Noupe Design Blog

30 Fantastic and Splendid Digital Painting Tutorials

2010-09-02T14:31:08Z

We all have our spirit of imagination from our childhood — we give a shape to our thoughts by drawing image on school yard, on a piece of paper or on a digital tablet. Photoshop, Wacom and Illustrator are beautiful tools that help us transform our imagination into beautiful drawings. Today we present useful tutorials teaching us techniques for digital drawing and painting.

Digital Painting Tutorials

Making of Funfair
This tutorial will show you how to make a funny character in Photoshop.

Do you want to Play with me
Author has created this artwork in Photoshop and with a Wacom Intuos.

Making of Hecate
Author will share making of a painting of Hecate who is the Greek goddess of the crossroads.

Project Overview: Public Transportation
In this tutorial, author will take you through the transition process of the drawing of the trucker sitting on a seat to a cool colored picture in Photoshop.

Digital Painting Lesson: Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge Special Edition
In this tutorial author walks you through the construction process in amazing detail.

Colorize a Comic Strip With Photoshop
In this quick tip tutorial author will demonstrate how to import a sketch into Photoshop and color it.

Breakfast Wars
In this tutorial, author will show the process and some techniques to create his artwork from design to rendering.

Painting fantasy eyes
Author explains how to make eyes look natural in painting.

Making of “Autumn”
In this tutorial, you will make Yellow & red leaves flying around the girl, with autumn smiling.In

Painting Jake Sully’s Avatar
In this tutorial, author makes a fan art of Avatar movie’s protagonist, Jake Sully.

How to Paint a Realistic Proportioned Female Face from Scratch
In this tutorial author will show you how to paint a proportioned female face from scratch. this tutorial will start with the absolute basics and move on to more advanced techniques, so even beginners can follow.

Making of Grenat
Author shares the details of making of “sparkling blossoms of the rock”. Grenat (garnet)

Seascape Part I: The Landscape Photoshop Tutorial
This Photoshop tutorial will show you how to complete an underwater landscape painting step by step. This is part one of a two part series.

Making of Under the Root
This tutorial will take you through the process of Making of Under the Root, inspired from the children story “Nausicaa and the Old Tree”.

Matte Painting: Making of Barbarossa
This is a matte painting that author have realized for the “Barbarossa” movie and shows Rome’s sunup in the year 1000.

Draw a T-Shirt in Photoshop
This detailed step by step tutorial will show you techniques on creating shapes, shading, embossing, and more.

Making Of Boudicca 3060 A.D
This article will provide you with a walkthrough ofauthor’s experiences during the creation of Boudicca 3060 A.D.and informative.

How To Create A Slick Anime Character In Photoshop
n this tutorial, we’ll learn how to draw an Anime Style character.

Making of The Royal Assassin
In this short tutorial author will give you a walkthrough of the way he build up an illustration from start to finish.

How to Draw a Photorealistic Coffee Cup
In this tutorial we’ll draw a very realistic cup of coffee. Underneath the cup we’ll add some stain using custom brush.

Cloud strife
This tutorial will show you how to make a character in Photoshop to capture the mood in the portrait.

Making of Cadenus and Vanessa
Author will take us through the process of making Making of Cadenus and Vanessa, made using Wacom Intuos, Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop.

Seascape Painting Part II: Creating the Fish and Finishing the Picture
This detailed tutorial is the second part of the Seascape Painting series to teach you how to draw the fishes and add a finishing touch to the image.

Making of Always in My Heart
Author has created this artwork using: Corel Painter, Wacom Graphire and Hyde, Japanese rocker and vocalist L’arc~en~ciel (in French it means “The Arc in the Sky) band.

Beach Girl Drawing
Learn how to create a delightful portrait from sketch to Photoshop. This tutorial will teach you how to color, shade, and create a gorgeous beach scene.

Use a Tablet to Create Stunning Comic Book Fan Art Illustrations
In this tutorial author will review some tips and tricks when working with a digital tablet and Photoshop. The artwork we will use is a fan art illustration of the Knights of the Zodiac character.

Romantic Couple Painting
This tutorial will teach you how to transform an inked drawing into a full-color piece of fantasy artwork entirely through the use of Photoshop.

Making of Be My Valentine
Author shares the details of making a beautiful paining of a girl.

Spider Harp
This picture represent a fantasy musician able to play harp on a spider web.

Beautiful Beach and Palms Wallpapers for Your Desktop

2010-09-01T14:20:03Z

We love to spice up your desktop with nice wallpapers, and sometimes with nature photography. It all depends on your mood. In this post, we’ll be showcasing Beautiful Beach Wallpapers. You’ll get to see the detail, skill, and dedication that go into creating these incredible wallpapers, and how they help fuel our daily lives with inspiration and beauty of nature.

Beach and Palms Wallpapers

Relax – Hammock Hanging from Palm Tree
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768

Solo
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768 3594 x 2527

James Bond Beach , Thailand
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768 1280×960 1600×1200

Palmy
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768

Singing beach #11
Download Wallpaper: 1024 x 769 1570 x 1179

Navagio (shipwreck) beach
Download Wallpaper: 1024 x 786 5577 x 4281

Beach sunset musth
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768

Durdle Door, Lulworth, Dorset
Download Wallpaper: 1024 x 769 1600 x 1200 2560 x 1600

Palm Tree Beach
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768 1280×960 1600×1200

Secret Ocean
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768 1280×960

Bahrain – Beaches in Bahrain – Blue Hour
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768

Roatan Beach
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768

Sunset – Ocean view
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768

Being a Couple
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768

Widemouth pebbles and surf
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768

Jamaican Sunset
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768 4272 x 284

Idyllic
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768

Sparkling Crystal Clear – Beautiful Ocean Water
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768

Beautiful Island
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768

Hammock On The Beach
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768

Lost Way Sea-Entry
Download Wallpaper: 1680×1050

Island
Download Wallpaper: 1280×1024

Beach
Download Wallpaper: 1600×1200

Beautiful…
Download Wallpaper: 1680×1050

Waikiki at Dusk Hawaii
Download Wallpaper: 1600×1200

Cloak of Night
Download Wallpaper: 2560×1600

Enhanced Image – Beach
Download Wallpaper: 2560×1600

Hawaii
Download Wallpaper: 1600×1200

Beach And Sea
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768

Beach and Rocks
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768 1280×1024 1600×1200

Beach Chair
Download Wallpaper: 1280×800 1680×1050 2560×1600

Beach
Download Wallpaper: 2560×1704

Rcok beach in Mexico
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768 1280×1024 1600×1200

Palms on the Beach
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768 1280×1024 1600×1200

Palm Paradise in Maldive Islands
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768 1280×1024 1600×1200 2560×1920

Sunset at Long Beach
Download Wallpaper: 1600×1200

Beach
Download Wallpaper: 1280×800

Dreamscape Beach
Download Wallpaper: 1280×960

Beach Sunset
Download Wallpaper: 1280×960

Lion at the beach
Download Wallpaper: 1400×1050

Nightly Pool
Download Wallpaper: 2288×1712

HDR Beach
Download Wallpaper: 1920×1265

Horses on the beach
Download Wallpaper: 1280×800 1680×1050

Beautiful Beach
Download Wallpaper: 1280 x 800 1680 x 1050 2560 x 1600

Beach
Download Wallpaper: 1280×720 1920 x 1080

UFO over the beach
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768 1280×960

The Big
Download Wallpaper: 1280×800

Byron Bay Lighthouse, NSW
Download Wallpaper: 1280×800

Krf, Grcka (Corfu, Greece)
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768

Palm Sunset
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768

Angaga Island Resort & Spa, Maldives
Download Wallpaper: 1280 x 851

Fresno County Scene
Download Wallpaper: 1024 x 769 2832 x 2128

Island Blue
Download Wallpaper: 1024 x 784 2031 x 1555

Rocky Beach HDR
Download Wallpaper: 1024 x 784

Rodeo Beach Sunset – Marin Headlands
Download Wallpaper: 1024 x 677 1356 x 897

Dungeness Boats, U.k.
Download Wallpaper: 1024 x 677

Kamakura Beach
Download Wallpaper: 1024 x 681 3865 x 2570

Moloa’a Beach
Download Wallpaper: 1024×768 1600×1200

Print Tutorial: Creating A Magazine Cover

2010-08-31T12:59:04Z

By Cameron Chapman

Graphic design in a print environment can be a nice change for someone who normally does web design. It’s a slightly different skillset, but still incorporates a lot of the same concepts. Print projects can be an exciting new challenge, something that lets a designer stretch their creativity a bit and even recharge if they’re getting stressed out by too many web design projects.

Designing magazine covers can be one of the most fun and challenging print design projects out there. Covers are so visible; it’s something everyone who sees the magazine will definitely see. The same goes for designing covers for brochures, catalogs, or other print pieces.

The tutorial here will show you the basics of creating a cover for a fictitious free travel magazine. It’s meant to be a technical tutorial more than a design tutorial, but the finished product is serviceable and of professional quality. Take what you learn here about print layout and Adobe InDesign and apply it to your own projects. The basic techniques can even be applied to something like a full-page display ad.

Here’s the final cover we’ll be creating:

Before You Begin

Like website design, there are certain things you need to know before designing any kind of print layout. While not complicated, there are many things that we rarely take into consideration when designing a website that are vital to the success of a print project. Key among these is image quality and margins (including bleeds).

When choosing images for a print layout (or when provided with images), you have to make sure they’re both sharp enough and have a high enough resolution. What looks great onscreen may be blurry or pixelated when printed on an offset printer (or even an inkjet). Any images used in a print layout need to be at least 300 dpi in order to look good. Any lower than that and they run the risk of being blurry or pixelated.

When resizing images for print layouts, remember to turn off resampling in your Photoshop settings (or whatever program you’re using to resize them). With very high quality images, you can sometimes get away with using images that are slightly lower resolution (as low as 250dpi at times), but check with your printer to see what they recommend based on your paper and other choices.

If you’re unsure of how an image is going to look, print it out on photo paper. While this won’t give you an exact replica of how it will look when offset or digitally printed, it will at least give you a good idea of how sharp the image will look.

Another key difference between web design and print design is the units of measure used. In web design, we generally use either pixels or em units (and sometimes percentages). In print design, you’ll be using inches, centimeters, or points and picas. Points and picas are the traditional layout terms used in typography and print design. Traditionally, there are six picas in an inch (so each pica is 1/6th of an inch) and twelve points in each pica (so each point is 1/72nd of an inch). The default unit of measure in InDesign is points and picas.

Materials You’ll Need

We’re going to use Photoshop for resizing and reformatting our cover image, but you could use any photo editing program that will allow you to resize and change the color space of an image. We’ll also be using Adobe InDesign CS2 (you can use newer or older versions and most of the techniques and keyboard shortcuts should carry over) for our layout. The principles here can be applied to any layout program, though the exact steps would be different.

For this tutorial, we’re using only freely available resources. You’ll need to download a Creative Commons image from Flickr (the one here is the Cape Spear Lighthouse, taken by Jeremy Hetzel). Make sure you download it in the largest size possible. Here’s the image:

We’ve also used three freely-available typefaces, all from The League of Moveable Type. The fonts are: Prociono, Junction, and League Gothic. Download and install these fonts if you don’t already have them.

Preparing Your Cover Image

You’ll need to do a couple of things after you download the cover image from Flickr. First, you need to make sure the image is large enough and that the resolution is at 300dpi. We need our cover image to be at least 8.75″ x 11.125″ (roughly 2,625 x 3,340 pixels) to account for the bleed in our document. This image, unfortunately, isn’t 300dpi at the required size. We’re going to use it anyway for this tutorial, but realize that if printed on an offset or digital printer, it wouldn’t come out looking as sharp as we want.

We’re just going to resize this to 8.75″ wide (which makes it just under 230dpi). If the item you’re designing is going to be printed on something like newsprint, then you can get away with a lower resolution. Some photos will come out looking fine at resolutions like this on glossy paper, while others won’t. Again, it’s a risk if you want to use an image less than 300dpi for any printed material.

The other thing we need to do is convert the image to CMYK. Go to Image > Mode > CMYK Color. I usually opt not to flatten images if prompted, but with something like this, it doesn’t matter, as it’s only one layer.

Then, save your image as a .TIF file with no compression. If you save it as a JPEG, you’re likely to get artifacts in your final, printed piece. Saving in an uncompressed format eliminates this.

The Basic Layout

We’re going to set up a basic layout first, and then focus on styles, colors, and other design elements. This workflow tends to work well for beginners, though more advanced users may do their layout and styling at the same time.

It’s also common to need to tweak things a bit as you go on. Nudging images, text, headlines and other elements around a bit as you work is just as normal in print design as it is in web design, even when we use a grid-based layout.

First, you’ll need to set up a new document in InDesign. It’s easier to just show the settings rather than spelling all of them out. Your new document dialogue box should look like this:

You’ll notice we’ve set this up with 12 columns. This is to give us more guidelines to work with, even though our cover design will really only have more like two columns. Anything more than 12 columns tends to get too close together to work with effectively.

You’ll also notice we have a .125″ bleed all the way around our document. This is so that if the printer is slightly off, we don’t end up with blank white space along any of the edges of our cover. A bleed is vital in print design when anything but white space is going to meet the edge of your page.

Your document should look like this:

At this point, I always save the document. I also save frequently throughout the design process (using ?S makes it faster). I can’t count the number of times I’ve been nearly finished with a project only to have the power go out or my computer freeze up, costing me hours of work. Saving every few minutes means you’ll only ever lose a few minutes’ worth of work.

The first thing we’ll do is place your cover image. Create a graphic frame using the Rectangle Frame Tool (F) that follows the red bleed guidelines just outside the page outline. The Rectangle Frame Tool usually defaults to create a graphic frame, but right click in the frame when it’s done, click on “Content”, and verify that there’s a check mark next to “Graphic”.

Place your image in the box next. Make sure the box is selected and then either go to File and then Place, or just use ?D (all the shortcuts given correspond to the Mac shortcuts; for PC shortcuts, check out this page). Then browse to the correct image and click on “Open”.

You may want to adjust the position of your image within the graphic frame (since it defaults to aligning the upper right corners). To do this, use the Direct Selection Tool (A) and then drag the image (you can also use your arrow keys to nudge it around once you’ve clicked on it).

Add Some Text

Next, draw a text frame using the Type Tool (T). Use the top, left, and right margins as a guide. Then type “Newfoundland” in the frame. Set the font to Prociono, 84 pt. For now, we’ll leave it black. Since it’s only one line, you won’t need to adjust the leading. For the most part, the fonts we’ve selected have excellent leading, and won’t need to be adjusted for this tutorial.

To the lower right of the title, add another text frame aligned with the right margin. In this, type “Travel Guide”. The font should be changed to Junction and the size should be 24 pt. Again, leave it black for now.

We want this “Travel Guide” text to be right aligned, so let’s open the Paragraph options box. To do this go to Window, then Type & Tables, and then Paragraph (or use Shift+?+T). Select the right align option here. Leave the options open so we can go back to it later.

Let’s nudge our background image down a bit, so the top of the lighthouse is below the title.

Now we’ll add in some teasers for the content inside the magazine. Create a text frame in the grassy area to the right of the staircase, aligned with the right margin. Type “Visit historic Cape Spear Lighthouse” here, and change the font to Junction, 30pt, and white. Go back to the Paragraph options box and right-align this text.

Create another frame on the other side, in the rocks below the lighthouse, and add the text “Camping and Hiking in Gros Morne National Park”. Set this to Prociono, 30pt, and left-align it. Let’s make it white, too.

We also need to add a “FREE!” message just over our title, so vacationers know the magazine is, well, free. Turn your guides back on for this one (?;), and then create a text frame just above our top margin, but lined up with the left margin. Type “FREE!” in that frame, and set the font to League Gothic (we’re using a different font here so it will stand out a bit more), 30pt. Then nudge it down until the bottom of the text sits right on the top margin guide.

Adding Some Style

Now we want to add in some style to our text, and make it stand out a bit. I’m sure you’ve noticed that parts of our teasers aren’t legible, due to the background image. Let’s change that.

First, hide your guides (?;) and frame edges (?H), both of which are located under the “View” menu. This gives us a better idea of what’s visible, without a bunch of extra stuff clogging up our screen.

Use the Selection Tool (V) and click on the “Camping and Hiking” text frame. Copy it and then use paste in place (under the Edit menu) to paste it in the exact spot of the original. Then use your arrow keys to nudge it down twice and right twice. Change the text color to black, and then send it backward (?[) until it's just behind the original text frame. This now serves as a drop shadow, which adds definition to the text.

You might wonder why we're creating a drop shadow in this manner, when InDesign has built-in shadow capabilities. The short answer is: the built-in shadows suck. They look horrible. You can spend a ton of time trying to fine-tune them to look good, but for the most part, it's very limiting. And if you want to create a nice, sharp drop shadow (which looks a lot better in this kind of design than a blurry, shaded drop shadow), this method is much quicker. If you still want to experiment with InDesign's drop shadow function, you can find it under the "Object" menu.

Recreate the same effect under your other teaser text box.

Color

So now we have a mostly black-and-white layout, as far as text is concerned. Let's change the title color to a dark blue, to evoke the ocean, which we know is just out of view in this photo. Go to your swatches option box (which should be a tab in the same tool box that your paragraph styles are showing up in). Make sure it's set for the text to be affected, rather than the container, and then click on the appropriate color among your swatches. The color we're using is: C=100, M=90, Y=10, and K=0. Set the "Travel Guide" text to the same color.

Let's make the "FREE!" bit red, so it stands out more. The color we'll use for that is C=15, M=100, Y=100, and K=0. If you need to add a color swatch, just click on the arrow at the top of the swatch box and then click on "New Color Swatch".

Our title isn't standing out very much. Let's add a white overlay, rather than a drop shadow. Copy and paste in place your title text frame and then change the color to white. Nudge it down two and right two (like you would for a drop shadow), but then leave it on top. This makes it stand out more while adding more visual interest than our standard drop shadows for the teaser text.

Prepare the File for Your Printer

You'll probably get instructions from the printer who's going to take care of printing your magazine that detail exactly how they want the files. But sometimes they're not so helpful, or your client hasn't decided on a printer yet.

In either case, you'll likely want to export your cover to a PDF, rather than sending the original files. There's less chance things will get screwed up this way, and it makes it possible for your client to view the final file without special software.

Go to File, then Export. A dialogue will pop up to save the file. Choose your file name and location, and then click Save. A PDF-specific dialogue box will then pop up. I generally use the PDF/X-1a:2001 standards, though I make a couple of adjustments, mainly to the compression settings. Rather than the stock JPEG compression, I change the compression to "none". Again, if your printer has sent instructions, follow those rather than these. They may even send you a preset to use, which makes exporting much simpler.

The other thing you'll want to adjust is the Marks and Bleeds settings. Unless otherwise instructed by your printer, make sure you specify that the PDF includes the bleed and slug settings from the document, and that it includes printer's marks.

Preparing for Future Documents

If this is a cover design for a regular magazine, you'll probably want to set up some styles for your title and teasers, so that you can quickly either apply changes in the future or so you can easily add more text without having to restyle it from scratch.

To create a paragraph style from what we've already done, just highlight some text and then go to your Paragraph Styles pane and then click on the arrow at the top. Select "New Paragraph Style":

Then verify that your selected style is already set, and choose a name for the style (use descriptive names to make them easier to identify. Do this for each unique text style you have on your cover.

The other thing you can do is save this document as a template. Because covers involve so much custom work each issue, I've found it unnecessary to set up master pages within my cover templates. Just got to Save As, and then change the file type to template. Then it's ready for you each issue.

Conclusion

Again, this tutorial is meant to be more of a technical guide rather than a stylistic one. The cover we've created here is professional and serviceable but plain. Use your own design style to make more creative covers, while using the basic technical guidelines here. These methods can easily be adapted to creating covers for brochures, magazines, catalogs, or even for creating full-page display ads.

Promoting Yourself To… GASP!… Live People!

2010-08-30T13:12:47Z

By Speider Schneider

A friend of mine started an organization named “Creative Connect,” a twice a month get-together for anyone in the creative field. He said it was to, “get people away from their computers and to get them talking at least twice a month.” Mostly designers, programmers, illustrators and photographers with a spattering of marketing and management types show up and it’s something I look forward to attending in the light of day. Twice a month I gnaw through my own leg to escape the shackles of my computer and speak with real people…live…in person. It’s important to deal with the real world from time to time.

Get away from technology and join other <GASP!> humans.

Socialization Skills Are Slowly Eroding From Our Interactions

Like home-schooled kids who will wither in the real world from lack of the socialization skills of dealing with different personalities, many of us have lost our ability to deal face to face with people. Manners, knowing what NOT to say and general pleasantries like bathing tend to slip away quietly with our profession. It’s not just freelancers. Not long ago I was at a clients and my contact awkwardly excused that I not be shown the designer/programmer department because, as she put it, “it’s a little stinky in there.” Yikes!

Even at these events I see some of the same odd behavior in my peers. Maybe it’s better for some people to just stay behind their keyboard. Socialization is important for any animal on this planet yet only we and the birds tweet. Have you ever asked yourself why they use rats for group socialization experiments? Because they are so close in genetics and behavior as human account executives.

Socialization is a big part of freelancing and a staff position. On most staff jobs, you will be forced to watch a “sexual harassment video.” No, it’s not instructional on how to BE harassing. It’s a film made in 1972 and is like 1970s porn without the sex or funky guitar rift music. It is VERY important coworkers understand that even saying, “hello!” to a coworker of the opposite sex can be considered harassment if that person feels threatened by your tone. The lesson on a staff position is to stay locked in your cubicle, never meet anyone’s gaze, speak to anyone or answer any e-mail with more than, “I understand.”

If you are freelance, from e-mails to the telephone to client meetings to meeting that client, you need your A-game and proper socialization skills. Personally, people think I’m a great networker. I have a large group of quality connections on LinkedIn, keep close with valued connections I’ve made over the years (including my art school teachers) and I am very good at meeting new people at industry events and networking opportunities.

AAAAAH! People!

By now you’re asking yourself, “isn’t it better to have a site with great SEO?” Advertising yourself means being everywhere you can be. Print, online and out there in person. People, or “your network” as people refer to it, is your business and life foundation. During the past few years of a recessed economy and massive job losses, all information on the subject of finding work pinpointed turning to one’s network. That’s called “whom you know” and it can be more important that “what you know.”

Not connected enough? Start with online sites like LinkedIn and find local groups and other local professionals. With a short and professional introduction, most people will connect with you. Ask these connections to meet for coffee or just to show your portfolio. There’s no death penalty for asking and the most they can do is…get ready for this horror…say “no!” Some people feel bad about hearing no, so they never ask a question that might have that answer. I say it’s a 50% chance either way and if they say no, well, guess it’s another birthday present I won’t be getting.

By the same token, if I make eye contact with someone at a get-together, I offer my hand, exchange pleasantries, a business card and enough chat time that I don’t seem like a “vulture” (someone who runs around a room collecting business cards for the purpose of spamming later or some odd psychological need to have the world’s record number of business cards). I have actually made some very solid connections over the years by meeting people.

Follow eye contact with light banter –”Weren’t you with DeNiro at Cannes last season?”

If you can leave a networking event with three solid leads, statistics say one might actually lead to work and that is how it is done. Unless you run an online store of your services, we need to meet our future clients and trust the face time will leave them with the impression of confidence and trust.

Be Remembered for Yourself and Not Some Freaky Gimmick

I’ve seen some strange acts at networking events. The guy who was the “Marketing Wizard,” dressed in full robes and staff. “Dumbledork” looked more like the evil Emperor Palpatine but I remember him. I wouldn’t suggest the same for the “Web Spiderman” or “Design Vader.”

Grandpa wore this to EVERY meeting. He made it work!

Sometimes it’s not a costume, so always pretend everything is going to be okay…okay…okay…

Some other cute ideas I might leave behind is…

Accidentally have your shirt open to show a Superman Logo shirt underneath and say, “oops! I guess the secret’s out.”

Ask in a trembling voice, “you wouldn’t happen to have any anti-depressants with you?”

Keep looking around nervously and ask if the person has seen any KGB agents around.

Wear tin foil on your shoes and tell people that they keep you safe from government mind experiments.

Tell people how great it is to finally be left out of your box for a couple of hours.

Ask if your pants fly is open and comment that it should be because you’re urinating.

Repeat “you have business?” over and over in broken English with an unidentifiable accent until the person walks away.

Do nothing but quote lines from “Caddyshack.”

Make a raspberry noise every time you take a step.

Listen intently to someone tell you what he or she do and then shake like you have a chill while hugging yourself and say “I’m going to need to take a long shower after hearing that!”

Tell people you work for a certain government agency and your official title is “cleaner.”

Say you’re an undertaker and then look the person up and down and comment how they would fit in a “number 6.”

Send thank you notes and end with a statement that you may be pregnant (whether you’re a man or woman) and believe they are the father (whether it’s a man or woman).

Let’s just focus on the worldwide accepted forms of pleasant communication…

A bow or handshake. Firm and friendly. Keep in mind the hand is attached to an arm and not a pump handle. I’ve had my arm almost ripped from the socket by a very large man and I’m larger than average. Clasp firmly and a small shake or two. Lighter for women and turned slightly so the back of their hand is slightly up as if you would kiss it…but DON’T!

Look the person right in the eye while you are speaking to them. Looking around at others or at their chest, harumpf, is disrespectful. You do get two seconds to glance at their nametag but that’s it. Back to the eyes. If you are speaking with two people, meet each one’s gaze evenly as you switch back and forth.

Watch your language; don’t discuss politics, religion or sex. Never, ever speak about another company or person unless you are speaking well of them.

If you haven’t heard about the “60 second elevator speech” (the amount of time you have to tell someone traveling in an elevator with you all about your business), then you need to create one. After 60 seconds, apparently the retention and attention drop. Think about what makes you special in the industry. Don’t say, “I’m a graphic/web designer.” Tell them you “create visual solutions for business marketing and promotion with a personal touch.” Don’t wink or raise your eyebrows afterward because it’ll give a perfectly good tagline a dirty connotation.

Be clean in speech, dress, personally and check your breath often. I can remember meeting someone with so much cat hair all over himself; I ended up getting it all over me just by standing downwind. The cat litter in his portfolio was pretty much the deal breaker on me not making fun of this guy for the rest of existence.

After three or four minutes of light banter, tell the person or persons that it was nice to meet them, wish them luck and the hope that you will see them in the future and excuse yourself. Corner someone for more than five minutes at a networking event and you are going to be remembered as someone to forget.

Make sure you have a business card or appropriate sample card. I’m always surprised at how many people say, “I didn’t bring any of my cards.” If that’s the case, then don’t expect me to remember you.

Check yourself in a mirror often, especially if there is food being served. Nothing like a loose chive on your front tooth to earn a nickname that is counterproductive to you getting business.

A great way to meet people is to stand by the door to the parking lot towards the end of the event. Everyone has to go by you. Same rules apply as before but speed it up a little.

Small slip-ups with happen from time to time when humans interact. If your initial handshake isn’t quite right…you know…when one person grasps too soon and gets only fingers? Ask for a redo on it and the humor will make the other person feel light and grateful instead of creeped out by a limp fish handshake.

If you are speaking and a small bit of spittle lands on the other person’s face, it is permissible to reach out with a napkin and wipe it off. That is more appreciated than trying to ignore it because you both know what happened and whom did what. If it lands in their mouth, do not attempt to wipe it out or suck it out – just cut your losses and run, hoping you haven’t given them your name.

Poet, Dr. Maya Angelou wrote, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Be your charming self, smile a lot and make people feel good about meeting you. Follow up with a thank you e-mail or note and give it a week before sending promotional material. There’s promotion and then there’s stalking.

40+ Elegant Free CSS/(X)HTML Templates from 2010

2010-08-27T17:29:26Z

Today we present some useful free CSS/(X)HTML templates which are available for free download and use. You may want to consider using them for your next projects or build upon them, creating more advanced themes from these basic templates.

Free CSS/(X)HTML Templates

Blue Jeans (Demo | Download)
Stand out from the crowd with this cool, free template for a portfolio website based on blue jeans texture.

Portfolio (Demo | Download)
An HTML 5 and CSS based website template suitable for businesses. It has a jQuery slide show in the home page header for displaying your latest work, featured contents or can also be used to tell your visitor what your web site is all about.

High Five (Demo | Download)
It can be useful if you need to show case your work / portfolio. Most of the style elements are in the CSS including styles for Blog, Comment Template etc.

AppCloud (Demo | Download)
It has been designed with tones of blue, white and a bit grey to point out the gadgets and provide more usability that you can obtain information you need faster and more easily. You can display all gadgets you are selling.

RS 18 (Demo | Download)
This blue colored well designed template can be used by people doing business.

Dandoot (Demo | Download)
It has been designed so that it is suitable mostly for major/indie music recording companies, bands, musicians, music products affiliates, music event organizers or simply online music stores.

Bamboo (Demo | Download)
This template will go extrremly well with suitable Blogs, Small Websites etc.

Acallia (Demo | Download)
A smart template, it can be used by service sector industries and persons like event management compnies or graphic designer firm.

Reinvent (Demo | Download)
It features a narrow, one column layout with minimum graphics, clean and legible typography.

Alexx C (Demo | Download)
This template gels well with person/firm in service sector.

RealOne (Demo | Download)
This template is created keeping in mind property selling/buying sites and its quite neet.

The Radio Station (Demo | Download)
As the name suggest, this can be used by FM or radio stations.

CSS Heaven 1 (Demo | Download)
This template can be used for some design or lifestyle related website and it gives a contemporary look.

Turrion (Demo | Download)
A blue colored template, it tends to give all the necessary information to clients at one go.

Zen Design (Demo | Download)
This template can be used for websites with loads of information or which issuing articles/tutorials on regular basis.

Urban Gear (Demo | Download)
Great free html template for on-line shop dedicated to the urban fashion industry. Remove the slider area and use this template as a start point for your on line business.

ubly (Demo | Download)
This format is most suitable for blogs related web sites.

beSMART (Demo | Download)
Simple corporate CSS/XHTML template ready to meet wide range of requirements for effective on line performance.

CSS Heaven 2 (Demo | Download)
CSS Heaven 2 is a free CSS Template suitable for small business websites and blogs

Easy Slide (Demo | Download)
Easy Slide is a simple but cool css template based on the famous Coda Slider.

StudioClick (Demo | Download)
Studio Click is a simple, well-structured portfolio theme that focuses on one thing: gorgeous photos, screenshots, and content. It displays works easily and stylishly using large images of your products.

Bizgroup (Demo | Download)
Simple corporate CSS/XHTML template ready to meet wide range of requirements for effective on line performance.

Photo Pro (Demo | Download)
Photo Pro is a simple css template for portfolios and photo sites and it’s very easy to edit.

Treasure hunters (Demo | Download)
This facinating template can be used by blogs and or some stock photo sites.

Shop Around (Demo | Download)
Great free html template for on-line shop. Use it as a start point for your on line business.

Free Nova Studio (Demo | Download)
The Blog page features a simple blog design, easy on the eyes, allowing you to express your thoughts freely and in a stylish way!

Mondays (Demo | Download)
This template gives us a break from usual design and cn be used by service industries providing 24*7 supprts.

OWMX 1 (Demo | Download)
Color of this template is easy on eyes and is stylish.

Simple Solution (Demo | Download)
This template can be used by business sites and it is very attractive.

Classic Luxury (Demo | Download)
It is clean and has a lot of whitespace and nice typography. The code is well-organized and uses standards-based HTML and CSS.

Outliers (Demo | Download)
This template can be best used to showcase your idea and ideation process.

Portfolio Template (Demo | Download)
This is a clean and professional looking template for small portfolios or business sites. Very easy to edit if you have a basic understanding of html and css.

Market Leader (Demo | Download)
It can be used to showcase the reasons to prospective clients to choose you.

clean-white (Demo | Download)
This is a simple but beautiful css template with lots of whitespace and a professional look. Perfect as a frontpage for small businesses or photographers.

Ninja Assassin (Demo | Download)
Impress visitors to your site with a high-quality one-page portfolio site inspired by the Japanese ninja culture.

Kelontong (Demo | Download)
You can use use Kelontong WordPress e-commerce theme to modify your store and sell more of your products.

Small Business (Demo | Download)
This is suitable for small scale business websites that don’t need a lot of pages.

RS 19 (Demo | Download)
Its a attractive template using combination of white & bright colors and css techniques like Box Shadows and text shadows.