1. JAT – Branded by nature

2. Conserve Rain Water

3. Eagle in your mind

4. Chemtrail

5. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

6. Globale 09

7. Every color of your summer

8. John Petrucci BFR

9. Future Imperfect

10. Firs

11. Pequenos Mundos #1

12. Iron & Wine

13.

14. Horizon Fire

15. Enerjxpro 2007

16. Holy Noise Night 2007

17. Retro Vector Poster

18. Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band

19. Creative State R.L. Jones Jr.

20. SHeeepy

21. Endustrie

22. The Kooks

23. The Hotel Café Tour

24. ADDICTIVEstudios

25. Man of the year

26. Indology Poster

Subscribe to the Vectortuts+ RSS Feed to stay up to date with the latest vector tutorials and articles.

Subscribe to the Vectortuts+ RSS Feed to stay up to date with the latest vector tutorials and articles.

Cartoon Zombie by fizzgig

4 Bloo Vector Characters by crimz

Tweet by fizzgig

Cardinal by bitesizemunchy

Under Construction Monkey by tsumba

Cereal Monster by dalileo

Lion by DirkL7

Cool Cats by Ania

Dance of the Upper East Siders by bendangsenla

Five Kids Character by SummerSun

4 Cute Characters by Davesgud

Squirrel by javier_rejon

Cute Redhead by spinsugar

Birdie by dvkro

Chibi Dragon by zeusbox

Dummy on Steroids by zhille

Cute Sad Looking Ghost Bear by candycat

Geeks Two Cents by zhille

Panda by running727

Zodiac Signs Cuties by Trevor80

Tech Guy Mascot by Trevor80

Summer Beauty by hipis

Birdie by Eseniko

Monkey King by running727

Miss Payne by grubforce

Angel and Demon by running727

Chic Girl by Mahno

Flaming Creature by k3vinteh

Maestro by emfeha

Stone Age by Kailoon

Subscribe to the Vectortuts+ RSS Feed to stay up to date with the latest vector tutorials and articles.

Aetuts+ – After Effects Tutorials

• 

  Simulate a Realistic Sniper Scope Perspective – AE Plus

  My tutorial deals with a VFX shot that’s easy to attempt but hard to master: A convincing looking sniper scope view.
  I will outline the assets that I provide in Photoshop and the principles of accomplishing the intended outcome. In After Effects I’ll make use of pre-compositions, motion tracking and some easy expressions. For clarity’s purpose I’ll get into details about optical phenomena when necessary.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Form a Unique Transition

  In this tutorial we are going to reveal how to create a cool particle transition between 2 videos using Trapcode Form. We will cover the importance of layer maps while using this plugin as well as how to create a stylish displacement of the particles.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Making Your Color Scheme a Whole Lot Kuler!

  Adobe Kuler is a great resource for color themes that is perfectly integrated in all Adobe CS4 software – except for After Effects. But this has changed now.

  Continue Reading

• 

  The Best Sound You’ll Ever See!

  Satya is back with a new tutorial that will help you look as good as you sound. This technique has many options so sit back and learn how to create an attractive visual generated from your audio spectrum.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Terminate Your Footage With Expressions

  Sep 21st in VFX by Ben McEwan If you’re wanting to help to save Sarah Connor then maybe this tutorial will give you an insider’s perspective on what to do. Ben McEwan has created a 3 Day Series crammed full of useful expressions to create the UI found in the Terminator.

  Continue Reading

Nettuts+ – Web Development Tutorials

• 

  11 Classic CSS Techniques Made Simple with CSS

  We’ve all had to achieve some effect that required an extra handful of divs or PNGs. We shouldn’t be limited to these old techniques when there’s a new age coming. This new age includes the use of CSS3. In today’s tutorial, I’ll show you eleven different time-consuming effects that can be achieved quite easily with CSS3.

  Visit Article

• 

  20 HTML Forms Best Practices for Beginners

  Working with XHTML forms can be somewhat daunting; they not only use some niche HTML elements, but also blur the line between static content and user interaction. Let’s review some things to remember when creating your next form.

  Visit Article

• 

  Search Engine Optimization 101

  Your website may be top notch but what’s the use of an online presence if no one can find it? In this quick start guide to search engine optimization we’ll review an assortment of tactics to increase your page ranking.

  Visit Article

• 

  How to Design and Code a Flexible Website

  In this tutorial, we’re going to be designing and coding a simple blog-style web-page. We’ll pay special attention to making our design flexible and accessible by using clean and simple XHTML and CSS. This tutorial is aimed at beginners, and anyone looking to improve the accessibility of their web designs.

  Visit Article

• 

  Getting Clean with PHP

  Data security is important and often undervalued by designers, developers, and clients alike. Since PHP 5.2.0, data sanitization and validation has been made significantly easier with the introduction of data filtering. Today, we’re going to take a closer look at these filters, how to use them, and build a few custom functions.

  Visit Article

Psdtuts+ – Photoshop

• 

  Render a Cereal Box Cover from Scratch Using Photoshop’s 3D Tools

  Hi everyone! This time I’ve got for you a fun tutorial, we’ll create a cereal box design from scratch, using only Photoshop. We will render several fruit flavored cereal loops using the Photoshop’s CS4 Extended 3D tools, apply textures to the loops, bump the surfaces and mock-up them into a real 2D image. Are you ready?

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create a Big Air Event Poster with Photoshop and Illustrator – Psd Plus Tutorial

  We have another Psd Plus tutorial exclusively available to Plus members today. If you want to take your Photoshop and Illustrator integration skills to the next level, then we have an exciting poster design tutorial for you. Learn more at the jump!

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create an Intense Movie Poster in Photoshop

  Designers love to be critical about movie posters, and while you may think you have better ideas about how to sell a movie to an audience, how many times have you actually tried doing it? In this tutorial, we’re going to create a poster for a fictional movie called “Fugitive.” The movie is meant to be a suspenseful thriller that features one’s escape under the cover of darkness, despite man’s attempt to capture the lone hero. Thin and cheesy plot? Check. Awesome opportunity to better your PSD skills? You got it!

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Create Eroded Metal Text with Photoshop

  In this tutorial I’ll show you how to create an eroded metal text effect. Throughout this tutorial we’ll make use of various drawing techniques, channels, and patterns.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Add Fantastic Color to 3D Text – Part I

  This is the first part of a two part series. Part two will be released tomorrow. In this piece you will learn how to bring a simple text to life and place everything in fantastic, colored and glowing 3D space. Some neat techniques covered here will allow you to bring your art to the next level. Don’t miss it! There are two parts to this tutorial: Part I and Part II.

  Continue Reading

Vectortuts+ – Vector & Illustrator

• 

  How to Create a Golden, Vector Compass in Illustrator

  In this tutorial I will take you through the steps and techniques of creating a golden compass. For this tutorial I’ve used just Adobe Illustrator and a heavy dose of ingenuity.

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Create a Yellow Submarine Icon with Gradient Meshes – Vector Plus Tutorial

  We have another great Vector Plus tutorial available exclusively for Plus members today. If you want to learn how to use gradient mesh, pattern brushes and other advanced Illustrator tools to create a shiny submarine, then we have an awesome tutorial for you. Learn more about this tutorial at the jump!

  Continue Reading

• 

  Build a Promotional iPhone App Website Wireframe in Fireworks

  Fireworks is a great tool for creating a wireframe and while it doesn’t work perfect with Photoshop, you can export over there and then build off your wireframe. We’ll cover the design process of creating a wireframe for an iPhone application website in Fireworks. For those of you not familiar with this program, it will be a good jumping off point for using it to wireframe your web design projects. This is a multi-part series and will be fun! Here is Part I of and Part II.

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Create a Caramel Ripple Effect

  In this tutorial, we will create a hot chocolate caramel effect using some distort tools and the 3D revolve tool. This is a simple and effective technique to obtain a quality vector ripple effect quickly. Here we go!

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Create an Energy Saving Bulb in Illustrator

  Here we’re showing how to create an energy saving bulb with the help of the Illustrator’s Mesh Tool. At the beginning it could be quiet hard to work with, but if you get used to it, it’s fairly simple.

  Continue Reading

Activetuts+ – Flash, Flex & ActionScript Tutorials

• 

  Create a Unit Converter Application for Flash Lite Enabled Devices

  Flash Lite is an implementation of the Flash runtime for mobile phones, consumer electronic devices, and Internet-connected digital home devices. According to Adobe, the number of Flash Lite shipped devices will reach 1 billion in 2009 and more than 2.5 billion by the end of 2010, so if you are a Flash Developer it is important to know how this technology works and how it differs from Flash Player for the desktop.

  In this tutorial I’ll guide you through the basics of Flash Lite using the 1.1 version; sacrificing features, but ensuring compatibility.

  Visit Article

• 

  Build a Mini Golf Game with ActionScript 3.0

  In this tutorial I´ll show you how to create nice Mini Golf Game with ActionScript 3.0. We´ll work with Event Handlers, Functions and also the Timer Object which is a really cool feature in AS3.

  Visit Article

• 

  AS3 101: Loops

  Welcome back to AS3 101, the fifth edition! At this point, you should be comfortable with the concepts of variables, functions, conditionals (branching), and Arrays. Not only should you be comfortable with the concepts, but you should also be fluent in how ActionScript 3 implements these concepts.

  For this fifth episode, we’ll be adding to that catalog of skills the various looping structures found in AS3. You’ll find some dependencies on the information learned in AS3 101 Part 4, on Arrays, so if you’ve skipped that one or need a refresher, please review that tutorial before continuing with this one.

  For our final project, we’ll combine loops and arrays, to make a simple shoot-em-up game.

  Visit Article

• 

  Improve Your Memory With an Away3D Game

  In this tutorial we’ll build a 3D memory game. Along the way we’ll look at adding variables and mouseEvents to Away3D objects. Let’s get started..

  Visit Article

• 

  Build a Photo Viewer Using Flex and the Flickr API

  In this tutorial you will learn how to use the as3flickrlib library to create a Flash Flickr photo viewer.

  Visit Article

Phototuts+ – Photography & Post-Processing Tutorials

• 

  Photography Kick-start Guide: Adjusting Your Camera’s Settings for the Photo You Want

  Cameras vary in terms of functions offered. There are differences from one brand to the next and even from one model to another of the same brand. By necessity, this tutorial will have to generalize but let’s try to de-mystify some of the more common settings found on cameras today, what they mean (to the camera) and how to use them.

  Visit Article

• 

  Mastering the Art of Black and White Photography

  In the early days of photography, photographers had no choice but to shoot in black and white, as it was the only available medium. Then, in 1936, the invention of kodachrome gave colour photography to the world. But black and white photography didn’t die off, instead it flourished. Modern black and white photography at it’s best is art, and many photographers regard it as the purest form of photography.

  Visit Article

• 

  Freezing Time: 80 Inspiring Examples of High Speed Photography

  In our last roundup, we covered a selection of amazing HDR images. This time we move onto something completly different, with stunning high speed photography. These images freeze time, and allow us to observe scenes that the naked eye would struggle to capture. It’s definitely worth a look for some great inspiration!

  Visit Article

• 

  8 Tips for Taking Sports Photos Like a Pro

  Are you looking to shoot better sports photos, and make an impact? Sports photography presents you with many opportunities to capture dramatic and vivid imagery that will last a lifetime. No other medium presents you with heart-pounding action, vivid color patterns and unique shooting opportunities.
  The steps and guidance featured in this tutorial cover a broad range of areas – from perfecting shutter speed, to making sure you don’t miss the action.

  Visit Article

• 

  How to Photograph Waterfalls

  Waterfalls are some of the most beautiful natural features you will ever get the opportunity to photograph. But though they can look simply stunning, photographing waterfalls is not easy to do well. How do you avoid your photos being too dark? How do you deal with clipping in the water? How do you compose your photos to capture the authentic beauty of the scene?
  In this tutorial, nature photography expert Steve Berardi shares his best tips for photographing waterfalls.

  Visit Article

Cgtuts+ – CG Tutorials

• 

  Model and Texture a Posh Living Room Scene in Maya

  In this tutorial you will go through the process of modeling and rendering a Living Room in Autodesk Maya. You will also learn to use Mental Ray (along with the new architectural materials), create realistic fur, and implement studio lighting to create nice and soft shadows and highlights.

  Visit Article

• 

  Using Splines to Add Detail to Your High-Poly Model in 3ds Max

  Splines are an often-overlooked aspect of 3ds max when it comes to game art. Most people know that you can use a spline for a wire – but you can also use it for things like grooves, whole objects like handles, and even text! In this tutorial, we’ll take a look at some of these advanced ways that splines can be used to save a lot of time on tasks that would otherwise have to be done by hand.

  Visit Article

• 

  Create a Rocky Video Game Terrain in Blender

  In this series of tutorials you will learn how to create a finished environment for Blender’s Game Engine. The main focus of the series will be texturing and lighting, with the use of some custom 2d filters to enhance the result.

  Visit Article

• 

  Model a Photorealistic Swiss Army Knife in Modo

  Subdivision modeling is an extremely powerful tool that can allow you to add high levels of detail to your models in a relatively short amount of time. In order to use it effectively, however, one must know when, and more importantly, when not to use it. In this three part, beginner to intermediate tutorial series, professional Modo artist, Matt Braeley, will demonstrate how to model a photorealistic Swiss Army knife, using polygonal and subdivision modeling in Luxology’s Modo 302.

  Visit Article

• 

  Build an Advanced Drifting Car Rig in 3ds Max

  In this advanced level tutorial, you will learn all of the steps necessary to build a fully functioning car rig in 3D Studio Max. This rig features working suspension, steering and body roll, as well as some functionality for drifting and powerslides. You will learn how to set up internal functionality through links, constraints, expressions, and parameter wiring. The final result will be a robust rig with easy, and accessible controls.

  Visit Article

Audiotuts+ – Audio and Music

• 

  Introduction to Polyrhythms

  The usage of simple, common time (4/4 time signature, where there are four beats to a measure, and each quarter note gets one beat) is pervasive in Western popular music, including rock, blues, country, folk, pop, and various forms of electronic music including many sub-genres of house and trance music. The four-on-the-floor mindset can be difficult to escape, but every musician and composer can benefit from a study of rhythm that includes a wider variety of time signatures and rhythms.

  Visit Article

• 

  How to Design Reeses and Hoovers

  Have you ever wondered how your favourite dance music producers create those amazing sounds that make you jump on the dance floor? Well, it usually takes a lot of experience and a huge amount of time spent on experimenting and processing sounds a ridiculously high number of times.

  But it’s quite hard to reach the stage of experimentation if you don’t even know the basics behind some kind of sounds often heard in dance tracks. This tutorial will teach you how to design from scratch a DnB trademark, the reese bass, and how to reproduce the infamous hoover sound, introducing you to the technique of resampling.

  Visit Article

• 

  A Beginner’s Introduction to Home Recording

  Home recording technology seems to get better and cost less every year. It puts power in the hands of ordinary people. You’ve probably found this article because you want to get into home recording.

  Most of our tutorials here at Audiotuts are at the intermediate or advanced level. And that’s OK, because you won’t be a beginner forever. But we do have some more basic tutorials and articles aimed at the beginner. This article will refer to many of them, and hopefully give you an overview of what’s involved in getting into home recording.

  Visit Article

• 

  A Basic Guide to Subtractive Synthesis (Part 1)

  This screencast is the first tutorial in a series on synthesis. This first installment shows a basic guided tour of Subtractor in Reason and covers oscillators, filters and envelopes.

  Visit Article

• 

  Is the Public Capable of Recognizing Quality Music?

  Can the average music listener recognize quality? Can they distinguish a virtuoso from a mediocre musician? Can they recognize a “hit” that will still be esteemed a masterpiece in a hundred years? Does “popular” mean the same as “quality”?

  Visit Article

Today we’ve let the evil, vector hoards loose. Now it’s time to burn your eyes with this assortment of vector Halloween horrors! Whoooahaha!

Subscribe to the Vectortuts+ RSS Feed to stay up to date with the latest vector tutorials and articles.

Next week we’ll cap this series off with a big bag of vector Halloween horrors. Today let’s browse through a deadly mix of vector skulls and skeletal illustrations!

Subscribe to the Vectortuts+ RSS Feed to stay up to date with the latest vector tutorials and articles.

For the next three weeks we’ll be releasing inspirational vector posts on various creepy Halloween related topics. Today we start off with some fresh from the grave, zombie vector illustrations!

Subscribe to the Vectortuts+ RSS Feed to stay up to date with the latest vector tutorials and articles.

Subscribe to the Vectortuts+ RSS Feed to stay up to date with the latest vector tutorials and articles.

We’ve released quite a few tutorials for learning and mastering the Gradient Mesh Tool. There are lots of dedicated tuts on this tool on Vectortuts+ and across the web listed here. Also check out some inspirational links at the end of this post as well. And now it’s time to get our vector realism on!

How to Create a Yellow Submarine Icon with Gradient Meshes – Vector Plus Tutorial

If you want to learn how to use gradient mesh, pattern brushes and other advanced Illustrator tools to create a shiny submarine, then we have an awesome tutorial for you. This is one of the best Plus tutorials we have on the site. If you’re a member, then it’s a must see.

Illustrate a Pair of Sweet Gradient Mesh Cherries

Learn how to create a pair of cherries solely with the Gradient Mesh tool. If you’re not familiar with the Gradient Mesh tool, then this is a great tutorial to learn how to start using it. You can create artwork with a semi-realistic to very realistic look with that tool. It can take effort to master, but it’s worth your time.

Gradient Mesh Bell Pepper Tutorial

This is an awesome Gradient Mesh tutorial with stunning realistic results. This downloadable PDF offers encouragement for the beginner and detailed advice that those looking to master the Gradient Mesh tool will find useful.

Create realistic illustrations using Illustrator’s Gradient Mesh

This tutorial teaches you how to create a Brussels Chicory illustration from a reference photo using the Gradient Mesh Tool. Veerle covers all the details of using this tool to create this shiny vegetable in all it’s vector glory.

Gradient Mesh Tutorial of Thumbdrive

This is one of those tutorials found of DeviantArt, which is formatted as one big image. There are loads of detailed instructions on using the Gradient Mesh Tool to create a technical device.

How to Create an Energy Saving Bulb in Illustrator

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to create an energy saving bulb with the help of the Illustrator’s Mesh Tool. At the beginning it could be quiet hard to work with this tool, but if you get used to it, it’s fairly simple. Jump into this tutorial to get some advanced practice.

Mastering Mesh by Creating a Vector Fish

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to create numerous shapes using the Gradient Mesh Tool to color them uniquely. You’ll then merge these shapes into one whole fish illustration. This is a straight-forward and quality process to follow.

How to Create a Mesh Flower in Illustrator

Utilize Illustrator CS4 to create a flower with Illustrator’s mesh tools and opacity masks. With these tools you have a high-degree of control and can create realistic looking illustrations.

Gradient Mesh Portrait Tutorial

If you want to take your Gradient Mesh skills to the rockstar or ninja level, then this is the tutorial for you. Ever wanted to create plush photo-realistic vector illustrations? If so, this is the tutorial for you!

How to Create a Radial Mesh in Illustrator and Make a Vector CD

Ever wonder about creating Radial Mesh in Illustrator? Yes, now you can and it will reveal more possibilities to you in Illustrator. In the first part of this tutorial you’ll learn how to create a Radial Mesh in Illustrator (without using any 3rd party plugin), and in second part we’ll create a Vector CD using that radial mesh method. So let’s do it!

Illustrator Tutorial: Realistic Curtain

This is a relatively simple Gradient Mesh Tool tutorial with high quality results. Creating interesting backgrounds and fabrics are both good topics to practice and build your meshing skills with.

How to Create Vector Clouds with the Gradient Mesh Tool

Create impressionistic, infinitely-scalable vector clouds with the Gradient Mesh tool. It’s easy to start, but it takes a lot of time to master. There are several ways of approaching the Gradient Mesh – this one may be new to you.

Using Illustrator’s Mesh Tool as Nature Intended

Learn how to transform a flat vector leaf into a golden Gradient Mesh leaf. Follow practical and detailed steps to transform natural imagery and add a level of three dimensionality and color blending with the Gradient Mesh Tool.

Adobe Illustrator CS, CS4: Gradient Mesh Tool, Gradients & Blends

Kevin Hulsey is a master technical illustrator. He has a quick primer here to get you started with the Gradient Mesh Tool, as well as some high end inspiration to expand on what you think is possible with illustrator.

Tips for Working with the Gradient Mesh Tool In Illustrator

One of the most amazing and confounding tools in Adobe Illustrator is probably the Gradient Mesh tool. Working with this feature allows the user to divide almost any shape into a mesh. Each intersection of two lines (horizontal/vertical) can be colored with a solid color. This tutorial takes a different format than some of our other tuts, and will help you work with the Mesh tool better.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you some tips that will improve your Mesh work. We’ll also show you a proper workflow to get outstanding results with this tool. We’ll take a close look at creating a layer within the detailed file of a meshed boot. Also, you can download the source file of this tutorial for free: Vector Army Shoe Freebie.

Creating a Leaf with the Mesh Tool

“In this exercise, you’re going to create a leaf using the Mesh tool. I must first warn you that this exercise isn’t for the faint of heart. The Mesh tool is one of Illustrator’s most powerful tools-along with that power comes complexity.” While the Gradient Mesh Tool is powerful and difficult to master, this is a good introductory tutorial to get stared with.

Illustrator Tutorial: Master the Gradient Mesh Tool

This is a tutorial for the intermediate to advanced Gradient Mesh artists. The details covered in this tutorial will help transform your skills to the professional level. Learn how to create meshes along curves, control meshes to make gradient flow smoothly between color transitions, and more precise instruction. You’ll learn to create a super detailed dinosaur and loads of tips along the way!

Create a Yummy Ice Cream Icon with Mesh Objects and Blends

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a fun icon made up of mesh object and blends. This is a fairly easy tutorial, although you should be familiar with the mesh tool as we’ll be using it extensively. This is good practice for your meshing skills.

Magical Butterfly – Gradient Mesh Tutorial

This is written for beginners to understand, though it may be challenging for someone new to the Gradient Mesh tool to jump in here and make drapes. If you’ve worked with the Gradient Mesh tool a couple times to create basic shapes, then you’ll want to tackle this tutorial next.

Make an Aurora Borealis Design in Illustrator

To recreate the light patterns of the Aurora Borealis you’d probably turn to Photoshop’s filters and effects. Use Illustrator however, and you’ll not only achieve a stunning end result, but you’ll also benefit from the flexibility of working with vectors. This is an intermediate level tutorial rewarding you with an attractive desktop wallpaper for your efforts! With the skills learned form this tutorial you’ll be able to use the gradient mesh tool for backgrounds in addition to skies.

Make a Shiny Gum Ball Machine with Mesh Gradients

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a gum ball machine with mesh gradients. We’ll create the base, the glass casing, the money slot, and the opening where the bubble gum balls come out. This is an advanced tutorial and the pace is fairly quick. Intermediated Illustrator knowledge is required.

Vector Sun Glasses Video Tutorial Series

This video series is broken down into six segments. It’s relatively easy to digest, but this is a complex image of sunglasses and will take some practice to recreate something similar. It’s interesting to see how this artist goes about creating fast and loose with this tool.

New PLUS Tutorial – Create Some Delicious Mesh Tomatoes

We have another great Vector Plus tutorial exclusively available to members today. If you want to take your Illustrator Meshing skills to the next level, then we have a a comprehensive tutorial for you. It details how to use the Gradient Mesh tool to create juicy tomatoes! Every detail of creating this illustration is covered!

Gradient Mesh Adobe Illustrator Tutorial

This is a relatively simple illustration to create with the Gradient Mesh Tool and great practice for beginners. If you did the curtain and drape tutorials above, then this will be a good tutorial to see how similar techniques can be used on other objects.

Illustrate a Vector Lifesaver From Scratch

Learn how to create a unique lifesaver that can be used as an icon or design element. We’ll be working with the Pathfinder Tools to create the shapes. The Mesh Tool will help us to apply the color and highlights to give our object the desired “realistic” look. We’ll also take advantage of the Duplicate and Rotate Tools, so we get a balanced look.

Tutorial :-An intro to mesh tool

This is a great introductory tutorial for the Gradient Mesh Tool. Learn to create a cartoon moon with the tool. Starting with meshing a basic circle into a 3D ball is a great first step to get a grasp on how this tool works.

How to Make a Vector Military Cap Icon

This tutorial will show the intermediate-to-advanced Adobe Illustrator artist how to make a realistic military style cap icon using predominately gradients, blends, and the Gradient Mesh Tool. We’ll be using a photo reference to base this illustration on, though utilizing creative judgement throughout the process.

Create a Stylized Gradient Mesh Soccer Ball Illustration

In this tutorial, we’ll show the advanced Adobe Illustrator artist how to create a realistic looking soccer ball with mesh objects. You’ll learn how to create reflections with the Opacity Mask. We’ll also make our own swooshes and custom brushes. This is an interesting use of the Mesh tool and a quality end result.

Chinese Bamboo

This tutorial uses the Gradient Mesh Tool in a simple manner to achieve high quality results. It’s really helpful for those new to the mesh tool to learn how to create uncomplicated, simply beautiful illustrations.

Make a Fairy-Tale Inspired Magical Hand Shaped Vine

In this tutorial, we’ll show the intermediate to advanced Adobe Illustrator artist how to make a fairy-tale inspired magical vine that is shaped like a hand. You should have a basic understanding of Adobe Illustrator tools before you begin this tutorial. This tutorial uses a surprisingly simple Mesh to create these vines that are formed into a magical illustration.

Gradient Mesh and Realistic Vector Inspiration

If the tutorials above have got you craving more, then check out the links below for more realistic vector goodness and mesh inspiration.

• The World’s Most Photorealistic Vector Art
• Photo-Realistic Vectors from 10 Illustrators
• Inspirational Hyperreal Vector Artists and Images

Subscribe to the Vectortuts+ RSS Feed to stay up to date with the latest vector tutorials and articles.

So let’s take a look at some delightful graphic logotypes that read the same when they are reversed or flipped upside-down.

Introduction

Although ambigrams became more popular as a result of Dan Brown’s bestseller novel Angels & Demons, the book cover of which had ambigrams designed by John Langdon, ambigrams have been around for more than a century. John Langdon and Scott Kim are regarded as pioneers and inventors of the modern day ambigram who have been most responsible for their popularization. Today, ambigrams are available on a variety of products and have also become popular for tattoos.

There are various Types of Ambigrams like rotational ambigrams, mirror-image ambigrams, chain style ambigrams etc. but the most common and widely used type of ambigram is Rotational Ambigram, where the word reads the same when inverted or rotated 180 degrees (i.e. flipped both vertically and horizontally). Just like any design, creating an ambigram doesn’t have any set guidelines or steps, it usually depends on the words and the typographical style that a designer wants to represent. A good ambigram is one which is readable and aesthetically harmonious.

Ambigrams are not easy to create, it requires the practice of looking at typographical ideas from more than one vantage point, but a finished ambigram is a piece of art. In this article we have featured some great ambigrams (logos and otherwise). And to quote Wired Magazine, “Ambigrams are the hottest trend in typography since Helvetica.” Let’s look at some awesome ambigrams.

Sun Microsystems (1982) logo

Sun Microsystems logo is one of the most brilliant logos in the world. It is a rotationally symmetric chain ambigram, designed by computer science professor Vaughan Pratt.

Ultima 1998

Ultima is a rotational ambigram designed by Scott Kim. Turn this design upside down and you will see that it reads the same both ways.

Wordsmith

A great Wordsmith ambigram designed by John Langdon.

New Man (1969) logo

The New Man logo is one of the first commercially designed ambigram logo designed by designer Raymond Loewy in year 1969, which is still in use today.

Angels & Demons

A famous ambigram created for Dan Brown’s book "Angels & Demons" by John Langdon. Dan Brown also named the protagonist of Angels & Demons after John Langdon as Robert Langdon.

Illuminati

Illuminati ambigram is an another ambigram drawn by artist John Langdon for Dan Brown’s book “Angels & Demons” as mentioned above.

Logos

A amazing ambigram with the word “Logos” designed by John Langdon.

Firefly

A very legible ambigram designed by nagfa.

Ambigram Wikipedia

A rotational ambigram of the WIKIPEDIA logo, donated by Daniele Raffo to Wikipedia under GNU Free Documentation License.

Chirp

A logo identity designed by Todd Weber for his freelance business.

Blacklist

A logo of blacklist.tv which also is a excellent ambigram.

Webcomic

Ambigram of “Webcomic,” created with GIMP by Dahtamnay.

Labyrinth

A clever and interesting style of ambigram by Krzychu.

Blacksmith

A logo for Blacksmithnyc.com designed by John Langdon.

903 Creative

A very skillfully executed, numeric ambigram by Aaron Gibson.

Philosophy

A delicate and appealing ambigram from the word Philosophy by John Langdon.

VAVA

A logo designed from V and A shapes by Raja Sandhu. The type also easily works as an ambigram.

One Love ltd.

A ambigram which reads, “One Love ltd” designed by nagfa.

EdgeLink

Another logo that reads the same when inverted, designed by Raja Sandhu.

Von Ambigram

A cool ambigram of his name by illustrative designer Von Glitschka.

Bridges

Tattoo ambigram designed by John Langdon.

Synergy 1981

Tessellation with two 90° centers of rotation designed by Scott Kim. This design practices synergy in two ways first, the word crosses itself four times at two different types of junctions: S becomes Y and E becomes R. Second, letters are joined in pairs, reducing the number of modules to just three.

Happy Holidays Ambigram Card

A beautiful Holiday Card ambigram by npgraphicdesign.

Vegas Ambigram

An ambigram with the text "Vegas" designed by Greg Williams.

Jaier

A very easy to read ambigram logo designed by Adam P. Kuster.

Honey

A simple and appealing ambigram logo designed by Dalius Stuoka.

Wachovia Ambigram Logo

Wachovia Ambigram Logo by Brian Risk.

Hapy – Egyptian God

A logo which reads the same when flipped 180 degrees designed by Raja Sandhu.

xpedx

A great ambigram logo design of xpedx.com, world’s largest distributor of printing papers and graphic supplies and equipment.

The Princess Bride

The movie, “The Princess Bride” featured an attractive ambigram on the cover of its DVD. This ambigram was accompanied by a photo that has some subtle insights into the story’s plot line.

Grid

A very simple and effective ambigram by Brett J. Gilbert.

ImJustCreative

IMJustCreative’s logo with initials IJC as an ambigram designed by Graham Smith. You can read more about this logo here.

Society27

Another brilliant numeric ambigram logo for the fashion industry designed by Zka.

Angela

A patchwork ambigram by Brett J. Gilbert.

Ambigram – Light

A clear and legible ambigram of the word “Light” designed by eXcezZive.

Math Magic

This amazing ambigram by Scott Kim is also a Flash animation which metamorphosis from the digits 0123456789 to the title, Math Magic.

Hardcore (Ambigram)

Ambigram logo for a t-shirt collection designed by B. Wichmann.

Spirals Ambigram

A cool spiral ambigram by rickxard.

Floris Ambigram

A modern and attractive ambigram designed by Floris Voorveld.

Infinity Circle

Infinity Circle is a 180 degree rotational symmetry, bent into a circle, with three repetitions of the word designed by Scott Kim.

All City

All City ambigram by Katsiedesign.

Mexico

The flag of Mexico composed of 21 pieces and form a vertical ambigram reflection (mirror) with the name of the country designed by Jose Manuel.

Teach / Learn

An inversion by Scott Kim, “TEACH” reflects to become LEARN.

awesome

The word “awesome” is in itself pretty awesome, it is one of naturally ambigramatical words, designed by rymdimperiet.

Sonali Ambigram

Oh yes, that’s mine! With so many brilliant and inspiring ambigrams around, who would not get inspired? I surely was, and tried my hands at making an ambigram from my first name, Sonali. I have also written a walk-through on how I made the ambigram.

Subscribe to the Vectortuts+ RSS Feed to stay up to date with the latest vector tutorials and articles.