Last post

Hello !

This is my last post on Blogger.
I moved all my posts here and I'll continue to write from there.

Hope to see you there !

"Advice, Trends, and Resources " by Viget

This morning I was reading some articles on Viget.
And I found this : Advice, Trends, and Resources for People Entering Web Careers in 2009

I think these are very useful advices and in case you didn't read the post you should do it.

In my post I'll select only some advices :

Don’t Grow Up Just Yet

"Many of the students I’ve taught and worked with want to hit this field’s ground running, but tend to be confused and overwhelmed by all of the various titles, processes and disciplines involved in working on the web these days. If you’re feeling this way, remember that you don’t have to pick a definitive career path or niche in the web just yet (if ever)! Instead learn about and try all of these disciplines as your work allows. You can always dive deeper into those that really strike a chord. Until then, don’t sweat those fancy terms or titles too much. And here’s a secret, some of the strongest web professionals are “generalists” instead of “specialists” in a particular area."

Try It

"You can have a huge stack of Readymades and an RSS reader full of A List Apart articles, but if you’ve never built any of the stuff they’re talking about, you’re missing out. Take some time to play around with new ideas, techniques, or plugins whenever you can. It’s fun, it relieves stress, and you often learn more than you expected to."

Focus.

"I have seen many people try to master everything when they first get into web design. It’s ok to know lots of stuff but you run the risk of spreading yourself too thin. My advice is to focus on one area and do it really well. However, don’t limit yourself. Work on that one focus but always try and have at least a little knowledge in most areas of the web. Knowing something about design will come in handy even if you’re a developer."

Build It

"You’re not going to succeed as an designer if you don’t know the medium. Learn HTML, learn CSS, learn Javascript, learn Ruby & Rails. Knowing how to build quick and dirty prototypes, or production ready build outs, will make you a more effective designer."

Make It Easier On Yourself

"Use applications or frameworks that can make your life easier. For example, if you want to start using JavaScript on your sites quickly, look at jQuery instead of writing it from scratch. Most of the time there are large communities constantly improving these frameworks and it is a great way to get involved and meet people."

The Learning Starts Now

"Those of you who are graduating students, you probably didn’t learn what you needed to know from your classes in school and that is perfectly normal. I think most of us would agree that we didn’t actually learn anything until AFTER school when we were in real world situations. School was only meant to give you an introduction; it’s up to you to do the rest. Get a web host or setup a local server on your computer and play around with stuff on your own. Get involved in communities both online and in your city. Get a website up online to post your work and blog if you have ideas to share. This will all lead to networking with people with common interests, learning from the people you meet, and possibly scoring a job. I've learned the most from the jobs I've had and working with smart people."

Be Fearless

"Be ready to be wrong, but trust yourself and your instinct as a designer completely. Uncertainty breeds shoddy execution. Be prepared to fail. Be OK with that. Take ownership of your work and be prepared to explain your choices."

Be An Artist

"Be an artist. Be an illustrator. Be a drawer. Be an iconographer. Be a typographer. Be more than a designer. Take your creative passions and use them. Don’t let a challenge stifle or restrict your creativity or force you down a certain design route."

Find your sandbox

"Don’t ever stop learning, being creative, and stretching yourself. Creativity and inspiration are everywhere so when inspired be sure you have your own place to ‘play.’ This can be a personal web site, a painting studio, or a potter’s wheel."

Learning to do logos 2

In February I posted some logos I've done while participateing on 99designs contests.

Well ..since then I've done more :

Romania - Croatia

Hello !

Two weeks ago me and my boyfriend went to see Croatia.
We checked in Brela (between Split and Makarska). We stayed there 5 days and 6 nights. In the afternoon we were swimming in the Adriatic Sea. The sea water was cold and salty but we liked it very much.One day we went to Makarska and from there we took the boat and went to the Hvar Island. From there the boat sailed back to the Makarska but it stopped to Brac Island for a swimming break. We arrived to destination in the evening and from there we took our car and went to Brela.

Match Color

Hello!

Browsing the Net I found a more precise way to replace colors. And easier. At least from my point of view :)
Until now I was replacing colors using Image – Adjustments – Replace color.

I took two photos from sxc.hu (thanks to Bina Sveda for the photo with the girl in blue shirt) and I started to match the red color from the first photo with the blue one from the second photo using the Match Color command.

First thing to do when you start working on a image in Photoshop is to duplicate the background layer, and so you don’t have to worry about damaging the original photo. So don’t forget to do that..(Ctrl + J)Choose a selection tool (Lasso tool or Pen tool, I used the second one) and start selecting the red shirt.
Select the part above the hands, close the path and then select the other one.After you close that too, right-click on the image and choose Make selection.Now go to the other picture, the one with the girl in blue shirt and just make a random selection somewhere on the shirt. Return to the first photo and make sure you have the duplicated layer selected.

Then go to Image – Adjustments – Match color :The Match Color dialog box appears:
On top you have Destination image – which is the current image you are in (with the girl in red – in other words : the image containing the colors you want to change) and you have to select from the bottom – Image statistics, the source – from where the colors will be imported.The following options Luminance, Color Intensity, Fade, and Neutralize are the tricky part :)They are not used to adjust the original color of the destination image. From here you can adjust the output color. But that is not working so well in some cases. If the object is a flat one, it’s ok, but in my image I need more work because I need to have more contrast in the color of the shirt. Using the options above I can only make the entire shirt brighter or darker.
In order to darken the shadows and brighten the highlights of her shirt, I'm going to use the adjustment layer. (hold Alt key and click on the icon in the image )
And from there choose Levels.
If you don’t like the changes made to the photo – a way to undo that is to simple use the Eraser tool.


So here is the final image :

Learning Photoshop and more

Hello all !

This morning, while I was browsing through my RSS feeds I thought that it might be a good idea to show you what I read while I’m learning Photoshop :)
So here it is :

"A blog on the main subject of graphic design which provides free graphic design tips, articles & resources on all subjects of design, ranging from, but not limited to; print design, logo design, web design, branding, typography, advertising & more."

“Logo Designer Blog is a blog focused purely on branding, logo & identity design.It is a place for logo design discussion, inspiration, tips and resources.”

“The idea behind this blog is primarily to be a channel for me to write down some ideas, experiments, news, and a lot of thing that I see online and probably will forget in a couple of months. Basically it is an archive of my adventures online as a designer on the daily basis.”

"Smashing Magazine delivers useful and innovative information for designers and Web developers."

“For the creative person in all of us: Creative Something is the premier blog for creative inspiration. Whether you are looking for creative inspiration, motivation, or just some general creative ideas, Creative Something provides you with all of the creative insights you will ever need.”

"A free gallery of great sites !"

Here you can find logo design, css and flash websites inspiration, graphic design creations typography, resources and tutorials.

"iLT is designed to inspire its readers, to make people more aware of the typography that’s around them."

Daily Photoshop tutorials !

"As you may have guessed from our name PSDFAN will be providing Photoshop tutorials. However, we want to stress that this won’t simply be ‘just another tutorial website’. Here’s why not:
•We will be posting some of the highest quality tutorials you’re likely to find.
•We will be updating very regularly. Realistically we’ll start with updating every 1-2 days.
•Our tutorials will be unique, easy-to-understand and of course visually stunning!"

"PSDTUTS is a blog/Photoshop site made to house and showcase some of the best Photoshop tutorials around. We publish tutorials that not only produce great graphics and effects, but explain in a friendly, approachable manner."

Graphic design tutorials, Photoshop tips&triks, photo effect tutorials, and more.

Design news, trends, techniques, buildout, inspiration, CSS, and Vigent’s projects.

"Tutorial9 - a collection of teachers, experts, and caring folk from around the world, all gathered in one place to pass along our knowledge to absolutely anyone interested in learning."

I hope you'll enjoy all of them !