How to Design a Douchebag
Don’t leave just yet, I promise you, it’s worth watching! =O
January 6, 2009 by Gary Simon
Digg This to help feed my family.
(View the project image) (Check out a WMV version with screen zoom, the one above doesn’t have the zoom setup because I jacked up the upload to blip.tv)
I’m beginning to feel like a douchebag actually taking the time to record /create this tutorial about designing a douchebag. With that in mind, I’m surprised that I haven’t ripped a hole in the universe. But honestly with the vulgarity aside, this is probably one of my best tutorials as it has a ton to offer in terms of education.
As you can see from the example, it’s decently realistic in terms of presentation. You could almost pass it off as something that was created in a 3d app. This tutorial will teach you a lot about using masks, the paint brush with custom brushes and layer blend modes.
Enjoy!
How to Design a Favicon
It’s 16×16px of branding heaven. Stop being a lazy bastard and put one up.
January 4, 2009 by Gary Simon
Okay, a tutorial on how to design a favicon? Pretty ridiculous and absurd eh? Well, I’ll be completely honest with you, like any other present-minded webmaster, this is for the SERPs. But it’s also for the newbs, and tha’ts why I made it. What better way to kick off the first eppy of Freeloaders than giving the newbs something, eh?
A favicon is very simple to create. As shown in the video, it’s a simple matter of designing within a 16×16 (32px for you math geniuses out there) canvas. The main point of a favicon is to further enforce your branding. If you have a logo, you might want to make the symbol your favicon; or at least a portion of it if it’s complex. Readability is very important, but it’s also important to make it unique and match the color scheme of your site.
Oh and once you’re done with the actual design and have yourself a favico.ico uploaded to your server, this is the code you stick in your header file. (Between the <head> *HERE* </head> tags)
<link rel=”shortcut icon” href=”/favicon.ico” >
The Launch of Freeloaders
This is about this blog, Freeloaders!
January 3, 2009 by Gary Simon
I thought it would be appropriate to make a quick blip about freeloaders and what this is exactly. First off, I’m Gary Simon and I’m the only guy behind this site. I’ve designed for 9+ years. I initially created http://how.todesignyour.com to sell my full length video tutorials that feature real website designs and logo designs in Photoshop. Then I decided it’d be a good idea to start a blog where I offer free video tutorials, thus Freeloaders came about.
Freeloaders is the name of this blog and as the name suggests, it’s for freeloaders. Free shit kicks ass, I understand, and it’s fun recording the tutorials. I also like helping people out. Freeloaders isn’t only about design however, it’s also about other stuff related to making money online, stuff that webmasters care about. Usability, landing page optimization, generating traffic (seo, ppc, viral marketing), yadda yadda. All of the tutorials and blog posts will be brought to you via video (though I can’t guarantee that under other circumstances). But video is something pretty unique in the free tutorial realm which is why I think I have something to offer that most other tutorial-based sites don’t.
If you have any questions or would like to hit me up, just IM me at AIM: Dreamache, or email me at gary@garysimon.net