Tutorials

Create a Hip Magazine Cover

Most people get their news online nowadays, and as a result, magazines are focusing more on high quality art and photography to catch a buyer’s eye. The photo surely makes the cover, but the overall design of the cover is just as important. The primary components that complete a cover are the title or masthead, [...]

Create A Custom QR Code

The BBC created a lot of buzz in the design community for Quick Response – those unbearably ugly squares of black and white that have been popping up everywhere lately. They are on Twitter, subway posters, magazine ads, business cards, food labels and a myriad of other visible surfaces. What the BBC did differently was [...]

Create a Google+ Portfolio

As part of the Google+ Guide project, I created a tip for how to setup your profile page as a portfolio using your Picasa scrapbook.  This tip was recently featured on Plus Weekly, which you can check out after the jump.

Custom Invoice&Quotes Using WordPress

I’ve written an in-depth tutorial for using WP3 Invoice and Contact Form 7 with DB Extension to manage client profiles and create Proposals/Quotes that clients can Accept electronically, then pay in partial payments. The final solution will:

Allow creation of Quotes that the client could accept by clicking an Accept button that would email the acceptance to us as well as store it in the database for ease of reference.
Include a link to view the full terms of service, or include full contract terms below the quote.
Allow conversion of the Quote to an invoice.
Allow discounting and editing of the invoice so the client could make two payments, satisfying a down payment or retainer % requirement.

When combined with other custom solutions such as project workspace integration, you can reduce your operating costs significantly by replacing expensive online service subscriptions with your own app that is truly integrated into your WordPress site.

Design an E-book Cover

With more and more writers choosing to self-publish e-books, cover design is a service in demand far beyond the confines of marketing agencies. However, the cover has to sell the book, plain and simple. At the same time, the cover has to accurately represent the genre and story within. As a designer, you may be [...]

Album Artwork Design

Successful design communicates an idea. This means there is no standard for creating an album cover, logo, or gig poster for a heavy metal band. The artwork simply must be appropriate to the subject and convey the band’s sound, motivation and style to the viewer. With more and more music being published digitally, the format [...]