A simple logo for Soap News on Globaltv.com. I employed a really easy gradient technique and a soft backend shadow to give the impression of depth.

Test logo for a member on a forum. Showcasing the power of subtle and easy photoshop layer effects and dropshadows.

The graphic I created for my Nutella t-shirt, I made it float to look cool.

The dropshadow underneath the main navigation, cool and clean – with a not so in-your-face shadow.

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We want to create the games that we have always wanted to play, and that the bigger game companies fail to create. Stay tuned for more information on my newest venture and check out the site when you have a chance.

The Jamhammer Logo and Branding I created.

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The header image of the Infographic. I extracted the base logo from previous seasons and added a 3d effect in illustrator, and then added the wood texture to give it more oompfh.

The middle section of the graphic gives readers info about the odds of becoming a survivor on the show. I sourced some high res wood textures and burned them into the wood to give it a more authentic look. The fabric plates use the look and feel from several props on the show, including the hand created torches.

The final section of the site shows a call to action to get readers to interact with the article and potentially win a prize. Wood textures, obviously an important theme here played a role in rounding out the look and feel of the graphic.

See the full image and read the article here.

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Personally, I take a front end design path when creating a new website. Firstly, I create the brand and two versions in photoshop – the desktop and the mobile versions. I then start coding my framework and css and begin sending my clients the progress. I let them know it is a work in progress and they understand, barring I explain in detail why something hasn’t been implemented yet. I find it incredibly arduous to create multiple photoshop documents for one site and often hear designers complain about such a task. Smart objects were introduced a few Photoshop versions ago and should be used in everyone’s daily workflow. Despite some shortcomings, they make reusing assets within one document incredibly easy and efficient.

When I say that all designers should know how to build the site they design, I come from when I was looking into becoming an architect. I thought being an architect back in my naive days was just to draw fancy looking buildings, and then have them magically appear. What I learned was that architects are basically artistic engineers, and they need to know the physics and math in order to design something that won’t kill everyone inside OR defy the laws of physics. My point is that they understand the medium they are designing for and understand what makes things tick.

This line of thinking can relate to front end developers with no skills in design. Often my designs are not cut out right, and look quite different to what I mocked up in photoshop. Someone recently said to me that it’s very uncommon for a final design to look identical to photoshop in a browser. I disagree in that I hope that front end developers use those mockups as a perfect representation of what should be on the final screen. If front end developers learn how to properly dissect a psd file, I believe our woes will dwindle, and; most importantly  our sites will look great when multiple people are working on them.

We all need to take steps to learn one anothers crafts in order to have the best of design and code out there.

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One of our favourite games back a few years ago was Geometry wars. A shoot em up you could pick up and play for 10 minutes before work, then go about your business. It was addictive, fun and incredibly smooth to play, not to mention it created a feverish competition between all my friends who had it. Leaderboards would be challenged daily; and, while we couldn’t ever compete with the top players ( FIGGYG! ) , we had our insane battles. Shwip is a combination of my love for design and polished looks, and my friend’s insane coding abilities. What I love about working closely with one of my best friends is that I can relay what I’m thinking of putting in as a feature, and he will instantly understand and write the code for it. Brainstorming and throwing around ideas between one another reminds me of working closely with a client on a major website or app.

This is where Shwip comes into play. It’s our take on one of our favourites, with some new features that will hopefully spruce up the genre. First of all, we have a damn WHIP! How many games have whips?? Especially in SPACE ( or the void as I like to call it ). If you have a steam account, rate and fav our game on Greenlight, we really want many people to enjoy our game when it’s out. Check out the trailer while you’re at it.

Steam Greenlight Page

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Hit ctrk+k or command-k and head on over to your guides, grids and slices tab. Change your settings to match the following image.

Hit ctrl-’ or command-’ to bring up the pixel grid, and make sure you enable snapping in the view tab.

You’ll then be able to go from creating shapes that are both crisp, and aliasing free. Perfect for grids and image based layouts ; and, leave messes like this in the past.

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Enjoy the new site, send me feedback if you have any – I’d love to hear it.

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