(illustration from the 'pixels and vectors' tutorial)
This week, I would like to share a great resource for free design tutorials, in case anyone was still out-of-the-know about Computer Arts' online presence. If there's a particular trick you haven't picked up in class, you can probably find it here. My capstone project will be foraying into subfields of graphic design I haven't had much experience with (packaging and screenprinting), so I'll be making good use of online tutorials and hearsay information as I work.
While tutorials (much like classes) can really vary in their effectiveness and usefulness, it's incredibly comforting to me as an outgoing senior to know that my instruction in graphic design won't have to be entirely self-guided trial and error once I'm no longer in a classroom setting. I want to continue to expand both my portfolio and my overall knowledge of design, and the high-tech nature of the field lends itself to abundant trade and collaboration of ideas. Designers, on the whole, tend to be very optimistic people (problem solving is our profession), and also by necessity, highly communicative. So it both warms my heart and makes perfect sense that designers would be so un-protective of their secrets, so eager to share their skills.
Many of us are concerned about the industry peril of the amateur designer, but I would urge you for the sake of bettering our own culture, not to be exclusive with good information or good taste. I encourage everyone who has figured out how to make something you're proud of to contribute to our incredibly helpful, supportive community - online or in real time.
I have become much more familiar with design tutorials and they are very useful. There is always something new to learn outside of the classroom and what the professors show us.
ReplyDeleteThis is an awesome website! I've been recently getting into more tutorials online and they are very helpful. Thanks for sharing this information.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lauren! Great resource.
ReplyDeleteYea, great site, and a great magazine. I always look forward to what they do each month.
ReplyDeleteI really want to learn how to do screen printing. Are you going to teach yourself or do you have a resource to help you learn? Please share!
ReplyDeleteNice website! I am constantly looking at tutorial websites because it's so readily available. It's nice to know that in our field learning the information is about the easiest part, it's the application that's the hardest.
ReplyDeletepsdtuts+ is a particular favorite of mine. There's also vectortuts+ (mostly for Illustrator, but they've got some InDesign stuff) and webdesigntuts+, along with other tutorial sites (just scroll down and look at the right side of the page to find others in this family of sites). I think recently psdtuts+ just had a video series on Photoshop basics.
ReplyDeleteI love that the web has made it so easy to find help for using these programs. I've used Photoshop since 8th grade and even back then I was constantly scouring the internet for tutorials for it (found quite a few of them printed out while I was cleaning out my binders this past weekend, haha). A resource that I particularly like is deviantArt (search under Resources and Stock Images), but it can be hit-and-miss and the focus is usually on illustration and craft-type stuff, rather than actual design. Still, if you need to know how to create a certain texture in Photoshop, or a basic primer in Illustrator, or you need some brushes, there's goodies to be found here.
Good find! Many tutorials used to be so expensive and now they're readily available with a quick google search of "how do I..." Technology is good for something!
ReplyDeleteI love computer arts tutorials! They are awesome. They are not only really informative they also have interesting projects that you can follow. I feel like sometimes its better than going to youtube and using someone who makes a horrible looking website but has really good information. I mean if you are going to spend time looking at the tutorial might as well be a tutorial that is making something that is designed nicely as well. I used their flipbook making tutorial for one of my projects and it was super helpful.
ReplyDeleteGlad you found this, I will definitely be using it for future reference and help! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI love online tutorials, I have already utilized three different ones for this capstone project, so helpful!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this, self learning techniques such as tutorials are truly a great resource.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I will definitely keep this in mind. I especially need to remind myself that there are tutorials that I can learn from.
ReplyDeleteThe information from this post is very resourceful. Thank you for posting this Lauren!
ReplyDeleteI haven't used many online tutorials because I'm a sucker for face to face learning, but I think I'll start. Nice post.
ReplyDeleteAlways looking for free resorces! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI have stumbled across a number of tutorials and this one was definitely worth book marking thanks for the share.
ReplyDeleteI love to use tutorials it gives you the stuff that is popular at the time and teaches you how to do it. Sometimes just taking a specific effect out of one works wonders for me.
ReplyDeleteunaware of this- thanks so much Lauren! I use tutorials on youtube a lot, but they are annoying to sift through.
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