News

Further Discussion with the Client: WebFly Solutions

In Part 1 of this two part series we reviewed the initial logo design presented to the client Webfly Solutions. The feedback received from the client about the first design was really clear. We decided to go back to one of the early ideas we discussed of having the fly zooming across an orange orb. The client wanted the fly to look a little less lifelike and a little more happy.

In this tutorial which is Part 2 of the series we’ll look at the process of designing the final logo for this client. The good thing about the second design of this logo is that I’ve already done research, sketching, and a fly design. So, its like I can see flies buzzing around in my head. This makes it easy to create the final logo design.

Sketch

Sometimes I do a lot of sketching. But in this case there was already a lot of prep work done. Also there had been a lot of conversations with the client. This made it so that I had a good idea of what I was going to make for the final logo design. So, I wasn’t concerned about drawing a tight sketch. I just wanted to capture the idea of what I was going to make. Get something down on paper so I didn’t loose my mental image. You can see the sketch to the right.

There were also a couple design issues I wanted to work out on paper. With the sketch I was mostly working out where the fly would be positioned and the movement and shape of the motion trail.

I decided that it wasn’t necessary to import the sketch into Illustrator. I had all the positioning worked out and I’d just create it all in Illustrator. Let’s get to it.

Creating the Orange Sunny Orb

In Step 1 below I drew the orb shape, grabbed the Mesh Tool (U), and added some Mesh Lines. Next I added some yellow, orange and red on the Mesh Patch and Mesh Point areas. Using the Mesh Tool is an advanced subject that I’ll cover thoroughly in another tutorial in the near future. Then I rotated (R) the orb and added a shadow under it. The shadow has a Light Gray to Mid Range Gray Linear Gradient.

In Step 2 I created a circle a little smaller than the orb itself. I gave the circle a red to white linear gradient and set the Angle to 90 Degrees. Then in the Transparency Palette I set the Opacity to 30 percent.

In Step 3 I created a moon shape. Gave it a Linear Gradient that goes from Red to White and has an Angle of 135 Degrees. Then I set it to Multiply in the Transparency Palette. The results of our orb are on the far right. Also, note that the fly will be covering up part of the orb on the lower right.

Design the Fly

In Step 1 of below we create the flies body parts, which are shown as gray. Then we copy these shapes, enlarge them a bit, and overlay them over our body parts. This is shown as black outlines. The outlined shapes will be used to cut out our shadows from the body.

In Step 2 we select one body part and its overlaid shape and go to the Pathfinder Palette and hit Divide. Erase the excess shape outside the body part. And your left with a main body part and a shape at the bottom we’ll use for the shadow. Repeat this process with each body part.

In Step 3 we overlay our shapes. The head should be on the top layer, then the middle body, and in back is the tail. We’ll move on to adding the wings, adding details, and colorizing the fly next.

In Step 1 Below we create our fly’s wings with the Pen Tool. Then we give it a Linear Gradient from Dark Gray to Light Gray to White. The Angle is set up so that on each wing the dark gray falls on the left side. This adds some depth to the wings. Then we open up the Transparency Palette. The left wing is set at an Opacity of 90 percent and the right at 75 percent. This will show up more when we place our fly over our Orb shortly.

Next we add Green Linear Gradients to our body parts and shadows. The Gradients go from Bright Green to Midrange Green to Dark Green. You’ll have to play with the gradients Angle until you get a look like below. The body part and shadows have the same colors. But the shadow has most of the gradient made up of the Dark Green.

In Step 2 we create a Dark Green Ellipse for the eyes. Then give it a highlight by placing a white shape in the top right hand corner and setting its Transparency to 60 percent. We also draw a mouth for our fly and give it a Midrange Green Color.

In Step 3 we place our fly over our Orange Sunny Orb background. By placing it on the right it leaves us some room to add a motion trail behind the fly on the left.

Add a Motion Trail

In Step 1 on the left below you can see the shape of our motion trail that needs to be created. In Step 2 below you can see how this shape is placed behind our fly, but lines up with our orb on the left. In Step 3 we give our motion trail a White to Red Linear Gradient. And we give it a Transparency of 70 percent. All that’s left for our fly logo design is to situate it with our text.

Inserting Our Text

I used the same text that was created for our last logo design. I gave the “Web Fly” letters a complementary gradient color and kept the “Solutions” a plain black. Our final logo design is below.

Present the Final Design to the Client

After some further discussion with the client I found that he really wanted the logo to be blue. So, I created a blue version for the final logo presentation as well. As with all logos I make, I created a flat color version and a one color version for print as well.

I sent the image above as well as the images below for review to the client. As you can see the blue doesn’t look bad, but the green one just looks a little bit better. So, I was happy to see the client use the green one.

The client being a web designer certainly has familiarity with graphic tools. You can see on the Webfly Solutions website that the client made some edits to the logo before putting it up live. The text got changed, the smile was removed from the fly, and the colors were toned down a bit.

Conclusion

In this two part series on Creating a Fly Logo Design we covered some technical processes of creating the logo in Illustrator. We also reviewed the design process of creating this logo from research, sketching, to design implementation. Another important part of this process is the conversations, recommendations, and negotiations that occur throughout the process with the client. Ultimately, this logo is being created for a company and its essential to be able to partner with your clients throughout the process.

I’d love to hear any stories about your logo designs in the comments and of course any questions you have I’ll help you out with. Thanks.

Read More

written by admin

Brush Categories: Line and Shape

I have divided brushes into two categories: one is line brushes the other is shape brushes.

A shape brush is applied to shapes. It helps to achieve different effects depending on the shape its applied to. For example, you will achieve a different effect when applied to a circle, square, star, or rectangle. You can also effect the stroke size. An example would be: The Complexity Brushes.

A line brush is applied to a straight or a curved line and you can manage its shape by modifying the line. Visit the tutorial How to Make Funky Illustrative Backgrounds and Flourishes, for an example of a creative use of this technique.

This tutorial will discuss line brushes, how to design them, and apply them creatively. Let’s get to it! First download the sample brushes for reference: line_brushes.zip (74kb, 1 brush file).

Creating a Line Brush

A line brush doesn’t have to be a line. It can be an effect or a design in itself which can be applied multiple times. Newbies don’t get confused here. You will understand this concept by the end of the tutorial. Lets start by creating a simple stroke brush. Stroke brushes help give your line more expression. Illustrator lacks the ability to use pressure points like Painter or similar drawing software. Stroke brushes can emulate this pressure.

Start by creating a small circle. Click on one of the lower points and drag it down. Adjust it until you achieve a shape like the one shown in the picture below. Open up the Brushes Palette, (F5). Click on the New Brush Icon that is the small icon that looks like a page. Its next to the Trash Icon. A window will pop up, click on New Art Brush and hit OK. Below is a screenshot of this step.

Once the next window pops up mirror the settings in the screenshot below.

The Direction determines your stroke direction. If you keep it pointed down your head will be in the opposite direction of your stroke. The Colorization method I would prefer to be kept to Hue Shift. This will help us modify color easily according to the design we are working on. Name it and hit OK. There you have it your first simple line brush! Below is a quick example of strokes I created with this brush.

Below are some more brushes created with the same technique which will show you how different strokes will effect your outcome.

Create a Detailed Line Brush

Following the same way of creating brushes we will create some detailed brushes. There are two or more steps involved in creating them. The rest is the same as the simple line brush we just made in the last section.

We’ll start by creating a few stems and leaves with the pen tool. Your results should look something like the image below. Before converting these shapes to brushes there is one more step you should follow. Check if there are some strokes in these shapes. If there are you must first expand them by going to Object >Expand. Then proceed with creating a few brushes out of our new shapes following the same steps as the previous section.

Now I will use the arc tool to draw my lines and apply the brushes.

Once I’m happy with what I have achieved I will give it shades and tones by applying different colors to the strokes.

You can now save this brush library by clicking on the small Arrow Icon attached to your Brushes Palette. Select Save Brush Library in the menu. Give it a Name and Save it. You can always recall it by going to Open Brush Library under the same menu. After opening them up, use your brushes wherever you require them.

Here’s a useful tip. I like to keep a template file with me which has all my favorite brushes, symbols, and swatches all loaded which I have created ahead of time. This saves me tons of time. It allows me to concentrate on the creative design part!

Conclusion

You learned how to create and use line brushes. You learned how to draw stroke straight brushes and how to create floral brushes. Go on and apply these techniques and create your own brush library!

Read More

written by admin

Initial Discussion with the Client: WebFly Solutions

Communication with the client is critical to a successful logo design. Ultimately a logo design is being created for a company and those responsible for that company often have a lot of ideas about the design they are looking for. Continual contact with the client throughout the process helps to ensure that they receive a logo they will be happy with.

I gather information on what the client does and depending on the project budget I may do some competitive research. Initially I ask clients if they have any preconceived ideas on their logo design. Sometimes they want something specific and sometimes they need a lot of help with the conceptualization process. I ask if they have color preferences and to provide samples of logos they like stylistically so I understand the type of logo they are looking for. I ask a lot of follow up questions and try to learn as much as possible before starting the design.

In this case all the contact with WebFly Solutions occurred via email, which is often the case with my clients. The client gave some suggestions and color specification, mentioned one of the logos in my portfolio he really liked, and provided some samples of other designs as reference. He gave me some background information and informed me of the type of web design his company does, which is developing dynamic web sites for businesses using .NET.

The specifics were that he wanted to have a fly in his design. He provided the template the logo would go on, which gave a good direction with color choices. He mentioned wanting a glossy design or something with some level of depth. Also, he requested the design be “easy to memorize yet sophisticated and advanced”. I provided some possible solutions in written form in some of my responses, but ultimately it was time to start designing.

Visual Research

When a logo requires any level of realism its often necessary to do some visual research. In this case if I want to design a fly I need to know what a fly looks like. I searched Google for a handful of reference images. I found some I was happy with.

Sketching

I often do some sketching with pencil and paper in front of the computer when I’m designing a logo. I see no reason to print out the visual research. I just go right off the screen to do some sketches. After I’ve done some initial sketches I might walk away from the computer and then start working on the image as a design. Do thumbnail layout sketches for example.

Each project is unique though and may require more or less sketching. In this project I kept the sketching minimal. I did one drawing that formed the basis of this fly design. You can see a small image of the sketch to the right. Its also in the next section shown embedded in the Illustrator document being used as a reference to create the fly shape.

Using Shapes to Design the Fly

I drew basic shapes over the drawing of the fly in Illustrator (Step 1 below). Then I turned off the Visibility of the drawing layer (Step 2). Then I selected all the shapes and went to Object > Transform > Reflect then chose Vertical and hit Copy. I also lined up the copies (Step 3). For all the shapes I set the Stroke to None and gave the Fill a black color (Step 4). Then I selected each shape half one group at a time and went to the Pathfinder Palette and Hit Merge (Step 5). Then I gave each shape its own coloring (Step 6). The eyes are a gradient blue. The body has a blue green and dark brown gradient. The wings go from light green to light gray to light brown. The head and arms are a dark brown.

Adding Depth to the Fly Design

I decided to create some beveled edges to give the fly more depth. I also used different transparency effects as well. The eyes were given a beveled edge on the outer side (Step 1). Then I gave the body a similar treatment (Step 2). Finally I gave the tail some beveling with the shapes shown below (Step 3). I also copied the tail, placed it behind the fly, and enlarged it a little bit. This was necessary because I gave the wings some transparency.

Fly Design Details

The fly design is now complete. Though we still need to turn it into a logo. Below you can see how the fly looks at different sizes. At large sizes its abstract shapes stand out. The smaller the fly gets the more lifelike it looks.

Fly Text

Shown on the right is the fly design placed next to the company’s name. I gave the “Web Fly” letters a complementary gradient color and kept the “Solutions” a plain black.

You can see that the fly isn’t interacting much with the text. It just sits there. The client was interested in more action on the part of the fly. He liked a style of arrow in a prior logo design that I had done. Its shown in the next section.

Add a Stylized Arrow to the Design

On the left is the image portion of a previous logo design I did that is in my portfolio. The client liked the depth of the arrow and thought it might work well for his logo. So I incorporated a similar arrow.

I began by drawing an arrow (Step 1). I created the tail of the arrow and combined the arrow and tail shapes by going to the Pathfinder Palette and Hitting Merge. I gave it a white to blue gradient with a blue stroke. I also made sure the arrow matched up with the fly and the text. Then I created a separate shape for the highlight at the top of the arrow to give it depth (Step 2). The gradient is reversed and the blue in the gradient is a little darker. Then I created another white to blue gradient, placed it on top of the other parts, and and set it to Lighten in the Transparency Palette (Step 3).

Present the Final Solution to the Client

Usually, I start with designing the fun stylized logo version first. Then I go in and prep the logo for flat color and one color printing needs at the end. After that I lay out the solution in an organized fashion to form a good presentation. After following these steps I sent the design below to the client for review.

Next Week We’ll Look at the Final Fly Logo Design

After the client reviewed the first solution I received some feedback. The client felt the fly was to realistic and lifelike. After seeing this design he had some really clear ideas of what wasn’t working and what he wanted. He wanted a fly a little more happy with more action with more of a professional cartoon feeling. We decided to go back to one of the early ideas we discussed of having the fly zooming across an orange orb.

With this really clear feedback I was in a great position to jump in and redesign the logo. With all the prep work in place it made it really easy to move quickly. In the second part of this series we’ll look at designing the final fly logo design solution. Let me know if there are any questions so far.

Read More

written by admin

Create a Three-Dimensional Building

Let’s set up our document first. The document is 600px wide by 800px high. Create a large light gray rectangle that fills most of the document. See image below for example.

Now go to Effect > 3D > Extrude & Bevel. Use the settings in the image below.

Our outcome is very close to what we want. Go to Object > Expand Appearance. This will convert the live 3D effect into vector shapes that we can edit. Then we grab the Direct Selection Tool (A) and pull some corners at the bottom in until we have straight angles. This will work better in our illustration because we are going to have multiple buildings next to each other.

Place Our Bottom Text Box

Create an orange gradient rectangle that goes from light orange to dark orange. Make sure it extends well passed the width of the document. Then grab the Rotate Tool (R) and rotate the rectangle until it lines up with the angle of the shaded part of the building. Move the rectangle down to the bottom and make any adjustments to the width and height necessary.

Place Our Bottom Text

Grab the Type Tool (T) and insert the text “BUSINESS” with the sizes and settings in the image below. Also, insert the text “INDUSTRY” at 40pt.

Use the Rotate Tool (T) and rotate the text so that it follows the top edge of the text box.

Make Some Additions to our Main Building

Copy our main building to create a smaller tower on top of the first. Shrink it down and place it behind the first tower. Do this one more time until you get results that match the image below. Then give our building some gradients to separate the different towers and to give it more depth. Keep it in the same gray color range though.

Add Our Top Text Box

Create a Rectangle the same gradient color as the dark side of our building. Place it up top. Then copy it and place that copy in back. Move it down and then give it a darker shad of gray. Then insert the text “ANOTHER REPORT” at 24pt.

Multiply Our Building

Copy our building multiple times and resize each one until you get a layout similar to the below. Don’t be concerned with maintaining constraints. I made some of them taller, shorter, thiner, and fatter than the original building.

Create an Arrowhead

First we create a rectangle. Then we grab the Shear Tool and while holding down the Shift Key drag the top left hand corner of the rectangle to the left. Then select the first half of the arrow and go to Object > Transform > Reflect and choose Vertical. Then hit OK. Lastly match up the two halves of the arrowhead.

Place Multiple Arrowheads in the Text Boxes

First we create a rectangle. Then we grab the Shear Tool and while holding down the Shift Key drag the top left hand corner of the rectangle to the left. Then select the first half of the arrow and go to Object > Transform > Reflect and choose Vertical. Then hit OK. Lastly match up the two halves of the arrowhead.

Add Action Lines Across Our Buildings

Create a set of Lines that are equally spaced apart, but have varying line lengths. Also, make sure the lines stretch a bit paste the document boundaries and they they have a gradient that matches our bottom text box. See left image below. Then select all the lines and rotate them all together. Get the lines to match up with our angles. See center image below. Then cut lines and paste them behind and in front of different buildings until you like the effect. The right image shows how this adds more interest to the layout.

Add Arrowheads to our Action Lines

Copy our Arrowhead from our bottom text box. Then resize our lines and add arrowheads to them. Feel free to move the lines around, shorten them, or even delete some. Work with it until you get a composition your happy with.

Add a Gradient Background and Some Texture

First we create a light gray linear gradient background. Its kind of hard to see in the image below left, but it is faintly there in the background. Make sure to set the Angle at 90 and go from light gray to white. When we add texture to our background this gradient will work with it. Adding some texture will give a tactile feel to this structured design. Unless its going to be printed on something textured then its worthwhile to explore adding texture. I used a stock texture from istockphoto: Grunge Emo Paper. First I added it above the background gradient we just created. I set the Transparency to Hard Light at 30 percent. To finish off adding our texture we place the same texture over our entire document and set it to Soft Light.

Add Some Subtle Effects to Our Text

Select the “ANOTHER REPORT” text and accompanying arrows and Click the Add to shape area button in the Pathfinder Palette. This combines our text and arrows as one image for us to apply effects to.

Then apply a Gradient and an Overlay to the text.

To Finish off our design apply similar techniques to the “BUSINESS INDUSTRY” text and accompanying arrows. Only use a white to brown gradient and set the Transparency to Screen.

Conclusion

This design is a simple classic solution that’s relatively easy and quick to create. Adding texture to your vector images can be done right inside of illustrator and helps to soften the strong lines of this vector graphics. Try adding some texture to your next vector graphic.

Read More

written by admin

Read More

written by admin

Shields are great design elements that can be used on almost any project. They can be used to put words or symbols inside. Or they can be used as decorative elements. You will find them helpful in your designs.

Continue reading »

written by admin

Take a Photo of Yourself

I have an old 3 megapixel Powershot S200 Digital Elph. I sat against a solid colored wall, held the camera up, and snapped a photo. This photo below will serve as the basis of my Illustrator Self Portrait. It worked out alright. The shadow behind my head isn’t ideal. The wrinkled shirt is distracting. There isn’t great contrast. My eyes are too closed. And the lighting is a little dim. Being that we are converting to vector though its good enough. We can make changes that we want to in Illustrator.

The Pen Tool will be Our Best Friend in this Tutorial

Almost all the shapes made in this tutorial will be created with the pen tool. I love using basic shapes, but sometimes nothing beats the pen tool.

Setting Up Your Document and Workspace

I created a new document 600px by 600px. I want my portrait to be a perfect square because I’m planning on using this as the basis for a series of Gravatars. Go to site.gravatar.com for more information on setting up some Gravatars. My photo is a rectangle. I don’t want to crop it so that means I’ll have to extend my shoulders a bit.

Create a box 600px by 600px and make sure it is centered. Then create crop marks out of the box. With the box selected go to Object > Crop Area > Make. Now create a box about 630px by 630px. We make it a little big to give us some bleed area. I’ve found that if you don’t give some bleed then you might get 1px highlights on your edges. Then fill the box with a neutral color. I used the Eyedropper Tool (I) and clicked on the background in the Photo. This gave me the fill color for my background. I used this Eyedropper selection technique a lot in this tutorial. Now center your box. You should have something similar to the image below.

Working on the Large Shapes First

A good technique for creating this type of illustration is to work from largest shapes first and then add in details in layers. We will work from the back to the front. The large shapes in this illustration are the face and shirt. Grab your pen tool and lets get to tracing. Below You can see the shape I created outlined in blue. You can see the areas that are carefully traced. You can also see the areas that don’t need to be exact. The hair line on the top of the head can be overlapped because the hair will cover that up. Same with the goatee down by the chin. The shirt will delineate the line of the neck. It will rest on top of the face. So the neck doesn’t need to be defined when drawing the face. It can just overlap into the shirt area. Then I used a gradient fill for the skin of the face. Its not exactly the color of the skin in this photo. I just estimated what my skin would look like if the lighting was a bit brighter.

Next we are going to draw the shirt. We need to extend the shirt out to the dimensions we have set up. Go ahead and overlap past the crop marks without a concern for your line work there. Though be careful to define the shoulders and the neck well. I used a very light gray to a white gradient for the shirt.

Adding In the Hair

Next I turned off the face and the shirt. I traced the hair. My strategy is not to trace exactly, but rather to create a good balance between smooth shapes and rougher hair looking shapes. Take the top of the head for example. Its smooth up top, but the hair is defined with jagged edges on the bottom side. I turned the face and shirt back on in the image below. You can see a similar strategy was used in creating the goatee and eyebrows.

Making the Lips Rock

I gave my self some rockin’ Mick Jagger lips. In the zoomed in version you can see the four shapes that make up the lips. One large upper lip. A large lower lip. And two smaller shapes that define the space where the lips meet. You can see (below left) that you don’t need to draw this perfectly as it will look fine at the size we are using it at (below right). Also notice how the gradient gives some dimensionality to the lower lip. There are four colors used in the lower lip gradient. The gradients in the middle section are set up opposite each other to excentuate the meeting point of the lips. There is a highlight on the bottom left and a strong shadow making up the shape above.

Time to Add in Some Sight

From the screenshot below you can see I used a similar strategy with creating the eyelashes that I used for creating the hair. I have some areas of smooth rounded edges that counter the jagged representation of eye lashes. I made the eye lashes on the left first. Then I copied and flipped them. By going to Object > Transform > Reflect. Then in the Reflect Window I selected a Axis:Verticle and hit Copy. Then I made some point by point modification with the Direct Selection Tool (A).

I turned on our reference image so you can see what I was tracing. It is a bit pixalated at this zoomed in view. The eyes are made up of three shapes. The whites of the eyes have pink at each side giving it some dimensionality. My eyes are colored blue and my pupils are black. I also used the same Object Reflection technique described above and then moved the shapes around a bit.

Shading

The Nose is defined with the use of shadows. So, the nose is made up from the negative space. The shadows are all made with gradients that go from the skin color to a darker brown. Then I set the Opacity to a range of somewhere between 15 percent and 80 percent. The dark shadow side of the face is set at 50 percent. Under the Eyes is at 20 percent. The light side of the face and the neck shadow are set at 15 percent. The nostril is set at 80 percent.

Use the same shadow techniques to build up the ears. Below you can see the details of the shapes used to create the details of the ears. The same kind of shadow opacity techniques are used here. I kept it light. The shadows range from 10 percent to 20 percent.

I also used the same kind of technique to add some minor details to the shirt. I kept it really light here. But I added some light gray to separate the arms and chest. I also added some light gray around the neck line.

Drawing My Glasses Will Add the Finishing Touches to This Illustration

I’ll review the process of making this from left to right, which is the order I created it in. The part that goes over the ear is a separate shape and has a gradient that goes from very dark on the left over to a highlight on the right. Then I drew the main stem of the left side. I drew the shape that connects the stem to the main lens separately. There are also a couple little screws sticking out. The larger left part of the frame is made with a gradient as well.

Then I drew the nose pad. Its set made up of rounded rectangles. I rotated them to put into position and gave them an opacity so they wouldn’t stand out. The nose pads on my glasses are actually translucent plastic so it made logical sense to make it transparent as well. Then I filled in the lens with a brown color and gave it an opacity of 15 percent.

To make the right side I copied the left lens and frame. Then I flipped the copy around. With both the lens and frame still selected I used Free Distort to get the angle correct on the lower right portion of the lens. I went to Effect > Distort & Transform > Free Distort and I moved the lower right corner in a bit and hit OK. See the image below.

Then I connected the frames across the bridge of the nose. And I added the stem behind the right lens. And the small connecting piece on the side. The final glasses are pictured below.

The Layers

After the Illustration is all done the image below shows how all the layers look. Nice and organized. The image on the left is at 100%. Compare it to the Gravatar size below.

The next thing I did with this Illustration was create a set of Gravatars with the same basic Profile Self Portrait of me, but I brand the background and shirt based on my different websites. That way when I comment on blogs that use Gravatars my different branded Portraits show up. Its a way to promote my different projects while retaining a similar identity. Its a way to brand myself.

I’ll be writing a post over on Blog Elephant about the use of the Gravatars for the purposes of branding shortly. I’ll leave a comment when that is up. I may also be using this Illustration on my different website’s about pages. I haven’t decided on that yet though. And honestly I’m sick of looking at myself. I don’t think I’ll be looking in the mirror this week. I need a break from my reflection.

View the final Illustration at a Gravatar size of 80px square. Compare it to the 600px square shown above that we have been working with. You can see a lot of the shading is lost at the Gravatar size, but overall a nice and crisp vector image. If I decide to use this image for my website’s about pages at a larger size the shading will show up more. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments.

Read More

written by admin

The AiBURN Community is Growing

People are stopping by commenting and the community is growing. Its exciting. I think the web really needs more high quality Illustrator communities. There is so much out there for Photoshop and Illustrator seems to be left behind. We’ll lets remedy that. If you would like to get involved with writing tutorials then contact me or give a heads up in the comments.

Resource Changes

I’ve been getting involved with blogging a lot the last few months. I’ve been learning a little bit about Search Engine Optimization as well. Just getting my feet wet with it. I decided to remove the Feeds from the site. The reason for having them was I thought it was a good resource for this growing Illustrator community.

The last few weeks I’ve learned more about pulling feeds into a site. It may have a detrimental effect on the original authors as far as search engine rankings are concerned. Also, the web community seems to frown on pulling in feeds calling it “scraping” (not sure if that is the right term).

When I’m back from vacation I’ll be replacing that with a blog roll linking to those sites, but not pull in any feeds. Let me know in the comments if you think this is the right decision.

Guest Series of Tutorials at GoMediaZine

I’ve got a series of guest posts that will be running over at GoMediaZine. The introduction to the series can be found at Create a Killer Band Site With Drupal.

The series will kick off next week and yes it is Illustrator Related. The first tutorial will cover Designer a Band’s website in Illustrator. It’s a solid follow up article to the post Building a Website Wireframe in Illustrator.

The tutorial will cover using resources from the GoMedia Arsenal. If you haven’t checked them out they have some awesome vector graphic packs at really affordable prices. That’s why I chose them to be one of our site’s sponsors.

Aruba Here We Come

My Wife Karen, my one and half year old son Daniel, and I live down in South America on the coast of Venezuela. So, we are going from one beach to another, such a hard life. Though I’ve never been to Aruba. So, I’m really excited

I likely won’t be able to comment next week. Though as soon as I’m back I’ll be following up with all the comments happening here. I may have to sneak away to an internet cafe for a couple hours though. I don’t know if I could make it a whole week without going online.

Upcoming Tutorials

The last two months I’ve focused on getting into a rhythm with publishing new tutorials here on AiBURN. My goal is to personally publish at least one tutorial a week irregardless of how many guest writers we have in the future.

So far our tutorials have been focused on techniques, tricks, and mostly beginner level Illustrator goodness. I will continue to write with the same level of thoroughness but I am going to be publishing some more creative focused tutorials. In the future you’ll see more of a blend of illustration tutorials, logo design tutorials, and other creative tutorials. So, things are just getting ramped up here.

This would be a great time for you to ask for any tutorials that you really want to see done. Feel free to leave any request you have for tutorials or requests for improvements to the community features of AiBURN in the comments. Or, just say hello, introduce yourself, let us know your familiarity with Illustrator, and leave a link to your website or blog.

Read More

written by admin