TECHNIQUES 25 QUICK TIPS FOR PRO DESIGNERS
- CREATE MOCKUPS FOR CLIENTS
Sometimes you have to spend a little time going
the extra distance to reap the rewards in your future
workflow. Brad Marsh is the creative director at
South Coast Designs (www.southcoastdesign.
co.uk), and he says that a mock up can really help a
client understand how a project will look, rather
than a flat design: “When you’re producing a work
of art for a client, simply sending them a high
resolution JPEG or PDF simply won’t cut it these
days. To inspire and catch the attention of the
17. DON’T WRITE OFF
THE MAGIC WAND
Some tools in Photoshop are often consigned to
never being used because they have a bad reputation
for being unprofessional. However, no tool in
Photoshop should be completely disregarded, as they
are often designed to complete simple tasks in
super-fast time, which can help your workflow when
used appropriately. Polly Playford (www.polly
playford.com) is a freelance graphic designer
offering branding, web design, graphic design and
more. She uses the Magic Wand tool to make quick
selections when needed: “The Magic Wand tool saves
time when selecting coloured areas. You must make
sure that you adjust the Tolerance in the top menu
bar, as that makes a big difference to how useful that
tool is. Another handy tip: once you’ve selected a
colour, choose Select>Similar to select the same
colour across the whole document.”
people paying your wages and putting food on
your table (if you’re a freelancer like myself) you
need to take extra time when putting together your
artwork into an organised and well-presented
mockup so your clients can get a better
understanding as to what their product or design is
going to look like as a finished item.
“Take business cards, for example. If you have
produced an amazing business card for a client,
send them your final designs set up to look like a- EDIT 3D FASTER
John Cathcart (www.whitebeardesign.co.uk) creates
vibrant and interesting 3D designs, and Photoshop is
an important part of his day-to-day workflow and
speeds up his common tasks. He talks us through its
uses here: “Photoshop has always been a huge player
in my digital toolkit. I utilise Photoshop heavily in my
current 3D work, using Color and Levels adjustment
layers to tweak imported art from Maxon’s Cinema
4D. I use a lot of custom-made brushes to add depth
and light effects in post-production and always finish
my pieces by adding a High Pass filter along with the
Overlay blending mode to sharpen the image up.
“I have been working primarily in 3D for the last five
years, but could not produce the work that I do without
the powerhouse abilities that Photoshop offers. If I’m
working on an extremely detailed render, I will export
the UV maps directly to Photoshop where I can get
down to detailing every element of my textures,
whether it be using the stock brushes and effects
provided out-of-the-box or by scanning and
photographing my own.
“One of the most crucial tips that I can offer when
working in Photoshop is to build your resource library.
Get out on the street and take photos, scan textures or
even pull them off the web (keeping in mind copyright
laws). Also, don’t be afraid to experiment with your
blending modes, placing multiple layers on top of the
other and playing around with blending options, which
can produce some very exciting results, adding depth
to otherwise two-dimensional work.”stack of business cards on their desk at work.
Show them what their business cards will look
like when they physically have them in their
hands and what their business contacts are
going to see when they’re handed out at
networking events. I have gotten far more
referrals and have seen a bigger increase in
accepted designs after taking the time to put my
designs into an attractive mockup. It also means
they make great portfolio pieces too.”© John Cathcart© Polly Playford Design 2015© South Coast Designs