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Create a Cool Background in less than 3 Minutes

Program used: Photoshop CS6

Tools used: Single Column Marquee Tool

Level: Beginner

Okay, if you’ve been designing for any length of time I’m sure you’ve had designer’s block at some point in your career. Well, I’m going to show you a quick way to create a cool background using any picture to help ignite that creativity in your workflow. 

Step 1: Open up the picture you want to work with. Here is a snapshot of the picture I used in this tutorial.

Step 2: Using the Single Column Marquee Tool click anywhere inside your image. (This tool is normally hidden behind the Rectangular or the Elliptical Marquee Tool.) This will create a selection that is exactly one pixel wide and the same height as your image.

Step 3: Make sure your image layer is your active layer and press ctrl/cmd + j. This will make a copy of your selection and place it on a new layer. (The selection is so small that you may not be able to see it, but if you hide your image layer and press ctrl/cmd + d to deselect your selection you should be able to see a really thin line on your artboard.)

 Step 4: Grab your move tool (shortcut: V)

  

Make sure the layer with your new selection is the active layer. You should see a bounding box around the selection you made. (If you don’t see the bounding box make sure your “Show transform controls” is checked. This is located at the top of your workspace, in your options panel).

Step 5: Grab the left handle and drag it to the left all the way to the end of the artboard. Then drag the right handle all the way to the right until it reaches the end of the artboard. 

Step 6: Accept your transformation by pressing the enter/return key on your keyboard or you can click the “commit transform” button (checkmark) at the top of your workspace. 

Your image should now resemble the image below.

That’s it! You can now use this as your background or manipulate it until your heart is content. Try changing the hue/saturation to create a different color scheme. You can also try this same technique using the “Single Row Marquee” Tool and instead of dragging the left and right handles, you’ll drag the top and bottom handles.

 I think this is a really cool technique because:

• It gives you a color palette taken directly from your image that allows you to create a nice coordinated color scheme for your designs.
• Results will vary based on where you make your selection on your image and how colorful your picture is.

Take a look at some things I created using the Single Row Marquee and the Single Column Marquee Tool. Hopefully this will give you some ideas on how you can utilize this technique in your work.

     

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that it got your creative juices flowing. Be sure to email me your finished artwork so I can see what you created using this technique. My email address is  kisha@k-designs.net

 

You can also leave a comment if you have questions or suggestions.

7 Important Things To Know Before Starting a Business

By: Emily Towns, EMT Capital Consultants

Starting a business is very difficult .You need to be prepared in a lot of cases to change your original plan in order to be successful. In today’s world many people set out to start their own business due to many different reasons and circumstances i.e.  to gain wealth, independence, follow their dreams, and many other reasons. However people quickly learn that starting and maintaining a  business requires more dedication, time and money than originally expected.  Many people decide it requires too much and go back to their 9 to 5.  I believe in order to be successful in anything, especially a start-up, the key is to PLAN.  Ask yourself these important questions and really think about your answers  in order to determine if starting a business is right for you.

1. Why am I starting a business?
2.  Am I prepared to spend the time, money and resources needed to get my business started?
3.  How will I market my business?
4. Who is my target market?
5. Who is my competition?
6. What is unique about my business idea and the products/services I will provide?
7. What products/services will my business provide?

Answers to these questions are critical in the success of your business.   A business plan is a very important  step in planning. Many individuals give up on this important step and never start that business. My advice is to create a business plan and elicit help from friends, family, and professionals in order to complete it. A business plan prepares you for the ups and downs that come with starting a business. Remember what you put into your business determines how successful it will be!! 

Emily Towns is the founder of EMT Capital Marketing, a full service marketing consulting firm that will handle your marketing needs from beginning to end. Visit her website at www.emtcapitalmarketing.com

Extreme Makeover: Business Card Edition

One look at his old cards and you never would've guessed that Matthew Abate was a video director and producer. We've transformed his business card into something that represented who he was and what he did. Congratulations to Matthew Abate, winner of our Business Card Makeover Contest.

Let us know what you think!

The Business Card: From Note Pad to Power Card

Business cards. Some are thrown away. Some are used for jotting down notes. Some are tucked away in the dark abyss of your wallet, never to be seen again. The business card:  small in size, but powerful in establishing the face of your business.

You paid good money (or should have) for your business card and nobody wants to see their hard earned money thrown down the drain (or in the garbage, in this case). So, how can you keep your business card in the hands of potential clients? Here are 5 tips to turn your boring business card into an interactive “power” card.

Is your business card blank on the back? This might just be your card!

1. Never leave the back of your business card blank. You’re just asking for your business card to be used as scrap paper. How many times have you been in a situation where you needed a piece of paper to jot something down and the only thing you could find is “John’s Landscaping and Lawn Service’s” business card? You jot down your important info that you don’t want to forget, store it with the notes facing upward and that business card quickly becomes just as useless as two left shoes.   
2. Offer something valuable. A great way to get people to hang on to your business card is to put something on there that’s worth keeping. This is where the back of the card comes in handy. It could be tips related to a service you offer, such as hair care tips, how to change a flat, space to write down your next appointment, a coupon offering a percentage off when presented, or a recipe (if you’re a caterer). Be creative, but simple. You don’t want to overload them. If you have a lot of information, give them just enough to grab their attention and direct them to your website—yes, you need one of those—for more. 



Go ahead, scan it and see what happens!

3. Make it interactive. The great thing about the 21^st century is that almost everything is interactive. We have cars and phones that talk back to us, and even your refrigerator connects to the web!   Why not take advantage of this? Who said the business card had to be so… boring. QR codes are a great way to make your business card interactive. QR codes are used for encoding information and can be used as “Vcards,” which allow people to scan and program your contact details directly into their phone. There are also URL QR codes which allow people to scan and be directed to your website or any destination on the internet. These come in handy because you can link them to your portfolio, an intro video, or your Facebook or Twitter page and they can “like” your page or become a “follower” right there on the spot! You can also track the activity, which makes it a great tool for your marketing.
4. Leave your “mug” off of the business card! Unless you’re a well-known model or an actor, try to keep your face off of the card. You’re not trying to sell yourself, you’re trying to sell your services, and unless your face is apart of those services then it shouldn’t be on the card. Do you really have to put your face on your business card to let me know you sell homemade candles?
5. Get rid of that weak paper! If you printed your business cards on flimsy, perforated, business card paper, find the nearest receptacle immediately and trash it! Your goal as a small business owner—I say “small” because I hope no large corporation would ever do this—is to look like you’re not a small business owner. Cheap, flimsy, “500-for-$2.99” business cards make you look, well, cheap. Remember, first impressions are lasting ones and you want to stand out from the crowd—in a good way!

Click here to see the makeover results of this business card.

Your business card should represent your company just as well as you do. It should stand out from the other business cards and make a statement. If your business card isn’t doing this, then it’s time for you to rethink your business image. That’s where I come in. I can offer you full color, double-sided, custom designed “power cards”. Yeah, there’s always the option of using some other template based company, but why settle for blending in with a cookie cutter business card when you can stand out? Contact me today and let me help you make your business card work for your business. Do you have any suggestions on how to enhance the business card? Leave your comments below. Be sure to enter my Business Card Makeover Contest. Hurry, it ends March 7th. Click here to enter.

Behind The Veil - Artistic Creation

One of my clients needed me to create the temple veil for a website. After finishing the veil scene, I started playing around and decided to go ahead and create the rent curtain with the ark of the covenant behind the veil. After countless hours, here is my finished product. This was created in Photoshop using an actual photograph of a real curtain as a guide. I used the dodge tool and burn tool to create the flaps and ripples in the curtain. Let me know what you think.

Great tool for Photoshop Users

It always helps to have good tools handy these days. Today during a search (and I’m always searching) I came across a very handy tool for those ‘absent-minded’ graphic designers (including myself). How many times have you been so focused on finishing a design that you forget to save and then out of no where a stupid runtime error pops up or you forgot that your daughter stepped on your laptop plug and unplugged it and your battery has been draining for the last 59 minutes? Well, I came across a photoshop plugin called psdAutoSaver. This plugin automatically saves your images being edited to a backup file as you work. You can try this out free for 30 days and it only costs $10 for a single user license.

For those cheap designers who don’t like to buy anything, here is how to get a free autosaver: wait until you’re working on a MAJOR project that you’ve spent countless hours on and your screen goes black or you take a break and come back only to realize that your auto-update has restarted your computer!!! I guarantee you’ll automatically save your work every 5 minutes from now on…Lol!!!

Here is the link: http://www.electriciris.com/buypsdautosaver.html Hope this helps.