Daily designer news

Griddify: guides and grids for Photoshop made easy
Arrows in book cover design
Kai table: a table filled with secret compartments
Featured design studio: The Design Surgery

Griddify: guides and grids for Photoshop made easy

Posted: 30 May 2014 06:17 AM PDT

Creating a solid grid has been the base for a strong site design. Though the grids shouldn't dictate design decisions, it makes your blank page look a little less blank. Griddify is a tiny Panel in Photoshop that helps you to compose custom grid systems. It is tiny and fast. It is a small plugin/extension for Photoshop CC and CS6.

Griddify for Photoshop CC

Firstly install Adobe Extension Manager. You can also get it via Creative Cloud app.
Secondly, download Griddify, and install it using Adobe Extension Manager.
Finally, open your Photoshop CC where you can see the panel in the "Window" menu under "Extensions".

Griddify for Photoshop CS6

Firstly, download the CS6 version of Griddify here and extract the zip file.
Secondly, put the “GriddifyCS6″ folder where you installed Photoshop, under “Plugins/Panels”
Finally restart Photoshop CS6, and hopefully you can see the panel in the "Window" menu, under "Extensions".

The new Griddify Beta 3 is an improved version with few bug fixes. It has better support for larger UI font sizes, minor improvements to the UI, smarter updater notifier, and a timestamp.

Issues in Photoshop CS6

Compared to Photoshop CC, HTML panels in Photoshop CS6 do not work well. It is because CC uses an embedded version of Chromium to render HTML content while CS6 uses Flash which is significantly less stable.

And from the blog on Griddify, we can say that Griddify will soon be available on CS4/5 version as well but it's not sure of it goes well.

But best of all, Griddify is free and open-source. So, enjoy the one!

griddify

The post Griddify: guides and grids for Photoshop made easy appeared first on Design daily news.

Download the Designers essentials package now!

Arrows in book cover design

Posted: 30 May 2014 06:09 AM PDT

rebound_final

Rebound by Stephen J. Rose; design by Jason Ramirez (St. Martin's Press May 2010)

The cover design is a great piece of marketing and is the main attraction that has power to fascinate everyone and drive them to buy or read your book. It's the first thing that everyone is introduced to in your book and if it is impressive enough then you can generate your ROI. There are several ways through which you can make you cover look awesome but at the moment like Dan said in his blog, I am also pretty inspired by a vintage cover design by Elaine Lustig and Jay Maisel that uses arrows as a part of their design.

The cover design of your book helps to drive user actions and conversions and what could best illustrate it than an effective arrows? If you do not believe then look at the given pictures to determine it by your own:

The Arc of War by Jack S. Levy & William R. Thompson; design by Isaac Tobin (University of Chicago Press October 2011)

arc-of-war

The Bug by Ellen Ullman; design by Jamie Keenan (Picador February 2012)

9781250002495-e1400635418468

Busted by Edmund L. Andrews; design by Gray318 (W. W. Norton July 2009)

Busted

Adventures in the Orgasmatron by Christopher Turner; design by Marina Drukman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux June 2011)

orgasmatron-e1400763560702

The Enchanted Wanderer by Nikolai Leskov; design by Peter Mendelsund (Knopf March 2013

enchanted-wanderer

The Act of Love by Howard Jacobson; design by Catherine Casalino (Simon & Schuster March 2009)

Arrows1

Hush Hush by Steven Barthelme; design by Christopher Brian King (Melville House October 2012)

Hush Hush cover art 1

The post Arrows in book cover design appeared first on Design daily news.

Download the Designers essentials package now!

Kai table: a table filled with secret compartments

Posted: 29 May 2014 10:45 PM PDT

KAI_TABLE_A3-640x360

A table that was designed to put all the little things that you never know where to put. With the Kai table, you’ll be able to find a hidden space for pretty much anything, but it also looks like you’ll never be able to find it.

This table was designed by Naoki Hirakoso in collaboration with Takamitsu Kitahara. It is made of wood, with a plywood finish, and produced by the designers in 2003.

KAI_TABLE_A1