The guys at Vectorpack.net have launched a new Mega Design Bundle which contains over 900 design elements, which, for the following 15 days, are to be available for only $37 instead of $550, they have also decided to host this incredible contest which will give you the opportunity of winning the:

Abstract Backgrounds Bundle!

What does the Abstract Backgrounds Bundle contain?

You can also find this Abstract Backgrounds in the Mega Design Bundle, along with 396 vector elements, 210 PS brushes, 162 web elements, 70 seamless patterns, 30 textures and 1 wordpress theme.

What do you have to do in order to win the Abstract Backgrounds from Vectorpack.net?

The contest is to be available for one week, till the 18^th of March!

The Mega Design Bundle:

We all have been there; sometimes a client gives us an image he wants to use for a printed material but the image is at 72 dpis for web and it is the only image he has, he can’t replace it.

Normally this is a disaster and you would need some antacids. But with a careful upscalling you can increase the size of the image and use it even for printed material.

When you make an image larger you have to contend with the problem of inventing extra information that isn’t present at the original.

Photoshop uses a method of interpolating pixels.  The problem is that interpolating tends to produce results that are fuzzy and blurry. You can’t put data that wasn’t in the original.

There are several methods to correct this. The first one is using a Plugin. Alien Skins Blow up http://www.alienskin.com/blowup/ brings a lot of detail. The downside is the price $ 199

The second method can be used directly in Photoshop, doing increases by 105%.

Sample Image: this image is 300 x 200 pixels at 72 dpis.

Step 1. 105% Increases

a)   Select image size: image > Image Size

b)   Multiply the width for 105%. In this case the result is 315.

c)    Select Resample image: Bicubic Smoother

Step 2 Repeat the process

Repeat this process several times until obtaining the desire size. You can create a simple Photoshop action to perform this task. I repeated the process several times until my image was 800-pixel width.

By repeating many small enlargements you retain much of the crispness.

Step 3 Surface Blur

Filter > Blur > Surface Blur. Set it to 7 radius and 7 threshold.

Step 4 Smart Sharpen

Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen. Set the amount to 100% and play with the radius to obtain the desire result.

Here you can se a comparison of and image scaled directly to 800 pixels and the other with 105% increments.

800 pixels directly

105 % increases

In spite of the hard edges of the calculator we have a very good result. It works better in smooth surfaces as skin.

Sometimes we need a start point for our designs. In this collection, you’ll find 20 high-quality hand picked tutorials and free templates for creating web layouts using Photoshop.

Use them as a start point or for learning new techniques.

Create a Sleek, High-End Web Design from scratch

How To Create a Clean and Colorful Web Layout – Photoshop Tutorial

Web Site Design Tutorial: Wellknown.as Case

Design a Beautiful Website From Scratch

Web Design Layout #9

Free Professional PSD Template: BlueMasters

Simple iPhone Application Website Layout in Photoshop

Website Template(Modern Outlook Highlights)

How To Create a Rockin’ Website Layout In Photoshop

Learn To Create A Clean Style Portfolio Layout

Create a Portfolio Web Layout in Photoshop

Create a movie video streaming website

How to create a vintage Photoshop file

Create an Elegant Patterned Web Design in Photoshop

FREE Template – FREE Download

6 Free PSD/(X)HTML-Templates

Personal Page Template

Code a Modern Design Studio from PSD to HTML

New Premium Tutorial: Convert a Beautiful PSD to HTML and CSS

 WaterColored Portfolio Coded, Free CSS Template With PSD to HTML Tutorial (UPDATED)

Today we are going to create a wild highlight portrait using levels and blending modes. This is a very simple technique with only two steps, but the result looks Amazing. 

Image used in this tutorial

i’m losin’ my mind

by ~paranoidalna

Step 1 Levels

a)    Duplicate the background layer and change the name

b)   Create a new adjustment layer (the small Black and White circle) and select levels.

c)    Select the White eyedropper and click in a medium tone in the face, for example the cheek.

d)   Now select the Black eyedropper and click to sample in dark tone, for example the eyelashes

Step 2 Blending mode

a)    Duplicate the highlight layer and move it above all layers and effects

b)   Select image>adjustments>curves

c)    Select the red channel and modify the curve for making more reddish the image

d)   Set the blending mode to softLight.

And that’s it, a very simple technique for creating highlight portraits.

Looking for valentine’s fonts? There are so many fonts around the web that you can get lost, so we made a handpicked selection of 15 great free fonts for use in your next valentines project.

Love and Passion

by Jellyka Nerevan

http://www.dafont.com/jellyka-love-and-passion.font?fpp=50

Fontdinerdotcom Luvable

by Font Diner

http://www.dafont.com/fontdinerdotcom-luvable.font?fpp=50

Jules Love

by Julesart

http://www.dafont.com/jules-love.font?fpp=50

One Starry Night

by Brittney Murphy

http://www.dafont.com/one-starry-night.font?fpp=50

Scriptina

by Apostrophic Labs

http://www.dafont.com/scriptina.font?fpp=50&psize=l

Adorable

by MicroLogic Software

http://www.dafont.com/adorable.font?fpp=50

Gabrielle

by Dieter Steffmann

http://www.dafont.com/gabrielle.font?fpp=50

Harabara Hand

by André Harabara

http://www.dafont.com/harabarahand.font?fpp=50

Jenna Sue

by jennasuedesignco

http://www.dafont.com/jenna-sue.font?fpp=50

Ma Sexy

by Margarete Antonio

http://www.dafont.com/ma-sexy.font?fpp=50

Cupid de Locke

by Nymphont

http://browse.deviantart.com/resources/?qh=&section=&q=valentine+font#/d2diquz

aishiteru

by Phantomhive Company

http://www.fontspace.com/category/valentines

Heartland

by Harold fonts

http://www.fonts4free.net/heartland-regular-font.html

Honey Script

by Dieter Steffman

http://www.fonts4free.net/honey-script-font.html

Words of Love

by Pizzadude

http://www.fonts4free.net/words-of-love-font.html

Valentine’s Day is coming and you may need some great Pictures to create Love and Valentine’s day artworks. Here you have a list of 15 excellent hand picked free pictures for use in posters, cards, as inspiration or any valentine design you need.

Book of love

My best friend

lovers

Heart on a tree

Time

Couple kissing in the grass

Kiss

Lipstik

Pigeon

Lipgloss

L.O.V.E

Lovers

Love

Love Cards

 Blind

You can use this effect in almost any image as a starting point, it is up to you to decide when to use it, but a 90% of your images can benefit from this effect.

In this tutorial we are going to learn how to use the shadow/highlght effect (it is really under adjustments, I don’t know why it is there) to create a boost in your images, intense colors, and a more sculptural look.

You can use this effect in almost any image as a starting point, it is up to you to decide when to use it, but a 90% of your images can benefit from this effect.

Step 1 Duplicate layer

Step 2 Open Shadow/Highlights

Image > Adjustments > Shadows/Highlights

Clic on the more options (this is a filter where you want all the options)

Step 3 Shadows

Because this is a bright image we want the amount to be 10%. The smallest the percent the shadows will be darker

We want to set the radius to 100px to avoid halos in the horizon and around the subject.

Step 4 Highlights

We want to boost the colors and darken the details, so we use a 50% highlight.

To avoid halos we set the Radius 200px.

Step 5 Adjustments

This is where magic begins

In this image we don’t want to have to much saturated colors so we set the color correction to 0

We set the midtone contrast to 60.  This really gets a striking effect in the picture. Take it to taste until you feel comfortable.

If you compare both images you notice that the first one looks more washout and plain.

Before

The result is a much more sculptural and intense effect. A lot of things happening in the sky and the model skin.

After

You can use the shadow/highlight in almost every picture to boost the image.

[tweetmeme]Creating a Graphic Design proposal that rises above the rest sometimes turns to be painful or complicated. A good proposal is always a way to show our customers that we are professional. It is also a tool to explain our customers: processes, design development and finally that professional design has a cost.

We have updated our Graphic Design Proposal with new sections like a confidentiality clause and a call to action.

You can use this word template as a start point for creating a professional-looking proposal that wins you the sale.

You can find the link to download the proposal at the end of the original article.

In the same way as buying a phrase book for your holidays doesn’t make you a local, simply translating the content of your website doesn’t equal cross-cultural success. In fact, there’s a whole lot more than meets the eye when you look at a website for the first time. Mixing a little cultural know-how for content localisation, and a few web-design tricks, can make your website a sight for all eyes. Here are six tips on what to consider when taking the plunge and going international and cross-cultural…

Get Back To Basics

When it comes to adapting a website for multiple languages and audiences (with their different aesthetic preferences), it helps to start from a design in which it is easy to change the content, without having to redesign each page.

Two great tools are Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and Unicode UTF-8; the latter is a character encoding system that incorporates the characters for more than 80 languages; while CSS makes it simple to keep the same template for your website, but change the content as you expand into other languages.

Know Your Audience

Tweaking a websites for audiences in different countries involves more than just translating the content into their native language. You also need to think about the outlay of your site, navigation, colour schemes and even what type of content you will populate the site with.

Cultural theorist Edward Hall posited the High Context (HC) vs. Low Context (LC) theory – that HC cultures, such as Asian cultures, derive meaning from the context of information, while LC cultures, such as in Northern Europe, take meaning solely from the content itself. In web design terms, this means a site for an LC culture should be concise and straightforward, while a site for an HC culture will benefit from more background info, video, imagery and interactivity.

Individuality Equals Loyalty

In a survey carried out by Experian (2010), 83% of customers ranked non-personalised information as a company’s worst habit. Everybody wants to feel individual and it’s no different with websites. Translated websites can often lack the soul of their original counterpart – this is where it can help to engage in-country translators to give your content a local flavour.

On a technical level, there are other things you can do to make your foreign language websites more local, such as making sure you use country code top level domains like www.example.de (Germany). Not only does it give your site local credibility, it also boosts your search engine rankings, as the search engines will rank your site as locally relevant.

Big Brands Are Big For A Reason

Big brands have big marketing and web-design budgets. You may not have the same at your disposal, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t steal a few of their web-design tricks. Choose culture-appropriate colour schemes – neutral colours, such as pale blue and grey, work well for LC cultures, providing a clean, inoffensive backdrop that lets your content do the talking.

Conversely, HC cultures tend to have a soft spot for bright primary colours, which would make a UK/US website seem garish and smack of a lack of credibility. According to Nielsen (2009), 70% of consumers focus on a brand’s website, so making sure yours communicates the brand effectively to the target audience is of the upmost importance.

A Likely Layout

Tailoring something as simple as a website’s layout and navigation can make a huge difference. Go for a top-tab design with horizontal navigation to make it as universal as possible, for both left-to-right and right-to-left languages. Also, be sure to keep enough flexibility in your text and image boxes to allow for changing images and text of different sizes – for instance, German takes about 30% more space, on average, to say the same thing as English.

And Finally….Go The Whole Nine Yards With Your Content

If you are going to the trouble of altering your website’s design and formatting, then make sure you invest the same effort in localising your content. Machine translation may be free, but it’s also error-prone – it’s worthwhile investing in getting the copy professionally translated, and making sure every aspect of the site is looked after, from the T&Cs to the breaking news.

It’s worthwhile also setting up a social media presence to support each of your new websites, to directly engage with your new audience in their native language. It may seem like a large project to undertake, but if you consider that of nearly two billion people online worldwide, only around 34 million are native English speakers, it makes sense to expand your horizons with translated and localised websites for foreign languages!

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how create a sea scene from scratch, create lights and shadows using clouds and blending modes. This tutorial is good for beginners yet it’s worth to learn this effect.

Before We Get Started

For this tutorial you are going to need:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Parc_Asterix_20.jpg

Step 1 Background

1. We need a blue Gradient for our background. Select the gradient tool and clic on the gradient for opening the Gradient Editor.

2. Create a Blue Gradient, use color #3567a6 for the lighter color and color #0d1c2f for the darker blue
Create a new layer and paint it with the gradient.

Step 2 Creating water surface

1. Create a new layer. Set the foreground and background color to black and white

2. Create a new rectangular mask

3. Create Clouds: Filter > Render > Clouds
4. Resize the clouds so it fits the art board: Edit > Transform > Scale

5. Apply plastic Wrap filter: Filter > Artistic > Plastic Wrap

6. Transform to add perspective. Zoom out. Edit > Transform > Distort. Distort the clouds so they appear to have a perspective.

7. Set the blending mode to linear dodge add to a 70% fill

8. Select the eraser tool, and with a big soft round brush, erase the border of the sea surface

Step 3 Creating lights in the surface

1. Select the surface layer

2. Select the layer style button and apply gradient overlay

3. Set the dialog box as follows

Step 4 Light Rays

1. Create a new layer.

2. Set the foreground and background color to black and white

3. Create a new rectangular mask

4. Create Clouds: Filter > Render > Clouds

5. Apply threshold: Image > Adjustments > threshold

6. Apply radial blur: Filter > Blur > Radial blur.

7. Aply the same filter again

8. Set the blending mode to Color Dodge with a 46% fill

9. Select the eraser tool and with a soft big brush erase the light that doesnt correspond with the sun reflection.

Step 6 Sea bottom

1. Duplicate the surface layer

2. Flip it: Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical

3. Drag the layer to the bottom of the image

4. Set the blending mode to Color Dodge with a 60% Fill.

Step 7 Dolphins

1. Open the dolphins image, cut the dolphins and drag and drop it to the main image

2. Scale the dolphins.

3. Create a new layer above the dolphins

4. Create a rectangular mask and create a cloud (Filter > render > Clouds)

5. Select the dolphins layer, then go to Select > load selection and select the dolphins layers

6. Select the cloud layer, invert the selection and erase it

7. Select the erase tool with a soft brush and erase those parts of the dolphins that wouldnt receive light

8. Set the blending mode to screen with a 60% fill

9. Duplicate the layer and set the blending mode to color dodge

10.Select the dolphins layer and the 2 layers you just created and merge them.

11. Apply a little Gaussian blur.

For a last touch you can create a little shadow in the bottom.