Vector: September 2009

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Biking Rules and Peds

by bluhmr on Flickr

Great article by the prolific Robert Sullivan (he's got two articles in this month's Vogue too, interesting...)about heightened bike and pedestrian conflicts as more and more people take to their feet to get themselves around. Hooray for more people, boo for still not enough space. Yes to a physically protected bike lane on the Brooklyn Bridge roadways to alleviate the congestion on the bike/ped path.

Speaking of which, maybe this article will inspire folks to enter the Biking Rules PSA (i.e., Public Service Announcement) Competition ending this Tuesday. You can win up to $4,000 in cash, and will be eligible for the Biking Rules Film Festival at BAM. What are you waiting for?

Team Amsterdam Wins!

A great NYT description here. We'll be posting the presentations plus photos on New Amsterdam Bike Slam shortly.

Photos here by Pascal van den Noort.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

How To Skew A Dot Pattern with Adobe Illustrator

Here we have a great video tutorial for Adobe Illustrator explaining how to use the Free Transform, Shear, Skew and Reflect tools to create vector logo types and icons in perspective

Important shortcuts to remember:
*Mac OS
Cmd + Opt + Shift + Drag with the Free Transform Tool = Shear
Cmd + Shif + Drag with Free Transform Tool = Skew

*Windows
Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Drag with the Free Transform Tool = Shear
Ctrl + Shif + Drag with Free Transform Tool = Skew

More about using the "Free Transform Tool" here.

How To Skew A Dot Pattern with Adobe Illustrator

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

10 HQ Geometric Pop Art Vector Graphics

A free vector set from Angie Bowen. Inside this pack you will find ten free abstract vectors that may help you achieve Pop Art style look in your design composition...

The artwork is saved in EPS file format, you can use any vector compatible editor to modify or customize it.

Free for personal and commercial use. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Download

10 HQ Geometric Pop Art Vector Graphics

Working with Spot Colors in Adobe Illustrator

An eye-opening material on issues with spot colors while using royalty free vectors from iStockphoto. "Picture this: You need an image for a project, and the deadline is looming. You download a cool illustration from iStock, place it in your layout and send it off to the printer. An hour later, the printer phones you back.

“Excellent,” you think, “my print job is done!” But nooo, the printer is calling to let you know that your file contains 15 spot colors, and if you really want 15 different plates made and run through the press, it’s going to cost you at least ten times more and take a whole week to finish. There goes your budget and your deadline.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!? Spot colors? How did those get there? And what are they, anyway?" Continue to full article.

Working with Spot Colors in Adobe Illustrator

15 Random Design Elements Free Vector Art Pack

Here we have a free vector pack that you can use for your design projects or inspiration. Inside you will find 15 random design elements some of which you might use as logo templates...

The set is saved in AI (Adobe Illustrator), EPS, PDF and SVG file formats, you can use any vector compatible editor to modify or customize it.

Free for personal and commercial use. If you post this vector art pack on your site, please make sure to include a link to www.vector-art.blogspot.com Download

15 Random Design Elements Free Vector Art Pack

Manga Vector Files

As a follow up to yesterdays article (80 of the Best Vector and Illustrator Free Resources ), here are some free Vector files to play about with.
All of these files have been recommended by various readers, and I am sure you will agree they are worth sharing. Thanks to everyone.

We all love free Vector.