Become a Master Designer - Rule One: Limit your fonts

Ok, “master designer” might be a bit of a stretch – but you can at least become a “proficient designer” by following 7 easy principles. Take a look at some of these great simple rules to start with.

Before and After Photos

The Retouch Shoppe before and after photos. If you have photos that need retouching they can do this. I talk about retouched photos all the time and what gets touched up that you might never think about. Well take a look at these and see what they do to improve an image.

Great Designer Site

I ran across this designer and his site, I thought is was worth sharing, there is some realy nice work in it and the site itself is not to bad. It is always good to see what others are doing. You can visit Jesse Kaczmerek's site here.

Wacom's New Cintiq 12WX

Now you can experience all the advantages of direct pen-on-screen input in a low profile, lightweight design! At just 4.4 pounds, the new Cintiq 12WX combines the advantages of a wide-format LCD monitor with Wacom's patented, professional pen technology to give you the perfect companion for your Mac or PC. No more drawing on the tablet and looking at the computer screen. Now do both right on the tablet. Look at this wonderful new tool now.

Photoshop World 2008 Orlando

Student Scholarship

If you're a student addicted to Photoshop and you can't think of anything more fun than spending three days learning the latest techniques from the legends of digital graphics, have we got an opportunity for you. The Photoshop World scholarship program was created to give students a chance to learn breakthrough techniques and network with graphics professionals at Photoshop World. Take the challenge and become one of the lucky 25 students who get free admission to see all the wonders of Photoshop World. The value of the scholarship is $599, which includes a full one-year NAPP membership.

Teacher/Educator Scholarship
Dean Collins Photoshop World Educational Scholarship

This special educational scholarship is only open for nominations as part of the East Coast Photoshop World Conference.

Honoring the legacy of Photoshop educator Dean Collins—his gift for teaching, his passion for quality, and his lifetime of contributions to the Photoshop community—the Dean Collins Scholarship is awarded annually to one high school or college educator nominated by his or her students.

The scholarship provides round-trip airfare, hotel accommodations, and a full conference pass, which includes a one-year NAPP membership and a subscription to Photoshop User magazine.

The cut off date for nominations is Friday, February 29 2008.

You can download the nomination form, and get more details here.

My Toons Animation Community

All Animation Community. It's the place where people who really love animation - from seasoned industry pros to rabid animation fans - can upload and share their creations and animated favorites with the entire world for free. Check it out here.

Free Vector Pack 9 Sampler

Free Vector samples from Arsenal. Not only do they have some nice vector art work, but you can get some great ideas for grunge designs and many others.

Design Police

I saw this last week and then again with John Nack . As most designers know already and students will learn very soon. Every one is a Ding Dong Designer, or at least thinks so! I deal with people all the time that think that they have a Masters degree in Graphic Design. Well I found this great kit of stuff to help you out when dealing with these people. This is great stuff.

Some Great Photography

Here is some great photography that is very grabbing. I would love to know how he gets his colors so vivid? Some very nice stuff. Check it out here.

Adobe Photoshop Tutorials - The Best Of

Here is a site that has put together some of the Photoshop tutorials that they think are some of the best. There are a lot of very interesting Tutorials here, take a look.

Just Because It's Cool! Paint Jam

My good friend Johnny G showed this to me and I thought it was great and wanted to share this with every one. Check it out here!

MacWorld Starts this week

Even if you are not a Mac user you have to have heard some buzz for this weeks Mac World Conference in San Francisco. Apple CEO Steve Jobs will give his keynote presentation Tuesday morning January 15, while many people wait in great anticipation of what Apple is going to do this year.

For those that are interested in seeing what Steve Jobs has up Apple's sleeve tomorrow you can check it out here at these links.

Macworld
Mac Rumors

The keynote starts at 9:00 a.m. PST which means here in NY 12:00. Apple will post the recorded keynote later that day, and I will have a link to it tomorrow.

Adobe Photoshop Elements

Adobe has officially announced Photoshop Elements 6 for Macintosh. This new version is the Universal Binary version (native to both Intel and Power PC based Macs) that Mac users have been waiting for.

Infinite-Fire Web Design

They now have over 75(!) unique articles on all aspects of web design and this number is growing every day! Please look around the website and leave any comments if you have any tutorial requests. Check it out here.

40+ Excellent Freefonts For Professional Design

Fonts, Fonts and more Fonts. See if any of these fonts fit your needs.

For Better or For Worse

There are not to many places you can go with out hearing some one say "Just Photoshop it" or mention that, "that photo has been Photoshoped" Take a look at this strip from For Better or For Worse. I don't know how many times I hear people, "If you could only use Photoshop in real life to make me look younger?"

Beautiful Panoramas - New Years Night

Beautiful Panoramas - New Year Night Around The World 2008 . These are wonderful! Make Sure you click on a photo and then move around inside of it.

New Tutorials

Create A Spectacular Flaming Meteor Effect on Text. Very nice effect and looks great! Try it out here.

Happy New Year!

Looking to start the year in a more creative fashion? check out these sites for some creative inspiration.
Outside the Box Creativity Tips
Ten Steps for Boosting your Creativity
Essential Resources for Creativity