One cannot express how important it is to design for the web. The web has become an instant phenomenon that is being quickly taken over by the big dogs of the media world. Methods of content consumption based on the Internet are multiplying faster than any other form of media in the past.

First there was the Amazon Kindle, and now we have the Android-based Nook eBook reader. Rumors about Apple releasing a Tablet of their own are flying around like aimless torpedoes. If you were to ask me, Apple is definitely planning something, and it’ll probably be a huge hit.

To put it simply, the world is changing very quickly. If we fail to keep up to date with what’s happening, our jobs will leave us for someone else. Stay open minded and read a lot of design blogs. See what people are raving about so that you can contribute in your own way. Don’t forget to collect inspiration along your journey.

PS.  Print is not dead. As long as creativity isn’t lost, it will continue to be a dominant form of media, regardless of the changes it goes through.

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If Flash CS5’s iPhone application authoring does what it promises, the future of app development is in for treat. This means that anybody with ActionScript skills can make iPhone apps/games. The average user will become the “average developer” very quickly. It appears that this will erase the dividing line between design/development professionals and the average Joe.

Click here to view the Adobe Labs page for iPhone Apps.

Despite the high chance of crap-output from developer-wannabes, this will  give people an opportunity to create quality products. From what Adobe Labs has shown so far, it proves that this model works. In the meantime, I’ll be boosting my ActionScript 3 skills, learning to make some awesome apps.

Feedback: Does this make you want to develop for the iPhone, or will this saturate the App Store with even more fart apps?

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The Palm Pre, for the longest time, had the biggest chance to put a little fear in Apple. And so it did. Just a couple of weeks ago, the iPhone 3.0 software was revealed and most of the iPhone’s nuances have been eliminated. I actually believed that if the Pre kept up its game, it would force me to switch, but thankfully, that is no longer the case.

Palm has claimed that OS X on the iPhone is not a true mobile platform, thus it will never be as speedy and sleek as what they are cooking up. I respectfully disagree! Let’s just put it this way; Smooth scrolling and seamless portrait/landscape transitions is not what makes a great device. Yes, the Pre certainly competes in the visuals department, but that will only take the device so far.

More after the jump…

The unveiling of the 3.0 software is proof that Apple is keeping their eye on the market. The iPhone is clearly not without any faults, but Apple is constantly looking to improve. The maturity and the level of development the iPhone has reached is phenomenal. I am surprised that, to this day, phone companies have miserably failed to compete with the iPhone, except the Pre. After 2 different iPhones, and countless updates to the iPhone OS, companies can’t seem to get it right.

Now let’s take a look at a recent video of the Palm’s WebOS in action:

Judging by this video, it looks like the next few months are gonna be very interesting for both Apple and Palm. I like the fact that 3rd party apps can access the WebOS core and have multiple apps talking to each other. I would love to see this feature being taken advantage of in greater depth on both platforms.

Dare I say the imminent success of the Pre is largely due to ex-Apple employees like Jon Rubenstein being on the team?

Rumors about the next iPhone:

1. Multi-core CPUs and GPUs: The fact that the next generation iPhone may have multi-core processors is exciting as ever! It would open up countless possibilities, such as video, background apps, live-video streaming, and other various intensive tasks.
2. 3.2 and 5.0 Megapixel camera censors: For the new iPhones, and for an unknown product, respectively. This shows that Apple is getting serious with video with their upcoming products.
3. Video editing and ability to publish videos: In conjunction with the previous 2 rumors, this would work out quite well. A mini iMovie built into the iPhone, with the ability to upload your creations virtually eliminates the need of a computer for video bloggers and others alike.

Exciting times are ahead in the mobile industry. I can’t wait to see what twists and turns the industry will take along the way. I would LOVE to see what you have to say, so please comment using the form below. Thanks!

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Here it is! After a few weeks of thought and decision making, here are the final* visuals that will be turned into the next iteration of One Fused Life. As you can see, the site structure remains virtually the same, but the way content is presented has changed significantly.

My goal was to streamline the way content is currently being presented. In this new design, I have not only made it easier to access existing elements, but also introduced new ways to browse around and discover new content.

I will put forward my best efforts to code and launch OFL 2.0 within the next couple of weeks. On top of that, I have some GREAT content coming up!

Please click here to subscribe to me feed. Thank you!

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I didn’t quite know what to make of this film until it ended. At some points, you were lead to love the typeface, while other moments you were lead to put the boredom of Helvetica aside and experiment with other glorious expressive typefaces. Personally, I have often found myself using Helvetica throughout my designs simply because it looked very good, but I also most certainly use various other fonts as well.

One thing that this film will reveal to you is how often Helvetica is used everywhere and for everything. There are countless companies out there using some variation of the font as their logo, and signage systems that use it like no tomorrow. Funny thing is, you may have not even realized it.

There are excellent arguments from both the lovers and the haters of this font, so you will definitely have a lot to think about when you begin working on your next project. One problem with this film, is that it’s not so exciting. After all, there are no explosions or amazing twists in the story line, so the average person may find it boring. There were times when I had to pause for a few minutes and continue afterwards to give my mind a stretch. Don’t expect this to make you a better designer, haha.

Score: 6 out of 10

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I pay a visit to my local Barnes & Noble store every week, spending a minimum of 1 hour on reading, learning, and broadening my creative outlook. There are magazines for Web Designers and Developers, Advanced Photoshop Users, and Photographers, all of which contain tutorials, interviews, tips, and so forth.

One may think “why visit a book store when I can browse the entire internet for creative inspiration?” Well, to put it simply, there is a lot of garbage out there on the internet. When you’re reading trusted publications that have been in the business for years, you’re more likely to gain valuable knowledge.

Helpful links: (continue reading…)

• Barnes & Noble: Graphic Design
• Borders: Logo Design
• Best Web Gallery
• FAVEUP – Design Inspiration Gallery
• Smashing Magazine: Amazing Package Design

I hope you enjoy checking out (and bookmarking) these websites. This post is supposed to be about books, but digital sources are inevitable. Stay creative, stay inspired, keep designing.

I am interested to know what sources motivate and inspire you, so please share in the comments below! Thank you.

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“A want can be things from cars, computers, clothes, or shoes. But why do we buy these things? First off, we ask ourselves, “are we going to enjoy this?” Then secondly, we ask ourselves subconsciously if it will cause the kind of interest we are seeking from other people.”

After reading the article (fairly quick read), here’s what I had to say: (continue reading…)

Desire, in my opinion, is the key factor to understand why people do things the way they do, including but not limited to purchasing things.

A lot of the times, it has something to do with the status-quo, and what they will gain from owning that product (whatever it may be) both socially and personally. I have been tempted so many times to buy things that looked great to me, but I resisted as I forced myself to realize its insignificance.

I like how you said that we do things to fill in gaps of whatever shape and form. These gaps, to me, are things like social desire, acceptance/praise/attention from others. After all, in today’s world, that’s what everyone seems to be doing, unfortunately.

It’s not very difficult for designers to create things that produce these kinds of results from people. A little bit of social research, asking around, simple observation and questioning will help you understand exactly why people desire the things they do. Thanks to this article, I will be posting an entry on my blog growing on the ideas I stated here, so, thank you for the inspiration.

To end this comment, I will say this: Human beings are phenomenally structured social animals. We are driven by social interaction of so many forms, that if grasped well, one will be able to achieve almost anything, hence the modern-day pop culture, gossip, media, and so forth. There’s nothing better than putting yourself in the shoes of the type of person you are trying to appeal to. The experience gained from it is unprecedented.

Have you ever bought something because it looked good, or thought you might get positive attention?

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I’m not the one to usually point fingers but this time, I will be putting together a list of applications, websites, and games that I encounter these problems in. A lot of problems include interface bugs, illogical layout design, bad placement of elements, lack of searchability, and so forth. If you’re interested to see what I’m talking about, I’ll post a list of things that bother me (and others) really soon.

If you’re a beta tester, I urge you to stop taking advantage and start paying attention to actually fixing and bettering the product you are testing. If not, STOP! You’re hurting the company and everyone else that will use the product.

Out of curiosity, I would like to see what annoys you guys about some websites, applications, etc. Thanks!

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View the tutorial after the jump!

Before beginning, I should mention to you that you don’t have to follow the directions exactly as written. The power of Photoshop is unveiled through experimenting and trying out different ways of doing things.

1) First I open a blank document with the following dimensions: Height of 175px and Width of 275px. You can name it whatever you want. In my case, it’s fox5logo.psd.

2) I started by creating 3 different box shapes to set the foundation of the logo. Using the Rectangle Tool (Key: U), draw a light colored vertical rectangle in the middle (the biggest one). Once that’s done, draw two more boxes in a darker color on top and on the bottom of the main rectangle.

Note: Make the box on the top a little bigger than the one on the bottom. We will fix larger text inside the box on the top.

3) Now select the layer for the top box. Go to the Blending Options of this layer by right clicking the layer and selecting Blending Options. Select the Gradient Overlay in the window that pops up and enter the following settings:

Colors used for gradient: The darker red is #a00404 and the lighter red in the middle is #e60000.

4) In this step, we will decorate the middle box with a gradient and an inner shadow. Go to the Blending Options menu of this layer and apply the following settings:

So far, you should have something like this: (If you don’t, contact me for help!)

5) Now we will create the base which the big number “5″ will rest on. Create a new blank layer on top of the middle box and name it “base”. Select the Polygonal Lasso Tool (Key: L) and draw a shape that looks like this:

Fill the selection with a solid color (Edit > Fill… > Press OK). Then deselect the slection (Select > Deselect). Access the Blending Options of this layer and create a Gradient Overlay with the following options:

6) Now that we have the base of “5″ completed, we can create the light beams in the background. To do so, create a new blank layer on top of the base layer and name is “light beams.” Use the Polygonal Lasso tool (Key: L) to draw the two light beams on the left side of the logo, like this:

Note: Once you make the selections for the beams, fill them with white color.
Hint: In order to draw two separate shapes after another, hold down the SHIFT key after completing the first shape selection and you will see the Polygonal Lasso with a + sign to make additional selections.

Use a fairly large soft eraser (125px with 0 Hardness) to erase the upper portions of the beams in order to make it look like a fade. For intermediate users: If you’re familiar with masking, apply a Quick Mask to this layer and use a large black soft brush (125px with 0 Hardness) to hide away the upper portion of the beams with a fade. Then drop the Opacity of the layer to around 25% or whatever looks right to you. This is what you should have so far:

Once you complete the beams on one side, duplicate the “light beams” layer and flip it horizontally (Edit > Transform  > Flip Horizontally). Then move the layer to the right side as if they were reflected, like this:

7) Now here comes the easy part; The text. You’re going to need a very thick font for this. I used Verdana set in Bold and it worked like a charm. Use your visual judgment to create the text proportionate to what you see in the final result. NOTE: Make sure these text layers are created above all the other layers.

Now to make the text look fancy, we will apply a simple Drop Shadow and Gradient Overlay in the Blending Options with the follow settings:

Note: You’re not limited to what settings you can apply to the text. Use your imagination and go crazy! (not too crazy, though.) Here’s the result after playing around with the Blending Options. Nice and simple:

That’s it! Simple as that.

If you have any questions or trouble with the tutorial, I invite you ask away in the comments section below. Chance are, you’re not the only one with the problem. I’ll be glad to help anyone! Thank you!

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Fox News and the Fox News logo is copyright to the respective owner(s). This tutorial was written solely for educational purposes and the enhancement of people’s Photoshop skills.

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Click here to see the rest of the cards over at CreativeBits.

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