Bene

Let me start by wishing you all a very happy 2009!
We have been busy building websites and creating mock-ups for new websites.
I was looking for a way to make adjustable buttons for use in a website and tried to make a few reusable buttons in Illustrator after reading some tips in Computer Arts Magazine. Let me tell you how I made them:

Every other day around 6 pm, I receive an e-mail from Layers Magazine with 1 Illustrator or Indesign tip or trick for the day. This time after reading the article, I tested the tip in Illustrator for one of my clients who needs a new website (and for whom I am looking for some inspiring colors). I have a logo (already some years old) but looking for some harmony colors for that logo.
Suppose you have a logo with 1 or 2 colors. You need some more colors for - let’s say - a website, a brochure but you’re not sure what colors to choose exactly. Here are the steps to follow:

Recently, a client asked me what type of digital camera he should buy. The most important feature he wants is the ability to print his JPEG’s in print quality. He wants to use his photo’s in printed brochures, printed newsletters, advertisements, etc… The question here is: how do you know on what dimensions you can print your digital photo?

Time to change your desktop wallpaper! Smashing Magazine shows 55 free December desktop wallpapers and mine is featured too.

After your artwork is finished in Illustrator, you often need to change the dimensions of your image. You can crop a teaser from an illustration to use for publication on a website. The crop tool in Illustrator is very helpful.

Take a closer look at the current compression methods for using images on the web. I will briefly describe when to use a GIF, a JPG or a PNG. Each image format has it’s pro and contra’s. Before exporting images to one of those formats let’s dive into their specifications. We start with:

In this tutorial we"ll trace a scanned drawing with the pen tool in Illustrator. The image will be used as a vector illustration and icon. We will only draw half the part of the figure and flip the other part so that we have a 100% symmetric object/character. By drawing just a half, we’ll save some time. (you can import a sketch to work on). Feel free to post your sketches or drawings to the Flickr group Sketch and Draw.

I got the calendar 2008 for free today from FontShop! Thanks. Looking for fonts is always a time consuming activity. I often use the FontShop website to look for fonts or to search for a specific font. On the FontShop website you have large search capabilities, you can search by font, by family, by foundry, how a font looks, etc…

I took my change and decided to send an entry to the “What is Graphic Design Poster Competition” organized by Veerle Pieters from Veerle’s blog. The competition had some awesome prices for the winners, but i didn’t win unfortunately. But I enjoyed it very much and the results were actually very good and suprising.

What is your inspiration? What media do you use for inspiration?
I really like to know what you find inspiring. Sometimes it is difficult to name or to describe your sources of inspiration, but I find it very interesting when someone can describe just in a few words what and why something is interesting to look at.