BlogmyQuery – BMQ

Almost a year ago, Adobe Photoshop CS5 was released and designers have not stopped raving about it since then. And why wouldn’t they? CS5 is filled with many powerful features that has made work easier for designers across the globe and the results we see speak for themselves.

Photoshop CS5 provides a good number of improved features such as 3D extrusions with Adobe Repoussé, Raw Image Processing , Puppet Warp, Smart Radius feature, Content-Aware Fill, etc. just to name a few! Check out today’s post to get a quick glance at the abilities of this new version of Photoshop with the help of some impressive tutorials.

Adobe Photoshop CS5: Top 5 Features
Check out the Top 5features of Adobe Photoshop CS5 according to the author:

Create a Vintage Art Poster Using Photoshop CS5
In this tutorial, you’ll discover some great Photoshop CS5 techniques to create a stylised poster from scratch using brushes:

Stylish Poster Mixed Design in Photoshop CS5
In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to combine layer masks with custom brushes and adjustment layers to create an eye-catching poster mixed with displacement effect, using simple but effective techniques in Adobe Photoshop CS5. Layered PSD file included:

Learn the Basics of Compositing in Photoshop CS5
Here you can learn how to take components of an image and merge them with another image in Photoshop:

Create a Scenic Castle Hallway in Photoshop
Here stock photography and some basic digital painting techniques have been combined to create a scenic castle hallway in Photoshop:

Photoshop CS5 Extended 3D Type with Repoussé
Repoussé allow us to create 3D objects extruding texts, selections, paths and layers masks. It’s a really powerful tool and here the author will share with you one of his first experiments with it:

Unsharp Mask and Smart Filters in Photoshop CS5
From this Photoshop tutorial, you will learn about the origins of the unsharp mask filter and how to use it & also look into Smart Filters in Photoshop and a few tips and tricks on how to maximize the application of these tools:

Adobe Photoshop CS5 content-aware fill and pupput warp
Get introduced to the new features of Photoshop CS5 content identification and control of deformation, tutorials, examples explained by the significant improvement in PS CS5 to identify and manipulate the contents of deformation of the application:

How to Create an Elegant Valentine’s Day Card with an Ornamental Heart in Photoshop CS5
In the following Quick Tip tutorial you will learn how to use Custom shapes, Layer styles, and Gradients in Photoshop CS5 to create an elegant Valentine’s Day card including an ornamental heart:

Create a Beautiful Abstract Female Photo Illustration
Here you can learn how to transform fashion photography into abstract female photo illustration using Adobe Photoshop CS5:

Create an Abstract Light Streaks Poster in Photoshop CS5
In this tutorial you will learn how to create an abstract light streaks poster from scratch using Lighting effects, Noise, and Wave Photoshop CS5 filters:

Photoshop CS5 Flame Logo Tutorial
An advanced tutorial creating a flame effect for your logo from scratch, using Photoshop CS5:

Smoothing Skin – Photoshop CS5
Learn tips on how to smoothen and retexturize skin with surface blur and by adding  noise filters in Photoshop cs5:

Photoshop CS5 – Digital Make Up – Tutorial
Learn how to do make up digitally in this Photoshop CS5 tutorial:

Blending Fashion Image with Photoshop CS5 Custom Shapes
In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to transform fashion photography into abstract illustration by mixing some custom shapes and applying different blending modes using Adobe Photoshop CS5:

Photoshop CS5 – Applying Realistic Tattoo – Tutorial
In this tutorial you will be learning how to add a realistic looking tattoo to your subject:

Refine Edge Tool – Remove Flyaway Hairs
A demonstration of how to remove flyaway hairs and other distractions using the refine edge tool in Photoshop CS5:

How to Create Retro-Style Photoshop Illustration
Here you will see how some textures for the background can be used by using brushes; stock photos are manipulated to give them a retro-style look, and color variations are made:

Fashion Retouching Projects—Fixing details and wrinkles
Learn how to retouching by fixing details and wrinkles:

Create a Cosmic Love Goddess with Photoshop CS5
In this tutorial the author will explain how to create a cosmic love goddess using some of Photoshop CS5′s new tools including the Refine Edge Feature which really helps to streamline the process of masking and removing objects from the background:

PseudoHDR Effect in Photoshop CS5
Here the lightening of overshadowed pictures will be covered. The new version offers a way which is better and more finely tunable than ever, which means you can put the old methods to rest:

Actions and Droplets in Photoshop CS5
This tutorial will give a quick overview of what Photoshop actions are and how to create and run an action and also look at creating droplets for increasing Photoshop batch automation of your images:

Adobe Photoshop CS5 Hair Masking
Improve your layer mask control to mask hair from complex backgrounds with the help of this tutorial:

New Techniques for Cutting Out Hair in Photoshop CS5
Here are a couple techniques you can use on images especially those those with varied background tones — the results can be seen with just a few mouse clicks. In this tutorial we will be replacing a dull background with a very cool sunset:

Content-Aware Healing in Photoshop
Check out content-aware healing similar to the CS5 feature:

Create Abstract Colorful Balls illustration in Photoshop CS5
You will learn how to create abstract colorful illustrations using simple tools and techniques like the Ellipse Tool, Brush Tool, Gradient Tool, Layer Style, etc.in Adobe Photoshop CS5:

Zoomify Images in Photoshop CS5
Would you like to present your photos in their full array and original resolution on your website? That’s what Zoomify is for—showing the photo as a freely zoomable thumbnail. With Photoshop CS5, you can create images like this:

Apply Lighting and Shining Effects to an Image in Adobe Photoshop CS5
In this tutorial, the author explains how to add lighting as well as shining effects to an image using Adobe Photoshop CS5 techniques:

How to Create an HDR Image in Adobe CS5
Here you learn how to create a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image and also how to merge and edit one using Adobe CS5′s full line up of fantastic photographic tools:

Film Strip Effect in Photoshop CS5
Here you can learn how to make a new custom shape in Photoshop CS5 that allows you to create a complete film strip in seconds:

How to Design an Abstract Christmas Illustration with Colorful Shapes and Glass Bubbles in Photoshop CS5
If you want to learn how to design an abstract Christmas illustration with colorful shapes and glass bubbles by using simple shapes and gradients in Adobe Photoshop CS5, then this tutorial is for you:

Quick Techniques to Create a Panorama in Photoshop CS5
In this tutorial you can learn about panoramas and the basics in level adjustments to adjust the images properly:

Photoshop CS5 HDR Processing
In this tutorial, the author will walk you through the creation of an HDR image from start to finish:

How to Create an Amazing Floral Illustration in Photoshop CS5
In this tutorial you can learn how to use brushes and Layer styles in Photoshop CS5 to create eye catching digital illustrations:

Advanced Painting with Pixel Bender
A tutorial on using the new Adobe Labs Pixel Bender plugin for Photoshop CS5:

Advanced Motion Blur Masking and Blending
This Adobe Photoshop CS5 tutorial will get you through the toughest motion blur with flying colors as well as some advanced blending tips and techniques:

Learn The Basics of Color Focus Editing in Photoshop CS5
In this Photoshop tutorial, the author will teach you the basics of ‘color focus editing’ or selective color, the post-processing technique where most of a photo is converted to black and white, but some parts are left in color to draw the viewer’s eye:

Content-Aware CS5′te Photoshop Healing Practice
Here you can learn how to create an exciting, elegant, yet simple text logo that will catch the attention of any visitor:

Human Aquarium Illustration Photoshop Tutorial
In this Photoshop tutorial we’ll be walking through the process of creating a human aquarium illustration using some awesome techniques:

Turn a Photo into Sketch using Photoshop CS5
This quick video will show you how to turn a photo into a sketch using two methods: the traditional photoshop method and the new Photoshop CS5 blend mode method:

Colorful Light Text Effect
In this tutorial, the author creates a nice bright colorful light text effect:

Photoshop CS5 New Features – Content-Aware Fill
Check more about Content-Aware Fill in this tutorial:

Photoshop CS5 New Features – Content-Aware Healing
The Spot Healing Brush may not be the only image retouching tool you’ll ever need, but its speed and performance make it perfect for cleaning up small problems before moving on to the larger, more time consuming ones:

Create a Dramatic and Surreal illustration in Photoshop CS5
In this tutorial, the artist teaches you how to blend fashion photography with custom brushes into dramatic and surreal illustration using Photoshop CS5 techniques:

Nice 3D Text Effect In Photoshop CS5
This tutorial will explain some basic 3D concepts in the Photoshop CS5 Extended environment, in order to create a nice 3D text. It aims to provide a step-by-step guide to creating a 3D scene:

Use Photoshop CS5 Extended to Create a Simple 3D Logo – Screencast
In this tutorial you will receive a brief introduction to the 3D workspace in Photoshop and receive some great tips on how to incorporate 3D into your Photoshop workflow:

How to Create a Stunning Photomontage in Adobe Photoshop CS5
Here we will learn how to use different tools and techniques to create a stunning photomontage using Adobe Photoshop CS5:

Moving 3D objects in space
Photoshop CS5 Extended makes it easy to quickly move 3D objects around. Check out more in this video tutorial:

Straighten and Crop Images in Photoshop CS5
In this Photoshop tutorial, we look at one of the smaller yet very welcome new features in Photoshop CS5 — the ability to both straighten and crop images with a single click! In previous versions of Photoshop, learning how to straighten a crooked image was a bit of a challenge:

Create a Dark and Surreal Poster
This well-explained and not simple photoshop tutorial will teach you how to create a dark and surreal poster, by using photo manipulation and some other techniques.

3D Water Text Effect Repouss
This creative photoshop tutorial shows how to create a stunning 3D water text effects from scratch.

Make a Warm Vintage Beach Ad
This beautiful and some-how vintage photoshop tutorial will teach you how to create a warm beach advertisment you may surely love.

Super Easy Typographic Portrait
From the following photoshop tutorial you will learn how to create a super easy typographic portrait in the shape of a person.

Create a Beautiful and Abstract Female Art
The current tutorial presents you how to create a very beautiful and abstract illustration of a female, just by using photoshop.

Create a HQ Tech Power Button
This photoshop tutorial will teach you to create a hi-tech style button that can be used in splash pages, applications or Powerpoint presentations. For creating the button, you’ll be using not only photoshop but illustrator as well.

Create a Medieval Fantasy Castle Gate
This elegant, delicate and some-how overhelming photoshop tutorial teaches you how to create a stunning-lighty, medieval(ancient) fantasy castle gates.

Beautiful Grunge Effect in Photoshop
This some-how strange and creative photoshop tutorial teaches how to create an awesome charachter-inspired grunge effect.

Create a Cosmic Sci-fi Poster
This retro/vintage photoshop tutorial teaches you how to create a cosmic sci-fi poster from scratch.

Create a Iconic Retro Modern Ball Chair
This quite popular but very elegant and beautiful photoshop tutorial presents you how to create an iconic shiny-retro modern ball chair.

Create an Abstract Light Streaks Poster
This tutorial shows how to create an abstract light illustration that streaks a custom poster and increases it’s beauty.

Create a Cosmic Love Goddess
From this photoshop tutorial you will learn how to create a cosmic love goddess illustration with some retro/vintage elements.

How to Make a Proffessional Buddy
This is also a popular tutorial that has been showcased much in the last months, however it could not be missed as the tutorial is very well constructed and provides great steps in order to create this “proffessional” buddy icon.

Make a 3D Pencil and Paper Icon
In this Adobe Photoshop icon creation tutorial, you will learn how to create a high-quality three-dimensional pen and paper icon from scratch.

Playing Inflate Repouss
This stunning and shiny-colorful photoshop tutorial teaches you how to create a playing inflate repouss text effect in the CS5 photoshop.

Create a 3D House in Photoshop
The current photoshop tutorial will teach you how to create a beautiful and elegant 3D house icon.

Create a Colorful Cake Illustration
This high-detailed and stunning tutorial teaches you how to create a kick-ass colorful cake illustration just with the Adobe Photoshop!

Create a Cute Twitter Bird in Photoshop
The current, well-explained photoshop tutorial will teach you how to create a shiny-blue, cute and well-designed twitter bird.

Create a Cosmic X-Box Using Custom Brushes
The following easy-to-do photoshop tutorial presents you how to create a cosmic x-box scene, by using only custom brushes and a stock image.

Create a Colorful Space Scene in Photoshop
From the current tutorial you will learn how to create a colorful space/cosmic scene with a rocket, planets and small elements as stars.

Create a Fantastic
In this tutorial, you are going to get creative with layering, lighting, and texture to build fantastic abstract piece. More specifically, you’re going to employ some unusual techniques to make a fan poster.

Super Easy Neon Style in Photoshop
This easy photoshop tutorial will teach you how to create a neon-style text effect on a textured background.

ShinyLock Icon Design in Photoshop
From this photoshop tutorial you will learn how to create a beautiful and elegant, shiny lock icon design.

Create a Beautiful 3D Text Composition
This complex photoshop tutorial is presenting you a method how to create a composition, with the main element as a 3 dymensional text.

Create a Stylish Grunge poster with 3D Typography
In this tutorial you will learn how to create a cool grunge poster in Photohop. You’re going to play in particular with blending modes to mix stock images and with some filters to create nice effects.

Design a Brilliant Product Ad
In this tutorial you will be modifying a logotype by adding a “milky” effect to it by getting as result a very beautiful and stunning product advertisment.

Create an Impactful Disco Party
This photoshop tutorial will show how to create an impactful disco party poster by using some nice photoshop techniques along with photo manipulation.

More Tutorials:

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We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one — desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. This creativity mission has been going on for almost two years now, and we are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month.

We continue to nourish you with a monthly spoon of inspiration for the next 12 months. This post features 40 free desktop wallpapers created by artists across the globe for February 2011. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free. It’s time to freshen up your wallpaper!

Please note that:

• All images can be clicked on and lead to the preview of the wallpaper,
• You can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our Desktop Wallpaper Calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?

(Update): you may want to take a look at February 2011 Windows 7 Themes as well.

For the Birds

"An old birdcage in the sky." Designed by Kristen Cook from USA.

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• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900

Madonna And Chihuahua

"Dog is the new Child." Designed by Olivia Osik from Estonia.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

Focus

"Focus. “Work it harder, make it better do it faster makes us stronger.” – Daft Punk." Designed by Angle Sharp Design from USA.

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• with calendar: 640×480, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 640×480, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Blue Clutter

Designed by Ron Gilad from Israel.

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• without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1440×1152, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Journey

"It’s still not too late to plan your 2011." Designed by Ssu-Hua Chen from Australia.

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• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Winter Shrub

"A hearty shrub peeks out from the snow on a serene winter day." Designed by Kate Hunsinger from USA.

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• with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 2560×1440

Pale February

Designed by Vinteum from Brazil.

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• with calendar: 1152×864, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
• without calendar: 1152×864, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080

Bunch of Snowdrops

Designed by Maja Petric from Serbia.

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• without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Valentine’s Day Sucks

"Take that, Valentine’s Day!" Designed by Jimmy Finazzo from USA.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Knsqnt Interactive

Designed by knsqnt interactive from Germany.

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• without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Awake

Designed by Romy Campos Menegazzi from Brazil.

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• with calendar: 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024
• without calendar: 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024

Join the Party!

Designed by Andrei Verner from Russia.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Stitches and Cloth

Designed by Jeroen Verplanke from the Netherlands.

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• with calendar: 1280×720, 1280×960, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
• without calendar: 1280×720, 1280×960, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080

Fairy Wood

"There is a strong fairy-tale feeling in a winter forest." Designed by cheloveche.ru from Russia.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Usher in the Year of the Rabbit

"February is here and along with February the Chinese will celebrate Chinese New Year. With this being said the Chinese will usher in the year of the Rabbit by first telling the Tiger to leave, they will then lure the fabled long eared beast with an appetizing, delectable, exquisite, luscious, palatable, savory, scrumptious and well-prepared, fresh out of the ground wholesome carrot. YUM SENG!!" Designed by siewhui from Singapore.

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• with calendar: 1280×800, 1680×1050, 1920×1440
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1680×1050, 1920×1440

Bundle Up

Designed by Kristin G Jackson from USA.

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• with calendar: 320×480, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Too Long

"February, because sometimes, months are just too long." Designed by Ben Garratt from England.

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• with calendar: 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Month of Love

"Single day (14th) of a month for love is too little, so celebrate the full February as a Month of Love." Designed by Rana Majumder from India.

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• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×1024

No Beer This Year

"My Near resolution “No beer this year” and my calendar theme too:)." Designed by Ravi Solanki from India.

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• with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080

The Real Super-hero

"Hanuman is a Hindu deity, who is an ardent devotee of Rama, a central character in the Indian epic Ramayana.A general among the vanaras, an ape-like race of forest-dwellers, Hanuman is an incarnation of the divine, whose fate itis to aid the hero Rama in the struggle against the demon king Ravana.Known also as Anjaneya, Maruti, Pavanputra, Anjaniputra, Bajrang Bali and Hanumat, Hanuman’s exploits are much celebrated in a variety ofreligious and cultural traditions, particularly in Hinduism, so much so that he is often the subject of worship according to some bhaktitraditions.Jai Haniman :)." Designed by Rsmehra from The Republic of India.

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• with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Masks

"Mistic Tribal Masks temporary exposition in Turin. They really remind to an alien atmosphere." Designed by Ester Liquori from Italy.

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• with calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×720, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200
• without calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×720, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200

Swan Love

Designed by Francisco Jesús García Linares from Spain.

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• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

All Is Full Of Love

"More at. All is full of love is a project about the lifes of 200 calendars." Designed by graphic design studio Punkt from Bulgaria.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Chinese New Year

"This is a Chinese New Year month, wishing you a Happy Chinese New Year. May you & your family enjoy Prosperity & Good Health in 2011!" Designed by CK.ew from Singapore.

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• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080

Fuzzy Feeling (see Large View)

"We all have the fondest dreams that give us this warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Even if they seem too incredible to come true, always cherish them, as they keep us alive. Happy February everybody!" Designed by Lina Itskovitch from USA.

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• with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Winter’s Hope

"Februar is usually the coldest month – but spring is already lingering behind the lone tree:-)." Designed by Stefan M. Schmidt from Germany.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Indian Valentines Day

"An Indian Valentines Day Decorative Typography." Designed by Atma Creative Team from India.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Doodles

"Who says doodles isn’t art? What someone draws unconsciously can oftentimes be the most significant visualization of their stream of thought. Also, it’s therapeutic to doodle. And fun!" Designed by Jen Cheng from Canada.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 2560×1440

Love in the Air

Designed by Mohd. Aaqib from India.

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• with calendar: 1200×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1200×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Return

"I want to “return” to one of the greatest places at my last holiday. Photo by S.Bruett." Designed by Toni Polkowski (FKSD) from Germany.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

February Fever

Designed by Becca Foster from USA.

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• with calendar: 320×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Love Compose

Designed by Kayro C from China.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Broken Love

"A Valentines Day themed wallpaper, inspired by the love that must fight to exist." Designed by Celsiuspictor from Spain.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200

Sci-Fi

Designed by Darkink from South Africa.

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• with calendar: 1280×800, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Love Splash

"Happy Valentine’s Day to you all." Designed by Motion Art-ist from Turkey.

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• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Let’s Cook

"Delicious February!" Designed by Anca Varsandan from Germany.

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• with calendar: 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1200, 1680×1080, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1200, 1680×1080, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Feel Flows

Designed by Peter Geiger from USA.

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• with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 2560×1440

Prehistoric Love

Designed by Kevin Fischer from USA.

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• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900

Blot

"We want colors on our screen, if the world outside is still grey and cold." Designed by Lotum from Germany.

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• with calendar: 320×480, 640×960, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 640×960, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Blue Light (see Large View)

"Clean, crisp and textured wallpaper with a hint of blue." Designed by Atle Mo from Norway.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Alma Climber

"Like the winter in february (Northern Hemisphere), the climber is reaching the mountain top and both soon will start to slowly go down for the beginning of spring in march." Designed by Pablo Prudêncio from Brazil.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Winter/Summer

"Made a simple wallpaper that shows a cold/warm contrast on both hemispheres." Designed by Marco Palma from Italy/Germany.

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• with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1366×768, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Join in next month!

Please note that we respect and carefully consider the ideas and motivation behind each and every artist’s work. This is why we give all artists the full freedom to explore their creativity and express emotions and experience throughout their works. This is also why the themes of the wallpapers weren’t anyhow influenced by us, but rather designed from scratch by the artists themselves.

A big thank you to all designers for their participation. Join in next month!

What’s your favorite?

What’s your favorite theme or wallpaper for this month? Please let us know in the comment section below.

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© Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2011. | Permalink | Post a comment | Smashing Shop | Smashing Network | About Us
Post tags: Wallpapers

The Web is a galaxy of information that is rapidly expanding. Blogs and online magazines are helping shape the future of this Information Age that we live in. Those of us who read, write and design blogs and online magazines possess extraordinary power and potential. How will we choose to use it?

If you use your website to publish news, events, opinions or interviews, you should familiarize yourself with the basics of journalism. These tools can help us develop and share information that is exciting, intelligent, and responsible. They can provide guidance and support as you pursue a career or hobby writing online.

This article is accompanied by examples of photojournalism, which is the practice of communicating news through photographs. The above photo of a 1940′s newsstand in New York City was taken by photojournalist Ruth Orkin

We, designers, go on all day about the usability of our WordPress layouts and the readability of our typography, but all of those things have been considered in vain if our writing is poorly spelled, riddled with inaccuracies, or based on second-hand assumptions that will leave our audience misled, confused, or worse. Even if you’re just casually writing about why you personally love/hate the iPad (for example), you can do so in a truthful way (truthful to your own opinions and truthful to the information you are discussing).

Whether or not you strive to produce writing that you consider journalism is not all that important. What is important is that no matter what writing genre you specialize in, you have a responsibility to your readers to publish high quality writing that is truthful, accurate, and readable. Oh, and this applies to your professional Twitter stream and Facebook updates, too. All of these elements have a reflection on you and your brand.

Trained professional journalists spend years studying the complex techniques and thorny philosophical values that define the trade of journalism, so don’t expect to receive a Master’s degree from Columbia by the end of this article. What this piece can serve as is a crash course designed to introduce concepts that will improve your writing, pique your interest, and instill a sense of respect for the fundamentals of a noble profession.

What is Journalism?

The most familiar function of journalism is ‘hard news’ reporting you’ll see on the front page of the New York Times or the Washington Post. But journalistic writing also extends to editorial writing, cultural reviews, interviews, and more.

According to The Elements of Journalism (written by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel), “Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth.� Journalism is the pursuit of truth, accuracy and fairness in the telling of a story. Journalists serve and inform their audience by investigating and reporting on news, trends, issues, and events. Much like designers, journalists pride themselves on a duty provide their audience with useful, high-quality content.

What’s the difference between Journalism and Blogging?

CNN.com delivers journalism. Your cousin’s homemade Twilight fan fiction site, on the other hand, is a blog. However, somewhere in between lies a hotly debated grey area.

So can blogs be journalism? According to NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen, “They can be, sometimes.�  How can you tell the difference? Depends on who you ask. Rosen himself is both journalist and blogger (he runs PressThink, a weblog about journalism and the press). In his essay ‘Bloggers vs. Journalists is Over’, Rosen decides that the sometimes indiscernible difference between these two forms of writing is less important than the implications of massive shifts of power in the media. Rosen acknowledges what Tom Curley (Chief Executive of the Associated Press) called “a huge shift in the ‘balance of power’ in our world, from the content providers to the content consumers.� What does that mean for those of us in a position to take advantage of our newfound power?

It means we should move forward with a spirit of responsibility and immense excitement. We live in a revolutionary time when just about anyone with access to a computer can make his or her writing available to an enormous international audience with the click of a button. As Web designers and online writers who are experienced with the Web, the potential of our medium is tremendous.

Journalistic Tools for Bloggers

This photo comes from a series chronicling Paris street dancers practicing dance styles including breakdancing and capoeira. This photo, by Denis Darcazq, was acknowledged by photojournalism foundation World Press Photo in 2007

Write Compelling Leads

A ‘lead’ is the first sentence of an article. The lead is your first and best chance to compel the reader to stick around and read more. A sentence that is humorous, provocative, or curious can be extremely engaging.

To learn more about captiving leads, you can’t beat the literary titans of fiction. One classic first sentence comes from Franz Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis: “Gregor Samsa woke from uneasy dreams one morning to find himself changed into a giant bug.” Who wouldn’t want to know what happens next?

Use the Active Voice

The active voice is much more compelling than the passive voice.  To say ‘I am designing the website’ is a clearer and more powerful statement than ‘the website is being designed by me.’ According to The Elements of Style, “The habitual use of the active voice… makes for forcible writing. This is true not only in narrative concerned principally with action but in writing of any kind.�

Twins are held up to watch Princess Margaret pass by in London on Armistice Day, 1951. Photo by Ruth Orkin

Write in Positive Terms

Describe things in terms of what they are instead of what they aren’t. Instead of saying that a painter ‘doesn’t use a lot of color,’ say that she ‘uses a limited palette.’

Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar

It should go without saying, but it doesn’t: proper spelling and grammar are necessary if you want to be taken seriously. Writing that is descriptive, informative, and properly written speaks volumes about credibility and professionalism. It can be a baffling experience to visit a popular design blog and read a post that’s riddled with spelling errors and awkward, incomplete sentences.

Spell-check your documents, have a friend proofread them, and take the time to do it right. It’s understandable that bloggers who write in their second language might have some inaccuracies, but over time, those inaccuracies can degrade the quality of a brand.

For an invaluable resource on the subject, pick up The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. The tips and tools you read in that book will reverberate inside your head for the rest of your writing career.

Verification

Journalism’s “essence is a discipline of verification� (The Elements of Journalism). “Rather than publishing another news outlet’s scoop, journalists have tended to require one of their reporters to call a source to confirm it first.�

Let’s say you’re writing about breaking technology news that you read about on another blogger’s site. Unless they’ve shared their sources, you probably don’t know where that blogger received their information (and it was likely to have been copied and pasted from yet another blog). If you want to make a commitment to accuracy, you can always take the extra two minutes to pick up the phone or write an email to the company releasing the product. Ask them to verify your facts, because otherwise you can’t be sure that they’re facts at all.

The Web can be a scandalous and salacious place. False rumors of a celebrity’s death will occasionally spread like wildfire on Twitter. These kinds of events can be distasteful and even disturbing. Now that we’re all casual news reporters through social media, it’s important to verify the things we hear before passing them along. Obviously, independent bloggers don’t have the same obligations that a newspaper reporter has, but it’s beneficial to stay aware of these issues.

Hikers walk along the wildly-colored Danxia Landform at a geopark in Zhangye, China. This photo is one of Life.com’s Photos of the Year for 2009. Photo by Han Chuanhao/Xinhua/Landov

Originality

Do your own work. Be unique. Generate fresh concepts that will engage your readers. Try not to imitate the work of others more than is necessary and never steal or plagiarize. Need images, ideas, or reference for your next project? Try the library instead of Google Images and Wikipedia (an especially perilous resource due to the questionable quality of much of its contents). You’ll be helping to make the Internet a richer and more diverse place instead of recycling or regurgitating. Sharing your reputable information sources will add credibility to your work.

Interviews

The interview is a popular feature on design blogs. Interviewing is an art of its own, and when it’s done right, it can be very fun and it can yield surprising results (who doesn’t love a valuable business insight or a shocking revelation?).

“A reporter who begins an interview without the proper preparation is like a student taking a final exam without studying� (News Reporting and Writing, The Missouri Group). Before your conversation with John Q. Celebrity, you need to do thorough research and you need to write good questions. Read everything you can find about your subject and his career. When he can’t recall the title of the sculpture he made in 1997 and you remind him that it was called ‘Pretentious Masterpiece,’ it shows that you’re on the ball.

Write questions that will inspire unique answers. If you waste the entire interview asking banal questions that are easily available to the public (i.e. “Where did you go to college?�), you’re liable to walk away with an interview that’s going to put your audience to sleep. Worse yet, if your interview subject is someone who is interviewed several times a week, he or she might be irritated by the basic questions and the evidence that you didn’t do much research. Now you face the possibility of your interview subject growing cold, responding with disinterested answers, or cutting the interview short.

Once you’ve done great research and written compelling questions, you can relax and enter the interview with an inquisitive spirit. Buy a mini tape recorder and make sure you never begin an interview with dull batteries in it. Don’t be afraid to deviate from your well-researched questions if a more urgent question arises in your mind. Remember that you’re having a conversation with another human being — not just an article subject — and they want to engage with you. When the piece is completed and transcribed, the tone of your discussion will spring forth from your printed words.

Direct Quotations

Whether you’re transcribing your recorded interview or quoting an article, it is of utmost importance that every quote you write is entirely accurate. Changing a single word can change the entire meaning of a statement. In some situations, these kinds of mistakes can lead to anger, charges of libel, and even lawsuits.

A while back, a well-known Web designer expressed his displeasure over Twitter when someone re-tweeted one of his tweets, but changed part of his statement from “it’s disappointing� to “it’s pathetic.� The person on the other end of that exchange had altered the entire tone of that original tweet with the change of just one word. Pathetic is a much more severe word than disappointing, and the Web designer was irritated.

When you are writing a direct quote, make sure it is written verbatim. Verbatim means ‘in exactly the same words that were used originally.’ Punctuation can change the meaning of a statement, too.

This Pulitzer Prize-winning photo portrays aging baseball great Babe Ruth receiving thunderous applause at Yankee Stadium in 1948. An image like this is a good example of why journalism legend Dan Rather once wrote, “It’s disheartening for anyone in my line of work to be reminded that sometimes one picture is, indeed, worth ten thousand words.â€�

Ethical Writing

In journalism, the philosophical and ethical boundaries of reporting are matters of great importance and pride.

So what does ethical writing mean for bloggers? Well, if you’re writing a simple ‘how to’ tutorial, ethics might not be involved at all. But what if your tutorial passively encourages readers to use a product that’s manufactured by a company whose business practices are disreputable or inhumane? Sometimes there are ethical implications where we least expect them.

Ethics are a matter of personal opinion. These matters are complex and open to interpretation. But few things are more important to you and your brand than your standards and principles.

Is it ethical to write paid ‘sponsored’ blog posts where you’re paid to write and publish a review of a product? It’s one thing to feature advertisements like Google AdWords in your sidebar, but when advertising merges with your content in the form of an entire post that you were paid to write, that’s a different story. Some sponsorship programs don’t ‘force’ bloggers to write favorable reviews, but oddly enough, you’ll be hard pressed to find a sponsored blog post that is harshly critical of its subject. That’s because if you’re being paid, you’re biased. That’s the bottom line.

Make your money from your ideas, designs, and creativity — not sponsored blog posts. No one wants to see a glorified advertisement tucked in amongst your real content. Besides, sponsored blog posts just look tacky.

In Conclusion

Bloggers, journalists, and designers can all work together to make the future of the Web an intelligent, enjoyable, and responsible place. This post has merely scratched the surface of what the study of journalism has to offer you, so don’t let your path of learning end here.

This new digital era has sent the practice of journalism into troubled waters. Those of us who have benefited from the shift of power from content consumers to content providers find ourselves in a unique position. We now have the opportunity to help foster the welfare of that great, guiding principle: the truth.

Your average blog or independent online publication is not beholden to the corporate or governmental interests that the subsidiaries of major media conglomerates (like Viacom or Disney) might be influenced by. For that reason, some of us may find ourselves in the position to publish truths that would otherwise go ignored. Of course, we’re often likely to adapt our viewpoints from those of corporate media publications — this happens every time you retweet a New York Times article or quote a CNN report in your blog post.

Hopefully, those viewpoints are usually honest and truthful. However, if we maintain a commitment to accuracy while doing some original thinking, writing, and reporting, we may be able to make valuable, independent contributions to the legacy of the truth that lies at the heart of journalism — and at the heart of our shared societal and cultural integrity.

© Dan Redding for Smashing Magazine, 2011. | Permalink | Post a comment | Smashing Shop | Smashing Network | About Us
Post tags: business

Mobiles have become a necessity in our lives and are being used worldwide. Today’s phone set has the capability to browse the web, listen to songs, watch videos or even download any required information. This is the main reason why many companies have considered rebuilding their sites to make them mobile compatible.

With the introduction of iPhone there has been a massive demand of mobile web services. Today we present to you 25 tutorials and articles to help you understand and develop sites for achieving mobile presence on websites:

How to Create a Mobile Site
This article shows you the way of creating a mobile site that is good for old cellphones and stunning for iPhones:

How to Make Your Portfolio iPhone-Compatible
A tutorial focusing mainly on making portfoilio sites mobile friendly so that visitors can enjoy artwork even on their cells:

Tutorial: Optimizing Your Website for Mobile Devices
Here you can learn how to make your own site mobile friendly:

How To: Designing A Mobile Website
In order to design a simple, effective and attractive mobile website, there are a few ingredients that we need to add into the mix. This article should satisfy all of your basic needs for a mobile platform on your site:

Coding for the Mobile Web
Here you can find out firsthand how the author has taught to develop web sites so that they will provide an acceptable user experience on mobile devices:

How to Create a Mobile Site with MoFuse
MoFuse is a service that lets you convert basically any site with a RSS feed, to a mobile site hosted by it. This is a great option if you don’t feel comfortable hosting your mobile site yourself:

A Simple Mobile Site with CodeIgniter
In this short tutorial you can learn how to get started with the development of a simple site to display mobiForge’s RSS feed on a generic mobile device:

Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly in Two Minutes
This tutorial shows four easy steps on how to make a website mobile-friendly without touching the pages’ coding:

Build a Mobile and Desktop-Friendly Application in Django in 15 Minutes
This article quickly walks you through the process of setting up an absolutely minimal mobile as well as desktop-friendly web application using the Django framework:

How To Build A Mobile Website
The vast number of mobile devices makes thorough testing a practical impossibility — how to check it and accomplish the task has been discussed in detail in this article:

Effective Design for Multiple Screen Sizes
Designers, who work with mobile devices, face a common problem: figuring out what screen size to actually design for. This tutorial helps us find an answer:

Creating Mobile Web Sites with Google App Engine
Get some tips, and some of the common bugs you might run into while creating a mobile site with Google App Engine:

BiscuitML Reference
Netbiscuits provides user interface units for web display on mobile devices. You can achieve automatic re-formatting of your application for optimal display on any device:

Designing for the Mobile Web
In this article you will be introduced to seven fundamental steps that, if followed, will help you avoid the pitfalls that have caused many other mobile sites to fail. By the end of this article you’ll know exactly where to focus your efforts in order to build a successful mobile site:

Mobile Web Design – Working with Color
This article discusses the role of color in mobile web design. Color used effectively allows for visually communicating information about a page without having to take up additional space within the page:

Learn How To Develop For The iPhone
Here you can see how you can build an alternate page and style sheet for the iPhone and iTouch:

Create a Slick iPhone/Mobile Interface from any RSS Feed
Here you can learn how to create a web page that is formatted specifically for the iPhone (but would presumably be good for other mobile devices as well):

Designing a Mobile Stylesheet for your Website
This article explains what you need to consider when creating your mobile site design:

How To Make Your Site Compatible For Cell Phones
Check out the four simple steps that will help you to make your site compatible for cell phones:

How to make your website mobile compatible
Go through this in-depth article for geting a complete knowledge of making your site mobile compatible:

Making your WordPress blog Android and iPhone friendly
This article is intended for those who already have a web or WordPress background. If you don’t quite understand how to put together your own templates, this might not be for you:

10 Tips for New iPhone Developers
Here you can find a wide variety of tips on usability guidelines, testing/debugging, pitfalls and performance issues:

Basics Behind Building Web Pages for the iPhone
This article talks about the basics of designing sites for smartphones like the iPhone:

Create or Convert your site or blog into Mobile Phone Compatible Website
Here are a few tools that will make this creation or conversion easier than expected:

HOW TO: Make Your Mobile Websites Act More Like Native Apps
Check out how to make your mobile websites act more like a native app:

How to make your website mobile compatible
All you need to know about mobile compatible websites:

(ik)

We’re going to try something a little different for our next brush set. We want you to get involved & send us your textures. We’ve thought of a very simple and quick way for you to send them to us & we’ll give you full credit if we use them.

How to Send us your textures

Upload your Photos using wetransfer.net and put brushes@wefunction.com as the recipient. I’ll then look though the submissions and start putting together Part 3 of our Subtle Brush Sets.

What we need

We’re looking for original textures, photographed by you. The kind of things we are after include: Natural Paper, Cardboard, Wood, Concrete, Fabric or any sort of organic surface with an interesting pattern or combination of textures within.

I think the main thing I’d like you to send me is Natural Paper textures. I’ve found these to be quite popular textures, and the ones that I have trouble finding and photographing.

Size & Quality of Images

You don’t need to worry about size or quality, I tend to optimize them for the web, and I’ll tweak the crap out of them to make them look subtle, so don’t stress about levels or contrast. Anything you can send will do, I’ll make sure they work. Anything from iPhone snaps to high-quality photos will be considered.

Why are we doing this?

Our brush sets have been downloaded thousands of times by designers all over the world, all I’m asking is for you to return the favour and help us put together a really interesting set of brushes. Also because @TrentWalton is a swine! It’s pretty much his fault I’ve kicked this into life.