Step 1 - Creating the Background

Choosing colors for a background is important because it will influence how your image stands out. Since we are going to be creating a vibrant glossy box, let’s use a dark background. Create a new document, mine is 256×256px for the purpose of this tutorial. Set a dark gray, #363636, as your foreground color and black, #000000, as your background color.

Once you have your colors selected, grab your Gradient Tool and create a radial gradient near the center of your document as shown in the image below.

Since we want the box to appear as though it is on a surface and not floating in the air, we are going to add another gradient. On a new layer, make a selection about 90px tall from the bottom of your document (depends on the size of your document). Create a radial gradient closer to the left side and towards the top of the selection so that it looks like the one in the image below.

Step 2 - Creating the Box

Now that we have our background, we need to create our actual box. To begin, simply create a selection about 100×100px and fill it with a nice blue color, such as #0062b3.

Since we want our box to have some perspective, we are going to need to transform it by going to Edit > Transform > Perspective. Bring the top right and bottom right corners of the box towards the center of the side a small amount and complete your transformation.

Then go to Edit > Free Transform and drag the right side to the left a small amount, to compensate for the perspective that you applied. You want your box to look like a square, keeping in mind how perspective affects the way your eyes see an object.

Now that we have the right shape, let’s change the color. Grab your linear gradient tool and create a light blue (#0080c3) to dark blue (#004893) gradient from the bottom left to the top right of the box.

With the right side of the box complete, lets move on to the left side. Create a duplicate (Right click layer > Duplicate) of the right side of your box and flip it horizontally (Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal).

Then simply apply another perspective transformation (Edit > Transform > Perspective) of greater value, and drag the left side in even more. This will give the illusion that the left side of the box is viewable, but it is not the main side of the box. Depending on your tastes, you may want to create a new linear gradient for the left side to make it look a little more unique.

Notice that my box is near the center of the gradient for the surface we created. It also is low enough so that it appears that the entire bottom of the box is touching the surface. It is coming along great!

Step 3 - Creating the Gloss Effect

We have a great looking box already, but the style we are going for is glossy. We are going to accomplish this using a few different steps which can be difficult sometimes, so take your time here.

Lets start by applying a layer style effect called Satin to both of our box layers. this is going to give the box a neat effect that looks great underneath the gloss. It will also make the edges a little brighter than the center of the box, which matches the effect that I wanted.

On a new layer, make a selection of your right box layer by Ctrl+Clicking on the thumbnail for the layer. Grab your linear gradient tool and change it to Foreground to Transparent, with white (#FFFFFF) as your foreground. Create a gradient from the bottom left to the top right of the selection. Once the gradient is created, lower the Opacity of the layer to around 20%.

Now grab your Polygonal Lasso Tool and select part of the bottom of the gradient and delete it.

Repeat the process for the left box, making sure that the area of the gradient that you delete fits with the perspective of the box. I also lowered the opacity of the left gloss to around 10% or 15%.

Step 4 - Placing the Type

Choose a font type that you would like to use for your text, I chose Myriad Pro set to Bold and 60pt size.

Now, I want the text to fit along the same perspective of the box, but Photoshop doesn’t allow perspectives to be placed on text. To get around this, right click the text layer and go to Rasterize Type. This will change the text layer into a normal object layer. Now I can apply a perspective to it, and I will do the same things I did for the right box, bring the top right and bottom right sides in and move the right side to the left a little.

Then apply the following layer styles:

Gradient Overlay

#CCCCCC to #FFFFFF

Stroke

I’m going to place some extra text around my image and use Gradient Overlay effects to give them a unique look.

Step 5 - Creating the Reflection

Our image looks pretty good at this point and we could stop if we wanted to. However, this isn’t the effect I was going for. I really want my image to stand out with vibrant glows and colors, so let’s keep adding some effects.

Drag both of your box layers and both of the gloss layers into a new group (Layer > New > Group). Then duplicate that group (Right click layer > Duplicate). Go to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical to flip the new layer group upside down.

Now we need to make the sides of the reflection touch the sides of the box, so shift+click the right box layer and the right gloss layer inside of your reflection group. Go to Edit > Transform > Skew and drag the right side of the layers up until they meet with the bottom of the box. Do the same for the left side of the box. Then lower the opacity of the group to around 50%.

Step 6 - Making the Box Glow

As of now, our box just looks like a blue colored box sitting on a reflective surface. I want to give the appearance that the box is glowing, so that it increases the dramatic look of the image.

Go back down to your table layer and make a new layer above it. Ctrl+click the thumbnail for your table layer to make a selection of it. Now grab a large soft brush, mine is around 300px, with a color to match your box, #196dad. Make a single brush mark that centers around your box.

Now create a layer underneath the table and make another brush mark to go over the background. Lower the opacity of the layer to around 50%.

Step 7 - Creating the Sky Lights

I’ve almost got the results I set out for. The box immediately grabs attention and has a nice glow to it, but it isn’t as vibrant as I want it to be. Adding some sky lights should help.

Create a new layer underneath your box group. Make a selection of the right box, and move the selection up about 30-50px. Make a white to transparent gradient in your selection and lower the opacity of the layer to 50%. Then apply a new gradient overlay:

Repeat the same process for the left box.

Finally, on a new layer, use a 5px brush with a nice light color, such as #54e0ff, and brush at the three viewable corners. Then use a larger soft brush, such as a 30px brush, and erase the tips to make them look more like sky lights.

Experiment and Expand

As always, try new things and different styles. You’d be amazed at what things you can come up with on accident. By adding a curves layer (Layer > New Adjustments Layer > Curves) I can make the box appear more vibrant.

It’s a few days behind schedule, but we’ve rounded up our favorite tutorials, articles, and freebies from around the web for the month of October!

Our Tutorial Picks

Each month, we try to pick tutorials that are outstanding in quality and usefulness. We tend to pick tutorials that encompass design, although we let a few others slip in if they are really great! If you found any that we may have missed, feel free to share them in the comments!

The O Series Tutorial

James White guides us through his process used to create a series he recently worked on and shared over at Signalnoise.com.

Smoke Type in Photoshop

Learn how to create a smoke typography effect playing with some brushes and adjustment layers in Adobe Photoshop.

Make a 3D Colour Explosion

Learn how to how to blend vector images and Photoshop trickery to create jaw-dropping 3D colour explosion effects.

Using Layer Comps for Design in Photoshop

Andrew Houle runs through a process of creating layer comps that help us develop designs that are most fitting for ourselves and our clients.

Inking and Coloring the Comic Strip “The Brads”

Author of “The Brads”, Brad Colbow, walks us through the steps of creating a comic strip using Illustrator’s Pen Tool, custom brushes and masking features.

Highlight Wordpress Categories on Single Posts

Learn how to highlight the category a single post belongs to in Wordpress for a better user experience, and to assist in navigation.

Creating Custom Write Panels in WordPress

Learn how to create an easy to use write panel that makes it easier to work with custom fields in Wordpress. Great for working with post thumbnails for Wordpress.

Design a Halloween Pumpkin Wallpaper in Photoshop

Learn how to take a pumpkin, carve it up, and make it glow, all from the comfort of your home… oh, and Photoshop!

Create a Vibrant Modern Blog Design

This tutorial covers the process of designing a vibrant and colourful modern blog layout in Adobe Photoshop from a blank canvas to the final product.

3 ways to apply a line pattern effect on text in Illustrator

Veerle’s got 3 different techniques for applying a line pattern effect on any text in Illustrator. Worth checking out if you’re getting into the groove of Illustrator still!

Inspirational, Resource, and Useful Picks

Being a designer can be tough. Half the battle of creating something is simply finding a good source of inspiration. These links are intended to help get yourself motivated, help you along the way, and get the creative process rolling!

Setting Your Prices: 10 Questions to Ask Yourself

How does one go about finding the perfect price to charge their clients as a freelancer? Danny Outlaw’s got 10 questions you can ask yourself to help find that sweet spot!

White Space - It’s so underrated

As always, a great read from ImJustCreative.com. This post examines the qualities which often break blogs and other sites, namely white space, or a lack thereof.

Top 10 Photoshop Tutorial Sites

A collection of excellent Photoshop websites worth bookmarking… not that making the list makes us biased or anything!

Coming Up Next Wordpress Plugin

This plugin takes your next scheduled posts and show them to your visitors. Great for bloggers who schedule posts ahead of time.

Free Grunge Font: DiaD

This free grunge font comes from an amazing font designer by the name of Carlos Fabian Camargo Guerrero, from Bogota Columbia. He has quite the collection of fonts for sale on his website www.andinistas.net.

Heart: A Free Social Icon Set

Heart: A set of 22 social icons in .png and in resolutions 16×16, 32×32, 64×64. This set was designed by Aravind Ajith, the creator of TheDesignSuperHero.com.

Free Hand Drawn Doodle Icon Set for Bloggers

This set of free hand drawn doodle icons includes 14 graphics tailored specifically for bloggers. Including social media graphics for Delicious, Design Float, Digg, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Technorati and Twitter as well as commonly used icons such as RSS, Home, Comments, Contact and Wordpress.

Feed Me Animals: A Free RSS Feed Icon Set

This set contains 5 original RSS-feed icons. The icons are available in in .png, .jpg, .eps and .psd.

BB Free Font: Conglomerfont

Conglomerfont is a free font created by the design community from all over the world, on nearly every continent via email. Tons of type was coagulated from email submissions into a single font, hence the name, Conglomerfont.

20 Excellent AJAX Effects You Should Know

These are the top 20 Ajax effects that every web developer should know. They’re essential parts of any web developer’s toolbox.

10 Tips to Avoid Designer’s Block

How do you get there? How do you stay there? How do you avoid designer’s block? It’s not possible to dial in design perfection each time you sit down at your desk, but here are a few things you can do to help.

10 Helpful Resources for Cross Browser Testing

This post takes a brief look at 10 of the leading resources for making your browser testing less time consuming and more productive.

9 Brilliantly Designed Portfolio Websites

In this article, 9 Brilliantly Designed Portfolio Websites are presented so you yourself can see what makes a portfolio great.

Send us your September Picks!

Keep an eye out for brilliant posts this November. We’d love to hear if you find anything, or if you publish something of your own that our viewers might enjoy. You can grab us on Twitter, our Forums, or by using our Contact Form.

Let’s face it, there are too many design books available nowadays. First there was graphic design, then there was interaction design, and now there’s web design. In the span of 30 years, the ability to communicate graphically has grown exponentially. However, with all of that knowledge, where is a budding web designer to turn to when they are looking for a concise reference?

Having been a budding ‘everything’ designer myself, I know that good reference books are not easy to come by, which is why I have done the hard work for you. What follows are my top 5 reference books for budding web/interaction designers:

Top 5 Web and Interactive Design Books

Robin Williams Design Workshop, 2nd Edition

All good web designers should constantly be looking for inspiration. I prefer CSS galleries such as http://www.bestwebgallery.com, myself. However, when I need references to good, solid graphic design work, I find myself turning to this book.

Robin William’s Design Workshop takes the best parts of her first book, The Non-Designer’s Design Book (a great read, not-so-much a great reference), and builds upon them. Firstly, she goes over the basics of graphic design: contrast, repetition, alignment, proximity, typography, and color theory. Secondly, she approaches many of the common projects assigned to graphic designers: stationery design, flyer design, poster design, business card design, logo design, and form design, to name only a few. Because most of these projects translate to the web, everything in this book serves as a guide to graphic design best practices; which in turn, helps you as an “everything” designer.

What I like about Robin Williams style is that she is short and to the point. Robin uses good and bad examples to clearly illustrate design concepts. While some parts of the book are a bit dated regarding web design, don’t let that discourage you. This book is a solid graphic-design reference which I have come back to again and again.

Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition, by Steve Krug

Usability… let’s just say it’s a small obsession of mine. “What is usability?” and “what does it have to do with design?” you might ask. This book will answer those questions and questions you hadn’t even thought about.

As much as this book explains the basics on these topics, it does even more: it explains them in a way that is eye-opening and almost always enlightening. When solving basic design problems, Steve takes the design element out of the picture entirely. This is incredibly useful because oftentimes, as designers, it’s difficult for us to break the habit of designing before developing. Time and time again, I’ve gone back to this book to reevaluate what could be going through the mind of people using my site, so that I design to make my users feel more intelligent. Steve teaches us that form always follows function.

If you have a desire to get inside of your user’s heads and figure out how they are using your site, then this book is for you. If you have a desire to learn how a professional usability expert would accomplish a review of your site, then this book is for you. If you want to create a script and conduct your own “guerrilla” usability tests, then this book is for you. Don’t Make Me Think! is a great fore into the world of user interaction and how your users think. The best part is, it’s not just for designers; this book will help every member of your team ask the right questions before building out a feature, and thereby saving you and your company plenty of money. That’s always a good thing, right?

Designing the Obvious: A Common Sense Approach to Web Application Design, by Robert Hoekman, Jr.

Designing the Obvious by Robert Hoekman, Jr. is a lot like Don’t make me Think! by Steve Krug. The difference here is, Robert is a designer by trade, whereas Steve is a usability expert. For this reason alone, the two books diverge very rapidly. Robert takes the core principles of Steve’s work and manifests them through his work, describing the trials and tribulations of adding “just one more feature” to a burgeoning web application. As a designer for an Atlanta startup, this was music to my ears. Robert hits the nail on the head time and time again.

Creating new features and new designs is the cornerstone of infant web-applications. Many teams don’t feel productive until they’ve implemented feature x, or upgraded feature y. Robert invites application designers take a much-needed step back. People who use web applications have an intended purpose: they generally want to get one or two very specific things done. How can your application support that? What features have you added that don’t support that? This book is about what not to do, rather than what to do.

If any of these questions sound like ones you have asked yourself or your team, you owe it to yourself to get this book. Robert has been there and done that, and his lessons are of infinite value to web startups everywhere. I would love to see more people reading his book and taking his advice.

Designing the Moment: Web Interface Design Concepts in Action (Voices That Matter), by Robert Hoekman, Jr.

Another book by Rovebert Hoekman, and this time the focus is slightly different. If you’re not into web application design, you can still benefit from web interface design, that’s what this book is all about. What’s changed? In this book, Robert focuses on the small idiosyncrasies of a web-user’s experience on your site: Do you surface keywords? Do you have verbose copy? Do you use video to instruct your users?

What’s brilliant about this book is that it takes many of the web-interface concepts that have only emerged within the past year or two as best practices and highlights all of them. Many of the chapters in the book are short but hardly anecdotal; they are poignant and informative. In fact, there were many chapters in this book that I said “ah ha!” as I read them.

My copy of this book is riddled with earmarked pages and bookmarks, simply because it’s that good. I encourage any designer who wants to look at every phase of user interaction to peruse this book. I don’t believe a true cover-to-cover read of this book is necessary (I would obviously skim the sections to make sure the book, in it’s entirety, would be useful to you). The best way to use this book would be to correlate your reading with the task you have at hand. Because Robert relates his knowledge of every “phase” of the user interaction, you can simply refer to the section of user signup/login when you are developing that interaction, user profiles when you are building user profiles, etc.

Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design, by Jenifer Tidwell

The ultimate (layman’s) desktop application interface pattern book. I do not know if a more authoritative reference exists. Designing interfaces by Jenifer Tidwell takes readers on a tour of every element in application design. The book takes an approach similar to http://www.uipatterns.com, explaining not only what the pattern is, but it’s problem it intends to solve as well as real-world examples of this pattern.

The patterns covered include: forms, text editors, graphic editors, spreadsheets, browsers, calendars, media players, and information graphics. What more, Jenifer gives readers a basic style guide and reference section, making this book one of the most comprehensive on this list.

While almost all of the conventions and patterns used in the book are specific to desktop-applications, this book defines what has come to be expected of applications and application-interaction. Because web-sites are becoming closer and closer to web-applications, the utility and authority of this book can only get broader. Interface Patterns help define an interface designers toolbox. Therefore, learning about best-of-breed practices as well as old, familiar patterns can help you take any design problem and break it down into manageable, familiar, and most importantly, easy to use parts.

What books have you found to be useful?

Are there any books that you would add to this list? What books have you found to be most useful in your practices as a designer?

As a designer and artist, it’s easy to concentrate and attach ourselves to the main objects of our work — So easy in fact, that we can easily forget about a part of our work equally important: The Negative Space.

Negative Space is the space between an object, around an object, but is not part of the actual object itself. It is the opposite of an identifiable object which can at the same time be used to help define the boundaries of positive space.

Making Better Art with Negative Space

A good artist realizes that the space surrounding an object (positive space / shape / mass / etc) is just as important as that object itself. Negative space helps define a subject, and brings balance to a composition.

In mag3737’s “Negative Space“, the buildings (positive space) are separated, and more sharply defined by the sky (negative space). The sky brings a balance to the composition, which without, would make the photograph look quite bland.

In NG567’s “Negative space“, the positive space plays a much less dominant role. The clouds and sky cut through the trees, making the sky the more definable area.

You may also notice that the image on the right loosely follows the Rule of Thirds (More on the Rules of Thirds, Composition, and Framing). Negative space is used to help create thirds in many compositions — perhaps more than you realize. Just consider how many landscape photographs you must have seen where one or two-thirds of the composition are landscape, while the rest is clouds and sky.

Typically, negative space should not distract from the main subject… that is, unless the negative space IS the subject, as is the case on the right.

Negative Space as the Subject

As you saw in the previous example, negative space does not always have to be that complimentary, balancing element to a composition. Both positive and negative space can be used in that way depending on how the artist or designer manipulates the composition.

Negative space can actually be used as the main subject in a composition itself, sometimes to the extent where it takes on an identifiable shape defined by its surrounding positive space.

In numlok™’s “Negative Space Cross“, it is abundantly apparent how the negative space is the actual subject of the composition. The physical bricks surrounding the empty gap create a common symbol that most can identify with.

Using Positive Space to Define Negative Space

An artist can create positive spaces and shapes that in turn carve out shapes in negative space intentionally. Perhaps the most famous example of this is Rubin’s Vase.

In Rubin’s Vase, the positive space takes on the appearance of a vase. When examining the space surrounding the vase however, two faces looking at one another can be seen.

With all of this said, it’s probably also worth noting that a silhouette is not the same thing as negative space. Negative space is the area surrounding, between, or in other words not a part of the identifiable object. Shapes around the silhouette may be negative space, but the actual silhouette is positive space — a shape with identifiable boundaries.

Negative Space is Not Constricted to One Medium

Negative space is not constricted to one form of art. On the contrary, it is an important element in most mediums, including photography, painting, graphic design, sculpting, etc.

Negative Space in Logo Design

Since negative space is not constricted to any one medium, this probably goes without saying, but negative space also plays an important part in logo design. Some of the worlds most recognized logos feature creative negative spaces.

Take FedEx for example, which uses the spaces between the letters in “Ex” to create an almost subliminal arrow. According to FedEx spokesman Jess Bunn:

“The arrow was indeed intentional as a secondary design element…”

“If the viewer sees it, it’s a neat, interesting visual bonus. If the viewer doesn’t see it, that’s OK. It’s still a powerful logo. The arrow is intended to communicate movement, speed and the dynamic nature of our company.”

More Examples of Negative Space

“Cross roads” by Aeioux uses negative space to create an implied subject of roads crossing in a city-like environment.

“kers 5” by wester uses negative space to help emphasize the main subject.Without all of the negative space, the main object would be much less interesting.

“negative space” by Alcino is a good example of negative space in a more physical form.

“Space and Motion” by David Leggett. The dark negative space contrasts sharply with the energetic colors of the figure playing the drums.

How Are You Using Negative Space?

You’ve seen quite a bit of how other designers and artists use negative space now. It’s used as a balancing element in many compositions, and without that balance, the rest of the composition would be much less meaningful (if not formless). What are some ways you’ve taken advantage of negative space in your own work?

Over 100 answers later, we’re ready to announce the winners of this top-notch Wordpress Theme… but it was not easy. It was so tough to choose three winners from the 100+ participants, that we decided to giveaway 5 copies instead!

The Winners!

Without delay, here are the winning responses to our question:

“Simple (or simplicity) means usage of necessity only—combining necessary elements into one aesthetic form, which doesn’t require any of its components to be removed or new ones added.” - Dominik Porada

“Simple maintains the highest aesthetic value while employing an economy of space.” - traylorillo

“Simple is achieving a lot with very little.” - Chelle

“Simple, to me, means no more than what is needed to be useful, and no less than what is required to be functional. In terms of a website, or more specifically a blog, it means to be pleasing to view, easy to navigate and quick to deliver what is requested.” - Michael Parker

“Simple is elegance gained from sincerity rather than complex embellishment. Simple does not necessarily mean shallow but the ease for usage and understanding. It is usually an adjective describing something that is not greatly adorned but to capture the basics of a subject with modest approaches. There is beauty in simplicity for its fluidity and efficiency using the least components.” - Lydia

Congratulations Dominik, traylorillo, Chelle, Michael, and Lydia! We’ll be sending your copy of Simple Please very soon!

Still Want Simple Please?

Are you still interested in getting a copy of Simple Please to power your blog? Well, for only 12 Dollars, you can grab a copy of your own over at ThemeForest.net. It’s tough beating a price like that — especially for a 5 Star Rated premium theme.

Otherwise, we’ll certainly have more fantastic giveaways in the future! Be sure to subscribe to our feed for updates and new contests!

Packaging might be the most important element of a product. Whether the product is a consumable good, some fancy hardware, a service, or even a website — that item might not even be touched if the package doesn’t communicate to the consumer.

In this post, we’ve collected inspiring, unique, and brilliant packaging to demonstrate that good, timeless design speaks louder than words.

Coffee Time Bag and Cups

Yes, I am feeling like it’s time for some coffee after seeing this. The intricate patterns, and bold browns are both soothing and complex, just like a good cup of Joe.

Americano Black

Breaking from the traditional feel, Americano Black is a much cooler design for a chilled coffee beverage. At the same time, it keeps an elegant feel about itself.

MyCuppa Tea/Coffee

Genius at work in these Mug designs. Perhaps as a functional bonus, mixing your tea or coffee perfectly every time is much more easily achieved.

PANTONE Mugs

And for the more Colour savvy who won’t settle for cream-based names, W2’s got collections of PANTONE mugs to fill the void. If only it came in PANTONE 312 C… that’s a blissful blue, eh?

PANTONE Universe Bag

But W2 didn’t stop with mugs. Oh, no… They’ve got a selection of bags too. Carrying one of these is a really good way to declare your geeky love for colour.

Peared

Here’s some wonderful branding done by Conor Hagan for the juice Peared, a combination of pear juice and other juices from an array of fruits. The way the shapes are all put together to create pears is simple and elegant.

Wine In A Can

Seemingly borrowing the idea from recent Energy Drink packaging, Wine In A Can puts forth an organic, trendy design that is very unique.

M5

What happens when Coke, the largest brand in the world, starts losing its hold on their core consumer? They hire 5 design groups (dubbed the Magnificent 5, or M5) to reestablish that grip. The result is some of the most creative design work we’ve ever seen for caffeinated beverages.

Wine Labels by Jordan Jelev

Returning to the more traditional Wine packaging, Jordan Jelev has selected several of his beautiful Wine Label designs over the past few years. A nice mix of class and modern design in his works.

MINIBLACK

A Vibrant, Feel-Good design for MINIBLACK done by Drasik. We’ve posted a tutorial for creating the colorful glowing type effect used in some of the designs created by Drasik.

Private Brand Bottled Water

The packaging for this bottled water simply makes one think cold, refreshing thoughts. Wonderful type work, and a beautiful minimalist label design.

Keen Fruit

Using the contents of your container to magnify the packaging? Now that’s a cool idea. Keen Fruit, though simple, manages to communicate it’s product very effectively.

Equal Exchange

The Typography and Color work done in the Equal Exchange packaging has been featured on Tutorial9 in the past. It’s so good, we’ve decided to feature it once more. Inspiring, easy on the eyes, and clear messages all around.

Milk Chocolate

Why hasn’t this hit my local grocery store already? I don’t usually think about Cows when I’m craving Chocolate, but this branding seems like a really great idea. It definitely sticks out from the usual.

Pate Monodosis

Creatively shaped, petite packaging done by Marcos Prack.

Chocolate Packaging

A series of creative packaging for chocolates by Yael Miller. I tend to be incredibly biased in regards to anything chocolate related to begin with, and these designs do nothing but fascinate me more.

W A S A R A

Disposable, organic, simple, beautiful, casual, elegant… paper-ware? W A S A R A presents a fantastic lineup of incredible paper plates that are as impressive as they are natural.

Sony Packaging

Sleek, professional feeling package design for various Sony products by Jesse Kaczmarek.

Halo 3: Legendary Edition

You don’t have to be a gamer to appreciate the casing design for Bungie’s “Halo 3: Legendary Edition”. The outside box is sleek and professional — the inside casing for the disk set is modeled after the helmet of the game’s protagonist.

Adobe CS4

Adobe never ceases to amaze with their creative package design for their Creative Suites.

Homemade Creative Packaging

Creative packaging straight out of some common home materials.

ISO50 Button Sets

Not your typical product, but these badges come packaged with the incredible artwork of Scott Hansen. Nice way to add a personal touch to such a simple product.

Helvetica 2008 Calendar

If it were not already August, I’d surely attempt to purchase one of these extraordinary calendars designed by Greig Anderson. 365 individual pages with large type make up this well thought out concept, designed in two sizes (A3 and A5). Please make another for 2009 Greig…

Fingerprint

Fingerprint is a book that demonstrates the art of using handmade elements in graphic design. It does an incredible job showcasing beautiful designs — and gives information for how they were created — and the book design itself is quite beautiful.

Beauty Engineered Forever Products

These product packages by B_E_E don’t waste anytime telling you what they’re made to do. Great Type, Nice Colors, and awesome idea for branding a product lineup.

Beautao Skincare

More wonderful package designs by Yael Miller, putting creative pattern and color work to good use for a lineup of Skin care products.

Insist Breakfast

Well, I’d wear them. Then again, I’m an egg guy, so that’s no surprise. Yellow isn’t typically a color I think of when looking for new footwear, but these seem to pull off the color quite well.

Inspirational Original Product and Packaging Design

A nice roundup of original product and packaging design over at Abduzeedo.

Dot Grid Book

A bit more subtle than a grid book, the Dot Grid Book provides designers with a means to sketch out ideas while not leaving grid lines to distract from what’s important.

Beck, “The Information”

This album is essentially packaged in a blank grid cover, while the inside of the package is filled with several sheets of stickers. Consumers can create their own design on the front and back of the case, completely customizing their own package.

Beautiful and Expressive Packaging Design

A comprehensive collection of beautiful and expressive packaging design over at Smashing Magazine.

Packaging Design Inspiration

Dzine Blog has also collected a series of package designs that are certainly worth a look.

The Power of The Box

As well as thecoolhunter.net where they’ve showcased some package designs.

Looking for More Creative Package Design?

There are some great sites and places out there were you can explore inspirational package design. One of the best we’ve found is TheDieline.com, a blog that frequently showcases unique package design.

If you’re interested in sharing some designs of your own, there are several groups on Flickr that may be worth checking out. Packaging Design and Crafty Packages are groups that stick out — and are even fun to browse through if you’re not a designer yourself.

Inspired by this showcase? Be sure to subscribe to our RSS Feed for more inspirational posts!

We’re giving away 3 copies of the Wordpress Theme, “Simple Please” to Tutorial9 readers from now until October 13th, 2008.

Simple Please is a wordpress theme which puts viewers focus back onto what’s most important — the content. Recently released on ThemeForest.net, the theme has been selling very well, and has already attained a 5-star rating.

This theme is simple, elegant, yet accommodates complex post formats with an attractive set of styles. It features a Widgetized Sidebar, four Customizable Ad Slots, two Featured Categories on the home page, and much more.

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How To Win a Copy of Simple Please

Winning a copy of Simple Please is EASY! Just leave a comment below giving us your personal defition of what Simple means to you.

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So, again, What does Simple Mean to You?

Contest Update: This Contest Has Ended, and the Winners have been announced!

Photographers keep facing more and more questions and charges for breaking the law, making it important now so more than ever to understand your rights and responsibilities as a photographer. In this article, we’ll go over such rights, as well as Model Releases.

Where and What can I photograph?

The general rule is that you can photograph mostly anything you like as long as it’s in a public place. You do not need to have permission to photograph in public, this include photographing building and parks as well as people that are in public areas.

If you’re on public property you can even photograph private property, for example standing on the street and photographing someone’s garden. If you are on private property you can photograph until someone ask you to stop (a sign prohibiting photography counts as well) and you must obey such a request.

There are exceptions to this rule, for example military installations or other subjects that can be classed as national security. However infrastructures such as bridges are not included in such a list. Another exception is, even in a public space, places like dressing rooms, restrooms or people entering their code at the ATM machine — photographing at these places counts as invading a person’s privacy.

So to summarize, here are some examples of things you can photograph, if you’re in a public space you can photograph adults, children, law enforcement officers, accidents, criminal activities, celebrities, airports and train stations.

What to do when people question you

There is a good chance that somewhere along the way in your photography experience, someone is going to confront you. Everything from regular citizens to security personal and law enforcement officers might question your activity and ask you to stop photographing. They might say it’s for security reason and refer to acts like terrorism, this is not a valid reason for them to ask you to stop what you are doing. As long as you’re in a public space you have the right to photograph.

First of all, act politely and stay as calm as possible. You do not need to explain why you are there or what you are photographing. In most cases you do not need to disclose your identity (depending on your country/state you might need to do so if it’s a law enforcement officer that is requesting).

You do not need to give them your camera/memory card nor do you need to delete the images. Unless they have a court order or are arresting you (again, depending on your location) they have no right to take your equipment.

If you are asked to delete photographs or asked to hand over your equipment ask for their identity and who they work for. Also ask what legal reason they cite for doing this to you. If this happens to you, you might want to consider taking legal action or contact your local newspaper.

How and Where can I use/publish my photographs?

Okay, so you have the right to photograph mostly anything, but are you allowed to do whatever you want with the photographs you took? The short answer is: No, there are rules and laws surrounding how you publish and distribute your photographs.

Once again, I cannot stress this enough, the laws are not the same all around the world so make sure you know what the laws says in your area before you do something you will later regret. A wrong decision can end up costing you a lot of money, not to mention your reputation as a respectable photographer.

In most areas the main difference in your rights is depending on if the photograph is used commercially or not. If your photograph is not commercial, i.e. considered art, you have much more rights to publish and use your photograph. For example, in most countries you are allowed to publish and sell photographs that are considered art without a legal release from the model/person in the photo. This means that you can go around the city photographing people in everyday situations and sell the prints or have a show at a gallery without notifying the people you photograph.

However if you intend to use the photograph in any commercial situation you will need a model release from the model. An important note is that if you sell the photograph to a commercial agency they are responsible for getting the model release from both the model and you as the photographer. If they publish your photograph without a model release you are not to blame — however all serious agencies requires a model release for every photograph they buy.

There is one gray spot though, photographers portfolios. They are used to display your work, just like commercials, but in most countries they are considered art and you do not need a model release to publish a photo on your portfolio.

News photographs, even though they can be used to sell newspapers, do not require a model release to be published and sold.

As you can see this is a rather complex issue, and I haven’t even talked about how different it is from country to country, so it’s important that you check this yourself before doing a job.

Model release

I’ve talked quite a lot about model release, which is a form of a legal document that basically states that you as a photographer holds the rights to the photograph and can do what you want with it. These legal releases can be made very simple or they can be quite detailed; in most cases a simple one will do just fine. Before doing a large-scale job, contacting a lawyer will be well worth the money to avoid any legal problems later on.

I have designed two different samples of model releases, which could be used as a guide to what you might need/want. These samples are not intended for actual use, they are supplied as guides and should be used as such.

The first one is a standard model release to be used when photographing a model for commercial use. It gives the photographer complete rights to the photographs.

The second one is a specific model release for a type of modeling that is becoming more and more common, Time-For-Print. Time-For-Print is the idea that the model gives you his/her time and for that they receive an agreed upon amount of prints for compensation. This is common for models starting out and wanting to build up a portfolio and for photographers doing the same thing. This model release is more flexible and gives options on what compensation the model is expected to receive.

If you’re doing a planned photography session with people; models, weddings, children etc. always have them sign a model release. It’s for your own safety! Do not just throw the paper on the counter and force them to sign it, it’s important that they understand what they are signing and explain what it is. They are signing away their rights to the photograph of themselves or their children; it’s understandably that they might have some questions or concerns so you should be thorough.

Finished Example

Before we begin, let’s take a look at a finished example of the scene.

Step 1 - Creating the Background

Since our scene is in the sky, lets select some nice blue colors to use for the background. I decided to use #a6e3ff as the light blue color and #63c4f0 as the darker blue color.

Now that we have our colors, let’s create a gradient on a new document.

Step 2 - Creating the Balloon Shape

Create a new layer, and select the Pen Tool. With your Pen Tool set to paths, create a shape like a hot air balloon. Then right click, click Make Selection, and click OK. Then fill your selection with a color, I chose #45af37.

Step 3 - Adding a Shadow to the Balloon

Since this is a cartoon scene, I can add a shadow against the sky! To do this, simply add a Drop Shadow (Layer > Layer Style > Drop Shadow).

Step 4 - Adding Stripes to the Balloon

Duplicate (Layer > Duplicate Layer) your current balloon layer. Apply a Color Overlay (Layer > Layer Style > Color Overlay) to the layer using a different shade of the color you used before, such as #76e966 for my green. Then change the size of the shape (Edit > Free Transform).

Repeat this process until you get as many stripes as you desire.

Step 5 - Adding a Highlight to the Balloon

Create a new layer and select your Gradient Tool. Set your foreground color to white, and change your gradient tool to match the one shown below.

Make a selection of the balloon (Ctrl+Click Thumbnail) and drag your gradient from top to bottom to make the highlight. Then lower the opacity of the layer to around 25%.

Step 6 - Creating the Basket Shape

Create a new layer and grab your Rounded Rectangle Tool and set the Radius to 5 px. Using a brown color such as #a38f3f, create a rounded rectangle with the same width of the bottom of the balloon and give it a height that looks good. Then use your Pencil Tool to make the top of the rounded rectangle straight.

Step 7 - Creating the Basket Pattern

Create a new document that is 6px wide and 2px high with a transparent background. Then use a black pencil and create the pattern below. Then go to Edit > Define Pattern.

Step 8 - Styling the Basket

Add the Pattern Overlay (Layer > Layer Style > Pattern Overlay) on your basket layer using your newly made pattern. Then apply a gradient overlay with the following settings:

Then add a drop shadow with the following settings:

Step 9 - Adding Strings to Your Basket

Create a new layer and use a 1px white brush to place some strings connecting the balloon to the basket. Give it the same drop shadow your basket layer has.

Step 10 - Adding a Character

To add the character in the basket, create a layer underneath the basket and use a black brush and drag a straight line (hold shift). Then use smaller brushes to create the eyes.

Keeping Your Layers Organized

It is always a good idea to label all of your layers so that you know what they are and keep them organized.

Grouping layers that are related to each other also helps to make your document easier to manage and edit.

You can change the color of a group by double clicking on the folder icon for it.

Step 11 - Adding More Balloons

Duplicate your first balloon and re-size it in a new position. Then make a selection of the balloon (Ctrl+Click Thumbnail) and fill it with a different color on a new layer. Set the blending mode of the layer to Hue.

Step 12 - Adding the Clouds

To add the clouds, simply create new layers and grab a white brush. Use different size brushes to create the clouds, and give the layer a drop shadow with the following settings:

The Finished Result

After following all of the previous steps, we can come up with something like this!

Are Webmasters Working for the Search Engines?

It’s sickening.

No, really.  It’s pathetic, and we all know it.  Most of us have been at that point, or we’re still hanging around that point where we think we can Trick search engines into listing us above our competition.  We actually go to great lengths to design our sites for the search engines instead of our readers.

Many webmasters will put creativity aside, and hire cheap writers to put together hundreds of (worthless) posts for their blogs. Others ignore content altogether, and spend most of their time trying to develop inbound links to their valueless sites.

Well, it’s the only way to get noticed in the ever-growing blogosphere… it’s our only choice.  Right?

An Alternative That Makes Sense

There is an alternative you know, and it makes a lot of sense.  What happens when you put away all your dirty tricks, get-rich-fast schemes, etc. and focus on making your blog as helpful as possible to your viewers?

What I am proposing, is that rather than spending time finding popular niches where you can trick search engines into sending you lots of traffic — you spend time working, researching, discussing, and writing valuable content, which you are passionate about, for your users.

Let’s take a look at some advantages of this approach:

One Time Visitors Become Repeat Viewers

If folks come to your blog, don’t find what they need, and don’t feel like your site is catered to them in the first place, chances are they won’t be stopping by again anytime soon.  Sure, you may get your rankings up there for a short while, but you’re viewership and user loyalty won’t sustain itself.

When you focus your efforts on making your blog as useful as possible to the viewer, you’re much more likely to see that viewer return in the future - perhaps even on a day to day basis.  You might not see that immediate boost of traffic, but you’ll be creating a base to build upon.  A strong foundation leads to a larger, longer lasting blog over time.

Others Start to Link To you

When you have helpful posts, and a website that looks more friendly to a viewer, other sites tend to be more interested in linking to you.  Sure - you may not get quite as many visitors from Google or the likes, but you’ll make up for those with the referrals you’ll start to see from other websites.

Chances are, if a user clicks a link on a website, there is some form of trust between that user and the webmaster/editor/developer of that site.  By extension, that loyalty may carry over in part to your own blog — something a search engine can’t do just yet.  So to close this point — you’re gaining more quality links to your blog, and at the same time, building a loyal userbase.

You Start Linking To Others

Wait a minute!  How does that help me? Remember, this isn’t about helping yourself.  We’re aiming to please our viewers.  If you notice something that you’re viewers might enjoy on another blog or website, it really won’t hurt your own blog to send a link their way.

Actually, linking to others can be quite a good way to show how in-tune you are with your niche as a whole. It could lead more people to your blog in the long run - so this could end up being helpful to you after all.

Pageviews Go Up, Bounces Go Down

It’s common sense.  When you’ve got a website that’s simply awesome, folks stick around longer.  Granted, usability will play a factor into just how long they stick around, but overall, your content will keep readers interested in what else you have to offer.Pageviews are a great way to measure the usefulness and usability of your blog.  If you’re playing tricks on the search engines, you probably won’t see a stunning Pageview/Visitor ratio.

For more on Usability, see our 9 Easy Usability Improvements for Blogs.

Google is Smarter Than You or I Will Ever Be

The job of a search engine is to find the most accurate results for a question input by a user (a search).  Can you really convince yourself that in the long run, you’re going to outwit some of the brightest minds in this day and age who are programming these search engines?I didn’t think so.Fact is, you might actually be able to get a great search engine ranking really quick using some tactful strategies, but unless there is substance behind your blog, it’s going to be short-lived.  And when you drop in the rankings, your viewership will take a very hard hit.

When you build for the user though, you won’t take a hard hit if you suffer in rankings thanks to your strong foundation.  You’ll see improvements in the long run actually, and a lot of the new viewers you see from Search Engines will probably stick around, and perhaps even bookmark you.

What Works Best For You?

Are you an experienced webmaster? What have you found to be the best ways of finding (and sustaining) traffic?