Design tip bits

All designers know Helvetica and when to use it, then came the knock-off computer font Arial along with the pc- do it yourself "designer" and Arial appears on every word document and flyer. Can you see the difference? Test yourself at: http://iliveonyourvisits.com/helvetica/ Want to know more about Helvetica and Arial then go to: http://www.ms-studio.com/articles.html And then of course you can read about the Helvetica film: http://www.helveticafilm.com/ Then try the ultimate typeface game, (but not on the bosses time) http://fontgame.ilovetypography.com/ Now get back to work ; D

Here are some handy key command shortcuts in Illustrator. Changing the colour mode of swatches Want to change the colour mode of your swatch? Click twice on the swatch in the swatch palet to open up the swatch options or via the flyout menu swatch options. Press the shift key and click in the colour of the swatch palet (under the word colour mode) and with each click illustrator will show you the swatch values in different modes and change the swatch to the chosen mode. It also works for pantone colours although I would not use this method for print, best is to refer to the pantone swatch books. Want change the swatch to the complimentary color. Use the method above but this time hold down the command key To invert the swatch open the swatch options palet and click in the colour or the swatch while holding down the Command and Shift keys Changing the colour of objects If you want to invert the colour, change it to it's greyscale equivalent or the complmentary colour of an objec...

Finally a post. It has been quiet from this side of the pond at least blog-wise on the home front it has been quite noisy. The kids have had two weeks vacation and then it was catch-up time. But hope you enjoy the following tip. Photoshop is a perfect program to experiment in. Sometimes applied effects give the perfect result, but we can't always recall exactly how we did that? You could of coarse write down the whole process, or better yet let Photoshop do it for you. Photoshop can keep track of every action made. You, however must activate this option yourself by going to Photoshop-Preferences-General and activate the option History log. Then choose either Metadata, Text file or both. With Text file the actions can be read in a (printable) TextEdit file. The Metadata information can be found by going to File- File info…- History. There you can see every action applied and it's completely digital. Edit Log Items choose detailed to get a detailed description of what you did. T...

Here's a fun website about logos and also shows how some changed over the years. I like the Apple and Nokia. And of coarse the real story behind the Nike swoosh. Did she really only get 25 bucks? Find out here. worlds best logos

On the web there are several sites where you can download logo's one of them is http://www.brandsoftheworld.com Here's a great site where designers place their logo's and ask for comments from collegues. http://www.logopond.com/gallery/

Want to change a fill or stroke to none. 1. Indicate whether you want to change the fill or stroke in the tool menu You can toggle between the fill and stroke by pressing the x key 2. Select the object and press the / key. Applying the same fill and stroke You can apply the same fill and stroke to an object without it being selected. 1.Select the eyedropper tool 2. Click in the object that has the colour and stroke that you wish to apply to other object(s) 3. Hold down the option key and click in the (unselected) objects. If the object you want to change has no fill, then you will have to click on the path in order to change the appearance. (This is why I always advise using smart guides see tipbits tuesday april 8) Applying the colour of a stroke or fill with another colour used in your document. 1. Indicate whether you want to change the fill or stroke in the tool menu You can toggle between the fill and stroke by pressing the x key 2. Select the object you want to change 3. While h...

In Ilustrator you have the option of activating Smart guides. I find this feature very helpful. Here's how they are best used. 1. Go to preferences Smart guides and Slices. I find the text label hints the most useful. I also use the Contruction guides option. The angles can be entered in the angles pull down menu. 2. Choose View, Smart guides or option u. When the cursor passes over an anchor point, path, centre point, page edge Illustrator will highlight this. If however, this function does not work, it's most likely that you have activated the snap to grid option. Illustrator does not find the smart guides function necessary if you are using Snap to grid. Turn it off and voila, your smart guides are visible again.