Good drawing tutorials teaching you the simple steps of how to draw a face or how to draw a person are not easy to find. Everybody wants to learn to draw realistic portraits, but good tutorials are unfortunately scattered on the Internet. In this article, you will find some of the best tutorials about how to draw step by step. Digital artwork is so common nowadays that we consider it as something natural, and we almost don’t remember how it began. The main reason for its success is that it takes traditional realistic drawings to the next level. -> Click here to skip to the actual drawing tutorials. Drawing human anatomy, especially how to draw faces may be the biggest challenge of traditional drawing, especially if you don’t have the right approach.
It will take a lot of practice and time before you learn how to draw a head and how to draw a human in general, paying the necessary attention to every part before you’ve finished the entire figure. Interestingly enough, artists that know how to draw a realistic face or person are in demand on the market regardless of their digital skills. That’s why we encourage you to learn how to draw realistic people too, practicing drawing with the help of many advanced sketching tutorials, universally applicable theories, techniques, comic arts, tips, and methods which will later on converting your traditional creation into a digital format.
What your easy drawing tutorials will reveal first and foremost is that traditional realist drawing requires much more effort than its digital counterpart, which is why artists often fall behind. We’re not saying there are no people whose drawing doesn’t go further than the screen, but the recommended drawing tips are to still follow some old school painting before going into digital design. For instance, for drawing faces, the classical standards always apply. Therefore, we’ve decided to share some of the most interesting tutorials about how to draw a person step by step for beginners, where the most important traditional drawing techniques and methods are mixed with digital tricks aimed at bringing life and dynamism to the creations on the screen.
There is a variety of intermediate and advanced level learning to draw tutorials that can provide you some helpful tips, teach you how to do a pencil drawing, human sketching, color processing, or how to handle perspectives, shapes, and proportions. For now, we hope we’ve shared enough techniques and practices helping you to overcome the initial drawing difficulties. Is never easy learning how to draw. It takes a lot of time to practice and you need to have good guidelines and easy step by step drawings tutorials to follow. Finding the right sketching tutorials hasn’t been easy but I’ve managed to make a pretty good list of drawing tutorials that would help you in your quest for becoming a master of drawing. I’ve sorted them in six categories: the drawing of a face, the human body, hands, hair, animals and caricatures and also added at the end other resources where you can find lots and lots of drawing tutorials. Drawing humans
The nose of the character you just drew looks like anything but a real nose? We understand your distress! Before you’ve actually started to recreate humans as they really are, you have to learn how to do realistic faces, but there is no need to worry – Soon, you will be able to easily recreate your favorite characters. The trick is to learn how to do blending – take a pencil and a piece of paper, and use the tutorial to learn how to shade light and dark gradually. This is the first step towards replicating essential skin contours. In fact, shading is the first thing you need to learn in order to make shapes look three-dimensional and part of the lesson about how to draw a face step by step. Once you’ve adopted the basics, proceed with face drawing. The secret of drawing a face is to look at features carefully, paying special attention to interlocking shapes in order to apply shadows and highlights in the right places. Next thing you need know, is learning of drawing heads. Soon, by daily practice, you’ll be an expert in drawing facial expressions, and combining elements in incredibly realistic portrait drawing having a lot to do with the character you are trying to recreate. Let us guide you through the process of drawing step by step: Drawing facesThe most difficult, yet most rewarding part of your drawing experience will be learning how to draw realistic faces, as this is something even experienced artists are struggling with. Our purpose here is to teach you how to make pencil portraits, where the steepest learning curve is of natural expressions. How to Draw the Head from Any Angle In this tutorial, you’ll see Andrew Loomis’s approach to drawing heads. It’s a great method for head drawing from various angles, learning the details of head proportions. How To Draw A Female Face: Step By Step There are many ways to draw. In this art video, the author shows some of the tricks he has discovered over the years that he uses in his own art and art teaching. Drawing, shading and blending a face How to Draw a Face Accurately – Exercises to Improve Your Drawing Learn how to draw with pencils with this guy’s step by step drawing tutorials. He’ll show you how to draw anything from beginning to the end, but especially a portrait reference. For some subjects like drawing animals, getting used with the basic shapes first is a useful practice. For human face drawing, the preferred method is of starting with the eye. But whatever the subject matter or method, he will always show you the easiest and most effective way how to draw realistic images. How to Draw a Pretty Face with Pencil Basic Anatomy for the Artist – Lesson 2 Drawing the Human Eye How to Draw Eyes How to Draw a mouth and teeth How to Draw a Realistic Eye How to draw ears Lackadaisy Expressions Facial Aging How to draw lips Eye-drawing tutorial Drawing a facial expressionFacial expressions are an important part of how to draw a human face experience. It helps to understand how people are feeling or what they want and expect you to do. The information they provide for drawing people is vital, the same as the experience artists glean by simply looking at random people. When learning how to draw face, the best source of inspiration is looking at people while they’re relaxing. Part of the process of how to draw a person step by step is letting them share their emotions with you, paying specific attention to every detail. It is considerably easy to understand how to draw a face when people are comfortable and keep theirs in a comfortable position. Besides, it is critical for them to look at you without a specific emotion so that you can pull out the perfect eye scratch, and translate every detail to the portrait sketch. As you can see, the basics of drawing a person are really simple. It takes only to ‘spice them up’ with a pinch of your own creativity, and you’ll have the best step-by-step drawings at your little finger. How to draw Various Expressions In this video you will see learn to draw 5 different types of expressions and the principles of creating these shapes. The author will also explain how the art of cartooning is perfect for learning how to sketch a face and various facial expressions. Facial Expressions in Comics: 10 Tips to Help You How to draw 4 types of facial expressions Drawing human bodyHow to draw the Human Figure – Body Construction tutorial How To Draw Characters in Perspective: Bird’s Eye View How to Draw Gesture Female body study Clothes study Clothing Tutorial Drawing handsDon’t worry about being unable to recreate hands and legs, as both are perceived to be the most difficult body parts to portray on a drawing or a sculpture. Keeping the focus on faces as the most challenging parts, we’d consider their connection to emotional states for the second position on our ‘difficulty list’. Part of the larger anatomy drawing tutorial, hands are the perfect tool to showcase fear, anger, serenity, resignation, or even surprise. These tutorials of how to learn to draw will also teach you to recreate the hand’s anatomy: you need to consider the basic bone framework first, and work around it with the right proportions for further drawing the muscles’ actions. Not an easy draw, anyway, but an important stage of the process of learning how to draw good. Draw arms and hands How to Draw HANDS and HAND POSES How to Draw Hands, 2 Different Ways How to Draw Hands – 5 Different Ways Tutorial: Drawing Hands Drawing Hands and Feet Basic Anatomy for the Artist – Lesson 6 Drawing hairDrawing hair won’t make the ‘human challenge’ any easier, and will be particularly intimidating for beginners already fighting hard to manage drawing the head techniques. Usually, some serious commitment to detail is required, which explains more or less why some artists gave up on their dream and preferred sloppy scribbles instead. Even for those who’re in the branch for years, drawing hair is still a daunting experience. That, however, is because they didn’t adopt the right approach to overcome their fears.
First and foremost, you have to make hair look shiny, which can be easily achieved by shadowing and highlighting certain parts with a wide loose pencil. Start with the lighter tones first, in order to reveal the structure. Once that’s done, proceed with the darker strips. Don’t be afraid to do strand by strand, even if it takes a lot of time, but it will help to maintain certain drawing proportions. Of course, we’re not saying each and every hair has to be depicted, rather that the hair needs to appear rich, crispy, and highlighted with light and mid tones in certain areas. An important rule you shouldn’t forget for completing your face drawing tutorial is avoiding too many dark tones, as they can affect the shine of the hair. You’ll be required to do some highlighting even when the hair of the original character is really dark, by simply applying more mid-tones than the ones usually used for lighter hair. In that case, you better stick to medium gray as the darkest tone you’re allowed to use. How to Draw Hair the Easy Way Emily’s Tutorials: How to draw realistic hair! Drawing hair demonstration Need tips on how to draw hair? The author is walking you through her tips for creating realistic hair texture. The tips apply no matter what medium you’re working in for drawing portraits. Detailed Hair part 1 Hair drawing tutorial Drawing animalsDrawing animals is as challenging as drawing people, even more, if you may think you’re less familiar with them than you are with human nature. Once again, there will be a variety of lifelike reproduction details to pay attention to, and a large effort to make the drawing unique instead of simply duplicating someone’s previous work. Luckily, there are many animal-inspired artists and admirers who prepare in-depth tutorials and provide rich illustrations teach you how to recreate these charming creatures in easy realistic drawings. How to Draw Animals Dog portrait Drawing caricaturesHow to Draw Caricatures: The 5 Shapes How to Draw Caricatures: Head Shapes The post The Best Drawing Tutorials: Learn How To Draw appeared first on Design your way. from http://www.designyourway.net/blog/resources/tutorials/drawing/the-most-comprehensive-drawing-tutorials-collection/
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You came here for some really cool CSS text effects that will help you make amazing web typography for your websites. In order to successfully give a website a look that is more visually impressive, designers always concentrate on placing more emphasis upon typography that is both stylish and neat in nature. These same designers used to depend upon programs such as Photoshop to accomplish this; however, since CSS3 was implemented and supported by most browsers, things changed a lot. You should already be seeing advanced CSS font effects on various modern websites. These kinds of effects are becoming very popular very quickly in terms of becoming a great trend in web design. These can also be achieved with pure CSS, which is perhaps the greatest thing about these kinds of web typography effects. CSS3 is considered to be a true revolution when it comes to web development. The new properties contained in CSS3 allow developers to visually enhance their designs in such a way that is not only impressive in a visual sense, but is also quick and easy. Web typography is one major thing that has dramatically changed with CSS3. You can make your design look attractive with typography and make everything visually appealing. When it comes to web design, CSS will help you to obtain many different font effects, including using such effects as animation and clipping to spice things up a bit. To help further illustrate this, we’ve put together a list of effects that are visually stunning and beautiful, all of which are made possible through CSS, and some of them with a little bit of Javascript as well. CSS text effects to use in your projectsElastic stroke CSS + SVGThe first one of these cool CSS text effects comes from Yoksel. She chose an amazing color scheme for this beautiful CSS text animation. Text animationThe second one of these CSS text effects is from Yoann Helin. He created in CSS this effect that you may have seen on a lot of portfolio and presentation websites. COSMOSWhile this CSS text effect isn’t the most useful one, it still is impressive. Here’s what the author used:
Loading CSS text effectCSS Text filling with waterThe next one of these CSS text effects is a text filling with water animation, for preloaders and such. Squiggly Text ExperimentYet another cool CSS text effect. This is a Squiggly text experiment created with SVG Filters by Lucas Bebber. Animated HeadlinesA collection of animated headlines, with interchangeable words that replace one another through CSS transitions. CSS3 text-shadow effectsOpening typeFoggy text effectCinematic intro text effect (Webkit only – text mask). This is experimental, but still had to include it among these CSS effects. SVG text maskAnimated signing of signature (SVG paths)Use this pen to animate writing a signature with SVG stroke-dashoffset/stroke-dasharray and CSS transitions. SVG GlitchVintage Typography-webkit-background-clip:text CSS effectUse -webkit-background-clip: text and -webkit-fill-text-color : transparent to apply a background to a text on webkit browser. Set a color fallback for other browser. 3D CSS TypographyRenders best in Chrome. This technique does work in Firefox, but text stroke is not supported. Colorful Glitchy 404Hit The Floor Text EffectSlashed CSS EffectCSS Dashed ShadowYou should also check out these articles:
The post CSS Text Effects – 20 Cool and Amazing Examples appeared first on Design your way. from http://www.designyourway.net/blog/web-and-mobile-design/yes-you-can-actually-make-these-text-effects-in-css/ Branding has become incredibly important these days and one of the most effective forms of branding have been animal logo designs. What does branding mean in this day and age of social media? Branding is the way you build your organization’s identity and expression. Branding creates a look that consumers instantly recognize across multiple platforms. It is the way your company expresses its key values, whether they are selling quality products for home improvement or funding a charity for homeless pets. Branding also serves to unify everything your organization does under one aesthetic banner. Using branding well means that your packaging and your ads all share a common look and feel, allowing customers to easily tie them together with a glance. Branding should be a comprehensive aesthetic plan for all your organization’s products and advertising, from letterheads to web banner ads. A key part of branding is your logo. Logos can be placed on everything, from packaging to conference freebies to ads. A well-designed logo is very important to building your brand and leaving a lasting impact on culture. It may be the only thing you can use to identify an object or piece of media with your organization, so it should be almost instantaneously recognizable, complex enough to be interesting, but simple enough to mentally process quickly. An animal logo is a great way to accomplish these important goals of logo design. Animal logo design stretches back into the mists of history. Images of animals have been used to identify individuals and ideas for a very long time. Most medieval heraldry, especially the most recognizable forms of medieval heraldry, feature animals, usually ones that symbolized courage, strength, compassion, or some other highly valued virtue. Going back even further, think of the prevalence of animal symbols in Ancient Egypt, where the animals were the symbols of particular gods that ruled over every domain of existence. You can see animal symbolism—in essence, animal logo design—in every culture across the world and throughout history. An animal logo can carry a lot of meaning, even in a highly simplified form. Because of this, it’s important to put a lot of thought into your animal logos. Some animals, like eagles, generally have a positive or noble connotation around the world, but others, like pigs or dogs, mean different things in different places, some good, some bad. Over time, with the use of many similar animal logos, some animal symbols have developed a certain meaning across the globe, like horses have, for instance. Understanding your target audience and the way their culture perceives certain animals is very important for good animal logo design. This guide to animal logos is here to help you create compelling, effective animal logo designs for your organization. We’ll explore different core concepts, look at some famous animal logos, and look at what different animals mean to different cultures. Good animal logo ideas can go a long way in helping you develop a great brand that sticks with people for years to come. Good Animal Logo Ideas and GuidelinesChoose the Right CharacterFigure out what you want your animal logo to say about your brand. For instance, if you’re trying to sell dietary supplements for serious weightlifters, you want to convey that your product will help them become stronger. A mouse is probably not the best choice for an animal logo. You should choose an animal associated with strength, like an elephant, tiger, or bear. Animal logos are essentially metaphors. Use lions for royalty, horses for speed, swans for elegance, owls for wisdom, and foxes for intelligence, just to give you a few examples. Now, if you are clever and good with design, you can figure out a smart way to subvert type. For our dietary supplement example, say your logo is a brawny cartoon mouse instead of a roaring tiger. This can be risky, as it can come across as hokey. The rest of your branding should match. Sometimes people appreciate the juxtaposition and unexpectedness of this animal logo symbolism subversion, sometimes they just think it’s silly. Researching your target audience and understanding how they think is key here. It’s helpful if your product’s name or history lend themselves to the odd choice of animal logo. Think BigRemember that your animal logo will become the symbol of the brand. It should be easy to apply in a wide range of ways. Depending on what you’re selling, you may want to eventually (or even immediately) use the animal in your logo as a mascot. This could be an animated mascot in ads or even one that involves having someone dress up in a mascot suit at events. Some animals are easier to make appealing this way than others. Swans, for instance, make for very elegant logos, but dressing someone up in a swan costume will most likely just make them look like a white duck. You should also apply the same sort of thinking to plush animals and toys if that will be a possibility for your branding campaign. Again, some animals are better for this than others. Very few children like plush ants being handed out at major sporting events, though more will be okay with plush butterflies or dogs. Use the Right Design StyleShould your animal logo be cartoony or detailed? Should it have a sketch-like abstract quality or be more realistic? This all depends on what you want the animal logo to say about your organization. If you’re selling cereal to families, a cartoon style may be the best choice. If you’re marketing a healthy yogurt to women, an elegant, sketch-like design is probably a better fit. Much like the animal you use in the logo design, the style of the animal logo will say a lot about what your product is about. Choose the Right Typeface and ColorsAnimal logos can be identified without text, but for most of them, the text is a key component of their design. The font you choose to use for this text is very important. A cartoon dog cereal mascot will go better with a fun and playful typeface, while a tiger on an energy drink looks better with an aggressive one. You can, of course, subvert expectations, as you can with the animal you use in your logo, but this must likewise be done cautiously. Whatever font you use, make sure it is legible, especially for your brand’s name. Make sure people can see the name and any other important information, like the flavor or brand motto, clearly from a distance. Color is equally as important. Like animals, colors carry a lot of significance. Red is passionate, while blue is typically calming. Green is associated with nature. Think though colors carefully and try different color schemes out for your logo to see what works best. If part of your branding is having different colors for different kinds of products—blue for a blueberry flavor, for instance, and yellow for a banana flavor, make sure your logo looks good in or at least on top of these colors. Always check to see that the color or your logo work well in combination with the design. Some color and design combinations can be unpleasant for some people to look at. A Look at Successful Animal LogosOnce you start thinking about it, you’ll be able to name all sorts of wildly successful animal logo designs. Most of them are used for brands and products that don’t actually have anything to do with the animals being used or animals at all. Instead, they communicate ideas quickly and with the right sense of elegance, fun, or emotional power that the brand needs. Let’s take a closer look at some famous animal logos so you can see what makes for good animal logo ideas. Ferrari: The Prancing HorseThe Old World elegance of the Ferrari logo is hard to miss. One look at it on the front of a sports car and you know that this is a well-made, luxurious, and fast vehicle. The logo itself is quite simple. It features a prancing black stallion on a yellow background. It originated from Paulina Barracca, the mother of World War I flying ace Francesco Barracca, who died in 1918. She suggested that Enzo Ferrari, one of the key figures in the company’s founding, that he should sue they prancing horse symbol for good luck on the front of his racecar. It has remained virtually the same since then and for good reason. The prancing stallion communicated the speed, ferocity, and untamable nature of the cars that Ferrari sells. Jaguar: The Wild CatJaguar is a British company that creates luxury cars. The company is known for its sophistication and style, making their products highly sought after. Their famous sleek pouncing jaguar logo was first used in 1945. It’s meant to communicate the company’s core values, the ones that go into all of its car designs: grace, power, and ambition. A second variation of the logo also exists, a round emblem featuring the face of a jaguar. This is a more recent introduction and is used together with the more well-known pouncing cat logo. Lamborghini: The TaurusLamborghini is often regarded as the rival of fellow Italian car manufacturer Ferrari. Their charging gold bull emblem, highlighted on a black field, bears many resemblances to the Ferrari horse. It conveys power, speed, ambition, masculinity, and strength. Lamborghini adopted the bull because its founder Ferruccio Lamborghini was both a fan of the Spanish Corrida and also has Taurus as his astrological sign. It is held that he choose the emblem also as a way to promote competition with his rival Ferrari. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer: Leo the LionThe familiar lion of MGM has been in used since 1924, as silent films began to be phased out in favor of the “talkies”. The company has used the footage of many individual lions for their titles. The current footage of the lion Leo has been in use since 1957, the longest of them all. MGM’s lion is all over anything associated with them, including their Las Vegas casino, where two massive lions sit outside the main entrance. It communicates power and nobility. The roaring lion instantly grabs your attention and is debatably the most iconic film title image. Animal Planet: The Elephant (the old logo)Animal Planet is a spin-off from (and is owned by)the Discovery Channel. It’s a great way to be entertained by animals while learning more about them. It has a huge international following and does quite a bit for conservation. From the channel’s start in 1996 up until 2008, Animal Planet used an elephant for their logo. Elephants convey dignity, loyalty, strength, and even a sense of intelligent playfulness. In 2008, they replaced the elephant by switching the M in their name for a number of different animals. Still, the elephant was an incredibly successful logo, lasting 12 years and helping them become incredibly popular. WWF (World Wildlife Fund or World Wide Fund for Nature): The PandaThe World Wildlife Fund is an organization that works to protect nature around the globe. They have has a panda bear named Chi Chi as their symbol since their founding in 1966. At the time, Chi Chi was the only panda living in the western hemisphere. Pandas instantly grab your attention, thanks to their coloration and cuteness. They’re a well-known vulnerable species, making a panda animal logo a good fit for an organization that’s all about conservation. Everyone knows, from small children to elderly adults, that pandas are extremely endangered and need our help. The logo itself is simple and tasteful. Because it is only a black and white image, it is easy to remember and use in many different places. There have been several iterations of it over the years, but they have been quite similar to the original animal logo used in 1966. Nestle: The Little NestNestle is possibly the largest food and drink company on the planet. It was founded in 1866 by Henri Nestle. The original animal logo, that of a bird tending to its nest and baby chicks, came into use in 1875. This logo became the basis of the one used today. The first draft of it looked more like a crest and looks little like the familiar one we all know. It has seen several iterations but retained the same core idea over the years. This bird’s nest and caring parent remind people of compassion, safety, and coziness, a great set of values for a food company to convey. Lacoste: The CrocodileLacoste is a French clothing, perfume, and footwear company that was established in 1933. You can find their Croc logo on everything Lacoste makes, including shoes, polos, leather goods, and sportswear. This famous little emblem comes from a story about Rene Lacoste. He was a tennis player. Ten years before the company was founded, he made a bet with his tennis team’s captain about a crocodile suitcase. If Lacoste had won, he would have been given the brand new suitcase. He didn’t, but a journalist heard of the bet and referred to Lacoste’s tennis performance as “fighting like a true crocodile” in an article. This got stuck to Lacoste from then on, becoming a new nickname and a personal symbol, eventually carrying over to his company. Recently, Lacoste replaced their Croc with endangered animals for a limited run of polos where the profits went to conservation. Twitter: The BirdTwitter started using the first version of its bluebird mascot in 2010. The current version came into use in 2012. It’s immediately recognizable. If you see the bird, you don’t even need to see the company’s name. You know it’s Twitter. You know that if you click on the little bird logo, you can share the webpage you’re looking at on Twitter. This animal logo is a very simple, which is part of its effectiveness. It’s a simple, pale blue silhouette of a bird that looks similar to a mountain bluebird. As you can see, you don’t need to create an elaborate animal logo to create a great animal logo. Animal Logo Symbolism across CulturesDifferent cultures use animals in different ways. We are all familiar with the way the lion is used to represent courage, or the swan is used to represent elegance. These images are very common and have become almost universal thanks to our global economy and ease of communication. However, don’t think you’re caught using the same old animal logos for your brand. Reach out to different cultures to find fresh ideas and a new understanding of symbolism. This is a great way to find inspiration for animal logo design, especially when it feels like all the great ideas have been done before. Let’s take a look at the way two very different cultures, Celtic and Chinese, regard different animal symbols. Celtic Animal Symbols
Unlike in more traditional uses, the snake is not merely a symbol of danger or deceit in Celtic culture. Instead, snakes and serpent represented the process of creation, including fertility, rebirth, and healing. They also stood for the connection between rivers and seas, as well as the connection between the heavens and the earth. The Celtic serpent was the protector if the entrance to the Otherworld. It also acted as a companion to the gods. Because snakes shed their skin once a year, they were also considered to symbolize the cyclical nature of life. The Ouroboros is a particular kind of Celtic serpent. This is the image of a snake holding its own tail in its mouth, often looking like it is eating itself. It was used to symbolize the coiled energy within the earth as well as a symbol of infinity. The Ouroboros is at once a morbid symbol, symbolizing the end of the world, and a symbol of rebirth.
Celtic nobles often used the horse as a symbol in battle. These horses were considered the companions of the gods, known for their vitality, speed, beauty, and fertility. They also symbolized healing, rejuvenation, development, and life in motion. A man who could seize the reins of the horse goddesses Macha and Epona was a powerful one who controlled great forces. Celtic horses also held the same meanings as these goddesses, namely mystery night, and magic. We take the term nightmare from the word mare, a female horse. The Celts thought that nightmares were brought to sleeping people by a mystical horse sent by the goddess’ Mare or Epona. Horses were both adored and frequently sacrificed by the Celts due to their close relationship to the land. Massive Celtic carvings of horses are found on cliffs and artifacts all over Europe.
According to Celtic myths, the deer is the oldest creature in the world. The stag was especially associated with the horned god of hunting and nature, Cernnunos. Does, on the other hand, were associated with woodland goddesses like Flidais and Saba. Deer were thought to represent abundance, fertility, and renewal. Antlers were often associated with trees. They were used in many druidic ceremonies related to the sowing and harvesting of grain. White stags were extremely significant, a tradition of symbolism that has survived in many modern stories. These white stags were common in Celtic sagas, poetry, and lore. They came from the Otherworld and would appear before a major change in the lives of the characters in the story
Hounds were very important to the Celts. They were sacred to the faeries of both Scotland and Ireland, making them animals that were very highly regarded. Hounds were faithful protectors and symbols of loyalty, devotion, and unwavering faith- -much as dogs are seen today.
The wild cousin of the hound, the wolf stood for learning and deep intuition. It could also represent strength and ferocity since wolves were real dangers to the Celts throughout Europe. This representation as common in battle.
Both crows and ravens were associated with death, since they were common sights around occurrences of mass death, such as battlefields. Ravens, in particular, were used by druids for augury, the ancient form of fortune telling using the flight of birds that was used in several cultures across the world. They were also thought to be Celtic gods incarnate when they flew over battlefields.
In much the way they are seen today, the Celts regarded eagles as symbols of nobility. They also were associated with death.
Peacocks were regarded as symbols of purity by the Celts.
Cranes were common Celtic symbols. This is because many heroes and deities were turned into cranes. They were seen to represent apparent but not true chance. They were often regarded as signs of punishment for deception.
The heron is similar to the crane, but the Celts did not see it as having the same meanings. Herons mate for life and were used on Celtic wedding bands as signs of devotion and commitment.
More commonly known as the Eurasian blackbird, the ouzel is a kind of thrush known for dark coloration of the males of the species. The Celts regarded it as a protector symbol. It might be small, but it fiercely defended itself and its flock.
The salmon was seen as a symbol of knowledge, thanks to the long journey that they complete over the course of their lives, from freshwater to the ocean and back again. They were also tied to deep emotions and sacred ancient mysteries. Chinese Animal Symbols
In Chinese culture, the butterfly represents love, especially young love. They happily float along from flower to flower. They are a symbol of a happy social life for both the young and young at heart. In Chinese legend, the butterfly is often used as a symbol of the undying bond between lovers. Butterflies are also symbols of Yang energy that can energize people and their loved ones.
Crabs are symbols of prosperity and status. This is because the Chinese word referring to a crab shell is a pun on the highest score a candidate could get on the Chinese Imperial Exams. Two crabs together stand for the first and second scores of the Exams.
The Crane is held to be the prince of all feathered animals on earth. It is the second most popular Chinese bird symbols, second only to the Phoenix. Cranes are symbols of longevity, thanks to their actual long lifespan. In several legends, spirits ride on cranes. They are also held to carry the souls of the dead to the heavens.
As their color and name suggest, goldfish are associated with wealth and abundance. They are very popular symbols in Chinese culture. One of the most popular images used during the Chinese New Year is one of a child holding a goldfish and a lotus flower to bring both wealth and harmony. Goldfish are commonly embroidered on bags and clothing as a way to bring abundance and wealth into your life.
The Horse is the seventh animal in the Chinese Zodiac. It stands for loyalty, endurance, and purity to the Buddhist way. It is also used as a symbol of swift advancement in rank and recognition of strength.
The magpie is the Chinese bird of joy. In Chinese culture, it is thought that when a magpie in your house, it brings many reasons for celebration and other happy times. Magpies are used by those who want to settle down since magpies are thought to attract nesting and settling energies. They also attract the joy associated with children and marriage.
The Phoenix is thought to be the kind of all winged creatures. It is regarded as a symbol of good luck, opportunity, and fortune. It is also a symbol of strength and resilience since it rises from its own ashes to soar to heavenly heights. Along, the Phoenix is a Yang symbol, due to its association with the four winds and fire energy. When featured with a dragon, it represents Yin energy. The Phoenix is a representative of the five human qualities of good cosmic energy, or Chi: Virtue, Duty, Alignment, Compassion, and Loyalty.
Roosters are symbols of the desire for advancement. The rooster’s crest is called guan, which is a play on the Chinese word meaning government official. They’re also considered auspicious animals that are capable of warding off evil spirits. In legend, the Heavenly Rooster of Dusu Mountain crowed loudly and made all the other roosters in the world crow along with it. This great wall of sound scared evil spirits away.
The Tiger is a Chinese symbol of dignity, ferocity, sternness, and courage. Used on its own, it is a symbol of Yin energy. It is also a symbol of protection. Tigers are often featured on clothing or as home décor to ward off harm and ensure the people or places are safe. In certain parts of China and other areas of Asia, the tiger if a god of wealth. The Chinese god of wealth, Tsai Shen Yeh, is shown sitting on a tiger. This image stands for the supremacy of intangible forces and the ability to harness the power the tiger represents in a person’s life. Ending thoughts on designing an animal logoAnimal logos can be a very helpful form of branding. There is an almost unlimited number of ways to create them. With careful thought, you can create an animal logo that is known across the world for generations. If you enjoyed reading this article about animal logo designs, you should read these as well:
The post Animal logo design ideas and guidelines to create one appeared first on Design your way. from http://www.designyourway.net/blog/graphic-design/animal-logo-design/ If you want to showcase your skills out to the world, the book illustration niche is a great option. You might think that becoming a book illustrator is easy, but you’d be wrong. The book illustration industry is a pretty competitive one. However, if you don’t mind a few late nights, and putting up with a few rejections here and there, you might find yourself earning a book illustrator salary before you realize it. Book illustration? What is it?Knowing how to draw books is a tricky thing, and book illustration is actually considered a form of fine art. It is basically the art of making images and pictures, drawn, for books. What you should know is that an illustration isn’t just a pretty picture and working in the arts requires skill as you need to enhance or add to the story in one way or another. Generally, you’ll often find illustrations in children’s book. Book illustrators can even make a book completely out of pictures too. These pictures will do more than just add visual appeal for a kid, but they’ll also help the kid understand what the story means. As the child progresses and understands more, they’ll begin focusing on stories that have less illustrations. Illustrations are also a great way to see steps of a particular process in an adult’s book. You’ll often find them in adult books, such as health and medical books, as well as nature and wildlife books too. In order to be able to present things well to an adult, you’ll need to know how to illustrate well, though. The work environment of an illustratorAn illustrator is a professional that creates illustrations and drawings. The images that such a person creates will convey the messages and ideas of the book, and will help a lot in bringing the stories to life. Many illustrators choose to focus in a specific type of book, such as a genre or a picture book. Some may even write the books that they’re illustrating, but they commonly just add illustrations to the existing manuscripts. During the illustration, an illustrator often works directly with the book’s author. However, it sometimes happens that the two never actually meet. Instead, the illustrator is contacted by the publisher or the editor, and he must be able to read and interpret the story, and then use their imagination when he’s doing the illustrations. There are a few methods that an illustrator might refer to. Traditional ones use paint, pencils, or other traditional mediums. Others, though, focus on the modern approach and use computer software that gives them a lot of versatility. Generally speaking, an illustrator should be an artistic individual. He should have advanced painting or drawing skill, and he should be a very creative individual with an imagination that knows no limits, as he’s the one that comes up with unique illustrations. If he’s the author of his book as well, he should also have great writing skills. If he’s not, he only needs to be able to interpret and understand the text that the book’s author already wrote. What about education requirements?An illustrator doesn’t always need to be formally educated. However, if someone is determined to work as one, they commonly go to an art school which helps a lot with fine tuning their skills. There are art schools that offer degree programs that directly concern book illustration, but you may also opt for a graphic design or drawing program as well. What kind of job outlook and salary are we talking about?The majority of people who work as a book illustrator are freelancers. They use their portfolios and show them to editors, authors, publishers in order to get work. There’s sometimes the case of a publisher hiring an illustrator as an employee, but this doesn’t happen very often. As far as salary goes, an illustrator may receive compensation in more than one way. Most get a sum for each project, but sometimes they may also receive royalties. Regardless, a book illustration career can be pretty lucrative if you’re a talented individual. The average annual salary is around $50 to $55 thousand dollars, but there are many illustrators that are very talented and can make a lot more. Traditional media vs the digital mediaIf you’re to ask which medium is better, that’s actually a trick question. This is, as mentioned earlier, a personal preference. The difference is mostly made by the skill level, not the tools you use. And the great thing about illustrative work is that you aren’t really limited in terms of the mediums you choose to use and combine. The trick behind making a good illustrationRegardless of the shapes, colors and textures, a good illustration must have some sort of intention. If you have an illustration that doesn’t have a function, doesn’t have a purpose, and just looks like it was thrown together, this makes it look very unprofessional. You have to understand what your client is trying to achieve and incorporate that in the illustration. A good illustration will also require a lot of practice. And by a lot, I do mean a lot. If you practice your art skills, this will make a world of difference to the final result, and it’s something that your coworkers, clients and supervisors will notice as well. You’ll need a list of referencesIf you’re working as an illustrator, you’ll need a good list of references. If you want to keep your skills fresh, it’s essential that you research various artists and their styles, as well as practices and cultures. If you only limit yourself to creating art that you feel comfortable with, you can’t improve on your skills and get better. Ask for feedbackSure, your friends might not all be artists, but they should have a good idea on what looks good and what doesn’t. Make use of this, and ask them to be your extra pair of eyes. They’ll give you a different perspective on what you’re working on, and this will help you add those finishing touches to your work and make it look stunning. You will never not need a different point of view if you want to improve and get better. However, you can’t just let anyone look at the work – having too many people do this will just be confusing. Don’t neglect networkingYou might hate the word and what it means, but it will get you work. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, around 70% of all jobs are actually found this way. It will put you in touch with all sorts of useful people, and you’ll also get a break from working on your own, meaning you’ll come back with some fresh ideas. Make sure your color palettes are good, and the backgrounds are consistentIf you have a setting that is in the same place, the color palette is best kept the same. However, if the text requires a change, go for it. When you’re aiming for continuity, you should also keep an eye out for the backgrounds. Even if the characters change, or their actions change, the backgrounds often remain more or less the same. However, if you do need to convey movement, the best way is to put yourself in the scene. Consider what you’d be seeing, or not seeing, if you moved where the story’s direction tells you to. If there’s a stationary object that you need to keep, make sure it’s recognizable, even though you’ve changed the angle. This helps a lot for continuity, and how cohesive the book is overall. Ending thoughts on a book illustrationThere isn’t a specific way of making a great illustration. However, there are more than a few good practices that you can keep in mind. Being a good illustrator is something that requires skill, but it’s a trustworthy and well-thought-out process that leads to awesome illustrations. If you enjoyed reading this article about book illustration, you should read these as well:
The post Book Illustration Examples: How To Draw Books Like A Pro appeared first on Design your way. from http://www.designyourway.net/blog/graphic-design/book-illustration/ When you work for others your time is important. When you run your own business, it is even more so. In either case, your time must be carefully apportioned. What you do with it can determine your salary or the success of your business. This is why you rely on scheduling tools, calendar apps, and the like. What you need most, however, is a time tracking app. It can help you determine how much time you spend on a task and tell you how much time you’ve spent on various activities. You also want to save time when doing certain tasks. This is where advanced invoicing software tools come into play. These tools do more than simply replace pen and paper to prepare an invoice. They track and account for fees, taxes, payments, manage expenses, and more. Since finding the best apps can be a challenge, we’re here to help. FreshBooksFreshBooks is designed for service-based small businesses looking for a painless way to bill for their time and services. It is ridiculously easy to use, and so effective at what it does that most users have sent their first invoice almost immediately upon starting the free trial. FreshBooks also handles your time-tracking needs, helps manage your expenses, and simplifies your collaboration with contractors. A *New* Proposal capability helps you set up and present a project outline, timeline, and scope of work. FreshBooks will track your expenses, including receipts photographed with your mobile phone. It takes only 30 seconds to create and send a customized invoice; and you will be notified when the recipient sees it. When you create and send an invoice, you’ll have a record of the time it took and when you did it. Try FreshBooks free of charge for 30 days. You can plan on saving an average of 16 hours a month. There’s no learning curve, and should you have a question, FreshBooks’ award-winning customer service team is there to help. Jibble.ioJibble.io is a time and attendance tracking application for teams. This cloud-based app’s basic plan is free and can serve an unlimited number of users. The free plan includes up to two months of stored timesheet access, access to multiple system integrations, usage of collaboration powerups, and priority support. Jibble provides daily timesheets as well as weekly and monthly timesheets to support payroll reviews and activities. These timesheets can be exported and downloaded in a spreadsheet format to support accounting needs. Jibble will also produce personal timesheets that can include staff member entries. Average daily and weekly employee hours can be tracked and reported (including clocking in and out times with alerts if a time is missing). Jibble integrates with Slack and numerous other applications. The iOS feature allows team managers at a remote location to see who is on site. Jibble’s collaboration power-up feature helps team managers assign roles to team members and can cover multiple projects. Collaboration security features include the use of pass codes and/or biometric data such as selfies. Invoice PlaneInvoice Plane is a free, self-hosted, open source application. We suggest taking advantage of the demo to help you decide whether to download. This app is an ideal solution for your basic invoicing and client management needs. Its design team targeted freelancers, self-employed individuals, and small to medium size companies in need of a reliable and easy to use invoicing system as the app’s primary beneficiaries. Invoice Plane assists in managing your complete billing cycle, including quotes, clients, invoices, and payments. A selection of different themes and formats allows you to customize the application to best fit your needs. Invoice Plane is a multi-language app (with more languages on the way) and provides access to 25 online payment providers. We suggest you try it out before installing it on your own server. AND CO from FiverrAND CO by Fiverr is completely and totally free and super simple to use. No credit card required, no free trial, just sign up and go! It’s available on the Web, Android, and iOS. This time tracking and invoicing app is already in use by 100,000+ businesses worldwide. It is ideal for freelancers and creative studios. AND CO’s other features include expense tracking, task management, proposal generation assistance, and much more. TimeCampThis time and attendance tracking app is so easy to work with that members of your team will use and benefit from it. TimeCamp can be used on any device, you can try it for free; and if you’re a busy freelancer or individual user of any kind, the SOLO package is totally free. TimeCamp boasts of more than 120,000 users. 24/7 livechat support is available. MinterappMinterapp makes it easy to track the time you spend on projects, so you will have a better understanding of your profits. You can easily track billable hours and convert the results into invoices that can be paid online. This time-tracking tool is ideal for startups and small businesses. Minterapp can be used to send estimates as well as invoices. HiveageThis small business invoicing tool is designed to help your business grow. In addition to billing, Hiveage will help prepare quotations for your clients, get their acceptance online, and manage payments through more than a dozen worldwide payment gateways. Billing can be done manually, automatically, and by auto-billing. Hiveage can easily support multiple projects. Invoice NinjaInvoice Ninja is comprised of a suite of apps that were created especially for freelancers. Ninja offers a free online invoicing app, a free proposal creating tool and template, free time-tracking apps (Webapp and Deskapp), and Kanban boards to help you manage your projects. Ninja also integrates with more than 40 payment gateways. ScoroScoro is the most comprehensive business management software package available for those providing professional or creative services. It will track actual and billable hours and transfer the latter to an invoice. The shared team calendar displays what team members are working on. Scoro also provides a comprehensive overview of any project; on demand and on a single page. The overview, as displayed on the dashboard, shows time spent and billed, planned tasks, meetings, project expenses and invoices. ConclusionLarge company, medium to small business, agency, or freelancer; there’s the right app for you. Select an app that focuses on tracking time, tracking people (time and/or whereabouts), or both. You may need one that tracks billable hours and automatically creates an invoice. Or, maybe, the one that automates the entire invoicing process. It’s simply a matter of finding an app that best fits your business model or can be easily customized to do so. The post Which of these Top Invoicing and Time Management Apps do you use? appeared first on Design your way. from http://www.designyourway.net/blog/resources/invoicing-time-apps-2018/ Advertising jobs are in high demand these days. There are so many products and services and so many ways to get them to customers that they key thing is finding a way to make sure customers know about your product and know what about it is worth their hard earned cash. If you pursue a career in advertising, you’ll be working on how to do so. Figuring out how to get a job in advertising can be difficult. The field is highly competitive and a lot of people have realized that their skills and interests lend themselves to an advertising career path, just like you have. There are entire schools that have dedicated themselves to training people in the skills they need to work in jobs in advertising, including art directors, copywriters, and account teams. Many graduates of these school have highly polished portfolios tailored to get them advertising agency jobs at some of the best ad agencies in the world. Those ad agencies also get hundreds of applications from around the world, usually for just one or two open positions. What can you do to make yourself stand out and land some of these great ad agency jobs? What can you do to hold your own in this highly competitive field? Look for Other Opportunities In-houseThere is a lot of focus on how to get a job at an ad agency, but what’s actually more important is figuring out how to get into advertising. Ad agencies aren’t the only way to go, especially not if you’re starting out in a career in advertising. Try another route. Look into the client-side of things. Many major advertisers also have in-house design departments or agencies that do a lot of advertising work. This sort of experience, in this sort of environment, is a great way to learn about how to work in advertising. It can also help make your resume more appealing to ad agencies later on down the line. These environments are quickly changing, thanks to the ever-shifting digital sphere and its considerable (and growing) influence on the advertising world. Some of the companies that used to go to ad agencies now handle their advertising communications because they feel they can do it better in response to rapid shifts. This is often the case with social media campaigns, for instance. Remember, the more rapidly changing the environment, the more opportunities there will be for you to show you can shine. Learn About the Latest News and Trends in the Communications WorldYou don’t need to have a degree or formal study to figure out how to get a job at an advertising agency. Degrees are all good and well, but what ad agencies really want is someone who has great communication skills, determination, and a powerful passion for the communications world. Keep up to date on trends and tech developments that influence advertising and communications. Look into who the major agencies out there are and what they’re up to. Sign up for RSS feeds featuring agency news. Work on Soft SkillsAdvertising is a people business, so knowing how to communicate with others is important. This is especially true during the often highly competitive interview process. Also, remember that you are going to be working with a team of people, as well as whole other teams of people who don’t know one single thing about advertising. You need to know how to manage as a part of a group, as both a leader and a follower. Learn how to manage interpersonal conflict in a professional way. Figure out how to communicate with people whose skills are very different from your own and have no automatic understanding of why you need certain information. Learn the Different Roles within AgenciesTake the time to understand what the different departments in an ad agency do. Learn what kind of roles are in a career in advertising and how they all interact with each other. Advertising is a complex business with a lot of moving parts. The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) is a good place to start learning. Stating that you “just want a job in an advertising agency” is not really going to sell you to the company. It’s hard to dins a place for someone saying that. Also look into regional publicity organizations. They will hold both free and paid events for you to learn more about the field. They also make for some great networking opportunities. Stand OutYou need to make sure you stand out head and shoulders above the rest. As we said earlier, competition is very fierce for advertising jobs. Your experience, content, presentation, and delivery should all shine. Make sure your CV is easy and even enjoyable to read. Keep your resume updated and smart. Consider developing a microsite for yourself. Use it to show off just how passionate you are about this industry. Display your creativity and let interest parties see just how willing you are to go the extra mile. Employers are not used to this sort of clear, intelligent dedication. It can and likely will make a big difference in the outcome of the interview process provided you have the hard and soft skills to back it up. Don’t Get Scared of RejectionNot to be too repetitive, but adverting is a highly competitive field. Very, very highly competitive. If at first you don’t succeed at landing one of those advertising jobs, try again. And again and again and again if you need to. Agencies like persistence. When an ad agency says no, figure out how to let them know that you’ll be around tomorrow. The only way these busy organizations will remember is if you remind them. They’ll also make note of how persistent and passionate you are. Go Meet PeopleWith all our ways of connecting on the internet that we have within arm’s reach, it’s easy to forget how important it can be to connect with people face-to-face. Learning what you can is good. Staying up to date on the latest advertising industry news and trends is important. But none of that can replace simply going out to chat with people and develop real relationships. The more often you can do this, the more likely you are to come to their minds when they think of a new entry-level advertising job opening in their company. You’ll also develop a better understanding of how they think and the kind of skills they’re looking for. While it does seem like a challenge to meet people face-to-face in this era of social media, it’s actually quite doable. Maintain a Twitter account and a topical blog. This is a great way to connect with like-minded people, including local ones. From there you can meet up for coffee and start building relationships that you’ll need to get one of those great advertising jobs. What Kinds of Qualifications Are Helpful For Getting a Job in Advertising?While academic study can be helpful for getting an advertising job, it’s not an absolute necessity. You can work in the field even if you didn’t study it formally. Agencies often want a wide range of people and skill sets. You will need to be determined to succeed and have absolutely excellent communications skills. Make sure you do your homework about the advertising industry. As stated before, advertising agency RSS feeds are a great way to help with this, allowing you to learn the latest industry trends and news. You also need to use this info to form your own opinion. This is a really useful thing to do for an interview. While you don’t need a college diploma in a relevant field to do well in the advertising agency, industry-related certifications do help. For example, the Bing Advertising Certificate exam is easily done online, demonstrates your commitment to the industry, and it’s free. You could also take the Google Analytics Individual Qualification to demonstrate that you are proficient in understanding and interpreting e-marketing data, something that is increasingly crucial in advertising jobs. Get More ExperienceExperience always sells well. Look into an internship. What you learn in an internship can be worth its weight in gold. This can be hard to obtain for people brand new to advertising, however. Look into national or local advertising organizations to see how you can get work in the industry and grow your experience. Look into networking events, as well. Sometimes people will warm to you and offer you a chance you never expected. Even if that doesn’t happen, you can learn a lot and get your name out there. Also, don’t forget to keep honing your skills. Create a Plan and Keep to ItOne of the most important things you can do is develop your plan for getting one of the many jobs in advertising there are out there. Figure out what you need to learn, who you need to follow, and what makes you unique and worthwhile as an advertising hire. It’s not enough to just say that you’re interested in advertising. You need to be able to connect your experience to what you can do in the advertising industry in a way that’s all your own. The only way you will be able to land that dream job is to make yourself stand out. How Does the Advertising Industry Work?Understanding how ad agencies work will help you create a plan and follow it through. Most gigantic companies have their in-house marketing and advertising teams. These teams handle a very large portion of their projects. However, they can’t do it all. Portions of their workload get hired out to assorted ad agencies. Small to medium agencies offer a great place to start in an entry-level advertising job. Their size means you will get a chance to do things that you aren’t likely to be doing at a larger agency. Your role in those larger organizations will be much more specialized, which can limit professional development. What Are the Options for internships in the Advertising Industry?
Ending thoughts on looking for advertising jobsIf you’re looking for advertising jobs, understand that it’s an ever-growing, important, and competitive field. If you develop a plan and keep up-to-date, you can find your place at an ad agency. Just be persistent and don’t let rough days or rejections get you down. An advertising job is a great way to use your skills in an interesting, challenging, and fun way. If you enjoyed reading this article about finding advertising jobs, you should read these as well:
The post Advertising jobs: How to get a job at an advertising agency appeared first on Design your way. from http://www.designyourway.net/blog/design/advertising-jobs/ While sleek and shiny was once the go-to thing for web design textures, grunge texture images are now on the rise. Why? Because in the real world, you rarely find ideal geometric shapes or crisp shadow effects. A grunge texture background will make your site design more real. Grunge is a hard term to define, especially with texture. It’s easy to think of a grunge texture as a rusty, bolted together metal site background, but that’s an oversimplification. It’s not all black, white, and gray. It can be heavy, light, dirty, and/or urban. They can be natural or man-made Think of all the scratched and dirty surfaces you see on a day-to-day basis. There’s a lot of diversity there and even plenty of color. The key selling point for a grunge background is that it looks unique. It’s smart and rough, with genuine signs of wear and use. There’s something authentic about grunge textures. They help ground your site design and keep it from seeming too polished and slick. Grunge texture helps make a website seem more human. Grunge is Not Just a Dirty AestheticIt’s easy to confuse grunge texture with a dirty look. While designers often use the terms “dirty”, “urban”, and “graffiti-like” to describe grunge, these textures don’t have to seem dirty. You don’t have to use grunge texture for a rough, dirty-looking layout, either. All a good subtle grunge texture needs is a few irregular elements. They may look dirty and will add a more realistic feel to the tone of the site. With this subtle touch, you can use a grunge texture on a professional or corporate website without it seeming out of place. It even works better than more polished textures, lending a certain human touch to the design that it might have been missing otherwise. What is the Grunge Color Palette?Grunge textures use more subdued, dull, and dirty colors. You will most commonly find beige, brown, grey and black. More vibrant colors are usually replaced with more natural variations. A red grunge texture will likely be more rust-toned, almost brown. Even for more natural shades, it’s usually not just one solid color. That looks too artificial for the grunge feel. Even a black grunge texture will not be sleek black, but usually have shades of gray incorporated into it. Making Your Own Grunge TextureIt’s quite possible to create a grunge texture with some smart use of brushes and layer effects. Distressed and speckled designs work best. Avoid anything with clean outlines. With the right brushes, you can create a nice grunge metal texture. To make everything look good, have the texture layer set at Overlay, Soft Light, Screen, or Multiply. Which one you should use depends on which look you want. You may also find that masking portions of the texture in the areas where you don’t want it. Use these do-it-yourself grunge textures as backgrounds or add them to other elements of your design, like your typography. Some Great Grunge Textures on the WebColorful GrungeThis vector grunge texture is a playful, colorful take on grunge. It resembles splotches of paint on an old concrete wall. It looks rough, tough, and fun. The bright, nearly neon splotches of color also have an 80s retro look that is very popular right now. This texture was designed by the Freepik team and is free for commercial use with attribution. If you are subscribed to Freepik, you can avoid needing to attribute the image to them. Grunge Walls Texture Pack
This pack of backgrounds features images of walls in various states of decay. All the images have a very high resolution, so use them to add a grunge texture to all sorts of things, from backgrounds to text to digital paintings. Some of the walls are brick, while others look to be adobe (mud brick, common to the American southwest). There’s a nice variety of warm colors. This texture pack is available for $7 under a regular license and $105 under an extended license. 25 Grunge Metal/Rust ImagesThis image pack is great for finding the right grunge metal texture. All images are high resolution so you can use them for any number of things. They are also all in JPG format and are compatible with Photoshop 7, CS, CS2, CS3, CS4, CS5, Adobe CC Photoshop Elements and newer, GIMP 2.2.6+ or just about any image software. If it can open a JPEG, it can open these images. The standard license is $12 and the extended license is $300. Seamless Dark Concrete TexturesThis is a great image pack if you’re searching for a dark grunge texture. They’re simple but still have plenty of interest. All eight images have a very high resolution. They make great backgrounds since they have a consistent color that maintains interest but does not distract from the foreground. It is available for $5. 12 Vector Grunge Free TexturesEvery one of these 12 images has a different amount of grain or grime. All of them have been processed into Compound Paths and can be used in Adobe Illustrator. You can use them as backgrounds, of course, but they also make good opacity masks or can be used with the Pathfinder tool to create distressed effects. This texture pack is available for free. Slate + StonePick up this pack of grunge textures is you want a more natural look for your backgrounds. It contains six high-quality JPG images of slate stone. The range of patterns and colors make this a very nice and adaptable set of textures. It is available under a regular license for $5 and is available under an extended license for $75. 10 Free Grunge TexturesThis pack of 10 is a very colorful set of grunge textures. You don’t have to stick to brown and grays! With these high res grunge textures, you get a range of colors from bright blue to pinks to yellow. All of the still have that grunge look. It is free to download. If you enjoyed reading this article about grunge texture, you should read these as well:
The post Free grunge texture examples to download for your designs appeared first on Design your way. from http://www.designyourway.net/blog/resources/free-grunge-texture/ A retro logo can be just what you, your organization, or your client need. Retro logo design is incredibly popular right now. Even modern logos can benefit from retro logo elements, adding in a nice dose of nostalgia, something that’s never been more in vogue than it is right now. Retro logos aren’t just throw-backs to 1950s diners or 1980s arcades. A retro logo can draw on a number of influences, evoking certain tones and memories of the past. Often, they incorporate vintage typography. These vintage logos really pop, especially on websites where a clever one can make it stand out since its being used in a modern context. Retro logos quickly evoke a feeling from a certain era thanks to the emotional associations with the kind of visual styles you’re using in the logo. They can look cool and smart, relaxing and welcoming, or even action-packed, all based on the time period and place you’re drawing your retro logo inspiration from. A quick look through popular internet sites and many brands reveals a lot of creative vintage logo design. Creating one on your own can seem like an intimidating task. How can you hope to make an original logo that has that vintage feel yet stands out from the crowd? You’ve seen the kind of thing you want to make, but now you have to add your own personal twist. This can be quite a challenge. To create retro logo designs, you need to keep a few things in mind. For one, your logo is going to be around for a long time. You need to create a logo that you like seeing for years to come. Also, know that you may only need a few touches to turn a contemporary logo into a retro logo. Not every element of the logo has to have a vintage touch in order to get across the feeling you’re looking to create. This guide to retro logos can help you get an idea of whether or not one of these logos is right for your organization. It will also give you tips and tricks for designing a vintage logo. We’ll break down some of the thought processes that need to go into retro logo design, as well as offer suggestions for retro logo design elements that can help you out of a creative rut. Why Are Retro Logos Popular?First, let’s look at what we mean by ‘retro’ or ‘vintage’ design. These designs capture the feel of a time yet transcend it. Logos with retro designs remind people of certain time periods or elements of pop culture, yet can also stand on their own as logos for those who don’t get the references. A well-made retro logo balances old schools styling with modern design sensibilities. What makes this really work with people is that we all tend to associate “value” with older things, especially if they’re withstood the test of time. With retro logo design, organizations want to utilize this tendency to their advantage. This sense of value, however, is only part of what you need to do when making a vintage logo. You need to integrate modern design to make the most of the value evoked by the retro elements. It allows the logo to still feel relevant. One of the other reasons for the popularity of retro logos is that they have brought a romantic touch into the world of web design. These logos remind people of simpler, less stressful times, often during childhood or college. This is not only a selling point for potential customers, but also for designers, since they miss those times, too. Retro Logo Design BasicsDon’t get too locked into a certain style with your retro logo designs. While the 1980s are very popular these days, feel free to explore other styles from other periods. Look into the sharp angles used in the 1920s or the wholesomeness of designs created in the 1950s. Create something that is recognizable almost instantly and truly makes your target audience feel the emotions you want. You want something that will stand out. Similar to other forms of logo design, creating a vintage logo involves using common sense, knowledge of your brand, understanding of your product, and a clear overall concept. Start off with a rough outline of the retro logo. This is usually the stage where some designs get weeded out, which can be hard to do. Here are some steps to help you through the vintage logo design process:
This six-step process is the same whether you’re the retro logo designer yourself or you’re working with a design to create one. Remember, this is just an outline to go off. Your vintage logo design process may go different due to an almost limitless number of factors. This outline, however, gives you a general picture of what to expect as you create a great retro logo. What are Good Colors for a Retro Logo?Colors are incredibly important for logos. Color is one of the most evocative things in the world around us. They grab our attention and call to mind all kinds of feelings, especially when used in context. Your retro logo’s colors will make it stand out to your audience. They also need to complement the overall design. You should avoid selecting any color scheme that makes your logo boring or makes it look overdone. Also, think about the layout of the retro logo vector to make sure you have smooth visibility. Think about the psychology of colors. Remember that certain colors evoke certain feelings, thoughts, and even impulses. You can use the right color choices to inspire people or lead your market along the path you want. Fortunately, you don’t have to guess at the feelings evoked by colors. There is a lot of well-established study on this topic. A quick rundown of common colors and their commonly associated meanings:
Colors also can take on different meanings depending on the era you’re drawing your retro logo drawing from. For a 1960s and 1970s vibe, use bright primary colors to remind people of flower children. 1950s-inspired designs can also use bright primary colors, too, but in a different way. Look at vintage sports logos for some good examples. For a 1920s vibe, use softer shades of color and pastel nuances. Remember that complimentary colors can add an extra pop to your retro logo. A common color combination used in vintage logos is turquoise used with red. This is a very vibrant look that’s sure to grab people’s attention. What Typefaces are Good for a Retro Logo?The font is very important for a retro logo. Using the wrong font can destroy the vintage feeling you want. You want to find the perfect match. Avoid anything too sleek or modern, like Helvetica or Century Gothic, no matter how classic they seem. You also don’t want to go too old-fashioned by using typefaces like Baskerville Old Face or Times New Roman. They simply don’t stand out enough and are easy for people to skip over because they’re so old. Stylized fonts are good fits, but they should be easy to read. It’s easy to end up with a logo that uses a pitch-perfect stylized font yet have no one know the organization’s name because the font is just too stylized. Avoid going to fancy or frilly because it rarely projects the attitude you want. A true retro look call for a mix of typefaces. Avoid being too messy or too busy with your font selection. You need to remain bold, however. Mix cursive font with cleaner retro fonts for a nice complementary design choice. More often than not, the best choice is to either design or personalize the font yourself. With the internet, it is very easy to find a typeface that is already a good fit, but by customizing it you can make sure it really ties in with your retro logo very well. It may not take a lot of tweaking to do this, so don’t panic! A few popular fonts used in vintage logos include:
These are only a few of the typefaces out there that work well for various retro logos. Take look around at t-shirts or business signs for some great retro logo inspiration. Those examples will often use combinations of fonts, using one font for the title of the business, band, album, or what-have-you, will using another for a slogan or title. As you’ll see, feel free to mix clean lines and bold design choices. More Tips and Tricks for Creating Retro LogosDeciding on DetailsThe details you add to your retro logo will add to its sense of charm. Regardless of the style you’re going for, they should be classical, bold, and eye-catching. This seems like a tough thing to achieve, but it is completely doable. Fade the retro logo a bit by either making it more transparent or using a speckle or scratch filter. Add some sepia tones if the color scheme can manage that well. You could also make the logo predominately black and white, throwing in a few vivid pops of color to highlight the details nicely. Look at Top Retro Logo TrendsIf you’re hard up for inspiration, take a look at genuine logos from the era you’re trying to evoke. Look at logos for popular restaurants, sports teams, beer, candies, or stores of the time. Vintage gas station signage is also a fun set of examples to look at. This can help reorient your retro logo design to get it on the right track. Also, take a look at modern logos that translate the retro look well. Some great examples are Walker Tire, the Lavender Fastener Company, Charlie’s Catering Experience, The Astor Theatre, and Tokyo Bicycles. They have blended modern needs with retro styling to create vintage logos that look great and fit their businesses. In all of these examples, you’ll notice that they make great use of contrast. This is especially true in the case of color and typeface. Look at how these retro logo designs use shades, spectrums, image sizes, element positions, and element orientations. Notice how all of these factors work with layout and font. A lot of retro logos use framing techniques. These include lacy details and geometric shapes. These framing devices draw the eye to the logo itself. They help focus viewers’ attention on the most important part of the image. Consider How the Logo looks in Grayscale or With Color VariationsYour logo may see a lot of use in very different places. It may be used as a part of a company letterhead, repeated as a background pattern on a website, or be used on variations of the same product (think flavors). If this is possible, remember to design your logo so that color is not crucial to making sense of it. The lines of the logo elements should allow viewers to be able to identify it and what it stands for. Don’t overcommit to a certain color scheme. Your client or company will probably want some flexibility so that the logo can look good anywhere. Essential Elements of Retro Logo DesignRetro logo design utilizes themes, styles, and tastes that were found before commerce became as globalized as it is now. The possibilities are nearly endless. There are many millions of templates for vintage logos available online. Figuring out which one to choose, or what your own completely original retro logo design should look like, can be very hard. It can be a stressful decision to make. However, having a clear understanding of what you need to incorporate into the vintage logo is very helpful. It gives you a baseline to go off of. Here is our guide to some of the major elements you need to consider when creating a retro logo: 1. Illustrations and ShapesRetro logo designs can have a lot of variations depending on the time period you’re drawing from, but they all share one thing in common: simplicity. Geometric shapes, like circles and triangle, are the most common. They are also very effective at capturing the desired retro feel. Feel free to add bright bold floral patterns or broad colored parallel lines. This work very well for retro logo backgrounds, bringing in some catchy, fun detail. 2. Select Palate of ColorsFull-color printing was difficult and expensive for a long time until recently. This means that the use of nude shades or dull tones are often associated with the retro look. A retro logo design tends to use a fairly limited set of colors. This is helpful in narrowing down what color palate you use, as well as keeping your retro logo design from becoming too busy. A lot of designers of vintage logos use two-toned shading. Select one color as the focal or primary color Blend it with another color to create a unique shade that looks good with the primary color. 3. TypographyFont is often the thing that really sets a retro logo apart. There are a variety of fun and unique retro fonts out there from almost any era, location, or subculture you can think of. Using these does run the risk of looking too similar to other retro logos. You can also make your own. If you don’t feel like doing that, consider using simple techniques of repositioning the typeface, adding pixel strokes to it, or duplicating elements of the font. This will help give your vintage logo a truly unique look. 4. Use Textures and Noise Filters to Create a Rugged and Aged LookIf you use noises and other textures for your background, you can really secure the retro feel. These filters add a worn look to your logo, softening its edges and making it seem like something truly from the past. You can create the feel of old poster artwork if you use vintage shapes and borders with some stained accents and inclusions. Throw in a few shadows to add a dramatic look. Remember to use these elements wisely, as they can easily overwhelm the simplicity of your retro logo. That simplicity is one of a retro logo’s best assets, so accent it, don’t drown it out. Ideas for Retro LogosBadgesBadges are, in many ways, the essence of retro logo design. Badge designs are typically simple shapes that can be stamped on anything. Circles are the most common, but you can also find shields, hexagons, and diamonds. These kinds of retro logos are what you see on stickers, business cards, and even, well, badges. If your retro logo can fit into this category, it’s probably on the right track. It’s simple, smart, and eye-catching without needing too much space. Hand DrawnThese days, hand-made, carefully crafted items are very popular in every category, from flower pots to scarves. Retro logos are the same way. Vintage logo designs with a hand drawn or sketchy look will fit very well into the retro aesthetic. There are some really amazing examples on the internet with a lot of talent behind them. They always manage to impress. IndustrialLooking back on the mid-20th century, you’ll see a number of designs that don’t use gradients, feathered shadows, or 3D renders. These logos still make bold and clear visual statements, however. These logos were industrial in theme and style, using axes, wrenches, hammers, and factories. The modern look with its use of clouds and Wi-Fi signals is a big leap away. These industrial visuals have a grounded feel, with a lot of weight to them, and draw in many people from the modern tech-savvy generation. Those industrial logos are tied to the men and women who built the things that gave us the modern world, so they have respectful connotations. Earth and SeaA lot of retro logos feature animals with antlers, including deer, elk, moose, and even the occasional antelope. There’s an overall outdoors theme in many others. They often feature trees, tens, mountains, even map iconography. Nautical variations on this theme that use fish, ropes, anchors, and boats are pretty common as well. Coffee and BeerCoffee makes the world go round, a fact that has been true for generations now. There’s something about coffee that has become timeless. Likewise, beer is also timeless, though its history goes back much, much further, to ancient Egypt, and there are a lot more recognizable ways to represent it. If you depict either beer or coffee (or both, if that fits your niche somehow) you’ll likely make an instant positive connection with a lot of people. Logos on PhotographsIf you take a look back at the past decade, you’ll notice that many logos were displayed on solid backgrounds or maybe gradient ones. This old internet logos were too bright, colorful, and complicated to be displayed well on anything else. Retro logos, on the other hand, are much simpler and much more monotone. They can be displayed on just about any background, including photos. Placing your retro logo on a photo looks really great and communicated what you’re all about very well. It’s a great way to display your logo in your store or on your website. Line ArtRecent vintage logos have been relying a lot on online art in the past few years. This is a part of an overall trend towards flat design. This kind of line art often uses thin lines and very simple illustrations. It can be elegant or wild, sophisticated or sketchy. Identifying the Retro Design StyleWhat looks old varies from person to person, almost, or at least generation to generation, region to region. Someone born in the 1990s will have a different idea of old-fashioned than someone both in the late Aughts, for instance. How we decide that something looks retro is based on three factors: nostalgia, perception of age, and visual style. Nostalgia80s nostalgia is very popular right now because so many adults with disposable incomes were children during that time. This is a similar idea for those who were born in the 70s. We remember the times of our childhood fondly in a lot of ways. It was a more carefree time when we experienced a lot of treasured experiences for the first time ever. A lot of brands have realized the power of this nostalgia. They’ve begun tapping into nostalgic marketing for their products. Adding a stylistic reference to the target market’s nostalgic period is a really great way to increase sales. It lends products that same carefree feel from those treasured days. You even see it in movies, music, and television. It is a proven marketing technique. What’s interesting is that lately a lot of brands have begun to orient towards the Millennial market by utilizing the styles and design of the 90s to capture Millennial nostalgia. This is something to look into as that demographic is going to start becoming larger spenders in coming years. Perception of AgingEverything gets older and age can seriously affect how something looks. Items that are shiny and sleek tend to look newer. A good example is shiny modern digital print. You can tell that it’s been made recently. If a print were to have a bit more pixelation or a duller color, it will look like it was made in the 1950s or 1960s. Yellowing, ripper, or curled edges, along with elements of decay or damage look even older than that, perhaps dating back to the early 20th century or even the 19th century. Figuring out how to recreate these retro styles can help make your logo look truly vintage in an intriguing way. Know what era you want your logo to look like it came from and how time would affect the way it would look if it really was that old. People greatly appreciate this dedication to detail and authenticity. Visual StyleRetro looks are also almost immediately identifiable thanks to their visual style. Every era had its own hallmark aesthetics. You can easily tell something created in the 1920s from something designed in the 1940s just by the way it looks. These visual styles have found their way into our culture in a number of ways. Utilizing them is one of the key ways to achieve a retro logo design. Retro Style GuideBecause visual style is so important to creating the right retro logo design, here’s a brief guide to identifying some common vintage visual styles. Few logo designers simply reproduce these old-fashioned visual styles, instead mixing them with modern elements or even referencing multiple visual styles in one logo design. The key to pulling this off is getting the right balance and understanding what elements matter most in a style—as well as experience. Here are a few retro styles that don’t see as much use in our current 1980s trend: VictorianaThis style is derived from the designs of the Victorian period, which spanned about 60 years. This means that the Victoriana style is very board. Some people think of it in terms of circus typefaces or text-heavy layouts meant to look like real Victorian posters. Other might prefer to include period-style military elements like medals and uniforms. Some variations are quite heavy and grunge-like, while others are frothy and colorful. A lot of what we think of as vintage nowadays comes from this visual style. There are a number of ‘spinoff’ styles from it. Here are some variations of the Victoriana style.
Letterpress is among the oldest printing techniques. It uses a form of relief printing to create an engraved color effect. It looks really good with many vintage layouts. Enhance it with muted colors.
Industrial, detailed, and fun, steampunk draws inspiration from 19th-century industrialism and technology. It often merges them with science fiction and even post-apocalyptic ideas and cultural references. The result if off-beat and distinctive. RetrofuturismThis mashup of a word means that this visual style is basically how people in the past thought the future would look like. It can have elements of Victoriana in it, though the retrofuturism of the 1950s and 1960s is also very popular, as typified in the retrofuturistic rocket. GothicGothic visuals are drawn from the architecture and decor of the mid-to-late medieval period. It’s a very board visual style that can be seen in many countries, art, and buildings from the time. These days, it’s often seen in medieval typefaces, simple colors that mimic a dark natural atmosphere, and aged textures. BaroqueBaroque is ornate and detailed. It is derived from the 17th and 8th centuries. It has grand and exaggerated features. There’s a lot of ornate gilding and detailed decorative elements. Elaborately stylized natural elements like plants and shells are often used in Baroque designs. Art NouveauThis style was popular at the turn of the 20th century. It used a lot of curved liens meant to mimic natural forms. It uses a lot of fluid borders with ornate details, symmetrical layouts, and optimistic warm colors. Art DecoGlamorous and luxurious, art deco was at its height in the 1920s and 1930s. It uses strong geometric forms and a lot of symmetry with rich colors and metallic finishes. It looks much more modern than many styles, so it can be used to add a luxurious twist to a modern piece of work. You can use it easily for masculine and feminine target audiences. There’s something nicely balanced about this style. Ending thoughts on a retro logoA retro logo can achieve a timeless feel. It’s an easy way to endear your company to your target audience and stand out from the rest of your industry. If you enjoyed reading this article about retro logo, you should read these as well:
The post Retro logo design: Vintage branding best practices and inspiration appeared first on Design your way. from http://www.designyourway.net/blog/graphic-design/retro-logo-design-vintage/ Websites are expensive assets. Sure, you can build one for free if you know what a website builder is and how to use it. But professionally built websites lighten your pockets for four-figure amounts of money and upwards. And that’s just the things you pay for before the launch — there’s plenty of expensive things that go on after. The best way to think about a high-quality website is to consider it an important investment. And just as with any important investment, you have to do your best to take care of it. One of the ways you take care of your website is by giving it a redesign when it’s called for. Here are some of the signs that will alert you it’s time to redesign your website. It’s Missing Important ElementsIt doesn’t seem likely that a website you’ve invested money in will have important elements missing, but it can sometimes happen. Usually, it’s because some time has passed since the website has been built, and some new elements have emerged as effective in the meantime. Social proof in the form of testimonials, for example, is a very effective trust signal that can increase conversion rates. Slapping a testimonial or two on a page on your website will not suffice to get the full advantage of social proof. There are specific ways to implement social proof, and it will probably require you to redesign your website’s front page, and probably change its copy. It’s Getting Difficult to Update the WebsiteSome issues with your website will require you to redesign it. Others, however, will only need you to update your website a little bit. These are either small cosmetic or functional changes or backend changes that don’t entail too much structural change. As your website and the technology it uses is getting older, it will become more difficult to perform these updates. Maybe even impossible, if there are some elements like plugins that are not supported anymore. At the point where it starts to be too difficult to update your website, you might consider giving it a serious overhaul. The Look Isn’t Fresh AnymoreWeb design trends change with time. Some of the new ones are good. Some are bad and annoying. But good or bad, they are probably very different from the trends that reigned six or seven years ago. If that’s the last time you gave your website a refresh, the visitors will notice your website is out of date. And they will not like it. You shouldn’t change your website’s design every year. That would be overkill. But you should keep in mind that a website that looks old will not appear trustworthy. So, when it becomes obvious that the world has moved on from whatever design philosophy was standard at the time you built your website, you should move on too. The Website Isn’t Mobile-FriendlyAmericans spend around eighty-seven hours a month browsing the web on their mobile phones. You probably can’t build a website that will make them spend all of that time browsing it. But you can build a website that will almost guarantee they will spend none of their mobile browsing time on it. A website that’s not mobile friendly will get significantly less mobile traffic. Mobile-friendly design is not a new hype. It’s been around for years, and lots of businesses are doing it. Whatever you are doing with your non-mobile friendly website, someone is also doing with a website that displays well on mobile devices. And the people who use mobile devices to browse the web will prefer the mobile-friendly website. You’re Seeing Serious Performance IssuesHigh bounce rates, slow loading speeds, and low conversion rates are some of the worst things that can happen to a website. The problem with these issues is that they can be caused by several different things. Some of them will not need a website redesign to fix them. Others, however, will. Before you decide that a redesign is needed to fix any performance issues, you should first try to determine what’s the cause. A redesign is not an easy or cheap process, and you don’t want to go into it without a good reason. Anything else would be a needless waste of resources. It pays off to react quickly to any signs of trouble with your website. However, you shouldn’t rush into a web redesign without first considering whether it’s needed. And you also shouldn’t postpone a badly needed website redesign project. Redesign is a normal part of website’s lifecycle. You just need to find the right place for it. The post How to Know It’s Time to Redesign Your Website appeared first on Design your way. from http://www.designyourway.net/blog/misc/how-to-know-its-time-to-redesign-your-website/ Are you planning to launch a website to establish your foothold in the online world? If yes, then you definitely need a reliable web hosting now! As your website will be the face of your business, people will go through it to know about you, your services/products and most importantly your business. Therefore, you must ensure that there should be no room for any mistake while choosing a web host. When you go out in the market to find a good and reliable hosting, you will find that everyone is claiming to offer exceptional services. Choosing one seems daunting and confusing at the same time. So, in order to get the right one for your site, you must keep your eyes open and go with a host that ensures to give you the right services. However, when finalizing one, make sure, you are picking one that is also capable to fulfill the present and future requirements of your business site. In order to make it easy for you, today I am going to review a small but interesting name in the hosting industry that has been offering web hosting services for more than a decade. We are talking about Hosting24. So without much stretch, let’s find out how good this web host provider is in offering hosting solutions. Note: The aim of this review is to find out whether Hosting24 is worth buying. BackgroundHosting24 went live in 2008 and today, after almost a decade, it has become a well-known web hosting provider in the world. Maybe its primary reason is – it is running under the network of Hostinger, which is a well known yet affordable web hosting company. If we talk about its customer base, it has more than 29 million users in 178 countries. Moreover, every new day, it receives an average 15K new sign-ups. If we calculate, we can notice that in every 5 seconds a new user becomes its member. Services Hosting24 offers a plethora of services. If you are excited to learn more about these services, then continue reading on. Well, Hosting24 has a strong lineup of services ranging from shared web hosting to VPS hosting to cPanel hosting to dedicated hosting to domain names. In short, you can get everything under one roof. Pricing Structure (Shared Hosting)Pricing is one of the major factors that most people consider when choosing a web host. If you are also eager to know, then here we have brought the complete pricing structure of Hosting24. Have a look! Hosting24 comes with 3 plans: Single Web Hosting, Premium Web Hosting, and Business Web Hosting. Each plan has been designed to fulfill different requirements. Single Web Hosting plan starts at as low as $2.15 for a month while Business web hosting plan costs $7.95/mo. Speaking of Premium Web Hosting plan, it will cost you $3.49 for a month. As we’ve mentioned above, all these 3 plans are designed for different requirements, so features would also vary. Single. It is ideal for individuals and startups, this plan comes with 10 GB of disk space, 100 GB of Bandwidth, 1 email account, and an advanced website builder. Premium. If you are running a mid-sized website, this plan may suit your requirements. It gives you unlimited bandwidth, unlimited disk space, unlimited FTP users and unlimited email accounts. Business. This plan has been designed for large database site. The plan supports 4X WordPress optimized speed and provides and everything unlimited. If we compare the pricing to some of the leading hosting providers in the industry, we find Hosting24 offers a lot of stuff at a fairly good price. Moreover, except for its ‘Single’ plan, it’s other plans come with a free domain name that’s always a plus. Hosting24 Features & Pros:At the first glance, it seems that these services are given by every small-big hosting company so what’s new? Well, it is quite true that most of hosting providers offer such services but Hosting24 has some features that really pack a punch. Domain Checker ToolIn addition to the range of web hosting services offered by Hosting24, domain name services are also offered by them. In case you haven’t purchased a domain yet, then you may get it from them. You can also buy a domain name with a variety of extensions. They have a FREE domain checker which can be used to see available domain names. In order to use it, you just need to enter a domain name in the search bar and take it for a spin. If your preferred domain is not available, the tool will show the most closet options. It is worth mentioning here that, Hosting24 is an accredited ICANN registrar, which means you can buy a domain name from them without a doubt. Website BuilderIf you are a novice who is entering into the online world for the first time it can be difficult for you to create a website on your own. Nevertheless, Hosting24 can make it easier for your by its website builder tool. The tool can help you get a professional website within few minutes. It comes with a simple drag-and-drop functionality that lets you take a complete control over website building. You can easily perform tasks like changing template, SEO optimization and implementing contact forms, shopping carts, etc. cPanel HostingIf you are one of those website owners who understand the importance of cPanel, then Hosting24 can be a good choice for you. Hosting24 is known to provide an extensive cPanel support. With them, users can manage their entire website from a web-based inference. In addition to this, Hosting24 also offers cPanel hosting. You can see features of its hosting plans in the following screenshot. Its Silver plans costs $3.99 for a month while Gold plan charges $6.99/mo. Automated Backups with Advanced SecuritySecurity is a primary concern for most website owners. Therefore, we thought we should know how good Hosting24 is in terms of security. You will be glad to know that the company pays a special attention to the security of their users’ websites. Their plans come with CloudFare DDOS protection. Moreover, they also feature antivirus scanner so that their users can prevent their websites from Malware and other viruses. Apart from this, the company also creates an automatic weekly backup to secure the data of their users. Most hosting providers demand extra money for such services. UptimeHosting24 claims to offer 99.9% uptime. You may read it on their official website as well. Although they have not provided any proof for the same yet we guess it should be above the 99.5% which is the industry’s standard uptime – else, they wouldn’t have such a large customer base. However, we would advise you test it personally. You may use Uptime Robot tool to check their uptime. This tool monitors uptime every 5 minutes. You just need to install it on your site. You can take benefit of company’s 30-day money back guarantee which is available for all web hosting package. At any moment (within 30 Days) you find Hosting24 is not capable to provide you good service or their services does not suit your needs, you can discontinue your journey with them. Customer SupportA quick and constant support is one of the important aspects of a successful host. You should not make a final decision without reviewing it. Hosting24 primarily provides customer support through Live chat support and Ticket support. The best part is their customer support team is online 24 hours, all 7 days of the week. When we personally tested their Live chat support, we received a quick response along with the detailed and clear message. We are not sure whether you would get the same good response or not. We guess, every time it is not possible that the same person will be interacting with you in the same manner. Apart from above-mentioned supports, you may also use their knowledge base to find troubleshooting guide and articles to your queries. All in all, we can say Hosting24 has managed enough resources to provide a quick solution to your queries. Hosting24 Cons:During our deep analysis of Hosting24, we did not find anything serious that we should list in this section except for infrequent backups and SSL limitation. BackupHosting24.com creates the backup on weekly basis rather than daily. Moreover, it does not back up file which is larger than 2GB. Therefore, we will advise you to have a good backup plan of your own. Limited SSLIf you are running an eCommerce website you must take SSL certificate into consideration. Unfortunately, the company provides free SSL certificate for premium users only. Anyways you can buy it separately. We can’t get everything in a basic plan. Right? ConclusionHosting24 can be a good option for those who are in search of inexpensive hosting services along with good features. Of course, there are few places to improve, but the company is doing a lot of right things. Without any huge marketing, the company has a decent customer base, which simply means people like their services. The post Hosting24 In-depth Review – Is it Worth Buying? appeared first on Design your way. from http://www.designyourway.net/blog/misc/hosting24/ |
AuthorPleasure to introduce myself I am Jamie 27 years old living in Searcy, AR. I am web developer and have developed over 50 sites for clients. Now a days I am focused on designing as I feel I am lacking it. Archives
April 2019
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