in today's video we're going to share three awesome graphic design techniques that few
designers actually talk about but which can breathe new life into your artwork so grab your
design tools and let's get started today the first tip is a way to add extra depth to some of your
graphic designs now you might have seen designs like this where we see a kind of a blurred glass
or plastic effect on the design itself well we're going to learn how to make it properly
but in Adobe Illustrator and not Photoshop yes it is possible and I think this effect looks
so good when done right and it's a great skill to have because it can actually be used in many
different ways on various different designs and actually it's really easy to do we first need
an image or a design and then to copy that with command or control C then with it still selected
press command or control 2 to lock it down in position and then finally command or control F
to paste a duplicate exactly over at the top we want to add a gaussian blur to the duplication
and we want to add a medium kind of blur nothing too crazy but also nothing too mild
for the next step you can use any sort of shape you think will work for your design but just to
quickly show you guys today I'm going to use two rectangles to create a shape like so and
then I'm going to unite it in the Pathfinder window I always find it really handy to have
the most tools that I use just off to the panel on the right I'm sure you agree too
but yeah once United I will press a for the direct selection tool and then click and drag
the live Corners to round off my shape this is a personal preference and it's not necessary
to do again it just depends on the kind of design that you're actually working on this next step is
very very important make sure you're happy with where the shape is on your composition and then
copy it to the command or Ctrl C at this point in the process from here onwards don't use command
C again once it is copied select the Blurred layer and the object together we're going to
make a clipping mask and that's done just like this so we're going to make use of that copy
now by pressing command or control F and that will paste the duplication right over the top
once more and with this one we're going to add a gradient but use the freeform gradient tool
now if you don't have an up-to-date version of Adobe Illustrator you can always just use
a gradient mesh or even just a linear gradient now we want to add multiple white nodes to the
shape especially around the edges this will make more sense soon don't worry and also remove all
of the other nodes that are not white just by pressing backspace when they are selected
now for this effect to work really well it's wise to double click the nodes and make some of them
transparent with a low or zero opacity now I do like to keep fully white nodes closer to the edges
for this effect and that's because it looks more realistic which you will soon see later now it
might very well take some time fiddling around with this thing and you can come back later to
edit the gradients but when you think you're ready change the transparency mode to something like a
soft light and as you can see it's starting to take shape and like I said all you have to do is
press G with this layer selected and the nodes will appear so you can edit the gradient again
you might also want to lower the opacity of this layer if the effect seems a bit you know a bit
harsh now we have two more crucial steps we have to do before this thing looks decent in today's
video and the first one is to again generate that duplication with command or control F now to this
layer we're going to add a texture effect by heading into the text eraser we can use
Sandstone canvas or whatever you like really but it is probably best to keep the relief quite low
for this layer I'm going to use a transparency mode of lighten
and hey Presto we now have a slight texture on this layer
actually let's rock with screen for this one it's probably a better choice
now we're going to use one more duplication and for this one press shift and X to flick
that fill over to a stroke now press C for the scissors tool and click twice
on your shape like this and that's going to allow us to then remove an excess which will
leave a corner now this is really going to help the final look of this effect
okay now press shift and W for the width tool and we're going to play around with this line
so it bulges a bit in the middle and closes at the each end now when that's ready assign
the correct stroke weight for your design and then apply a white color to the stroke
it's important to now add a gaussian blur but nothing overly blurry or over the top
we can press a for the direct selection tool and move the anchor points around just like this and
in this specific instance here I think I'm going to lower the opacity so the effect isn't too Stark
and too contrasting now you can repeat this step multiple times to add a blurred corner or some
edges to the specific shape on your design and I do really wish I had more time on my hands to make
a proper design using this but right here this is just an example I made pretty quickly of course
typography does finish and complete the design but yeah this effect can be used for marketing
and advertising posters and Designs like that so even to make things like typography it's a really
cool technique that's for sure but we're now going to look at a very important graphic design Theory
and how you can use it on your designs the theory in question is called the cognitive load Theory
and just soon see why this thing is so important to know as a graphic designer the theory states
that when we're designing anything whether it's social media posts a website whatever it is it's
important to consider the cognitive load on the viewer's mind if there's just too much information
going on at once the viewer might very well feel overwhelmed or confused and they won't retain any
of the information presented that's not very good for our designs to explain this Theory
and to demonstrate why it's so important we're going to use social media designs as a means to
express and show how cognitive theory is used on designs recently I posted something to my YouTube
Community tab that showed five different typeface styles along with some information about each one
of them there were five in total but instead of putting all of them onto one or even two designs
I actually gave each typeface its own design also I kept the information about each typeface
down to just four simple words this is because I didn't want the viewer to become overwhelmed and
so I cut the information down to the raw Basics this is a specially in important for social media
where people have a short attention span and often people are viewing things on a small smartphone
screen but hey let's go deeper with this here are four really useful tips for applying cognitive
load theory on your social media posts or your graphic designs keep it simple as we've just seen
when designing a social media post try to keep the design and the messaging as simple as possible
use Clear concise language and try to use as few words as possible instead of cramming just lots of
information into one design maybe spread it over multiple designs just like you saw earlier visual
hierarchy use a visual hierarchy to guide the viewer's attention and make important information
simply Stand Out use size color and placement to highlight the most important information clear-cut
easy to read type use clear to easy read type to make the post easy to understand avoid using fancy
decorative typefaces that might be difficult to read when it comes to social media posts
use images or Graphics to break up the text and make the post more visually appealing
but of course just be sure to choose the right images and the right Graphics that are relevant
to the supporting message a social media posts that actually use imagery perform a lot better
compared to those that don't so when you're next designing something consider the information you
have to work with and will it be too much for the viewer to digest in one go remember you are making
a visual communication this third technique today is in Adobe Illustrator again and it's a tool that
not many people know how to use or they just don't use it at all for much of this technique
to actually work we need text and anything along with it grouped together with command or Control
G now the tool in question here is the free transform tool which you can find right here
often people can't find the extra toolbar menu because is actually hidden behind the tools panel
anyway if I go and manipulate my group like so we can see it only edits the shape
sure we could actually outline the text but that's not actually productive for a non-destructive
workflow but instead come up to effects and then navigate to the free distort which is found here
in the new box we can make a distortion and hey Adobe if you're listening it would be really nice
to have a preview option while doing this just a thought but the really cool thing about this
is that of course the text is 100 editable I can just come back and edit the text or change it in
any way anytime another cool thing we could do is to apply a Twist or other distortions from
the distort and transform menu it's pretty cool and again the typography is editable
but let's quickly make something actually looks half decent right now I'm going to duplicate this
text just by holding down the alt option key and clicking and dragging this is a free font
by the way from fontesque I think it's called Toronto but yeah I'll place the ID on screen
somewhere now let's add a bit of character to that text in the appearance panel but adding a
slight Golden Glow to it there's nothing wrong with a bit of bling now and again of course
foreign then we can apply the twist effect that we saw earlier and actually that does
look pretty cool if I don't say so myself distorting typography is a good technique
to know and also now you know how to do it while keeping the text editable
a lot of resources used in today's video were actually sourced directly from envato elements
and it's something I personally use on a daily basis just to save time in my workflows on envato
there are millions of resources that designers can use on their projects and lately I've been
grabbing a bunch of resources from the 3D section you can even just click and rotate and choose a
kind of point of view you want to download which is pretty neat there are tons of downloads though
and for all kinds of different projects and styles and you can be confident using them on
your designs because it's a one license fits-all kind of deal when you sign up to envato now you
can try it for seven days totally for free but if you don't like it after that you can just move on
with your day as usual and you can find envato elements Linked In the description box below but
if you want to learn more techniques as a graphic designer just click a video on screen and if you
have any comments or questions just leave them in the comment section as well and I will get
down to those as soon as possible but until next time guys design the future today peace [Music]