When starting out on a new project or generally being new to design, getting your ideas to be what you visualise can be difficult. Whether you’re experienced or new it doesn’t matter, at some stage you’ll have creative block. In this post I’ll share some tips of what has…
In Illustrator it seems to be more difficult than it needs to be to export a colour palette to hex values. Using swatches gives you access to everything except hex. It’s tedious to go through the usual object, click fill, copy and paste routine. Here’s a…
Patterns and textures were popular before flat design came along. However, as we seek the need for creativity, fun and uniqueness in our designs things like patterns reemerge. This post shares what I’ve learnt and how to make your own. There are some free ones for…
When using kerning or tracking on your type it can help with legibility or correct the way type looks for a specific situation. It’s important to understand the differences and when to use them.
Making anything in Illustrator involves using the shape tools more often than not. You combine shapes, using the various methods with pathfinder. You may have two shapes and want to combine them, but still want to refine the overall shape. This post shows you…
The second in a monthly series where I roundup some of the best things in design I found over the course of the previous month. It aims to be a source of website, illustration and branding inspiration, as well as some articles that are…
As it’s the festive time of year, I thought I would add to the lists of gifts that people are writing. December and Christmas in general is one of my favourite times of year. Not just for the gift giving, but it’s a time to relax and enjoy…
I’ve been working on a recent branding project for a company called Go 2 Golf. It will be a website that will help people find golf courses across the UK. The first step for them was to have a logo made, this is the process…
When I posted the original post about a horizontal scrolling menu, submenus were something I was aware of being difficult with this particular solution. Due to the CSS required it doesn’t allow for traditional methods. In this post I explore a solution.
Maintenance weeks are where detail website tasks, instead of a regular post. I spend time fixing bugs, updating grammar and posts in general, as well as adding featured images. It varies what I will do, and this posts serves as detailing what has been done.
This is the start of a monthly series of a roundup of 8 websites that I have found that are well designed. There is no particular theme, other than inspirational, which I hope you find is the case. I’ve added a few notes around why…
Memorising shortcuts of any application improves efficiency. Now I’m by no means the most efficient person in Illustrator, I’m generally just happy designing. However, there are shortcuts you absolutely must know, because it saves you tediously clicking through panels and menus.
It’s my aim to help you be a better designer. I’ve made you a simple template to manage your colour, grid and guides. You’ll save around 20 minutes each time you start a new design.
Join my list and I’ll send you the template and update you with new Illustrator design tutorials and workflow improvements. Schedule is currently monthly.
