Your life is controlled by color schemes. That might sound dramatic, but think about it for just a second-would you go to an important job interview wearing a mismatched suit? Or a violently clashing hair or makeup color? Chances are that your living room, your wedding theme and even your high school colors have consisted of tones based on some sort of conventional color scheme. Human beings prefer living in a world where colors go together, which is why our brains turn to mush whenever we see … [Read more...]
250+ Outstanding Mockup Background Images & Textures
April 29, 2014 By 1 Comment
Were you the type of kid who just had to have the radical laser backdrop instead of the plain blue backdrop when it came time for picture day at school? Even if you weren't, we've got good news for you. Our folder design mockups feature a completely customizable background; allowing you to have any kind of image or texture you want—and many of them look even better than that laser background. We've gathered up some of our favorite background images and textures to use with our folder design … [Read more...]
72+ Free Vector Art Sites For Downloading The Best Graphics
April 1, 2014 By 6 Comments
No one likes to hear the dreaded phrase "clip art" when talking about professional design, but sometimes a piece of free vector art is exactly what you need. Maybe you're looking for a basic shape to edit into something totally unique with Adobe Illustrator, or maybe you just need a placeholder graphic in the meantime. Creating something from scratch takes valuable time, and when you've got none to spare, free vector sites can be a lifesaver. To boost your chances of finding the best vector art … [Read more...]
The 108 Best Photoshop Plugins and Extensions for Print Designers
March 18, 2014 By 8 Comments
In case you haven't noticed, we're pretty keen on Adobe Photoshop; we've even shared a ton of our favorite Photoshop tutorials. But even a great program like Photoshop can be improved upon. If you don't believe us, here are 108 reasons why you're wrong. This enormous collection of the best Photoshop plugins for print designers takes something good and makes it even better by giving you more control, more power and more options than what's available in your standard Photoshop toolkit. Plugin … [Read more...]
83 Graphic Design Portfolio Websites Guaranteed to Draw Attention
March 4, 2014 By 1 Comment
For centuries, philosophers have been asking themselves "If a tree falls in the woods, but nobody is around to hear it, does it still make a sound?" Think of your graphic designs in a similar way: if nobody is around to observe your portfolio, does it still make an impact? Finding the answer to that first question may take a while, but thankfully, we already know the answer to the second. The designs you've created won't help you grow as a designer all by themselves. You need eyes on the … [Read more...]
38 Typography Tools for Print Designers (Better Than Adobe Suite)
February 20, 2014 By 9 Comments
A Swiss Army knife allows you to do a lot of different things at once (like remove a screw or open a wine bottle), but sometimes what you really need is a strong pair of scissors—a tool that only does one thing, but does it much more simply and elegantly. It's the same way when working with typography in print design. The Adobe suite is powerful and multifaceted, but when you need to create a new font from scratch or identify the name of a particular typeface, it pays to have a few more specific … [Read more...]
The Top 60 Free Adobe Illustrator Tutorials for 2018
February 4, 2014 By 8 Comments
When you create printed marketing materials, your designs are little like Alice from Alice in Wonderland. Alice is constantly shrinking or growing as she explores different parts of Wonderland. Likewise, you'll often need your design elements to shrink or grow, depending on what the situation calls for. That's why learning how to create scalable vector illustrations in Adobe Illustrator is absolutely essential. Adobe Illustrator can be a tricky program to learn, but if you've used some of the … [Read more...]
55 Ridiculously Cool Photoshop Text Effect Tutorials
January 21, 2014 By 6 Comments
Remember how scary it was when you were a little kid and you had to start reading books in school that didn't have any pictures in them? Truth be told, that little kid still exists inside all of us; it's one of the reasons why print media designs often rely on photos and illustrations rather than walls of bland text. But text doesn't have to be boring-after all, text is just another form of visual imagery, one that can become a beautiful work of art with the use of unique fonts or interesting … [Read more...]
How to Use Our Folder Design Templates
January 16, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Company Folders' pocket folder design templates are free to download and customize however you like. To help out, we've assembled a handy tutorial to downloading, modifying, and making them your own. Finding & Downloading Templates All of our folder design templates can be found on the Company Folders website by clicking "Design Templates" in the footer area. Here are a few examples: Colorful Church Welcome Packet Folder Template The Golf Swinger Presentation Folder … [Read more...]
Create a Shaped Clipping Mask in Photoshop/Illustrator (Tutorial)
January 9, 2014 By 2 Comments
Today, we're sharing a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of one of our favorite folder design templates. This Cruise Ship Adventure Presentation Folder Template uses a simple clipping mask to make the image of the ship appear to be split into several rounded square tile shapes. The end result looks like something that would take a long time to make from scratch, but you can create it using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop in just a few simple steps with this handy tutorial. Creating the … [Read more...]