ac0, and the area beneath this with 236faf.
Meet the Staff: The CodeCanyon Team
Every week we’ll introduce you to an Envato staff member or team. This week we meet the CodeCanyon team.
This page is from the Envato Marketplace Wiki. It’s amazing what you can learn there. Have you checked it out?
Sometimes, it’s easy to forget that actual human beings sort through each and every submission to CodeCanyon on a daily basis. The following staff members are highly active in the community forums, and review one or more categories. They’re friendly, so feel free to say hi to them!
How To Become One Of The World’s Best Designers
This article is several essential tips which can help you to grow as designer and overall just become a better all round designer.
Becoming part of the design community
Becoming a better designer interacting with design community plays an important role. Interaction within the design community can involve participating in discussions within the comments on a design orientated blog post or may be even joining a design forum.
Freebie Friday
Learn How To Create A Photoshop Smoke brush Within Minutes
Something which is ever so popular is Photoshop brushes. Photoshop smoke brushes are widely used by a lot Photoshop designers. This is a quick tip which is super easy to follow which shows you how you can create a Photoshop brush in less than a couple of minuet.
Tutorial Details
Difficulty: Beginner
Tutorial estimation time: Under 5mins
Program: Photoshop
30 Design Tutorials For Recreating A Brands Logo Identity
Logo designs are the simplest designs a designer can create but at the same time can be the most technical design process. This post is a collection of popular brands and companies logo designs combined with design tutorials which are step by step and easy to follow design tutorials.
Distort Paint Splatters to Construct a Unique Photo-Manipulation
Final Image
As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:
Step 1
Download this great paper texture.
Create a new document (600X650px) and paste in the texture.
Call this layer ‘old paper texture’. Then reduce this layer’s opacity to 60%.
Create a Cool Abstract Photo-Manipulation
Final Image
As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:
Step 1
Download this great paper texture.
Create a new document (600X700px) and paste in the texture.
Call this layer ‘old paper texture’.
Buy Our New Rockable Book: Theme Tumblr Like a Pro
Today Rockable Press released Jeffrey Way’s new book, “Theme Tumble Like a Pro”. Interested in learning to create cool Tumblr themes? This book is what you’re after.
Meet the Staff: The GraphicRiver Team
Every week we’ll introduce you to an Envato staff member or team. This week we meet the GraphicRiver team.
This page is from the Envato Marketplace Wiki. It’s amazing what you can learn there. Have you checked it out?
Welcome to GraphicRiver! At GraphicRiver you can buy and sell royalty-free, layered Photoshop files, vectors, icon packs, Adobe add-ons, isolated photos, and design templates for just a few dollars. Items are priced on the complexity, quality and use of the file. The site is home to a bustling community of graphic designers and illustrators.
Professional Retouching Tutorial: Using Curves in Photoshop (Part 3)
Using Curves in Photoshop
If you’ve ever struggled to get your head around curves adjustments in Photoshop, you found the right tutorial. We’re going to look at using different points on the curve, what they represent, and using the different RGB channels to make specific colour adjustments.
This tutorial is part of a PSDFan series on professional retouching, and as a digital retoucher I spend most days using curves in one way or another. Once you have a grasp of the basics, you’ll have at your command a seriously powerful tool for editing your photographs.
Freebie Friday
I love free stuff. Especially when it’s not free junk. Here are some amazing freebies from around the Tuts+ sites. It’s definitely not rubbish!
Psdtuts Presents Exclusive Wallpapers by Jennifer Cirpici
Psdtuts+ are offering two exclusive wallpapers by artist Jennifer Cirpici. Check them out below.
Exclusive Wallpaper – Breaking Canvas
Exclusive Widescreen Wallpaper – What Guys Dream Of
Author Interview: Theme Team
Meet Theme Team from ThemeForest. And CodeCanyon. And GraphicRiver!
Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from, what do you do for a living?
Theme Team is actually comprised of a few people, and each person has worked with me (Jason) and Kristy for 3-5 years. We’re based in Austin, TX, where Kristy, Drew, Jon and I live, but the rest of our motley crew is dispersed across the country and the world. Christopher on the east coast, Pu in China and Sasha and Victoria in the Ukraine.
Fresh Articles, Tutorials And Awesome Freebies For Designers
Its been a month since we launched our brand new sister site Vector Patterns and the support which we have received has been amazing. In this article we would like to share some of fresh new articles, tutorials and freebies which have been featured on the site. If you like the content featured on the site be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed or join the mailing list to be keep up to date with the latest blog posts.
Envato Meetup Live Video Stream Tonight!
Envato Meetup Live Video Stream Tonight!
Tonight at 7pm CST we will be streaming a live video feed from our Envato Community Night here in Chicago. This will give you a chance to “hang out” with the Envato staff as we have an informal meet and greet with those who use the sites. For those who can’t make it or if we encounter unforeseen technical difficulties, we’ll record the stream for you to go back and watch later.
View Live Broadcast Here:
This Week’s Featured Authors
Congratulations to this week’s featured marketplace authors!
ActiveDen Featured Author: dexterous
Our current featured author here on ActiveDen is dexterous who joined in September 2009, has a portfolio of 8 items for sale and has racked up 283 sales!
View dexterous’ Portfolio
Design a Dark, Professional Website Layout
Final Image
As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:
Step 1
Create a new document (1000X1000px) and fill your canvas with DCDCDC.
This Week at Envato
Freebie Friday
Author Interview: Modelplusmodel
Meet Modelplusmodel from 3DOcean!
Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from, what do you do for a living?
Den: At first, let me introduce ourselves. Modelplusmodel is in fact two people: Denis Tsybko aka Marty McFly and Victoria Polyakova aka Breeze. We are 25 years old and live in Russia.
Congrats to our August Community Superstar & New Tuts+ Mod!
If you didn’t know, every month on the Envato Marketplaces we pick one user to receive the Community Superstar award. Users who receive this badge have been observed being a repeatedly helpful member and constantly affecting the community in positive ways. The winner of the Community Superstar badge also receives a nice prize, which can include anything from Rockable Press Vouchers, Marketplace Credits, Tuts+ Memberships and so on!
Best Of Web And Design In August 2010
A ton of great tutorials from august some useful design tutorials to teach you some new useful tip and tricks. Alongside Creative Nerds launching an new design blog, we have featured a few freebies within the roundup of our new site.
This Week’s Featured Authors
Here are the featured authors across all marketplaces this week. Congratulations everyone – especially Abduzeedo, our first ever Tutorials featured author!
ActiveDen Featured Author: scottrockers
Our current featured author here on ActiveDen is scottrockers who joined in February 2009, has a portfolio of 16 items for sale and has racked up 192 sales!
View scottrockers’ Portfolio
