Sink or Swim

My re-design project for a web site offering life insurance quotes online have taught me a lot of things when it comes to insurance. For one, I found out that I can get a cheaper life insurance called term life which can cover me for a specific period of time. It’s cheap, it’s convenient and perfect if you’re planning to travel for a few years and want to be covered.

Anyway, I’ve seen several health-related and sports web sites while working on this project. For inspiration, I’ve selected my top three favorites and showcased them here.

Till next design inspiration post.

I’m currently working on a fantasy web design and these reflective photographs are perfect to give me the inspiration that I need.

More here.

A friend was looking for Adobe Lightroom presets and upon checking Google, I came across presetsheaven.com. It’s a resource web site for free high quality presets that both newbies and professional photographers can use. There are featured presets everyday with plenty of contributions from other users as well. Take a quick look at my fave below and you’ll see just how nice they are.

The best things in life are indeed, free.

Preset 1

Preset 2

Preset 3

Preset 4

Wow. Would you look at that. When did Brittney Spears start looking like this again?

Even at a small resolution, you’d see how huge her head is. Removing eczema, adding a bit of curve, reducing cellulite are fine. But this. Oh man, someone is definitely in trouble at work! This reminds me when I used to have fun with my friends’ photos.

And this one? Just plain scary.

Oops. Someone had too much stretching this morning.

More at Photoshop Disasters.

Great! So it’s not only my husband and my daughter who will love my phone due to the numerous games that I’ve downloaded so far. Now that I’m nearing my due date, I’m looking for all kinds of development apps that I can use while I’m in the hospital. And according to the list below, there are more than 90++ apps that I can choose from.

I’ll list my top three as they are the most essential to my work.

FTP On The Go

Download and upload files wherever you are. You can even edit files on the server.

Photoshop.com Mobile

Crop, rotate, adjust color and saturation of your images. Useful for quick graphics edits.

read more »

I’m addicted to all kinds of lists and collections that has to do with web and graphic design. For this post, it’s another batch of out-of-the-box business cards that can totally blow your client’s minds.

Source

Brushes are always a part of a good design. For some who’d rather use pre-made brushes, you’d be glad to know that there are tons of free stuff that you can download from the Internet. On this post, you can choose from several kinds of floral brushes that you can use as an element or background to your web design.

Check out the full list here.

Thanks to technology, it’s now possible to get a College degree without putting a stop to your career or personal life. An online degree is getting popular these days not just because of how convenient it is but also because plenty of people wants to broaden their horizons, change careers or get promoted. In fact, you can even get masteral degrees online so you can finally get the dream job you’ve always wanted. I know several friends who specifically enrolled just because a masteral is the only thing stopping them from being promoted to a managerial level. As for me, I’m always on the lookout for design-related programs so I can enhance my skills and keep abreast with the latest design technologies. Being a designer has never been so competitive what with newly graduates armed with the latest design trends looking for work at a more affordable salary.

I got a new design task today which reminded me of acne treatment reviews. It was for a photographer’s portfolio and what I have to do is airbrush the faces of his models and clients. The pay is good and the job was exciting because I rarely get to flex my Photoshop muscles. Also, it wasn’t as bad as optimizing before and after photos of bad teeth which I had to do for a dentist a couple of weeks ago.

Anyway, I  just love Photoshop. If you’re a photographer or  just want to enhance your photos, you will love these new actions from Itty Bitty. I’ve been using them for two years and never regretted paying for them.

Should I upgrade or not yet? You gotta admit their artworks are just too amazing for words.

Want a quick eczema treatment? Check out the Photoshop Disasters Blog to see it in action. Seriously, there’s so much airbrushing there you’d think some companies are now hiring 14-year-olds as graphics designers. Scratch that. I’m not being fair to these guys. To be fair, I’ve had my own share of Photoshop disasters. It’s not easy when you’re working on a very tight deadline. But for big companies and design studios, you just can’t afford to make mistakes. It also works the other way around. Some of these ads are so good they just look so fake.

Do I even have to say it?

Someone got addicted to the Liquify feature of Photoshop

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As soon as I saw these, I just couldn’t wait to have my own. Maybe a portion of my head, the cartoon version that is will pop up then beside it will be my name and info. I’m sure these can get pretty expensive though. I’ll have to look around for affordable printing first before I try and exhaust myself in designing one.

For your next business card projects, these serve as really great inspirations to keep the mojo flowing.

Source

Whenever I start with a design concept, it’s important that I surround myself with things that can inspire me. It could be a blog, a cartoon drawing, a piece of fabric or even an old photo. It doesn’t matter as long as it lets my creative juices flowing. Most of the time, whenever I run out of ideas, I just click the desktop button on my toolbar and whatever is on my screen should be enough to refresh my head. So without further ado, let me showcase some really nice wallpapers for dual screens and triple monitors.

Sources: Here and here

I just spent the entire day cleaning up exposed acne on a photograph. It’s for my photographer client who shoots weddings and birthdays. His recent subject has plenty of acne which at first I wasn’t sure how to fix but after 30 minutes of airbrushing, I suddenly got the hang of it. I tried my best not to make it look perfect or too air-brushed. They are not celebrities after all and a little imperfection makes the photos even more real.

Despite the skin problem however, the bride looked so happy and in love that it reminded me of my own wedding day. This is why I love working with anything that has to do with weddings. Whether it’s a web site design, an e-commerce shop for brides or as simple as editing a photo, I’m always filled with excitement and joy knowing someone’s life is about to be changed

I’m glad I finished all my deliverables yesterday. Just found out that I got accepted to enter a design tournament and know that this will eat all of my working time today. I’m so excited though because of all 900+ contestants, they only selected 10 to enter based on their portfolio. Suffice to say that mine was nice enough to be included. What’s even better is that I already have a guaranteed fee if I can produce a great looking mockup in three days. And I know I will because based from the specs, it’s nothing that I haven’t done before. I’m so excited and hoping I get to win!