First off, I buy these little gems with my own money, so you get no slanted or skewed reviews here! I will call them as I see them. This Months iPhone app for Graphic Designers comes from Pantone, I LOVE this app. It is extremely useful in coming up with new pallets and showing clients on the fly what colors may be at their disposal for any particular design job. Yes, before you ask, it is not 100% accurate but what rgb screen is? It is close enough to make a great start and usually gets me within one or two chips of final color. The ability to to take a snapshot and create a color palette from it is incredible. That is the one feature that would have sold me right up front. The last notable feature is being able to email palettes. Sample below.
Are your brand managers not paying attention to your guidelines? Branding just being ignored and run all over? Even by internal marketing? This was a very creative solution to the problem. Lipton Tea got with Tribal DDB and put together a very interesting solution. Brand Guidelines that are actually FUN and ENGAGING! Imagine your brand managers wanting to learn you guidelines!! They put an iPod touch (preloaded with the new guidelines app) with a stack of cash and mailed in out in a briefcase, check out the video below and the link HERE
Lipton Millionaire
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This kind of creativity is what we need in our industry! Got your branding down already? Come print your branded collateral at PGprint!
A Short Tutorial on Illustrator’s Recolor Artwork Function
Today, a short Illustrator tutorial on the recolor artwork feature. First take an image and run Object Menu > Live trace to convert yout low res image to vector artwork. Next set is to expand your traced file and then go to the Edit Menu > Edit colors > recolor artwork. In the window that pops up go to the color slider at the bottom and change the color you want to base your new art off of, I picked a brown color.
Next click on the pop down menu at the top of the same window and select your “Harmony Rule” I chose “shades” for this example.
The software then applies the new color scheme and shows a list of what original color is converting to what color in the new scheme.
One fun thing to try as seem below is the random color button, it basically takes the colors in your new palette and applies them randomly to the art.
Finally once you have your colors the way you want them click the “OK” button!
add any type or other elements and presto, you have created a nice scaleable vector poster/flyer/art!
Once you finish your artwork and are ready to print it, drop by our online printing site and sign up!
Good trifold brochure design starts by beginning with a good solid foundation, in this case making sure your margins and folds are set up properly before even beginning the design and layout stage. We supply a wide variety of templates you can use to set up your own collateral material before submitting it for printing. Doing this step first will ensure your job will fly through production without a hitch on the technical side! Aside from that, image resolution and making sure you have bleed will keep you covered! Check out the tutorial below for an overview on the basics of brochure design!
Today’s blog is a quickie on how to add grunge effects to type easily. First you will need some grungy images, best place to find these is on the web or take them yourself. Make sure before you use an image from the web that the owner/photographer has released rights for personal/commercial use and reproduction (see blog on copyright!) I found some images at Desizn Tech that are free for personal and commercial use, it is also a good reference site for for web designers, techs and anyone with an interest in design in general, back to the topic at hand…
Once you have an image in hand, make sure it has good contrast in the image for the area you want to pull out for your “grunge”. I adjusted the contrast a little in photoshop in the image I picked (from Desizn Tech) before placing it in Adobe Illustrator. Once in Illustrator I ran live trace and adjusted my options to pull out the dark areas. I set it to blakc and white and then ungrouped and removed the white areas leaving me just the black shown below.
Once I had the grunge for my image (see above) I turned the black to magenta so I could see the type and the image areas and overlap clearly (below).
At this point I selected the type, converted it to outlines, colored the grunge art white again and used the pathfinder divide tool to subtract the grunge from the type I then selected all the white areas using “select same fill color” and deleted the white parts. You can see the remainder (below) with points highlighted.
At this point you are done and have your grunge artwork ready to go, click on the image below to see a more blown up version. You can also have a two-tone look by putting another copy of the type artwork without the grunge effect to fill in the white areas with another color.
I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial, and when you are done with that “grunge” poster bring it on over and have us print it for you here at PGprint.com!
Poster Design can be the most exciting type of design in a graphic designers arsenal of tools. Posters are also the most fun to produce. A single page, usually large scale, containing all the information necessary to promote, inform, educate and/or entertain the viewer. From gig posters to special event posters you can find a variety of great tutorials online.
The main issue with posters is to make sure they don’t overwhelm the viewer with information. A simple “what, where, when” will usually do. If more than that is needed design an ancillary piece such as a flyer that can be carried away. Put a small copy of the poster on one side and your other information on the other. If your design is strong enough people that may not have been interested in the event may take a flyer to the office or home and hang it on the wall providing you with more free advertising for your event.
Enjoy thes few poster/art tutorials below and search for more for further inspiration!
Once you have your poster designed, come back and see us for top notch quality printing of your Full Color Poster!
Christopher Robinson
Trying to come up with something new for you designers out there every week can be challenging with the plethora of sites already spamming the web. Todays post will take you on a different path, the path you need most as a designer when the only response you can get from your client is “I just don’t like it” or “It’s too plain”. So when you have that deadline looming over your head and absolutely no feedback on direction for your design, take a five minute break and browse the “Clients from Hell” Blog for a quick laugh and to realize… It could be worse!
Here is an example, enjoy:
Me: “Okay, so here are some rough concepts I’ve worked up. Once you’ve -“
Client (interrupting): “What the hell am I looking at? These look like scribbles my five-year-old could do.”
Me: “Oh, they’re just roughs to get the concept figured out, once we have that done I’ll begin work on the finished piece.”
Client: “How am I supposed to decide which illustration I like if I can’t see them all finished. Finish them and then I’ll decide which one to use.”
Me: “Well, I can certainly do that, but just so you’re aware, I will have to raise my fees to cover the cost of bringing each of these concepts to a finish.”
Client: “Who do you think you are to make demands?! I’m the client, I get to make the demands! It’s not like this is a real job anyway, all you’re doing is drawing.”
I hope you enjoy the laugh! …and when you finally finish that design from the Client from Hell make sure you bring it back here to us for printing!
Christopher Robinson
One of the most important ideas behind Design is branding.
Logo Design is one aspect of graphic design that is more fun than any other. The one thing young designers tend to forget is the branding concept. In creating a logo you must think ahead to all the possible uses for the individual company as well as mapping out the individual uses for the logo being designed. Some question you must ask yourself and the client, will there be the need for a one color version? a black and white version? will it need to be reversed out of a background? Small usage versus large scale usage? All of these question will play into your design of the initial logo. If you don’t take all of these questions into consideration with initial design it can be easy to create a nightmare that cant be used in some of these instances. Branding takes it a step further.
The definition according to the American Marketing Association (AMA): “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.” To take it a step further in your design, you need to make sure the logo you create can be used in conjunction with cohesive branding to promote the clients company by delivering a clear message, maintains credibility, connects with the target audience, motivates and creates loyalty. Seems like a lot to ask from an identity, but look at the big ones… Coca Cola, McDonald’s, etc… Review how large corps utilize branding throughout the design of every piece of advertising, merchandise and product. Learn as much as you can from the designers in which footsteps you follow. Here are a few great links in regard to branding and logo design and re-design that I think you will enjoy.
This is a brief video tutorial on print bookmark design by PG print. Bookmark printing can be created in Adobe InDesign, this tutorial is on how to set up and design a bookmark for printing. Our bookmark printing services will, in conjunction with this video tutorial, provide you with a huge head start on the setup process.
Around Atlanta digital billboards will go live with our new Ad campaign. A series of Three amusing billboards along with a more reserved corporate layout. So if you are in Atlanta keep your eyes open traveling on Interstate 75 and also around Buckhead. Here is a sneak preview…
Click. Print. Ship. Save!
Frustrated by your current printer?
Current printer not a good fit?
Think twice before going paperless.
We hope you enjoy them and get a chuckle as you sit in Atlanta’s horrible rush hour traffic… do you still call it rush hour when it lasts three hours?
Christopher Robinson
We also offer design services as well as affordable online printing! Come check out our website or give us a call!
