DESIGN BOOKS New Releases

I'm on an Amazon "alert list" that tells me when new design books have just been published. I usually have to sort through 100 books to find a few I like, or one that I think would be applicable to gift and card design. Here are seven I found recently that looked interesting:




5,000 Years of Textiles
Far East, Americas, Africa,
Scandinavia, and Egyptian.
Possibly good for studying fabric design.







Abstract Design and How to Create It
Over 380 illustrations, diagrams,
designs, border patterns and textile patterns.





Water Paper Paint:
Field book of inspiration,
creative ideas, how to's, and projects.
I liked the description of this book because
I've always found water color a difficult media and this book seemed to have a new playful approach.




Creative Illustration Workshop
Exercises for integrating illustration
with other mixed-media techniques,
and scan and layer your illustrations
using a computer. I liked that this combined
traditional media with digital processes.


Print Workshop
Hand-Printing Techniques for low budgets
and printing images onto things. This had a list
of interesting ways to put imagery on products.
Perhaps a good technique for putting our designs
on model items to show what they would look like on real products.


Digital Alchemy
Printmaking techniques for fine art
and how to transfer images to a variety of surfaces.
Again, this book looked interesting because it
included decals and skins.


Critical Mass: Printmaking Beyond the Edge

Cutting-edge developments in international printmaking.
Since printmaking is fundamental in most
surface design concepts, this book looked interesting
because it seems like a modern take on a traditional art.

100 Tips, Tricks and Tutorials for Photographers


Here's an interesting article and excerpt by Creative Design Magazine blog. To read entire article, go to their blog site.

Deviant Art is one of the biggest source of resources for the designers and photographers. Today I compiled a huge list of useful tips, tricks and tutorials for photographers from Deviant Art. I try to cover almost all the topics related to photography. I hope this post is useful for the photographers and you will love this post.

  1. Photos : Top 5 Mistakes

  2. Camera Buying Guide

  3. Tips About Cats Photography

  4. Artisan Crafts Photo Edit Tutorial

  5. True Black And White Tutorial

  6. Small Mammals Photo Tutorial

  7. Choosing A Camera For Portrait

  8. The Friendly Photography Light

  9. Tilt Shift Tutorial

  10. Easy Home Studio Set

  11. Coffee Splashes Tutorial


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What does a handmade card business look like?


Here are some photos I dug up from the old days when I ran my own handmade card business.

These photos show why I always say:
"If you want to succeed in the handmade card business, it's all about packing boxes!"


Daily date with the UPS woman.
These Barnes and Noble orders required special UPS stickers and paperwork, so she's helping me. At this time I had around 400 Barnes and Noble accounts.




Cards, cards, everywhere.
These are already made and ready to pack into orders. This photos shows about 125 card styles, with about 230 cards in each box. That's a retail value of about $100,000 worth of stock. Amazing it can fit in such a little space.




Print Delivery
Ed Kirwan, the top printer in Berkeley, hand delivers about 10 boxes of cards (a rare thrill).



UPS goes on strike
We had to truck everything down to the post office where they will only accept 20 boxes per window visit. That's a great week to have friends who like standing in post office lines.




Helper
On those hectic days, it's good to have "Spot" helping out in the office.




Do you have photos of your card business? Send them! And your business may featured as a blog post.

200 Textures for Ideas on Design

Here's an interesting article and excerpt by 1st Webdesigner blog. To read entire article, go to their blog site. I think these are perfect examples of how we can come up with new ideas to create our own textures.

Vintage style design is a trend that designers use to apply an old and classic sense to their designs. One way of applying this trend is by using vintage textures, vintage textures provides an easy to use method for creating stunning vintage style designs. In this article I compiled a list of 215 outstanding free vintage textures, but please check licenses before use.





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