Welcome to our News and Updates section

Here you will find all of our New Product announcements for our business logos design and Web pages templates as well as Links for our Partners and friends. 

We also Include some helpful articles on a variety of subjects that may help you with any design questions you may be having.

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First of all, we would like to announce we have oppened a sister store at ETSY. at this store you will be able to find all kinds of print material. We offer stationary designs,

postcard designs, folder, brochure, and flyer designs. We even offer some special edition logos, and custom design services for our business logos design, and web pages templates.

 

Here at our home site we are now offering a few free  logos designs and some free  web page layouts. We will add to these as time goes by we want to help as many people as we can so

we are doing this just for you.

 

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New services:

So we are announcing that now we are offereing Custom design via our main website of logoshrine. Just go to the side column where all the categories are and you will see a section called CUSTOM DESGIN. This setcion will hold avialable products for graphic design work not just logo design. Also if you go under web design you will find one for CUSTOM WEB DESGIN as well. You are still able to purchase custom desgin and exclusive logos from our etsy store http://www.etsy.com/shop/logoshrine.

If you are looking for some fun Fine Art work, we also have a store you can find it here: http://www.etsy.com/people/LittleShopOfThings  we make custom paintings and drawings here by request!

 

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Vector vs. Raster logos:

Why is it so important to look for vector art? Don't be fooled with a lot of the online logo designs companies. They sell their logos cheap they inform you that you will be able to edit your logo, but in reality the reason the logo is so cheap is because they are what is called "rastered". A raster file is one made in a program like photoshop, it is an image that is created on pixels and not lines. What this means to you is that any logo design you buy that is raster you will not be able to resize any larger than the size file given to you or your logo will become distorted and pixelated. If you were to buy a logo from a company like logoshrine.com which guarantees that any logo bought through them will be vector you will know that you are getting a logo that will work for anything you need to make. Vector files are files created in programs like illustrator. These vector files are made up of lines and curves and can be re-sized to any size even if it is the size of a billboard and the logo design will never loose its resolution. The logo will retain its crispness and look perfectly no matter how small or large you need it.

So remember when you go out shopping for logos go looking for companies like Logoshrine.com who guarantee you to get a vector logo. Forget all those other companies that tell you their logos are created in Photoshop, are psd files, or are raster.. that just means headaches for you in the future.

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Three steps to follow for Logo Design:

To create a strong logo design here are a few steps.If you are new to logo design something that is very helpful is drawing out your logo. It might take 30 different sketches of the logo to have one that is the best. If you aren't the best at drawing with a tablet or mouse scan the sketch in and trace over your sketch as a starting point. The design itself can be anything a logo is a work of art after all just make sure it is relevent to the subject.

If you have problems not knowing where to start in designing, use books or the ineternetas guides to help you. There are many great resources on the web books like Logolounge or even companies like logoshrine.com that can help spark inspiration. Always consider the industry in which you are designing the icon for you don’t want a logo that is for real estate to look like it belongs in medicine. Never copy anything you see directly, create your own work there is nothng worse than someone who copy infringes not only is it illigal it just doesn't help your reputation.

Next big step is colors, first off start with just black and white. Choosing colors for a logo can be very difficult when new to logo design. Finding colors that create balance and blend well can be very tricky. Starting out with black and white can help you find that balance in color that is needed. Before you choose any random colors for the logo design consider the industry you are creating the logo for. If you are designing a logo for a bank you will most likely want to use formal colors, i.e. blues, grays, greens instead of oranges or pinks and purples. There are many resources out there that can help one learn the meaning of different colors and many guides for  color pairing ideas like www.kuler.adobe.com, www.colourlovers.com. Even if you have been doing this for years it is always helpful to have a refresher course as well as staying current with color.

The last step is choosing the right font. This is probably the hardest step. There are thousands of fonts to choose from so how do you know which is the best for your design. Time and practice is the key to choosing fonts well. There are a few tests one can take to see if they can pair up a logo with a font properly. If you have a formal icon i.e.: a bank icon you are going to want to use a formal font normally one that is a serif like Garamond or Trajan. There is no written rule though this can change depending on the design itself if the bank icon happens to be very modern and contemporary you’re not going to want to use a formal font you will want one that is better fitting to the design. Practice makes perfect with this and so does a good eye. Proportions unless you have a specific reason for it do not let the icon overpower the name of the company, in other words don't make it outrageously big.

Logo design can be one of the hardest things for a graphic designer to accomplish; but once they do it can be one of the best assets for that designer to flaunt. It is not an easy task to brand an entire company by with one simple image. Logo design takes years of practice and the ability to adapt to new styles and techniques.the internet has become a great resource for insipiration there are many Online logo design companies such as logoshrine.com full of professional logos design that can be of great help to all beginner designers.

 

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Steps for web design:

As with anything there are rules to follow when it comes to doing web design. This is one of those things where you don't know where to start until you do some research. I will do my best and explain a few basic steps to creating a web template for people who are looking to get started with some simple basics.

These are the most important steps for you to follow:
>The Site should be 900-1000 Px wide not including background.
>The body copy should use System Fonts so that the users browser  will display the website as you originally designed.
>You should be working in RGB using web safe colors.
>When using a textured background, consider the length of the page. >The image should be tileable.

When it comes to design there are some steps that can help you make it strong. lets start talking about the background; In most cases people want to set a pale background. I would suggest to give it some slight design, or even use some images to attract peoples attention. Just be sure that whatever design you do decide to do will not conflict with any of the information, text, or images there needs to be a balance between everything.

The text and images are obviously your first priority. You need to grab peoples attention and you want them to read the content on your site. It is very important that you pick the right font size that will be legible for someone with poor eyesight. The text also has to be easy to read for both humans and browsers. Use varying sizes for headers and text through your site to break up the text and help readers read easily, and it will help browsers catch keyword by its importance.

Now here is an important piece to the design puzzle. I know I mentioned to make sure and have a font that is easy to read. Here is some assistance on that. As any seasoned web designer would tell you; it is best that you use system fonts. This is important because browseres read the fonts on your computers. Those are fonts that every individual with a computer will have. That is the reason why you should not use any other fonts other than the system fonts. This also makes sure that there are no compatibility issues between different browsers like safari and internet explorer.

Here is a list of the system fonts for you:
Arial, Arial Black, Comic Sans MS, Courier New, Georgia, Impact, Lucida Console, Lucida Sans Unicode, Palatino Linotype, Tahoma, Times New Roman, Trebuchet, Veranda, Symbol, Webdings, Wingdings, Ms Sans Serif, and MS serif. Also note that the fonts are listed are the PC versions of these system fonts, the Mac fonts may be named someting a little different.

The most important part of designing a website its navigation. This is key for how the user and the browser navigate your website. Make sure to always have your navigation on the left side of your page or across near the top of the page. This is helpful for your websites ease of use as well as if the client wants to do any SEO work on their website they will be better off for optimizing their website.

 

 

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Why it is important to be a Fine Artist before becoming a Graphic Designer:

Many Universities try to get graphic design students in and out the door as quickly as possible they don’t even bother with the basics. As an Alumni of Mississippi State University I can say that I am greatly appreciative of the education in graphic design and fine arts that I was given.

Before entering the graphics program a student at MSU must pass a fine arts portfolio review. It is a hard process but it requires students to be the best artist they can be in every sense of the word, you have to prove that you have the skills to be a great designer. It takes a year and a half of preparation. Most universities offer painting and drawing for their graphic artist sure, but it tends to be just once class or two at most then you get put in front of a computer and expect to create works of art in the world of graphic design.

One of the mottos at MSU is that to be a designer you need to be a fine artist first, and so the student is required to take multiple drawing, painting, printmaking, photography (not the digital kind the old school kind), sculpture, ceramics, design (non computer based) with multiple classes available at different levels for each of these areas.  

Learning fine art is a great way to understand the world around you, to appreciate the history in art which created digital graphic arts. Knowing your roots is the best way to be fully rounded in your filed. An artist that took drawing and learned proportions and dimensions and perspectives; An artist who learned about color and blending, and tones and hues; An artist who understands three dimensionality through sculpture and ceramics and understands materials and composition those are the artist that can become amazing graphic designers, designers who have every tool to make design as creative and unique as possible.

When choosing a university to study for graphic design make sure you check out the universities curriculum for that degree. Make sure they require a fine arts background, not just one or two classes but several of different subject matter. Research the art professors, and art coming out of the university. The more information you know about your university choices the better prepared and happier with your decision you will be.

 

 

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Graphic Design software:

 

So, I have found that many people are interested to know what programs graphic designers use for "drawing" or designing their work. I will take this time to not only answer that question but also throw in some pointers as to what each program does and what they are best suited for in design.

I think pretty much Adobe runs the design world. There are other similar programs out there but Adobe is pretty much the lead when it comes to any design or multimedia software. The standard programs for graphic designers are Illustrator, Photoshop, Indesign, Flash and Dreamweaver. Adobe has other software for video and sound editing but we will be talking about the ones that are used for Design in print and web.

Starting with favorite Illustrator. Illustrator is a vector based program. Vector is a very neat format of design; Instead of being pixel based like a raster program would be vector is line and curve based. What this means to the designer is that the design will never pixelate. You can take a business logos design created in illustrator and re-size it as small as you want or as large as you want and the logo will never distort or lose its resolution. You can make the logos designs be as large as a billboard and it will never lose its resolution it will be as clean and sharp as its original size.

My second favorite program is Photoshop. This program unlike Illustrator is a raster based program. Raster is images created by pixels. Everything created in photoshop is created by millions of pixels. Photoshop is a wonderful program for any web design, or photo manipulation. In fact most web pages templates are pre-designed in photoshop and later on placed in a web design program such as Dreamweaver. Photoshop is not a program to design things like a logo, in the end they will distort when you try to make them larger than the original size it was created in.

The other software adobe has is not so much as to draw in or design pieces but more for putting things together and other tasks. Indesign is used for laying out or mocking up books, magazines anything heavy text based or in book format would be laid out with indesign. The designs itself would be imported from a design program such as illustrator or photoshop. Dreamweaver is an HTML design program, you can design web pages templates and code them. Flash is for anything that is animated, whether it is a slide show, or actual animation. The flash files are typically used for website presentations and intros.

I hope this article helped clear up some of the design questions, as well as helped educate you as to what software most designers use. Adobe is a leader when it comes to the design software and they continue to do a great job of updating their software to help make our designing quicker and better.

 

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Print Design Set Up:

 

Once again I am just writing a short little article for new designers. I know that when you get out of college and your start working, sometimes you start to realize there are a lot of small things that were not covered in college or so briefly that you are not sure as to what to do. 

 One thing that is often overlooked by beginners is setting up documents for printing. There are not many steps but they are important to follow. When creating a document always make sure that you are creating a bleed from every side of the design, including pictures. You want the design to bleed at least 1/4 of an inch off of the art board so that when being printed the design will reach the edges. When creating bleeds just be sure not to overdo it, then it can just become annoying to the printer as well as unnecessary and sloppy.

 Make sure that your document is set to CMYK since it will be printed, just as your pictures should all be CMYK. Just because you brought the picture into a CMYK document does not mean that it is, always double check and convert it from RGB. Once you bring an image into the document make sure that the image is embedded. If it is not and you send the file to a printer they are going to end up with a blank image.

 Last thing you want to do when you are done designing is clear out any pantone colors, or any cmyk color swatches from your swatch list that are not being used. I hope this short little list helps some people get started in designing for print.

 

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Design Software:

 

So, I have found that many people are interested to know what programs graphic designers use for "drawing" or designing their work. I will take this time to not only answer that question but also throw in some pointers as to what each program does and what they are best suited for in design.

 I think pretty much Adobe runs the design world. There are other similar programs out there but Adobe is pretty much the lead when it comes to any design or multimedia software. The standard programs for graphic designers are Illustrator, Photoshop, Indesign, Flash and Dreamweaver. Adobe has other software for video and sound editing but we will be talking about the ones that are used for Design in print and web.

 Starting with my favorite program: Illustrator. Illustrator is a vector based program. Vector is a very neat format of design; Instead of being pixel based like a raster program would be vector is line and curve based. What this means to the designer is that the design will never pixelate. You can take a business logos design created in illustrator and re-size it as small as you want or as large as you want and the logo will never distort or lose its resolution. You can make the free logos designs be as large as a billboard and it will never lose its resolution it will be as clean and sharp as its original size.

 My second favorite program is Photoshop. This program unlike Illustrator is a raster based program. Raster is images created by pixels. Everything created in photoshop is created by millions of pixels. Photoshop is a wonderful program for any web design, or photo manipulation. In fact most web pages templates are pre-designed in photoshop and later on placed in a web design program such as Dreamweaver. Photoshop is not a program to design things like a logo, in the end they will distort when you try to make them larger than the original size it was created in.

 The other software adobe has is not so much as to draw in or design pieces but more for putting things together and other tasks. Indesign is used for laying out or mocking up books, magazines anything heavy text based or in book format would be laid out with indesign. The designs itself would be imported from a design program such as illustrator or photoshop. Dreamweaver is an HTML design program, you can design web pages templates</a> and code them. Flash is for anything that is animated, whether it is a slide show, or actual animation. The flash files are typically used for website presentations and intros.

 I hope this article helped clear up some of the design questions, as well as helped educate you as to what software most designers use. Adobe is a leader when it comes to the design software and they continue to do a great job of updating their software to help make our designing quicker and better.