204 posts written by Dainis Graveris

Dainis Graveris is 21 years old blogger and designer with really strong passion. He usually hangs out in Twitter tweeting design related links regularly. If You use Digg actively he can be great friend there and don't forget add to StumbleUpon too! How about Deviantart? Meet him there as well! If You have any questions feel free to write and add him to Gtalk - it is beautiful way to get contacted directly!

1WD Giveaway Contest Winner Announcement & Feedback

Hello everybody! We're finally back with our contest results –  I am apologising it took so long, but wasn't easy to gather all results from Facebook, Twitter, comments –  decide which prizes get each winner and finally putting that all together and contacting all our kind sponsors. Holiday season also didn't help to get job done faster..:) Huh, okay, but to move on –  finally results are announced and you can check if you're one of the winners in the list by reading further. Don't worry we are contacting everybody even if we didn't get your email –  expect for Twitter private messages or Facebook message so we can be sure you receive your prize as supposed.

 Read more

1WD 2 Year Anniversary And Massive 6000$ Worth Giveaway

Hello everybody! Finally that day has come! Which day you may ask? Well...where should I start? –  today 1WD is celebrating 2 years anniversary and fourth (4^th) version of design. We were working really hard all summer, and if one year ago I was working all alone, now I am honored to have a beautiful team together with me including several full time writers Rean, Sheena, Jane, Michael,Charina with our main chief editor Saad Bassi and social media ninja Ligita Kluga. Huh, also what I need to add, our actual 2 years anniversary was on August 30, but we didn't announce it because our new design wasn't finished. Now it's here and we are finally ready to move on!

 Read more

PhotoSquares Portfolio WP Theme Review & Exclusive 25% Discount

PhotoSquares WordPress theme was created to give users most flexible solution for building online portfolio. Flexible is a word that describes best almost everything about the theme, you can totally customize the theme without knowing any programming at all. In this review I will explain some of the most powerful PhotoSquares theme features, I just want to show what really makes this theme unique - as title explains already this theme will suit the best for portfolio and photographer sites,who put their biggest focus on images, beautiful works they've done before. Let images speak and enjoy the benefits!

 Read more

Unique 3D Text – Xara 3D + Photoshop Tutorial

So hello again! It's time for my first tutorial I've ever been made. I actually hope You will enjoy this one, and that will encourage me to do some more. We will use Xara 3D to get 3D text effect, then export text to Photoshop and add some style there.  If You haven't got Xara 3D, You can download demo for free ( 15 days trial) and You can read my review about Xara and their pros and cons. And yeah, If You don't want to download program I will give You *.psd file with text elements, so You can skip Xara part and get straight to Photoshop retouching part. Before we start here is what we will be creating today: Click on image to enlarge

1.Xara 3D tutorial part:

• Okay, let's open Xara 3D programm.  By default there will be "X3D Version 6"
• Click on the Text options, press CTRL+A to delete existing text and type T, choose font, You like and press OK.

• 1.2. Now we will change text a little bit -
• 1. Click on Text toolbar, to get off that rounded circle;
• 2.Click on Bold - to make text little bigger;
• 3.Click on Lightning to show lightning arrows;
• 4. Click on Bevel options to change default Bevel settings;

• 1.3.
• 1.3.1. Change bevel shape to rolled to add little bit emboss effect;
• 1.3.2.Click to Round to round corners a little bit;
• 1.3.3. Change depth to 10 - to soften a little emboss effect;

• 1.4. Okay, now we will play with lightning and 3D effects.
• 1.4.1. Click on Text as shown and move Your mouse cursor to add any 3D effect while it is exactly as You want;
• 1.4.2. Click on the arrows and move them around to get glossy view and better lightning, if needed;

• 1.5.Okay, We are done in XARA, now let's export text to Photoshop:
• 1.5.1. Click File-Export or CTRL+SHIFT+E to get export view;
• 1.5.2. Choose where to save file,then do check everything like picture below, to add transparency choose *.png format and in the options click Transparent checkbox;

Do this with every letter, change 3D effects, maybe colors - play with options until You are satisfied. I got 4 png files at the end, one for every letter - T,Y,P,E.

2.Adobe Photoshop part

If You are starting just from now on - click here to get *.zip file with all 4 *.png files. I will use many Photoshop keyboard shortcuts, if You want to learn about most useful ones, read my article  - 48+ Greatest Adobe Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts. 1.step

• 1.1.Create a new document, call it TYPE,  I used 1000x750 size.
• 1.2.Open T document in photoshop, press CTRL+A to select all, then CTRL+C, open Your TYPE document and press CTRL+V to drop it in the document;
• 1.3. resize text with CTRL+T and holding ALT+SHIFT to resize from center point and to resize it proportionally, rotate it to get better result;
• 1.4. Repeat those steps for all 4 text documents until You got result similar like mine:

2.step Now lets create some background,click on background layer to make it active:

• 1. Press G to activate gradient editor;
• 2.Click on radial gradient;
• 3.And then double click on the gradient editor, to get gradient editor;

• 4.Choose Foreground to background;
• 5.Use color codes to get output as mine, copy those RGB codes and use them: #f8b1d7, #8871a1

Now click and pull Your mouse like in the picture to get same result: 3.step Now let's add shadow to create more realistic effect: 1. Select all four text layers - easy technique is to select first layer, hold SHIFT and select on last layer You want to select, then right click and press duplicate;

• 2. Now press CTRL+E to merge those layers into one, rename it - shadow and move it below all text layers.
• 3. Hit D to reset foreground/background color;
• 4.CTRL+CLICK on the shadow layer to select it, then press ALT+DELETE to fill it with black color;

• 5. Hit CTRL+D to deselect layer;
• 6.Go to Filter-->Blur-->Gaussian Blur and type 10 to radius pixels, hit OK;
• 7. Change opacity to ~40% to soften shadow;

4.step I added more shadow to make it more realistic, You can skip this step if You want:

• 1.Click on Elliptical Marque tool and change feather to 50px;
• 2.Hit D to reset background/foreground color;
• 3. Click CTRL+SHIFT+N to create a new layer;

4.Click and drag marque tool below the letters, then change opacity to ~20-40%; 5. step In this step we will add some colors to actual text, I took idea here actually from Nick Ainley's work - 1.Double click on T text layer to get blending options: Check everything as in the pictures below, to get different colors just play with gradient overlay:

• 2. Okay, now You have one text nicely colored. To copy layer style --> right click on the layer - click "copy layer style";
• 3.Click on the other text layer - right click and "past layer style", just change gradient overlay colors to get different results;

My result is like this: 6.step Okay now lets add some more interesting background and styling:

• 1.Download those curvy line brushes - of course, better is to make those curves in Illustrator and then just import to Photoshop, but I will not bother You to do it now. I am sure You want to get faster to the final illustration.
• 2. Load brushes into just by double clicking and find them clicking F5 - to get brushes panel.
• 3.Click CTRL+SHIFT+N to create new layer and move it to top of all layers.
• 4. I used white background color.
• 5. Now change opacity to ~60-70% and click E, to grab eraser tool and erase few places to get effect that those lines are rambling through the letters:

Do this in big zoom ( click ALT+ Mousewheel to zoom in/out), so You can erase lines more precise: Repeat those steps, add some blending options to get Your own unique results! This is my final result: If You couldn't do something, check out my *.psd file - click here to download. If You couldn't do anything - please ask, I will be here to help You!

Creatives Showcase: 38 Deviantart August Inspirational Pieces

During hard organising and designing work, I was getting so busy I didn't get any time to create some more valuable articles from my side. Since actual development process is going to end, I will warm up today and feature some of the best artworks from Deviantart to get you inspired. If you recall, I always enjoyed to write some personal thoughts, impressions about almost each specific design and I will try my best again to name points, which really make design to stand out.

 Read more

Freebie:25 Original And FREE Abstract Smoke Brushes

This brushes pack contains 25 high quality photoshop brushes made with Photoshop CS4. The size of the brushes is aprox. 1200 pixels and the quality is the best you can get: - sharp edges - smooth gradients. This brushes are very useful for making wallpaper backgrounds, like the famous Vista wallpaper, or web headers, even on photo manipulations as fake smoke. Free for personal and commercial use. Enjoy!

 Read more

1WD Is Changing: Insights And Email Newsletter Finally!

If you've been active reader of 1stwebdesigner, you may have heard I have been planning big redesign for a long time. I think I've spent several months analyzing other similar blogs, thinking about features we need to include and just to understand which ones just don't work. I consider new redesign will be complete site relaunch, we've got a lot of positive feedback about new redesign already, when we tweeted about it and gave a sneak peek insight in new design, you can still see it on my Deviantart profile (not final version though, we are making small improvements all the time).

 Read more

73 Blog Designs From Deviantart You’ll Never Forget

For some long time I’ve been gathering great blog designs from deviantart to get inspired and now I will showcase them all in one huge article!! Surprisingly finding great ideas and designs have been much easier in Deviantart than any other web design showcase sites. I didn’t add any comments this time – compare these designs yourself and try to understand why ones really stand out, well others seem a little bit classical. Notice small things, how designer puts a little bit unique style in its design to make emphasis like folding, comment,date boxes which stand out from layout, icons, background textures and nice shadings.

 Read more

DepositPhotos Giveaway: 3 People To Win Accounts

DepositPhotos.com is a great resource for buying and selling Royalty-free photographs and vector illustrations. They slogan is –  “Buy It Easy! Sell It Easy” describing how easy it is to do both tasks so you are in the right place if you are searching for premium photographs or trying to sell your work and earn some extra money! Why am I writing this? Because today we have a giveaway to launch with you and we are giving away:3 accounts in Depositphotos each worth 50$!

 Read more

Modern Element Trends In Minimal Webdesign of 2010

As you may heard, I've been working on site redesign for a long time already and now I am deeply researching modern elements in minimal webdesign - I decided to share my research with all of you. I think this modern&minimal trend will rule for some time, time for loud elements and web 2.0 cheap shiny badges has been long gone –  time for subtle emphasis, accents, big and stylish fonts, lightly textured backgrounds,grids, lots of negative space, usage of icons.

 Read more