Today we are continuing our new series of User Interface Design. With the vastly rising popularity of mobile apps and mobile web design User Interface Design is now a huge area for Designers to become proficient in. In this quick article we will be going over some resources that I have found out there, both free and paid, on various sites.

Commercial Resources

Free Resources

Today we are continuing our new series of User Interface Design. With the vastly rising popularity of mobile apps and mobile web design User Interface Design is now a huge area for Designers to become proficient in. In this quick article we will be going over the UI Navigation for 4 different websites.

Each website will be detailed with a number and arrow which will be detailed below the image. Alright, let’s get started picking apart the navigation of our four chosen sites.

Apple

 

Apple is one of the highest visited sites and one of the most popular manufacturers of electronics. For a bunch of geniuses, however, their main user navigation is very nil. Apple has always been about being the best while keeping things on the minimalistic side and their website is no different.

1. The main navigation of Apple.com consists of one bar of navigation. No drop downs, just straight text with a slight gradient background and highlights. Their logo does not stand out and is actually placed within their navigation. The hover state of the navigation is a simple dark grey that will let you know where your mouse is and what piece of navigation that you are going to be clicking on.

2. The search bar for apple conforms to their simplicity. On a webkit browser the new search bar will actually expand when you click into it. For most browsers, however, you will just see it become white when active. The main thing that is wrong with the apple search bar is that you have to hit the “Enter” key in order to actually use the search. For many users this will not be a problem but there are people that will just sit their staring at the apple website trying to figure out how to use the search. In my opinion it is always better to include a search button because you never know who will be visiting your website.

Dribbble

 

Dribbble is a website that was created for designers of all types to showcase pieces of their work, completed and in progress. The community is an invite only community where each person is recruited by fellow designers in the community. Their navigation UI, however, is another story.

1. The active state for Dribbble’s navigation is actually pretty good, but it is pretty old as far as design aesthetics go. The rounded rectangle active state has been around for a long time, but for the overall feel of the navigation it works really well.

2.  The remiander of Dribbble’s navigation is pretty simplistic as well. I really like the overall feel of the navigation though. The lighter blue-gray color fits well with the dark blue gray color of the navigation bar. The hover state for Dribbble is a nice light gray rounded rectangle as well, which again works very well.

3.  The user menu for Dribbble is something that I have come to like very much. At first I absolutely hated the way they set up the user menu. I like to have my user menu somewhere that I can see without having to roll over something to get there. However, after time I realized that this was actually a very smart move when it comes to User Interface. By keep the user menu in drop down mode it means that less space has to be taken up by the menu, which in turn means more content being displayed.

4. I like Dribbbles search bar because it is plain view, but most of all it comes with a search button after the search bar. I know that I have personally gotten a few jobs from people searching Dribbble, which means that more than just designers use Dribbble every day. A lot of times design only communities will fall into the trap of trying to make the hippest, nicest thing out there, and it becomes hard to use for designers, which means that regular users would have a lot harder time.

MySpace

Once upon a time, in a galaxy not so far away, before Facebook, before Twitter, there was….MySpace.

MySpace quickly began to fall under the radar once Facebook came out and started gaining popularity. After letting Facebook have its run MySpace is finally trying to make a comeback.  Even through the Facebook Reign MySpace remained a home for musicians and bands, but they are now trying to reign back the general user population with a new logo and design. Let’s take a look at their general navigation for the new design.

 

1. The new logo has been the point of controversy for some time now. I am not going to get into the design aesthetics of  the new logo. Instead I am pointing out the logo as being a general part of the navigation. You can click the logo to go back home at any time, but there is also a home button. This is something that MySpace did pretty well as most sites no longer worry about having a home button because their logo acts as a link back to the home page.

2. MySpace’s main navigation is a simple rounded rectangle that stretches across the body of the site. The navigation is a simple dark gray with separator lines. It seems that MySpace is now going for simplicity instead of the flashy and overpowering blue of before.

3. The reason that I pointed out number three is due to the redundancies in the design. If there was one thing that I don’t like about their new design it is the right side of the navigation. The redundancies in design are not that big of a deal, but why are they there? There is already a nice Sign Up / Login nav button next to their logo.

4. Number Four refers to the nice blue box next to the navigation that tells you there is two new pieces of navigation in the bar. Now, that’s all fine and dandy for the most part, but the new MySpace design has been up for some time now and the blue boxes are still there. It is a good idea, in theory, but people get tired of getting their attention drawn to something they have already seen over and over.

 

For MySpace I really wanted to review their primary, and very pretty, sign up/login form as well because there are several things that I really like about it.

1. MySpace has used more amount of space then necessary for their log in form but the results are for the better. Everything is lined up very nicely to the left, the input bars are nicely rounded, and the login button itself is a nice blue color that is very pleasing to look at. The biggest thing that I really like though is the alignment of the tags and the input menus. You don’t usually see the tags lined up above the input menus, but for this UI design it really works.

2. One thing that I don’t and do like about this section is the Sign Up area. I like how the area gives the benefits of why to sign up but at the same time I really don’t like the amount of attention drawn to it. If I already have an account I don’t want my eye drawn to sign up. The button design is really nice and the color works nicely with the design, but where did the green come from? Nothing in their design even has green, let alone that shade of green. It’s a nice touch but I think it is just a little too much and out of nowhere.

3. The Search Bar on this one is very simple and fits with the design. A lot of what I have to say about the search bar I have said about the menu; the colors, the simplicity, but I do have to say that I love the fact that they included a Search Button. That is one thing that MySpace has over Facebook, in my opinion.

Google

 

1. The subtle changes to Googles UI are definately nice to look at and a major improvement. If you thought that Apple was all about simplicity you have another thing coming with Google, most of the time. The new hover state is something that I can really appreciate. It is very subtle, at the top of your page, but it lets you know where you are at and with nice, pleasing colors. I have never thought I would get any inspiration from Google on UI or Design, but the new menu bar has proven me wrong.

2. I like how they refuse to clog up the top bar with everything that Google has to offer. The drop down menu is very simple, but jeez Google at least be gramatically correct and capitalize your “m” please. I would also like to be able to edit the options availble as far as what goes into the more section and what is viewable, but I am not sure if you can do that. As I haven’t really played around with the new UI I won’t count this against them, yet.

3. I actually don’t like the new user menu, but that is just because it is a drop down menu. As I said with Dribbble though that is mostly a personal preference. Design wise I think the text colors chosen for the entire menu are great and I love that they chose an icon for Settings instead of taking up more room with the word.

Conclusion

I hope that you enjoyed today’s article in our new UI Series. It was a pleasure for me to critique these designs and I would love to see what you have to say on these selected UI’s. You can head over to Facebook on our discussion board as well to talk about site UI’s you would like us to visit and critique.

Looking for More About the UI Series?

You can find more about our UI Series on our Facebook Discussion board. On the board you can request UI tutorials, articles, and even figure out how to submit your own site’s UI for review.

Here at HV-Designs we give away the occasional free PSD file, preferring  to teach you how to design something, but everyone needs help at some point or just wants to download a few free files. I know I use each of these Top 5 Websites every day and not just to upload my work for others to download.

For a long time now I have been compiling a list of places that I have downloaded or uploaded free PSD files, and despite having over forty websites, these five are always the first I search and use if possible.

1. Designmoo

Designmoo is a farely new website for Photoshop resources, but they have exploded on to the scene. Created and maintained by @richhemsley and @chriswallace the thing that I like the most about Designmoo is that they have opened up their doors to included Fireworks documents as well.  If you are looking for a Photoshop or Fireworks resource I reccomend that you check out Designmoo first.

2. Premium Pixels

Premium Pixels is another website that hit the stream recently and has exploded into the design world. Premium Pixels, run by @ormanclark, is rapidly becoming one of the top Photoshop Resource Websites out there. It always seems that Orman has just what I need for my latest project, which is why I have this as number two. The resources you can find on Premium Pixels are always the highest quality.

3. Graphics Fuel

Graphics Fuel is another great website to download free PSD files and photoshop resources. The general mix of resources is something that really works in favor of Graphics Fuel. You can find everything from a one page website PSD design to a photoshop document of a lemon.

4. 365psd

365psd something that has continued to amaze me. When it first came out I didn’t think that it would go as far as it has. Now it has been acquired by the same people that run Designmoo (our number one resource) so I am expecting even bigger things from 365psd in the coming months. I like the general randomness of 365psd’s resources.

5. DeviantART

DeviantART is a place where you can find almost any type of resource that you need, so naturally it is one of the top places to get PSD file resources. You can search for just PSD files or do a more in depth search and can find what you need most of the time. The only downside to DeviantART is that the quality is not monitored, like on other sites, so you may  have to swim through quite a bit of not so good work before finding the resource that you need.

Conclusion

I hope you have enjoyed our resources. I am always looking for more places to feature, so if you have a website you would like featured just let us know in our comments or facebook and I will see what I can do. I also have a few invites to Designmoo, so check our Facebook page for a giveaway!

That’s right, you heard me, HV-Designs has come to Facebook! We now have our very own Facebook Page that will be kept updated each day with our tutorials, other resources, and general tips or tricks! We will be having plenty of giveaways on our Facebook Page in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

Become a fan today! Like us Today on Facebook to be entered in our first giveaway! Details will be posted to the Facebook Page by the end of the week!

Get into the holiday spirit with this great collection of Christmas backgrounds and wallpapers.

 

 

Good Bye

We received this clever video about the true benefits of Photoshop and really enjoyed the creativity and humor.
In celebration of the 20th anniversary of Photoshop, Adobe allowed a team of designers to have the creative freedom to show how Photoshop colors our world. This video filmed with stop motion photography from Hyperakt is a creative and energetic tribute to one of the world’s greatest software programs. No doubt all of us could use a little Photoshop magic after a late night once in a while

I Have PSD from Hyperakt on Vimeo.

More on the actual video production

 

 

 

The internet is full of great artists and in this round-up we’ve listed 18 exceptional pieces of Digital Art from deviantART. You’ll be amazed at some of this work.

 

BOBA FETT – NO DISINTEGRATIONS

Quetzalcoatl T

Mask

Moby

Kroca Sobeka

Original – Uniforme

Sippin on Some Syrup

Miss Zombie

DRAMATIC SUNBLOCKING

Merlin

Nostalgic Memories

Libra

The Wizard

Pipes

Psychic Hunter

Rainy dragon

Asian Inspired VII

405

Special thanks to all the artists for sharing their work, please make sure to check out their Galleries over at deviantART.

Do you know of any other great work??? Feel free to share it with us.

Now that you have your coming soon page up and are ready to begin getting down to business as a freelancer you have to think about how you are going to go about doing business. This is a very complicated part of being a freelancer and one of the most important parts of your job. I am not talking about how much you will charge, what your design niche will be, or even what your home page will look like. No, I am talking about planning your day. No matter how good you are at designing you will fail as a freelancer if you don’t have the proper day planning. So what is essential to your planning?

Getting Started

So, because you are a freelancer you don’t have to get up early now right? Well, yes and no. You do set your own hours, but your hours are also essentially set by your clients. You could wake up and start whenever you want, but I guarantee that you will lose clients that way. If you are set on waking up later than normal you need to set up the dates you do that for days that you don’t have meetings.
No matter what time you decide to wake up, however, you need to give yourself time to wake up and get ready for the day. I have seen too many freelancers fall apart because they are trying to just wake up and go to meetings or get started designing. This will get you nowhere and will probably end up pushing you on a downslide.
If you have a family then you need to spend what time you can with them. I know better than anyone the strain that running a business can take on your family life and believe me it is not worth it. If you can plan out your day correctly there will be no strain and it will be just like if you were working at a design firm or a regular nine to five job.

Check Your E-Mail and Voicemail

Your email is the most important part of your business; therefore, you should always check your email before you go to any meetings or start any design work. Your emails will tell you whether you have a cancellation, a new client you need to meet with, critique to think about during the day. Ninety percent of your clients that leave you a voicemail will have sent you an email first and were just calling to say they left you an email (redundant right?).
You can, hopefully, multi-task so check your voicemails at the same time that you are checking your email. If you get a voicemail from your client talking about an email then find that email. You may be required to call back that client and when is better to do that then right after listening to their voicemail? Any other time during the day is better than to stop what you are doing to call back a client. Take notes and call the client back after you are finished checking the rest of your emails.
Respond to all applicable emails in the same fashion that you will voicemails. Take notes, finish what you are doing first, and then respond to those emails. You will need to prioritize your emails and how you want to respond to those. Depending on your normal amount of voicemails and emails will depend on how much time you need to set aside for this. I set out one hour and thirty minutes a day to check my emails, respond to the emails, and have conversations with clients.

Meetings

Meetings are another important aspect of being a designer, but it is not the most important part. The most important part of being a designer is your design work. Meetings are what bring your design work to your clients, but too many meetings and not enough design work means that you will soon be overloaded with work that is not getting done.
If meetings are essential to getting new work and designing is essential to getting the new work done then how do you balance those two out? You need to set up two or three days a week where you do nothing but meetings. I would not recommend setting them up to be two or three days in a row, rather space them out during the week. Why? Because half of those meetings will be with clients wanting progress reports and if you have no time in between to design how will you manage that? I know it sounds like common sense but many businesses, even today, will set up all their meetings back to back and end up regretting that and cancelling with you anyway.
On the days that you do meetings do not set aside any time for designing. Your mind needs to be focused on your meetings when you are having meetings and on your design when you are designing. If you want to do some design work at the end of the day then that is fine, but don’t do it in between meetings. If a client cancels and suddenly you are left with an hour or two of open time a day and want to fill it with designing, go ahead, but don’t work on any of your projects. If you have an extra couple of hours a day use that time to work on your own thing, design some things for fun, release some freebies, or get your name out there.

Design Work

Now we start on design work. Designing is the most important part of being a freelancer so you should set aside two or three days dedicated just to working on your design projects. This way you can focus on your design work without having to worry about what you will talk about with the new clients, or whether the client you are meeting in a few hours will like your design. If your mind is not focused on your design you will start lacking in your design work.
If you don’t have enough design work to necessitate the need for more than one day of design work then set aside one day for design work until it is necessary to commit another day or two more days. When it does become a necessity to set aside another day then you must do it right away. If you don’t start designating more time for designing you will fall into the trap of trying to fit in too much work in too little time.

Time Fillers

I know that every designer needs a break from their work. When I finish a design I know that I need to step back for about half an hour and just relax, get my mind off of things, and Twee…..I mean relax. No really though Social Networking is still work but it is fun work, well sometimes. When you need a break from work let your social network be the first steps towards relaxing. Keep all your followers, fans, dribbblets, and what not in the loop with your work. Now sit back and relax and let your creative juices simmer down before bringing them back to a boil.

Conclusion

Planning your day is, as you can see, the most important part of being a freelancer. It will help you to maintain a steady work ethic, keep your designs to your standards, and stop you from overworking yourself. While working 19-20 hours days may seem like a quicker way to make more money and grow faster it will actually have the opposite effect. It will be detrimental to your business and, more than likely, be detrimental to your health. Please, take what I have written to heart and apply it to your own style of work.

The internet is full of great artists and in this round-up ive listed 19 exceptional illustrations from deviantART. You’ll be amazed at some of this work.

 

Fei Long

Circus

Theme 54 Tower

The Marsh Monster

Legend

Witchfinder General’s Parlour

Greed

Masquerade

My Best Friend

Little Lo

Aion Love

Fly Me To The Moon

Gintama Jouishishi

They Used To Bow

Haha It’s A Game

Pinkitude

Sea Monkey

Chillaxin

D2m3k34

Thanks to all the artist’s for sharing there work, do you know of any great work??? feel free to share it with us.

Hello, today’s post comes from a new author on HV-Designs in this post Rishabh will go through 5 important points in dealing with design clients.

Clients are the people for whom every one of us works. We encounter several types of clients in our daily life. Some are easy and supportive; some are stubborn and hard to crack. But all of us have to find a way out of each and every kind of client we see. The reason being, clients are the people who pay the bill.

In the graphic design industry, the scenario can even be worse. Sometimes, you have to face really silly and weird questions and terms and conditions of your clients. The weird questions and comments can range from “I can design this better than you”, to “This is not going to work for me”. Now the question remains, how to deal with these types of clients? Let’s have a look.

1. Ask, Ask and Ask

With the first encounter with your client, the only thing you should do is, let him do all the talking. Let him spit out what all he has in his mind. Do not interrupt the process. And most importantly, ask all the possible questions you want to. That helps in getting a clear picture of the project on both sides. It has been proved that the reason of most of the failed projects is the miss-communication between the client and the service provider.

2. Dont Lower Your Standards

You will eventually come across such clients in your design career, who want to get the best results, still are reluctant to pay the price for it. Always remember one thing, “All great things come with a price tag”. And if you happen to come across a client, who is not ready to pay up to your standard of expertise and experience, the best bet would be not to go ahead with him. Believe me, it’s more important to retain your standards and wait for the right client, instead of jumping in whatever comes in your way.

3. Have A Clear Goal

Many of the web designers do not define their boundaries and goals at the beginning of their project. The result? A client yelling, “This is not what I wanted”. To make sure you never get in to such situation is, prepare a solid path and set your goals at the very start of your project. This helps in creating a plan so that you are never left out of the league. Also, keep updating your client about the progress of the project.

4. Break It Down

Not every client understands the complexity and the amount of work you put into a project. All they care is about the final result. And to make sure, you don’t get it all wrong in a jiffy, break your project into small and independent modules. After you are done with a module, consul with the client over it and take his/her feedback. After he is satisfied with one module, move on with another. This way, you’ll be able to keep things in shape.

5. Never Deliver Unless The Client Pays

Make it a rule of thumb. No matter if the client is your wife’s dad, or your best pal. “Never, ever deliver your work until and unless you have the payment”. Trust me on this. I’ve been in many projects, where the client convinced me about a so-called trust factor and I was left with no-payment ever. So, invoice your billings effectively and make it a habit of taking some amount of down-payment as you start off with the project. This way, your hard work would never go in vain.

Conclusion

Not every person on this earth is alike. We always come across people with different mind sets and mentalities. But all we have to do is, make a strategy to deal with them, effectively.

Thanks Rishabh

Please give thanks to Rishabh for this post. Hopefully we’ll see more in the future.

The HV-Designs Flickr Pool has been up for a while now, so today’s round-up is going to feature some of the submissions made by members from our flickr group.

 

I Love Music

By Paulo Roberto Dgrafico

Rain London

By Neslirawles

Not Again

By Neslirawles

Be Happy 2

By Ricardo Fx’s

Global Control

By Ricardo Fx’s

XR13

By Ricardo Fx’s

Dance With Me

By Ricardo Fx’s

Space Girl

By Ricardo Fx’s

Pink Angel

By Ricardo Fx’s

Psicodelico

By Ricardo Fx’s

So Wet

By Ricardo Fx’s

Super Flower

By Ricardo Fx’s

Sexy And Lovely

By Ricardo Fx’s

Exploding Head

By The Brok

Hiphop Dance

By Clovesboo

Swirls

By Ricardo Fx’s

HS1961

By Blackpixi 7

Doberman

By Buddabart

Poker

By Buddabart

Planet Earth

By Buddabart

Rainbox Deer

By Buddabart

Join The HV-Designs Flickr Group

Do you have some artwork you’d like to share with us?? maybe you could consider submitting it into the HV-Designs Flickr Pool.

The internet is full of great artists and in this round-up ive listed 20 exceptional illustrations from deviantART. You’ll be amazed at some of this work.

 

Don’t Worry, I Have It Covered

Navi And Ikran

20100314

Mating Season

AN FF AC

Mermaid

Desolate Huntress

Perseverance

Princess

Thank God I’m Pretty

Fleeing Creativity

Human Mage

Infest

Man Eats World

Contract Art Contest

Hold Your Breathe

Online Flirting

Gothic Zombie Girl Face

Space

Fire Mage

Thanks to all the artist’s for sharing there work, do you know of any great work??? feel free to share it with us.

Everybody loves something for free, so in this round-up i’ve listed 40 FREE PSD files in which you can download and use. Enjoy.

 

3D Cube

Digital Stamp

Magnifying Glass

Under Construction Builders Hat

Skateboards

Mac Mini

Macbook Air

Airport Express

Speakers

Stratocaster Classic

Ipad

Metallic Box

Renault Radiance Truck

PSD Man

Mac Book

Sony PSP

Magazine

Coffee Cup

Apple

Battery PSD

T-Shirt

DVD Case

DVD Plastic Case

Iphone 3G

Knob Mash

Nerd

Free Button Pack

Knife Party

Playstation 3 Slim

Lady Bug

Gas Can

HTC Smart Phone

Apple Keyboard

Iphone 4G

Apple Display

Lock

Product Box

Old Paper

Sticker

PSD Book

More Freebies

Dont forget HV-Designs also has a freebies section full of goodies in which you can use for free.

The HV-Designs Flickr Pool has been up for a while now, so todays round-up is going to feature some of the submissions made by members from our flickr group.

 

Jumper

By Paulo Roberto Dgrafico

Application

By Neslirawles

More Magic

By MoonBoy

Leaky Papers

By Blackpixi7

Younha

By Clovesboo

LeeHyori

By Clovesboo

Efeito De Texto

By Willianmatiola

Snap

By Blackpixi7

Apollo Genocide

By Blackpixi7

Hope Of Earth

By Tamir.Glz

Amazing Waves

By MoonBoy

Wavy Background

By MoonBoy

Arara

By Paulo Roberto Dgrafico

Revitalize

By Paulo Roberto Dgrafico

AcquaMam

By Paulo Roberto Dgrafico

Splash Dance

By Paulo Roberto Dgrafico

Motocross

By Paulo Roberto Dgrafico

Join The HV-Designs Flickr Group

Do you have some artwork you’d like to share with us?? maybe you could concider submitting it into the HV-Designs Flickr Pool.

The internet is full of great artists and in this round-up ive listed 21 exceptional illustrations from “deviantART”. You’ll be amazed at some of this work.

 

Captain Jack Sparrow

Victory

Portrait Of A Young Girl

JSA 2 Commission

Prince Of Naga

Bear Girl

Big Warrior

Homeless

Skin Deep

Injured Protoss Zealot

Atoning Wicked Deeds

Deceiver

400,000 Hits

Carlzon Portrait

Changes

Hide For It

Mosquito

Charon

Mushroom Wonderland

Megan Fox

Eldritch Rites

Hello everybody, today I’l be sharing something with you a little bit different. Recently i was asked by “Heart Internet” to do an interview, i was more than happy to accept.

 

Preview

We recently had a chat with Richard Carpenter creator of popular UK based web design tutorial site www.hv-designs.co.uk about how he got started, how he went about getting traffic to his website, how he makes money from the site and his sources of inspiration for new content and much more…

Can you give us some information about yourself and your website?

Hello my name is Richard Carpenter and I’m a freelance graphics designer / web developer from England. I’m 25 and have a strong passion for anything Photoshop. I’ve been using Photoshop for about 7 years and only 3 years ago i launched my first website (hv-designs.co.uk) aimed at helping others get into the industry of web development. You can follow me via twitter (twitter.com/hvdesigns) or view my portfolio (Richard-carpenter.co.uk).

Watch Full interview here

 

Many Thanks Heart Internet

Many thanks to “Heart Internet“.

Thank You

The HV-Designs Flickr Pool has been up for a while now, so todays round-up is going to feature some of the submissions made by members from our flickr group.

 

Renaissence

By Tamir.Glz

Easter

By Neslirawles

 

 

Leaky Papers

By Blackpixi7

More Magic

By MoonBoy

Plexi Grass Summer

By Blackpixi7

Abandoned World Prova6

By Thebrokh

I’m a Model

By Thebrokh

Join The HV-Designs Flickr Group

Do you have some artwork you’d like to share with us?? maybe you could concider submitting it into the HV-Designs Flickr Pool.

Good evening fellow photoshoppers, today on HV-Designs it’s “Freebie Friday”. Freebie Friday is basically the new day in which i’ll be releasing PSD files, code etc… from previous tutorials.

 

Carbon Fibre Style Navigation: CSS Template

You can view the full tutorial HERE, if you haven’t already seen it.

Lipstick Illustration

You can view the full tutorial HERE, if you haven’t already seen it.

Carbon Fibre Style Navigation: PSD File

You can view the full tutorial HERE, if you haven’t already seen it.

License and Attribution

This FREEBIE PACK is licensed under the Creative Commons license and can be used for personal purposes ONLY. Attribution is required and is always appreciated.

The internet is full of great artists and in this round-up ive listed 15 exceptional illustrations from “deviantART”. You’ll be amazed at some of this work.

 

Krulkiel Tracker

Enhanced Appeal

Commission Ashina Yoshimi

467 To Absolution

BomB Face

How I Wish A Wonderland

Umbrella Sky

Swallowtail Cover

I Love Women

Gnome Warlock Shop

 

Blowing Bubbles

The Year Of The Tiger

Happy New Year 2010

Nian Chineese New Year Monster

 

 

Enjoy…

The internet is full of great artists and in this round-up ive listed 15 exceptional illustrations from “deviantART”. You’ll be amazed at some of this work.

 

Mr Barboo

Cats N Mice

Zhu Rong Fire Goddess

Crossing The Stars

Waterfall Castle Matte Art

Spring Snow

Plague Ship Sails Into Korvosa

Inuit Croc

Lackadaisy Flimflam

The Flash

Oops Sorry John

Love You Hate You

Guan Yu Generals Order

Commission Teacup Hat Girl

Stealing Kiwi’s Eggs

Thanks

Thanks for looking, hope you liked the round-up. If you did like the round-up maybe you could DIGG and re-tweet this post. Thanks for your support.

Hello everybody, today I’l be sharing something with you a little bit different. Recently i was asked by “PSDBase” to do an interview, i was more than happy to accept as it was the first time I’d been asked.

 

Richard Carpenter is a freelance web and graphics designer from England. He is also the talented blogger and photoshoper behind one of my favourite tutorial sites, HV-Designs. In this interview Richard will be sharing a little bit of information about himself, his work and gives our readers some simple tips.

1 Hello, Thank you for taking time to do this interview, could you please tell our readers who you are, where you are from, what you do and how you started doing this?

Hello, firstly thanks for the invitation to be interviewed!! My name is Richard Carpenter and I’m a freelance web developer from the West Midlands, England. My passion for web design all started shortly after I left secondary school, I didn’t want the “Normal Job” that most people went for, I wanted to do something completely different.
I started using Photoshop 6 as a hobby after following some tutorials from a magazine I’d bought, soon after i started following more tutorials online. I continued to learn and practice and found my passion for design growing, after years of hard work its finally starting to pay off.

2 Tell us a little bit about your blog HV-Designs, and what made you create it?

HV-Designs started off as combination of small tutorials and my Photoshop creations, it was just a place for me to upload my work and showcase it to whoever happened to visit my website. There was only 2 or 3 tutorials at the time but I had a big response from a surge of visitors who liked what I had done.

Soon I started getting e-mails asking how I’d achieved certain effects or asking for general tips, then someone suggested to me that I should create my own tutorial site. Low and behold HV-Designs was born.

 

3 How did you come up with the name HV-Designs?

My website was originally called High Voltage Designs. When I came to purchase the domain name I found  that “http://high-voltage-designs.co.uk/” would be a bit long, so I shortened it too “HV-Designs”, the name has stuck ever since.

4 What is your favorite piece of work that you have made to date?

My favourite piece of work that I’ve made would have to be my portfolio layout. I’d need a website in itself to showcase all my portfolio designs, this time I’ve actually made something I’m happy with.

 

5 Who or what inspires you?

Everyone inspires me, I get inspiration from all over the internet, when I’m out and about or even when I’m just sitting there doing nothing. There isn’t anyone or any website in particular.

6 Do you have any secrets to share to other bloggers of Photoshopers out there who are looking to follow in your footsteps?

I wouldn’t say secrets but I can certainly provide you with some advice. You won’t become a Photoshop expert overnight, I wouldn’t even class myself as an expert, but the more time you put in the more you’ll get out.

7 Finally, where can our readers find you?

You can find me on Twitter on my Portfolio on Flickr and on facebook soon. Thanks for reading.

Some of Richard’s Work:

RedBitz #2

Wild Survivor

Seo For Sure

We hope that you all enjoyed this interview with Richard Carpenter. For more articles and tutorials, don’t forget to subscribe via Twitter or RSS.

Many Thanks PSDBase

Many thanks to “PSDBase” …

Thank You

The HV-Designs Flickr Pool has been up for a while now, so todays round-up is going to feature some of the submissions made by members from our flickr group.

Car

By Neslirawles

Fresh Grapics

By Fresh Graphics

Avatar Will Smith

By Photo505

London

By Neslirawles

 

Fusion Beat 2010

By Tamir.Glz

Retro Futurism

By Tamir.Glz

The Click

By Tamir.Glz

Design Factory

By Tamir.Glz

 

Depart From Thoughts Of Gold

By Blackpixi7

I’m Human

By HelloChrisUy

Travel Log

By Photomachine

Join The HV-Designs Flickr Group

Do you have some artwork you’d like to share with us?? maybe you could concider submitting it into the HV-Designs Flickr Pool.

 

ENjoy

The internet is full of great artists and in this round-up ive listed 20 exceptional illustrations from “deviantART”. You’ll be amazed at some of this work.

 

The Manikin’s Portrait

Good Or Evil

Nextgen Digital Art

DMC Santa Baby

The City Painted

Owl Thing

Winter

Megan Fox

I’ve Got Something On My Head

Stean Punk Boy Color

Happy Chineese New Year

Gulliver

Colour

Sermignatto

Mail For E21

Escape From The Sky

Kharn The Betrayer

Naga

The Frostfell Rifts Cover

Sakura Sky

Thanks

Thanks for looking, hope you liked the round-up. If you did like the round-up maybe you could DIGG and re-tweet this post. Thanks for your support.