Many Photoshop enthusiasts use the History panel simply to undo earlier steps of a process. This is super useful, but the History panel is no one-trick pony. When combined with the History Brush tool, you’ve got a powerful ally in your imaging tasks.

The History panel records all of your steps. Just click on an item to revert to that step of your process.

The History panel and History Brush work together to restore specific parts of an image. For example, you can apply a Gaussian Blur to an entire image, then History Brush the focal point so it’s unblurred—great for a depth of field effect.

A similar technique is used to create an antique-like hand-coloring effect on photos. (more…)

Spreadshirt is looking for a new logo and is inviting you all to design their logo which will be seen by millions of people every year. The overall prize bounty is worth over $19k (€15k), some of the prizes include cash, new laptops, adobe design software, and more.

Submit your logo designs every week to the entries blog.
From there they pick their winners and allocate all the other prizes.

Deadline: October 14, 2007
Details:

The longer you work in design, the harder it can be to stay on top of trends and get new inspiration. It’s easy to just revert to what you’ve always known and what has always worked for you.

It can help a lot to simply pay more attention to the design you see every day, in magazines, on TV, online. But that is always a mix of the best and worst that design has to offer, and only exposes you to design within your locale and areas of interest. I’m not in the market for art classes in Mexico City, so how would I know about the gorgeous interactive experience at semillero.net?

Communication Arts’ Interactive Annual issue introduced me to semillero.net, a triumph of Flash, illustration, music, and interactivity.

After a several year subscribing hiatus, I recently resubscribed to Communication Arts, a magazine for print and interactive designers that you’ve likely come across from time to time. Each issue is practically a book, arriving in a box and printed on lovely stock. It feels nothing like receiving the latest issue of Popular Science… it feels like someone sent you a present. (more…)

Collab will hold its Fifteenth Annual Student Design Competition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Monday, November 12, 2007. This year’s competition is being held in conjunction with the celebration of Collab’s new gallery in the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building–the first gallery in the Museum’s history to be dedicated permanently to modern and contemporary design. The opening exhibition, Designing Modern: 1920 to the Present, takes a chronological look at the Museum’s collections of modern and contemporary decorative art.

As always, the theme of the Student Design Competition is linked to Collab’s largest annual event. This year, students are asked to consider the scope of the Modern Design dialogue. The challenge is for students to design a “map” that links associations between people, things, or events within the context of revolutionary ideas and trends in art, architecture, and design. The map should communicate the the interpretation of the forces which flowed into, through and around modern design.

First Prize - $1000
Second Prize - $750
Third Prize - $500

Deadline: November 12, 2007
Details

I am an engineer by training, a programmer by inclination and a web designer by chance. So, I love organizing information, I can spend hours working on a css or php problem, and I founder when it comes to the colors and the pictures. I’ve read several books about using CSS to make beautiful sites (Zen Garden, transcending css). Wonderful books, but they assume you know how to design the beautiful part of the beautiful sites. What I needed was a book for programmers that explained the basics of designing a good looking site. And, behold, perhaps a month after I thought that, The Principles of Beautiful Web Design by Jason Beaird was published. Talk about timing. Needless to say, I rushed out, bought it, and read it.

Leading You Through the Design Process
The book is organized around the design process of the author, so not only does he tell you how to choose (more…)

EXHIBITOR Magazine’s 22nd Annual Exhibit Design Awards, honoring the world’s best trade show exhibit designs, is accepting entries. The 2008 competition highlights include world-renowned judges, two new categories, and a prestigious awards ceremony.

Trade show exhibit designs launched between December 1, 2005, and December 1, 2007, can be entered.

The 2008 competition will offer one EDGE Award (for Exhibit Design and Graphic Excellence) and multiple Gold, Silver, and Special Merit Awards. Winners will be featured in the May issue of EXHIBITOR magazine, read by 30,000 marketing professionals in the trade show, corporate event, and meetings industries.

Finally, winners will be honored during an awards ceremony at GRAVITY FREE, the third annual design conference offered by Exhibitor Magazine Group.

Deadline: Early-bird - November 30, 2007
Regular - Dec 14, 2007
Details

In my last Marketing Mentor Tip, How to Dominate Your Market, I focused on what you get if you decide to specialize — namely higher fees because clients are willing to pay for expertise.

But how do you choose which market to focus on? This is the question that stumps many designers.

So here are a few questions to ask yourself about the markets you’re considering:

1. What size and of what type are the projects available through this market?
2. Are they the kind of projects that you enjoy and are capable of doing? Or do the projects conflict with the kind of work you normally do?
3. Do you have experience and samples to show interested prospects?
4. Does this market know they need your services?

Defining your market and determining if that market is viable will be the topic this Thursday, September 27 when my partner, Peleg Top, and I give our first of the Grow Your Business from Your Desktop webinar series in partnership with HOW Magazine.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Helvetica™ typeface, Linotype™ invites designers worldwide to take part in the Helvetica NOW poster contest. Designers are called to submit their poster design work that has been published between 2000 and 2007 and that uses Helvetica as a primary or secondary typeface.

This contest also invites participants to submit posters (published, unpublished, or new designs) that revolve around the role of type in modern day life, and the way that typography – and Helvetica – affects our perception of the environment. The winners will be selected by popular vote. The format is open but the overall dimensions should be contained within a maximum of 1600×1600 pixels. Only digital files in JPEG format will be accepted. You are free to submit more than 1 entry.

- Linotype will offer prizes to the first three winners, together the prizes will be worth more than €15,000.
- There are no application fees.
- Deadline: October 24, 2007
- Details

Like many of its products, Apple recently updated its iLife software. If you already use iLife, you’ve likely seen the little pop-ups announcing the arrival of iLife ‘08 and suggesting that you upgrade. I survived over a year of iLife ‘06 pop-ups and a few ’08s before finally giving in…

Mac users, is the latest version of iLife right for you?

Whether or not you should upgrade really depends on (more…)

The Brno Biennale showcases the very best of graphic design. Established in 1963, it is the oldest exhibition of graphic design in the world. The 23rd year will be dedicated to graphic design, illustration and type in books, magazines, newspapers and the digital media.

Apart from the main competition show, the Brno Biennale features a specialist symposium and a number of accompanying events.
Each participant may enter a maximum of 8 submissions from one or several books or magazines. Endorsed by ICOGRADA.

Deadline: November 30, 2007

Details