The truth is, though, some truly fantastic portraits have been created in Illustrator and other vector art programs. And the process can be as difficult or straight-forward as you choose to make it. Most designers seem to start out with a photo, though others have been created from scratch and may even be fictional characters with no reference image. In any case, the end results are fantastic, whether they’re kept a bit more abstract and two-dimensional or they’ve gone for a more realistic final result.

Vector Portraits

Portrait by oddhouse

Self Portrait April 09 by j3concepts

Self Portrait Number Something by verucasalt82

Female Portrait by mftalon

Illustrator Portrait by KrisCynical

Self Portrait for ID by Un-divine

School Portrait by whmurai

Description or analysis of the image, product, etc., if necessary

Portrait by Alexxxx1

Vector Portrait by J-Ro-20

Utopian. by belldandies

The Royal Portrait Part Deux by ArtistHazzard

Portrait by CQcat

Self Portrait II by PhunkyVenom

Self Portrait KDLIG by K-A-D-L

adrianaLima by cd-marcus

Stephanie by verucasalt82

Ewa by lafor

Self-portrait by heloisabrites

Portrait of Kanon by DigitalImpulses

Green by exit82

Ilona by MARiKaArt

Vector Portrait by naunet

Gackt by jmlan

Mother by solgas

Human Face by Lazunov Iaroslav

Further Resources & Tutorials

• Quick Tip: Rapid Vector Portrait Process
• 10 Stunning Tutorials on Creating Vector Portraits
• Vectorportraits.com
• 20 Beautiful Vector Portraits – From Abduzeedo

I’m a 20-year old designer and illustrator from the Philippines. A typical day for me is waking up at 8am, heading to the office for my day job as a web designer from 9am to 6pm, and the rest of the night I’m at home doing the fun illustrations you see online.

Designing for me has been a whirlwind journey, for lack of better words. I’m self-taught in design and illustration. It started as a hobby when I was 16 working on basketball wallpapers and eventually doing official basketball player websites. I also did more practical stuff like design projects for my school and community. I got interested in it so much that at 17, I put college on hold and decided to pursue it professionally.

I applied for a design job at Team Manila – a local graphic design studio specializing in print, and that’s where I learned how to use Adobe Illustrator and leave web design temporarily. Sometime after that, I did illustrations for band shirts and apparel brands, and joined tee design contests. I used to draw straight on the computer, but now I’m teaching myself how to illustrate traditionally with more pencil sketches first before transferring to Illy with the pen tool.

By day I’m a senior web designer for an internet marketing company, and by night I’m a freelance illustrator. I pursued both so that I can pay the bills and also have an outlet for more personal creativity. As a freelancer, my favorite illustration job has got to be “Mecha-Labaw” – a shirt design for Design By Humans and the winner of their DBH10K contest.

“Psycho Cupcake Octopi Monsters” is a collaboration with Celina de Guzman, a very talented fellow illustrator. She did the pencil sketch and I vectored it in Illustrator. The illustration was a laFraise shirt entry where the contest theme was “Monsters and Fantasy,” so we just went crazy and random with it. We’re glad it came out well, but sadly it didn’t fare well in the contest.

I love illustration. What’s amazing about it is you can express your thoughts freely where it can stand alone as art, or it can stand back in design and be instrumental.

Recently I’ve had the chance to fulfill my dream job, where I got to work with the Adobe Illustrator team for an illustration and tutorial that showcases the capabilities of their new CS5 software. My remaining dream jobs would be working on illustrations for big companies that promote artists and welcome so much creative freedom – companies like Coke, Nike, and HP.

A typical illustration usually takes anywhere between six hours to a couple of weeks, depending on its purpose. Usually personal artworks and shirt contest entries take the most time, since there’s a lot of freedom for concept development, and sometimes that’s counter-productive. In comparison, illustrations for clients are easier since the concepts are clearly laid out. The general process is getting the idea and sketching it out, research and gathering references, opening Illustrator and letting the magic happen.

For Illy, a good technique is to keep all materials and versions on one AI canvas, so you can go back constantly and you can keep track of your progress. One of my new favorite tools for Illustrator hasn’t been released yet for everyone, but it’s certainly something to be excited about in the coming months. They did a great job of improving stroke behavior and workflow, and also pen tablet usage and functionality in the next version.

Competition inspires me, I got interested in T-shirt design because of contests such as Threadless, DBH, and laFraise, because you challenge yourself to be better than everyone else (and even when you’re not, at least you’re still pushing your own standard.) The tee is an awesome open canvas for ideas, and it’s also a product that anybody who appreciates it can pick it up and be an instant promoter of the design.

I’m currently working on another laFraise submission for their Smart special contest.

A big challenge every time is to come up with something new that I can add to my illustrations, because I always try to make the latest design better than my previous works.

I keep myself inspired by following the best designers and illustrator’s works. ffffound.com is really good, buamai.com is also a new inspiration site I’ve been visiting recently. I really admire Vault49, Hydro74, 123Klan, and Alex Trochut.

Always strive to make your own designs better each time, keep tabs on the latest international design trends, and network, network, network!

Christian San Jose on Web

• Portfolio
• deviantArt
• Flickr
• Facebook
• Twitter

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Dacosta has numerous playful and bold projects in his portfolio, like his character “KidKat,” a custom chocolaty, vinyl toy. You can learn more about his vector character design process in his tutorial “How to Make the Vector Character “Cactus King” – Vector Plus Tutorial.” In this interview, he talks about his creative growth since childhood, the importance of story in his character design, how he pushes new creative ideas into his work, and his sophisticated approach to developing both personal and client projects.

Hmm, well I’ve been doing “creative” since I was a child. I grew up in eastern Canada – Mississauga, Ont in the 80’s. At that time Japanese anime was all over the airwaves. Grandizer, Gatchaman, Spacekateers, Gai King, Astro Boy, Flintstones, the list keeps going. These shows were some of the constants in my life. I learned to draw by watching and copying and the way I draw and colour forms comes directly from anime. My training was through self-directed art programs in grade school and high school.

While I’ve been designing professionally for over 15 years, there was never a single moment where the light went on and I said, “That would be a cool job.” That would be like trying to figure out when I started breathing. I’ve simply known no other option – although I’m told that when I was seven I wanted to be a firefighter.

Would I recommend this path to others? Truthfully, if anyone that has any inner yearning to express themselves creatively, denying this expression would be a loss, so absolutely I would encourage anyone who has vision to share it with the world.

My focus and goal is on the development of personal projects, but even with client projects, I’ve always made efforts to attract work that I want to do because of the way I do them, so there’s no hard line between these. I basically make everything my own. However, you always have personal needs and your creative goals, and finding the balance between these two, you need to decide at any given moment where your priorities lie. Doing a job that you don’t like to get yourself out there, versus eating kraft dinner and expanding your portfolio to draw more attention to what you do – it’s a decision that needs to be made depending on where you’re at.

Haha, yeah I remember your reaction. You were quite shocked that someone wanted to actually talk to you. I’m a big proponent of real communication whenever possible. Sure email is fine for sending documents and links to people, but writing letters was never one of my strong suits so the idea of doing it on a daily basis as a default method of communication seems a bit silly to me. There are so many tools out there that increase the distance between us and I guess it’s my way of pushing back. And yes, I have an iPhone.

The idea of “pushing” is a way of thinking about my work, be it process or concept or final production method.

I don’t look to the flavour of the month as a creative bandwagon to jump on. The driving element of every project is story. A good storyline is the starting point for every design decision I make for a project, the same way an actor needs to understand all aspects of the character and how s/he relates to the world. The stories I develop dictates how a character manifests.

As an example, my first vinyl toy, DCTO, a contemporized version of the Japanese Zen doll, doesn’t automatically fall within cultural norms or expectations in terms of commercial design. It’s not a zombie, or a cutesy bunny, nor does it even have arms and legs. The story, tradition and the iconic status of the character in Japanese culture is the driving element behind the development of the project.

An upcoming design project called Soul Fire-X, which will incorporate iPhone, print, and a resin figure, reflects deep-seated traditional elements, drawing on well-established elements from Japanese history and folklore, but doesn’t rely on cliches as the main vehicle for its appeal.

I also apply this philosophy to production. Going back to the aforementioned DCTO, I believe I may have been the first to use ATBC vinyl and state it on the package. ATBC is a phthalate-free vinyl, which wasn’t on the radar of the industry as it was just an added cost.

As an artist, I’ve always envisioned my works in 3D. I’ve been working with vector 2D for about 14 years now and have always found myself needing to create pieces with depth, and I experiment with perspective, depth of field, and light. But this was limiting.

As I develop as an artist, I am incorporating as many types of art forms as relevant to the character and story, the example mentioned above being Soul Fire-X which incorporates various forms of art and communication. It’s not the medium, but the character itself and how to best to present each work.

.

Well, Chocolate and Soup are two things we see differently as a child and as an adult. As a child, chocolate brings us nothing but pleasure and soup warms us on a rainy day and makes us feel better when we’re sick. Leap forward into adulthood and we learn chocolate still brings us indulgent pleasure but also comes with added health benefits and soup is a welcome comfort food when we’re feeling the blahs. I think this is what good design should accomplish. I think this translates into my work in the choices of projects I take on and in the way I want my design and characters to make people feel, whether they end up as animated or physical pieces.

I use MAC Pro, Cintiq 21UX, a 30-inch cinema display as well as a MACBook Pro for those great cafe escapes. See studio link below. For programs, 2D: Illustrator is the best in my opinion. For sketching out ideas I use Sketchbook Pro and I use the most ‘natural’ pencil tools out there. For 3D: MODO by Luxology; ZBrush by Pixologic.

Yeah, glad you like the piece. KidKat was a fun to do.

Customizing isn’t something I pursue as something that will define my style. But it is one of the elements of the vinyl toy industry and I like to participate in custom shows that are based on platforms I find particularly unique and interesting.

After seeing my work, I was invited by the gallery MPH (My Plastic Heart) to participate in their show ‘Get a Grip’ which I said yes to without hesitation. The project was to do a custom work based on the original figure Money Grip, created by super-talented artist kaNO out of Queen’s NY.

When I can, I like to incorporate chocolate into my customs, but only if it works without feeling forced. I was eating a Kit Kat bar at the time and the fingers that formed the fist in Money Grip looked like the fingers of the chocolate bar. kaNO’s name is ‘kaNO Kid’. Put them all together and I got KidKat.

Those were fun to do ,and yeah I want to put many more together, although doing them is kind of a pain in the butt to do sometimes. I want to go into detail on the whys but that takes more time then I usually have. Sure they give you the blow by blow of the mechanics, but character design is much more than what can be written in a simple tutorial.

That said, they are totally worth the effort and I’d also like to expand into video tutorials in the near future on the topic of the creative process and motivation behind character design. For me it’s all about ‘why it is,’ not ‘what it is.’

DCTO is the most creative self-promotion as far as being the breakout project that pushed me into new markets. Its launch created a stir and got the attention of a different client base than I had been exposed to up to that point. Oddly enough, it’s received a lot of attention from CEO’s of companies in the US and Japan, as well as a museum JANM (Japanese American National Museum), where I held my first custom show, the first vinyl show ever to be held in a museum. In addition to that, it’s opened up opportunities in the gaming industry where I’ve recently been doing consulting work for one of the developers under Sony.

Did I employ any special marketing techniques or target a specific client base to make this happen – apart from my website, a simple press release, and just letting people know and see what I’m doing – no. I just put it out there and keep at it.

Even though I am self-taught, I think formal art training can be beneficial in terms of skills development and mechanics, and more importantly, for making connections to the art community, support, and access to resources. I strongly recommend this connection to community and finding people/artists that inspire you and to learn from. Outside of this, though, I don’t believe formal training itself creates an artist, especially a character designer.

As for resources I refer to on a regular basis, I would have to say not really; I have no specific list of books, blogs, etc. that I follow. There is so much stuff out there I basically explore everywhere: the web, museums, the real world, etc. Of course I keep tabs on sites like FLYLYF, fubiz, or any others of the type. They give you access to a great cross section of what’s out there and you never know what you find when you click that next link.

It’s impossible to anticipate where inspiration will come from. For example, if I’m working on robots, I search robotic sites, books, television, wherever I can get information to understand what robotics are as they pertain to the real world, and once I understand this, I apply that information to the needs of the project. When I find things that inspire me, I save it in my morgue for reference later. It’s important as an artist to find your own points of inspiration and a mechanism of finding those points.

Designers I admire: on the Illustration tip: kaNO, MAD, Cameron Tiede, Jesse Hernandez, Charuca, to name a few, but the full list of artists is endless.

It seems to be working for me very well so far. I’ve been doing it for a few years now and it has allowed me to transition into developing my own products. There are many challenges on this road and you need to find the right “soap box” in order to be heard. I would recommend this as a strategy, but this recommendation comes with a lot of qualifications: to successfully sustain yourself, you need to have the design sense, financial resources, and above all a deep passion to pursue it.

I’m working on a few resin figures, one of which is the Soul Fire-X mentioned above. iPhone games, an animated short film, and a potential for animated kid shows are all projects in the pipeline. I am also the Art Director for the Vancouver ACM SIGGRAPH.

Well, aside from the obvious being having the passion and the willingness to work hard, I would encourage artists to cultivate an ‘intelligent heart’: Your mind is the tool that analyzes the information which your heart uses to make the right choices.

Always try to be aware of who you are as a ‘creative’ and stay true to this voice. This will help discern how to chart your path personally and professionally. Take both positive and negative feedback with a grain of salt – accolade and criticism can be equally constructive or destructive to one’s sense of self.

From here, get your stuff out there every way you can – share your work online, in shows, join associations and connect with other artists and like-minded people and spread the word about who you are and what you do. Take every opportunity that interests you and that will help you grow.

Dacosta on the Web

• chocolatesoop.com
• twitter.com/ChocolateSoop
• behance.net/Dacosta

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1 The Plus Project

As you may know we have some pretty big plans for these Tuts+ sites. While today they are humble little tutorial blogs, we’ve thought for some time that it would be cool to build an entire platform for education. We’re going to call that platform Plus. You’ll know Plus content as our premium content, but no longer.
Our premium content is now ‘Premium’ (go figure!) and Plus is the brand for the educational platform we’re building, which, just like Psdtuts+, will be completely free for the most part.

With Tuts+ well established now, we’ve finally begun work on the project! We’ve acquired the domain Plus.org which will be the home of the new platform (yay for our first four letter domain!) We’ve also brought over our resident code genius Ryan Allen (who built our ActiveDen platform all by himself back in 2006) to team up with Tuts+ developer extraordinaire Fred Wu and kick ass front-end guru Derek Herman. And Skellie and I have been busy spec’ing out the plans for the new site, and it’s pretty, damn cool if I do say so myself!

Right now the Tuts+ sites are fairly passive, but we’d like to get the whole community involved in writing, teaching, answering questions and generally learning. The new Plus.org platform promises to incorporate all that plus some nifty ideas we’ve taken from gaming to come together into a social education platform.

It’s going to take a long time and we’re going to roll it all out in pieces over the next 2 years. We’re super excited about it all, and I hope I’ll have more updates in the coming months!

2 Creative Sessions and Mobiletuts+

While Plus.org will take a long time, we do have some new goodies coming much sooner including Creative Sessions which is being built now, and also Mobiletuts+ which will be all about mobile development!

3 Server Update

About a week and a half ago we had some major problems with our servers. I’m happy to say that we’ve now completely resolved these issues by moving hosts and reengineering our hosting setup completely from scratch. The new setup is much quicker and has a much greater capacity for growth, so fingers crossed, that will be the last server outage for a long time to come!

4 The Redesign

The new theme has a few neat features you may want to check out including:

• Basix!
  While Tuts+ has always been known for intermediate to advanced level content, we’ve been thinking it’d be good to separate out tutorials and articles better suited to people just getting started. So we’ve created the Basix tag for quick browsing. You’ll find it in the top menu, and expect to see more Basix content soon as we beef up our library of novice-friendly content.
• Easy access to Videos, Tips and Premium Posts
  We’ve also started tagging videos, tips and Premium membership posts so that along with Basix content you can quickly find what you’re after. We’re generally going to be working to clean up our category/tagging across the network in the coming months to get it more standardized.
• Tutorial Details on Posts
  We’re also going to start standardizing all tutorials to have a "Tutorial Details" section at the top with difficulty and other pertinent details. Eventually we’ll get all the archives updated … but with over 2000 tutorials, that will take a while!
• Bigger, more readable content area
  We’ve expanded the site to be optimized for bigger 1280px wide screens, with a bit of JavaScript to resize for smaller resolutions. This has given us the space to clean up the content area to be a bit bigger and more readable generally.
• Latest Creattica content for inspiration
  We’ve also started porting over the latest Creattica content into our sidebars. There’s actually a redesign of Creattica coming in the next few weeks and we’ll be expanding the gallery to cover even more types of inspiration. The new sidebar widget will give even more exposure to those talented creatives on Creattica!
• General UI Improvements
  Most of the improvements on the new design are small, subtle improvements such as a reduction in the number of clicks needed to browse categories, a clearer search field, faster loading pages and generally cleaner, more optimized code.

One change that we have also made is to remove the community link feed. Over the years this was a great way to get exposure to community links, but unfortunately was also home to a lot of spam. So with this iteration we’ve left it behind.

Also at the moment sites with Flickr groups don’t have it showing, but don’t worry that’ll be back. There’s just a problem with our Flickr plugin at the moment!!

There are still some more tweaks to do to the new design and a lot of post formatting to do to get our archives matching up with the new theme. But for all intents and purposes the new theme is now alive and well! Enjoy!

In this article you will find some amazing vector tutorials, freebies, and inspirational articles from some of our favorite design blogs. We really enjoyed reading through some of these articles and we hope that you will too. Please take a moment to review some of these fantastic vector design articles from around the web.

Tutorial Wrap

• 

  Create A Mouthwatering Chocolate Covered Strawberry

  Strawberries might be one of the most delicious and aesthetically pleasing fruits. Drawing a realistic strawberry however isn’t as easy as it looks. This beautiful tutorial from Vectips demonstrates how to easily draw a strawberry dipped in chocolate using Illustrator.

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• 

  Create Lady Bugs Insect Tutorial Using Adobe Illustrator

  Lady bugs are probably one of the cutest and most illustrated insects; that is when they aren’t swarming you. This tutorial from Tutorial Lounge demonstrates how to draw a vector lady bug in Illustrator using some easy to use illustration techniques.

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• 

  Create An Editable Stitched Label Type Treatment

  Our friends at Vectips are always coming up with some amazing Illustrator tutorials. That is why today they are being showcased not once, but twice. In this tutorial, they demonstrate how to create some really nice stitched typography in Illustrator making heavy use of Illustrator CS4’s appearance palette.

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• 

  Cartoon Character – Dexter

  Character illustrations are always fun to do. Our friends at Ai Monkey have been cranking out tons of fantastic character illustration tutorials. This tutorial demonstrates several important techniques used to create your own fantastic vector character or mascot.

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• 

  Lego Bricks Typeface

  What better way to demonstrate drawing in perspective than by using Lego bricks to spell out words? This tutorial from Vector Diary demonstrates how to create Lego-style typography in Illustrator.

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• 

  The Abduzeetles Rockband Website in Fireworks

  Fireworks is a fantastic tool to create website interfaces. What a lot of people don’t know however is how powerful of a tool it is to create and edit vector shapes. This tutorial from Abduzeedo demonstrates how to create a rockband website using this fantastic vector application.

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(FREE!) Download Picks

• 

  Free Seamless Vector Pattern – Earthy Floral

  Our friends at Pattern Head are always producing fantastic seamless vector patterns. This earthy floral pattern will make an excellent addition to your design arsenal and can be used to create backgrounds for your designs for free.

  Visit Download Site

• 

  5 Free Valentine’s Day Themed Vector Patterns for Illustrator

  As you know, last month was Valentine’s Day. At Colorburned we celebrated Valentine’s Day by producing a series of Valentine’s Day tutorials and freebies. This freebie includes a set of 5 Valentine’s Day inspired heart patterns some of which we demonstrated in a video tutorial.

  Visit Download Site

• 

  High-Quality Vector Musical Instruments

  If you design long enough, eventually you will need a nice set of musical instruments to include in your designs. This set of high quality vector musical instruments from Think Design Blog includes several types of instruments including drums, guitars, bass, microphones, and even saxophones. This set is definitely worth a download, head over to Think Design Blog to check them out.

  Visit Download Site

• 

  Vector Flames

  Vector flames are some of the most useful, but at times, hardest to produce vector objects. This set of vector flames from Wegraphics includes a really nice selection of vector flames, both in color and black and white for use in your designs.

  Visit Download Site

• 

  Vector Social Media Icons

  Web designers often need to include social media icons in their designs. Producing them independently however takes time, which is something that web designers have little of. This set of social media icons from Icon Dock includes some of the most popular social media icons that you can use to produce graphics for your next design project.

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Vector Inspiration

• 

  Showcase of Floral Typography

  Typography is an essential element of any design. This showcase of floral typography from Vandelay Design includes some excellent examples of illustrated floral typography illustrations.

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• 

  55 Examples of Huge Typography in Web Design

  Choosing the correct typography for your website is a very important part of the design process. You can use typography in a number of ways. HUGE typography, for example, will get a lot of attention and will also look cool. This showcase from Web Designer Ledger includes 55 examples of huge typography in web design.

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• 

  25 Beautiful Examples of “Coming Soon” Pages

  Most web designers have had to create a coming soon page at some point in their careers. Over the years coming soon pages have come a long way. This showcase from Six Revisions includes 25 beautiful examples of coming soon pages for websites to help inspire you.

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• 

  Stunning Info Graphics and Data Visualization

  Let’s face it, most info graphics are boring. As designers, it is our job to make them visual appealing, interesting, and of course useful. This showcase from Noupe includes some stunning examples of info graphics and data visualizations.

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• 

  Beautiful Vintage Advertisements

  To know where design is going in the future, it is always helpful to understand where it has been. This showcase from Think Design Blog includes some excellent examples of vintage advertisements for inspiration.

  Visit Article

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Learn tips on presenting your portfolio, landing a job, networking, working at a large versus small ad agency, and more. In this interview, you’ll also learn about his range of creative projects, skills needed to be successful in the creative industry, his approach to design, and his inspiration. Let’s get to know Jonathan better.

1. Hello Jonathan, please tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from, what formal training do you have, and how did you get started in the field?

First, thank you for the opportunity to share some insight about myself!

I’ve been in Michigan all my life. I grew up in the Metro Detroit area, moved to Grand Rapids for college and back to the Metro Detroit area once I finished school.

I went to Kendall College of Art and Design where I received a BFA in Visual Communications. Previous to college I did receive a certificate of completion from a vocational technical program. I’ve also taken an ancillary workshop more recently.

I’ve always been a creative person but it wasn’t until my junior year of high school that I decided I wanted to make this my career. After that, the hunt was on with respect to how to go about making that happen.

2. What is your current position? How did you land your current job? What advice do you have for young designers looking to get a job at an agency?

Currently, I’m the Senior Art Director at an advertising agency where we do a variety of work including web, print, broadcast, radio, marketing and public relations. I’ve been there for almost five years.

The first step young designers looking to get a job in the field need to make is ensuring the work they produce is their very best. When I was in school I always got A’s and great accolades, but I felt I could still do better. You can’t rely solely on your teachers to mold you as a creative person. You need to realize your potential and make every effort to achieve it.

Work on projects that inspire you and only include your best work in your portfolio. If you have a range of projects to pick from, then narrow it down even further to include only the types of projects that you like working on. If you don’t like doing logos, don’t put those in your portfolio. Employers assume you like working on what you show in your portfolio.

3. How does working at a big agency differ from working at a small one?

The agency I work at employs ten people, which is on the smaller side. Previously, I worked at a world-wide agency called JWT with some of its biggest clients being Ford, Domino’s and White Castle. I worked on regional print campaigns for Ford.

In a large agency everything is micro-managed. To create a billboard, for example, the creative process is heavily directed. There are account executives (who talk with the client about what they would like to accomplish), proofreaders, photo retouchers and copywriters (who craft all the text including the headline) and of course the creative director, your immediate boss, and person that needs to be satisfied with whatever creative work leaves the agency.

No piece of creative work ever gets in front of the client without a handful of people looking it over and physically signing their name on a print-out of the artwork. Delivering the artwork around the entire office to be signed is handled by yet another person commonly referred to as Traffic.

In a smaller agency many of the above duties would fall on one person’s lap. At the agency I work for, I have written my share of tag lines, headlines and body copy. Wearing multiple hats is not necessarily a bad thing. It gives you a greater insight into what it takes to fully create a good final product.

4. What are the greatest skills one needs to be successful in a design agency? What are some under looked skills that you feel are important? What do you feel makes an effective art director?

Without question, I think the most important skills I possess are creativity, resourcefulness and determination. No matter the project, having this set of skills has always allowed me to get a tough job done. This combination of skills is flexible in that certain times I’ll need more creativity and less determination if things are going smoothly, and other times I’ll need to work hard to come up with a different way to accomplish a task.

The biggest under looked skill that I think is important is being relevant in the industry, which is really not so much of a skill, rather, a way of being. Since my degree is in visual communications I’ve had to do a lot of learning on my own about web design and development. In the rapidly changing and competitive world of advertising and design, there is always the need to be current. I think many professionals become stale, rigid and never rise to meet current demands. Learning web design is an omnipresent task that helps keep me in demand and current.

What does it take to be an effective art director? That depends on how the term is defined. In a larger agency an art director primarily comes up with the overall idea and some loose visuals to get their point across. In a smaller agency an art director can create a piece from start to finish, pulling on a wider variety of skills to complete the task. I think what makes an effective art director at a small agency is being able to take direction when needed, but other times conceptualize, articulate and implement an idea by one’s self.

5. What key connections have you made that have had an influence on your career? What forms of networking or marketing have been effective for you?

While I was in college one of my professors brought in a speaker, Matt Dimmer, to talk to the class about working and getting a job in the real world. I took all the information Matt gave to heart and kept in touch with him. Right after I graduated I sent Matt a sample of my portfolio. Matt worked at JWT and he passed my portfolio over to human resources and what do you know, they called me in for an interview! Although, connections alone don’t land you a job, you need to have solid work and present your work in a way that makes it stand out from the mound of other people looking to get the same job as you.

There are two things that have proven very effective for me in getting jobs and freelance projects; disposable portfolios and word of mouth. A disposable portfolio is a piece that you send out, previous to an interview or after an interview, that has samples of your work and your resume. It’s disposable because you never receive it back. The trick is making something that’s cost-effective enough to produce in mass (20, for example), but unique enough to get you noticed.

Word of mouth is and will always be one of the most effective ways of landing a job or getting a project. This is true at the agency I work for as well. When someone can personally speak for your credibility or skills, it is much more authentic than you saying the same thing about yourself.

6. What pulled you toward vector graphics as an artistic medium for your illustrations? What are your favorite aspects of working with vectors? How do vector graphics fit into the majority of work you do?

When I first started in design I was enamored with Photoshop, as I think most people are. However, after getting my hands on Illustrator, I felt it was easier to create and manipulate a design. I have traditional drawing skills that I pull from and Illustrator is great at extending those skills.

In Illustrator, it’s so easy to take simple shapes and turn them into something more. Honestly, one of the main reasons I’m as good as I am now with vector art is that I’ve created so many tutorials for Vectortuts+! While I did know a lot about vectors before, I essentially force myself to learn even more every time I create a new tutorial.

I use Illustrator for a variety of purposes, mainly website design and logo design, aside from one-off items and tutorials. I find that I create even basic shapes in Illustrator and drop them into other programs like InDesign and Photoshop.

7. Do you prefer working on client projects or personal projects? How do you keep your work fresh and effective?

I make a distinction between work that I create for myself and my professional work. The work that I create for my clients can vary from, favorable to boring. When I’m working on a project for someone else I keep in mind the objective that the client wants to accomplish and remind myself that what I’m creating is not a matter of personal creative expression.

Many times a client wants something that I really dislike, but if they insist on it after I give them my professional recommendation and in the end I always give them what they want. That’s why it’s important for me to create designs and projects where the only person to please is myself. I find it easier to refrain from infusing client projects with other techniques that may not be relevant to their project.

I stay fresh and creative by actively looking at other people’s work for inspiration. I’m inspired by not only things in the design industry but by everything around me. Music, movies, nature… it’s all inspiration. It’s hard to say where exactly inspiration comes from. I find that if I watch a particularly compelling movie, I’m inspired to create a really cool design that usually has nothing to do with what I just watched.

When I think about it more, inspiration also comes from the hard work that I see going into any project, from any industry. I think about how much work goes into creating a cool song, for example, and put equally as much effort into my design projects. It’s rather strange when I think about it.

8. Is there any project that you’re working on that you’re excited about?

Thanks for asking! I created what I think is a handy little addition to both Illustrator and Photoshop. I created a simple function that adds greek text to your document. For Illustrator I created an action, for Photoshop it’s an actual script.

Greek text is a function of Adobe InDesign that I use regularly and since I do a lot of designing in Illustrator I thought it was something that was definitely needed. Check them out at www.illipsum.com and www.phoipsum.com.

9. Are there any particular artists or designers that you derive inspiration from or that you consider role models? What consistently inspires you today? What are your favorite websites and books?

I try to surround myself with people that are like-minded and are always looking to progress to the next level. I really think you’re only as good as the people around you, not just as it relates to design but also your friends. If your friends aren’t so much into bettering themselves or their design skills, you’re not likely to either.

There are so many immediate friends and peers that I look up to, that it’s difficult to name only a few. To speak specifically about vector artists that I get inspiration from, I’ve been fascinated with the work that Chihhang produces. His understanding of the human form is translated in what appears to be an effortless execution. I like how he’s able to change his style and create different series of illustrations.

I have a range of websites that I visit on pretty much a daily basis. I also do all of my reading online. Aside from the Envato suite of websites, a select few of the sites I visit or have RSS feeds to are:

• Undrln
• The Design Cubicle
• Web Creme
• Creativebits
• Designnewz
• TubeRadio
• TechCrunch

10. Could you tell us about a campaign that required you to pull together numerous skills to complete, such as branding, web design, illustration, art direction, or other skills?

Almost all the work I do, especially at my agency, requires a range of skills to complete. One of my favorite campaigns that illustrates this is the one that I did for the Detroit Electronic Music Festival (project 1.) That piece was actually created for a contest. Ultimately I didn’t win, but I got to flex my creative muscle and create something that was completely my own.

To create the DEMF campaign I first designed the logo, which I dropped the top counter from and enhanced the lower counter to look like a turn table. After that I brainstormed on how I could visually execute a concept that was suited toward an electronic music festival. Ideally I would have had a creative brief from the client to give me more background into what the objectives of the project were, but since this was a competition I had to use my best judgment to fill in the blanks.

The poster was the primary identifying piece that all the other design elements would be based off of. I decided I’d use a photo of an urban guy jumping. I added other objects into the piece like the headphones, light waves and records. After that I layered in the text. Finally, once I had the poster done I transferred that concept over to a t-shirt and dvd cover. When all was said and done, the entire project involved: art direction, design, illustration and production.

11. What’s your ideal project mix? Would you rather be creating a brand identity, drawing an illustration, art directing a project, or do you enjoy moving between numerous roles on different projects?

I’d have to say that I enjoy a mix of projects to hold my interest in this field. If I were only working on one thing I would go insane! In addition, my creativity seeps into all areas of my life, from the furniture in my place all the way down to unique Christmas gifts to give to family and friends.

One of my problems is that I want to work on everything! It’s a challenge to refrain from starting something new before I finished a previous piece I’m working on. While my focus shifts from one type of project to another, currently I’m more involved with illustrations (both vector and raster) and websites.

I do like logo design very much. I think distilling a concept down to the essential elements and presenting it in a unique way is rewarding. I also like the fact that logo design requires a level of technical prowess as well as illustration skill.

12. Thanks for the interview Jonathan! Is there any advice that you’d like to give aspiring designers who are working hard to grow professionally?

Never give up. You’ll hear "no" more than you hear "yes," but don’t let that stop you. When you’re completely dejected, frustrated and ready to quit, inhale and go at the project even harder!

A mistake is not lost time. Think of it as a way not to do something. Learn from it and improve the next time.

Be able to take constructive criticism. When people give you feedback on your work really listen to what they’re saying. Remember that they’re not trying to make you feel bad, rather, they are trying to help you. But it’s also critical to determine if the person you’re seeking feedback from is knowledgeable enough to give good feedback.

Thank you for the opportunity to share a little about myself! Make sure to follow me on Twitter!

Jonathan Patterson on the Web

• Jonathan’s Portfolio
• Jonathan’s Vectortuts+ Profile
• Jonathan on Twitter

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This Tutorial is Filled with Creative Techniques

With illustrating on computers it’s always tempting to use all the bold and bright colors that appear in the default color palettes. Sometimes though, fewer colors and slightly softer shades will give your work a certain warmth and charm that will leave folks wondering if it was created on a computer at all! In this tutorial we’ll cover nuances of using color, shading, and creating this illustration scene.

Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Illustrator CS3 (techniques work with v10 onwards)
• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 4-5 hours

A preview of the final image is below.

Premiummembers can Log in and Download! If you’re not a member, you can of course join today! You can view the final illustration below.

This is a Detailed and Professional Tutorial

Premium members can Log in and Download! Otherwise, Join Now! Below are sample images, which show some of the development of this tutorial.

Vector Premium Membership

As you know, we run a premium membership system here called Premium that costs $9 a month (or $22 for 3 months!) which gives members access to the Source files for tutorials as well as periodic extra tutorials, like this one! If you’re a Premium member you can log in and download the tutorial. If you’re not a member, you can of course join today!

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It seems to all be resolved now, but I just wanted to make a quick apology for the inconvenience and interruptions. We’re going to be re-examining our hosting setup to make sure we avoid this situation in the future and to generally try to pull up the quality of service across the board.

In the meantime there may be some further minor interruptions as we shore up the setup. Thank you for your patience!

1. Welcome to Vectortuts+ Glenn. Can you please introduce yourself?

Hello, I’m Glenn Jones from Auckland, New Zealand. I’m a freelance designer and illustrator, and a partner of Glennz Tees.

2. How did you get started in your design and illustration career?

I got a job as a junior designer and illustrator at a newspaper company in the early 90’s. I started hand drawing images and scanning them in, and then in my spare time taught myself how to use Adobe Illustrator 3, which was much different than the version we have today. I loved the clean result of vector art and I’ve tried to evolve my style ever since.

3. Did you get an education? How did you discovered this talent?

Yes, I did a design course but there were no computers, it was all old school markers. Practice I guess, would get into work early, and stay late and over time. I just tried to get better at how I drew stuff

4. Do you draw on paper first and then transfer them to computer or use only tablet?

I draw everything on screen – I draw a quick rough first, then convert that drawing to guides before drawing my final illustration over the top.
I do have a tablet, but I draw most of my designs just with a mouse. I learned to draw in Illustrator with a mouse, and then started using a tablet few years later, so I don’t mind either way

5. Can you describe the design process? How do you start and end?

It’s fairly simple really – I get an idea when I’m doing something else, and then I usually forget it. Then if I ever remember it again, I just sit down and draw it. I’m fairly impatient so I like to try to finish it ASAP, then I’ll leave it for a day or two, and revisit it. Then I’ll do any refining and if it’s for my tees it usually goes straight here: site.glennz

6. Which software are your favorites? Which software and which tool do you like most?

I love Illustrator! and pretty much just use the Pen Tool. I like the refinement you can get with the bezier curves.

7. What are your future plans? For example, will we see toy versions of your illustrations? Can you share some of these plans with us?

I really have no idea – its a constant evolution and I’m lucky to be teamed up with some guys that are always keen to try something new.
So yes, hopefully there will be all sorts of product additions in the future.

8. Your illustrations have a different iconic style. Most of your works have humorous and rational aspects. What is the reason for this kind of drawing?

I think alot of that style was influenced by the jobs I had to do when I first started using Illustrator. Part of my job was to create editorial graphics and graphs. I really like the clean simplicity of info graphics and I think that has followed through into my style today. I often draw something and then when I see it a couple of days later I’ll remove stuff to simplify as much as possible – try to make it clear and easy to get.

9. All your works are illustrations. Do you have other type of works too, for instance web design, info graphics, etc? Or do you prefer working only on illustrations? What kind of works would you do, if illustration did not exist?

Yes I’m a packaging and corporate identity designer, but I enjoy the illustration side of things more. If there wasn’t illustration, I’d like to be an industrial designer – create products or furniture, something like that.

10. Which artists inspired you? Why? What did you see in them? Which websites do you visit for inspiration? Which movies affected you most?

I don’t really have any favorite artists, there are so many talented people around, even just on a site like Threadless – there is some mind blowing talent and diverse work on there. Websites I look at often would be: notcot, Behance, ffffound, Core77. I’m not sure if any movies have effected me too much, but I do like to call upon well known pop culture to put my spin on it.

11. Thank you for answering these questions Glenn. Do you want to tell something to our illustrator and designer friends?

Thanks for the interview, and to people who’ve contacted me directly thanks for the kind words and feedback I get! If anyone ever has questions I try to help when I can.

Glenn on the Web

• Glennz.com
• Glennz Behance

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If you want potential customers/clients to hold on to your business card, it needs to stand out from the crowd; it needs to be something special. This amazing compilation showcases some of the freshest die-cutting trends used in business cards – so get your thinking cap on and start designing your business card now. After all, it is likely the most powerful piece of card your company will ever see.

Square-Cornered Cards

These business cards are the same size and shape of common, standard-sized business cards but with a slight twist. The die-cutting process has been used to cut shapes out of the business cards, making them much more interesting and appealing.

Optimum Fotography

Sevenwire

Zach Klein

Lisa Walker

Enzuvan

Sniff

Landology Group

Ordered List

Mar Hernandez

Bexmedia

Yoga One

Round-Cornered Cards

Rounded business cards are getting ever more popular. It’s a reasonably-inexpensive way to add a completely new look and feel to your card. Most print firms who print business cards on a regular basis offer round-cornered business cards for only a little extra compared to the price of standard, square-cornered cards.

Cream Soda

Chubby Cookies

Ryan Hicks

Vive Tile

M. Brady Clark

Base-10

Folding Cards

Adding a fold or two to your business cards is never a bad thing. It allows your potential customers and clients to interact with the card, keeping them occupied with a product with your company name on it for a longer period of time. A lot of folding cards also have the capability of being stood upright, meaning they can be propped up on your client’s desk.

The Look

Caddyshack Putters

Hungry Architect

Il Panza

Base One

Egil Paulsen

Nation Builder

Jubes

Rumble

Reactor

Unusually Shaped Cards

Although the following unusually shaped cards don’t have the same interaction level as folding cards, the odd and uncommon die-cut shapes of the cards often make potential customers and clients keep hold of them, even if it is just because they like your card.

Scottish Millionaires

Lipitty Doos Fresh Mints

John Trinh and Associates

Mineral Spring Water

Baba and Pongo

Dyalect

Bauerhaus Design

All Wellness

Slate Systems Radio

Whatsup Juggling

Antidote X

Trajectory

Pinkograf

Printed Proof

Retail Shop

JobSparx

Floressncia

Fabio Sanfilippo

Fufurufo

Du Bout Des Yeux

VS Gym

Business Card Showcases

If you’re new to scene of the online design community (or happened to just miss these following posts), you may also be interested in some of these previous business card showcases.

• The Art of the Business Card: 187+ Creative Examples, Tutorials & Resources
• 10 Great Examples of Spot UV Business Cards
• 25 Unique Die Cut Business Cards You Should Check Out
• 11 Round Die Cut Business Card Designs
• 24 Creative Business Card Designs
• 15 Over-The-Top Business Card Designs
• 72 Stunning Business Cards That Will Blow You Away
• 60+ Most Beautiful and Creative Business Cards Design
• 40+ Business Card Tutorials, PSD Templates and Inspirational Showcases
• The Coolest Business Cards – Use of Cool Shapes, Textures, Creativity and Talent

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