Highlights from this month’s collection of print creative tips and resources.
Awesome Adobe Resources
Adobe announced that they are buying the stock photo and image company Fotolia for $800 million. It will soon be integrated into Creative Cloud for members to purchase photos, illustrations, video, etc.
If you use certain elements in Adobe Creative Cloud apps, you can now save them with the new Libraries feature. Here’s a great tutorial on how to share Creative Cloud Libraries in Photoshop.
Cool Packaging Concepts
The Candy Wrapper Archive might simply be a source of fun and nostalgia for some, but for others, it’s a great source of inspiration.
Snack food packaging must be one of the most difficult packaging categories to design. Besides the on-shelf competition, there’s also the multiple SKUs to consider, as well as allowing room for future SKUs. Vega brand supplement bars recently received a packaging makeover by Dossier Creative. I like the photography, use of colors to not only distinguish flavours, but various lines (e.g.. Gluten Free, Protein, All-in-one, etc), but I really like details such as the nutritional claim box – note the “G-F” for Gluten Free. Nice.
Design for Print Resources
Pantone has announced their colour of the year for 2015 – Marsala, “a naturally robust and earthy wine red.” Mmmm. The closest print match is 7523 C, or in process: 10C 67M 49Y 23K. I often wonder how many print creatives are really influenced by the color of the year.
Looking for inspiration? Here’s a list of some great design videos.
How many of the Top Ten Signs You’re a Designer do you fit?
Productivity Tips and Tools
Here’s a great 2-minute video on unlocking creativity, borrowed from Jerry Seinfeld. I love the key in the last line: to “…show up enough times that you get the average ideas out of the way.”
You’ve seen plenty of productivity tips, but this article features ten of the most useful tips I have seen in one place. Starting today, I am going to try dividing my day plan for tomorrow into 15-minute blocks. Ok, well, maybe I’ll start with 30-minute blocks and see how that goes.
