Graphics - Page 5

Business / 23 Sep 2021

What Is Universal Design? Everything You Need to Know

Universal Design is not new, but the conversations around it are reinvigorated in an effort to create more accessible and equitable design projects.

The concept isn’t specific to websites or printed creative work, it extends to every field of design.

Universal design is rooted in a set of core principles that – when used as a foundation for creative work – can help you design in a way that helps minimize the need for assistive technology and makes products more usable by everyone, not just people with disabilities.

Graphics / 20 Sep 2021

The Design Anatomy of a Good Icon: 10 Tips

An icon is a picture, image, or representation of another thing. So if you are looking to create a great icon, it needs to have a visual presence that’s understandable.

There’s more to designing a great icon than just a quick visual element. You have to think about shape, color, usage, and even what device or operating system it might appear on.

Here, we have 10 tips to help you make the most of icon design.

Logo Templates / 3 Sep 2021

45+ Best Minimal Logo Design Templates

Minimalist logo design is an art. How can you convey your brand with a professional logo, but keep the simplicity of a minimal, clean, and simple design? Getting that balance right is the key to crafting an iconic logo.

One strategy is to try using a pre-designed minimal logo template to base your next logo mark or branding project on. Will it be as perfectly tailor-made as a high-end custom logo? Probably not. But it’s a great solution for getting your branding project started fast. To show you how amazing these logo templates can be, we picked some of the best minimalist logo designs from Envato Elements.

You can download any (or all) of these minimal logo templates to tweak, build upon, and use to design your own creative logo all by yourself. It’s a great, flexible way to experiment with your next logo project! If you think your company could use a beautiful minimal logo, this is a great place to start.

Are you in the middle of a logo design project? Don’t forget to check out our in-depth guide on how to design a logo! Or you can jump down this post to our specific minimal logo design tips for creating a simple, uncluttered logo.

Graphics / 26 Aug 2021

10 Tips for Working With Bold Colors in Web Design

Designing with bold color is a lot of fun.

It’s also a little dangerous.

Bold color choices can evoke emotion, draw attention, and create just the right vibe for a design. On the other hand, bold color can feel frenzied or off balance. Users are instantly drawn into color or turned off by it.

Here’s a look at a few ways to use bold color in web design. We’ll walk through how to bring personality and vivid style into your projects, while keeping a sense of balance and accessibility that makes the site easy to use.

Graphics / 23 Aug 2021

How to Balance “Good Design” vs. a Functional Website

It’s the chicken and egg debate of website design: What comes first “good design” or functional design?

Both answers are right… and wrong.

Unlike much of what we share on Design Shack, this is more of a personal essay on the benefits of each type of thinking and why I’ll design with function over “good design” almost any day of the week.

And I’ll back up my thinking with some examples that have made a difference for real-life projects.

Graphics / 9 Aug 2021

Learn to Color Match and Create a Palette Like a Pro (Tips and Tools)

You know it the minute you see it – a design that has so color that’s so impactful you can’t help but look at it.

These designs typically fall into one of two categories. Either it’s a great color palette that you want to find a way to replicate immediately. Or it’s a color palette so bizarre or bad that you can’t figure out why a designer would make that choice!

Since no one wants to fall in the latter category, learning to color match and develop palettes is a vital design skill.

It all starts with color theory but then goes a little further.

Photoshop Actions / 21 Jul 2021

How to Whiten Teeth in Photoshop (Quick Step by Step Guide)

One of the things that always ruins a great portrait photo is yellow teeth. With Photoshop, you can get rid of it easily. We’ll show you how it’s done.

Most of the time, yellow teeth in portrait occurs without any fault by the person in the photo. Usually, it happens during bad lighting conditions and even the adjustments you make in the camera as well. Thankfully, Photoshop has a fix for this issue.

In this short guide, you’ll learn how to whiten teeth in Photoshop. This is a very simple 3-step method that you can do without any prior graphic design knowledge.

Let’s dive in.

Photoshop Actions / 20 Jul 2021

How to Remove an Object in Photoshop (Step by Step Guide)

One of the most common uses of Photoshop is removing objects from photos. In fact, it’s one of the reasons the software was so popular back in the day.

If you’ve just bought a subscription to Photoshop, removing objects is a trick you must learn right away. In this quick guide, we’ll show you how.

Photoshop has come a long way over the years and removing objects in photos is now much easier thanks to advanced AI-powered technologies. You can easily remove most objects without any effort.

Let’s dive in and see how.

Graphics / 24 Jun 2021

An Introduction to Custom Cursors in Web Design: Tips, Ideas + Tutorials

One of the biggest trends in web design these days is custom cursors. At first glance, a custom website cursor may look like just another stylistic element. But there’s much more to this design concept.

When viewing a website from a desktop device, the cursor is the main component that bridges the gap between the user and the website. If you’re creative enough, you can actually use this cursor to your advantage to boost website interaction and engagement rates like never before.

In this guide, we take a closer look at what custom cursors are all about, why you should use them, and offer you a few tutorials for designing your own custom cursors.

Let’s get started.

Graphics / 31 May 2021

How to Create a Disruptive Design (So It Will Get Seen)

If you really want to create a design that will make people look, it has to be disruptive.

While “disruptive” can be a bit of a hackneyed catchphrase, it is also at the core of what you do when you create something new. The goal is to get people to stop, look, and interact.

Disruption works because it is different from the norm. This can include anything from being at the forefront of a new trend to designing with an interesting font, color palette, or design pattern.

This description from Layla Acaroglu explains it perfectly: “Design is about creating something that adds to or iterates on the existing, and disruption is about creating a disturbance with the intent of changing a system. When combined, the practice of Disruptive Design is to create intentional interventions into a pre-existing system with the specific objective to leverage a different outcome, and more importantly, an outcome that is likely to create positive social change.”

Now how can you do it? We have a few ideas (and examples) for you.

Graphics / 26 Apr 2021

Data Visualization Design: Tools, Examples & Tips

Data visualization is one of those design trends or techniques that just seems to keep growing in use and value. From simple infographics to full data stories, this informational format is almost everywhere.

And for good reason: A good data visualization makes complex content that much easier to understand.

Here, we are breaking down data visualization tools, examples, tips so you can design with data successfully.

Graphics / 29 Mar 2021

7 Tips for Establishing a Visual Brand Identity

Whether you are working on a design for a client at a major corporation or posting to your own social media account, a visual brand identity makes it easy for people to see – and know – a company or person at a glance.

Establishing a visual identity is more than popping a logo on something. It’s a collection of elements – from color to typography to imagery – that establishes who you are visually.

Plenty of companies take the time to set brand identity guidelines, but have you thought about how it all comes together visually? This set of tips can help.