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Category Archives: Tips for You
WordPress tip: Displaying tags in two columns
(NERD ALERT!) If you don’t do a lot of coding in WordPress, you can go right ahead and skip this post. But if you do some coding, or maybe want to take a peek at some coding and PHP machinations, … Continue reading
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A few handy web tools
Working at a college, I get all kinds of questions from students about resources, tips and things to help make their (web design) lives easier. Most folks know I’m a web geek kind of gal, so a lot of questions … Continue reading
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New year, new goals, new you
It’s almost two weeks into 2010. I’m sure the year started off with many promises to make yourself a better person, to do better things, etc. Hopefully, two weeks into the year, those goals are still alive and haven’t fallen … Continue reading
My files are here, there and everywhere …
In this day and age, it’s important for your files to be pretty portable. Clients like to e-mail us stuff, and we as designers are pretty mobile ourselves. Freelancers aren’t really tethered to desks anymore, and some people like to … Continue reading
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The Importance of Being Professional
(as opposed to being Ernest … but that’s besides the point.) There are some things that seem to be real no-brainers, but the reminder to always stay professional, even in the face of great adversity or the risk of your … Continue reading
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Thanks for the awesomeness, CFC ’09!
Went to the Creative Freelancer Conference in San Diego last week, and had an amazing time. It couldn’t have come at a better time for me personally, since I decided recently to go solo full-time and was feeling a little … Continue reading
Posted in Inspiration, Tips for You
Tagged business, creative freelancer conference, Tips for You
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Blending, shading and the blend tool in Illustrator
As promised, here are some tips on using the blend tool to make gradients in Illustrator. We’ll take the jellybean in the previous post about shading and do this: First off, if you are unfamiliar with the awesomeness of the … Continue reading
Shading and such in Illustrator
Came across this fantastic post about doing basic shading in Illustrator the other day. If you’re one of those people who laments the flatness of your drawings in Illustrator (like me), it’s a great little read. What I liked most … Continue reading
Illustrator Brush Basics
In our Mac Lab at Sac City, I used to get all kinds of questions about making and using brushes in Illustrator. I also came across a great scatter brush primer online a little while ago, which reminded me I … Continue reading
Getting your act (and portfolio) together
Came across this great article from Smashing Magazine: 10 Steps to the Perfect Portfolio Website. Tons and tons of great tips, including how to make everything more concise and clear. I especially like the tip about having a tagline because … Continue reading
Drawing: It’s a useful skill!
Came across this excellent article by Chris Spooner of SpoonGraphics: 40 Free Tutorials on Advanced Drawing Techniques. There’s really a lot of good stuff in that post, including drawing manga-style things, drawing actual people, even a great tutorial on drawing … Continue reading
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TGIHMF (Thank goodness I have my files!)
One of my design teachers used to emphasize the importance of naming files correctly and having some kind of convention so that if anyone has to fill in for you and look at your files, he or she can tell … Continue reading
Posted in Projects, Tips for You
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Illustrator tip: Stripes and multiple strokes
As a tutor, I used to get asked by a lot of students how to do multiple strokes in Illustrator. Some people used to do it by eye, drawing two shapes of different colors and trying to align them perfectly. … Continue reading
Little ninjas in Illustrator.
A little while ago, I posted about a tutorial on SpoonGraphics about creating a gang of vector ninjas in Illustrator. I did get around to playing with the tutorial with these results: (OK, so it’s a single ninja, not a … Continue reading
Posted in Stuff We Make, Tips for You, Tutorials We Do
Tagged Adobe Illustrator, characters, drawing
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Inspiration
Before I start, I’d like to remind everyone that any info I give shouldn’t be taken as gospel. I’m pretty new to the whole design scene myself, so I’m sure there are many things that I do badly or just … Continue reading
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