It came across as (particularly trite) commentary about Website Sameness™. I suppose it was. I was looking at lots of sites as I was putting together The Power of Serverless. I was actually finding it funny how obtuse the navigation often is on a SaaS sites. Products? Solutions? Which one is for me? Do I need to buy a product and a solution? Sometimes they make me feel dumb, like I’m not informed enough to be a customer. What’s the harm is just telling me exactly what your thing does?
But anyway, people commenting on Website Sameness™ has plenty of history onto itself. One of the most memorable stabs was from Jon Gold:
They style itself is now so mainstream that clients ask for it. It’s happened to me, more than once. I’ve created sites that follow the formula. This surely is another reason. If clients are seeing a lot of sites that are the same style, it’s causing them to ask for it.
Mary Collins says Dave’s sentiment rang true right away:
Myself, I’m not sure how much I care. If a website fails to do do what it sets out to do, that, I care about. Design is failing there. But if a website has a design that is a bit boring, but does just what everyone needs it to do, that’s just fine. All hail boring. Although I admit it’s particularly ironic when a design agency’s own site feels regurgitated.
As long as I’m playing armchair devil’s advocate, if every website was a complete and total design departure from the next, I imagine that would be worse. To have to-relearn how each new site works means not taking advantages of affordances, which make people productive out of the gate with new experiences.
It’s probably fair to say, though, that design uniqueness and affordances need not be at odds. Surely you can design a site that is aesthetically unique, yet people still know how to use the dropdown menus.
There has been a lot of scapegoats for Website Sameness™ over the years. The popularity of frameworks. Flat design as a trend. Performance holding back creativity. User expectations. Research telling us that our existing patterns work. The fact that what websites are all largely trying to do the same things. Even responsive design is a popular whipping boy. We might as throw style guides / pattern libraries on the heap.
So again, I’m not sure how much I care. Partially because of these two things:
Designers have all the tools they need to make websites as unique as they like.
There is an awful lot of money in websites, and an awful lot of people trying to get their hands on it.
If design uniqueness was a lever you could pull for increased success for any type of business, you’d better believe it would be pulled a lot more often.
This tutorial will show you how to create and style a mixer brush tip, and adjust its settings to stroke a work path and create a simple 3D text effect. Let’s get started!
Create a new 1250 x 2000 px document, click the Create new fill or adjustment layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel, choose Solid Color, and set the Color Fill to #040214.
Step 2
Add the Blue circle background image on top of the Solid Color layer, rename its layer to BG Texture, change its Opacity to 35%, and resize it as needed.
Step 3
Create a reference text using any script font you like. The font used here is Nickainley, and the Size is set to 350 pt.
If you have more than one line of text, make sure to change the Leading value to one you like. Here, it is set to 550 pt.
2. How to Create and Style a Mixer Brush Tip
Step 1
Pick the Ellipse Tool, make sure that the Shape option in the Options bar is active, and click anywhere inside the document to get the Create Ellipse box.
Set the Width and Height values to 50 px, and click OK.
Double-click the Ellipse layer to apply the following layer style:
Step 2
Add a Gradient Overlay with these settings:
Check the Dither box
Style: Radial
Angle: 0
Scale: 150%
Check the Reverse box if needed.
Click the Gradient box to create the gradient using the Colors#35378e to the left, #b62789 in the center, and #f15332 to the left.
You can use any other colors you like for the gradient to get different outcomes.
Step 3
We need to move the gradient to the top of the ellipse. To do so, click-drag the gradient fill inside the ellipse.
Step 4
Add a Bevel and Emboss with these settings:
Size: 25
Uncheck the Use Global Light box
Angle: 158
Altitude: 32
Gloss Contour: Cove – Deep
Check the Anti-aliased box
Highlight Mode: Vivid Light
Opacity: 65%
Shadow Mode: Color Burn
Color: #7a7a7a
Opacity: 25%
Step 5
Add a Contour with these settings:
Contour: Cone – Inverted
Check the Anti-aliased box.
Range: 100%
This will create the styled tip that we will use for the Mixer Brush Tool later.
Step 6
Since the styled shape needs to be rasterized to be used for the Mixer Brush, you can duplicate its layer first to keep a copy, hide it, and right-click the copy to choose Rasterize Layer Style.
3. How to Create a Text Work Path
Step 1
Pick the Pen Tool and choose the Path option in the Options bar.
Click to add anchor points, and click-drag to create curves.
Step 2
While you’re creating the path, you can press-hold the Command key to temporarily select and adjust the anchor points and their direction lines and points.
Another way to do that would be by using the Direct Selection Tool (A) instead.
When you finish creating a letter’s work path, Command-click anywhere outside it.
Step 3
In the Paths panel, double-click the Work Path tab and enter a name for your path to save it.
Step 4
It is better to separate the paths where needed, so that you can edit them easily after stroking them.
Make sure to align the paths so that they fall nicely on top of each other where they are supposed to overlap.
4. How to Adjust the Mixer Brush Tool’s Settings
Step 1
Pick the Mixer Brush Tool (click and hold the standard Brush Tool to reveal it), and use these settings in the Options bar:
Click the Load the brush after each stroke icon.
Click the Clean the brush after each stroke icon.
Choose the Dry, Heavy Load preset from the Useful mixer brush combinations list.
Wet: 0%
Load: 100%
Flow: 100%
Stroke Smoothing: 100%
Uncheck the Sample All Layers box.
Once you adjust the settings, change the tip’s Size to 10 px more than the styled ellipse’s Size, so here the brush tip’s Size is set to 60 px.
Step 2
Select the styled ellipse’s layer, place the cursor in the center of the styled ellipse, press-hold the Option key, and click to load the ellipse into the brush tip.
5. How to Stroke a Work Path Using the Mixer Brush Tool
Step 1
Hide the original text layer and create a new layer on top of it.
Step 2
Pick the Path Selection Tool, click outside all paths to make sure none of them are selected, and then click the first letter’s path you want to stroke.
Step 3
Hit the Return key to stroke the path, create a new layer, select the next path, and stroke it on the new layer.
Step 4
Continue selecting the paths and stroking them on separate layers until you’re done with the first word.
Place all the word’s layers in a group to keep things organized.
Step 5
Finish stroking all the words you have to start adjusting the final effect.
6. How to Get Rid of Unwanted Path Ends
Step 1
For some letters, the path ends might not be necessary, such as the O letters.
To fix that, you need to change the path’s starting and end points, either by recreating the path or by flipping it.
To flip a path, use the Path Selection Tool to select it, and press Command-T to enter the Free Transform Mode.
Right-click the bounding box and choose Flip Horizontal, and right-click it again to choose Flip Vertical.
Hit the Return key to commit the changes.
Step 2
Create a new layer on top of the original stroked path layer, and stroke the transformed path.
Step 3
Then, pick the Eraser Tool, and erase the end of the new stroked path.
You can temporarily hide any layers on top of the one you’re working on to see things clearly.
If the flipping method doesn’t create a result you like, you can recreate the original path but with different starting and end points.
Step 4
Repeat the steps to fix any other path ends you don’t like.
7. How to Reverse a Path’s Direction
Step 1
If you want to completely reverse an open path, pick the Pen Tool, and click the starting point of the path.
Step 2
Then, click the end point of the path to close it.
Step 3
Pick the Direct Selection Tool, click outside the path to unselect it, and click the segment that you created to close the original path (the one between the starting and end points).
Hit Delete to get rid of the selected segment. This will reverse the path’s direction.
Step 4
Now use the Path Selection Tool to select the inverted path, and stroke it on a new layer.
8. How to Smooth the Final Outcome
Step 1
Select all the text groups you have, duplicate them, press Command-E to merge the copies, and hide the original ones.
Step 2
Go to Filter > Stylize > Diffuse, and set the Mode to Anisotropic to get a smoother result.
Step 3
Add any extra dots or accents manually where needed, and make sure to do so on new layers so that you can transform them if you like, and then apply the Diffuse filter separately to them.
Congratulations! You’re Done
In this tutorial, we created a simple background and a reference text layer. Then, we created an ellipse and styled it to create a mixer brush’s tip. After that, we created a text work path and stroked the letters to create the text effect. Finally, we used a filter to smooth the final outcome.
Please feel free to leave your comments, suggestions, and outcomes below.
David Harbour, known for his role as Chief Jim Hopper in the Netflix drama series Stranger Things, provides cameo after cameo in Procter & Gamble Super Bowl commercial “It’s A Tide Ad”. Aired during the NFL Super Bowl LII 2018, the Tide Ad series has David Harbour claiming that every time you see clean clothes in a Super Bowl commercial, it’s a Tide ad. The TV and movie star takes viewers on a journey spanning a wide variety of advertising clichés selling cars, insurance, perfume, pain relief, Coca Cola and beer. How do these seemingly random ads relate to Tide? Well, it’s simple. If you see clean clothes, it’s a Tide ad. David Harbour playing tennis? Tide ad. David Harbour as an insurance adjuster? Nope. Tide ad. David Harbour sitting on the back of a Lithuanian Long horse, flanked by Old Spice pitchman Isaiah Mustafa? Tide ad. How about David Harbour mopping the floor in all white, dressed like Mr. Clean from the 2017 Super Bowl? Yes, even that is a Tide ad. By now you get it. Whenever you see clean clothes, it’s a Tide ad.
Social media elements to the campaign included Twitter cameos by Betty White, Pittsburgh @Steelers All-Pro WR Antonio Brown, Danica Patrick, last year’s Tide Super Bowl presenter Terry Bradshaw, and Old Spice presenter Isaiah Mustafa.
Tide Ad Credits
The It’s A Tide Ad campaign was developed at Saatchi & Saatchi New York by chief executive officer Andrea Diquez, chief creative officer Javier Campopiano, executive creative director Paul Bichler, creative directors Daniel Lobaton and Chad Baker, associate creative directors Max McKeon, Rafael Segri, Frederico Mattoso, art directors Jacopo Biorcio and Erin Evon, senior art director Maddy Kramer, copywriter Blake Morris, director of integrated production Jenny Read, executive producer Dani Stoller, director of business affairs Robin Oksenhendler, senior business affairs manager Lisa Rimmer, strategy director Nayantara Mukherji, digital director Alan Lin, strategist Corina Arnal, regional account director Nick Miaritis, account director Ryan Martin, senior account supervisor Jennifer Brotman, account supervisor Guillermo Betancourt, ecommerce account manager Jed Karnowski, account executive Jennifer McGill and assistant account executive Courteney Case, working with Procter & Gamble North America Fabric Care Sundar Raman, brand director North America Fabric Care Delivery Vedran Miletic, BBIC Kimberly Doebereiner, advertising production manager Paul Chick, brand manager Jennifer Maxwell, assistant brand manager Alex Perez, and brand communications manager Matthew Wormington.
Filming was shot by film production collective Traktor via Rattling Stick with director of photography Hoyte Van Hoytema, executive producers Joe Biggins, Jeff Shupe, Richard Ulfvengren, head of production Richard McIntosh, producer Rachel Curl, production supervisor Chloe Stella.
Editor was Jeff Ferruzzo at Arcade Edit with producer Andrew Cravotta. Colourist was Tom Poole at Company 3.
Visual effects were produced at The Mill by creative director Becky Porter, 2D lead artist Narbeh Mardirossian, 3D lead artist Tom Grahm, 2D artists Ashley Forbito, Lisa Ryan, Jake Maymudes, Mandy Sorenson, Chris Hunsberger, Stefan Smith, Jason Bergman, Gareth Parr, Sam Evenson, 3D artists Charles Storniolo, Jason Kim, Sharlene Lin, matte painter Ed Laag, motion graphics team Greg Park and Kyle Romaneck.
Sound was mixed by Philip Loeb at Heard City. Music was produced at Personal Music by composer Alexis Estiz with producer Courtney Jenkins.
Text is never simply text—typography, or the way type is arranged on a layout, has a huge influence over the visual impact of a message, setting the tone and mood for the reader. Type design has a long and fascinating history, and the digital fonts we use today often have incredible origin stories.
Here we’ll explore a brief history of type and typography, starting with the early serifs engraved on the monuments of Ancient Rome, learning a little about the printing press revolution of the Middle Ages, and looking at the huge impact of 20th Century Modernism and the digital age on typography as we know it today.
Looking for the perfect font to use in your typography project? You’re sure to find something to fit the bill from the huge range on GraphicRiver or Envato Elements.
Typography Before ‘Typography’
Typography is the term used to describe how type is arranged on a layout. For most designers now, this refers to how type is formatted for displaying on a page, product (e.g. packaging), signage, or website.
Typography as we know it only really came into being with the invention of the printing press (see below), but it actually has deeper origins. Many of the fonts you will see used widely today evolved from much earlier type designs.
In second century BC Mesopotamia, punches and dies were used to stamp letterforms or glyphs onto seals, which makes it a very early form of printing. There is also evidence that similar ‘printing’ techniques were used in Babylon, Crete, and Ancient Greece.
Mesopotamia provides some of the earliest evidence of ‘movable type’, with punches and dies being used to inscribe seals, currency and tablets.
Many of the serif fonts we use now can also trace their roots back to Ancient Roman capital lettering, which was used to inscribe monuments and municipal buildings. Trajan Pro and Times New Roman are two examples of typefaces which owe much of their design heritage to these early Roman type styles.
Gutenberg’s Blackletter Revolution
By the 12th century in Europe, hand-lettering had developed into an incredibly beautiful art form, practiced by monks who created illuminated manuscripts covered in ornate lettering designs. The style of type which was perfected by the monks is now known as blackletter—a Gothic calligraphy script.
The downside of this hand-lettering technique was that it was also time-consuming and costly, which made it accessible only to a limited group of people.
For many type enthusiasts, typography only really came into being with the invention of the printing press. In Germany, a blacksmith named Johannes Gutenberg created a machine that could process movable type, allowing a large number of sheets to be printed using ink and dies. Mimicking the blackletter type style used in hand-lettered manuscripts, Gutenberg developed the first ever typeface: Blackletter.
Helmswald Post is a contemporary font inspired by the Blackletter typefaces developed by Gutenberg.
For the first time ever, typography had the potential to be accessible to the masses. Pamphlets and flyers could be reproduced quickly and inexpensively, though it would still take many centuries for books to become a commodity that ordinary people could afford.
“Flippin’ eck, this Blackletter’s hard to read!”
The sheer blackness of Blackletter never made it the easiest typeface to read, so it was a breath of fresh air when Roman type styles became popularised in the 15th and 16th centuries.
In 1470 in Venice, Nicolas Jenson designed a highly legible typeface inspired by Ancient Roman type styles. Jenson is one of the earliest Old Style typefaces, which are defined by low contrast between thick and thin strokes.
Adobe Jenson is a contemporary refinement of the typeface designed by Nicolas Jenson in the 15th century.
Old Style Roman typefaces are readable and aesthetically pleasing, which led to them becoming the defining typeface style used throughout this period.
While this renewed legibility was welcome, typesetters were also starting to explore ways of saving space on layouts. Books and other print materials were still not very cheap to produce, so designers focussed on compressing tracking (space between characters) and leading (space between lines). This need for space-saving also led to the development of italic weights.
While typographers mostly use italics today to create hierarchy and difference in their typesetting, Renaissance-era typographers used slanted type styles to make the most of the limited space they had available.
You Old Romantic: 18th Century Serifs
Roman typefaces remained enduringly popular for a few centuries, and it wasn’t until the 18th Century that some of the most influential type designers quietly revolutionised the serif as we now know it today.
This was the era of the humanist serifs. It all began with William Caslon, a London-based type designer, who created a more refined version of the Old Style serifs first developed by Jenson some centuries before. Caslon is a romantic and undeniably beautiful typeface, which makes all printed documents of this period appear exceptionally elegant.
A couple of decades later, in the 1750s, another English type designer, John Baskerville, created what is now known as the first Transitional typeface. Compared to Old Style Caslon, Baskerville is recognised for its thinner serifs and moderately higher contrast between thick and thin strokes. It has a more formal, sombre appearance than Caslon, and remains one of the most popular typefaces for typesetting books today.
The tide of typographic change was coming thick and fast during the 18th Century, during the Age of Enlightenment. In France, the Didot family designed one of the first Modern serifs, which are defined by very thin serifs and a very high contrast between thick and thin strokes.
In a similar vein, the Italian typographer Giambattista Bodoni developed typefaces that can also be classified as some of the earliest Modern typefaces.
Didot and Bodoni are commonly used in luxury advertising and magazine design today, as they are considered to be exceptionally beautiful and chic type styles.
A Typographic ‘Blip’: The Industrial Revolution
After all the sophisticated developments in typography during the 18th century, the 19th century was bound to be a little disappointing. This was the era of the Industrial Revolution, and while incredible progress was made in mechanical and industrial fields, typography suffered from a cluttered approach during this time.
Type was condensed or stretched to fit onto advertising materials like posters and newspapers. An eclectic mix of styles was used to fit every available space, which resulted in an eccentric look that ranged from circus-inspired styling to the letterpress-influenced ‘vintage’ styles popular with hip coffee bars today.
Many modern 'vintage’ fonts, like Lawless, take inspiration from the Industrial Revolution period.
The upside of all this typographic freedom during the 19th century was the development of slab serif, or Egyptian, typefaces. These were punchier, bolder incarnations of existing serif styles, and they still give a lovely antiquated feel to titles in contemporary design.
Thank Goodness, the Modernists Are Here
After all the clutter of the Industrial period, typography was badly in need of a refresh. Luckily, there were some very forward-thinking chaps who did just that.
William Caslon (of Caslon fame, see above) had a great-grandson, William Caslon IV, who controversially removed the serifs from one of his traditional typefaces in the early 19th century. The style was too ahead of its time and didn’t take off, and it would be another century before the world was ready for the palette-cleansing simplicity of the sans serif.
The best-known early sans serif is Futura, which was created by German typographer Paul Renner in 1927. Renner was inspired by simple geometric shapes, which gives Futura and its relations their group name—the Geometric Sans typefaces.
Geometric Sans typefaces have an enduring appeal. Miles Sans is a more rounded, friendly interpretation of the style.
At the same time over in England, Eric Gill was approaching the new Modernist mood from a different perspective. He created Gill Sans, which introduced more natural curves and organic forms to the sans serif template. This and other related typefaces are now known as Humanist Sans typefaces.
A few decades later, in the late1950s in Switzerland, another sans serif evolutionary step was made. The Swiss Style, as practiced by a group of designers in the country, was characterised by functional and ultra-legible type design. Helvetica was the star product of this modernist experiment, and it soon came to be used across signage and print design the world over.
The Influence of the Digital Age
Modernist sans serifs really broke tradition with all the typographic developments that had come before. But there was one final development that would extend the reach of both serifs and sans serifs, as well as typographic formatting, to an as yet unimaginably large audience.
With the invention of computers in the 20th century, fonts—digital versions of typefaces—became the new currency in typography. Despite the exciting possibilities the digital revolution could hold for type, typography as a discipline seemed for a short while a little out of place. With the limitations of screen technology, many fonts were rendered as primitive Pixel Type, and pixel-inspired styles became the trend-leading typefaces for print design too.
As computer technology evolved, the field of typography gradually opened up, making more sophisticated fonts available to all computer users. The downside of this was the overuse of ‘bad’ fonts (*cough*, Comic Sans) by every Tom, Dick and Harry.
The upside was actually the most revolutionary development in typography, ever—that typeface development could no longer only be accomplished by specialists; but instead anybody with access to vector design software had the potential to design their own fonts.
Conclusion: From Mesopotamia to Microsoft… and Everything In-Between
Humans have always sought out new and creative ways to communicate with others, and typography is the most visually arresting way that this has been done.
As we’ve explored here, typography didn’t simply begin with the invention of the printing press, but has a much deeper history, much of which archaeologists and historians are still only just bringing to light.
Typography’s evolution also won’t stall with the digital age, but in fact has more potential than ever to develop and win over new legions of type enthusiasts.
If this brief history of type has whetted your appetite for more typography-related content, you’re in luck! Check out the tutorials below, which will focus on honing your type skills.
If you want to improve as a graphic designer, these two courses will put you on the right track by giving you some essential typography and branding skills.
At the heart of any great print design is beautiful, well-executed typography. The difference between ho-hum text and type that knocks your socks off is…
In today’s
tutorial, we’re going to embark on a mystical journey and learn how to create
our very own dream catcher in Affinity Designer. Using a step-by-step workflow,
we’re going to see how we can achieve a detailed illustration with the help of
a few basic geometric shapes in combination with some stroke lines here
and there.
If that sounds interesting, quickly grab a fresh cup of coffee and let’s
get started!
Before we jump
straight into the tutorial, I want to take a couple of moments and talk about
the history and deep meaning that this sacred hoop carries within it.
From an ethnographic perspective, the dream catcher is thought to have
originated from within the Ojibwe people
(also known as the Chippewa, or as
they called themselves the Anishinaabe)
which were an Algonquian speaking
North American tribe, who in 1500 occupied what is now Ontario and Manitoba (in
Canada) and Minnesota and North Dakota (in the U.S.).
According to the Eagle Spirit Ministry, the existence of this mystical talisman derives
from the legend of the Asibikaashi
(the Spider Woman), in which an old grandmother who served as the spiritual
protector of the people could no longer watch over all the babies due to the growth and expansion of the tribe to all four corners of the
land.
To overcome this, she crafted what we now call a dream catcher, by taking a willow hoop and spinning a web around its center, which would then be placed above the sleeping place, where the sunlight could hit it.
Since the Native Americans believed that the night air was filled with dreams, both good and bad, the sacred hoop would attract and catch all the bad ones, which would be burnt by the light of day. The good ones would pass through its center and gently slide down the feathers onto the sleeper.
From a metaphorical perspective, the shape of the dream catcher is deeply tied to the natural world, where the hoop represents the circle of life as well as the passing of the sun and moon across the sky. The feathers act as a smooth ladder meant to carefully carry the dreams onto the person underneath, while the beads are thought to symbolize the spider that wove the web. The web itself is connected to the hoop with the help of eight nodes, which are thought to represent the legs of the spider.
I believe that knowing the history of an object is always important when deciding to use it as a symbol, since by opening the doors of knowledge you can decipher its true meaning and therefore portray it as close as possible to its true nature.
For me, the dream catcher is a powerful symbol of the Native Americans’ culture, which should not only be respected but honored since it managed to withstand the passing of time and prove that our connection to nature is more powerful than we can imagine.
Even though in its original version, the design had a spider-like web, over the centuries multiple iterations were created, gradually adding beauty to function. So I decided to take the circle of life metaphor and apply it to the web in order to make it feel more geometric.
I hope that by sharing this piece of information with you, I’ve managed to deepen your interest in this beautiful culture. Now let’s move on and start working on our little project.
1. How to Set Up a
New Project File
Assuming you
already have Affinity up and running, let’s set up a New Document by going to File
> New (or by using the Control-N
keyboard shortcut) which we will adjust as follows:
Type:
Web
Document Units: Pixels
Create artboard:
checked
Page Width:
640 px
Page Height:
640 px
DPI: 72
2. How to Create the Hoop Frame
Now that we’ve finished setting up our
document, we can start working on the actual illustration, and we will do so by
creating the outer frame.
Step 1
Using the Ellipse Tool (M twice), draw a 252 x 252
px circle, which we will color using #6D96D1 and then horizontally center
align to the underlying Artboard, positioning it at a distance of 262 px from its bottom edge.
Step 2
Create a smaller 240 x 240 px circle
(highlighted with red), which we will position in the center of the previous
one and then cut out using the Subtract
function.
Step 3
Give the resulting shape an outline using the Stroke method, by creating a copy of it (Control-C) which we will paste in front (Control-V) and then adjust by changing its color to #433363, making sure to flip its Fill with
its Stroke (Shift-X). Set the Stroke’s Width to 4 pt, and then select and group the two together using the Control-G keyboard shortcut.
Quick tip: from this point on, I strongly recommend you
organize the different sections of the illustration using groups, which you can
rename within the Layers panel,
making it easier to identify and edit them if you need to later on.
3. How to Create
the Woven Web
Once we’ve created
our outer frame, we can gradually add the geometric web one shape at a time, as
we will see in the following moments.
Step 1
Create four 120 x 120 px circles
with a 4 ptStroke (#433363), which we will position in the inner section of
the frame’s outline as seen in the reference image, making sure their strokes overlap. Take your time, and
once you’re done, move on to the next step.
Step 2
Add the remaining web segments using four more 120 x 120 px circles with a 4
pt Stroke (#433363), which we will diagonally position on the frame as
seen in the reference image. Once you’re done, select and group all the circles
together using the Control-G
keyboard shortcut.
Step 3
Next, we need to add the little center cutout to the web, which we will
create using a clipping object. First, create a 240 x 240 px circle (highlighted with red), from the center of which
we will cut out a smaller 24 x 24 px one.
Step 4
Once you have the clipping object, all you need to do is go to the Layers panel and drag and position the
grouped circles within the larger shape.
Step 5
As soon as you’ve masked the circles, you can select the clipping object
and remove its Fill color so that
you can have a clear view of the background.
Step 6
Give the center hole an outline using a 24 x 24 px circle with a 4
pt Stroke, which we will color using #433363.
Step 7
Add the little
binding nodes using eight 12 x 12 px circles
(#433363), which we will position at the following intersections.
Step 8
Select the Pen Tool (P) and, using a 4 pt thick Stroke (#433363) with a Round Cap, draw the little string segments holding the web to the
frame. Use three 10 px tall
segments for each group.
Step 9
Add the main shape for the hanging string segment using a 16 x 16 px circle with a 4 pt thick Stroke (#433363), which we will position above the frame at a
distance of just 8 px from its
outline’s top edge.
Step 10
Since we want to adjust the lower section of the circle, we’ll first
have to select it and then use the Convert
to Curves function in order to get access to its nodes.
Step 11
Once you’ve converted the shape, you can use the Node Tool (A) to select its bottom node, which we will push to the
bottom by 12 px using
the down-facing arrow key so that it ends up overlapping the outline of the
frame.
Step 12
Before we move on to the next part, make sure you select and group all
of the shapes together using the Control-G
keyboard shortcut, giving each section a descriptive name from within the Layers panel.
4. How to Create
the Feathers
Next, we’re going
to focus on the lower section of the dream catcher and create the three
feathers which help all the good dreams slide down onto the person that it’s
protecting.
Step 1
Start working on the central feather by creating a 24 x 28 px triangle (#6D96D1) using the Triangle Tool, which we will center align to the underlying Artboard and then position at a
distance of 72 px from the frame’s
bottom binding strings.
Step 2
Add the lower section of the feather using a 24 x 60 px rectangle, which we will color using #6D96D1 and then
position below the smaller triangle.
Step 3
Adjust the bottom corners of the shape that we’ve just created by
selecting them using the Corner Tool (C),
and then setting their Radius to 12 px.
Step 4
Select the two shapes and unite them into a single larger one using the Add function.
Step 5
Give the resulting shape a 4 pt thick
outline (#433363), making sure to select and group the two shapes together
afterwards using the Control-G
keyboard shortcut.
Step 6
Create the first color segment using a 12 x 16 px rectangle (#FFFAE9), which we will adjust by pushing its
right nodes to the bottom by 12
px. Give the resulting shape a 4 pt thick
outline (#433363), grouping (Control-G)
and then positioning the two on the right side of the feather as seen in the
reference image.
Step 7
Make a copy (Control-C >
Control-V) of the outline that we’ve just created, and position it below so
that the strokes overlap.
Step
8
Add the left-sided details using a copy (Control-C > Control-V) of the ones that we’ve just finished
working on, which we will vertically reflect (right click > Transform > Flip Vertical). Position the copies
on the opposite side of the feather as seen in the reference image, making
sure to switch the position of the filled detail with the outlined one.
Step
9
Create the shaft and the string segment connecting the feather to the
lower section of the frame using a 160
px tall 4 pt thick Stroke line (#433363), which we will
position at a distance of 8 px from
the feather’s outline.
Step 10
Add the bottom blue bead using an 8
x 8 px circle (#6D96D1) with a 4 pt thick
outline (#433363), which we will group and then position on the string, at a
distance of 54 px from the frame’s bottom
section.
Step
11
Create the red bead using a 16 x
12 px rounded rectangle (#F76A4D) with a 4 px corner Radius and 4 pt thick outline (#433363), which we
will group (Control-G) and then
position above the previous one, making sure their strokes overlap.
Step
12
Add the top bead using a copy (Control-C
> Control-V) of the blue one, which we will reposition so that its outline
now overlaps that of the red bead.
Step
13
Add the little node holding the beads in place using an 8 x 8 px circle, which we will color
using #433363 and then position onto the top bead’s outline as seen in the
reference image. Once you’re done, select and group all of the current
feather’s composing shapes together using the Control-G keyboard shortcut.
Step
14
Create the left feather, using a copy (Control-C > Control-V) of the one that we’ve just finished
working on, which we will position on the left side of the frame.
Step
15
Adjust the copy that we’ve just created by increasing the length of the
feather’s string from 160 px to 208 px.
Step
16
Finish off the dream catcher, and with it the project itself, by adding
the right feather using a copy (Control-C
> Control-V) of the one that we’ve just adjusted, which we will position
on the opposite side. Once you’re done, select and group (Control-G) all of the shapes together
before hitting that save button.
Great
Job!
As
always, I hope that you’ve managed to follow each and every step, and most
importantly learned something new and useful.
Also, if you have any questions feel free to post them within the
comments section and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can!
You’ve heard of CSS Grid, I’m sure of that. It would be hard to miss it considering that the whole front-end developer universe has been raving about it for the past year.
Whether you’re new to Grid or have already spent some time with it, we should start this post with a short definition directly from the words of W3C:
Grid Layout is a new layout model for CSS that has powerful abilities to control the sizing and positioning of boxes and their contents. Unlike Flexible Box Layout, which is single-axis–oriented, Grid Layout is optimized for 2-dimensional layouts: those in which alignment of content is desired in both dimensions.
In my own words, CSS Grid is a mesh of invisible horizontal and vertical lines. We arrange elements in the spaces between those lines to create a desired layout. An easier, stable, and standardized way to structure contents in a web page.
Besides the graph paper foundation, CSS Grid also provides the advantage of a layout model that’s source order independent: irrespective of where a grid item is placed in the source code, it can be positioned anywhere in the grid across both the axes on screen. This is very important, not only for when you’d find it troublesome to update HTML while rearranging elements on page but also at times when you’d find certain source placements being restrictive to layouts.
Although we can always move an element to a desired coordinate on screen using other techniques like translate, position, or margin, they’re both harder to code and to update for situations like building a responsive design, compared to true layout mechanisms like CSS Grid.
In this post, we’re going to demonstrate how we can use the source order independence of CSS Grid to solve a layout issue that’s the result of a source order constraint. Specifically, we’re going to look at checkboxes and CSS Counters.
Counting With Checkboxes
If you’ve never used CSS Counters, don’t worry, the concept is pretty simple! We set a counter to count a set of elements at the same DOM level. That counter is incremented in the CSS rules of those individual elements, essentially counting them.
Here’s the code to count checked and unchecked checkboxes:
<input type="checkbox">Checkbox #1<br>
<input type="checkbox">Checkbox #2
<!-- more checkboxes, if we want them -->
<div class="total">
<span class="totalChecked"> Total Checked: </span><br>
<span class="totalUnChecked"> Total Unchecked: </span>
</div>
In the above code, two counters are set at the root element using the counter-reset property and are incremented at their respective rules, one for checked and the other for unchecked checkboxes, using counter-increment. The values of the counters are then shown as contents of two empty <span>s’ pseudo elements using counter().
Here’s a stripped-down version of what we get with this code:
This is pretty cool. We can use it in to-do lists, email inbox interfaces, survey forms, or anywhere where users toggle boxes and will appreciate being shown how many items are checked and how many are unselected. All this with just CSS! Useful, isn’t it?
But the effectiveness of counter() wanes when we realize that an element displaying the total count can only appear after all the elements to be counted in the source code. This is because the browser first needs the chance to count all the elements, before showing the total. Hence, we can’t simply change the markup to place the counters above the checkboxes like this:
<!-- This will not work! -->
<div class="total">
<span class="totalChecked"> Total Checked: </span><br>
<span class="totalUnChecked"> Total Unchecked: </span>
</div>
<input type="checkbox">Checkbox #1<br>
<input type="checkbox">Checkbox #2
Then, how else can we get the counters above the checkboxes in our layout? This is where CSS Grid and its layout-rendering powers come into play.
Adding Grid
We’re basically wrapping the previous HTML in a new <div> element that’ll serve as the grid container:
.grid {
display: grid; /* creates the grid */
grid-template-columns: repeat(2, max-content); /* creates two columns on the grid that are sized based on the content they contain */
}
.total {
grid-row: 1; /* places the counters on the first row */
grid-column: 1 / 3; /* ensures the counters span the full grid width, forcing other content below */
}
This is what we get as a result (with some additional styling):
See that? The counters are now located above the checkboxes!
We defined two columns on the grid element in the CSS, each accommodating its own content to their maximum size.
When we grid-ify an element, its contents (text including) block-ify, meaning they acquire a grid-level box (similar to block-level box) and are automatically placed in the available grid cells.
In the demo above, the counters take up both the grid cells in the first row as specified, and following that, every checkbox resides in the first column and the text after each checkbox stays in the last column.
The checkboxes are forced below the counters without changing the actual source order!
Since we didn’t change the source order, the counter works and we can see the running total count of checked and unchecked checkboxes at the top the same way we did when they were at the bottom. The functionality is left unaffected!
To be honest, there’s a staggering number of ways to code and implement a CSS Grid. You can use grid line numbers, named grid areas, among many other methods. The more you know about them, the easier it gets and the more useful they become. What we covered here is just the tip of the iceberg and you may find other approaches to create a grid that work equally well (or better).
I have always been a fan of Japanese art, so I decided to merge two styles together: Afrofuturistic and Japanese. I hope you will enjoy this.
In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to use Adobe Photoshop to create a colorful, wavy, tribal 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, patterns, and waves. Later, we will cut out the model’s eyes, create some faux sunglasses, and add some stars to create that dreamy, futuristic mood. Then, we will additional elements such as the crow, the UFO, the face accessories, and some tribal marks. Finally, we will retouch the artwork in 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 20″ by 30” document in Photoshop with the given settings:
Step 2
Open the model image. 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. Press Control-(+) or Control-(–) to zoom in and out.
Step 3
We need to isolate the model to be able to work easily in the future. Click on the Marquee Tool (M), choose Make Selection, and then press Delete.
2. How to Bring the Image Into Your Main Canvas
Drag the image onto the main canvas using the Move Tool (V). Then, press Control-T to resize the image. Hold Shift while resizing. Next, use the Move Tool (V) to center the image.
3. How to Create an Accordion Effect on the Model
Step 1
Use the Rectangle Marquee Tool (M) and draw a vertical rectangle on the left side of the model.
Step 2
Then, Right-Click and select Layer via cut to separate the selected slice. Then, duplicate the layer nine times and align them as shown below. Use the Move Tool (V) to move each slice.
Step 3
Next, select all layers, Right-Click and merge layers, and rename the layer „Main image”. Then, activate the Move Tool (V) and move the image to the left of the canvas.
4. How Create the Colorful Background
Step 1
Hit Control-Shift-N to make a new layer. Name the layer “Background”. Set this layer under the model’s one.
Step 2
Activate the Brush Tool (B) and select #009e7d and paint over the background.
5. How to Turn the Model Black and White
Select the Model layer in the Layers panel and turn it black and white. Click on Image > Adjustments > Black and white, and thenclick OK or Alt-Shift-Control-B.
6. How to Add 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 the Move Tool (V), and drag the image into the main canvas. 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.
Step 3
Now we need to add the crow. Drag the image into Photoshop, and usethe Pen Tool (P) to draw the crow’s outline. Then, click on the Marquee Tool (M), Right-click, and Select inverse if the background is not selected.Otherwise, Right-click,Make Selection, and then press Delete.
Step 4
Drag the crow image into the main file. Resize the image. Press Control-T, holding the Shift key while resizing. Use the Move Tool (V) and bring the crow onto the model’s left shoulder. Then we want to adjust the contrast and brightness.
Step 5
Next, we want to adjust the brightness of the UFO. Select Brightness / Contrast in the adjustment palette, and then bring down the Brightness to -110. Next, to apply the adjustment on the UFO only, press Alt on the adjustment layer and click on the layer thumbnail (the white square on the layer) to apply the settings.
Step 6
Now, we want to adjust the contrast and brightness on the model as well as on the other elements. First, group all layers except the background together. Then, select Brightness/Contrast and boost the Contrast to +81. Place the adjustment layer above the group layer, and then press Alt on the adjustment layer and click to apply the settings to the model only, not the background.
7. How to Add the Waves
Drag the wave picture into the main canvas. Place the layer under the model’s layer. Then, duplicate the waves layer by pressing Control-J and place that layer above the model’s layer. Use the Move Tool (V) to place the images as shown below.
8. How to Add the Yellow Circle and the Patterns
Step 1
Select the Ellipse Tool (U), change the fill color to #ffff01, and draw a medium circle. Then place the layer under the model’s layer. Use the Move Tool (V) to center the image.
Step 2
Drag the pattern image into the main canvas and bring the layer under the model’s and the wave layer.
Step 3
Then, lower the Opacity to 16%. Resize the patterns by pressing Control-T. Hold Shift while resizing.
9. How to Add Tribal Marks, Faux Sunglasses, and Stars
Step 1
We want to add some tribal marks. Activate your Ellipse Tool (U). Make sure the fill color is white, draw a small circle, and duplicate the layer four times by pressing Control-J. Redistribute the circles on the cheeks, forehead, and chin.
Then activate your Ellipse Tool (U) again, and duplicate the layer four times by pressing Control-J. Use the Move Tool (V) to align the circles vertically and group the layers. Now duplicate the group layer twice and redistribute them on the two corners and on the model’s chest as shown.
Step 2
Now we want to create our faux sunglasses. Use the Pen Tool (P) and draw the sunglasses outline as shown below.
Step 3
Next, we want to remove the part we outlined. Right-Click, select Make Selection, and then hit Delete.
Step 4
Bring the stars picture into the main canvas. Place the layer under the Main Image layer. Activate the Pen Tool (P) and draw around the sunglasses shape, and then Right-Click, select Make Selection, Select Inverse, and hit Delete.
10. How to Retouch in Adobe Lightroom
Step 1
We want to add more contrast to our artwork. Bring the Exposure to +0.24, the Clarity to +21, and the Vibrance to +62. Then go to the Hue palette and boost the Orange Hue to +100.
Step 2
Next, boost the Grain level to +54 and the Dehaze amountto +10.
11. 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 the image. Then click Export.
Awesome Work, You’re Done!
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!
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