Vectordiary

TemplateMonster’s Lottery: Vote & Win a Template

TemplateMonster is holding its own lottery and elections to celebrate the Independence Day. With elections for the U.S President just around the corner, TemplateMonster came up with the idea of holding its own elections. However, you won’t be voting for Barack Obama or John McCain. But you will be voting for the design that you find more suitable for America-the-beautiful. The design that gets the most votes will win. And 6 lucky winners who voted for the winning design will be announced. The winner gets to win fabulous discount coupons and web templates from TemplateMonster. On top of that, TemplateMonster is giving away a set of FREE Patriotic Iconset (worth $50) for every voters.

So hurry and cast your vote. Your every vote counts!

7 Exceptionally Useful Text Shortcuts

Here are 7 text shortcuts I find it very useful in Illustrator. It is very handy when you are dealing with typography. The shortcuts help you make slight adjustments to your text very easily. The good news is that most work in Photoshop and Indesign too. So what’s your favourite text shortcuts? Read the rest of this entry »

Switching Host to Media Temple

Finally, I’m done with migrating my website to Media Temple. The experience at Lunarpages was great until they suspended my account after it was using up too much resources. I needed a new plan, hence I decided to give Media Temple a try after hearing all the hype about it in the design industry. Currently I’m on their Grid-Service plan ($20/month), which is a big improvement over the previous shared server plan. If you plan to sign up, don’t miss the fabulous 15% off discount code: Kirupa07, when you are filling the order.

Server upgrading this week

You may have noticed my website is down for 2 days. The technical side sent me an email that my server was overloaded and I need to upgrade to support the heavy traffic. At the mean time, I’m planning to move to a new host. So just hang on there for a few days. Here is a list of things you can do if you are feeling bored:

1. Read my latest tutorial on creating a cool water ripple effect at Vectortuts
2. Subscribe to my RSS so that you won’t miss any interesting tutorials or tips coming out once I finish upgrading my server
3. Download my free tutorial on seamless tiles before I start charging for it
4. Cast a vote in my poll
5. Give me ideas how to improve my blog
6. Link to my website if you like it

Premium Tutorial: Illustrator Seamless Patterns

Secrets of making complicated patterns tile seamlessly in Illustrator

If you ever tried making your own pattern in illustrator, you probably have failed to make it tile perfectly. Things get even harder when the pattern is random and chaotic.

In this tutorial, I will show you my own unique technique of creating seamless tiles effortlessly. I will start with a leaf and show you how to create a pile of leaves with different shades. After that, I will reveal my trick to make it tile seamlessly. With this technique in hand, you will be able to create your own wallpaper patterns. Read the rest of this entry »