Today, I’m excited to help him announce the launch of a huge project, Printed Piece. Here is a little bit about Printed Piece from the Wendell himself:

Have you been frustrated in your search for high quality print designers and providers? What if there was a place online where you could search for inspirational material for your next printed project and then find a designer and printer to do the work? This is the idea behind Printed Piece.

Printed Piece is a website where you can find print design inspiration from everything from corporate identity, collateral, apparel, posters, banners, logos, brochures, postcards, mugs, mouse pads, and much, much more! Once you’ve found what you’re looking for, Printed Piece goes one step further and helps you locate a designer or a printer in your area to help you get the project done.

Printed Piece is an all-in-one, flavored, creative-driven community. It allows you to set up a profile, send messages, apply for jobs, and even rate and review companies and designers.

If you’re looking for a print designer, this is the place to find one. If you are a print designer, surf on over and open a free account to post some of your work or just browse for some inspiration.

Here are a few screenshots of Printed Piece.

If you would like to hire Wendell for your next project visit him at Dellustrations.com

Visit Printed Piece

This is a tongue-in-cheek piece, so my point is not to offend anyone, I’m just having a little observation fun here.

Photoshop by hook, crook, or legit means is in the hands of most church designers. The one thing that hastens to me to write this post is the onslaught and might I say slaughter of the layer effects palette. I’m not against using the native effects in Photoshop. In fact, I find them very valuable to create really nice looking designs. The key is moderation and most of the time, sparsity.

If you’ve ever done anything remotely similar to the following -> You’re an Effects Abuser.

Bevel is one of the most overused effects in the history of Photoshop. The use of bevel should be used sparingly and with caution. A slight, soft bevel can be good for your design. Too much bevel and you’ve bloated your text to typographical obesity.

WHOA THERE MR. GRADIENT. You’re hurting my eyes! If you’re going to use gradients, please take a look at color theory before mixing two colors together. There is a science behind color that reflects in human behavior. When two adjacent colors are mixed in a gradient, it’s not so good to the eyes or the attitude. I’m a big fan of gradients, when used with care. Gradients can make your designs go from good to great, but they must be ever so unobtrusive that the audience doesn’t even notice them.

Our earth is filled with gradients, but they are not harsh. The sky is a beautifully simple gradient that reflects many shades of blue. We’re used to subtle gradients in nature, and we can please the eye of the audience by using subtle gradients in design.

Too much stroke (outline) can murder a good design. If you are trying to make text pop from a similar colored background, chances are you should rethink your design or text color. If you have to use the smallest stroke possible or the slightest drop shadow to pop out your text. If you’re shooting for a bold design, it’s OK to outline your text, just keep the rule of moderation in mind.

Shadows, shadows, shadows, how I love thee and loath thee. The most awkward thing about shadows in design is they usually do not follow the physics of reality. The shadow is supposed to appear opposite the direction of the light source. If you create a beveled text with a light source from the top, and put your shadow to the left, it defies our subconscious understanding of light. It creates a subliminal confusion in the mind of the viewer. They can’t put their finger as to why this doesn’t look right, but they just know it doesn’t.

When using drop shadows to create depth in your design, manage your light source across the entire design. Also, look outside and see how shadows actually work.  Shadows are stretched and elongated even more the closer the light source is to the objects baseline. If you’re doing a design that requires shadows, do some extra work to make the shadows actually look real by creating a second layer underneath and stretch and smudge that layer for added effect.  Proper shadowing doesn’t come from simply checking the drop shadow box.

If you’ve ever used all the effects at once, you’re definitely an EFFECT ABUSER! Three words I must now write on your forehead, “Less is more.”

Using Default Settings Can Be Toxic To Your Design

If you are determined to create designs with the effects palette, please alter the default settings. By using the default settings you are not only being lazy, but you are killing your design. Photoshop effects either develop or destroy your design.

Homework For Effect Abusers

1. Create a design with no effects whatsoever
2. Create a design with no effects whatsoever
3. Create a design with no effects whatsoever
4. Repeat Assignment #1

If You Have Missed The Point

I’m not trying to demean anyone with this post, but I am trying to awaken some good sleeping and lazy designers. The “Dear Church Designer” series is a way to shake people trapped in the rut of the normal and get them to do great things with their talent. You have all the educational materials at your fingertips to learn how to properly use the above effects. Here are some suggestions to take you to the next level:

• Look at popular websites like Apple to see how they use gradients
• Google “Photoshop tutorials” to get a better grasp on how to control the effects palette
• Go to Barnes and Nobles or any other chain book store, sit down and READ READ READ for free
• Check out books at the library
• Study famous designers and their works
• Analyze designs that please your eye and see how they have/haven’t incorporated effects
• Study minimalism and see how it can increase the impact of your message exponentially

Scriptina was sooooooooo 2008. It was cool for the very first project you used it on, but it’s not cool now. Also, every nail salon in America has contemplated using it for their logo.

If you don’t think Papyrus is outdated and overused, please look up the meaning of Papyrus at Wikipedia.

Ministry Font Spotlight

OK, now I’m being serious. Please forgive me if I’ve offended you. It wasn’t my purpose, but the fact that you’re reading this far down means I piqued your interest.

You don’t have to use default fonts for everything. There are a ton of great quality fonts that are free to download. Take some time to learn to install them and use them in their appropriate place.  If you are a church designer and don’t know about fonts and typography, go to Lynda.com and take their typography course, or go to Barnes and Nobles and read up on the subject.

If you don’t know the following terms, you might need to take a typography course:

• Serif
• Sans-serif
• Oblique
• Monospaced
• Kerning
• Leading
• Tracking
• Baseline

Here are some advanced structural type terms to get your feet wet:

• Counter
• Bowl
• Ligature
• Ascender
• Terminal
• Spine
• Descender
• Stem

Here are a couple Mister Nifty links to help find free alternative fonts:

• 35 Fresh Free Fonts
• Font Squirrel
• DaFont

1. Create your own document in whatever program you wish. The file dimensions need to be 8.5″ X 11″. If you want photographs to bleed to the edge, create your document at 8.75″ X 11.25″.  You can easily create this file in Microsoft Word, Photoshop, or other layout programs.  If you use InDesign grab their template here.
2. Export your layout to a multi-page PDF. You can use PrimoPDF to create a multi-page PDF from any program. It works as a secondary printer that prints to a file.
3. Upload your PDF and they send you a proof in the mail.
4. Once approved, your project gets published and others can go online and purchase your magazine. You can even make a profit on your

The pricing is very reasonable – .20 per page. A 50-page magazine would cost $10.00 + shipping. You can add up to 100 pages and a minimum of 4 pages. Page counts must be a multiple of four.

Ideas For Your Own Magazine

• Annual Church Event Calendar / Directory
• Yearly Student Curriculum Book
• Student Trip Memory Books
• Wedding Albums For Family Members
• Collaborative Stories (Each student  submits their own page)

These are just a few ideas to get your brain gears turning. I’m sure you can come up with something awesome for your ministry. If you create a magazine, send me an email and I’ll post it below for others to see.

Go To MagCloud

I just saw this really nice Photoshop tutorial at Creative Overflow. This would be a nice sermon series image effect. By the way, this is the best way to learn Photoshop – by trying out step-by-step tutorials. This helps you learn about features you have never used before and create some really nice looking stuff.

Go To Creative Overflow

All of these images are available for download to use in your church. Some are flattened images, others are PSD files you can edit. If you like Joe’s work give him a shout and tell him what you think. You can find Joe here on  Twitter – @joecavazos or on his website. Beware: Following Joe on Twitter will push you out of your design comfort zone.

Go To Font Squirrel

Here are a few samples:

Go get your free fonts!

(via Photoshop Tips)

• Image Editing – Photoshopish
• Color Editing – Create cool color combos/palettes for your creative work
• Effects Editor – Photo Effects – not really digging this one, but you might!
• Vector Editor – This is cool. If you ever need to access Adobe Illustrator, this is your spot. You can import files and export vector based files. Learn more about vector graphics here.
• Image Markup – Grab images from the web easily and edit them.
• Screen Capture – If you ever want to save a website as an image, this is an easy way to do it.
• AUDIO EDITOR – This is ground breaking for me. Access a library of hundreds of loops and audio clips. Record multiple tracks from your Line In/Microphone. There are a few effects features as well. If you need a quick audio production on-the-fly this is perfect for you.

Go To Aviary

(via Life Hacker)

Go to CreativeMYK.com