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Psdtuts+ is posting a series of short Photoshop tutorials by Martin Perhiniak. They’re free, and very informative if you’ve been trying to teach yourself the basics of Photoshop. The first two of twenty-five tutorials are available. I highly recommend giving them a look, and also checking out the various other tutorials offered by Psdtuts+; it’ll be well worth your while.

I am currently enjoying three wonderful books. They’re simple, to the point, and extremely helpful.

Patrick McNeil’s books, The Web Designer’s Idea Book (volume 1 & volume 2), are chock full of website design samples. The books are a little small, and the images far smaller, but they’re both large and crisp enough that a website designer can become inspired. Examples are divided into groups such as color, theme, and function, and their color themes follow with hexadecimal codes (they’re missing in the second edition, though).

Steve Krug’s book, Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, revolves around one fundamental principal: design websites that demand as little thought from site visitors as possible. It’s a simple idea, and the reasons all make perfect sense.

I am currently re-designing a website from the ground up, and these books are invaluable!

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links—as an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying products.

Portfolio websites are notoriously difficult to design for, especially if it’s your own. They don’t exactly work like other websites do. In fact, they have a completely different function. A portfolio website is basically just some visual samples, a contact form, and maybe some artist information. That’s it.

Redesigning Nava Designs, I had an epiphany. Create a simple design for a simple site. It doesn’t have to be complicated or have a lot of bells and whistles, because it’s never going to have all of those. So, keep it painfully simple. And, that’s what I did . . . and I love it!

Nava Designs is now on YouTube!

To keep with the theme of the Halloween season, I thought I’d share a recent bit o’ art that I did.

This death certificate was designed for a website called Master Gracey’s Haunted Mansion. The site owner wanted a fresh, new look, and I had fallen in love with the designs of old documents, certificates, marriage licenses (they are works of art in themselves!). I thought vector graphics would best keep the certificate looking new while I incorporated an engraving technique and a tiny bit of aging. I was really going for the look of old parchments that had been printed long ago, had been safely stashed away in near-mint condition, and have been recently discovered.

You can print out your own certificate (two different versions) over at Master Gracey’s Haunted Mansion.

It’s Halloween time again, and the papercrafts are back (through November 7, 2010)! This year, there are a couple of new additions to the store.

First is the Halloween Countdown Tombstone. The calendar disc is adjustable for any year, and the sign numbers are interchangeable for daily countdowns. Two brads are included (one extra), so all you need is some white glue.

Next, there is now a discounted bundle pack. You can get all five papercrafts for the price of four!

One last thing: prices have gone up from last year’s introductory price. These toys are not mass-produced; I assemble every order by hand, and it does take some time (especially when I have many orders to fill). In most cases, orders will be shipped in a day or two (maybe even same day!), and they’ll arrive in a sturdy box for protection.

It’s finally here! The official Tor.com “Stubby” paper model. I really enjoyed working on this one, and I’m glad that it has finally been released. I actually had planned on emailing Irene Gallo about it, if only to remind her that Tor.com had this thing to release. When I open my email client, I see an email from Irene. What a coincidence! Or, do great minds think alike?

You can download the paper model over at Tor.com, and feel free to sign up to post comments and pictures there. You can send your comments here, too, if you like.