26 Brand New Adobe Photoshop CS6 Tutorials

The newest release version of Photoshop CS6 comes with dozens of new interface changes. The software is amazing for web designers looking to create icons, illustrations, web layouts, and practically any type of digital artwork. But nobody can master these skills without practicing to some degree.

So I’ve collected 26 of the most recent Photoshop tutorials aimed at CS6 users. You can get up and running with these new tools and begin teaching yourself how to build PSD files properly. Designing can be a lot of work, but it’s also a powerful creative outlet for your extra energy. All Adobe Photoshop users should skim this collection and try out a few tuts which catch your eye.

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26 Brand New Adobe Photoshop CS6 Tutorials

The newest release version of Photoshop CS6 comes with dozens of new interface changes. The software is amazing for web designers looking to create icons, illustrations, web layouts, and practically any type of digital artwork. But nobody can master these skills without practicing to some degree.

So I’ve collected 26 of the most recent Photoshop tutorials aimed at CS6 users. You can get up and running with these new tools and begin teaching yourself how to build PSD files properly. Designing can be a lot of work, but it’s also a powerful creative outlet for your extra energy. All Adobe Photoshop users should skim this collection and try out a few tuts which catch your eye.

View the original article here

How do You Design Good Infographics?

Infographics are an interesting breed of dense information crammed into colorful cartoons and illustrations. This trend started a few years back on the Internet and has grown into a steady resource for learning. People all around the world are consuming knowledge via these graphics – and they’re perfect for nearly any situation.

But how did these things get so popular? It’s a difficult tale to explain how viral trends arise – but the infographic below includes some fantastic examples of how you can utilize this data. Designers and web developers alike are known for picking up knowledge and sharing with others. This is why infographics can be marketed so successfully through online blogs and social media websites.

The concept of infographics is perfect for a studious graphics designer. Marketing potential is huge when you research facts and cite sources for your conclusions. The smaller tips tend to be the most powerful when you consider just how many people are on the Internet everyday.

Colorful graphics and illustrations also play a big role. You need to captivate readers and draw in your factual evidence. Be creative and really throw in some pizzazz! You want something to catch the eye – graphics, pie charts, tables, these are all ways of portraying data without seeming too boring.

But aside from beautiful design and proper data you also have to consider marketing. Infographics are so popular amongst the right Internet communities – think Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon. But if you don’t have any presence in these websites then it’s difficult getting your pages seen. When you can work with other marketers to get your links out there, it’s no problem drawing attention to your website! Just make sure the design is solid and your information stacks up to scrutiny.

The guys over at Infographic Labs have put out a new graphic explaining what they are and how these got to be so popular. Check out the info and be sure to share with your friends online.

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Time For A New Web Design For Your Small Business?

On the first page of Google, you will have a choice of around ten or so different business links to click on. If you click through to a web design that looks unprofessional, in an instant you will probably be clicking on the next link. Many small business owners mistakenly believe that simply having a web presence is all that is needed to gain the benefits of online marketing.

First impressions do count

The design of your website represents the first impression your customer has of your business. If the web design of your site is outdated, or the information is poorly organized, or if your home page is so cluttered that it is hard to know what to look at, your website and web design is probably not working for you. Your visitors will not stay on your site, and take one look at your home page web design and move onto another site. Remember, a competitor's web site is only a click away.

Keeping up with the competition

Do a search on Google for your competitors and go and look at how they are representing themselves online. Can you learn from these sites? Is their web design more contemporary, more professional looking than yours? Your website needs to, at the very least, look as professional as your competitors if you want to be competing with them at the same level.

How often should you update your web site design?

Generally, web designs can start to look dated after two to three years, depending on the style and quality of the design. Like fashion, web designs do go out of style. The simpler and cleaner your web design is, then generally the more timeless the design. The more contemporary and 'now' your web design is, the quicker it will date.

Your web design should look contemporary when compared to your competitors.

Measuring the success of your website

This has never been easier. With all the software that is available to provide you with statistics on website visitors, including what pages they looked at, how they got to your site, keyword searches, etc. it is not difficult to see if you are going wrong. If all your visitors come to your home page and then leave the site, your web design probably has some usability issues that you will need to address.

Creating the illusion

Web designs can be deceptive. You can use a web design to create the illusion that your small business is large and thriving with seemingly hundreds of employees, even if it is not. Creating the illusion is the first step to making this a reality.

Who shouldn't create your web design

Definitely not your brother's friend who has just finished an HTML course and offers to do your web design and build for free, and definitely not your system administrator who has some spare time on his hands. Leave the web design and development of your website to professionals who have valuable experience in this area.

It is worth paying someone to do a good job, than have a website designed built for free that can possibly damage the professional image of your business and, in fact, turn customers away.

Is it time for a new web design?

Web Genesis specializes in providing small business in Australia with high quality, yet affordable website design and development. For more information on our affordable website design and our other services, please visit our website at http://www.webgenesis.com.au.

Communicating Your Needs to Your Web Designer

Communicating with a web designer can be the most difficult part of the hiring process because you and the web designer don't speak the same language when talking about the details of a website. This article explains how to get your ideas across to the web designer you want to hire.

Ok, so you've decided to hire a professional web designer to build your website. You spent some time looking for the right person. Eventually you found the right web designer that you believe will design the most "remarkable", "extraordinary" website the internet community has yet seen.

So now what? Explaining to the web designer the layout design you have in your mind can be a very frustrating process. You will find that putting the "picture" in your mind into words can be a difficult task. Actually in most cases this is the biggest hurdle between you and the final outcome. No matter how talented the web designer is, if you can not communicate with him properly, in his own professional language, he will not be able to use his talent to achieve your design.

There are two possible situations you may face:


You know what content you want on the website but have no clue how to present it to the user.
You know what content you want on the website, and you have the layout in your mind, but you don't know how to implement it

In both cases you will need to explain your thoughts to the web designer. Although most people who read those lines are probably thinking that being in the second situation is better then being in the first situation. However, real life experience shows the opposite to be true. Giving a web designer the complete freedom of action regarding the web design based solely on the website content is usually a smart thing to do. You will find that explaining to the web designer what the nature of your website is, whether it's a product that you want to sell or a hobby item, is much easier then trying to explain to him the temperate of the color schema or an undefined shape that you would like to have in the website header.

Actually for both of the situations, I would suggest you use the same approach, but with a minor modification to each situation. If you know of a website that has all the features you want or need and/or a site that looks the way you want your site to look, be sure to give the site's url to the web designer. Doing so will give him some idea of want you want. You will both be looking at the same thing but will actually look at it from a different angle. Therefore, it may be better to give him more than one website as an example.

The more websites you find that can express your feelings and/or needs, the easier it will be for web designers to understand your intention without you having to use a single "technical" term. Chances are that you won't find a single website that has all of the feature you want. After all, if such a website already exists there would be no place for your new web site to be born. Use several websites to express the different features you want. Spend as much time as necessary until you find just the right websites to provide examples of your needs. Doing research at this stage will definitely save you a lot of time later trying to point the web designer in the right direction.

Although you are the one who needs to express your self to the web designer, you must learn to listen to him as well. When he uses technical terms, ask for their meaning. Do not finish any part of the conversation unless you are absolutely sure that both sides are on the same page. Remember that when a web designer speaks about the temperature of a color, he is not talking about the next day's forecast.

Remember, you hired a professional web designer because you want a professional looking website and you couldn't do it yourself. So, trust the web designer's judgment when they tell you something you want won't work or isn't the best way to accomplish your goals. After all, you are paying them for their expertise. Don't try to tell them how to do their job.

It is OK to require that a web designer gets your approval each step of the way so you can tell them if one of your goals isn't being met. Also, if you really don't like how something looks and want it changed, tell them immediately. Don't wait until everything is done and then decide you don't like it.

A final word about cost

You have agreed on what needs to be done and the web designer has given you a price quote. Simple modifications and bug fixes are usually included in the price. However, other major changes or outright revisions may or may not be included. Make sure the agreement states what is included, what constitutes a revision rather than a fix, and how many changes you can make after delivery without incurring additional costs.

Warren Baker is an Internet business consultant for WebDesigners123.
WebDesigners123 connects the Freelance Web Designer with Webmasters who need their services.
If you would like to read more of Warren Baker?s writings, visit our Website Design Articles page.

Launching the Brand New SpyreStudios Job Board

Over the past week we have launched a new job board for SpyreStudios. This is the perfect bulletin board for marketing any freelance work or full-time job opportunities. Since Spyre attracts such a broad audience we can incorporate many different topics including layout design, graphics/icons, web development, and Internet Marketing.

If you check out the live website you’ll notice everything is very simple to navigate. All current jobs are posted from top-to-bottom with the most recent listings first. The Spyre board is still brand new, so any job opportunities you post will get massive exposure.

The field of web design & development is full of freelance workers. It’s a very difficult skill to master, but designers from all over the world are available to work with you on various projects. SpyreStudios is a very popular magazine among freelancers, and this demographic fits in perfectly for different job capabilities.

Spend some extra time considering your job posting title, description, and contact details. We want to keep the board as slim as possible making it super easy for freelancers to get in touch.

If your offer doesn’t get much attention after 30-60 days we can always re-post the same listing. Just keep in mind that as we scale the job board more freelancers will slowly return for additional work. It may take some time to put together such an audience – but SpyreStudios reels in some of the most talented designers you’ll meet!

The Job Board is also open for full-time work opportunities. If your business needs any type of digital marketing, development, or design work then definitely consider sharing a listing.

When posting a full-time position it would be good to clarify that in the title and description. Communication can be tough and we want to keep everybody on the same page. Additionally if you have a specific reference for your company it would be helpful to share direct contact methods. These could include a phone number, e-mail address, or chat/IM client username.

We hope to see a large number of new participants as the weeks progress. We will be keeping the Spyre Job Board updated as frequently as possible. And of course we want to provide the best user experience for both parties.

If you have any thoughts or suggestions please feel free to get in touch and contact us. We would love to hear user feedback about anything we can to do make the job board easier to use. You can also send us a message if you have any questions about creating a new listing.

Our goal is to create a safe environment for creative professionals to land contract projects. Freelance work is obviously the most popular and we encourage all freelancers to check the job boards every couple of days or weeks. But aside from the typical design/development jobs there will be plenty of opportunity for full-time employment as well.

Definitely check back frequently if you’re looking to land a small gig, or alternatively if you’re looking to hire a creative designer. Our hope is to build the Spyre Job Board into a collective meeting ground for some of the best design talent worldwide.

Check out the Job Board

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