Articles & Inspiration
You’ve just finished a really great t-shirt design and you can’t wait to see what it will look like as a fully printed garment. With these free mockup templates you don’t have to wait for your artwork to be reproduced with ink, instead you can digital superimpose your design to test the sizing, positioning and colours directly within Adobe Photoshop. By simply pasting your graphic into the Smart Object layer, Photoshop will automatically adjust it to follow the body curves and fabric creases to produce a realistic image you can use to present your artwork to clients or feature the design in your portfolio.
Logo designs for the teams of popular American sports such as Football, Basketball and Hockey all follow a recognisable style that incorporates a mascot illustration with strong type and vibrant colours. Over recent years the emergence of eSports has also resulted in this style being replicated for teams in the gaming industry. From thousands of logo designs for teams around the world, I’ve picked out the designers who have paid particular attention to detail by presenting their emblem designs as a complete brand identity across apparel, sports equipment and the team kit.
Fauxsaics are a newly emerging illustration style that is inspired by the classic tile mosaics found in hotel foyers, subway stations and public areas of some of the world’s most beautiful cities. Pioneered by the talented artist Nick Misani, these complex typography mosaic illustrations are becoming the next big design trend. Each piece begins in Adobe Illustrator, where the basic type is formed and surrounded by reference gridlines. The design is printed and painstakingly traced by hand to draw each individual tile outline, before being scanned and finished off with with colour fills and a superimposed pair of feet to simulate a real photograph of a tiled floor.
Paint drips and ink splatters are usually the side effects of producing lettering by hand with pens and paintbrushes, but these kinds of aesthetics are also incorporated into digital type designs to retain that popular hand made look. The type styles that result in messy splatters and runs are those that are created with fast and rough strokes, often using script styles where the characters are drawn in one continuous motion. In today’s showcase I present 30 custom lettering designs from a range of artists, each one features some kind of gloopy, graffiti or grungy appearance.
Identity and packaging designs for coffee brands visually convey the company’s story and ethics using all kinds of design styles. In today’s design showcase I feature 40 projects from a range of designers and agencies that involve the branding and packaging of coffee products, from bags of whole beans to bottles of iced coffee beverages. See how they draw inspiration from coffee farms and sources around the globe to form their brand narrative, whilst also boosting the product’s retail presence with an eye catching design.
The traditions and symbols of the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead (Día de Muertos) are a popular theme for artists and illustrators. Skeletons, skulls, flowers and colourful decorations from the festival are all used as inspiration to create beautiful pieces of art that pay tribute to Mexican heritage. In today’s showcase I present 60 brilliant Day of the Dead themed designs and illustrations. You’ll find a range of truly fascinating pieces featuring calaveras masks, the popular Catrina character and a variety of sugar skull depictions with detailed patterns and vibrant colours.
