Design Tutorials: Practice makes perfect

I did a lot of photoshop(& illustrator) tutorials back in the day(a year or 2 ago) but once I had mastered the “glassy ball” and “grunge-look” I kinda stopped doing them. I recently started doing tutorials again and I have become a big advocate for them. Here are some reasons why you should be doing multiple tutorials a week:

1. You will discover features you never knew about.
2. You will learn multiple ways to do the same thing(maybe your way isn’t the most efficient).
3. You will find interesting links to sites that will help you.
4. You will learn that every designer has a different process.
5. You may hate the end result, but that one step in the middle may be your favorite new trick.
6. You will save time.
7. You will learn that there are a lot of skilled designers out there(you may even meet some of them).
8. Your work will be of higher quality.
9. You will learn new trends(even if you learn to hate them).
10. You will have fun doing them and you will want to show your friends what you can do(even if it is creating a cartoon crocodile from a pencil sketch).

The ultimate goal is good design. Don’t let your skill set hold you back. Learning the technical stuff is the easy part.

Some links for ya…

• http://psdtuts.com/
• http://www.smashingmagazine.com/category/tutorials/
• http://pixelmana.com/?p=31
• http://vectips.com/tutorials/create-a-brushed-metal-texture/
• http://freetransform.net/?p=77
• http://www.gomediazine.com/tutorials/intricate-patterns-in-illustrator/
• http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/tutorials/illustrator-tutorial-create-a-colourful-abstract-wavy-ribbon
• http://www.adobetutorialz.com/
• http://www.dennisplucinik.com/blog/2007/08/28/60-advanced-adobe-photoshop-tutorials/

About the Author: Dan Trenkner

Dan is a User Interface Designer at digital-telepathy. With a background in studio art at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Dan decided to move to San Diego to pursue a career in web design. His daily tasks mainly consist of UI design and branding.When not on illustrator or photoshop, he is probably on facebook or searching design galleries. Dan embraces his artistic background and is constantly looking for new sources of inspiration as well as staying up to date with the latest trends. Relatively new to the “real world,” Dan loves the challenges presented to him and the learning experiences that they bring.When not working, Dan enjoys morning surfing, weekend snowboarding at Big Bear, and golfing.