Tips for working with type in Illustrator and Photoshop
Over the years, with each upgrade, Adobe “sneaks in” some pretty cool features into their premier pair of design programs: Illustrator and Photoshop…. Read More
Mike Jackson
The magic of three-tier pricing
Mike’s approach has helped sign people boost profits for over three decades Thirty-two years ago, Mike Jackson wrote an article, “Price your work… Read More
Plain talk about getting deposits
Really, it’s simple. If someone asks you to do work for them, you should expect to be paid for your time. Call a… Read More
Practice pays off
The sign trade can span a wide range of skills from hand lettering, wood carving, calligraphy, vinyl application, design, glass work, screen printing,… Read More
Abracadabra: Find the magic in Photoshop’s Content-Aware tools
Adobe added Content-Aware into Photoshop in CS5 in 2010. Wow! It was and is a game changer. Over the years since its initial… Read More
Organizing and backing up your clipart and photos
More than likely, you have a large inventory of clipart you’ve purchased over the years. But, there’s a catch. The more you buy,… Read More
Branding for local businesses vs. corporate ID
TJ Maxx just had their grand opening here in Jackson Hole. The parking lot was overflowing and the store was packed. The signs… Read More
Adobe Illustrator basics
Have you ever loaded Adobe Illustrator on your computer, then tried to figure out how to do some of the most basic functions,… Read More
Photoshop technique: Blend If
I’ve read comments suggesting the “Blend If” tool in Photoshop is one of the Top Ten techniques all designers should master. You might… Read More
Getting the most from Photoshop’s Clipping Masks
Photoshop has about a gazillion tools and features, but a few powerful ones jump off the page that could help many sign designers…. Read More
Put Photoshop’s Threshold Tool to work
If you own Photoshop, any version, you already have the tool that is a hidden gem for many sign designers! The Threshold Tool… Read More
Don’t let the message get buried by technology
Most signs and banners “back in the day” were either hand painted or created with computer-cut vinyl—or a combination of both. Time and… Read More
Diggin’ up the past: The dawn of sandblasted signs
Sandblasted wooden signs have been seen on the pages of SignCraft for decades. You’ll likely see a fair amount of them in this… Read More
Easy bevel and texture effects in Photoshop
A lot of beautiful effects can be created in Photoshop using the built-in tools. Some of them require the user to have a… Read More
Placing text on a Path
When designing signs, you’ll likely run into times when you need to make text follow along a path of some sort. The path… Read More
If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward
“A paradigm shift is a dramatic change in methodology or practice. It often refers to a major change in thinking and planning, which… Read More
Learning how to learn Photoshop and Illustrator
Most readers probably remember the movie The Matrix, right? In that movie, a programmer was able to upload a martial arts program or… Read More
Using WordPress for a basic website
The “blog” (short for a Web log) has been commonplace on the Internet for many years. Typically, bloggers set up their blog site,… Read More
Have you upgraded to Adobe Creative Cloud?
Adobe announced their Creative Cloud option in the fall of 2011. It replaced the traditional model of buying a perpetual license to software… Read More
