Design

Finding and settling on a way to use colour within your illustrations is a fun challenge. Once you do, it becomes much easier going forward to make your illustrations. In this post, I’ll share the things I have found worked for me.

Images play a large part in the reason why websites continue to grow in page size. While they don’t affect performance as much as JavaScript, they remain a burden on data and loading times. In this post I want to show you how to add lazy loading images as part of your workflow.

One of the things you may face with applying a stroke to an object in Illustrator, is which of the three alignments should you use? Each type has its own advantages and disadvantages, which this post will explore.

A common part of a website is the ability to search. Depending on how important search is to your website can define much of how it looks and how it’s prioritised in the design. In this post I want to show you how to create a search which appears with a smooth transition.

When designing there are techniques for applying colour, typography, spacing, you can rely upon regardless of the situation. These are things which add extra polish, and are generally hidden to the untrained eye.

When starting out on a new project or being newer to design, getting your ideas to be what you visualise can be difficult. Whether you’re new or are aiming to broaden your specialism you’ll find some things more challenging. In this post I’ll share some tips of how I approach these challenges.

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 way a way to do it quickly.

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 you to download inside too.

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 two options.

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 a good read.

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 what surrounds Christmas. I’ve tried to gather a variety of things from books, stationery and electronics.