Gives a lot of tutorials on how to do basic to more complex Illustrator projects. Has a few different posters.
Has some tutorials on 3D and glossy Illustator effects. They also link to other resources for web designers
Has a lot of tutorials on different topics. Also has a very annoying ad on the website
Has a good variety of different tutorial topics. Very good quality as well.
Has a lot of basic Illustrator tutorials. Many different topics are covered as well
As an artist why is copyright important?
Copyrights are important for a lot of reasons patents are important. In theory, they give incentive to be creative/inventive. This is seen a lot with artwork and also patents. With seeing so many ideas of different people, it gives great inspiration to artists. Copyright also gives the author due credit. This is only fair, the same as a song writer would be given credit for his work. Often times an artists uses his work to support himself or his family. Stealing that work would not be benefitial to society. Copyright doesn’t have to be bad for people that want to use the work. Copyright serves the purpose to protect the creator’s work and ideas. With licenses such as Creative Commons, work can be shared with everyone.
Exerpt from Creative Commons information page: “How Does Creative Commons Work?
Creative Commons provides free, easy-to-use legal tools that
give everyone from individual “user generated content” creators
to major companies and institutions a simple, standardized way to
pre-clear usage rights to creative work they own the copyright to.
CC licenses let people easily change their copyright terms from
the default of “all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved.”
When I find myself in a creative slum, I do a couple of things. What I do a lot is doodle. When I doodle about what I am working on, more ideas come to me. Even if the doodles are not related to my current project, it serves as a nice boost and break as well. Another thing I do is think about how someone else I know would approach the problem. This helps a lot as well as expands my own mindset for future projects.
I learned about the Gestalt principles of perception. I learned that these are fundamental principles for any web designer. Using these powerful principles, the creative individual can make an impressive design.
Here are the definitions:
Figure Ground Relationship
Elements are perceived as either figures (distinct elements of focus) or ground (the background or landscape on which the figures rest).
Law of Prägnanz
Humans tend to interpret ambiguous or complex images as simple and complete.
Uniform Connectedness
Elements that share uniform visual characteristics are perceived as being more related than elements with disparate visual characteristics.
Good Continuation
Elements arranged on a line or curve are perceived to be more related than elements not on the line or curve.
Closure
When looking at a complex arrangement of individual elements, humans tend to first look for a single, recognizable pattern.
Common Fate
Humans tend to perceive elements moving in the same direction as being more related than elements that are stationary or that move in different directions.
Proximity
Things that are close to one another are perceived to be more related than things that are spaced farther apart.
Similarity
Things that are similar are perceived to be more related than things that are dissimilar.
Ground relationships are most important. This serves as a foundation for a web designer’s work.
Have you used WordPress before or some other similar content management system (Drupal, Movable Type, Joomla or something else)? If so, tell us about your experience.
I have used WordPress and Movable Type, but mostly just testing out when installing it on a server. I have also built my own CMS, using the Python web framework Django. What is so nice about Django is it is entirely in Python, and not ugly PHP. Using Django to make a CMS is extremely easy as well as flexible. Using templates to control the design of the website is extremely powerful and modular. It is entirely possible to not repeat code using the template system correct. Using this template system, the front end designer and the back end programmers job are completly seperated from each other. There is no need to learn Python if you are designing a front end for a website using Django. Another benefit of making your own CMS or blog, especially with Django, is that you control everything. There is no bloat that you will not need, as in WordPress or Drupal. Designing and implementing a CMS, blog, or anything else from a lower level allows the designer to learn much more about the inner workings of computer design.
