It's A New Year to Go UltraViolet

Hello Creatives!

Happy New Year! As we begin 2018, a new Color of the Year emerges. Pantone released their new color, UltraViolet. Pantone announced the new color, Ultra Violet 18-3838. This years' color completely contrasts previous years' Greenery, Serenity and Rose Quartz which conveyed calmness, relaxation and nature.

Ultra Violet invokes and encourages ingenuity, originality and an increase in imagination. This rich blue-based purple is a mysterious, multi-dimensional color that reflects the cosmos. It inspires creatives to use their potential to reach towards the stars and see what comes of the hard work. Ultra Violet reflects the emotion behind the new year of reaching new heights and achieving goals.

Ultra Violet stands out and can be a sophisticated color in package design with Primrose Yellow as its analogous partner. Island Paradise can harmonize with Ultra Violet in web design to create a soothing theme. Many companies are already embracing this new color and incorporating it into their social media and even their products. Are you going to incorporate Pantone's Ultra Violet into your designs for 2018?

See You Soon Creatives!

The New Adobe Creative Suite

Hello Creatives!

Adobe has released a new update to their Creative Suite Cloud programs. Many of the changes implemented by the Adobe team were to improve efficiency with the tools panel and art boards to streamline the workflow.

The immediate new feature upon opening the program, is the Properties panel. This panel holds all the essential tools needed in one easy-access place to streamline workflow. The panel includes tools like rulers, guides, grids and artboard information. The Document Setup and Preferences options are nested in the panel as well, eliminating the need to search through the File and Edit drop-down menus. The workspace within the program has been expanded to allow for up to 1,000 artboards in one document allowing for more content. This is great news for package design and print work where multiple versions of the design can be saved on individual artboards within the same document.

Among the changes, variable fonts and style sets received an upgrade. There has been an option in Illustrator that has not been utilized until now, OpenType. This allows for the font to be manipulated by weight, width and style without losing the integrity of the font. The Style sets have become a new asset with OpenType where an entire block of text can be selected and glyphs can be added. This is an improvement compared to applying glyphs individually by letter in previous versions.

There is an update particularly helpful for copywriters and publication designers, text management within the Creative Cloud Library. Copy can now be saved into the library and shared between Illustrator and InDesign. This can include taglines, descriptions, titles and placeholder text. These updates have increased efficiency and ease of access within the workflow and were a much needed improvement.

See You Soon Creatives!

Design Is In the Details

Hello Creatives!

Ever hear the phrase, "the devil is in the details"?, well so is design. Being detail-oriented is a must as a designer, delivering designs full of mistakes to a client is unprofessional. The stage of the design process where this becomes critical is the revision stage.

In every aspect of design; typography, illustration, publication, motion design and animation require minute details to be believable and effective. The first stage in the design process is to connect with a client then research the needs of the client, design the concepts, present a final, revise the design with the clients notes, present the revision to the client and finally deliver the finished product. The details happen within the revision stage to improve the design and make it the best it can be for the client.

Certain aspects of design such as animation and illustration come to life with details of light source, shadow and perspective. Other forms of design like typography and publication design require details in the copy writing, text, layout and negative and positive space.

For any design to succeed, it has to be perfect down to the details. The details of a design need to be executed well to improve the design and deliver what was agreed upon with the client. In the next project, pay attention and zoom in on the details.

See You Soon Creatives!