When I use the scanner, I like to make sure, first of all, that the glass is clean. I hate getting smudges and dust all over my scan, but sadly some are unavoidable and need to be fixed in Photoshop. Make sure your picture is straight, because fixing that in Photoshop can be a pain as well. After scanning, I always like to have a hard copy of every picture, free from any kind of editing I’ve done, so I make a copy of everything and stick it in a folder to store away, just in case I make a bad edit or delete something.When editing your photos, you will most likely change the size of the picture. When playing with size, make sure you know the difference between resizing a picture and resampling it, because incorrectly changing one, could be bad for your final project. Resizing is changing your image’s size WITHOUT changing the number of pixels, while resampling is the change of the number of pixels in your image. The pixels in an image will affect how pixelated or “blocky” an image is, so choose wisely.

After you have your image scanned and resolution set, you’ll want to adjust brightness and contrast if you’re working with line art. You’ll want to make sure all lines are visible so just play around with the brightness and contrast until you achieve your desired line thickness.

In web design, color is very important since you need to make something visually pleasing to the viewer. If you have colors that clash or too many colors in a page, it can seem confusing and dissonant to the viewer, which can make them dislike the page and not even get to the content. The color can also affect the mood of the page, bright colors can make the page seem fun and exciting while dull colors can make the page calm and serene.

A way to pick your colors is by color psychology. Color psychology is the study of how color affects people and their moods. This is something to think about when you are picking out colors for your projects. Pick colors that make people feel the way you want your website to feel.

While using Kuler or just making schemes on Illustrator, often times my color schemes are based off of real life objects that I am portraying in my work or if it is non-objective, I’ll just pick something that looks good to me and flows with the work. Color is a different thing to each person on some levels, but on the most general, they look the same.

References:

http://www.worqx.com/color/

http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/8-colour-theory/

http://www.digital-web.com/articles/color_an_investigation

http://poynterextra.org/cp/colorproject/color.html

http://www.mariaclaudiacortes.com/#

Today’s typography has transformed into an art form, not just a way of communication, which means it, like all professional work, has it’s own jargon or way of speaking. This means there are a few terms that should probably be cleared up.

• Onomastics – The study of proper names of all kinds and the origins of names
• Closure – Filling in missing pieces to see a recognizable form
• Type Foundaries – Designers or Companies that make fonts

Many people choose to take the creative route and make their own fonts, this can be easy to do if you have some creativity and the right software. Some software that is great for creating your own fonts is Adobe Illustrator and Adobe PhotoShop. In both programs, there is a great toolbox called align, this box can align objects horizontally, vertically and just about every other way, it’s a great way to keep things together. You can play with the size and look of normal text with the character, paragraph and open-type toolboxes. Overall, Adobe loves typography.

References:

http://articles.sitepoint.com/article/principles-beautiful-typography

http://www.andyrutledge.com/common-fate.php

http://www.andyrutledge.com/closure.php

http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/dialogbox/type_is_image.html

http://cis051.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/typography-and-the-printing-press/

Free Fonts

A great site that has over 1000, count ‘em, 1000 free fonts for both mac and pc
http://www.1001freefonts.com/

Another great site with a butt-load of fonts, also for both mac and pc

http://www.fontfreak.com/

This site has some completely original fonts

http://www.dafont.com/

Some different fonts, it also shows which fonts people search the most

http://www.urbanfonts.com/

Here’s a great source if you know exactly what you’re looking for. Start it out with a search!

http://www.free-fonts.com/

Font Foundaries (Companies That Make Fonts)

Based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota is the Process Type Foundary

http://www.processtypefoundry.com/

An independent digital type company named Caketype, it definately has some original fonts.

http://www.caketype.com/

A Canadian independent development studio eh?

http://www.canadatype.com/index.php

Some great fonts from a font foundry with a very witty name

http://www.justintype.com.br/home_content.html

Pizzadude fonts. A very original name with some very fun and original fonts

http://www.pizzadude.dk/home.php

Another reason that I loved it is that I am currently obsessed with the web movie “Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog” and for those of you that have never heard of it, I urge you at least give it a chance, it’s pretty funny – in a nerdy sort of way. Anyway, somehow the font video reminded me of it, maybe it was Comic Sans swooping in to beat up Ransom, idk, but anyway; if you haven’t already watched the video and feel like killing a few minutes, than here it is. Enjoy

In summary, these articles describe the principles of design (already established in the previous paragraph) but these principles reach far beyond the artwork we all know and may love. These principles are great tools to use in graphic and web design. I don’t know about everyone else, but I like a well balanced page. I like symmetry along the y-axis and balanced background image. Others may differ from my oppinion, but the Gesalt Principles of art state that proximity, uniform connectedness and a good continuation is the recipe for a good website structure.

Another element that helps with good structure, is the rule of three. I first learned about the rule of three in high school art class but kind of pushed it to the back of my mind not expecting it to re-surface in my education, and yet here it is. Basically, the Rule of Three categorizes elements in a triangular structure that can either be static or dynamic which affects the space and position between elements in the triangle. A great starting point for composition.

Overall, design principles have a lot more of an impact on the work we as designers do. Who would have known?

References:

http://www.digital-web.com/types/design_in_theory_and_practice/

http://www.digital-web.com/articles/visual_architecture_the_rule_of_three

http://www.andyrutledge.com/gestalt-principles-2-similarity.php

http://www.andyrutledge.com/gestalt-principles-3.php

Here is the link for an Illustrator tutorial that shows how to make 3-D text, it’ll probably come in handy eventually if you plan to make logos, text based graphics, etc….. http://www.tutorialized.com/view/tutorial/3D-LOGO-Illustrator-tutorial/53482/

Here’s a great tutorial for a “glassy orb” that has been great in my experience for creating buttons….. http://www.tutorialized.com/view/tutorial/Glassy-Orbs/10419

Here’s a tutorial that I personally have found useful in creating swirls using a path and a brush, simple eh?….. http://www.bittbox.com/illustrator/illustrator-how-to-make-custom-swooshes-swirls-and-curls

Here’s a good set of abstract brushes that make line strokes look pretty amazing and it also has a mini tutorial on how to install brushes….. http://www.bittbox.com/freebies/35-free-abstract-illustrator-brushes

Here’s some brushes that give your path a “just painted” feel, great for making graphics modeled after paintings or sketches…. http://colorburned.com/2009/02/85_illustrator_paint_brushes.html

As a designer, it is hard to differentiate between what is inspiration and what is copying. You must make sure that what you are creating is something that you thought up that reflects your artistic design, not a copy of another artist’s work.

Creative Commons is a great way to ensure that each person’s work remains their own. It copyrights the work of an individual or a company so that using it without permission of the creator is illegal. To find out more about Creative Commons or the companies that use it, the link for it is http://creativecommons.org.

In summary, the article “Good Designers Copy, Great Designers Steal” by Cameron Moll is based on a supposed statement of Pablo Picasso. She broke down the statement to show exactly what she thinks Picasso meant by the statement, mainly that he didn’t exactly mean steal as much as he meant to be inspired. She believed that you should reflect back into your own work to look for ideas, find ideas from small, lesser known and discrete sources and to build on the foundations set for us by our fellow artists.

Stock art is a great way to legally use art on your website without having to do the work of making it, but in no way can you claim it as your own. It’s just an easy way to find and use graphics or images in your work. Just be careful of what images you use, like showing up to a party wearing the same dress as someone else, making a page with the same images can have the same effect.

Sources:

http://www.digital-web.com/articles/cooking_with_stock/

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/article-30100.html

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/article-29933.html