Many elements of website design have become over-familiar and even generic over the past few years. Full-screen images, videos, and hamburger menus are so common that they are seen absolutely everywhere.
Flat design has become a trend and many designers use responsive menus. Creative designers in the industry are beginning to ask, ‘What next?’
What risks are designers willing to take, and how can original and creative ideas be incorporated into UI design? User Interface design involves creativity. By communicating with a client and imagining a new product or goal, a web designer aims to create a unique product.
Here are some new and creative ideas which are beginning to emerge in website design.
The importance of new design
As a designer, it is very easy to try to improve on old patterns and trends. However, truly innovative design often changes the way a user engages with a product. When Henry Ford created his first car he completely transformed the transport industry.
However, even small changes can make a big difference. Adding a digital element to the household thermostat has made it simple and easy to use. Homeowners can now control the temperatures in their homes from their smartphones. There are no longer complicated keypads to contend with.
Working innovatively while keeping user experience in mind is important within web design too. This is how designers create transformative experiences for their viewers.
The role of wearable technology
Wearable technology often comes in the form of wrist wear such as a smartwatch, jewelry or even a pair of eyeglasses. Product designers have created an attractive product which appeals to gadget lovers.
Users enjoy this technology and as it starts to become more popular, it is becoming more affordable to a great many people.
As a web/UI designer, wearable technology brings applications and websites not just to smartphones but to watches and other easily accessible devices. Brands will want their sites to be accessible through these products.
Wearable technology means designs need to be as simple and functional as possible, cutting out any superfluous material.
Users love simplicity
When designing a site or web app, keep in mind that a user will often form an opinion in the blink of an eye. As a result, your layout should be simple and clear.
Viewers need to understand the next step to take. As a designer, your goal is to focus your user’s attention immediately. This could mean placing one button instead of four in your layout.
The easier an app or website is to use, the more intuitive it will feel to your viewer. Give your viewers all the information they need without confusing them. Design with the average viewer in mind. You can always add extra content or additional options at a later stage. Keep your pages simple and clutter free.
Think of dashboard design as an experiment. What do the most popular dashboards have in common? Simplicity. It should perform the needed tasks for the users, and nothing more.
Balance creativity with convention
Although your goal as a designer is to create a unique design, there are times when it is best to remain traditional.
When you’re creating a digital user interface, it is important to speak your viewer’s language. Your call to action button needs to be easily identifiable.
Likewise, shopping carts and navigation menus need to be familiar to a viewer. Otherwise, your viewer will simply not be able to interact with your site.
Keep responsive design aesthetic
As smartphones and tablets have become increasingly popular, designers have been using responsive design to create websites which adjust to smaller screens.
Responsive design has become increasingly popular over the last couple of years. Research proves that it makes a massive difference to viewers.
However, designing a responsive website means taking into account the size of text along with the focus on imagery. If your site simply shrinks in size, it often becomes complicated and difficult to navigate for viewers. Your site might not give the visual message you are aiming for if your imagery is not proportional.
With screen size changing constantly and the increasing popularity of wearable technology, you will want your site to look good in many different screen sizes.
As a designer, your goal is not simply to create a responsive site. It is to create a responsive site which maintains your aesthetic. Check your designs on multiple screen sizes and ask yourself whether it still maintains the image of your brand.
Incorporate animation
An animation is a quick display of images which have been shaped into a sequence. It is commonly used in the form of a film or video. When designers use animation, they increase a viewer’s interaction with the site. Animation gives a fluid sense of life to a site. It attracts users attention as they watch shapes change and evolve.
An animation is an effective way to create interest in any site. As an additional benefit, it does not take a great deal of time to incorporate. Animation enables a designer to bring a message to life. It is, however, not widely incorporated across websites.
Animation can be used in the form of GIF images or saved in CSS or SVG format. You can create anything from a simple underlining of important keywords in a text to a full video or evolving logo which shapes its way across a page.
Adding animation to a website takes very little time. However, your digital interface design will immediately feel less like a website and more like an application.
Make it easy for your user to navigate your web or mobile app
As a UI designer, you need to ensure that your user can engage with your app. This prevents your user from getting lost.
Ensure your app speaks your user’s language and feels intuitive. Navigation should be easily accessible. Your user should be able to do any false actions or find the way home when lost.
If you keep your app design clear, simple and easy to use, this will ensure your users will use it again and again.
Let your user scan your content
Users are often impatient. In order to have your viewers interact and explore your site, you need to make content easy to understand. Your users won’t want to wade through a long and involved story in order to find what they are looking for. Break information up into small chunks. Create headings and subheadings so that your user can see what is on each page.
Place the most important content at the top of your page. An interested user might scroll down to the bottom of a page to read minor details, but you will need to place your crucial content at the top.
Users will only switch from scanning to reading copy when the content helps them to focus on areas of interest. Make your subheadings clear. This way your users can pick and choose what they would like to read.
Many sites use illustrations in order to give quick and easy messages which don’t demand too much of site visitors.
We’ve already hit you with a one-two punch of variable fonts today. Robin shared Richard Rutter’s post on real-world usage of them. Ollie Williams introduced us to the in’s-and-out’s of using them on the web.
I figured we’d make it a trifecta and link up our discussion about variable fonts with Jason Pamental. Dave and I talk with Jason for an entire hour digging into the real story, possibilities, and future of all this variable fonts business. Don’t miss his or Mandy Michael’s demo Collections either.
In 2016, an important development in web typography was jointly announced by representatives from Adobe, Microsoft, Apple, and Google. Version 1.8 of the OpenType font format introduced variable fonts. With so many big names involved, it’s unsurprising that all browsers are on-board and racing ahead with implementation.
Font weights can be far more than just bold and normal—most professionally designed typefaces are available in variants ranging from a thin hairline ultralight to a black extra-heavy bold. To make use of all those weights, we would need a separate file for each. While a design is unlikely to need every font-weight, a wider variety than bold and normal adds visual hierarchy and interest to a page.
The Google Fonts GUI makes clear: the more weights you choose, the slower your site
There’s more than various weights to consider. CSS3 introduced the font-stretch property, with values from ultra-condensed to ultra-expanded. Until now, these values only worked if you provided a separate file for each width. If you wanted every combination of weight and width in both normal and italic, you would need dozens of files.
The popular Gotham font, available in many width and weight combinations
With variable fonts, we can get all this variety with a single file.
The OpenType spec lists five standard axes of variation—all labeled by a four-character string. These are aspects of the typeface that we have control over.
wght – Weight is controlled by the CSS font-weight property. The value can be anything from 1 to 999. This will allow for a more granular level of control.
wdth – Width is controlled by the CSS font-stretch property. It can take a keyword or a percentage value. While it’s long been possible to use a transform to scaleX or scaleY, that distorts the font in ugly ways unintended by the typographer. The width axis is defined by the font designer to expand or condense elegantly.
opsz – Optical sizing can be turned on or off using the new font-optical-sizing property. (I’ll explain what optical sizing is later on.)
ital – Italicization is achieved by setting the CSS font-style property to italic
slnt– Slant is controlled by setting the CSS font-style property set to oblique. It will default to a 20 degree slant but it can also accept a specified degree between -90deg and 90deg.
Unfortunately, not every variable font will necessarily make use of all five axes. It’s entirely dependent on the creator of the particular typeface. After testing every variable font I could get my hands on, by far the most commonly implemented is weight, followed closely by width. Much of the time you will need two files: one for italic and one for regular, as the ital axis isn’t always implemented. As Frank Grießhammer of Adobe told me:
Italic and Roman styles have (often radically) different construction principles, therefore point structures may not always be compatible.
The browser can make any non-italic font emulate italics, but this is typographically ill-advised.
Typographers can define named instances within their variable font. A named instance is a preset—a particular variation the font is capable of accessing with a name (e.g. „Extra Light”) rather than with numbers alone. In the current CSS spec, however, there is no way to access these named instances. It’s important to note that when you use a value like extra-condensed or semi-expanded for font-stretch, the value maps to a percentage predefined in the CSS spec—not to any named instance chosen by the font creator. For font-weight, the bold value maps to 700 and normal to 400. As the spec puts it, „a font might internally provide its own mappings, but those mappings within the font are disregarded.”
The CSS Fonts Module Level 4 spec introduces the new font-variation-settings property to control variable font options. The following two CSS declarations are equivalent:
The spec strongly prefers using font-optical-sizing, font-style, font-weight and font-stretch over font-variation-settings for controlling any of the five standard axes. As Myles Maxfield kindly explained to me:
font-variation-settings is not identical to the other variation-aware properties, because with these other properties, the browser has insight into the meaning of the variations, and can therefore do things like applying them to other font file formats, or creating synthesized versions if the font file doesn’t support the axis.
Microsoft will register more standard axes tags over time. As new axes are added, we can also expect new CSS properties to control them. Font creators are also free to invent their own axes. This is why font-variation-settings was added to CSS—it is the only way to control custom axes. Lab DJR and Decovar are two typeface made with the express intention of demonstrating just how malleable a single variable font can be. Lab DJR, for example, offers four custom axes:
Courtesy of David Jonathan Ross. David is by the typographer of Lab DJR and already has several variable fonts to his name.
These foundry-defined custom axes must use uppercase letters while the standardized axes always use lower case. With unique and unstandardized options, CSS authors must count on font developers to properly document their work.
The versatility of Decovar is the perfect showcase for the power of variable fonts being more than just a saved HTTP request
Performance
You might download a variable font in TTF format rather than as a pre-compressed file. You’ll definitely want to convert it into .woff2. Google offer a command line tool predictably named woff2 to make it easy. If you cd into the folder containing your font while in the command line, you can type:
woff2_compress examplefont.ttf
We’ve established that we’ll only need one HTTP request per typeface (or possibly two to separate Roman and Italic styles). Because they’re doing so much work, you might expect the file size of a variable font to be far larger than a typical font file. Let’s have a (not entirely scientific) look.
Here are some of the variable fonts I have hanging around my laptop, along with their file sizes:
Decovar is only 71 KB even though it has 15 axes
Let’s compare that to single instances of a non-variable version of Source Sans:
Animation
Variable fonts also mean that, for the first time, font-weight (and any other axis) can be animated. While adding type animation may sound like a superfluous embellishment a website can happily survive without, something like adding weight on focus, for example, seems like a natural and intuitive way to denote state to the user. In the past, switching from a normal to a bold weight was utterly jarring. With variable fonts it can be smooth and graceful.
One Size Fits All?
While Lab DJR and Decovar are excitingly creative, variable fonts aren’t all about avant-garde experimentalism. Optical sizing should bring a better reading experience to the web. Currently, type on the web is size agnostic; you can change the font-size and it will still look the same. Optical sizing means making size-specific optimizations for a typeface where the variation of a letter’s form at different sizes can improve readability. We don’t want larger text to look inelegant or clunky, while smaller text benefits from the removal of fine details. More open counters, the thickening of subtle serifs, and an increase in x-height, width, weight and letter-spacing all improve legibility at smaller sizes. The initial value is auto so if you are using a font that makes use of an optical sizing index, you get the benefit for free out of the box.
What Fonts Are Available?
This technology is quickly making its way into browsers. Making use of it requires you to find a variable font you actually want to use. Google Fonts Early Access has three available, with many more likely to follow. Adobe is remaking some of the most well-known families (i.e. Minion, Myriad, Acumin) to be variable. The open source fonts Source Sans and Source Serif have also been released. Monotype, one of the world’s largest typography companies, has so far introduced beta versions of Avenir Next and Kairos Sans. Some independent type foundries have also started to release variable typefaces. With variable font support now available in all major font-creation software, we can expect the availability to greatly expand over 2018.
Using Your Font
Once you’ve found your font, you need to use @font-face to include it on your site.
We don’t want any browsers to download a font they can’t use. For that reason, we should specify the format inside the @font-face rule. Depending on the file type of your variable font, you can specify woff-variations, woff2-variations, opentype-variations or truetype-variations. As already mentioned, you should always use woff2.
A third @font-face is only necessary to provide a backup bold font for browsers that do not support variable fonts. Notice that we are using the same variable font file as for the first @font-face rule, as that file can be both bold and normal:
If the browser supports variable fonts, SourceSansVariable.woff2 and SourceSansVariable-italic.woff2 will be downloaded and used. If not, SourceSans.woff2, SourceSans-bold.woff2 and SourceSans-italic.woff2 will be downloaded instead.
From here, we can apply the font on an element as we normally would:
html {
font-family: 'source sans', Verdana, sans-serif;
}
San Francisco
While variable fonts bring performance benefits, „web-safe” system fonts still remain the most performant option because the font is already installed and there is nothing to download. If you want to use a variable font without the need of downloading anything, Apple’s San Francisco, perhaps the prettiest of all system fonts, is also a variable font. Using system fonts no longer requires a massive font-stack:
html {
font-family: system-ui, -apple-system;
}
The system-ui value is the new standard to access system fonts, while -apple-system is non-standardized syntax that works on Firefox. Traditionally, system fonts have not come in a wide range of weights or widths. Hopefully more will be made available as variable fonts, bringing all the benefits of variable fonts without a single HTTP request.
Browser Support
Variable fonts have shipped in Chrome and Safari. They are already in the insider preview version of Edge and behind a flag in Firefox. At the current time, not all parts of the spec are fully implemented by Chrome. Using variable fonts in conjunction with font-style, font-stretch, font-weight and font-optical-sizing does not work in Chrome, so using font-variation-settings to control the five standard axes is necessary for the time being. Specifying the format as woff2-variations inside of @font-face also lacks support in Chrome (you can specify only woff2 and the font will still work, but then you are unable to have a non-variable woff2 fallback).
The 90s are making a comeback all over design! Let’s find out why in this article below!
Trend Watch: Retro 90s Design
Jean vests, baggy overalls, and funky flannels were just a few of the highlights of the 90s. And whether you love it or hate it, nostalgic retro design is making a comeback now more than ever.
Nostalgia has a way of inviting happy memories of times long forgotten. So designers are paying homage to their favorite TV shows and fashionable styles with the popular retro 90s trend.
Who doesn’t love the 90s!? Here are just a few key features from this era:
Bold colors. Pink, yellow, blue—you name it, we wore it. Integrate these vibrant colors with funky patterns and black outlines for a classic 90s aesthetic.
Fun fashion statements. The 90s were all about expression. From grunge fashion to popular flannel patterns, you can incorporate your favorite fashionable styles by looking at their patterns and textures.
Abstract Shapes. Geometry was huge in the 90s! Polka-dot patterns and bold abstract shapes were a standard among 90s-themed graphics. Mix and match shapes with bold colors for a clever effect!
Inspiring Musical Themes. From grunge songs to your favorite hip-hop jams and more, the 90s were a special time in music. Integrate retro boomboxes into your work for an epic twist!
Nostalgic 90s-Inspired Lessons
Relive your favorite shows and more with these 90s tutorials. Learn how to create professional party flyers, patterns, and even photo effects from our experts!
There’s
no party like a 90s themed party! So get all your friends together and
put on your best retro fashion for a fun night out. Download this clean
flyer template complete with free fonts and vector graphics. Celebrate your favorite 90s moments!
This trendy DJ flyer is one of the classic ways we’re starting to see this theme play out. It features bold pastel colors and simple triangular shapes. Add a photo with the same theme to really help this flyer pop! Enjoy this template!
Your business cards should feature a design you’re happy to pass out! This Memphis business card template is not only stylish but also super cool! The print-ready file is fully customizable with high-resolution elements. Let us know how you like it!
Whether you love pop or punk music, you’ll definitely love this creative music flyer. This pack features six Illustrator and Photoshop files that are 100% vector. Update it with your event details to use it right away!
The music of the 90s was like no other. And you can show off your stylish fashionable side with this awesome hip-hop illustration pack. A vector EPS file with 14 total illustrations, these graphics can be used for icons and more!
Create
a bold title like your favorite retro TV shows with this funky 3D text
effect. Included are 10 well-organized Photoshop files with editable elements you can customize fast. Choose from several bold color
schemes and even unique textures!
This epic design duo features not only a 90s revival flyer but also a GIF Photoshop action. Turn your flyers into an exciting animation ready for any social media profile or website. Download it today to get access to fully editable elements.
Another great set you should definitely download is this vintage 90s element pack. With around 20 party-themed elements, you’ll be able to incorporate these vector pieces into any nostalgic design. Mash them up for the ultimate 90s graphic!
Keeping along with the theme is this 90s music festival flyer. A great option for beginners to design, this pack includes several Photoshop files and easily editable layers. You’ll adore the classic 90s vibe for your next musical event!
From cassette tapes to retro boomboxes and more, this party flyer is completely packed with 90s nostalgia! Some of the fonts featured include accessible options like Bebas Neue, along with print-ready files for your convenience. Try it out!
Become the star of your next event with this pop disco flyer template. A new spin on a classic design, this template features abstract shapes and a bold pink color scheme. Just swap out the model’s photo for one of your best glam shots!
Welcome back the 90s in style! Created with both horizontal and vertical versions, this retro flyer template is both bold and striking! Show all your friends a night of fun with incredible music and good company. You’ll love this design!
The modern world has left behind these vintage storage items, but we can still remember them in spirit! Make your retro graphics complete with this vintage set of storage icons made with Adobe Illustrator. Get 10 total icons available in several formats.
Add a grunge text effect to your party flyer or typography poster in only minutes! This awesome mockup set includes six vintage-inspired text mockups with classic styles you’ll love. Easily change the colors and backgrounds to customize it fast!
Open up any party with your favorite 90s tunes and this vintage party flyer! Featuring a mixture of grunge design and bold colors for that old-school vibe, this template is simple and easy to use. The model images aren’t included, though, so just replace them with your own!
One
way to show off your love of 90s grunge is with an epic Photoshop
action. And this action can transform your photos with just a few simple
clicks! Follow along with the attached video tutorial for more tips to achieve the perfect effect!
Or rock out with this wicked grunge core concert flyer. It’s designed with incredibly realistic grunge texture and chunky letters, and you’ll be able to swap out the main photo for one of your own. Also included are 10 different color schemes to try out!
This awesome pack of retro text effects includes cool 90s-themed options you’ll definitely want! Get access to so many styles that can be used in a variety of design scenarios. A convenient help file is also included for more information.
Thunderstorm has a familiar Saved By the Bell vibe that is hard to miss. This font is a handmade typeface inspired by several classic periods like the 80s, the 90s, and beyond. Use it for amazing quotes, apparel, or even logos.
Make sure to invite your favorite Photoshop instructor to a fun 90s-themed house party. This cool template features a creative typographic design with plenty of room for your party details. Enjoy the print-ready design complete with editable fonts and text.
Show Us Your 90s Designs!
If you’re as fond of this retro trend as we are, then show us your
work! Post a result showing how you work with the vintage 90s theme and let us know your favorite styles in the comments below.
This has been a collection of tutorials and premium resources perfect for the avid designer. For more trendy retro 90s designs, check out Envato Market and Envato Elements. Happy designing!
In this tutorial I’ll show you how to use Adobe Photoshop to create a vintage collage featuring a beautiful woman. I will also teach you how to retouch the artwork in Adobe Lightroom.
First, we’ll isolate the model from the background. After that, we’ll add our background. Later, we will cut out the model’s eyes and create some faux sunglasses with a desert picture. Then, we will add additional elements such as the crow, the UFO, the jewelry, and some tribal marks. Finally, we will adjust the contrast, vibration, and saturation using Adobe Lightroom. Let’s get started.
Tutorial Assets
The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial:
1. How to Isolate the Model and Prepare the Base Background
Step 1
Create a new 2500 by 2000 pixels document in Photoshop with the given settings:
Step 2
Open the model image in Photoshop. Cut out the image using the Pen Tool (P). Find a spot on the main image to start drawing the outline. As we’re drawing, we want to zoom in closer to the subject. This is accomplished using the Zoom Tool by pressing Control and the + or – keys.
Step 3
Now that we have drawn the outline, we want to soften the edges of the hair before removing the background. Right-click, make selection, and then select the Marquee Tool (M). Once the option bar pops up, select Select Inverse and click on Select and Mask. This will open the Select and Mask Workspace.
Step 4
Then, activate the Refine Edge Brush Tool (R). Brush over any detailed hair areas that are missing from your selection with this tool (we can change the brush size and hardness from the brush drop-down in the top left). This will select the detailed hair areas and remove the contrasting background. When you are done,click OK.
Step 5
Now we want to remove the background. Select the Marquee Tool (M). Right-click and Select Inverse. Then hit Delete.
2. How to Bring the Image Into the Main Canvas
Drag the image into the main canvas using the Move Tool (V).Then, resize by pressing Control-T. This will bring up the transformation tools you want. We do not want the image to deform or stretch, so press Shift while resizing. Then press Enter.
3. How to Create the Background
Step 1
Bring the background image into the canvas, and then place the layer under the model’s layer. We want the image to fill the canvas. Press Control-T, and drag the corners to make it bigger. Press Shift while resizing. Then press Enter.
Now that we have resized the background image, we want to center the circle. Select the Move Tool (V) and move the image to the right side to center the circle.
Step 2
Next, we want to make the background more colorful. Press Shift-Control-A to open the camera raw filter workspace, and then bring the Clarity up to +83 and the Vibrance up to +68. Click OK.
4. How to Import the UFO and the Crow
Step 1
Drag the UFO picture into Photoshop. We need to remove the background. Cut out the image using the Pen Tool (P). Find a spot on the main image, and click on a point to start drawing the outline. To finish, we have to click from the last point to the first one we did. Press Control-(+) to zoom in and Control-(-) to zoom out during the process.
Step 2
Now we want to import the UFO into the main file. Select the UFO layer, use your Move Tool (V), and drag the image into the main canvas, and then resize it to make it fit on the model’s head. To resize, press Control-T,holding the Shift key while resizing the UFO image. Next, we want to delete the extra hair around the UFO. Select the Model’s layer, activate the Eraser Tool (E), and remove the hair on the edges.
Step 3
Now we need to add the crow. Drag the image into Photoshop, and use the Pen Tool (P) to draw the crow’s outline. Click on the Marquee Tool (M), and then Right-click and Select Inverse. Click Select Selection, and then press Delete.
Step 4
Drag the crow image on the main file. Resize the image. Press Control-T, holding Shift while resizing. Use the Move Tool (V) and bring the crow onto the model’s left shoulder.
5. How to Add the Jewelry and Tribal Marks
Step 1
Open the mirror picture in Photoshop. Use the Pen Tool (P) to cut the crown and remove the background. Drag the jewelry into the main file on top of the model’s neck. Press Control-T, holding Shift while resizing the image. We want the image under the UFO. Bring the layer under the UFO’s layer.
Step 2
Press Control-J to duplicate the jewelry’s layer and place it on the model’s neck. Lower the Opacity to 50%, and activate the Pen Tool (P) to remove the extra part on the edges. Follow the body shape, and then bring back the Opacity to 100%.
Step 3
Now we want to add some tribal marks. Use the Ellipse Tool (U) to draw a small circle, making sure the fill color is white. Duplicate the layer nine times by pressing Control-J, and then use the Move Tool (V) to redistribute the circles on the cheeks and arms.
6. How to Create Desert Sunglasses
Step 1
Open the desert picture in Photoshop, and then activate the Rectangle Marquee Tool (M) and draw a rectangle on the image.
Step 2
Then use the Move Tool (V) and drag the rectangle into the main canvas. Place the rectangle on the model’s eyes.
Step 3
Next, lower the image’s Opacity to 50%, and then use the Pen Tool (P) to draw a round shape in the middle of the nose area. Cut out the sides like the following shape.
7. How to Create a Vintage Retouch to the Artwork in Adobe Lightroom
Step 1
Export the photo as a Jpeg from Photoshop. Import the picture into Lightroom. Then click Develop. Bring the Temperature to +14, Highlights to -100, Shadows to +100, Blacks to -57, Clarity +100, and Vibrance to +24.
Step 2
Next, we want to add some vignette to create more of a vintage mood. Scroll down the toolbar to Post-Crop Vignetting and bring down the Amount to -29. Then add some Grain. Bring up the Amount to +75, size 24, roughness 50.
Step 3
Now, scroll down to camera calibration and bring the Green primary to -38
8. How to Export the Final Artwork From Adobe Lightroom
Now that we are finished, we want to export our artwork as a JPEG. Click File, then Export. Select in which folder we want to save our image. Then click Export.
Congratulations, You Made It!
I hope that you’ve enjoyed the tutorial and learned something new for your own projects. Feel free to share your results or leave comments in the box below. Keep creating!
In today’s tutorial, we’re going to explore
the process of creating an instant snapshot of a busy city, using nothing more
than the basic shapes and tools that we work with on a daily basis.
You can always expand your project by heading over to GraphicRiver, where you’ll find a great selection of vector assets to choose from.
That being said, quickly grab a fresh cup of coffee to keep you energized, and let’s jump
straight into it!
1. How to Set Up a New Project File
Assuming you already have Illustrator up
and running in the background, bring it up and let’s set up a New Document (File > New or Control-N)
for our project using the following settings:
Number
of Artboards: 1
Width: 800
px
Height: 600
px
Units: Pixels
And from the Advanced tab:
Color
Mode: RGB
Raster
Effects: Screen (72ppi)
Preview Mode: Default
2. How to Set Up a Custom Grid
Even though today’s project is not an icon-based one, we’ll still want to create the illustration using a pixel-perfect
workflow, so let’s set up a nice little grid so that we can have full control
over our shapes.
Step 1
Go to the Edit > Preferences > Guides & Grid submenu, and adjust
the following settings:
Once we’ve set up our custom grid, all we
need to do in order to make sure our shapes look crisp is enable the Snap to Grid option found under the View menu (that’s if you’re using an
older version of Illustrator).
Now, if you’re new to
the whole “pixel-perfect workflow”, I strongly recommend you go through my How
to Create Pixel-Perfect Artwork tutorial, which will help you widen your
technical skills in no time.
3. How to Set Up the Layers
Once we’ve finished setting up our project
file, it would be a good idea to structure our document using a couple of
layers, since this way we can maintain a steady workflow by focusing on one
section of the illustration at a time.
That being said, bring up the Layers panel and create a total of three
layers, which we will rename as follows:
layer
1: background
layer
2: photo stack
layer 3: city illustration
Quick tip: I’ve colored all of my layers using the same
green value, since it’s the easiest one to view when used to highlight your
selected shapes (whether they’re closed or open paths).
4. How to Create
the Background
As soon as we’ve
layered our document, we can start working on the project by creating the light
background, so make sure you position yourself on the first layer, and let’s
jump straight into it.
Step 1
Create an 800 x 600 px rectangle,
which we will color using #FFF8F0 and then center align to the underlying
Artboard using the Align panel’s Horizontal
and Vertical Align Center options.
Step 2
Apply a subtle
texture to the shape that we’ve just created by making a copy (Control-C > Control-F) of it, which
we will adjust by setting its color to #808080. Then, simply go to Effect > Photoshop Effects > Texture
> Grain and set the Intensity to 40, the Contrast to 50, and the Grain Type to Stippled.
Step 3
Adjust the resulting
texture by setting its Blending Mode to Soft Light, selecting and grouping
the two rectangles together afterwards using the Control-G keyboard shortcut.
Step 4
Lock the current layer using the Layers panel, and then move on up to the next one (that would be the second one)
where we’ll gradually build our composition.
5. How to Create the Polaroid Instant Film
Stack
Assuming you’ve positioned yourself on the next layer (that would be the second one), let’s start working on the next
section of our illustration, which will house the city itself.
Step 1
Create the main shape
for the bottom polaroid using a 360 x
460 px rectangle, which we will color using #E8D4BF and then position in the center of the Artboard.
Step 2
Adjust the shape that
we’ve just created by rotating it clockwise by an angle of 8º using the Rotate tool
(right click > Transform > Rotate
> -8 px).
Step 3
Give the resulting
shape a subtle, grainy texture following the same process and values used
for the background, only this time color the copy using #666666, lowering its Opacity to 40%.
Step 4
Add a secondary
texture that will act as a shadow cast by the top polaroid, using a 380 x 480 px rectangle (#333333) which
we will position in the center of the Artboard, setting its Blending Mode to Soft Light and its Opacity
to 64%.
Step 5
Select and group (Control-G) both textures together,
masking them afterwards by creating a copy (Control-C) of the underlying shape (highlighted with red), which we
will paste in front (Control-F) and
then simply right click > Make
Clipping Mask.
Step 6
Add the front
polaroid using a 360 x 460 px rectangle,
which we will color using #FFEED9 and then center align to the underlying
Artboard. Once you’re done, select and group all of the current layer’s shapes
together using the Control-G
keyboard shortcut, making sure to lock it before moving on to the next section
of the illustration.
6. How to Create the Buildings on the Right Side
As soon as we’ve finished working on the
polaroid film stack, we can move on to the third and last layer, where we will gradually
build our little city.
Step 1
Start by creating the
background using a 280 x 340 px rectangle, onto which we will apply a linear gradient using #F9C958 for the left color
stop and #F97E58 for the right one. Set the Angle to 90º, positioning
the resulting shape as seen in the reference image.
Step 2
Zoom in on the
gradient that we’ve just created and add the sun using a 112 x 112 px circle, which we will color using #FFD18D and then
position at a distance of 16 px from
the center of the larger shape’s bottom edge.
Step 3
Start working on the buildings by creating the main shape for the bottom one using a 108 x 112 px rectangle, which we will
color using #E87D60 and then align to the gradient’s bottom-right corner.
Step 4
Add the windows using
seven rows of five 12 x 8 px rectangles
(#BA473C), spacing them 8 px from one another horizontally and vertically. Then group them (Control-G) and position them on the building as seen in
the reference image.
Step 5
Create the roof using
a 112 x 12 px rectangle (#FFEDD7) on
top of which we will add two 112 x 2 px horizontal
detail lines (#BA473C) vertically stacked 2 px from one another and from the larger shape’s top edge. Select and
group (Control-G) all three shapes
together, positioning them on top of the current building.
Step 6
Get creative and add the
antenna/roof assembly using a couple of #BA473C colored rectangles, which we
will group (Control-G) and then
position on top of the previously created shapes. Take your time, and once you’re done, select and
group (Control-G) all of the
building’s composing shapes before moving on to the next one.
Step 7
Start working on the
next building by creating its main body using a 68 x 104 px rectangle, which we will color using #FFE5C0 and then
position on top of the one from the previous step.
Step 8
Add the windows using
twelve 68 x 4 px rectangles (#BA473C),
which we will vertically stack 4 px from
one another, grouping (Control-G)
and then aligning them to the bottom of the larger rectangle.
Step 9
Once you have the shapes
in place, select and group (Control-G)
them and the building’s larger body together, making sure to position them underneath the
bottom one’s antenna (right click >
Arrange > Send Backward), before moving on to the next step.
Step 10
Start working on the
smaller side building using a 20 x 52 px rectangle, which we will color using #CCCCCC and then position as seen in
the reference image.
Step 11
Add the hard shadow
cast by the right building using an 8
x 52 px rectangle, which we will color using #BA473C and then position onto
the current one’s right edge.
Step 12
Create the windows
using six 12 x 4 px rectangles (#BA473C),
which we will vertically stack 4 px from
one another, grouping (Control-G)
and then aligning them to the bottom edge of the building.
Step 13
Finish off the
current building by adding the antenna assembly using two #BA473C colored
rectangles, which we will position as seen in the reference image. Once you’re
done, select and group (Control-G) all of its composing shapes before moving on to the next
one.
Step 14
Create the main shape
for the top building using a 52 x 56 px rectangle,
which we will color using #DDD4C8 and then position on top of the taller one.
Step 15
Give the building a
hard shadow using a 12 x 56 px rectangle
(#BA473C), which we will align to the center of its right edge.
Step 16
Add the windows using
four 4 x 56 px rectangles (#BA473C),
which we will horizontally space 4
px from one another, grouping (Control-G)
and then positioning them at a distance of 4
px from the shadow that we’ve just created.
Step 17
Add the antenna
assembly using a couple of #BA473C colored rectangles. Take your time, and once
you’re done, select and group (Control-G)
all of its composing shapes together, doing the same for the entire building
afterwards.
Step 18
Finish off the
current section of the city by quickly creating the crane using a few #BA473C
colored rectangles. Once you’re done, select and group (Control-G) all of its composing shapes together, doing the same for
all of the buildings afterwards.
7. How to Create the Buildings on the Left Side
Once we’ve finished working on the right
side of the city, we can shift our focus over to the left one and start adding
the buildings one step at a time.
Step 1
Create the main shape
for the bottom building using a 172 x 36
px rectangle, which we will color using #FFE5C0 and then position as seen
in the reference image.
Step 2
Add the hard-shadow
using a 12 x 36 px rectangle, which
we will color using #BA473C and then center align to the larger shape’s right
edge.
Step 3
Create the windows using
four 160 x 4 px rectangles (#BA473C),
which we will vertically stack 4 px from
one another, grouping (Control-G)
and then positioning them onto the bottom-left corner of the building. Once you’re done, select and
group all of the shapes together using the Control-G
keyboard shortcut.
Step 4
Add the upper section
of the building by creating a 96 x 16 px rectangle (#FFEDD7), on top of which we will add three 96 x 2 px rectangles (#BA473C) vertically stacked 2 px from one another. Group (Control-G) and position the shapes on
top of the lower body, doing the same for the entire building afterwards.
Step 5
Start working on the
center building by creating a 76 x 140
px rectangle, which we will color using #CADDCF and then position on top of
the one that we’ve just finished.
Step 6
Add the windows using
16 rows of six 8 x 4 px rectangles
(#BA473C), horizontally and vertically spaced 4 px from one another, which we will group (Control-G) and then position as seen in the reference image.
Step 7
Finish off the
current building by adding the horizontal detail lines using two 76 x 2 px rectangles (#BA473C)
vertically stacked 2 px from one
another, which we will group (Control-G)
and then position at a distance of 2 px from
its top edge. Take your time, and once you’re done, select and group (Control-G) all of its composing shapes, making
sure to position it underneath the bottom one (right click > Transform > Arrange > Send Backward).
Step 8
Create the main shape
for the smaller side building using a 32
x 88 px rectangle, which we will color using #CCCCCC and then position as
seen in the reference image.
Step 9
Add the hard-shadow
using a 10 x 88 px rectangle, which
we will color using #BA473C and then center align to the building’s left edge.
Step 10
Create the windows
using three 4 x 88 px rectangles (#BA473C),
horizontally spaced 2 px from
one another, which we will group (Control-G)
and then position at a distance of 2 px from
the shadow.
Step 11
Add the antenna
assembly using a couple of #BA473C colored rectangles, selecting and grouping
all of them together using the Control-G
keyboard shortcut. Take your time, and once you’re done, do the same for the
entire building.
Step 12
Start working on the
taller building by creating its lower body using a 56 x 100 px rectangle (#E87D60), which we will adjust by selecting
and pushing its top-right corner to the bottom by 10 px (right click > Transform > Move > Vertical > 10 px).
Step 13
Add the windows using
ten 56 x 4 px rectangles (#BA473C)
vertically stacked 4 px from one
another, which we will group (Control-G)
and then position at a distance of 4 px from
the previous shape’s bottom edge.
Step 14
Create the building’s
upper body using a 48 x 20 px rectangle
(#BA473C), which we will position as seen in the reference image, making sure
to arrange it behind the larger one (right
click > Arrange > Send Backward).
Step 15
Add the antenna
assembly using a couple of #BA473C colored rectangles. Take your time, and once
you’re done, select and group (Control-G)
all of the resulting shapes together, doing the same for the entire building
afterwards.
Step 16
Finish off the
current section of the city by quickly creating the water tower using a couple
of #BA473C colored shapes. Once you’re done, make sure to select and group (Control-G) all of its composing shapes
together, doing the same for the entire section afterwards.
8. How to Create the Bridge
Once we’ve finished working on the buildings,
we can shift our focus to the center of our illustration, where we will create
the bridge.
Step 1
Start by creating the
support towers using two 4 x 24 px rectangles
(#BA473C), which we will horizontally space 18 px from one another, grouping (Control-G) and then positioning them in the center of the city as
seen in the reference image.
Step 2
Add the deck using a 64 x 4 px rectangle (#BA473C), which we
will position on top of the shapes that we’ve just created.
Step 3
Create the horizontal
support section using a smaller 64 x 2
px rectangle (#BA473C), which we will position below the deck, at a
distance of just 2 px.
Step 4
Add the suspension
cables using two 64 x 48 px ellipses
with a 4 px thick Stroke (#BA473C), which we will
position as seen in the reference image and then adjust by selecting and
removing their top and outer anchor points, uniting their center ones using the Control-J keyboard shortcut.
Step 5
Create the center pylon
using a 4 x 34 px rectangle (#BA473C),
which we will center align to the top edge of the cables.
Step 6
Add the suspenders using
six 2 px wide rectangles (#BA473C), spaced 8
px from one another, positioning them as seen in the reference image. Once
you’re done, select and
group all of the bridge’s composing shapes using the Control-G keyboard shortcut.
Step 7
Create the little cars
using a couple of 4 x 1 px rectangles
(#BA473C), which we will position onto the deck as seen in the reference image.
Take your time, and once you’re done, select and group (Control-G) all of the current section’s composing shapes before
moving on to the next one.
9. How to Create
the Clouds
Since we’re
pretty much done working on the city, we can shift our focus to the upper
section of the horizon and start filling it up using a couple of clouds.
Step 1
Using the Rounded Rectangle Tool, create a couple
of 4 px tall shapes (#FFFFFF) with a 2 px Corner Radius, which we will
position as seen in the reference image, making sure to group (Control-G) and arrange them beneath the
buildings (right click > Arrange >
Send Backward).
Step 2
Add the little airplane
using a couple of #BA473C rectangles which we will adjust and position as seen
in the reference image. Once you’re done, select and group (Control-G) all of its composing shapes
together, doing the same for the entire city afterwards.
10. How to Add the Finishing Touches
Once we’ve added the clouds and the
airplane, our illustration is almost done. All we need to do now is add the
grainy texture.
Step 1
Create a 360 x 460 px rectangle (#666666), which
we will turn into a texture following the same process and values used
for the previous ones, positioning it in the center of the underlying Artboard
afterwards.
Step 2
Adjust the resulting shape
by setting its Blending Mode to Soft Light and its Opacity to 30%. Once you’re
done, select and group (Control-G)
all of the current layer’s composing shapes together before finally hitting that Save button.
Great Job!
So we started out laying some simple
shapes but ended up creating a beautiful instance of a living, breathing city by
following an in-depth, step-by-step process.
I truly hope you’ve
managed to learn something new and useful that you can apply to some if not all
of your future projects.
As always, if you
have any questions, post them within the comments area and I’ll get back to you
as soon as I can!
Join us for a free live stream, where experienced Envato Tuts+ instructor Dan White will share 15 time-saving tips and shortcuts to help you in your next Adobe XD project. From working with text on paths and understanding layout grids, to learning about publishing options and masking; we’ll cover all these shortcuts and more. So download the starter files, join in the live chat, and enjoy the livestream!
The course will be free for everyone who joins live, so don’t miss out on your chance to follow along and ask questions. Envato Elements subscribers will be able to access the recorded version of the course on Tuts+ once it is published.
When Chris wrote his idea for a Boilerform, I had already been thinking about starting a new project. I’d just decided to put my front-end boilerplate to bed, and wanted something new to think about. Chris’ idea struck a chord with me immediately, so I got enthusiastically involved in the comments like an excitable puppy. That excitement led me to go ahead and build out the initial version of Boilerform, which you can check out here.
The reason for my initial excitement was that I have a guilty pleasure for forms. In various jobs, I’ve worked with forms at a pretty intense level and have learned a lot about them. This has ranged from building dynamic form builders to high-level spam protection for a Harley-Davidson® website platform. Each different project has given me a look at the front-end and back-end of the process. Each of these projects has also picked away at my tolerance for quick, lazy implementations of forms, because I’ve seen the drastic implementations of this at scale.
But hey, we’re not bad people. Forms are a nightmare to work with. Although better now: each browser treats them slightly differently. For example, check out these select menus from a selection of browsers and OSs. Not one of them looks the same.
These are just the tip of the inconsistency iceberg.
Because of these inconsistencies, it’s easy to see why developers bail out of digging too deep or just spin up a copy of Bootstrap and be done with it. Also, in my experience, the design of minor forms, such as a contact form are left until later in the project when most of the positive momentum has already gone. I’ve even been guilty of building contact forms a day before a website’s launch. 😬
There’s clearly an opportunity to make the process of working with forms—on the front-end, at least—better and I couldn’t resist the temptation to make it!
The Planning
I sat and thought about what pain-points there are when working with forms and what annoys me as a user of forms. I decided that as a developer, I hate styling forms. As a user, poorly implemented form fields annoy me.
An example of the latter is email fields. Now, if you try to fill in an email field on an iOS device, you get that annoying trait of the first letter being capitalized by the browser, because it treats it like a sentence. All you have to do to stop that behaviour is add autocapitalize="none" to your field and this stops. I know this isn’t commonly known because I rarely see it in place, but it’s such a quick win to have a positive impact on your users.
I wanted to bake these little tricks right into Boilerform to help developers make a user’s life easier. Creating a front-end boilerplate or framework is about so much more than styling and aesthetics. It’s about sharing your gained experience with others to make the landscape better as a whole.
The Specification
I needed to think about what I wanted Boilerform to do as a minimum viable product, at initial launch. I came up with the following rules:
It had to be compatible with most front-ends
It had to be well documented
It had to be lightweight
Someone should be able to drop a CDN link to their <head> and have it just work
Someone should also be able to expand on the source for their own projects
It shouldn’t be too opinionated
To achieve these points, I had some technology decisions to make. I decided to go for a low barrier-to-entry setup. This was:
Sass powered CSS
BEM
Plain ol’ HTML
A basic compilation setup
I also focused my attention on samples. CodePen was the natural fit for this because they embed really well. Users can also fork them and play with them themselves.
The last decision was to roll out a pattern library to break up components into little pieces. This helped me in a couple of ways. It helped with organization mainly—but it also helped me build Boilerform in a bitty, sporadic nature as I was working on it in the evenings.
I had my plan and my stack, so got cracking.
Keeping it simple
It’s easy for a project like this to get out of hand, so it’s useful to create some points about what Boilerform will be and also what it won’t be.
What Boilerform will be:
It’ll always be a boilerplate to get you off to a good start with your project
It’ll provide high-level help with HTML, CSS and JavaScript to make both developers’ and users’ lives easier
It’ll aim to be super lightweight, so it doesn’t become a heavy burden
It’ll offer configurable options that make it flexible and easy to mould into most web projects
What Boilerform won’t be:
It won’t be a silver bullet for your forms—it’ll still need some work
It won’t be a framework like Bootstrap or Foundation, because it’ll always be a starting point
It won’t be overly opinionated with its CSS and JavaScript
It’ll never be aimed at one particular framework or web technology
The Specifics
I know y’all like to dive in to the specifics of how things work, so let me give you a whistle-stop tour!
Namespacing the CSS
The first thing I got sorted was namespacing. I’ve worked on a multitude of different sites and setups and they all share something when it comes to CSS: conflicts. With this in mind, I wrote a @mixin that wrapped all the CSS in a .boilerform namespace.
// Source Sass
.c-button {
@include namespace() {
background: gray;
}
}
// This compiles to this with Sass:
.boilerform .c-button { background: gray; }
The mixin is basic right now, but it gives us flexibility to scale. If we wanted to make the namespacing optional down-the-line, we only have to update this mixin. I love that sort of modularity.
Right now, what it does give us is safety. Nothing leaks out of Boilerform and hopefully, whatever leaks in will be handled by the namespaced resets and rules.
BEM With a Garnish of Prefixes
I love BEM. It’s been core to my CSS and markup for a few years now. One thing I love about BEM is that it helps you build small, encapsulated components. This is perfect for a project like Boilerform.
I could probably target naked elements safely because of the namespacing, but BEM is about more than just putting classes on everything. It gives me and others the freedom to write whatever markup structure we want. It’s also really easy for someone to pickup the code and understand what’s related to what, in both HTML and CSS.
Another thing I added to this setup was a component prefix. Instead of an .input-field component, we’ve got a .c-input-field component. I hope little things like that will help a new contributor see what’s a component right off the bat.
Horror Inputs Get Some Cool Styling
As mentioned above, select menus are awful to style. So are radio buttons and checkboxes.
A trick I’ve been using for a while now is abstracting the styling to other friendlier HTML elements. For example, with <select> elements, I wrap them in a .c-select-field component and use siblings to add a consistent caret.
For checkboxes and radio buttons, I visually-hide the main input and use adjacent <label> elements to display state change. Using this approach makes working with these controls so much easier. Importantly, we maintain accessibility and native events too.
Base Attributes to Make Fields Easier to Use
I touched on it above with my example about email fields and capitalization, but that wasn’t the only addition of useful attributes.
Search fields have autocorrect="off" on them to prevent browsers trying to fix spelling. I strongly recommend that you add this to inputs that a user inserts their name into as well.
Number fields have min, max and step attributes set to help with validation. It’s also great for keyboard users.
All fields have blank name and id attributes to hopefully speed up the wiring-up process
I’m certainly keen for this to be expanded on, because little tweaks like this are great for user experience.
Going Forward. Can You Help?
Boilerform is in a good place right now, but it has real potential to be useful. Some ideas I’ve had for its ongoing development are:
Introducing multiple JavaScript library integrations, such as React, Vue, and Angular
As you can see, that’s a lot of work, so it would be awesome if we can get some contributors into the project to make something truly useful for our community. Pulling in contributors with different areas of expertise and backgrounds will help us make it useful for as many people as possible, from end-users to back-end developers.
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