Every wonder who you really are? Congratulations! You have a lot in common with JavaScript. Learn once and for all how to train your JavaScript to remember who it is and what it's doing.

 

Hide Your Shame: The A List Apart Store and T-Shirt Emporium is back. Hot new designs! Old favorites remixed! S, M, L, XL. Come shop with us!

Managing subcontractors and distributed projects is easy and fun. No wait, that's a lie. Luckily, a good version control may be just what you need to keep your projects on track.

 

Hide Your Shame: The A List Apart Store and T-Shirt Emporium is back. Hot new designs! Old favorites remixed! S, M, L, XL. Come shop with us!

Probably one of the greatest things about design is when someone comes up with a good idea do revive old, cool games. What about a Mario Kart race going on in highway somewhere, or maybe Donkey Kong throwing stuff at Mario and Luigi from a real skyscrapper?

It was a really awesome idea, the person who came up with these is a real genius. Does anyone knows who did it? If you do, drop a comment! Enjoy and cheers!

Update: Thanks to our reader Oli Kenobi, we got to know the mastermind behind these pieces: Lee Vidal, aka RETROnoob. And we couldn't go that far to find such a creative artist... he's got a DeviantArt account, of course. I've updated all pictures to bigger versions. Enjoy!

Street Fighter

Mario Bros 3

Street Fighter

Advance Wars

Yoshi's Island

Advance Wars

Donkey Kong

Excitebike

Ice Climbers

Mario Kart

Outrun

Yoshi's Island

Advance Wars

Mario Bros 3

3 days left to WALL*E starting hitting the silver screen and we are all totally hyped with all the tv spots, teaser trailers, trailers, posters and everything about it. And now, one more thing to enjoy: retro posters!

And if you were in a desert island for the past year, here's the plot: "What if mankind had to leave Earth, and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off? After hundreds of lonely years of doing what he was built for, WALL*E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) discovers a new purpose in life (besides collecting knick-knacks) when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. EVE comes to realize that WALL*E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet's future, and races back to space to report her findings to the humans (who have been eagerly awaiting word that it is safe to return home). Meanwhile, WALL*E chases EVE across the galaxy and sets an adventure into motion. Joining WALL*E on his journey across the universe is a cast of characters including a pet cockroach and a heroic team of malfunctioning misfit robots."

WALL*E arrives cinemas everywhere June 27th.

Resn
Kickass interactive studio from Wellington, New Zealand.

Elisabeth Moch
Awesome sketches/illustrations from Elisabeth Moch. Thanks to The Style Press.

Gregory Schaffer
Some great moments captured whilst in China from photographer Gregory Schaffer.

David Navas
Distinct illustrative style from David Navas.

Albert Folch Studio
Hot graphic/typography from Albert Folch Studio in Spain.

Eve Duhamel
Cute paintings, illustrations from Eve Duhamel in Montreal.

Seven Ways to Make Your Business Card Stand Out
Some interesting tips and wise words on designing an effective business card.

If you are into advertising, you probably heard something about the Cannes Lions 2008, the 55th International Advertising Festival that was going on in France. We got to see same really great ad pieces there, and now we're featuring some of those here.

And if you know any cool ads, drop a link! Cheers.

ENERGIZER

"Never let their toys die."

"Never let their toys die."

"Never let their toys die."

"Never let their toys die."

SHANGRI-LA TOURISM

"Traveling changes your life."

"Traveling changes your life."

"Traveling changes your life."

VOLKSWAGEN JETTA

"Follow your instincts. The new Jetta Variant with Sky View sunroof."

"Follow your instincts. The new Jetta Variant with Sky View sunroof."

GATORADE KIDS

UNIMED

"Cigarette kills more."

Last week we published our 10th Wallpaper of the Week. It was an awesome typography/design from Ginger Monkey Design called Compassion. What I really liked about that design was how they mixed some "frilly bits" with the typeface to create an outstanding piece of work. I decided to create a tutorial showing you how to do that as well.

In this tutorial I will show you how to mix some vectors with letters to create a really nice design.

Step 1

The first thing to do is to find the elements we will use. There are lots of websites where you can find nice vectors, and there's a post from Cameron Moll with a huge list of these sites. So that's a nice place to start. http://cameronmoll.com/archives/2008/05/25_resources_ornaments_fleurons/

After checking all the sites out, I bought the vectors from http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/object/5836792_floral_design_elements.php?id=5836792

Step 2

Open Photoshop and create a new document. I used 1680x1050 pixels. After that, type abduzeedo and go to Layer>Layer Style>Gradient Overlay. Use Red, Yellow, Green, and Light Blue for the colors. I used Futura for the typeface

Step 3

Let's start mixing the vectors with the type. First you will have to find the right "ornament" for the letter you want. Then you will have to place it in a way that it follows the shape of that letter. In the image below you can see that the "ornament" seems to be coming from the "a".

Step 3

After you align the ornament with the letter, it's time to add some depth. To do that let's use the Layer Styles. Go to Layer>Layer Styles>Drop Shadow. Use Multiply for the Blend Mode, Black for the color, 100% Opacity, -60% Angle, Distance of 5 pixels and Size of 5 pixels as well.

Step 4

Here let's create a layer from the shadow of the layer style. To do that click with the right button of the mouse on the layer with the drop shadow. Then select Create Layer from the menu. That's it, you'll now have a layer with the shadow.

Step 5

Now that you have the shadow in a layer let's apply a mask. Go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All. Then select the Brush Tool(B). The color will be black and the brush will be regular with a diameter of 45 pixels and 0% hardness. Then just paint the mask to hide some parts of the shadow. The idea is to create the impression that the ornament is coming from, and passing above the letter.

Step 6

Repeat the same thing for the other letters. However it's not necessary to do that for all of them. I only did it on the A, B, D, Z, E, D, and O. After that select the ornament and word layers, group them together and rename the group to "logo". Tip: Always use the color of the exact part of the letter that the ornamet will come from.

Step 7

Here let's add some texture to the image. You can hide the other layers. We'll use some textures from a blog called DesignReviver, they published an article called 300+ Vintage Style Textures and Photoshop Brushes.

Download the Vintage II pack and place "Vintage10.jpg" image to the document. Because the image is 1500 pixels and the document is 1680 pixels, you'll have to duplicate the image and fill the remaining part of the document with it. After that go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation. Use Hue 49, Saturation 19, Lightness +35.

Step 8

Download the "15_textures__art___vintage_by_jocosity" pack and place the "textur2.jpg" in the document. Then change the Blend Mode to Overlay and go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation. Use Hue +2, Saturation -41, Lightness -75.

Step 9

Download the "Old_Paper_Textures_by_lailomeiel" pack and place the "DSC02679.JPG" in the document. It will go over the other textures, then just change the Blend Mode to Color burn. Now, select all texture layers and group them. Rename the group Textures.

Step 10

Select the "logo" group and go to Layer>Merge Group. This will convert the layer and all groups inside it to a single layer. Then go to Layer>Layer Style>Drop Shadow. Use Color Burn for the Blend Mode, 100% Opacity, -60º for the Angle, Distance and Size of 5px.

Step 11

Duplicate the "texture" group and change the blend mode of the "paper" layer to Overlay. Merge the group in order to create a unique layer from it. Change the order of the layers and put the new texture layer on top of the logo layer. Then go to Layer>Create Clipping Mask and change the Blend Mode to Multiply. Duplicate the texture layer again making sure that it is still with the clipping mask. Then just change the Blend Mode to Overlay.

Step 12

Group the "Logo" layer with the two texture clipping mask layers. Duplicate the group and merge it to a single layer. Then go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 4.5 pixels for the Radius and change the Blend Mode to Screen and 80% Opacity.

Conclusion

In this tutorial we learnt how to mix some vector ornaments with a word to produce a nice typography. We also played around with vintage textures and cliping masks that gave our image a not so "clean" look. You can create many variations of this effect. Below I added a Radial Gradient so the textures only appear where the logo is. Again it's all about experimentation.

Click here to see the full preview

Download the Photoshop File

Click here to download the Photoshop file for this tutorial

Andefined
Impressive talented freelance designer and coder Dimitris Papaevagelou.
Damn hot interactive.

Apeloig
Some interesting graphic/typographic experiments at Apeloig.
Check out Vivo in Typo.

Mariano Vivanco
Great editorials from photographer Mariano Vivanco

LOGAN / Metal Gear Solid 4
Check out the intro clips for the video game Metal Gear Solid 4, by LOGAN.

Super8
This is the portfolio of artist/designer Andrew Cross. Cute!

Eat Sleep Work / Play
Design & Art Dir. from Antoine Choussat & Zamir Antonio. Hot!

Guidelines for Online Success
A new book from Rob Ford / Julias Wiedermann. Thanks FFF/R²!

Iowa Interactive
Nice solid interactive and a clear distinct style from Iowa Interactive.

There are a lot of very creative artists from the UK, and it’s always inspiring to check out their work. SA3S is another great example, and that’s why we showcase his work here ;)

SA3S is the creative outlet of Falsify aka Dean Cook a young image maker hailing from the once culturally derelict city of Birmingham, UK.

SA3S started life back in 2005 as a collaboration between Falsi & Digital Soulja. Two junglist soldiers who just couldnt get enough of design and wanted to stamp their mark on the world.

In 2007 the pair decided to split and SA3S became the sole venture of Falsi.

For more information and the whole portfolio check his site out at http://www.sa3s.com/

Ilk
Loving the work and typography from Ilk in Paris.

Nicholas Wagner
Liking the editorial work from Nicholas Wagner Photography.

Hellohikimori
Flashy site and work from Hellohikimori.

Delrancho
Delrancho is graphic designer Ricardo Villavicencio. Nice!

Dixonbaxi
London based creative agency with awesome diverse, refined work.

Seedreps
Seed represents photographers specializing in fashion/beauty.

Jaime Mandelbaum
Some interesting shots from Jaime Mandelbaum presented in a nice Flash folio.

Barcode Plantage
Barcode Plantage transforms a simple product bar code into a unique tree in the garden of globalization.