So...it's been a while.  I have been very busy with my design work lately and although I'm thankful for that it also sucks that I haven't been able to post more so today I am giving you a little walkthrough of how I created this nice looking clipboard in Photoshop.

Here is a preview of the final result:

It's more a walkthrough of my process than a tutorial so I apologize if anything is confusing or left out.  I'd rather show you how I did something and let you use the knowledge to create something more original than simply have you copy word for word what I did.

The first step obviously is to open a new file.  In my case I chose the resolution 612x792, don't ask me why because I don't remember.  Fill in the background layer with a color of your choice.  I recommend something not too saturated and neutral in value.

I created new layer and drew a rounded rectangle in the overall shape of the clipboard body.

Play with the blending options to give it some texture, 3-dimensionality, and shadow.  I used the settings below.

This gave me the following:

I wanted better highlights so I duplicated the clipboard layed, cleared the layer effects, and set the layer fill to 0%.  Then I applied a stroke and with the following settings.

The next step was the dirty it up a bit.  I made a couple new layers and used some grunge brushes I found a long time ago to make it look more used and abused.  I used one layer with the layer mode set to multiply for the dark splotches and one layer with the mode set to screen for the light grunge effects.  You can see the result below both by itself and on top of the clipboard.

Next I found an image of a real clipboard on stock.xchng to steal the clip itself.

After I used the pen tool to cut it out, I copied it over and placed it accordingly.  Then I applied a dropshadow with the following settings to give it more depth.

This is where I was at after that.

I created a layer between the clip and the board and manually painted in some shadows to add realistic depth to the image.  I think it came out pretty well.

Using these same techniques I created some layers for the paper between the clip and the board.  It's almost done!

The final step was to add some texture to the background and on top of the final image.  I created 2 layers above all the rest.  One with the gradient below set to Overlay at 15% transparency.

The other I filled with black and used the filter Pixelate>Mezzotint>Fine dots to create noise.

Then I set it to multiply at 3% opacity to give the overall image a more photographic quality.

The final result can be seen below.

I hope you learned something from this walkthrough.  What was the most helpful?  What was the least helpful?  What kinds of walkthrough would you like to see next?

What should I include in my design brief?

This is one of the hardest questions to answer for anyone trying to break into the design industry.  Initially you'll go out and try to find work but when a potential customer comes along you have no clue how to go about beginning a design and the whole project becomes much more of a nightmare than it should be.

One of the keys to beginning a design in the right direction comes before the actual designing and is known in the industry as a design brief.  A design brief is simply a series of questions you ask your client to find out what their needs are.

I am going to share with you what kinds of things you should ask potential clients and include an example design brief as a pdf at the end of this article.  Most of what I say will be assuming your design objective is to create a website for a potential customer.

The answer is, a lot.  The more thorough you are in asking your client what they want then the more specific they will be when they respond.  This is good news because it prevents you from creating unnecessary mockups and design concepts since you already have a better idea what they like and dislike.

There are, of course, the basic things to ask about like color scheme, and for print media what size, quantity, finish, etcetera your client desires.  You will also need to know what kind of content will be on display such as text, photos, video, or a combination of everything.  On top of that it is a good idea to find out as much about the company or person as you can and what they want to represent.

Questions like the following will help you to better understand where the client is coming from:

• What does your organization do?
• How long have you been in business?
• How many employees do you have?
• What region do you cater to?
• How do you fit in your industry sector compared to other similar companies?

These kinds of questions can give you a lot of ideas for creating a design unique to that specific client.  For example, if the company caters only to a certain city or county, you can include something that is familiar to that area.  That way when a visitor sees the site they immediately have a sense of trust and familiarity.

Another thing to find out is what the client hopes to accomplish with the design you'll be providing.  Do they want to generate sales through the site?  How about encourage enquiries so they can explain what they do to potential buyers?  Other objectives include gaining newsletter subscribers, obtaining information from visitors, encouraging referrals, and more.

Obviously if the objective of a site is to sell things, you'll want to design a site that makes it easy for the end user to make a purchase.  If you want to gain newsletter subscribers you may want a sign up button strategically placed on the main page.

Knowing a clients target audience can also give you a sense of what style is suitable to your design.  Ask questions about target age, sex, income, occupation, location, etc.

If you know a client wants to target kids age 12-16 then you may want to use brighter colors and wilder shapes that would be unsuited for a site designed for the elderly.

There are other questions to ask that will reflect the personal tastes of a client.  Ask them to give you a list of websites they really like and dislike and why.  This will give you a very good idea of what the stay away from when you are creating your initial concepts.

The main purpose of a design brief is to gather as much information as possible.  The more information you retrieve from your client the easier your job becomes and the better the final outcome will be for both parties involved.

You should always encourage descriptive word use.  If a client tells you they want a site that looks "nice" that is of no help to you.  Shouldn't all sites look nice?  If they said they want a "modern, high-class, and masculine" website you will begin to picture the direction you want to go in before you even sit down to begin work.

One final thing to remember is to find out what your clients budget and timeline are.  There is nothing worse than getting excited over a big potential project only to find out they want somebody to do it for $100 because it is "a great portfolio piece for the future".  For this reason you may want to begin your design brief with the questions of money and deadlines.

You should never do work for less than you feel it's worth.  People that do design work for too little not only ruin the industry for other designers but for themselves as well.  It's people like this who will eventually drop out of design because they can't support themselves doing it.  Remember, what you do is not a hobby but a very finely honed gift and it's the way you pay your way through life.

As a side note, it's always good to collect some kind of deposit before you begin working.  I find something between 25-50% of the final cost is usually fair.  This will encourage you to finish your designs sooner and will keep your client from bailing on you.  You'd be amazed at how many people will work on a design for something like 10 hours or more only to have the client respond a week layer saying "nevermind".

I hope you found this information useful.  Please leave comments about anything you think is missing and also make sure to Digg, Stumble, and Float this article if you found it helpful.

You can also download my sample design brief here.

You can literally get free business cards online nowadays.  They have ads on the back of them and you have to pay for the shipping but they are free nonetheless.

Why wouldn't someone just order these free ones instead of spending $50 or so for 250 custom designed business cards.

I am going to give you my personal insight as to why you should always invest in design that represents you personally.

A business card should be like a fingerprint, unique to its owner.  It's what our customers can identify with and is just as important as a good logo.

The best examples of a template style, cookie-cutter business card design I can think of are the ones passed out by real estate agents.  They are all the same.

A portrait of the agent on the top left corner, the company logo in the top right, and the contact information laid out boringly somewhere in between.

This is definitely the cheapest way to do things but is it really helping you make a good impression?

You are basically representing to your potential clients that you are no better and no worse than any other agent out there.  You are simply just another agent they can use if it's convenient for them.

You want to seem indespensible and if you want somebody to remember you when they are buying a quarter million dollar house you want to stand out against the crowd.

When you hand somebody a business card they automatically associate the quality of that card with the quality of your work so why not invest in something you'll be remembered by?

By making a single good impression that leads to a single sale you will have received your initial investment back along with a very hefty reward.

It's as simple as taking 15 minutes to hire a designer that will design, print, and have your cards shipped right to you.  It's a win-win situation.

For the sake of your business as well as good design, I urge you to consider the small investment that will ultimately pay off in a big way.

It has come to my attention that I have been a big fool for not including an RSS feed on my blog.  Well no more!

You will find the RSS feed icon at the bottom of the front page!  I may move it later but that's where it is for now.

You can also view the RSS feed here.

Many designers rely on san serif fonts to give there designs a contemporary look.  They have become so widely used that serif fonts are often not even considered as an option.

This article will focus on the different types of serif typefaces and will hopefully provide some insight on how to enhance the uniqueness of your designs by using them.

Let's start with the slab serif typefaces since they most closely resemble sans serif typefaces and because they are the most easily identifiable due to their unique appearance.

Slab serif typefaces share many similarities in style with sans serif typefaces.  They are decorated with blocky serifs that have very little to no contrast between thick and thin.

The vertical and horizontal strokes as well as the serifs are often identical in thickness which give the characters a very stable and professional yet somewhat charming feel.

My current favorites are Serifa, Caecilia, and the most commonly used Rockwell.

Old style serif typefaces have a couple features that make them so interesting. They are characterized by their diagonal stress and subtle contrast between thick and thin.  This means the thinnest parts of the letters are at an angle rather than on the horizontal.

Serif typefaces classified as old style excel in readibility and have a classic, old school look.

Some popular old style serif typefaces are Adobe Jenson, Garamond, Goudy Old Style, Palatino, and my favorite of the bunch, Bembo.

There is not much to be said about transitional serif typefaces without comparing them to the old style and modern serifs.

Transitional serif typefaces have a difference in strokes that lies somewhere in between the low contrast of old style and the high contrast of modern serif typefaces.

Three of the most widely used transitional serif typefaces are Times New Roman, Caslon, and Baskerville.

I'll let you guess which of the three I find not suited to a unique design solution.

The final type of serif I am going to talk about is the modern serif.  These typefaces have a very pronounced contrast between strokes as well as larger, more elaborate serifs.

The extreme difference between vertical and horizontal line thickness renders modern serif typefaces harder to read than transitional or old style serifs.

Kepler and Bodoni are good examples of modern serif typefaces.

How does this apply?

The best advice I can give you is to try out as many typefaces as you can to familiarize yourself with the feel of each one.

If you try a typeface like Garamond, which has an old style serif, and it gives your design a look that you feel is too stale, try a more recent one that lies within the transitional or modern serif typefaces.

Also, slab serifs are a very good and simple way to give a design life without using a sans serif font and without having to worry about the plethora of other serif typefaces out there.I hope you learned a little something about the differences in types of serifs.  They can even be subcategorized further but I'll save that for another time.