LizART Studio

Photoshop Tutorials: 60+ Hot New Tips

2010-08-17T17:29:00.002+08:00

Tutorials can often be your greatest source of inspiration when trying to design that project you have been putting off. In this post, I have rounded up a collection of very useful tutorials from around the web from the month of July 2010. You’ll find everything from creating awesome text made of 3D blocks in photoshop, to designing a beautiful cosmic space scene. So what are you waiting for…why not try one out?

Want more articles on useful tutorials? Check out some of my previous post:

50+ Awesome Must See Photoshop Tutorials (Part1)

60+ Useful Tutorials From Around The Web

After Effects Tutorial: 60+ Kick Ass Effects

50 Hot New Tutorials (Part2)

Logo Design: 40+ Must Have Tutorials

How To Create Vibrant Lighting Effects From Scratch

2010-04-30T17:36:00.002+08:00

Incorporating lighting effects is a great way to bring energy and flow into your designs. In this tutorial, I will show you how to create some amazing lighting effects from scratch using a free open source program and then adding final touches to the image inside of Photoshop. [ Read More ]

Exclusive Freebie: VectorLab Sample Pack

2010-04-30T17:31:00.002+08:00

I can’t think of a better way to start the week than some yummy free vectors, can you? Our friends at The Vector Lab have offered BittBox another exclusive freebie for everyone to enjoy. If you’ve never been to TheVectorLab.com, it’s a site that sells high quality, royalty free vectors on the cheap. (I especially like their engravings. They have some of the best engraved ornaments on the web) Open up your stock folder and add another file to your archive. You never know when you might need a spiderweb vector!

Nice design cover magazine...

2010-04-12T14:15:00.002+08:00

- DESIGN INDABA MAGAZINE -

10 creative design ideas for your electric plugs

2010-04-11T18:54:00.003+08:00

One of my favorite aspects of design in general is that it helps to improve the most commons items of our daily life. The following electric plugs and concepts illustrate this quite well, they all try to improve the usability and/or the look-and-feel of an appliance we use every day. [+more]

30 articles & tutorials to improve your icon design skills

2010-04-11T18:48:00.003+08:00

While it’s easy to find free icons on the Internet these days, the best way to make your website’s design unique is to create your own custom icons. If you have never done it or have little experience, you should definitely take a good look at these icon design tutorials and articles. [+more]

How to Layout a Newspaper Ad - Art is the main element

2010-04-11T12:51:00.007+08:00

This article guides you through the importance of using art in your newspaper ads. The number 1 issue in laying out an ad in a newspaper is to make it eye-catching. Because several ads are typically placed on one page, each ad needs to be distinct and stand out. This article guides you through the importance of using art in your newspaper ads.
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The number 1 issue in laying out an ad in a newspaper is to make it eye-catching. Because several ads are typically placed on one page, each ad needs to be distinct and stand out. Consider this: When you flip through a publication like a newspaper, you will at least stop and glance at the pictures if you do not read the articles. If the picture looks interesting, you will read the cutline. If that is intriguing, you’ll go on to read the rest of the story.

Artwork should be the main element. If you look at ads generated by national ad companies, the artwork occupies well over 50 percent of the ad space, sometimes as much as 100 percent of the ad as the text is embedded in the picture. Text occupies 20 percent or less of the available ad space. The best ads have the art occupy 70 percent or more of the space and the text 20 percent or less.

When building ads for a local newspaper, it’s best, if at all possible, to use pictures of local people in the ad. Local people mean local news. By getting local people in the ad, you are making a connection between the advertiser and the community. Readers will see the picture of someone they may know and will stop to find out what the person is doing. The picture should be interesting - not just a mug shot. Get a picture of the business owner and a customer talking or examining the business’ products. This puts the owner in the paper (they like that) and puts a customer in the paper, which shows the business is interested in serving its customers. By getting product in the picture as well, the ad will show what kind of business is being advertised.

It’s unfortunate but true that a surprising percentage of weekly newspaper subscribers are illiterate. Truly. Text does them no good. But they can and do look at the pictures to see what their friends, family and neighbors are up to. By including product in the picture, you are helping the illiterate readers understand what is being advertised.

The picture should be at the top or high up in the ad. Take a tip from the news side of newspapers. Pictures almost always go at the top of the story. It’s because the picture draws the reader into the story and we are conditioned from long habit to read a newspaper page from the top down.

The picture should reach horizontally from border to border or very close to that.

White space, as defined as open areas with nothing there can be good and can be an art element but most advertisers will look at this as wasted space. White space is not the space between letters or the leading between lines, unless the spacing is taken to extreme. White space can be wasted space, but doesn’t have to be. Except in rare cases, the white space should not be more than 15 percent of the ad. The rare cases where white space is the art element, the space should be at least 80 percent of the ad. A full page with two short lines of copy in the bottom half or middle of the page is one of the most effective ads you can get. It demands your attention.

Ben Baker is a 20-year newspaper editor with extensive experience in the graphic design and layout side of newspapers. He’s won close to 100 awards, including national awards, for his newspaper work.

- by Ben Baker

Hamilton-C2 ICU Ventilator Wins Medical Design Excellence Award

2010-04-10T23:44:00.003+08:00

Cannon Communications has announced that leading medical equipment developer Hamilton Medical and RKS have been awarded a Medical Design Excellence Award for the HAMILTON-C2 ICU Ventilator.

The Medical Design Excellence Awards competition is the only awards program that exclusively recognizes contributions and advances in the design of medical products.

Entries are evaluated on the basis of design and engineering features that improve healthcare delivery, change traditional medical attitudes or practices, and provide enhanced benefits to the patient.

The innovative HAMILTON-C2 features Hamilton's unique "Ventilation Cockpit" with an intelligent touch-screen interface that gives operators a quick, at-a-glance, dashboard display that provides operators exactly the information they need and helps them focus on what's important.

The approachable and intuitive display of the C2 tilts to accommodate different operator positions.

With inbuilt batteries and weighing less than 21 pounds the C2 can accompany a patient anywhere within the hospital, independently of central gas and power supplies.

Patients don't have to be disconnected for transport, increasing patient safety and comfort, while at the same time reducing operator workload.

The HAMILTON-C2 was developed with a keen awareness that emotions can play an important role in patient recovery.

Illustration Now: Volume 2

2010-04-10T23:42:00.002+08:00

Following the success of Illustration Now!, this installment presents a new selection of illustrators from all around the world on a budget price.

Whereas the first volume brought together a fascinating mix of star illustrators and brand new faces that together formed the face of illustration around the world, Illustration Now! Vol. 2 is even more exciting, featuring illustrators from over 20 countries, with styles ranging from cutting edge to traditional.

Also included is a dialog between design specialist Steven Heller and German illustrator Christoph Niemann about illustration's role in the world today.

Sounas Design a nice website as a reference...

2010-04-10T02:20:00.004+08:00

a illustrator / 2D animator artist... [more]

Countdown to Creative Suite 5

2010-04-10T02:16:00.001+08:00

Adobe has announced details of Creative Suite 5, with news on Photoshop CS5, Illustrator CS5, Dreamweaver CS5 and Flash CS5, as well as a new app called Flash Catalyst. The launch site includes snippets of video and peaks at new tools, more details of which will be covered in-depth in Computer Arts issue 175, on sale May 6 in the UK.
http://cs5launch.adobe.com/

Daily News - iVdopia Introduces HD Video Ads And Talk2Me Social Ads To iPad - TAXI: The Global Creative Network

2010-04-10T02:10:00.001+08:00

Daily News - iVdopia Introduces HD Video Ads And Talk2Me Social Ads To iPad - TAXI: The Global Creative Network

Coffee Cup

2010-04-08T22:48:00.001+08:00

IPhone Wallpaper

2010-04-08T01:45:00.001+08:00