Print advertisement created for Meal Mart, one of the largest kosher food brands in the U.S. that sells fresh and frozen products. This ad campaign was developed to promote Meal Mart’s „Amazing Meals” line, a variety of kosher frozen to-go meals, each ready in just two minutes. As a kosher consumer, dietary restrictions often limit food availability during travel (especially overseas where kosher options can be scarce). To empower kosher consumers, we built iconic monuments from Amazing Meals boxes, showing that wherever vacation is, good food is always there and one is never limited simply because of lifestyle or religion.
Take us to go. With a variety of 23 read-to-eat meals, good food is always just two minutes away. No matter where you go.
Print advertisement created for Meal Mart, one of the largest kosher food brands in the U.S. that sells fresh and frozen products. This ad campaign was developed to promote Meal Mart’s „Amazing Meals” line, a variety of kosher frozen to-go meals, each ready in just two minutes. As a kosher consumer, dietary restrictions often limit food availability during travel (especially overseas where kosher options can be scarce). To empower kosher consumers, we built iconic monuments from Amazing Meals boxes, showing that wherever vacation is, good food is always there and one is never limited simply because of lifestyle or religion.
Take us to go. With a variety of 23 read-to-eat meals, good food is always just two minutes away. No matter where you go.
Print advertisement created for Meal Mart, one of the largest kosher food brands in the U.S. that sells fresh and frozen products. This ad campaign was developed to promote Meal Mart’s „Amazing Meals” line, a variety of kosher frozen to-go meals, each ready in just two minutes. As a kosher consumer, dietary restrictions often limit food availability during travel (especially overseas where kosher options can be scarce). To empower kosher consumers, we built iconic monuments from Amazing Meals boxes, showing that wherever vacation is, good food is always there and one is never limited simply because of lifestyle or religion.
Take us to go. With a variety of 23 read-to-eat meals, good food is always just two minutes away. No matter where you go.
Howdy folks! 🎉 I’m Simon Owen, and over the years, I’ve loved being a part of and learning from the dotfiles community. I spend a lot of time teaching developers and running workshops. In those sessions, demonstrating how I set up my development environment is often one of things that folks appreciated the most.
Dotfiles are a key part of my development environment. Haven’t heard of them? Well, even if you have, it’s a good idea to walk through what they are and the benefits of using them.
If you’re hearing about dotfiles for the first time, it’s totally fine to be confused about what they are and what they do. I recall that it took me a considerable amount of time before I realized a dotfile is simply a file that has a dot in front of the file name!
There are two common examples of dotfiles. First, the ones you might already be familiar with are those often found at the root of many open source projects — for example, .editorconfig contains code editor preferences to help maintain consistent coding styles for a project. You may also have seen .stylelintrc and .eslintrc floating around, which set CSS and JavaScript rules, respectively.
Second (and the ones we’re looking at today), are dotfiles that can live at the root level of a user directory (i.e. /Users/<username> ). One such dotfile is .aliases, which contains custom named commands that can speed up work in the Terminal. Another is .bash_prompt, which is used to change the $ in Terminal to something a little more fun. In my case, I set it so this dude pops up to make me smile when things get tough:
༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
Hopefully, you’re already starting to get a good sense of how useful dotfiles can be. They’re sort of like hidden gems (literally, since they’re hidden from views by default) that unlock superpowers for your machine to help with development. We’re talking about automation, optimizations, and efficient workflows, among other things.
First, I want to give props to the dotfiles community
Before we dig into dotfiles, it’s worth calling out how great the community behind them is. When I first forked Paul Irish’s dotfile repo, there was a lot going on in there I didn’t understand. Mathias Bynens and Paul Irish helped me immensely by answering questions about the code and it was their willingness to help that served as one of the reasons I became drawn to both the concept and the community.
Sometimes, I’ll post something to the community that I’d like to automate, but can’t figure it out for the life of me. And, without fail, I’ll get a helpful reply. Case in point: Eric Czarny wrote an app for me to automate my Spectacle settings and Mathias also contributed a code snippet. How cool is that?!
Then there are things like macOS updates. The dotfiles community is often on top of this and provide useful advice on GitHub comments regarding anything that no longer works or other useful information. You can then amend your dotfiles accordingly, such as adding the following code that increases the sound quality for Bluetooth headphones/headsets:
defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Apple Bitpool Min (editable)" -int 40
Digging into dotfiles
The code example above might look a bit familiar to you. It’s along the same lines as this often-used one to show hidden files:
defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{"tile-type"="spacer-tile";}'; killall Dock
These commands can be pasted directly into the Terminal. As you might expect, something like -bool true will change a boolean value from false to true and reset the command for later use.
If you’e like me and have a lot of these commands, then this is where the .macos (previously .osx) dotfile becomes especially useful. Instead of copying and pasting each command individually, we can automate and run all of them in one go.
Let’s walk through some examples
There are so many awesome things we can do in dotfiles. Here are some practical use cases that I rely on for my day-to-day work.
Setting aliases for default commands (.aliases)
Navigating between directories in the Terminal can be cumbersome and it’s easy to get lost in cd madness.
We can replace the standard “change directory” (cd) command with a custom command in the .aliases dotfile. For example, use this alias to ditch the cd prefix altogether when using the command cd .. to move up a directory in favor of .. by itself.
alias ..="cd .."
Sure, it’s only dropping two letters, but how much easier is that to remember?
We can do the same thing to make shortcuts to certain directories:
alias dl="cd ~/Downloads"
Or, create aliases for shorthand command tasks:
alias hs="hexo serve"
Oh, here’s another one! List only directories:
alias lsd="ls -lF ${colorflag} | grep --color=never '^d'"
Make a custom bash prompt for a personal touch to the Terminal (.bash_prompt)
I referenced this a little earlier, but here’s how I turned my bash prompt ($) into a little dude that’s way more fun to look at it. This is done directly in the .bash_prompt dotfile.
PS1="༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ"
Create Git shortcuts to speed up commits (.gitconfig)
We can make it a little more efficient to commit all changes at once in the .gitconfig dotfile. Using ca is a lot more concise than !git add -A && git commit -av .
ca = !git add -A && git commit -av
Another handy shortcut: find commits by commit message.
Use Homebrew for package management? Although not strictly a dotfile (it doesn’t have a dot before the file name), Homebrew gives us the brew.sh shell script file. This file automates the installation and management of Apps and Tools:
Hide information you don’t want to share publicly in one file in a private repo and bring it in for you alone. For example, a good idea for this file is anything that’s specific to you, such as your Git credentials. This will prevent people from cloning, running your dotfiles, then committing as you!
# Git credentials
# Not in the repository, to prevent people from accidentally committing under my name
GIT_AUTHOR_NAME="Simon Owen"
GIT_COMMITTER_NAME="$GIT_AUTHOR_NAME"
git config --global user.name "$GIT_AUTHOR_NAME"
GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL="<ADD-YOUR-EMAIL-HERE>"
GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL="$GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL"
git config --global user.email "$GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL"
Write custom functions for tasks (.functions)
Dotfiles are more than shortcuts and aliases. We can also make custom functions in .functions that do more advanced lifting. For example, create a new directory and change directory to it:
function mkd() {
mkdir -p "$@" && cd "$_";
}
Or, we can open a given location in Finder with a one-letter command (o):
function o() {
if [ $#-eq 0 ]; then
open .;
else
open "$@";
fi;
}
Specify your $PATH and keep private (.path)
$PATH allows the running of executable files. Instead of navigating to each path manually in Terminal, here we can set the file paths so they can run the executable files directly. It might be the case that this file contains sensitive information. As such, this file is often kept in a private repo.
Here’s an example adding ~/utils to the $PATH:
export PATH="$HOME/utils:$PATH"
Force Vim to use a particular theme (.vimrc)
Editor config files are great for ensuring consistent formatting across projects, but we can also tell a Vim editor to use a specific theme in a .vimrc file:
" Use the Solarized Dark theme
set background=dark
colorscheme solarized
let g:solarized_termtrans=1
Bonus: Helpful Terminal recipes for macOS
OK, so here’s a little bit of a bonus for Mac users that isn’t related to dotfiles, but are things we can do in the Terminal to give macOS superpowers to do pretty awesome things that make day-to-day use a little easier and more pleasant.
First off, we can show hidden files by default in the Finder so dotfiles are visible all the time by typing this into the Terminal:
And, in this example, we can automate the size of icons in the Dock:
defaults write com.apple.dock tilesize -int 36
This is only the tip of the iceberg! In my screencast series I go over more than one hundred of them.
Conclusion
Web development is increasingly more complicated as time goes on. We all have ways of making our development workflow a little easier and comfortable based on personal preferences.
You may be a seasoned developer and aware of such things as Node, npm, and Git but still find yourself stuck in a Terminal window with a bunch of errors. Or, you might be starting out and find these, and other tools, complex and tough to grasp.
Either way, hopefully knowing more about dotfiles and what they’re capable of doing gives you a new weapon in your arsenal to make your development environment tailored to you, speed up your workflow and give your machine added superpowers!
As a reminder, my screencast series will give you more tips and tricks, plus a good idea of how to get your development environment set up. This is the first in the series. Going forwards, I’m going to look at expanding on it, so please let me know if there’s anything else you’d like me to cover!
Howdy folks! 🎉 I’m Simon Owen, and over the years, I’ve loved being a part of and learning from the dotfiles community. I spend a lot of time teaching developers and running workshops. In those sessions, demonstrating how I set up my development environment is often one of things that folks appreciated the most.
Dotfiles are a key part of my development environment. Haven’t heard of them? Well, even if you have, it’s a good idea to walk through what they are and the benefits of using them.
If you’re hearing about dotfiles for the first time, it’s totally fine to be confused about what they are and what they do. I recall that it took me a considerable amount of time before I realized a dotfile is simply a file that has a dot in front of the file name!
There are two common examples of dotfiles. First, the ones you might already be familiar with are those often found at the root of many open source projects — for example, .editorconfig contains code editor preferences to help maintain consistent coding styles for a project. You may also have seen .stylelintrc and .eslintrc floating around, which set CSS and JavaScript rules, respectively.
Second (and the ones we’re looking at today), are dotfiles that can live at the root level of a user directory (i.e. /Users/<username> ). One such dotfile is .aliases, which contains custom named commands that can speed up work in the Terminal. Another is .bash_prompt, which is used to change the $ in Terminal to something a little more fun. In my case, I set it so this dude pops up to make me smile when things get tough:
༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
Hopefully, you’re already starting to get a good sense of how useful dotfiles can be. They’re sort of like hidden gems (literally, since they’re hidden from views by default) that unlock superpowers for your machine to help with development. We’re talking about automation, optimizations, and efficient workflows, among other things.
First, I want to give props to the dotfiles community
Before we dig into dotfiles, it’s worth calling out how great the community behind them is. When I first forked Paul Irish’s dotfile repo, there was a lot going on in there I didn’t understand. Mathias Bynens and Paul Irish helped me immensely by answering questions about the code and it was their willingness to help that served as one of the reasons I became drawn to both the concept and the community.
Sometimes, I’ll post something to the community that I’d like to automate, but can’t figure it out for the life of me. And, without fail, I’ll get a helpful reply. Case in point: Eric Czarny wrote an app for me to automate my Spectacle settings and Mathias also contributed a code snippet. How cool is that?!
Then there are things like macOS updates. The dotfiles community is often on top of this and provide useful advice on GitHub comments regarding anything that no longer works or other useful information. You can then amend your dotfiles accordingly, such as adding the following code that increases the sound quality for Bluetooth headphones/headsets:
defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Apple Bitpool Min (editable)" -int 40
Digging into dotfiles
The code example above might look a bit familiar to you. It’s along the same lines as this often-used one to show hidden files:
defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{"tile-type"="spacer-tile";}'; killall Dock
These commands can be pasted directly into the Terminal. As you might expect, something like -bool true will change a boolean value from false to true and reset the command for later use.
If you’e like me and have a lot of these commands, then this is where the .macos (previously .osx) dotfile becomes especially useful. Instead of copying and pasting each command individually, we can automate and run all of them in one go.
Let’s walk through some examples
There are so many awesome things we can do in dotfiles. Here are some practical use cases that I rely on for my day-to-day work.
Setting aliases for default commands (.aliases)
Navigating between directories in the Terminal can be cumbersome and it’s easy to get lost in cd madness.
We can replace the standard “change directory” (cd) command with a custom command in the .aliases dotfile. For example, use this alias to ditch the cd prefix altogether when using the command cd .. to move up a directory in favor of .. by itself.
alias ..="cd .."
Sure, it’s only dropping two letters, but how much easier is that to remember?
We can do the same thing to make shortcuts to certain directories:
alias dl="cd ~/Downloads"
Or, create aliases for shorthand command tasks:
alias hs="hexo serve"
Oh, here’s another one! List only directories:
alias lsd="ls -lF ${colorflag} | grep --color=never '^d'"
Make a custom bash prompt for a personal touch to the Terminal (.bash_prompt)
I referenced this a little earlier, but here’s how I turned my bash prompt ($) into a little dude that’s way more fun to look at it. This is done directly in the .bash_prompt dotfile.
PS1="༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ"
Create Git shortcuts to speed up commits (.gitconfig)
We can make it a little more efficient to commit all changes at once in the .gitconfig dotfile. Using ca is a lot more concise than !git add -A && git commit -av .
ca = !git add -A && git commit -av
Another handy shortcut: find commits by commit message.
Use Homebrew for package management? Although not strictly a dotfile (it doesn’t have a dot before the file name), Homebrew gives us the brew.sh shell script file. This file automates the installation and management of Apps and Tools:
Hide information you don’t want to share publicly in one file in a private repo and bring it in for you alone. For example, a good idea for this file is anything that’s specific to you, such as your Git credentials. This will prevent people from cloning, running your dotfiles, then committing as you!
# Git credentials
# Not in the repository, to prevent people from accidentally committing under my name
GIT_AUTHOR_NAME="Simon Owen"
GIT_COMMITTER_NAME="$GIT_AUTHOR_NAME"
git config --global user.name "$GIT_AUTHOR_NAME"
GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL="<ADD-YOUR-EMAIL-HERE>"
GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL="$GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL"
git config --global user.email "$GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL"
Write custom functions for tasks (.functions)
Dotfiles are more than shortcuts and aliases. We can also make custom functions in .functions that do more advanced lifting. For example, create a new directory and change directory to it:
function mkd() {
mkdir -p "$@" && cd "$_";
}
Or, we can open a given location in Finder with a one-letter command (o):
function o() {
if [ $#-eq 0 ]; then
open .;
else
open "$@";
fi;
}
Specify your $PATH and keep private (.path)
$PATH allows the running of executable files. Instead of navigating to each path manually in Terminal, here we can set the file paths so they can run the executable files directly. It might be the case that this file contains sensitive information. As such, this file is often kept in a private repo.
Here’s an example adding ~/utils to the $PATH:
export PATH="$HOME/utils:$PATH"
Force Vim to use a particular theme (.vimrc)
Editor config files are great for ensuring consistent formatting across projects, but we can also tell a Vim editor to use a specific theme in a .vimrc file:
" Use the Solarized Dark theme
set background=dark
colorscheme solarized
let g:solarized_termtrans=1
Bonus: Helpful Terminal recipes for macOS
OK, so here’s a little bit of a bonus for Mac users that isn’t related to dotfiles, but are things we can do in the Terminal to give macOS superpowers to do pretty awesome things that make day-to-day use a little easier and more pleasant.
First off, we can show hidden files by default in the Finder so dotfiles are visible all the time by typing this into the Terminal:
And, in this example, we can automate the size of icons in the Dock:
defaults write com.apple.dock tilesize -int 36
This is only the tip of the iceberg! In my screencast series I go over more than one hundred of them.
Conclusion
Web development is increasingly more complicated as time goes on. We all have ways of making our development workflow a little easier and comfortable based on personal preferences.
You may be a seasoned developer and aware of such things as Node, npm, and Git but still find yourself stuck in a Terminal window with a bunch of errors. Or, you might be starting out and find these, and other tools, complex and tough to grasp.
Either way, hopefully knowing more about dotfiles and what they’re capable of doing gives you a new weapon in your arsenal to make your development environment tailored to you, speed up your workflow and give your machine added superpowers!
As a reminder, my screencast series will give you more tips and tricks, plus a good idea of how to get your development environment set up. This is the first in the series. Going forwards, I’m going to look at expanding on it, so please let me know if there’s anything else you’d like me to cover!
In this tutorial, you will have the opportunity to learn how to use
the Gradient Mesh Tool in Adobe Illustrator to draw a simple travel flyer template. Then
you’ll see how to turn this template into a real flyer with Placeit!
Begin with a #F3F0AD rectangle. Drag its edges and bend it sideways to create a circle (it’ll create a better mesh grid for later).
Grab the Mesh Tool (U) and add some mesh nodes as indicated below. Drag the edge nodes together so they overlap, and then color the edge of the circle with #DAB943.
Follow the screenshot below to see which nodes to color in which step.
Step 2
Continue coloring the lemon according to the image below. Use these colors:
#B98F36
#EBE067
#F9F9D3
Step 3
Draw the inner part of the lemon with Mesh. Use these:
#E8D74B
#DFBF2A
#C9AC31
Step 4
Turn the top edge of the lemon slice completely transparent.
Step 5
Draw another element.
#E7D649
#EFE288
#F7F3BE
Step 6
Draw another part of the lemon.
#E7D649
#EFE288
#ECDF6F
Step 7
Draw the final piece.
#E7D649
#EFE288
#F7F3BE
Step 8
Place the elements onto the slice.
Step 9
Place the wedges onto the lemon slice.
Step 10
It’s time to draw the cocktail glass for our simple flyer background! Use Gradient Mesh and these colors:
#E8E0CE
#E2BD1D
#D58C1C
Step 11
#E1A91D
#E9D771
#F4F1E8
Step 12
Make the top part of the glass transparent.
Step 13
Draw the base of the glass.
#EFE7CE
#D2CAB1
#9E967D
Step 14
#C6BEA5
#F7F1D8
#A58747
Step 15
Set the base to 70% Opacity.
Step 16
Draw a straw for the cocktail.
#D58743
#E8C47D
Step 17
#D58743
#A27A68
Step 18
#C37334
#D99450
Step 19
Assemble the straw.
Step 20
Finish the cocktail glass to add to the flyer template.
2. How to Create the Photos
Step 1
Begin drawing the background for the cocktail photo on our simple flyer.
Step 2
Finish drawing the background.
#4BB6CE
#F4F4E6
#D0C594
Step 3
Place the glass onto the background. Our first photo for the flyer design is done!
Step 4
Draw the base for the polaroid.
#FFF5CF
#EDD9B3
Step 5
Add a #322412 square.
Step 6
Draw two rectangles with rounded edges, the bigger one colored with #FEF3CD and the smaller one with #322412.
Make the bigger rectangle transparent, and go to Object > Blend > Blend Options. Select Specified Steps, 30 and apply.
Next, select both rectangles and go to Object > Blend > Make.
Step 7
Change the object’s Blending mode to Multiply with 50% Opacity.
Step 8
Place the Blend shadow under the polaroid and add the cocktail image to complete the polaroid for the flyer design.
Step 9
Consult the tutorial below to learn how to draw palm leaves to use in the flyer background.
Add the umbrella to complete one more polaroid for the flyer template.
Step 23
Place the polaroids in a vertical pile for the flyer design.
Step 24
Add a #A9D1E2 background to create the simple flyer background.
Step 25
Use Placeit to turn this simple flyer template into a real flyer design!
Awesome Work, Your Simple Flyer Background Is Now Done!
What now? You can try any of my other tutorials from my profile, or check out my portfolio on GraphicRiver, as well as the original vector we recreated in this tutorial.
In this tutorial, you will have the opportunity to learn how to use
the Gradient Mesh Tool in Adobe Illustrator to draw a simple travel flyer template. Then
you’ll see how to turn this template into a real flyer with Placeit!
Begin with a #F3F0AD rectangle. Drag its edges and bend it sideways to create a circle (it’ll create a better mesh grid for later).
Grab the Mesh Tool (U) and add some mesh nodes as indicated below. Drag the edge nodes together so they overlap, and then color the edge of the circle with #DAB943.
Follow the screenshot below to see which nodes to color in which step.
Step 2
Continue coloring the lemon according to the image below. Use these colors:
#B98F36
#EBE067
#F9F9D3
Step 3
Draw the inner part of the lemon with Mesh. Use these:
#E8D74B
#DFBF2A
#C9AC31
Step 4
Turn the top edge of the lemon slice completely transparent.
Step 5
Draw another element.
#E7D649
#EFE288
#F7F3BE
Step 6
Draw another part of the lemon.
#E7D649
#EFE288
#ECDF6F
Step 7
Draw the final piece.
#E7D649
#EFE288
#F7F3BE
Step 8
Place the elements onto the slice.
Step 9
Place the wedges onto the lemon slice.
Step 10
It’s time to draw the cocktail glass for our simple flyer background! Use Gradient Mesh and these colors:
#E8E0CE
#E2BD1D
#D58C1C
Step 11
#E1A91D
#E9D771
#F4F1E8
Step 12
Make the top part of the glass transparent.
Step 13
Draw the base of the glass.
#EFE7CE
#D2CAB1
#9E967D
Step 14
#C6BEA5
#F7F1D8
#A58747
Step 15
Set the base to 70% Opacity.
Step 16
Draw a straw for the cocktail.
#D58743
#E8C47D
Step 17
#D58743
#A27A68
Step 18
#C37334
#D99450
Step 19
Assemble the straw.
Step 20
Finish the cocktail glass to add to the flyer template.
2. How to Create the Photos
Step 1
Begin drawing the background for the cocktail photo on our simple flyer.
Step 2
Finish drawing the background.
#4BB6CE
#F4F4E6
#D0C594
Step 3
Place the glass onto the background. Our first photo for the flyer design is done!
Step 4
Draw the base for the polaroid.
#FFF5CF
#EDD9B3
Step 5
Add a #322412 square.
Step 6
Draw two rectangles with rounded edges, the bigger one colored with #FEF3CD and the smaller one with #322412.
Make the bigger rectangle transparent, and go to Object > Blend > Blend Options. Select Specified Steps, 30 and apply.
Next, select both rectangles and go to Object > Blend > Make.
Step 7
Change the object’s Blending mode to Multiply with 50% Opacity.
Step 8
Place the Blend shadow under the polaroid and add the cocktail image to complete the polaroid for the flyer design.
Step 9
Consult the tutorial below to learn how to draw palm leaves to use in the flyer background.
Add the umbrella to complete one more polaroid for the flyer template.
Step 23
Place the polaroids in a vertical pile for the flyer design.
Step 24
Add a #A9D1E2 background to create the simple flyer background.
Step 25
Use Placeit to turn this simple flyer template into a real flyer design!
Awesome Work, Your Simple Flyer Background Is Now Done!
What now? You can try any of my other tutorials from my profile, or check out my portfolio on GraphicRiver, as well as the original vector we recreated in this tutorial.
In this tutorial, you will have the opportunity to learn how to use
the Gradient Mesh Tool in Adobe Illustrator to draw a simple travel flyer template. Then
you’ll see how to turn this template into a real flyer with Placeit!
Begin with a #F3F0AD rectangle. Drag its edges and bend it sideways to create a circle (it’ll create a better mesh grid for later).
Grab the Mesh Tool (U) and add some mesh nodes as indicated below. Drag the edge nodes together so they overlap, and then color the edge of the circle with #DAB943.
Follow the screenshot below to see which nodes to color in which step.
Step 2
Continue coloring the lemon according to the image below. Use these colors:
#B98F36
#EBE067
#F9F9D3
Step 3
Draw the inner part of the lemon with Mesh. Use these:
#E8D74B
#DFBF2A
#C9AC31
Step 4
Turn the top edge of the lemon slice completely transparent.
Step 5
Draw another element.
#E7D649
#EFE288
#F7F3BE
Step 6
Draw another part of the lemon.
#E7D649
#EFE288
#ECDF6F
Step 7
Draw the final piece.
#E7D649
#EFE288
#F7F3BE
Step 8
Place the elements onto the slice.
Step 9
Place the wedges onto the lemon slice.
Step 10
It’s time to draw the cocktail glass for our simple flyer background! Use Gradient Mesh and these colors:
#E8E0CE
#E2BD1D
#D58C1C
Step 11
#E1A91D
#E9D771
#F4F1E8
Step 12
Make the top part of the glass transparent.
Step 13
Draw the base of the glass.
#EFE7CE
#D2CAB1
#9E967D
Step 14
#C6BEA5
#F7F1D8
#A58747
Step 15
Set the base to 70% Opacity.
Step 16
Draw a straw for the cocktail.
#D58743
#E8C47D
Step 17
#D58743
#A27A68
Step 18
#C37334
#D99450
Step 19
Assemble the straw.
Step 20
Finish the cocktail glass to add to the flyer template.
2. How to Create the Photos
Step 1
Begin drawing the background for the cocktail photo on our simple flyer.
Step 2
Finish drawing the background.
#4BB6CE
#F4F4E6
#D0C594
Step 3
Place the glass onto the background. Our first photo for the flyer design is done!
Step 4
Draw the base for the polaroid.
#FFF5CF
#EDD9B3
Step 5
Add a #322412 square.
Step 6
Draw two rectangles with rounded edges, the bigger one colored with #FEF3CD and the smaller one with #322412.
Make the bigger rectangle transparent, and go to Object > Blend > Blend Options. Select Specified Steps, 30 and apply.
Next, select both rectangles and go to Object > Blend > Make.
Step 7
Change the object’s Blending mode to Multiply with 50% Opacity.
Step 8
Place the Blend shadow under the polaroid and add the cocktail image to complete the polaroid for the flyer design.
Step 9
Consult the tutorial below to learn how to draw palm leaves to use in the flyer background.
Add the umbrella to complete one more polaroid for the flyer template.
Step 23
Place the polaroids in a vertical pile for the flyer design.
Step 24
Add a #A9D1E2 background to create the simple flyer background.
Step 25
Use Placeit to turn this simple flyer template into a real flyer design!
Awesome Work, Your Simple Flyer Background Is Now Done!
What now? You can try any of my other tutorials from my profile, or check out my portfolio on GraphicRiver, as well as the original vector we recreated in this tutorial.
In this tutorial, you will have the opportunity to learn how to use
the Gradient Mesh Tool in Adobe Illustrator to draw a simple travel flyer template. Then
you’ll see how to turn this template into a real flyer with Placeit!
Begin with a #F3F0AD rectangle. Drag its edges and bend it sideways to create a circle (it’ll create a better mesh grid for later).
Grab the Mesh Tool (U) and add some mesh nodes as indicated below. Drag the edge nodes together so they overlap, and then color the edge of the circle with #DAB943.
Follow the screenshot below to see which nodes to color in which step.
Step 2
Continue coloring the lemon according to the image below. Use these colors:
#B98F36
#EBE067
#F9F9D3
Step 3
Draw the inner part of the lemon with Mesh. Use these:
#E8D74B
#DFBF2A
#C9AC31
Step 4
Turn the top edge of the lemon slice completely transparent.
Step 5
Draw another element.
#E7D649
#EFE288
#F7F3BE
Step 6
Draw another part of the lemon.
#E7D649
#EFE288
#ECDF6F
Step 7
Draw the final piece.
#E7D649
#EFE288
#F7F3BE
Step 8
Place the elements onto the slice.
Step 9
Place the wedges onto the lemon slice.
Step 10
It’s time to draw the cocktail glass for our simple flyer background! Use Gradient Mesh and these colors:
#E8E0CE
#E2BD1D
#D58C1C
Step 11
#E1A91D
#E9D771
#F4F1E8
Step 12
Make the top part of the glass transparent.
Step 13
Draw the base of the glass.
#EFE7CE
#D2CAB1
#9E967D
Step 14
#C6BEA5
#F7F1D8
#A58747
Step 15
Set the base to 70% Opacity.
Step 16
Draw a straw for the cocktail.
#D58743
#E8C47D
Step 17
#D58743
#A27A68
Step 18
#C37334
#D99450
Step 19
Assemble the straw.
Step 20
Finish the cocktail glass to add to the flyer template.
2. How to Create the Photos
Step 1
Begin drawing the background for the cocktail photo on our simple flyer.
Step 2
Finish drawing the background.
#4BB6CE
#F4F4E6
#D0C594
Step 3
Place the glass onto the background. Our first photo for the flyer design is done!
Step 4
Draw the base for the polaroid.
#FFF5CF
#EDD9B3
Step 5
Add a #322412 square.
Step 6
Draw two rectangles with rounded edges, the bigger one colored with #FEF3CD and the smaller one with #322412.
Make the bigger rectangle transparent, and go to Object > Blend > Blend Options. Select Specified Steps, 30 and apply.
Next, select both rectangles and go to Object > Blend > Make.
Step 7
Change the object’s Blending mode to Multiply with 50% Opacity.
Step 8
Place the Blend shadow under the polaroid and add the cocktail image to complete the polaroid for the flyer design.
Step 9
Consult the tutorial below to learn how to draw palm leaves to use in the flyer background.
Add the umbrella to complete one more polaroid for the flyer template.
Step 23
Place the polaroids in a vertical pile for the flyer design.
Step 24
Add a #A9D1E2 background to create the simple flyer background.
Step 25
Use Placeit to turn this simple flyer template into a real flyer design!
Awesome Work, Your Simple Flyer Background Is Now Done!
What now? You can try any of my other tutorials from my profile, or check out my portfolio on GraphicRiver, as well as the original vector we recreated in this tutorial.
In this tutorial, you will have the opportunity to learn how to use
the Gradient Mesh Tool in Adobe Illustrator to draw a simple travel flyer template. Then
you’ll see how to turn this template into a real flyer with Placeit!
Begin with a #F3F0AD rectangle. Drag its edges and bend it sideways to create a circle (it’ll create a better mesh grid for later).
Grab the Mesh Tool (U) and add some mesh nodes as indicated below. Drag the edge nodes together so they overlap, and then color the edge of the circle with #DAB943.
Follow the screenshot below to see which nodes to color in which step.
Step 2
Continue coloring the lemon according to the image below. Use these colors:
#B98F36
#EBE067
#F9F9D3
Step 3
Draw the inner part of the lemon with Mesh. Use these:
#E8D74B
#DFBF2A
#C9AC31
Step 4
Turn the top edge of the lemon slice completely transparent.
Step 5
Draw another element.
#E7D649
#EFE288
#F7F3BE
Step 6
Draw another part of the lemon.
#E7D649
#EFE288
#ECDF6F
Step 7
Draw the final piece.
#E7D649
#EFE288
#F7F3BE
Step 8
Place the elements onto the slice.
Step 9
Place the wedges onto the lemon slice.
Step 10
It’s time to draw the cocktail glass for our simple flyer background! Use Gradient Mesh and these colors:
#E8E0CE
#E2BD1D
#D58C1C
Step 11
#E1A91D
#E9D771
#F4F1E8
Step 12
Make the top part of the glass transparent.
Step 13
Draw the base of the glass.
#EFE7CE
#D2CAB1
#9E967D
Step 14
#C6BEA5
#F7F1D8
#A58747
Step 15
Set the base to 70% Opacity.
Step 16
Draw a straw for the cocktail.
#D58743
#E8C47D
Step 17
#D58743
#A27A68
Step 18
#C37334
#D99450
Step 19
Assemble the straw.
Step 20
Finish the cocktail glass to add to the flyer template.
2. How to Create the Photos
Step 1
Begin drawing the background for the cocktail photo on our simple flyer.
Step 2
Finish drawing the background.
#4BB6CE
#F4F4E6
#D0C594
Step 3
Place the glass onto the background. Our first photo for the flyer design is done!
Step 4
Draw the base for the polaroid.
#FFF5CF
#EDD9B3
Step 5
Add a #322412 square.
Step 6
Draw two rectangles with rounded edges, the bigger one colored with #FEF3CD and the smaller one with #322412.
Make the bigger rectangle transparent, and go to Object > Blend > Blend Options. Select Specified Steps, 30 and apply.
Next, select both rectangles and go to Object > Blend > Make.
Step 7
Change the object’s Blending mode to Multiply with 50% Opacity.
Step 8
Place the Blend shadow under the polaroid and add the cocktail image to complete the polaroid for the flyer design.
Step 9
Consult the tutorial below to learn how to draw palm leaves to use in the flyer background.
Add the umbrella to complete one more polaroid for the flyer template.
Step 23
Place the polaroids in a vertical pile for the flyer design.
Step 24
Add a #A9D1E2 background to create the simple flyer background.
Step 25
Use Placeit to turn this simple flyer template into a real flyer design!
Awesome Work, Your Simple Flyer Background Is Now Done!
What now? You can try any of my other tutorials from my profile, or check out my portfolio on GraphicRiver, as well as the original vector we recreated in this tutorial.
