Creative people by nature always seek different opportunities where they can showcase their works. Aside from joining different social networks and building online portfolios, making money by selling works and joining contests online is now a sizzling trend in the design industry.
Today we showcase some of the most popular places online where you can sell your work, join contests and earn extra income. They can be in custom marketplaces, stock sites, and other alternative avenues online. This list extends to diverse types of creative fields like web design, illustration, photography, logo design, animation and much more. Check out our list below and who knows, one of these might just give you the perfect project collaboration and opportunity you've been waiting for. 1. 99DesignsThe site is a nice marketplace for crowdsourced graphic design. Find different graphic design contests by clients all over the world and compete with other designers. Contests include designing logos, web pages, t-shirts, business cards and more.  2. CrowdSpringSubmit designs to many clients in need of logos, web designs, stationeries and more. Compete with other designers and be chosen by the satisfied client and get paid for the project.  3. ThreadlessThis is probably the most popular t-shirt design avenue. Submit designs, join different design challenges, get paid, get your design printed and see your design getting purchased and worn by people across the globe.  4. FreelancerMeet over 4 million professionals in the freelancing industry by submitting your craft and joining different design projects. Earn extra income by satisfying the needs of the clients.  5. DesignCrowdAnother design marketplace where designers can look for many design projects and compete with designers. Share designs with friends and colleagues, give feedback to the designers and request changes. Get selected by the client and get paid for your awesome design entry.  6. ArtBreakA nice place for emerging artists mostly traditional illustrators and painters. Aside from showcasing your artworks, you can also sell your pieces commission free. Get the chance to connect with other artists, tons of art buyers and get feedback from professionals in this creative field.  7. PhotoBoxGalleryA nice avenue for photographers to showcase their photos. Sell your photos in your own online gallery. Get unlimited photo storage, set prices and start selling your amazing shots to the rest of the world.  8. MyFontsMore than just a typical online resource of various font styles, the site also allows font foundries or individual designers to sell their own font designs.  9. GraphicLeftOversA Stock marketplace for designers, artists and photographers for selling their works at their own prices and licenses. Contributors and artists of course receive fair commissions in all sales and extended licenses.  10. LogoArenaA nice place for logo designers to earn extra income by participating in different logo design contests. Browse from various contests, submit your logo design, get selected and be paid for your service. It’s as easy as that.  11. iStockPhotoAnother Stock marketplace for artists and designers out there. The site lets its members contribute photos, illustrations, videos, flash and logo designs to be sold at reasonable royalty commissions.  12. AniboomAn awesome place to showcase your animation skills. Just be a member of Aniboom and get the opportunity to browse various jobs and projects posted by different clients. Create and submit your animation entry. Be selected and get paid!  13. CreativeAlliesCreative people get the chance to create designs for popular bands, festivals and films. Winning designs will be part of an official merchandise receiving cash, other prizes and royalties.  Got some other sites in your mind? Then shoot us up by commenting below. Find us on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus for more updates. Subscribe to our blog for an exclusive access to our daily dose of design awesomeness! Read more posts by Kerby Rosanes  |
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Posted: 23 Aug 2012 10:28 PM PDT
Ever since Adobe InDesign was launched in 1999 it has revolutionized the world of print publishing. It gave the world an easier and a streamlined system from designing in the computer to the actual print production. While it may not have the photo-editing capabilities of Photoshop or the superior control over vector graphics in Illustrator, Adobe InDesign makes up for it by making desktop publishing easy and as painless as possible.
One of the best things in working on Adobe InDesign is that you can import .PSD and .AI files and re-edit those files in their native programs and save it there without having to bother copying, pasting and adjusting your layouts again from scratch since the imported file in the InDesign document will automatically update itself. And although there are still designers who don’t consider the program’s prowess, we here at YTD would like to give you a glimpse of how invaluable Adobe InDesign is to every graphic designer by making a simple poster.  Tutorial Assets:Download the 8.5″ x 11″ Poster at UPrinting’s Template Page Poster Template (Go to Templates Tab > Select JPEG as the application format > Click the Download link for the 8.5×11 file setup). We will use this as our guide for the bleed, margins and the printing area of the document.Don’t forget to also download the other assets that will be used in this tutorial: 1. Crowd 2. Strobe 3. Bebas Neue Font Make sure to setup the font before getting started with this tutorial. Step 1: Getting StartedFire up Adobe Indesign and then go to File > New or (CTRL+N) and that you will see this dialouge box:  Once you’re done, the next thing to do is import the template. To do this just go to File > Place (CTRL+D). After that you’ll be able to place the template anywhere in the document.  
To align the template in the page, first go to the drop down menu, then choose Align to Page then select the image after that. You can then click Align Horizontal Centers under Align Objects; afterward click Align Vertical Centers
Step 2: Adding the images:
After placing the template in the center, we’ll go to the layers panel then rename the current layer as “Template”. We can then lock the Template layer since we are not going to edit it. After that we will make a new layer which we will rename “Crowd”.
Do the same thing that we did on the template and after that crop the image to make it fit. In InDesign you can easily crop just by using the Selection Tool (V) and dragging the control points of the image. What I did is that I centered the image first and drag the sides until it is aligned to the template’s bleed. After that I locked the layer so I will not be able to select it.
Next is create a new layer and rename it: “Strobes”. Unlike the Crowd layer which is a rectangular framed photo we will have a circular framed one and here is how to do it:
Choose the Ellipse Frame Tool in the Tool Box. Drag and hold shift to create a perfect circle and once you are happy with the size of your circle, click it and press CTRL+D to place the file inside the ellipse. You will notice that only a small part of the image is displayed. This is because the imported image is in its actual size. To edit this, just press A or the Direct Selection Tool. Select the image by going over the control points and size it down until you hit the desired size.
After placing both images, we will lock the layer for now to avoid it getting selected.
Step 3: Adding in the graphics
For the additional graphic, we will create it in InDesign with the use of the Pen Tool (P). Now make a new layer and rename it to Wavelenghts. Since this is a poster for a music festival I have decided to make the design like those wavelengths that we see in our music players and other sound devices, but instead of a thin lined wavelength I made it thicker.
Apart from aesthetic purposes, this vector graphic will also serve as the space where we will put the text, so keep in mind that the graphic should be a bit bigger to accommodate the text. Using different colors it will give the poster that fun vibe. Keep making the vector until you reach the end of the poster. This is how mine looks like:
After much contemplating I decided to make 2 more of these since we will also need space for the bands and for the sponsors as well.
Now its time to add the text.
Step 4: Adding the Text
I decided to use Bebas Neue since the font is thick and clean but at the same time, it is not too thick that its distracting. Aside from that it will go along well with the straight lines of the vector graphic. Now create a new layer and change its name to Text.
Using the Text Tool drag along to the work area to create a text box. Then type “Sound Scapes”, change the text color to yellow and fit it in the blue vector graphic. Once you are done just press CTRL+ALT+C so that the excess text box will be reduced just to fit in the text. After that, I made the text bigger (by selecting the font using the Selection Tool (V) while holding CTRL) since it is the title of the event. Then I have it sheared and rotated for 6 degrees to give it an edgy feel. To do that, click the text and take a look at the bar below the main menu bar. You will see this:
For the title I decided to cut the blue graphic using the text “Sound Scape” to set it apart from other texts.
To do this, first copy the blue vector graphic (CTRL+C) and paste it in place to the Text layer (CTRL+SHFT+ALT+V). This will put the blue vector graphic above the text. Next, right click the blue vector graphic and go to Arrange > Send to back.
This will put the blue vector graphic behind the text. Now outline the text first by selecting the text and pressing CTRL+SHFT+ALT+O to outline the text. Now the text will be a vector base graphic, so before we go ahead I moved the original text out from the vector based text since the next step won’t work if the text is still selected.
Now to cut the blue vector graphic, select the outlined text and the vector graphic and go to Pathfinder and click Exclude Overlap (If you can’t find the Pathfinder just go to Windows > Object & Layout > Pathfinder). The vector text will now be a hole in the vector graphic. Also the graphic will take in the color of the outlined text which was yellow in my case but I changed it back into blue.
I placed the original Sound Scape text just a bit off center from the cut to give it the effect that its going out from the hole.
After that I place in the other texts like the sub-headline, bands and of course the sponsors and did the same treatment as the headline text where I sheard and rotated it by 6 degrees.
I am not satisfied of how the color of the images go along with the vector graphic so what I did is edit the Strobe and the Crowd layer in Photoshop. Instead of searching for the file and opening it there, you can actually right click the image and choose Edit Image With… And from there just look for Adobe Photoshop. If Photoshop is not listed there what you can do is go to Other and search for the Adobe Photoshop program (Its the Photoshop.exe).
 Step 5: Editing the image in Photoshop
Once in Photoshop I decided to give the images a vintage film look. To do this, you can go to the Adjustment Layers > Curves > RGB then go to the Red Channel and tweak the line to a S curve. The same goes for the Green and Blue Channels. Next I chose the Exposure in the Adjustments Layers and increased the Offset a bit to give the photo a faded look.
I did the same for the Crowd. After getting the look I wanted I overwrite the original file so that when I go back to InDesign it will automatically update the placed image.
This is how mine looks like after tweaking the images:
 Step 6: Final Touches
After making the Strobe and Crowd images look like something that came out from a film camera, I still felt the design has too much negative space so what I did is I added some lines that will give the poster a more edgy feel to it.
First, we will create a new layer under the Strobe layer. We will then add some diamond outlines at the back of the Strobe layer by making use of the Rectangle Tool (M). Hold the Shift button and drag it along the the image until you have the same size as the circle.
Then we will rotate it into a diamond shape, make it a little bit smaller, triplicate the outline and even out the spacing manually. Here’s how mine looks like:
I have decided to add more lines but instead of the diamond outlines I figured that using a row of slanted lines would be more appropriate to fill in the negative space. Before we proceed in making the lines, first go to Edit > Preferences > Units and Increments a dialogue box will pop out.
You will see under the Keyboard Increments that there is the Cursor Key where you can change the value. I changed mine into 0.098 inches and then click okay.
Now the next thing we will do is make use of the line tool. Draw a straight horizontal line and then tilt it just like what we did on the text by changing the values of the Rotation Angle to -45 degrees. Once you have the line rotated you can change the thickness of the line depending on how thick you want the line to be. For me 2 points is thick enough.
After changing the desired thickness press ALT+Right Arrow Key. This will duplicate the selected line to its right. Remember we change the value of the Cursor Key in the Units and Increments menu, so take note that it will affect the spacing of the original object to the duplicated one. I duplicated the line for 20 times to get this:
Before adjusting the position of the line I grouped the lines into one, so it would be easier to select the lines. After that I adjusted its place in the poster. I did this process 2 more times using different values and number of lines in a group and finally ended with this:
Now I’m satisfied with the design and the overall look of the poster its time to save and export this document.
Step 6: Saving and Exporting Files
You can either save it as a .INDD, which is an InDesign file but be aware that if you change the location of the images used, the next time you will open the file, a pop-up error will come out and will ask you to relink the images. This can be easily solved by packing the files. Packaging the files in Adobe InDesign gathers all your files and creates a new folder where the InDesign file as well as the used fonts and images are saved in one folder. Packaging files is easy, just save your work first then go to Files > Package or ALT+SHIFT+CTRL+P. This will prompt a dialogue box where it will notify you if you have any errors in the document like in this case:
I intentionally did not change the color mode of the 2 images used into CMYK mode for illustration purposes. Now once you fixed all the errors you can just click Package and continue until it asks you what you will name your folder and where will you save it. After that, you are all set. Now keep in mind that the older versions of InDesign cannot open new versions of InDesign files so what you can do is that after packaging, you can export (CTRL+E) it to an IDML file or InDesign Markeup file and save it inside the recently packaged folder. This will allow you to open InDesign files saved using older versions of the software with the newer ones.
There are many ways to export your file for printing purposes. One of the most obvious is by exporting it to JPEG which is already a compressed flattened file. You can also opt to have it exported into a PDF file format. But bear in mind that PDF files are not flattened and if your file would undergo pre-press, you will most likely encounter the missing font problem. To avoid this all you have to do is outline the text before exporting it to PDF just as what we did on the Sound Scape text and it will turn all the text into vector based objects. Do this by selecting everything (CTRL+A) and then outlining it (CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+O) before export. Just remember to not save the outlined document because you won’t be able to edit the text if there are some typographical errors. Instead, just Undo (CTRL+Z) your last action and Save (CTRL+S).
Here is the finished product:
 Final Notes:
Unlike in Photoshop and Illustrator where you have to choose between CMYK and RGB before you start your work. InDesign uses both color profiles and prevents any changes in color as you work on your document. When printing, InDesign converts any RGB placed content into CMYK and as a rule of thumb all images that will be placed in InDesign should be converted to CMYK to avoid color complications in the printing process.
What do you guys think? Hit us up with a comment below or share your thoughts on Facebook , Twitter and G+. For more tutorials, or design news and inspiration, stay tuned and subscribe to our RSS Feed! Cheers! Read more posts by Patrick Jude Ilagan  |
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Posted: 23 Aug 2012 01:13 AM PDT
The video game industry is considered as one of the most lucrative businesses in the world. It employs a multitude of disciplines including programmers, writers, marketers, and of course, graphic designers. One particular area of game development that utilizes the talents of graphic designers and artists, (with the exception of the actual gameplay) are the game trailers.
Game trailers can quite be the test of genuine creativity. Because not only will one need to take into consideration how the trailer would look, but other things should also be taken account such as dubbing and the game's story line. So it's incredibly awe-inspiring whenever we see a game trailer that's polished and well made. Take for example these trailers from different video games. DC UNIVERSE ONLINEAn MMORPG developed by Sony Online Entertainment with WB Games, this title features familiar characters from DC comics like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and the rest of the Justice League. The game is set in the present day, but the opening cinematic sequence takes place in the future where a battle between Earth's greatest heroes and villains is being fought. DARKSIDERS: WRATH OF WARThis game is developed by Vigil Games and was published by THQ back in 2010 for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. The game's storyline is loosely based on the popular lore about the horsemen of the apocalypse. In the game, users play the role of War, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse who goes on a mission to kill The Destroyer in order to bring back the balance of power on the world. F1 2010F1 2010 is the only non-fictional game in our list. It is based on the 2010 season of the Formula One Championship. The game was released in September 2010 for the PC, PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. ASSASSIN'S CREED REVELATIONSRESIDENT EVIL 6Resident Evil 6 (Biohazard 6 in Japan) is an upcoming zombie-themed game developed and published by Capcom. It's scheduled for release in October 2012 for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. A version for Microsoft Windows is reported to follow at a later date. TRANSFORMERS WAR OF CYBERTRONDeveloped by High Moon Studios and published by Activision, Transformers War of Cybertron is a third-person shooter video game set on the planet Cybertron that features familiar characters in the Transformers franchise. The game was initially released on June 2010 for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Windows PC. CRYSIS 3Crysis 3 is the third installment of the highly successful Crysis game series developed by Crytek and published by Electronic Arts for the Windows PC, Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. The game will run on Crytek's CryEngine 3 game engine and will feature the same protagonist from the previous 2 games – Prophet, a soldier equipped with an adaptive Nanosuit and armed with a high-tech bow and other types of alien weaponry. The game is scheduled for release in February 2013. STAR WARS FORCE UNLEASED 2This game is the sequel to Star Wars Force Unleashed which was developed and published by LucasArts. The game is set on the Star Wars universe and players take control of StarKiller – a renegade clone created by Darth Vader to be the perfect apprentice. The game was released on October 2010 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and iOS devices. MASS EFFECT 3Mass Effect 3 is another role-playing game published by Electronic Arts for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the Windows Pc. It was developed by BioWare and was released in March 2012. It is the third and final chapter in the Mass Effect trilogy of video games and details the story of Systems Alliance Commander Shepard on his mission to defeat the Reapers. There were several trailers released for the game. The video above is just one of them. CASTLEVANIA: LORDS OF SHADOW 2Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 is another upcoming video game developed by MercurySteam and will be published by Konami in 2013. The game is the final part of the Lords of Shadow saga and features the return of Dracula as he tries to reacquire his old powers in order to defeat a vampire lord.  |
