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Just because you missed that awesome conference, doesn’t mean that you can’t still watch the lectures! This weekend we’re sharing an interesting talk by Storyteller and Richard Seymour at TED. In this talk you will ponder the questions, how do w…

Valentine’s Day is almost here and what better way to express your love for design than to send a letter? This Quick Tip explains how to create an envelope icon, you’d love to click!

Most of us have experience using the Adobe Suite, but how much do you know about InDesign? This powerful program has an entire host of features that you wont find in Illustrator or Photoshop, it’s for this reason that it has remained one of the …

Sometimes using a highlighted effect text gives a stronger emphasis and style to your design. In this quick tip we are going to achieve that effect by utilizing Paragraph Rules in Adobe InDesign. Let’s begin!

Step 1: Insert text
Create a new…

In this Tuts+ Premium tutorial, you will learn how to create a vector golf illustration. It includes creating a golf hole scene, complete with numbered flag for the hole and a cutout section of turf where the golf ball has landed. You’ll also le…

Each month, we bring together a selection of the best tutorials and articles from across the whole Tuts+ network. Whether you’d like to read the top posts from your favourite site, or would like to start learning something completely new, this i…

In this tutorial you will learn how to use Illustrator to create a clean, vector ticket icon. Begin by creating the basic vector shapes, then add pixel perfect highlights, all the necessary text, warping, and grunge effects to give the final result in…

Each month, we search the web for the best vector-related content and showcase it here for you all to enjoy. This month, we showcase high quality tutorials on mixing vector techniques with photography, we learn how to create vintage style lettering th…

Lunar New Year is here! This red card was chosen as a Lunar New Year E-card because in Chinese culture the color red is auspicious and represents happiness or good luck. During Chinese New Year red packets are given out for luck and prosperity in the …

The microscopes is a symbol of our civilization. Throughout this tutorial on how to illustrate a vector microscope you’ll take advantage of numerous Illustrator tools. You will learn how to use blends, art brushes and 3D rendering in Adobe Illus…

Just because you missed that awesome conference, doesn’t mean that you can’t still watch the lectures! This weekend we’re sharing a quirky story told in emoticons by Storyteller and poet Rives at TED2008. See the power of visual st…

Vectortuts+ is all about helping people turbo charge their skills, and today we have another special community post that will help our readers take their images to the next level. The best thing is, you can be part of it too! Find out more at the jump…

In this Tuts+ Premium tutorial, learn how to create a stylized performance car from a reference image using many gradients, custom art brushes, patterns, clipping masks and not a single gradient mesh or blur in sight! If you are looking to take your s…

In this tutorial you will learn how to quickly create a series of recycled paper textures. You can use these to apply the effect of old paper over illustrations. The goal of this tutorial is to show you some shortcuts for aligning objects on the Artbo…

In this Tuts+ Premium tutorial, you will learn how to create a golden shield illustration and an ivy text effect. We’ll use vector shape building techniques to construct the main structure of our work and then Illustrator’s 3D tools to add…

On Valentine’s Day, a holiday of people who are in love, everyone gives greeting cards to each other. This day is a good opportunity to show your feelings with an unusual gift. I’ll tell you how to create a vector-card for this holiday of …

If you’re serious about creating a typeface design, then you’ll need some solid resources to get started. Learn effective typeface design workflows, how to take an initial spark of an idea from sketch, through Illustrator, into Fontlab, an…

Mastering the art of character design is something that takes both a lively imagination and a good understanding of drawing techniques. Today we have have bundled together a collection fun and lively character design tutorials from the Vectortuts+ arc…

In this Tuts+ Premium tutorial, we will use Adobe Illustrator to create a dynamic painterly textured illustration. This technique can be done using a mouse; however, a tablet will give you an extra level of control. We’ll cover the complete vect…

Have you always wanted to be an architect, but really just because you want to show people cool blueprints? Well‚ neither has Ryan, but he’ll certainly show you how to create a blueprint illustration in Adobe Illustrator. It all starts with a …

I’ve always been fascinated by smoke, and have experimented a lot with it. So in this tutorial, I explain how to create realistic smoke, make it into a brush and use it for type. Let’s light up our vector cigarettes and get started smokin&…

Just because you missed that awesome conference, doesn’t mean that you can’t still watch the lectures! This weekend we’re sharing an interesting demo by Software developer Mike Matas at TED2011. In this talk Mike demos the first fu…

Today we’ll be learning how to create a vector light bulb icon with the free, open source vector program Inkscape. We’ll be following a Tango style of design for this project. Read on to learn more about the Tango Desktop Project and to le…

In the following quick tip you will learn how to create a simple price tag icon. It’s another tutorial that focuses mainly on the Appearance panel. First, you will need some basic tools and shape building techniques to create the starting shape…

Today we have a unique Tuts+ Premium Pack, which is created in Illustrator by Sharon Milne. It’s filled with 10 illustrated wild animals. Each is completely vector, available in AI and EPS formats. Log in or Join Now to get this exclusive downlo…

In this tutorial you will learn how to create a series of different snowflakes from letters. To achieve this effect you will use the Transform Effect on a single letter. You will easily be able to create a series of individual snowflakes, taking advan…

I would like to dedicate this tutorial to typography, which are the methods of processing printed text for better legibility and beauty. Typography is composed through the graphic design of printed text using the specifics for that languages rules. In…

Test your knowledge of Adobe Illustrator with the Vectortuts+ Illustrator Quiz! How well do you know Adobe Illustrator? Find out at the jump!

If you enjoy this fun mini-quiz, try the Adobe Illustrator Basics Quiz. If you want to brush up on your basi…

In this tutorial you will learn how to draw a designer gift bag using basic shapes and various patterns, which are made available in Illustrator. You will also learn to add your own customized details to the design.

Step 1
Create an 800px by 800px R…

In the following quick tip you will learn how to create a Mosaic text effect. It all start with the background. A simple rectangle filled with a flat color, a radial gradient plus a Film Grain effect. For the text you will use a nice, free font. After…

Are you looking to start your new year with a fresh set of prints to help promote your design business? Today, our friends at UPrinting are kicking off 2012 by giving away business cards, posters, or postcards to 36 lucky Tuts+ readers. To enter, all …

This work is a common project created together with Iaroslav Lazunov and Alexander Egupov. We have used 3D rendering, Blends, Opacity masks, making this three-dimensional stage with vanishing points. Learn every step in how to create this picture gall…

Just because you missed that awesome conference, doesn’t mean that you can’t still watch the lectures! This weekend we’re sharing an interesting talk by Klaus Stadlmann at TED xVienna. In this talk Klaus demos his tiny, affordable …

Vectortuts+ is all about helping people turbo charge their skills, and today we have another special community post that will help our readers take their images to the next level. The best thing is, you can be part of it too! Find out more at the jump…

Let’s blow things up with a nice big boom in this this Quick Tip. Circles, triangles and a star shape create a bright explosion. This is a step-by-step tutorial for beginners. The icons from the inkscape toolbar are added to the images to make …

If you’re looking for arrow graphics, with various styles, such as flat silhouettes that curve, hand drawn elements, or sharp edged classic designs, then you’ve found a compilation worth downloading. We’ve collected an assortment of …

In this tutorial you will learn how to easily create a diagonal pattern in Adobe Illustrator. Creating seamless patterns is a challenge in itself, but it is even harder if the pattern is supposed to be at an angle. But there is an easy trick to do so …

His Majesty the Bubble! In this tutorial we will learn how to create realistic colorful bubbles. We’ll cover numerous techniques and build this illustrations step by step. Set aside a couple hours for this one!
March of 2010

Step 1
Open up a ne…

Vectortuts+ loves Illustration and discovering new talent, so today we are proud to be showcasing Round 2 of the 2012 Calendar Design Project. Check out the 2nd and final round at the jump.

2012 Calendar Design Project, Round 2
The designs are poste…

In today’s article, I’m going to show you 40 pieces of inspiring vector art animal illustrations. See how a variety of artists render things from fur to feathers, scales to horns, and more. I’ll also share with you links to tutorials…

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a dark eclipse design which could be a perfect base for a poster or a flyer. We will use blends, effects, various transformations and spice up the effect by adding texture to the final design.

In the following Illustrator tutorial you will learn how to create a detailed vector chalkboard icon. This classic school, blackboard illustration is composed using vector shape building techniques, pixel perfect highlighting, as well as brushes and t…

Just because you missed that awesome conference, doesn’t mean that you can’t still watch the lectures! This weekend we’re sharing a thought provoking talk by Andrea Ruggiero at DesignBoost NYC. In this talk, Andrea shares his obser…

Sometimes you need to go a little bit wild with your typography. In these cases, you can either take the easy way and choose a fancy font from some of the free font site like Dafont or Urban Fonts, or get creative and give some extra sparkle to your o…

This Quick Tip will teach you how to create a handgun using just basic shapes like rectangles, circles and triangle. This is a step-by-step tutorial for beginners. The icons from the Inkscape toolbar are to the images to make it easier to find the t…

Today our guest is a graphic designer Maria Dimova (aka Dimary) from Moldova. She is a professional designer/illustrator that always makes time to work for pleasure. Exactly such artworks illustrated in this interview. Maria works in a style of fantas…

In this tutorial we will learn how to draw a snail using tools such as the Pen Tool (P), Selection Tool (V), Direct Selection Tool (A), Ellipse Tool, and Gradient Tool (G). Some shapes will be created with the help of the Pathfinder panel. This artwor…

We have an exciting Illustrator video training series to give away to 2 lucky Vectortuts+ readers. It’s packed with 111 training videos created by professional illustrator Brian Zaikowski and released through Cartoon Smart on the Tuts+ Marketpla…

In the following tutorial you will learn how to create a colorful, glass text effect in Illustrator. Learn each step to construct this shiny, vector text effect. We’ll use patterns, transform effects, multiple gradient fills, and more to constru…

Vectortuts+ loves Illustration and discovering new talent, so today we are proud to be showcasing Round 1 of the 2012 Calendar Design Project. If you missed out this time, don’t worry, there’s still time to part of it! Find out how to get…