Art for Japan: Wallpapers and Poster downloads

After the devastating earthquakes and enormous tsunamis that shook Japan, the whole art world stands with the country which has been a cultural inspiration  for millions around the globe. These are very few among the many, but being more thoughtful and artful found a place in the list. Even while the after tremors have disrupted the life of the people who have suffered the most, let these be an inspiration to the suffering and a motivation for the rest of us in extending our helping hands.

For you Japan....

50+ Beautiful Arabic Typography Designs

Haven't you been narrow minded to believe typography is a business of the western world and you are the sole person taking care of the field. So was mine until these pictures and posters caught my attention. Calligraphy and typography is not so well developed in any other language and I think there is no other language where it could be well applied. The beauty of these Arabic letters is mind blowing and the designs are well manipulated that even if you dont understand the language its sure to catch your glimpse. The artistry and creativity threaded in the Arabic letters is being unleashed in this post.

14 Mesmerising Calendar Artworks

Before starting on the discussion, let me wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year. 2011 is near and so is the designing business for special calendars. Introducing before you are a variety of innovative concepts and exquisite designs that is sure to make you catch your breaths. So enjoy the Christmas-New Year feast.


1. Pantone Calendar

25 Christmas Special Design Resources

Its Christmas time and holiday season again. So why not change your rusty wallpapers and have some fun designing one of your own. Let that be a card, a signature, a poster or anything as you please. What I would provide is a bit of inspiration and many a backgrounds to act as your work canvas.

1. Light Trail Xmas tree

2. Christmas stick Wallpaper download

Short guide on Color mode selection

 

You might have across the RGB, CMYK mode and wondered what these are used for. I did not have any knowledge regarding these until one of the posters I designed was sent back citing the mode was wrong. And thus I decided to learn the valuable lesson about various modes of designing in Photoshop. Making it as simple as possible and condensing everything into a few lines, here is how you use it. (You can select the mode in the menu from Image>Mode).

RGB

Red, Green, Blue mode is used primarily for digital photos and those designated for computer screens like webpage graphics. Inkjet printers also use the same.

CMYK

So this is the one to select if you are doing the work for print purpose. All offset printing use this mode and so is for high-end inkjet printers.

Grayscale

This is the usual Black and white which can be used for both purposes mentioned above- printing and web-based images.

Indexed Color

This mode limits your color selection to 256 or a Color table. This is used for web-based images where the size of the image needs to be limited by saving it as GIF or PNG8 especially in case of buttons and banners.

Lab Color

Lab mode is used only when you need to use some filters like Sharpen filters (which will of course be prompted). We have to change the mode back to RGB or CMYK before saving the work.

Duotone

Meaning two color tones used throughout your image, it is used solely for commercial printing purposes, but not on inkjets.

Bitmap

Bitmap is simply Black and white and the difference is there are no gray tones in between as in grayscale. You can use it anywhere, but the image always looks so.

Multichannel

It is similar to duotone where premixed colors are used. It is used for commercial printing purposes and mainly for logo designing. 

But always remember that changing from one color mode to another reduces the quality of your image and hence need to be done beforehand. Moreover, converting back to your original mode does not retain the original quality.

Exhaustive collection of Free Business Card PSD Template Downloads

This is one of the easiest thing in designing. But you can make it more complicated as your creative ideas grow. But it becomes too easier when you have the whole template with you. Just download these templates and you have your personal business card with you. Leave the contemporary styles and do the new and be the new. So without much talk, moving on to the designs.

Stylish Business Design
Layout Dimensions: 2.25×3.75 inches
Business Card Dimensions: 2×3.5 inches
Resolution: 300dpi

Seextwood Business card Template
3.5×2.5, 300Dpi, CMYK

Excellent Signatures and tutorial for creating them

Graphics on a smaller scale is graphic signatures. Hence it can be attempted by beginners as well as experts in the fields. How about giving a list of the signatures that I found wonderful from among the millions. And if you want to learn more about them, follow the links or this forum: Layeredgfx

Abstract Signature
Learn how to create a detailed signature using several filters and effects.


Abstract Walkthrough