Best of the Web – December 2008

Dec 31st in News by Grant Friedman

December was another stellar month for the design community. Each month we scour the web for the best vector content and this month there was a lot of great stuff to choose from. This round up features some of the best content for the month of December. I hope everyone is having a wonderful holidays and has time to kick back and practice their vector skills.

Author: Grant Friedman

Grant Friedman is the creative mind behind Colorburned Studios, a freelance graphic and web design firm. Grant got his start as a designer in 1999 when he began drafting electronic newsletters for organizations he was involved with. Over the years he has worked for a number of businesses, organizations, and individuals. His primary design tools are Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Fireworks, and InDesign.

Tutorial Wrap

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  Sexy Holiday Vector Pin-Up Girl Tutorial

  Go Media impresses us once again with another amazing tutorial demonstrating how to create a beautiful illustration of a holiday pin-up girl based on a combination of photos. This is a great tutorial for anyone looking to learn more about adapting photos for their vector illustrations.

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  Animate a Flying Bird Using Illustrator and Flash

  This two-part video tutorial demonstrates how to animate a flying bird using Adobe Illustrator and Flash. Part 1 goes over the process of creating the vector assets in Illustrator, Part 2 shows how to animate the assets in Flash.

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  Create a Themed Repeating Pattern in Illustrator

  We see repeating patterns everywhere. Ever wonder how they are created? Spoon Graphics gives us some insight into the process by showing how to create a themed repeating pattern.

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  Illustrator Trick #10: Stitched Text Effect

  In this tutorial Vector Diary shows us how to quickly create a stitched text effect using Adobe Illustrator’s appearance panel and a variety of different fills and strokes. The same basic technique can be adapted for many uses.

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  Quick and Simple Document Icon in Illustrator

  We see document icons everywhere; on our computers, cell phones, websites or MP3 players. In this tutorial Quintal Designs demonstrates how to create a quick and simply document icon in Illustrator.

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  Tutorial: Vector painting!

  Ann Storer demonstrates how to create some very nice-looking vector wings in Illustrator using the Pen tool, some gradients and various opacity settings. The result is a very beautiful graphic.

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(FREE!) Download Picks

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  8 Free Cute & Simple Twitter Bird Vector Graphics

  Displaying Twitter updates on your blog has become a popular trend. Inspired by kids and infants, these eight vector Twitter birds take on the simple hand drawn style of youngsters, making for some super cute characters to present your latest tweet on your blog!

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  Memory Lock: Free Pattern from Dip Dot Swirl

  Download this free seamless vector pattern by artist and illustrator Von Glitschka. This pattern is one of over 120 patterns available in his new book "Drip. Dot. Swirl."

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  Vector Elements

  You can never have too many vector elements in your arsenal. Download this really nice set of vector flowers and shapes from Qvectors. They are sure to help bring you out from your winter chill, if even if for a bit.

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  Vector Snowflakes

  This time of year you can never have enough snowflakes. Or can you? Download this free set of vector snowflakes from Dezignus if you still haven’t had enough snowflakes so far this winter.

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  10 Scribbled Snowflake Vectors

  If you downloaded the above snowflakes from Dezignus and still haven’t had enough snowflakes this winter, take a look at the scribbled snowflakes that I designed earlier this month and use them in your winter designs.

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Article Wrap

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  Educating Clients to Say Yes

  I was really impressed with this speech from Paul Boag of Boag World about educating clients on how to say yes. As designers, we spend a lot of time working with our clients. This speech does a great job of putting this relationship into perspective.

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  100 Brands of Interest

  There are a lot of designers in the design community; each with their own unique brand and style. This article showcases some of the many brands that are used by designers in the design community.

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  10 Illustrator Resolutions for 2009

  There are a lot of features in Illustrator that just aren't used enough according to Morty Golding of Real World Illustrator. In this article Morty discusses 10 features that can help you to use Illustrator more effectively.

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  Lose the Color! Black-and-White Design Inspiration

  This time of year there’s a good chance that if you look out the window you will see lots of snowy white. Inspired by this, Design Feedr scoured the web to find some of the most inspiring examples of black and white illustrations out there.

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  Ethical or Unethical?

  Fuel Your Creativity poses this question: Is it ethical or not to ask a designer that you employ to use their personal portfolio for helping to gain new clients for your firm. Take a look at some of the responses to this question and join the conversation.

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