Thursday, January 31, 2008

Graphic Identity Blog Redesign

I'm curently focused to redesign my blog layout. The previous version didn't look good thou, I found it difficult to maintain the very right sidebar to stay fixed.
So, with the help from friends, I decided to create completely new Blogger Classic themes. I didn't develop the template CSS code from the default Blogger Classic template this time.

I prefer three columns and minimize the use of image replacement and of course...sorts of tiresome experiments with the CSS codes.

I think this would be better than the last I had, at least the two columns stay on their place nicely. But I'm kindda thinking to remove some unnecessary web elements if the loading get worst than before :( (and I have to) You can take a look to the beta version and could you please tell me what you think about this new design layout :)

I will be back with new tutorials about Grunge Style design soon... so stay tune and be ready!

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Graphic Identity Blog Recap

Just want to let you know that Graphic Identity Blog was first published in June 16th 2008 and now we have 65 posts published until the end January 2008. A pretty young blog :) and we convey grateful regards to all of the devoted subscribers for keep visiting Graphic Identity Blog.

So, If you are a new visitor to my blog or you just subscribed to our RSS feed recently, you may missed out reading the previous posts. This blog recap is somehow will help you to track back Graphic Identity Blog from the first time it was born till now. ;) enjoy:


First post , June 16th 2007

  • Graphic Identity



  • Graphic Design Tutorials

  • Creating a Perfect Selection in Photoshop

  • Creating Vector Shape Object in Photoshop

  • Snow Text Effect

  • Creating Object Reflection on a Surface

  • Make a Dotted Line in Photoshop by BittBox

  • How to create Swirly Curls in Illustrator

  • Quick ways to Create Buttons using Photoshop and Illustrator

  • How to Create Water Droplets in Photoshop



  • Photoshop Brushes

  • How to Install Photoshop Brush Set

  • Round Corner Square Photoshop Brushes

  • Fantasy Floral Photoshop Brushes - Part 1

  • Fantasy Floral Photoshop Brushes - Part 2

  • Corner Design Photoshop Brushes - Part 1

  • Corner Design Photoshop Brushes - Part 2

  • Fantasy Floral Photoshop Brushes - Part 3



  • Photoshop Action

  • Photoshop Actions

  • Spinning Wind Effect in Photoshop Action

  • Glowing in the Dark Text Effect

  • Snow Text Effect in Photoshop Action

  • Grunge Text Effect in Photoshop Action – Part 1

  • Grunge Text Effect in Photoshop Action – Part 2

  • Grunge Text Effect in Photoshop Action – Part 3



  • Graphic Design

  • 8 Clever Logos » Inspiration Bit

  • My Design is Beautifully Ripped Off

  • Creating MattsNutts Logo and Web Header



  • Design Review, Design Showcase and Art

  • Valey and 3D Digital Art Work as His Journey

  • Inspiration Package: 60+ Usable & Elegant Designs

  • BittBox Reader Designs : Design Showcase Highlight

  • Collin James De Ruyck’s Abstract Paintings

  • Blogspot Design Showcase – Part 1

  • DotArt Paintings

  • Featured Blogspot Graphic Design: THE PUNGEONING

  • Blogspot Design Showcase – Part 2



  • Fonts and Typography

  • Brian Kent's Fonts Design Collection

  • 16 Font ter-Favorit dalam Desain Web (Indonesian translation)

  • 6 Free Graffiti, Grunge, and Destroyed Fonts

  • 3 Free Destroyed Typewriter Fonts



  • Web Design, Web Tools, and Design Gadget

  • Web CEO 6.5

  • Colors for your Blog

  • Web2PDF Online

  • Are you making these common blog layout mistakes?

  • My Favatar

  • Click Comment: Cool Widget for Blogger



  • Blogging

  • BlogsRecord : a review

  • Your A-Z Blogs: Viral Linking to Increase Technorati Rank

  • bla.st – Graphic Identity card submission

  • FeedBurner Email Subscribers Exchange Challenge

  • 10 Enhancement Ideas to Optimize your Design Blog



  • Download (Free Design Software, Button)

  • Paint.Net

  • Color Pic 4

  • Font Mate

  • CSS Tab Designer 2.0

  • Cool RSS Buttons for Free



  • Photography

  • Photo Stock Download

  • Visual Communication in Photography

  • Digital Photography Tutorial Compilation

  • Blog Action Day : Environmental Awareness



  • Blog Contest

  • BenSpark’s August Add it up Contest

  • Pimp My Blog Contest - Win a Free Blog Header/Logo

  • $4,000 David Airey Blog Anniversary Prize Draw

  • Photo Contest 2007 - “Photos On a Theme”

  • My Lucky Number 13 First Contest - Win $100

  • Graphic Illustration Design Contest: Win your Entrecard designed for free



  • Miscellaneous

  • My Technorati Profile

  • Saturday, January 19, 2008

    Graphic-Illustration Design Contest: Win your Entrecard designed for free

    For you who still haven’t try the powerful promotion advantage of Entrecard, I think it’s about time for you to get your own card submitted. Don’t loose time to promote your blog with Entrecard, while you can improve traffic and increase your potential readers only by submitting 125×125px size banner card.

    What if you want to have your card submitted to Entrecard, but you don’t know how to design it, don’t have the skills or time to do it. Or you don’t have money to order it? Well…..I have wonderful news for you.

    BSilvia, a good friend of mine, has been starting a design contest and she will make free 6 designs for the winners.

    This is how to enter:


    Contest winners
    Silvia will draw 3 (three) winners! Each of contest winners will receive two (2) cards designed by her.

    Contest deadline
    Deadline is Tuesday January 22nd. Contest winner will be announced on graphics-illustrations.com blog on Wednesday January 23rd!

    :p so there’s not much time left huh! Commenting on a blog won’t took long time right? So hurry up, visit graphics-illustrations.com and please comment comment….!

    If you like this article, you can subscribe in RSS feed reader or subscribe to Graphic Identity by email

    Blogspot Design Showcase - Part 2

    Are you looking for Blogspot graphic design showcase carnivals? I came up with three blog resources. These blogs are offering different kind of stuff. You're going to love their design freebies and excellent articles.
    One of them is actually featured by request. If your design blog is in Blogger Blogspot platform, and you want it to be featured as well, you can contact me by email at: graphicidentity.blog@gmail.com

    Chill out :D and let me present you the Blogspot Design Showcase - Part 2



    box 313

    Blogspot Design Showcase - Part 2

    Claudio Madella is the author of Box 313. A graphic designer and illustrator from Milano, Italy. His design is almost urbanist in style and brings the sense of modern look. Box 313 is also his portfolio gallery, sort of design projects collections are available to download in PDF files.

    Read More

    Friday, January 18, 2008

    Featured Blogspot Graphic Design: THE PUNGEONING

    THE PUNGEONING is about Art, Graphic Design, Cultural Criticism, and Psy-Ops.

    Designers are seeking inspiration in different kind of ways. Does it always have to be visual experiencing? When you see something unique or when you find an unusual creation then you react to see what you can do about it? What if the inspiration comes from what I call: “Cultural Criticism”.

    Lordsomber is the author of THE PUNGEONING . It is a blog, a story telling of your surroundings, a beautifully poetic depiction of cultural criticism into graphic and a journey of moving souls.

    Well this designer artist has all the answers in an interesting interview.



    Lordsomber, could you first introduce yourself?

    Salutations. I am Lordsomber, silent fly on the wall, amnesiac from the future, the sizzle in the brain pan.

    Featured Blogspot Graphic Design: THE PUNGEONING



    Cultural criticism is your interest for most of the time. Why?

    It is a way to observe today’s thought patterns and behaviours in the context of underlying psychohistorical memes, attitudes and actions. The blinders people wear are more often put on by themselves. Pungeoning is about holding up the Mirror of Reality to Man’s Folly.


    Read More

    Friday, January 11, 2008

    10 Enhancement Ideas to Optimize your Design Blog Topic

    We often read SEO tips for general blogs. I was so curious how to implement those tips and tricks to my design blog topic. Because a design blog niche (like any other niches) always has uniqueness in context, and therefore I always experiment and doing trial and error to improve my blog.
    I've seen tons of design blog topics, but not all of them can win the viewer's attention. Creativity in optimization plays important role. My blog is so young and still in the learning process of optimization. However in the middle of that never lasting process, the challenge would always be how to enhance your blog performance. Here are 10 enhancement ideas to optimize your Design Blog Topic:

    1. Brings an identity to the blog look
    Your logo represents your blog identity. It doesn't have to be a marvelous illustration in style, because a great logo is actually meant deeper than that. Abhinav Sood of InspiritBlog says that
    "Logo speaks before words do...And speaks more than words do"


    2. Choose design niche content and topic that attract you most and suit your goal:
    If you are a design admirer, and love to review sorts of designs, you can post article about:

    • Design review is an introduction to certain design style. Comprehensive review would be better done by profesional designers or doing an interview with the creator. A good example would be: Type for You, that published an article based on the interview with Ricardo Santos.

    • Design Showcase by random favorite, based on poll or survey, etc. Blastyle has been publishing simple design showcase from great graphic designers and it is a great example of a blog design topic. You can also capture a pool result and write a review about it as follows. Learn how LogoBlog Poll, grants an appreciation of Superhero Logos after conducting a survey.

    • Top 5 or Top 50 sorts of design review.
      This kind of writing style is a great way to create intriguing headlines title. Smashing Magazine
      receives tons of readers and comments using this kind of writing style.

    • As a designer, you can share your expertise to help another designer with new tips hence you can write:
      - Tutorials about design or how to articles. Blog example: Lawny Designz
      - Design software review or write a post about web tool service related to design.
      - Create profesional discussion, or dialogue with the viewers. Blog example: Graphic Design Blog

    • Sometimes blogging is a very good tool to improve a website, because you can also offer commercial services to the visitors, such as:
      - Design services or products. Dennis Plucinik, puts a vertical banner at his sidebar blog, which is a very effective approach to promote design services he's been working on by profession.
      - Profesional design consultation
      - Freelance job listings
      - Design portfolio inclusion. Blog examples: Randay Clay's portfolio and Firewalker


    Read More

    Tuesday, January 8, 2008

    Fantasy Floral Photoshop Brushes - Part 3

    I finished these PS brush set in 3 hours only. I feel 3 variation in shape would be just fine :). I made thinner curve lines, simple spiral curls because I was so inspired by the Art Nouveau's flower style that I found recently. I want to make a repro of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret MacDonald's floral Art Nouveau styles for my Fantasy Floral Photoshop Brushes series someday. Classic... yet,they are simple and rich with symbolistic shapes.

    I really hope you will like them :p …

    Each of brush is categorized as medium in size (1200px – 1400px).

    Fantasy Floral Photoshop Brushes - Part 3

    Read More

    I would like to remind you that all of my 'Free Design Box' files are FREE (for personal or commercial use). But after I found that my previous Photoshop brushes set were hijacked by someone else, please read: Legal Usage to employ Graphic Identity's 'Free Design Box' files.

    If you like my Photoshop Brushes please give comment before you download them because I will appreciate any feedback from you.

    Don't miss out to download my next photoshop brushes series by subscribing to my feed!

    NOTE :

    • I love your feedback, and that’s why these free design box files now has a plain .ABR file to download directly…I also included compressed .ZIP file instead of .RAR. file so you can unzip the smaller size file or extract the file later if you need it. (You must have WinZIP or WinRAR software installed to your computer for that).
    • Thanks to d3c3nt-gurl, who send me a feedback of how should I provide PNG files. Since this can be useful for PS 7 users.
    • Some of you probably don't know how to install brush set, and for that reason I have a quick tutorial: How to Install Photoshop Brush Set.


    Graphic Identity - Fantasy Floral Part 3.abr (249.69 KB)
    Fantasy Floral Photoshop Brushes

    Graphic Identity - Fantasy Floral Part 3.zip (128.62 KB)
    Fantasy Floral Photoshop Brushes

    Graphic Identity - Fantasy Floral Part 3.RAR (124.16 KB)
    Fantasy Floral Photoshop Brushes

    Graphic Identity - Fantasy Floral Part 3 (PNG).ZIP (281.21 KB)
    Fantasy Floral Photoshop Brushes


    Be sure to check this design set also
    Fantasy Floral Vectors








    Related Post:


    Wednesday, January 2, 2008

    FeedBurner Email Subscribers Exchange Challenge

    In the beginning of 2008, I want to celebrate this New Happy Year with a challenge for my blog. I wrote tutorials most of the time, but there is nothing wrong to invite you all to join this challenge together to build a small community of blog readers.

    All right, you've heard links exchange too often, but I call this exchange: "FeedBurner Email Subscribers Exchange Challenge"

    FeedBurner Email Subscribers Exchange Challenge

    This exchange challenge is open to any kind of blog niches or different topics than mine or everyone who will decide to join.


    Why you should join this challenge?


    You will have a chance to promote your blog by email.
    If your blog is new, bring traffic would takes time. Consider this Exchange Challenge as a try because the subscribers may share your article if they find it useful and informative.

    It is very easy to join.
    Follow the steps below, they are easy as 1 2 3!

    It is absolutely a perfect way to boost the number of your FeedBurner Subscribers.
    Big Bloggers could established a contest and ask the participants to subscribe to their feed when entering the contest. The great news is: Email Subscribers Exchange Challenge can be done without even bother that you are already becoming a Blogger Celebrity. New Bloggers are welcome as well.

    Building a solid community for your blog.
    This exchange challenge is open to any kind of blog niches or different topics than mine or everyone who will decide to join. Every blog author can learn something useful from subscribed articles, and can even jump in to comment as an appreciation.

    Increasing your blog authorities.
    As a reward, you deserve a link love in a "Blog Listings of Email Subscribers Exchange Challenge" after your confirmation process being approved by your referrer.



    How to join?


  • Write a blog about this exchange challenge

  • Copy these steps ("How to join" steps) source code and paste it to your post. You can also link back to this post or any blog that refers you this exchange challenge.

  • You must activate your FeedBurner email subscription service

  • Put a link or a form at the perfect spot of your blog layout to let your challengers submit their email address instantly.

  • Subscribe the blog of your referers via email

  • Subscribe to your exchange challenge referrer's blog.

  • Confirm your email subscription request sent by FeedBurner.

  • This is a way to recognize your email when the blog author referrer checks your entry challenge in his/her FeedBurner account. Be patient since the FeedBurner report is updated in daily basic. If you haven't confirm it yet, you can not continue to the next step.

  • Enter your data profile

  • Send email to the blog author as a follow up confirmation step and provide these following data:

    - Your email address
    - Your blog name
    - Your blog URL
    - Your name
    - Your featured post URL*

    * if you leave it blank, your latest post will be featured in the Blog Listings of your referrer by default.

  • Blog Listing Submission

  • The blog author referrer will submit your data in a Blog Listings of challengers as a match data provided by FeedBurner to 10 minimum numbers. If the blog author still gets lesser than 10 email subscribers, he/she will update the Post Exchange Challenge later on. Contact the blog author referrer if he/she hasn't added your data in the Blog Listings of challengers. Problem might appear during the emails sending process. If this happen, please resubmit your email subscription request.

  • Optional Challenge:

  • - You can create more than 10 numbers of Blog Listings. In this case, I dare you to subscribe by email to my blog until I reach 100 Blog Listings in my post! :)
    - You can stop this challenge after you've subscribed to 10 blogs or do the challenge without limitation. Again, you will get the advantage, since I will subscribe to your blogs anytime you want this Exchange. It means, I will never reject your offer to have the "FeedBurner Email Subscribing Exchange Challenge", nor even if by any chance I've subscribed to 100 blogs already. I'll subscribe forever ;p

  • Share it!

  • In order to keep it rolling, I suggest you to digg, stumble, or fave each other's blog post.


    Blog Listings of Email Subscribers Exchange Challenge


    1. Your World Gallery by Collin De Ruyck
    Latest Post: Networking case study part #1

    2. Inspirit Blog by Abhinav Sood
    Latest Post: 5 Ways to manage your profile to turn profile visitors into sticky readers

    3. Blogging Sueblimely by Sueblimely
    Latest Post: Happy New Year

    4. Onequartlow.com by blogtommy
    Latest Post: Sunday Testimonial

    5. All About Advertisements by Ashish Ghildiyal
    Latest Post: Energy Efficient Lights for all your needs

    6. box313 (ideas+forms) by Claudio Madella
    Latest Post: About Box 313

    7. Dot Dot Design by Guga Fiel
    Latest Post: World's Best Designed Newspaper

    8. Weight Loss Weapons by Steve
    Latest Post: Organization for weight loss

    9. ten Forty by Deb
    Latest Post: Fruit

    10. STRONGBODIES by Mike
    Latest Post: Homes With Increased Allergen Levels Linked to Asthma

    11. FunBlog by Femina
    Latest Post: Living in a nudist colony

    12. The Pursuit of Excellence by miguelpineiro
    Latest Post: Bomb From Military Jet, Hits Oklahoma Apartment

    13. Digital World by Mark Antony
    Latest Post: “Darling” Seems Inappropriate…

    14. itakeoffthemask.com by hiyas
    Latest Post: Prayer of an Overseas Worker

    15. Y o u, could be the next!

    Join now for the top 100 Blog Listing!

    Write me your blog url and your email address after you subscribed to my feed by email so I can quickly submit it in the list!
    Graphic Identity email address : graphicidentity.blog@gmail.com

    Featured Post

    Monster Illustration Vectors that Work

    Not all monsters are scary and we can apply them in a design composition or illustration. You may want to search bunch of new created monst...