Graphics - Page 5

Inspiring advice, tips, and suggestions for improving your graphic design skills, logo design, working with templates, and more.

How to Balance “Good Design” vs. a Functional Website

Graphics / 23 Aug 2021

How to Balance “Good Design” vs. a Functional Website

It’s the chicken and egg debate of website design: What comes first “good design” or functional design?

Both answers are right… and wrong.

Unlike much of what we share on Design Shack, this is more of a personal essay on the benefits of each type of thinking and why I’ll design with function over “good design” almost any day of the week.

And I’ll back up my thinking with some examples that have made a difference for real-life projects.

Learn to Color Match and Create a Palette Like a Pro (Tips and Tools)

Graphics / 9 Aug 2021

Learn to Color Match and Create a Palette Like a Pro (Tips and Tools)

You know it the minute you see it – a design that has so color that’s so impactful you can’t help but look at it.

These designs typically fall into one of two categories. Either it’s a great color palette that you want to find a way to replicate immediately. Or it’s a color palette so bizarre or bad that you can’t figure out why a designer would make that choice!

Since no one wants to fall in the latter category, learning to color match and develop palettes is a vital design skill.

It all starts with color theory but then goes a little further.

How to Whiten Teeth in Photoshop (Quick Step by Step Guide)

Photoshop Actions / 21 Jul 2021

How to Whiten Teeth in Photoshop (Quick Step by Step Guide)

One of the things that always ruins a great portrait photo is yellow teeth. With Photoshop, you can get rid of it easily. We’ll show you how it’s done.

Most of the time, yellow teeth in portrait occurs without any fault by the person in the photo. Usually, it happens during bad lighting conditions and even the adjustments you make in the camera as well. Thankfully, Photoshop has a fix for this issue.

In this short guide, you’ll learn how to whiten teeth in Photoshop. This is a very simple 3-step method that you can do without any prior graphic design knowledge.

Let’s dive in.

How to Remove an Object in Photoshop (Step by Step Guide)

Photoshop Actions / 20 Jul 2021

How to Remove an Object in Photoshop (Step by Step Guide)

One of the most common uses of Photoshop is removing objects from photos. In fact, it’s one of the reasons the software was so popular back in the day.

If you’ve just bought a subscription to Photoshop, removing objects is a trick you must learn right away. In this quick guide, we’ll show you how.

Photoshop has come a long way over the years and removing objects in photos is now much easier thanks to advanced AI-powered technologies. You can easily remove most objects without any effort.

Let’s dive in and see how.

An Introduction to Custom Cursors in Web Design: Tips, Ideas + Tutorials

Graphics / 24 Jun 2021

An Introduction to Custom Cursors in Web Design: Tips, Ideas + Tutorials

One of the biggest trends in web design these days is custom cursors. At first glance, a custom website cursor may look like just another stylistic element. But there’s much more to this design concept.

When viewing a website from a desktop device, the cursor is the main component that bridges the gap between the user and the website. If you’re creative enough, you can actually use this cursor to your advantage to boost website interaction and engagement rates like never before.

In this guide, we take a closer look at what custom cursors are all about, why you should use them, and offer you a few tutorials for designing your own custom cursors.

Let’s get started.

How to Create a Disruptive Design (So It Will Get Seen)

Graphics / 31 May 2021

How to Create a Disruptive Design (So It Will Get Seen)

If you really want to create a design that will make people look, it has to be disruptive.

While “disruptive” can be a bit of a hackneyed catchphrase, it is also at the core of what you do when you create something new. The goal is to get people to stop, look, and interact.

Disruption works because it is different from the norm. This can include anything from being at the forefront of a new trend to designing with an interesting font, color palette, or design pattern.

This description from Layla Acaroglu explains it perfectly: “Design is about creating something that adds to or iterates on the existing, and disruption is about creating a disturbance with the intent of changing a system. When combined, the practice of Disruptive Design is to create intentional interventions into a pre-existing system with the specific objective to leverage a different outcome, and more importantly, an outcome that is likely to create positive social change.”

Now how can you do it? We have a few ideas (and examples) for you.

Data Visualization Design: Tools, Examples & Tips

Graphics / 26 Apr 2021

Data Visualization Design: Tools, Examples & Tips

Data visualization is one of those design trends or techniques that just seems to keep growing in use and value. From simple infographics to full data stories, this informational format is almost everywhere.

And for good reason: A good data visualization makes complex content that much easier to understand.

Here, we are breaking down data visualization tools, examples, tips so you can design with data successfully.

7 Tips for Establishing a Visual Brand Identity

Graphics / 29 Mar 2021

7 Tips for Establishing a Visual Brand Identity

Whether you are working on a design for a client at a major corporation or posting to your own social media account, a visual brand identity makes it easy for people to see – and know – a company or person at a glance.

Establishing a visual identity is more than popping a logo on something. It’s a collection of elements – from color to typography to imagery – that establishes who you are visually.

Plenty of companies take the time to set brand identity guidelines, but have you thought about how it all comes together visually? This set of tips can help.

How Do You Turn a Digital Design Into Print? 7 Useful Tips

Graphics / 22 Mar 2021

How Do You Turn a Digital Design Into Print? 7 Useful Tips

It’s probably happened more times than you’d like to think about: You finish a presentation or website design and the client asks you to make it into a brochure or poster.

Wait… what?

Turning a digital design into something for print can be a challenge for sure. But there are a few things you can do to tweak your workflows to account for this “unexpected request” and make it a little more seamless.

5 Ways Designers Can Master Digital Drawing

Graphics / 13 Nov 2020

5 Ways Designers Can Master Digital Drawing

To draw or not to draw — that is the question, and it’s a controversial one among designers. Some say it isn’t mandatory for designers to know how to draw nowadays, but others maintain that it’s a must-have skill for every artist. Famous concept artist Bryant Koshu shares these views:

I once heard my colleague say: “I’m a designer but I can’t draw.” In his opinion, his job was about designing and searching for optimal solutions rather than creating art. But after a while, he enrolled in a drawing course to learn the basics and didn’t regret it.

15+ Best Responsive & HTML Email Design Tutorials

Email Templates / 15 Sep 2020

15+ Best Responsive & HTML Email Design Tutorials

How do you design an email that will result in plenty of opens and strong click-through rates? There’s a little art – and luck – that goes into email design.

Whether you’re looking at the graphic and visual design, or the responsive HTML development side, email design can be a tricky business.

Here, we’re going to look at some tutorials to help you learn everything you need to know about email design, from some basics to more advanced techniques to help you make this most of this digital marketing tool.

How to Use & Install Photoshop Actions

Photoshop Actions / 13 Aug 2020

How to Use & Install Photoshop Actions

If you aren’t taking advantage of Photoshop actions for editing and image effects, you’re missing out on one of Photoshop’s best features. Here, we’ll take you through how to use Photoshop Actions, and the best steps to install and apply them in seconds.

Photoshop actions can save you time when it comes to repeated tasks, and condense entire paths of editing into a single click. (While it might sound too good to be true, Photoshop actions are a very real thing.) We’ve previously hand-picked the best Photoshop actions out there, and today we’re explaining how to use them!