BlogmyQuery – BMQ

I watched a TV documentary the other day about a professional soccer player. As well as his normal soccer training he mixed in training in other sports like boxing and yoga and I thought this sounded a bit odd. Why would somebody that earns his (considerable) daily bread playing soccer spend time learning and training in areas that are not directly related to his profession?

Well, it turns out that they are related in a round-about way. The athlete and his coaches went on to explain that training in other sports and physical activities, as well as regular soccer training keep certain parts of the brain active and stimulated, and this in turn improves soccer performance and prevents the brain and body slowing down.

What Does This Have To Do With Design?

This soccer player got me thinking about my own profession in design and made me analyse the way I deal with life as a designer. I mostly design for web these days and that can mean anything from interface design, banner advertising, as well as branding and logo design. It’s easy to drift into the same old routine for each project especially when work is coming in thick and fast — and when projects tend to overlap.

It turned out I wasn’t spending enough time “designing” away from a computer screen and out of the office. When I use the word “designing”, I don’t just mean putting together wireframes and pushing pixels in Photoshop — I mean actually gathering creative thoughts, images, videos and other forms of inspiration whilst living life.

Collect, Gather and Cross-train

As designers, we have an instinctive desire to collect things, from action figures to postcards to t-shirts and posters — it’s just something we do, right? Taking photos, recording videos, bookmarking web pages, ‘like’-ing and ‘favorite’-ing are all forms of collecting and it’s these things that shape us as designers.

Looking for inspiration can also be treated as a form of cross-training. Taking yourself away from your normal (daily) routine is a useful technique. Since my kids arrived a couple of years ago, we’ve found ourselves watching kids TV and movies as well as reading children’s books. Being exposed to these new forms of entertainment meant seeing a whole new world of animation and illustration and it was fun. Treating yourself to a show or a trip to the cinema to see something you wouldn’t normally watch can also be fun.

Some useful items for a designer’s cross-training toolkit

My brother-in-law took me to a soccer match in Amsterdam recently and I have to admit that when he originally proposed the idea I wasn’t overly excited. I was interested in finding out what it would be like to attend a proper European soccer match and I was promised it would be quite exciting as the teams that were playing were old rivals. I’m glad I went as it was an incredible experience and I found myself getting completely wrapped up with the other fans and cheering on the home side. It’s these kinds of experiences that bring out ideas and inspiration from the best of us.

The point I’m making here is to break away from normal routine. Designers are expected to read particular books, magazines and websites and attend certain conferences. I’m not suggesting we stop doing these things but we should add other things to the recipe too and explore other opportunities.

The Designer’s Toolkit

Let’s think about that soccer player again. He plays soccer and trains mostly in that sport but also cross-trains in yoga and boxing as they help his brain and body stay focused and sharp and prevent him from getting injured. What can we as designers do to accomplish the same thing? Developing skills in other creative areas will help keep you motivated and fresh. Below, I’ve compiled what I think is a good designer’s toolkit for a well-designed cross-training lifestyle:

A DSLR and a Point-and-Shoot

Investing in a good digital SLR and a good point-and-shoot camera with plenty of manual settings can really get the creative juices flowing. Being able to compose a good photo and control the light is not easy but when you start to understand how the camera works you can have a lot of fun taking photos. I’ve included the point-and-shoot camera as it’s not always feasible to carry a DSLR around with you.

A DSLR type camera and a point-and-shoot type camera with plenty of manual settings

Developing a photographer’s mind will condition you to be constantly looking for the perfect shot wherever you are and whatever you’re doing and it will also become your second nature to never leave the house without a camera.

Digital HD Camcorder

Having a camcorder is also a good option though some good DSLR cameras now shoot quite good cinema quality videos as well. You have the same rules about light and composition but have the added element of timing and movement. You will certainly want to start editing the videos you shoot, so learning new softwares such as Adobe Premiere or Final Cut will let you create a masterpiece — you might even want to get into something like Adobe After Effects and create something really special.

From a simple pocket HD camcorder to a top-of-the-range ‘pro-sumer’ camcorder

Understanding more about cinematography allows you to appreciate the intricacies of those classic movies. It’s not just about the fonts used in the opening credits or the detail in the animation — it’s the timing of a scene, the expressions used and other details in the shots that make certain films memorable and great.

Smartphones

Having a smartphone such as an iPhone or an Android phone can be a really handy way of collecting visuals. I’m always snapping interesting signage, posters and graffiti, etc. Download an app like Evernote or Dropbox and you can sync with an online account to view stuff later on the big screen.

Smartphones from Apple, HTC and Google

There are thousands of apps out there to help you organize your creative lifestyle, so ask around and see what other people are using.

Sketchbook, Pencils, Pens, Markers and an Eraser

Drawing and sketching is great fun. I’m not great at drawing but I have a real desire to get better. Whenever there is an opportunity to sketch, I’ll grab a pen or pencil and get going. Your sketching tools need to be handy all the time, so get yourself a good bag to keep all this stuff in. Investing in some good coloured marker pens will also add a bit life to your web mockups and drawings and will help get your ideas across much better.

Pens, pencils, marker pens, sketch pads, sticky notes, an eraser and a good bag to keep them all in

Using post-it notes and blutac can help with labelling. Why not sign up for an evening life drawing or comic book drawing course to really boost your skills? Sometimes it’s just nice to not use something digital to create and fall back to pencil and paper. I sat in a bar in New York with an artist just after the terrorist attacks in 2001 and he sketched on the back of a napkin what he saw on that day — it was one of the simplest yet most powerful sketches I’ve ever seen.

Google Maps

When I visit bookshops and news stands, I head for the design section or pick up a web design/creative magazine by default. This isn’t such a bad thing, but how about dropping into your nearest antique or second-hand bookstore and picking up a book or magazine — one you wouldn’t normally look at. I love looking at lifestyle magazines from the 80’s and 90’s and in particular the style of advertising used in them. We can learn a lot from looking back at old styles and techniques used decades before we were born.

It’s also fun to look at old packaging for kids toys and games or electrical items. The font usage, illustration and even printing techniques can offer ideas and inspiration. Open up Google Maps and find out where your nearest Antique or second-hand store is and drop in.

Graphics Tablet

With those re-discovered drawing skills, you’ll no doubt want to apply them to your designs on screen. Using a graphics tablet can add a whole new element to your working practice and making use of pressure and flow features in Photoshop will add detail and life to your designs. Though it’s down the individual, a graphics tablet can give you greater control of image manipulation — especially in Photoshop.

Scrapbook

A scrapbook is a must! Picking up leaflets, collecting magazine adverts and other printed material is a really useful way of gathering inspiration. It’s something you can look back to in years to come and you’ll be glad you kept them. Recognizing design patterns in print and advertising will certainly help you with your future projects.

Conclusion

So to conclude, taking photos, recording videos, drawing and collecting all manner of visual things are all things we can do everyday to keep us stimulated as designers. I’ve found that regularly attending Web and design related conferences help to keep my mind stimulated. Also, listening to people with ideas and thoughts and sharing them in an enthusiastic and passionate way will leave you feeling upbeat and excited about design even more.

We shouldn’t stop here though. Breaking the normal “design” routine can unlock new ideas and thoughts; so instead of dropping into the local for a pint, why not walk an extra block to the workers club and have a pint with the old guys over a game of dominoes.

Skip the freelancers weekly meetup this week and drop into an evening comedy workshop instead, switch radio stations, wear red instead of black, drink tea instead of coffee, buy a different newspaper… you get the idea! Drop in a bit of boxing and yoga and who knows what you could create — more often than not you will find yourself amazed by the innovative ideas you have come up with.

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© Mark Cossey for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: cross-training, Design, Inspiration, working practice

As we all may already know, Twitter is the most famous microblogging site which has already proven how powerful social network actually can be. It is among one of the most powerful social networking sites which gives your business leverage and lets your business flourish with more and more visitors and potential customers passing by — perhaps even on a daily basis.

In today’s post, we have listed 60 most creatively designed Twitter backgrounds which use various and innovative illustrations to create a visually attractive and appealing look to their profiles.

Illustrated Twitter Backgrounds

Go Media

Real Andrews

John Rawsterne

Meg hunt

Stephen Kelly

Kristi Colvin

Lee Maplesden

Kiam Dean Art

NIK0_BELLIC

Giographix

Lou Page

Paul Miser

Mail Chimp

Anousone

Emily Chen

Brian Paulwicz

EliteStyles

Scott Clark

Krftd

Melissa Scroggins

Lorenzo Gabba

Lizette Gagne

Ed Dale

Mr Tweet

Vectips

Camiseteria

Satyakam Misra

Djambzov

Sneh Roy

Jolly Lizard

Shirt Pizza

Khai

Twestival Jozi

Rosaura Ochoa

Scott Fulkerson

Priscilla Saori Goto

Melody

Dani McDaniel

Lisa Lillien

Jeanette

We Heart Studios

N.C Winterd

Wardere

Stuart Robertson

Jody Phillips

Happy Tree Friends

Koko Hinson

Roy Westwood

Tiffany Hughes

Ujjwal Agarwal

Jamie Cheng

Generalsully

Aaron Miller

Paul Boag

Just Tweet It

Gerardo Obieta

Ronald Bien

Sallid

Karina Pilch

nourayehia

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When using @font-face to embed a typeface that has several weights and styles, your CSS can become a bit of a mess unless you define those weights and styles in the @font-face declarations. Unfortunately some tutorials and font embedding services do not do this.

The problem: Declaring multiple font-family names for the same typeface makes your CSS complex and forces you to remov fallback styles in browsers that do not support @font-face.

The solution: Specify font-weight and font-style in each @font-face rule to match each font’s properties, and use the same font-family name.

Read full post

Posted in CSS, Typography.

Building a beautiful design is a great experience. Seeing the design break apart when people start putting in real content, though, is painful. That’s why testing it as soon as possible with real information to see how it fares is so important. To this end, Web services provide us with a lot of information with which to fill our products. In recent years, this has been a specialist’s job, but the sheer amount of information available and the number of systems to consume it makes it easier and easier to use Web services, even for people with not much development experience.

On Programmable Web, you can find (to date) 2580 different application programming interfaces (or APIs). An API allows you to get access to an information provider’s data in a raw format and reformat it to suit your needs.

The Trouble With APIs

The problem with APIs is that access to them varies in simplicity, from just having to load data from a URL all the way up to having to authenticate with the server and give all kinds of information about the application you want to build before getting your first chunk of information.

Each API is based on a different idea of what information you need to provide, what format it should be in, what data it will give back and in what format. All this makes using third-party APIs in your products very time-consuming, and the pain multiplies with each one you use. If you want to get photos from Flickr and updates from Twitter and then show the geographical information in Twitter on a map, then you have quite a trek ahead.

Simplifying API Access

Yahoo uses APIs for nearly all of its products. Instead of accessing a database and displaying the information live on the screen, the front end calls an API, which in turn gets the information from the back end, which talks to databases. This gives Yahoo the benefit of being able to scale to millions of users and being able to change either the front or back end without disrupting the other.

Because the APIs have been built over 10 years, they all vary in format and the way in which you access them. This cost Yahoo too much time, which is why it built Yahoo Pipes — to ease the process.

Large view

Pipes is amazing. It is a visual way to mix and match information from the Web. However, as people used Pipes more, they ran into limitations. Versioning pipes was hard; to change the functionality of the pipe just slightly, you had to go back to the system, and it tended to slow down with very complex and large conversions. This is why Yahoo offers a new system for people’s needs that change a lot or get very complex.

YQL is both a service and a language (Yahoo Query Language). It makes consuming Web services and APIs dead simple, both in terms of access and format.

Retrieving Data With YQL

The easiest way to access YQL is to use the YQL console. This tool allows you to preview your YQL work and play with the system without having to know any programming at all. The interface is made up of several components:

Large view

1. The YQL statement section is where you write your YQL query.
   YQL has a very simple syntax, and we’ll get into its details a bit later on. Now is the time to try it out. Enter your query, define the output format (XML or JSON), check whether to have diagnostics reporting, and then hit the “Test” button to see the information. There is also a permalink; click it to make sure you don’t lose your work in case you accidentally hit the “Back” button.
2. The results section shows you the information returned from the Web service.
   You can either read it in XML or JSON format or click the “Tree view” to navigate the data in an Explorer-like interface.
3. The REST query section gives you the URL of your YQL query.
   You can copy and paste this URL at any time to use it in a browser or program. Getting information from different sources with YQL is actually this easy.
4. The queries section gives you access to queries that you previously entered.
   You can define query aliases for yourself (much as you would bookmark websites), get a history of the latest queries (very useful in case you mess up) and get some sample queries to get started.
5. The data tables section lists all the Web services you can access using YQL.
   Clicking the name of a table will in most cases open a demo query in the console. If you hover over the link, you’ll get two more links — desc and src — which give you information about the parameters that the Web service allows and which show the source of the data table itself. In most cases, all you need to do is click the name. You can also filter the data table list by typing what you’re looking for.

Using YQL Data

By far the easiest way to use YQL data is to select JSON as the output format and define a callback function. If you do that, you can then copy and paste the URL from the console and write a very simple JavaScript to display the information in HTML. Let’s give that a go.

As a very simple example, let’s get some photos from Flickr for the search term “cat”:

select * from flickr.photos.search where text="cat"

Type that into the YQL console, and hit the “Test” button. You will get the results in XML — a lot of information about the photos:

Large view

Instead of XML, choose JSON as the output format, and enter myflickr as the callback function name. You will get the same information as a JSON object inside a call to the function myflickr.

Large view

You can then copy the URL created in the “REST query” field:

Large view

Write a JavaScript function called myflickr with a parameter data, and copy and paste the URL as the src of another script block:

<script>
  function myflickr(data){
    alert(data);
  }
</script>
<script src="http://query.yahooapis.com/v1/public/yql?
q=select%20*%20from%20flickr.photos.search%20where%20tex
t%3D%22cat%22&format=json&env=store%3A%2F%2Fdatatables.org
%2Falltableswithkeys&callback=myflickr"></script>

If you run this inside a browser, the URL you copied will retrieve the data from the YQL server and send it to the myflickr function as the data parameter. The data parameter is an object that contains all the returned information from YQL. To make sure you have received the right information, test whether the data.query.results property exists; then you can loop over the result set:

<script>function myflickr(data){
  if(data.query.results){
    var photos = data.query.results.photo;
    for(var i=0,j=photos.length;i<j;i++){
      alert(photos[i].title);
    }
  }
}</script>
<script src="http://query.yahooapis.com/v1/public/yql?
q=select%20*%20from%20flickr.photos.search%20where%20text%3D%22cat%22
&format=json&env=store%3A%2F%2Fdatatables.org%2Falltableswithkeys&
callback=myflickr"></script>

You can easily get the structure of the information and know what is loop-able by checking the tree view of the results field in the console:

Right now, all this does is display the titles of the retrieved photos as alerts, which is nothing but annoying. To display the photos in the right format, we need a bit more — but no magic either:

<div id="flickr"></div>
<script>function myflickr(data){
  if(data.query.results){
    var out = '<ul>';
    var photos = data.query.results.photo;
    for(var i=0,j=photos.length;i<j;i++){
      out += '<li><img src="http://farm' + photos[i].farm +
             '.static.flickr.com/' + photos[i].server + '/' + photos[i].id +
             '_' + photos[i].secret + '_s.jpg" alt="' + photos[i].title +
             '"></li>';
    }
    out += '</ul>';
  }
  document.getElementById('flickr').innerHTML = out;
}</script>
<script src="http://query.yahooapis.com/v1/public/yql?
q=select%20*%20from%20flickr.photos.search%20where%20text%3D%22cat%22&
format=json&env=store%3A%2F%2Fdatatables.org%2Falltableswithkeys&
callback=myflickr"></script>

Put this into action and you’ll get photos of cats, live from Flickr and without having to go through any painful authentication process.

The complexity of the resulting HTML for display differs from data set to data set, but in essence the main trick remains the same: define a callback function, write it, copy and paste the URL you created in the console, test that data has been returned, and then go nuts.

Using YQL To Reuse HTML Content

One other very powerful use of YQL is to access HTML content on the Web and filter it for reuse. This is usually called “scraping” and is a pretty painful process. YQL makes it easier because of two things: it cleans up the HTML retrieved from a website by running it through HTML Tidy, and it allows you to filter the result with XPATH. As an example, let’s retrieve the list of my upcoming conferences and display it.

Go to http://icant.co.uk/ to see my upcoming speaking engagements:

You can then use Firebug in Firefox to inspect this section of the page. Simply open Firebug, click the box with the arrow icon next to the bug, and move the cursor around the page until the blue border is around the element you want to inspect:

Large view

Right-click the selection, and select “Copy XPath” from the menu:

Large view

Go to the YQL console, and type in the following:

select * from html where url="http://icant.co.uk" and xpath=''

Copy the XPath from Firebug into the query, and hit the “Test” button.

select * from html where url="http://icant.co.uk" and
xpath='//*[@id="travels"]'

Large view

As you can see, this gets the HTML of the section that we want inside some XML. The easiest way to reuse this in HTML is by requesting a format that YQL calls JSON-P-X. This will return a simple JSON object with the HTML as a string. To use this, do the following:

1. Copy the URL from the REST field in the console.
2. Add &format=xml&callback=travels to the end of the URL.
3. Add this as the src to a script block, and write this terribly simple JavaScript function:

<div id="travels"></div>
<script>function travels(data){
  if(data.results){
    var travels = document.getElementById('travels');
    travels.innerHTML = data.results[0];
  }
}</script>
<script src="http://query.yahooapis.com/v1/public/yql?
q=select%20*%20from%20html%20where%20url%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Ficant.co.uk%22%20
and%20xpath%3D'%2F%2F*%5B%40id%3D%22travels%22%5D'&
diagnostics=true&env=store%3A%2F%2Fdatatables.org%2Falltableswithkeys&
format=xml&callback=travels"></script>

The result is an unordered list of my events on your website:

Debugging YQL Queries

Things will go wrong, and having no idea why is terribly frustrating. The good news with YQL is that you will get error messages that are actually human-readable. If something fails in the console, you will see a big box under the query telling you what the problem was:

Large view

Furthermore, you will see a diagnostics block in the data returned from YQL that tells you in detail what happened “under the hood.” If there are any problems accessing a certain service, it will show up there.

Large view

YQL Syntax

The basic syntax of YQL is very easy:

select {what} from {source} where {conditions}

You can filter your results, cut the information down only to the bits you want, paginate the results and nest queries in others. For all the details of the syntax and its nuances, check the extensive YQL documentation.

YQL Examples

You can do quite amazing things with YQL. By nesting statements in parentheses and filtering the results, you can reach far and wide across the Web of data. Simply click the following examples to see the results as XML documents. Copy and paste them into the console to play with them.

• Search Google for the word “smashing”:
  select * from google.search where q=”smashing”
• Search Google for the word “smashing” but only return the titles and URLs:
  select url,title from google.search where q=”smashing”
• Grab the titles of the latest articles from the Smashing Magazine feed and translate them to French:
  select * from google.translate where q in (select title from feed where url=”http://rss1.smashingmagazine.com/feed/”) and target=”fr”
• Find the most recent mentions of the word “ipad” on Delicious and YouTube (using the Yahoo Firehose):
  select * from social.updates.search where query=”ipad” and source in (“delicious”,”youtube”)
• Show sushi restaurants in San Francisco. Get 50 results, but limit the amount to 20 and skip the first 10:
  select * from local.search(50) where query=”sushi” and location=”san francisco, ca” limit 20 offset 10
• Show photos taken in Paris, France (by defining Paris as a Where on Earth (WoE) ID from the geoplanet data set and then searching Flickr for photos with that WoE ID):
  select * from flickr.photos.search where woe_id in (select woeid from geo.places where text=”Paris,France”)
• Get the Twitter names of all speakers at SWDC-central.com, and then search Twitter for tweets mentioning them:
  select text,from_user from twitter.search where q in (select content from html where url=”http://swdc-central.com/” and xpath=”//a[contains(.,'@')]“)

This is just a taste of the power of YQL. Check out some of my presentations on the subject.

YQL’s Limits

YQL has a few (sensible) limits:

• You can access the URL 10,000 times an hour; after that you will be blocked. It doesn’t matter in our case because the blocking occurs per user, and since we are using JavaScript, this affects our end users individually and not our website. If you use YQL on the back end, you should cache the results and also authenticate to the service via oAuth to be allowed more requests.
• The language allows you to retrieve information; insert, update and delete from data sets; and limit the amount of data you get back. You can get paginated data (0 to 20, 20 to 40 and so on), and you can sort and find unique entries. What you can’t do in the YQL syntax is more complex queries, like “Get me all data sets in which the third character in the title attribute is x,” or something like that. You could, however, write a JavaScript that does this kind of transformation before YQL returns the data..
• You can access all open data on the Web, but if a website chooses to block YQL using the robots.txt directive, you won’t be allowed to access it. The same applies to data sources that require authentication or are hosted behind a firewall.

There Is More To YQL

This article covers how to use YQL to access information. If you have an interesting data set and want it to become part of the YQL infrastructure, you can easily do that, too. We’ll cover that in the next article.

Documentation and Related Links

• YQL Guide
• Using YQL Statements
• YQL: The Two-Minute Tutorial
• Using YQL for Developers (PDF)
• Screencast: Introducing YQL
• YQL Code Examples

(al)(vf)

© Christian Heilmann for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: api, Coding, yql

We must say there were many llustrator tutorials throughout this year. In today’s post we have collected some of the best tutorials published this year to show you the different techniques that are available which will help you master all kinds of Illustrator tricks and techniques.

Some of you might already know a couple of these tutorials already, but perhaps going through them again will inspire you to experiment new ways of using those techniques to create something fresh and more original! So let the creativity begin!

Drawing

How To Trace a Sketch with a Vintage Comic Style
Check out how you can trace a sketch with a vintage comic style in this illustrator tutorial:

Create A Mouthwatering Chocolate Covered Strawberry
Here is an Illustrator tutorial that will teach you how to create a mouthwatering chocolate-covered strawberry:

How to Draw the Super-Villain Megamind in Illustrator
In this tutorial the artist creates a vector drawing of the super-villain Megamind:

Create a Painterly Apple with Illustrator CS5’s new Bristle Brush
The so-called ‘bristle brush’ in Illustrator CS5 gives you the best of both worlds: The painterly effects of real media and the control and flexibility of a vector drawing. Check it out:

Designing a Kitty in Illustrator
Learn how to design a cute kitty in Illustrator:

Create a Print Ready Business Card Design in Illustrator
Follow this walkthrough on how to create a fun business card design including an illustrated character:

How To Create A Very Scary But Cute Monster In Illustrator
This is a tutorial on how to draw a complex monster illustration:

Abstract Vector Artwork Illustrator Tutorial
In this tutorial the artist will teach you how to create vector artwork in Adobe Illustrator:

Design an Underwater Clown Fish Tutorial in Illustrator
In this tutorial the artist will show you how to create a beautiful clown fish illustration inside Adobe Illustrator CS4:

An Illustrator’s Project: From Start to Finish
In this tutorial, the artist will walk you through the steps of how to create an illustration art piece so that you can witness what goes behind a digital illustrator’s work, as well as gain some new insights for your own projects’ workflow:

Creating convincing characters
Here the artist demonstrates how to magic up appealing characters using a pencil, computer and plenty bags of imagination:

Create a Classic, Sailing Ship in Illustrator CS5
In this tutorial the artist will show how to create a sailing ship illustration with a story book style, using the Gradient Mesh to make the boat’s sails:

Effects

Create a Smooth Satin Background Using Blends
Check out how to create a smooth satin background using blends:

Creating Roads and Rail Tracks on a Path
In this tutorial, you will learn how to create roads and rail tracks on a Path:

Illustrator Tutorial on Creating an Ace Tennis Graphic
Check out this Illustrator tutorial on creating an ace tennis graphic:

Making a Millifiori Paperweight
Check out this Illustrator tutorial on creating a Millifiori Paperweight:

Swirling Rainbows: Illustrator Tutorial! (Video)
Learn how to create looping, swooshing, swirling rainbow graphics used in all kinds of graphics ranging from logos, and sketches, to grungy and retro illustrations:

Creating a Shield using Illustrator
This tutorial shows you how to create a shield design with Path Tools using Illustrator:

Create summery poster artwork using Illustrator CS5
In this tutorial, author guides you through some of Illustrator CS5’s biggest new tools:

Create an add to cart/basket/bag button
In this tutorial the artist will show how to create one of the most common buttons:

Illustrator Tutorial: Create quirky repeating patterns
Create quirky repeating patterns in this Illustrator tutorial:

Vectorize a Human Eye in Illustrator
In this video the vector the eye of a model is taken and is worked on in Illustrator, using some techniques that will be useful in not only vectoring eyes but tracing techniques that are used for full face and body vectoring as well as vexeling:

Master dynamic gradient techniques
In this tutorial, the artist shows you how to build up complex, beautiful images by patiently layering and building up small, straightforward segments, always varying them to prevent monotony:

Illusion of transparency – Vector rays
In this tutorial the artist will create cool rays with gradients without using ANY transparency settings, ideal for .eps files, which do not have a support for gradient-on-gradient transparency:

How to create a Bokeh vector background in Illustrator
In this tutorial the artist creates some cool bokeh effects; quick and easy by using simple gradients and blending modes:

Text Effects

Create An Editable Stitched Label Type Treatment
This tutorial relies heavily on the Appearance panel, making it easy to edit the text and apply the treatment to other fonts and vector elements:

Create a Graffiti in Inkscape
Learn how to create a graffiti in inkscape in this Illustrator tutorial:

Create a Furry Calligram in Illustrator
In this tutorial the artist walks you through creating your own calligram inspired by a dog named Poppy. You’ll learn how to manipulate a typeface through to rendering fur, adding doggy features, and various details:

Retro 3D Arcade Text Effect in Illustrator
In this tutorial the artist will make clever use of Illustrators built in 3D capabilities, gradients and opacity masks to design a Retro 3D Type Effect:

Designing a Typeface, With Illustrator and FontLab, from Start to Finish, Part 1
Check out this tutorial on designing a typeface using Illustrator and FontLab, from Start to Finish:

Create a Grimy Text Treatment with a Pen Tablet
In this tutorial the artist will show you how to create a grimy text treatment utilizing Illustrator’s Blog brush, Live Paint, and a pen tablet:

Create interlocking motifs in Illustrator
In this tutorial the artist demonstrates how to rough out and plan your artwork before transferring it into Illustrator (CS3 or later) using the most important feature for creating vector graphics — the Pen tool:

3D Text In Clouds Tutorial
In this tutorial we are going to create some 3D text:

Getting Carried Away with Balloon Lettering
In this tutorial the artist covers the process of creating some illustrative shiny balloon lettering. You will also learn how to create rounded, semi-transparent, bubble letters that will make up the basis of the balloon lettering:

Type Illustration Project: Experimental Digital Workflow
In this Adobe Illustrator tutorial, the artist will walk you through the process of creating an illustrated type artwork. The focus of this tutorial is to demonstrate how it is possible to draft, develop, and refine a whole piece all within a design program like Adobe Illustrator from start to finish:

Create a Polished Raised Type Treatment
This tutorial, using the Appearance panel, some gradients, and transforms, you can learn how to create a polished lifted type treatment:

How To Create a Gothic Blackletter Typographic Design
Follow this step-by-step guide to customizing your own gothic typographic design:

How to Create Candy Cane Typography with Photoshop and Illustrator
In this tutorial the artist creates a superb candy cane type design using Illustrator and Photoshop. Apply this effect to your own text and create cool and unique christmas cards:

Design, Textures, Patterns & Brushes

Create a Distressed Vector Typographic Poster Design
Follow this step by step walkthrough of a recent design process for the ‘Spectrum’ poster. We’ll start with a custom-made type in Illustrator:

Creating Seamless Textures
Illustrator is great for creating sharp clean graphics. Learn how to create Seamless Textures here:

Create Amazing Patterns using Adobe Illustrator
By going through this tutorial you will learn how to easily create cool looking shapes with the Pattern Brush in Illustrator:

How To Create a Repeating Camo Pattern in Illustrator
The artist is going to show you how the camo designs were created and how the pattern file was made so it would seamlessly repeat:

Create a Colorful Sliced Sphere to use as a Logo Design
This quick tip will give you an idea how you can easily create an appealing colored sphere which will make a great foundation for a successful logo:

How to create a torn wall paper effect in Illustrator
In this tutorial the artist will teach you how to create a torn wall paper based on a seamless pattern and simple distortion techniques:

How To Design a Print Ready Letterhead & Comp Slip
Follow this step-by-step process of creating professional print ready design files for your letterhead and compliment slips stationery designs:

Create Winter Festival Brushes in Illustrator CS
In this tutorial the artist shows you how to create a holly, ivy and a berry brush to create a Winter Festival wreath:

Cafe Style Coffee Art in Adobe Illustrator
In this Illustrator tutorial the artist explains step by step how he created the “Delicious Coffee” illustration which was published in “1000 Restaurant, bar & café graphics” by Rockport Publishing.

3D

Wrap a Ribbon Around a Sphere, Using 3D Revolve
In this quick tip, you’ll create a symbol, which you will then map to a 3D globe. The result looks like a ribbon wrapped around a hollow sphere:

Illustrator Tutorial on Making a Jack in the Box
Create the basic head shape using the Elliptical tool. Hold down the Shift key to constrain. Click on the picture to learn more:

Make a Delicious Sandwich with Easy 3D Illustration Techniques
In this tutorial, you will learn to make a delicious sandwich with easy 3D Illustrator techniques:

Vector Laptop
In this illustrator tutorial the artist shows you how to create a vector for a laptop in Adobe Illustrator:

Disco Lights in Illustrator
Here is a nice technique to make 3D Disco Ball or Lights in Adobe Illustrator. Some new commands and technique for you to try out:

Illustrator cs2 tutorial on 3d and Scribble
Check out this Illustrator tutorial on 3D and Scribble:

How to Create a Shiny Bucket Icon
Learn how to create a shiny bucket icon in this Illustrator tutorial:

Making 3D Charts
In this Illustrator tutorial the artist creates a 3D pie chart with transparency and highlights to make the graphic look like semi-opaque plastic:

How to Create a Three-dimensional Airplane with Adobe Illustrator
In this tutorial you will learn how to create a detailed three-dimensional image of an airplane based on two two-dimensional plans:

Realistic Dice in Illustrator
You can learn a lot from this tutorial — some commands, techniques and useful tools.

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