Fantastic designs and talented designers just keep pouring in! Check out this week’s 5 that we think deserve the applause.

In no particular order,

Author: Hugo Louroza

Why We Like the Design:
Green and brown have never looked so good together. This designer has put together a work of art that truly encompasses the power of design.

Author: Jelena Masic

Why We Like the Design:
When referring to brandable designs, this is one that is guaranteed to be brandable. Fantastic usage of colors, fonts, and layout!

Author: Project Drawing

Why We Like the Design:
Once in a while we think a business card or stationary is deserving enough to be listed here. Perfectly designed business cards are crucial to giving your business that first impression, and in our opinion, Project Drawing has done just that.

Author: Mladen Simic

Why We Like the Design:
Too often we choose designs that are brandable and outstanding, but we forget that we do work the majority of the time in a web world and there are times when all we need is something simple and elegant. Mladen has created a simple chemistry with this logo that we truly think will serve to its fullest potential in its field.

Author: Dennis Centeno

Why We Like the Design:
This week we discussed how complementary colors work and this is a fantastic example of the fact in action. Simply said, the colors used with an addition of some nice design skills, this design embarks excellence in action.

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All designs are displayed with permission from the respective owners.

Popularity: 93% [?]

In the post on color theory, What Everybody Ought to Know About Colors, we discussed in detail how colors vary by type, how they work together, and how colors fit very well on what we know as the color wheel.

In this segment, you’ll realize the importance of color knowledge in your graphic and web design sphere. Most of what is discussed below is used in Photoshop color management and image manipulation schemas.

The Basics of Color Theory

Hue

When you look at an object that has color, you ask “What color is that?” Colors come from various wavelengths of light and hue is what defines each unique wavelength. In other words, hue represents different colors. We can have hues of red, orange, green, yellow, blue, and violet.  The ‘H’ in the diagram below represents all of the various hues in the visible color spectrum.

Saturation

You’ll notice in the above diagram there is another variable represented by an ‘S’. This is also known as the saturation. Most of you probably get an idea what saturation does. If you’ve played around in Photoshop, you can saturate or desaturate an image based on your preferences. Referring to the diagram above, when you change an images saturation, you’re also changing the diameter of the hue which is what causes the image to go from full color to grayscale.

Value

The ‘V’ represented in the diagram above tells how much of Red, Green, and Blue to use in the color. In other words, value is also the brightness of color. Values 255,255,255 will create the color white (#FFFFFF). The combination of Hue, Saturation, and Value make up the HSV model used to create a three-dimensional view of color.

Luminosity

Luminosity is also known as how bright a color is.

How it Works in Design

The following diagram shows you how Photoshop and other digital software allow you to use what we’ve just covered:

You see above that we have all the parts we’ve discussed: Hue, Saturation, Luminosity. Photoshop even allows you to create color based on whether you prefer the HSB(V), RGB, or the CMYK models.

In part II of this lesson, we will cover Chroma, Tint, Colorfulness, Shade, Intensity, and other color manipulation techniques.

Popularity: 91% [?]

I am now running out of things to say every time I see great designs, so once again, these great designers deserve a thumbs up for their fantastic work:

In no particular order,

Author: Holly Morse

Why We Like The Design: The desaturated tone really reflects who this design was made for as well as gives the logo an authentic signature look. Truly a design worth featuring!

Author: Vasile Neacs

Why We Like the Design:
It seems that we have a thing for simple designs. What makes this design outstanding is the fact that it reflects its goal and audience. With the latest web trends a nice web page design will definitely reflect upon this company’s success.

Author: Brian Tom

Why We Like This Design:
Brian is simply an amazing designer. This isn’t the first time he’s been featured (here) and everyone should definitely check out more of his work. This logo is a fantastic reflection of his skill and passion. Keep it up buddy!

Author: Matt Palmateer

Why We Like This Design:
This author is a talented artist. This sketch is quirky, interesting, and attractive. Moreover, it is straight to the point. That’s how all designs should be.

Author: Nick B.

Why We Like the Design:
Last time I checked fire and vanilla were not very compatible with each other, but give it up to this designer for making the impossible possible. Its these designers that can make two completely opposite things look good together that really have the talent in the design world.

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All designs are displayed with permission from the respective owners.

Popularity: 100% [?]

As part of our Quick Design Tips series, we will be covering a lot about colors, color use, prover vs improper, safe vs unsafe and so forth.

A color is essentially your groundwork for making your design stand out, look unique, and most of all, look professional.

Primary and Secondary Colors

Sadly enough, there are many self-taught designers who absolutely have no idea what the difference between primary, secondary complementary, and tertiary colors are. This is essentially the groundwork for creating color schemes that match and are compatible with each other.

Primary Colors are your “core” colors. From these colors, you can create various degrees of other colors such as the ones we see in the above picture. Primary colors come in two groups with three primary colors in each morel:

1. Additive Model Colors are colors that are produced from a black background creating three main colors: Red, Green, and Blue. These three colors are the primary colors for the additive model and are also known as the RGB Model. And as the name mentions, when you overlap each of these three colors, you end up with other colors (as seen below).
2. Subtractive Combination coloring is opposite of the traditional RGB model. In contrast to the Additive model, colors in this model are reflected off of a white background, so instead of getting your standard colors Red, Green, and Blue, you see Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow (also referred to as the primary colors of the subtractive system – or the CMY Model).

   QUICK TIP: Most people print on white paper, which is the reason why you have Cyan, Yellow, and Magenta cartridges in your printer rather than Red, Green, and Blue.

Examples of Combining Colors:

• Red + Green  = Yellow ; Yellow + Magenta = Red
• Blue + Green = Cyan ; Cyan + Yellow = Blue;

The Inverse Relation:

• Cyan + Magenta + Yellow = Black
• Red + Green + Blue = White

Secondary Colors

Secondary Colors are also a simple term to understand. Secondary colors are any combination of two primary colors.  This means looking at the color diagrams above, these colors would be where the circles overlap. (i.e. blue, green, red in one diagram; cyan, magenta, and yellow in the other)

Complementary Colors

Another term used often is complementary colors. These are colors opposite of each other on the color wheel as shown in the diagram below.

Tertiary Colors

Finally, in order to make our color wheel complete, there is another color mix we add to the group. This is a combination of a primary color with its adjacent secondary color resulting in what is called a tertiary color.

The Color Wheel

Combining all of the terms above, we now have a complete color wheel which we will explain how to use effectively to create professional color schemes for your designs.

Popularity: 99% [?]

Some might have noticed that I’ve put up a new category and have been posting to it from time to time called Quick Design Tips. This raises the question of what is this category about?

To be honest, I didn’t feel I would make this category, but at one point I had one of those moments where I had a rush of ideas about blogging topics, and most of them fit into the category of web design, so I figured it would be nice to include a category dedicated to these new ideas.

 What Quick Design Tips is all about…

Quick Design Tips is about design tips that will help you improve your Photoshop skills in your daily use. Now this category is specifically for folks who know a little bit about Photoshop (i.e. know how to open it and make a simple drawing). This doesn’t mean you need to be an expert, but this does mean that I won’t be going over what each icon, button, or toolbar in Photoshop does.

What Will We Be Covering?

I don’t want to spill the beans too early, but we’ll be covering a lot of:

• technique
• design
• usability
• placement
• professionalism (colors, fonts, layout)
• other miscellaneous aspects

In closing, this should be a fun experience for everyone and I believe every designer will learn something they didn’t know before and everyone can also be a contributor to these tips via discussion or even posting their own tips.

Popularity: 68% [?]

Summer is now officially over for those living in the Northern Hemisphere, but as usual, great design doesn’t stop with a change of seasons. This week we have 5 great designs (as usual) so here they are:

In no particular order,

Author: Laurentiu Toma

Why We Liked The Design: Taking the identity this logo was designed for, we easily see how this sleek design fits into the context and truly does reflect the name.

Author: Adam Cushingham

Why We Liked the Design: Whereas many logos strive to look modern, this designer used a one-color approach keeping the focus simple and representative of its identity thus really making it a brandable design.

Author: Przemek Kucinski

Why We Liked This Design: One word: Wow! We don’t often publish great webpage designs, but in the business world, this is one that will deliver results. Oh and not to forget the modern color choice as well as the professional layout.

Author: Yohanna

Why We Liked This Design: Again, a fantastic design. If you’re looking to gain a competitive advantage with your construction business, this designer would be the one to walk you through it.

Author: Denis Wong

Why We Liked This Design: Easy to remember, easy to brand, easy to advertise, and easy to showcase. This is one design that will go big.

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All designs are displayed with permission from the respective owners.

Popularity: 62% [?]