Rahul Tiwari

Tips and Tutorials on website design, web development and related techniques.

How To Design a Website
A step by step guide to designing a website, from research and brainstorming to creating wireframes, developing the website and promoting it.

How to Choose a Website Domain Name
Choosing a domain name for you or a client can be a long and tedious process. With so many names no longer available, creating a new one or finding the right one requires research, creativity and sometimes a significant investment.

How to Buy a Website Domain Name
Domain names or website addresses, such as google.com or facebook.com, are available for purchase from many website services or registrars. While of course the names mentioned above are far from available, there are countless website addresses that can be purchased, often whether they are already owned or not.

What to Include in a Website Proposal
A website proposal contains many aspects different from other graphic design proposals, in that technical elements must be addressed along with creative ones. While print proposals do address items such as printing procedures, website proposals must specify web hosting, systems for maintaining content, programs or programming languages to be used and other technical specifications.

Learn Adobe Illustrator Tools, Tricks, Tips and Techniques

How to Use the Adobe Illustrator Pen Tool
The pen tool is perhaps the most powerful tool in Illustrator. It can be used to create countless lines, curves and shapes, and serves as the building block for illustration and design. The tool is used by creating “anchor points,” and then by connecting those points with lines, which can be connected further to create shapes.

Use of the pen tool is perfected through practice.
How to Use the Adobe Illustrator Type Tools
There are several tools for creating type, all found on the Illustrator toolbar, and each with a different function.

How to Use the Adobe Illustrator Selection Tool
The Illustrator selection tool is for selecting objects in your layouts, such as shapes and blocks of type. Once selected, you can use the tool to move, transform, or apply any number of filters or effects to the selected objects.

Learn Adobe Photoshop Tools, Tricks, Tips and Techniques

How to Use the Photoshop Marquee Tool
The Photoshop marquee tool, a relatively simple feature, is essential for several tasks. At the most basic level, the tool is used to select areas of an image, which can then be copied, cut or cropped. There are four options within the tool to select different types of areas: rectangular, elliptical, a single row or a single column.

How to Use Photoshop Tool Presets
Creating tool presets in Photoshop is an excellent way to speed up your workflow and remember your favorite and most-used settings. A tool preset is a named, saved version of a tool and specific related settings such as width, opacity and brush size, all handled through the tool presets palette.

How to Use the Photoshop Clone Stamp Tool
Learn to use the clone stamp tool in Photoshop to retouch photos by copying one area of an image onto another area.

How to Use the Photoshop Save for Web Tool
As a graphic designer, you may often be asked to deliver web-ready images, such as photos for a web site or banner ads. The Photoshop “Save for Web” tool is a simple and easy way to prepare your JPEG files for the web, helping with the trade-off between file size and image quality.

How to Use the Photoshop Crop Tool
The Photoshop crop tool serves two main purposes. The first is to crop, which means to cut out an area of an image by selecting the area that you wish to keep. It is also handy for quickly resizing images. These functions can also be used at the same time to crop and resize a photo (or any type of image) at once.

Step-by-step tutorials demonstrating design and business techniques.

Stay Organized - How to Organize Your Business
Staying organized is extremely important when running your own graphic design business. Share your advice and experience on keeping your business organized so you can focus on design.

Brainstorming in Graphic Design
Before you even begin to create a first version of a design in graphics software, it is important to harness your creativity to come up with concepts and ideas for a project. Unless the winning idea simply pops into your head (it has been known to happen), it is often difficult to sit down and start designing without a brainstorming session.

How and Why to Get your Credit Line on Graphic Design Projects
Getting your credit line on your work is a great way to spread word-of-mouth on your business. It is satisfying, and lucrative, when someone sees your work and contacts you for a project.

How to Design a Graphic Design Business Card
Whether you are a freelancer or you own your own design firm, it is crucial to have business cards for your graphic design business. A well-designed card with the right content will help you look professional, show off your work, and land new clients.

How to Create an Email Newsletter
An email newsletter is an important tool for growing a graphic design business. It is one of most effective ways to spread the word-of-mouth on what type of work you are doing and looking for.

Interviews with graphic designers, with advice, tips and the inside scoop on their businesses and design process.

Frequently asked questions and tips for graphic designers at all levels.

How Can I Start a Design Firm if I Don’t Have Enough Money?
If you can’t afford to start a design business, how can you get into graphic design? One of the best ways is to start small. Starting a career in design doesn’t necessarily mean starting a design “firm,” at least in the traditional sense. You don’t need to start with an office space or employees… your firm, or freelance

business, can just be you.
Do I Need to Know How to Draw or Paint to be a Graphic Designer?
You don't need to be a fine artist to be a graphic designer. While it could help your career and your creative side, it is not necessary to be a sketch artist, painter or other type of artist in the traditional sense. Graphic design is about taking elements such as type, photos, illustrations, and color and combining them to create effective messages.

Sources of graphic design inspiration and ways to spark your creativity.

Design Gallery by Veerle Pieters of Duoh!

Using Photography for Graphic Design Inspiration
Photography is a great source of graphic design inspiration. There are many online resources that give you access to vast photo collections, from photography portfolios to stock photography websites.

Interior Design Blogs
Interior decorating and product design for the home are great sources of inspiration. The colors, patterns, shapes and textures of anything from a couch to a coat rack to a fully decorated room can provide great examples of well-executed design. Below are some blogs and websites on interior design to check out.

Featured Websites
Below is the ongoing list of featured websites from the about.com graphic design blog.

A Museum Directory for Graphic Design Inspiration
Visiting museums of all types can be a great source of graphic design inspiration. This museum directory has a focus on modern art, design and technology.

Practice design projects for the graphic design community to participate in.

Practice Graphic Design Projects - Design a Movie Poster or Book Cover
This exercise is a brainstorming activity and a way to practice your design skills. Design a poster for a movie about your life, or a book cover for your autobiography.

Learn tips and tricks for completing design tasks and to spark your creativity.

Design Projects (1) Inspiration (5) Frequently Asked Questions (3) Interviews (1) How-To (5) Photoshop Tutorials (5) Illustrator Tutorials (3) Website Design (4)

How to Get Organized in Your Design Business

When working as a graphic designer, it is important to get organized. If your business is not organized, there is a good chance your design will ultimately suffer. Keeping track of design tasks, leads, client requests, finances, emails, and phone calls is all part of getting, and staying, organized. This can be especially difficult for freelancers, who often handle all aspects of their business. …

How to Use the Adobe Photoshop Tools
The tools available on the Photoshop toolbar and menus are the basis for working in the software. Learning tools such as the crop, clone stamp and marquee, and the use of tool presets, will help facilitate design and improve workflow.

The Graphic Design Process
When starting a new design project, there are steps to follow that will help you to achieve the best results. You can save yourself time and energy by first researching the topic, finalizing your content, starting with simple sketches, and getting several rounds of approval on designs.

The Benefits of a Graphic Design Blog
There are many benefits to writing your own graphic design blog. Writing a blog can build a community around your website, promote your business, and help to establish yourself as an expert in the field.

The tools you need to become a graphic designer, including computer hardware, software to use and reference books.

Wacom Pen Tablets
It is often difficult and awkward to design with a mouse, especially when working on illustrations or precise image retouching. Pen tablets give graphic designers the feel of working with an actual pen and pad, and Wacom tablets are the industry standard.

Learn the differences between designing for print and for the web, from the audience experience to the actual design process to careers in each field.

Designing For Print vs. The Web
Learn the differences between designing for print and for the web, with a a focus on audience, layout, color, technology and careers.

An overview of the elements that make up design, such as colors, shapes, lines, type, illustrations and images, and how to use them.

How are Lines Used in Graphic Design?
Lines are used to divide space, direct the eye, and create forms. At the most basic level, straight lines are found in layouts to separate content, such as in magazine, newspaper, and website designs. This can of course go much further, with curved, dotted, and zigzag lines used as the defining elements on a page and as the basis for illustrations and graphics.

Using Illustration in Graphic Design
Illustration is commonly used in graphic design projects. A beautiful illustration can often grab the attention of your audience just as well as a photograph, and in many cases it can be even more effective. Illustrations are often necessary to “illustrate” a point, such as in graphs, charts and maps or in a set of icons for a website.

The Elements of Graphic Design
The elements of graphic design are used, and often combined, to create graphic works. They should not be confused with principles of design, such as balance and white space, but rather components such as color, type and images. Presented here is a list of the most commonly used elements in graphic design.

Texture in Graphic Design
Texture can refer to the actual surface of a design or to the visual appearance of a design. In the first case, the audience can actually feel the texture, making it unique from the other elements of design. In the second case, texture is implied through the style of design. Rich, layered graphics can create visual texture that
mirrors actual texture.

Using Shapes in Graphic Design
Shapes are at the root of graphic design. They are figures and forms that make up logos, illustrations and countless other elements in all types of designs. Altering the size, form, angles, colors and other characteristics of the shapes in a design can significantly impact its message and success.

Learn what graphic design is, what elements make up good design, the essential tools, hardware, and software for designers, and the difference between designing for print and the web.
Elements of Design (5) Print vs. Web (1) Essential Tools (1)
What is Graphic Design?
An introduction to the basics of graphic design and its different applications.
Essential Graphic Design Tools
There are several tools that are essential to graphic design. Below is a list of what is absolutely necessary to work in graphic design, as well as some things that are recommended.

Finding out your client's budget can make quoting jobs much easier. It can also help to determine what services you can provide to your client. Whether or not you can work with a client isn't always a simple "yes" or "no" based on the budget. If you know what the client can spend, you can often change the scope of work, printing costs, and other variables and land a job that you otherwise might have lost due to a high quote.

Chances are, the economy has affected the way you do business. Some clients may have reduced their budgets for design work, requiring you to come up with clever solutions to keep their business, while others may have cut out their design budgets completely. You may also have come up with ways to reduce your own costs, from minimizing personal promotion to changing office spaces. There are of course many ways you may have been affected beyond the answers here, so please share in the comments.

The idea is simple. Modifying a well-designed template is far easier and more profitable than starting from scratch. With the professionally designed templates, you tap the talents of designer and author Chuck Green. He has researched, designed, and meticulously formatted over 300 extraordinary layouts in a clean, simple style that it easy to build on. Instead of spending 15 minutes to create a simple layout, you'll spend 15 seconds.