TONI ZOVA

You probably know a lot of good text effect tutorials out there on the web and maybe  you already tried some of them and you have your own top list of best text effect tutorials.  In this post I’m showing you 20 of the best text tutorials I know and I really like, check them out as it’s possible you have  missed some of them:

1. How to Create a Richly Ornate Typographic Illustration

2.How to Create Eroded Metal Text with Photoshop

3. 3D text effect - 2009

4. Advanced Glow Effects

5. Retro Text

6.How to Create High Quality Metal 3D Text in Photoshop

7.Wood Inlay Text

8. Moon Shine Text Effect

9.Colorful Glowing Text Effect

10. Awesome Grunge Text Effect

11.Chain Text

12.  Bubble Text

13. Aqua Text Photoshop Tutorial

14. Oily and Shinny Text Effect in Photoshop

15. Vanity License Plate

16. Add Fantastic Color to 3D Text

17. Cloudy Tex

18. Vibrant Pop Text Effect

19. Wanted Sign Into A Piece of Wood

20. Creating the Sky Logo

With this post I am also saying Thank you to all these designers who have made these tutorials. And I hope we’ll see a lot of new and cool tutorials like this in future. Also thanks to T-P!

Guest Author: Andrey

So, we have all seen our fair share of manipulated photographs and in all honesty, after a while they all start to seem the same. How many of you remember the first jumping ‘liquid’ dude manipulation spun into an ‘invisible’ dude manipulation then whatever else they could think of, most of these mind you are tutorials people play with.

After starting the jero design community it has slowly started to pick up pace though honestly I have yet to make it public other than that link up in the nav. Amazing content, work, threads have already gone up showing some truly creative talents, and I figured why go to other blogs and feature other designers when there are tons of creatives right here on jero.

So this week, I want to feature someone whos style, technique and work is just outstanding, one of those people who have some manipulation pieces to their name that one can really be proud of, unique, one of a kind really and executed with great precision and quality. (everything below this point is 3ncryptabl3_lick’s work and discriptions etc.)

Featured Designer: 3ncryptabl3_lick

headFan:

HeadFan took a couple of days. I wanted the effect to be as clean as possible since the whole shot is right in your face and not subject to any type of shadowing or obfuscation. All the details would be clearly visible and it was important to be careful how far I took them so they didn’t come off as too fake, like the tattooing for instance. I think it worked out well enough, though could definitely still be tweaked.

NicFit and PunchIn

NicFit and PunchIn where shot within a few hours of each other for the ‘Faceless’ series. Over all, PunchIn took the most time to shoot and to build, probably a day or so with the merging of half a dozen images elements into the one - so lots of cutting and lots of post work like the dark masses from the hands, skin blending etc.

More from 3ncryptabl3_lick:
The devil is indeed in the details. I think each piece has to have that one detail that places the content or concept within it’s environment.

With HeadFan, I think its the plug. With NicFit, its the blood on the chest, with PunchIn, its the hand stuff - the black root’like stuff, the blood smudges. While none of those are the focus, they tie into the concept and root them into the environment.

I’m not sure where my inspiration came from - I can say that I don’t spend a lot of time looking for inspiration. I figure if I can at least come up with one idea, not necessarily a good one, I can at least ‘amp’ it up somehow. So I guess it’s really just about taking what’s already been done and twisting it a little to make it my own.
NicFit

NicFit was really just about composting three main elements, the base body, the new face (which is the back of my head) and the arms with the cigarette and lighter - then blending - to get all the elements to match (or at least match closely enough)

To follow the photo manipulation thread check out his thread, Couple of manips in the jero design forum.

I’m going to take you on a journey, a ride through time to see what CSSDrive once was, how it evolved and what it has now become. You will experience a great deal while reading this article, everything from nausea, thanks to the 2005 March redesign, to joy when George decided to bless us with a somewhat minimalistic redesign around February of 2006. Lots of highs and lows, and highs and lows, and some more lows thanks to this latest redesign, but all that aside this just shows you how much CSSDrive has done for us a readers, as a community.

Let’s start off with the 2004 CSSDrive design…early September (is the earliest I could get a hold of), while George the owner of CSSDrive was constantly attempting to find new members, sometimes offering ‘free gMail accounts - those were the good ol’days’ - this popped into existence;

Yes, I screamed out in horror the first time i saw it too, but it really does bring a smile to my face. George is a great guy, and to think he came from that, to having a site that now ranks among the top 12,000 sites in the world on alexa is great, just inspiring. But, with every high note there’s a low one and when you thought that CSSDrive could only get better, ouch. It somehow managed to shake that year or so of online evolution and sink back down to an all time low…with this monstrosity;

I know, so it wasn’t as bad as made it out to be, at least he had a proper navigation now, and…this just meant that CSSDrive could only do better here on in! And they did, it only took George around 8 months or so to realize the crime he had committed against humanity was unacceptable, and after having bricks thrown though his window, his mothers pet cat lit on fire and their homes chimney stuffed with 4week old diapers, he got rid of the hideous design, and came out with this soon after;

Things were starting to look, as much as they could, and it looked like CSSDrive was slowly but surely picking up pace, growing, evolving into what would come next;

and then shortly after;

Which might honestly be one of my personal favorites. CSSDrive should have stopped evolving right there, and instead, gone on to adapt to the changes, it didnt in my opinion need another overhaul, I mean look at it. Simplicity at its finest. Sure it might have needed a new logo or at least a cleaner one, nip and tuck here and there but it looked solid. And I can’t say it got much worse, but in late 2007, yes, CSSDrive went ahead and transformed, again;

At this point, you have got to stop and think, bloody hell, it’ll looking alright but it’s had far too many face lifts, or has it? 7 or 8 in all its years of being online can’t be too much, right? Well, Jocelyn Wildenstein wouldn’t think so either. Today, this is what CSSDrive looks like;

That screen cap does it justice. Anyway, I’m not even going to get into what I personally thing of the redesign, as you can see, I doubt it will be the last, I just hope George gets it redesigned before his chimney starts filling up with 4week old diapers eh?

Oh and I found this along the way, I have no idea what year this is from but I don’t think it was up for long;

Ive been a loyal reader of CSSDrive for years, a loyal contributor for a few years too, and I will remain a friend to George, and a loyal member to CSSDrive for years to come. Ride is over, get gone now, that’s it.

Today’s post is different, I want to expose designers that have plagued the design industry as a whole. To expose those that piggy back ride on others hard work. To do all that, without naming names, without pointing fingers, without ruining careers. Maybe this will act as a wake up call for all those fuckers.

I guess today may as well go down in logo design history as the day everything was set to change. But first a disclaimer, I really don’t care much about what the logo design community has to say, but this is for those that are genuine, that still have morals and ethics, that still love what they do.

Disclaimer: This article is intended as a warning to many that I know read this blog, to those that dislike me for my brutal honesty and for the fact that I am a real logo designer, genuine, and passionate about what i do, while they’re just fakes, never-will-be’s. This article is not intended to offend those still in love with the industry, those who care about the industry and value it and appreciate it.

It’s disgusting you know? What’s happening in today’s design industry. Designers claiming to know it all, running around with a chip on their shoulder…What do they have to show for it? Honestly, probably a couple mortgages. But you know, I’m not going to base success on how much money they’re making, that wouldn’t be fair. After all, thanks to their none-existent marketing knowledge, business knowledge and for the most part none-existent common sense, it’s not hard to see why many of them would resort to cooking up work for pennies.

It doesn’t even surprise me that popular well known designers have now started to feel the pressure and slowly began to crack. High expectations mixed with envy drives these weak designers to that point, that little point where nothing makes sense and their judgment becomes clouded where there’s no sense of right and wrong.

No matter how smart you are, no matter where you get inspired from, how deep you dig to find it and think no one will find it, a rip, a plagiarized piece of work will always surface. You’ll be caught, remember that. It doesn’t matter who you are and how many you’ll have backing you that day, it doesn’t matter if you deny it or claim that due to your long years in the industry as one of the top designers that there’s no way YOU were inspired. It will not matter if you say you came up with the idea first or if it was a coincidence. There will not be an excuse strong enough, clever enough or legitimate enough to save you. People that forge someone elses signature in real life can end up in jail. Just because this is the internet and you’re ripping a couple graphics does not mean the law of conduct ceases to exist!

Here’s the thing, while many of you feel like reading this bit of drivel is a waste of time, I see it as a clear message, a statement. There are legitimate designers still in today’s industry, and we don’t like what we see. I’m personally gunning for you if you’re one of those rotten fucking apples, I have spare time in my day to find joy in tracking you guys down and exposing you. Even if this remains a one mans hobby, whether or not I find help, I’ll slowly but surely call you all out. That’s a promise, no matter who you are.

Why am I even bothering with all this? Because on some skewed level I feel like I owe the design community. I owe it to myself to be honest and true to the industry I work in, to not stand for the crap that goes on no matter what. If that means calling out fake designers, so be it. If it mean calling out poor design community webmasters, so be it. If that means calling out money hungry design services, that care less about a designers real worth, so be it.

This MyBB Theme has been a long time coming, I know. I started working on this back in 2008, Nov 14th actually, so yeah (been busy, life, work, Asian girl called Luanne…long story there), I know a LOT of you want to download and use this baby. With over 19,000 views to the original thread and over 150 comments it’s finally done!

A few things before you download it and run around woooping for joy, it’s got a couple bugs I just don’t have the time right now to fix, tiny bugs, nothing that will actually effect your use of the theme or make it unusable. I’ll try to get to these next week but can’t put off publishing the theme for people to use any longer, so consider this Jero V1.0

There will be a Jero V1.1 very soon with sexier effects to navigation, no bugs and some other nifty stuff here and there, I’m also preparing to work on a ‘light’ version of JERO, so stay tuned for that. It will be delicious as a white macbook pro, lame but yeah it’ll be hot.

So without further mombojumbo, download away!
JERO MyBB Theme Download
Here’s a Demo of the JERO Mybb Theme (offline atm for an hour due to update)

SIDE NOTE: A huge thank you to labrocca of MyBB Central and all the great members there who provided me with valuable feedback and constant support! Without you guys I honestly would not have bothered to complete this theme…so thank you.

Update: Buttons etc will be customized in the next update too, thanks for pointing that out. Also the rounded corner bug will be fixed

So I’m slowly redesigning parts of this blog, soon it’ll be the icons/some of the graphics, then later the header, then the nav and probably the footer etc.

So today I spent a few minutes knocking up a few social media icons for myself to use, but…butttt i’m a nice guy and gonna share them with you buggers to use. Nothing at all unique, very basic and goes with where my blog design will be headed.

There’s 7 icons, I’ll be updating the package fir 8 others when I have time tomorrow or something so if you like them in the first place and want them, check back some time. For the sake of making these into a pack i’m going to come up with a name for them, a really lame name mind you, PAPERCUT ICONS. Woohooo right? I know, I’ve got to get out more. So, enjoy…

Click the following link to >> download the free Papercut Icons

Or Wee, you know, urine. Yeah, there is such thing as Environmental Pee, and I’m going to talk to you about how to pee Green. No, green energy drinks are not involved, I really do mean being Green when it comes to urinating.

This mostly applies to men, truck drivers actually but I’m sure it could apply to some men and women alike all over the world. But truck drivers are the worst, really, they are. How many times have you spotted little gallon milk jugs all over the side of a highway or something? Seriously I think i’ve seen more milk jugs on the side of roads than I have any other form of trash. It’s crazy.

You do know what happens right? See, truck drivers drive for hours, long distance, and sometimes skip stopping for a restroom break, instead choosing to relieve themselves in a, yes, you guessed it, a bloody gallon milk jog. Then they just hurl it out of their window and if you’re a lucky sod and don’t get hit by the sudden burst of yellow rain the jug finds its way to the side of the road.

What’s wrong with this, some of you truck drivers must be wondering…well, the potential biohazard road litter for one, so here’s a solution to eliminate that biochemical misshap/shower and also to reduce your vehicles NOx emissions. Keep reading, this is going to be a life changing article, it will for the most part change the way we drive forever.

This is a disclaimer: performing the following mods to your vehicle will probably void your muffler warranties, most likely also void your automobiles warranty and most probably will land you in jail. Come to think of it, you’ll be in violation of a lot of state laws, yeah, definitely in California…but hey, it’s for the good of our planet! (i may not be held responsible for your stupidity.)

What you do is simple, fit a funnel between the your leg area, passenger or driver doesn’t matter. Both if you want to really do the world a favor. Get creative, I opt for the goosenek mic but you can use whatever you want. Now here’s the fun part, you have to punch a hole, or drill one that is, into the catalytic conv. or muffler on the end facing the engine (the Muffler is preferable). Mount a one-way valve on the converter or muffler with the flow indicator pointing toward the exhaust system. Mount an electric pump on the underneath of the vehicle away from the hot exhaust system.

Put a switch mounted on the dash labeled “Pee”, or “Wee” or “Piss”, or if you’re a girlie girl then “tinkler” or if you’re French “Wee Wee”..maybe not but you get the point. mount that between the battery fuse block power and the pump. Run a very-high-temperature tube from the funnel to the electric pump and another very-high-temperature tube. Make sure all connections are totally sealed as you do not want to get CO2 poisoning…yeah we would not want that.

See, to use it just turn on the Pee switch and Pee to your hearts content though please keep in mind that some states, like Cali, require handsfree operation so you have to get clever there too. Remember to turn off the switch when you’re done.
You’ve now reduced the Nitrous Oxides (NOx) and saved a water-wasting flush on a toilet. You’ll also be proud that you improved air quality and conserved water at the same time. You also saved your urea from joining the fish wee and whale poop in the ocean.

Just pee while you drive and save the environment as well as your money, please.

If you set something up like this please shoot me some pictures, preferably of you using it to better provide my readers with a visual example of it all.

Hey guys, how’s everyone doing?

Alright, not your ordinary blog post but my cousin wants to clear out her childrens toy closet, they’re moving back to the UK and just can’t be bothered with taking a lot of what she refers to as “excess blah blah”. So apart from her 2 little spoiled brats hating my guts now, I told her to give them all to me, and she did.

Now, I’m giving a bunch away to a fw foster care homes around the Manhattan/Brooklyn here in new york, but I still have so many on my hands to give away. I’ll list the ones left below and if you want one, just drop me a comment and make sure to enter your real email address so I can contact you for your mailing address!

The board games are for the most part in really good condition. Don’t worry about shipping costs etc, I’ll mail them your way for free. This will be first come first serve, so all you do is list the board games you want (no more than 2 per address to be fair and so as many people as possible get them!) - i’ll cross off the board games that are sent out.

List of the free board games(sorry i cant take individual pix or provide more information, you’ll have to google the games or link me and ask me if that’s it and ill check for you, some of these board games are so bloody weird!!! haha):

Cranium
Arthur Cartoon Board Game
Mastermind
Digimon
Mad Gab
Monopoly (classic)
Chinese Checkers
Dames
Backgammon
Risk
Rummy-o
Caves & Claws
Battleship (classic)
Marvel heroes Board Game
Heroscape
Concentration
Bionicle
Life
Stock Ticker
Clue Jr
Pictionary
Connect Four
Scrabble (classic)
Scrabble (for juniors)
Ancient Rome
Snakes and Ladders
Spider Man Board Game
Max
Boggle
Christmas game
Chess Set
Checkers
Clue
Pepper
Stone Age
Jambo!
You’re Bluffing
Mouse Trap
Pirate’s Cove
Fiasco

To those that have asked, yep, will ship to Canada/UK. No problem

Update: Those crossed out have been sent, i’ll be sending more out Monday (tomorrow) so please, if you still wants something not crossed out let me know, I have yet to check them off my list or get back all the emails I sent out confirming mailing addresses that those particular games are supposed to be sent out to!

Update: All board games are no longer available. For those I have contacted, it might be 5-7days before I can shoot off the second wave of board games your way, please be patient. God Bless.

If you’re a web designer then you know how bloody annoying and time consuming it can be to do some of the most simple things like tweaking the CSS, editing little typos in your code, measuring stuff and then slipping the figures into your style sheets etc. I mean, we waste so much time doing little bits and bobs that it’s ridiculous, but I, as perfect as I am, don’t waste a second. I use Add-ons to make my life easier while coding and you should too.

I’m going to go through a list of the Add-ons I use and explain what each does, trust me, at first, once you have a good 5-10 or even 15 Add-ons strapped into your browser, you might be a little overwhelmed, but trust me, it’s worth it and you’ll get used to utilizing these extra browser features!

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One of my all time favorites is the Firebug Add-on. Quoting them right off the source;

Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page. Firebug gives you full control over the CSS, HTML and JavaScript of any page that you choose. Inspect and edit HTML, Tweak CSS to perfection, Visualize CSS metrics, Monitor network activity, Debug and profile JavaScript, Quickly find errors, Explore the DOM, Execute JavaScript on the fly, Logging for JavaScript. Best of all, every change that you make is done live and instantly, so you can quickly test out different changes and see the results of those changes instantly.

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Another great Add-on is the CSS Validator/HTML Validator Add-on.

CSS Validator is a Firefox extension which Validates a page using the W3C CSS Validator. Adds an option to the right-click context menu and to the Tools menu to allow for easy validation of the CSS of the current page. Opens the results in a new tab. Will only work on pages that have a CSS file associated. For example it will work with http://www.w3.org/ as the URL has a CSS file. When using the HTML Validator, you can choose to validate directly in the browser (where any errors are shown as a status bar icon), show the source with explanations of errors after the validation or a validation with proposed solutions to any errors.

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For those annal about screen resolution etc, here’s one that will make your day, the Browser Window Resizer add-on. As simple as this add-on is, it’s def a nice help to quick check out your site in dif screen resolution settings.

The Browser Window Resizer is useful tool for testing different screen sizes. It accurately resizes your browser so you can test to see if the web page you’re working on looks right in all of the standard resolution sizes. This will allow you to see if your design is going to look good to visitors who aren’t using the same resolution as you. The best thing about this add-on is that if you are using it in conjunction with the other add-ons in this list (specifically Firebug), when you see that something isn’t displaying properly, you can instantly make adjustments to your code and see if that fixes the problem, all without ever leaving your current browser window. Browser Window Resizer add-on resize your Firefox window to 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×1024 and 1600×1200 resolution sizes.

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Here’s a nifty Add-on for you guys, the CSSViewer Add-on!

With this extension you can view CSS properties of related page elements. Very handy, when You got large CSS file with styles overlapping each other, to analyze why something is not displayed in the way You wanted.

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I also suggest you take a look at the JavaScript Debugger, FirePhp and the Palette Grabber Add-ons. There are tons of others so feel free to drop by the FireFox Add-on Archive.

And I know, a short list but I hope this is more of an introductions to FireFox Add-ons for you, really, step out of that plastic bubble ok? Smell the fresh air and see what all the big boys are playing with

So I’ve been a member of LogoPond for a few years, and I do enjoy it there. It’s a source for logo inspiration, it’s also full of drama queens (guilty as charged) but in all honesty there are some talented folks over there, and some really good people. What I want to touch base on here is LogoPond as a community, what it is doing to help/hurt the general design community and how we, as Logo Designers contribute to both.

First off I just want to say that the owner, David, while he’s someone I respect and enjoy bitching back and forth with, the guy really does try, he’s providing us all with a resource to not only get inspiration from but to also showcase our work and that helps designers get much needed exposure. For starters, he hasn’t banned me from LP yet, although we’ve exchanged emails and all, he really should have booted me off years ago, i’m an asshole, but, he chose to keep me around, deep down he must love me! But seriously, over the past few months, almost year, I’ve watched LP drop a little on that cool scale. The traffic might be the same if not more, users are submitting more stuff perhaps, but a couple things just scream to be addressed. Some of the crap being featured, and then brandstack. Those are the 2 main issues I have with LP and in all honesty seem to be the 2 factors that sort of hurt the logo design industry in general. Let me elaborate…

We all know I don’t get along with BS (brandStack), and i’m not going to yodel too long on that subject, Wes might have another cow and feel obligated to send me one of those “I hate you so much and wish a death by way of flaming-cow-shoved-up-ass upon you a thousand times over” emails, but come on. I get they’re paying to grab an ad slot on LP, or are they? But what the fuck David? You’ve explained your stance, noted that you would not favor BS for sale logos over regular truly inspiring logos when it comes to featuring them, but I just see that as a way out. I’d respect you a whole lot more if you just came out and said, well yeah BS pays me, so I’ll do what I want, it’s my site. But to pretend like you’re not favoring their shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit?

Ok, BS rant over, onto quality of some of the featured work and how either comments are being overlooked when complaints are made or intentionally ignored. I for one think they’re ignored because the second I tell someone to piss off on there, I get emailed or a forum thread goes up announcing how I’m the devil in tights being mean and picking on poor designers (it’s always indirect, you’d think these guys have balls to speak their minds). Give me a break, judge for yourself, tell me how these logos are feature worthy…how they are worthy of inspiring people, representing the best at LP, read the comments too, on some, people LINK to sources showing the logos in some instances as not even original, right down copies…

Some Featured logos on LP:

Eh, check this out…his excuse for using this and claiming it as his own was:

Thanks for feedback guys.
Ok, I necessarily that having whole different, I have a licence for this, and this VECTOR designed by my friend.

Now, this vector sold to INDIAN YOGA CLUB.

FAQ Center

I have no fucking idea what he’s on about either…nima is a nice kid, don’t get me wrong I’m sure he’s talented, but little back handed BS like this only does one thing, hurts our industry. I did something similar to prove a point a while back, while I couldn’t get my message across because people are so think sometimes, I honestly like to think that we could have a bit more pride and dignity when it comes to what we do for a living, no?

Here’s another,

Here’s where he got it from

So yeah, obviously over inspired? Yet it got featured, I’m betting that font is not even custom. His response? silence….and this says what to the rest of those kiddies out there running around popping out $15-$25 logos to clients? You not only get pocket change for this shit but you might also get rewarded, some recognition and hey hey, a feature spot on LP and other showcases!

I could go on, and on, really, but instead of making this a rant, it already is isn’t it? yeah, well I want to hear what you guys think about LogoPond in general, drama queens like me (have to say that so none of those fuckers think im personally attacking them) and the quality of work on there and what it represents.