Color in Practice: Getting Personal with Palettes

Color in Practice: Getting Personal with Palettes

For this final installment of my Color in Practice blog series, I’ll take a closer look at how to go beyond the rainbow and how to apply color theory concepts into your design work.

Color in Practice: Getting Personal with Palettes

While everyone’s personal aesthetic and favorite colors to use are different, learning why certain palettes work—and how to improve upon them—can lead to new opportunities for experimentation, evolution, and improvement.

Previously:
Covered in This Post:
  1. Other Types of Color
  2. Using Color More Adventurously
  3. Homework
Continue reading “Color in Practice: Getting Personal with Palettes”

Color in Practice: A Beginner’s Guide to Color Schemes

Color in Practice: A Beginner's Guide to Color Schemes

For creatives, color isn’t only pretty to look at. It’s a helpful tool that can be applied anywhere—from pulling off a daring #OOTD look, creating a successful brand identity, or giving your artwork some added sophistication. And nothing is more mesmerizing and inspiring than an amazing color scheme.

Color in Practice: A Beginner's Guide to Color Schemes

In this installment of my Color in Practice series, I’ll share how color theory helps us mix and match colors with confidence and share a few ideas for how to apply those color schemes to your work ASAP!

Previously:
Covered in This Post:
  1. How Do You Create a Color Scheme?
  2. Additional Resources
  3. Homework
Continue reading “Color in Practice: A Beginner’s Guide to Color Schemes”

Color in Practice: Picking the Right Shade? Hue? Tone?

Color in Practice: Picking the Right Shade? Hue? Tone?

Color is a vital part of our daily life. It changes our mood, helps us stay organized, can draw our attention, or convey a message. And none of this happens by accident. If you’re curious about color or want to learn how to incorporate more of it into your creative work, I’m excited to share some of my knowledge in this short blog series, Color in Practice.

Color in Practice: Picking the Right Shade? Hue? Tone?

Today, I’ll start us off with a quick introduction to some basic color theory concepts and terminology, plus share my favorite tips for picking great color combinations.

Covered in This Post:
  1. What is Color Theory?
    • Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Colors
    • Hues, Tints, Tones, and Shades
  2. How Do I Choose the Right Color?
    • Using traditional colors
    • Using color to fulfill a design brief
    • Using color psychology and symbolism
    • Using color trends
  3. Homework
Continue reading “Color in Practice: Picking the Right Shade? Hue? Tone?”

Download of the Month

If you’ve enjoyed my blog posts and creative content this month, please consider supporting me with a one-time donation through Ko-fi!

Your support helps me:
~maintain my blog
~pay for design software
~run my small business.

Donate during the month of January to receive a lockscreen and desktop wallpaper featuring one of my favorite motivational quotes!

Visit my Ko-fi page for more info!


Support my creative work by sharing a favorite post with a friend, leaving a comment here on the blog, or making a one-time donation via Ko-fi.

Download of the Month

If you’ve enjoyed my blogging and creative content this month, please consider supporting me with a one-time donation through Ko-fi! Your support helps me maintain my blog, pays for my design software, and helps me run my small business.

Donate during the month of December to receive a lockscreen and desktop wallpaper featuring my holly stemwear illustration!

Visit my Ko-fi page for more info!

Support my creative work by sharing a favorite post with a friend, leaving a comment here on the blog, or making a one-time donation via Ko-fi.

Download of the Month

If you’ve enjoyed my blogging and creative content this month, please consider supporting me with a one-time donation through Ko-fi! Your support helps me maintain my blog, pays for my design software, and helps me run my small business.

Donate during the month of September to receive a lockscreen and desktop wallpaper featuring a creative quote from the one and only Albert Einstein.

Mockup of a mobile phone. A teal lockscreen with a fluid pattern features typography with the quote "I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination" from Albert Einstein. Text to the right reads: "Support me on Ko-fi. September supporters will receive a phone lockscreen & desktop wallpaper featuring a creative quote from Albert Einstein as a thank you." a button underneath contains the link: ko-fi.com/ElzaKinde.

Visit my Ko-fi page for more info!

Working 9-5: Why I’m Live-Tweeting my Wednesdays

For the first time last week, I shared my virtual workspace via Twitter. An open invitation for my friends and followers to experience A Day in the Life of a Graphic Designer was released on social media, along with a 9am-5pm schedule.

Working 9-5: Why I'm Live-Tweeting My Wednesdays

My plan: to Live Tweet my regular old workday on Wednesdays. But why?

Continue reading “Working 9-5: Why I’m Live-Tweeting my Wednesdays”

Download of the Month

You can now find me on Ko-fi! If you’ve been enjoying my content, please consider making a one-time donation.

Follow me, cost free, on Ko-fi for regular updates, shop updates, and other news.

Supporters who make a one-time donation during the month of August can download a lockscreen and desktop wallpaper featuring lyrics from West Coast Friendship by Owl City.

Visit my Ko-fi page for more info!

A Day in the Life

Have you been wondering how a graphic designer like me spends their day? Are you tired of working from home all alone? Did you ever think a regular workday would be exciting?

I invite you to join me for A Day in the Life of a Graphic Designer. I’ll be sharing my workday with you via Twitter tomorrow (August 12) in a “productivity crawl” from 9am to 5pm (PST).

You don’t have to be a graphic designer to participate, but you will get a glimpse of my workspace, pick up a few tips and tricks on productivity, and hopefully get some much-needed social out of social media. Use this time to get stuff done in your own way.

A Day in the Life of a Graphic Designer. Work 9-5 PST with @ElzaKinde on Twitter. Wednesday, August 12.

Wednesday, August 12

9AM to 5PM (PST), hosted by @ElzaKinde on Twitter

9AM – Event Begins
9:30 – Research & Prep
10AM – Focus Time
11AM – 20 Minute Break
11:20 – Focus Time
12:30 – Lunch Break
1:30 – Event Resumes
1:45 – Check & Respond to Emails
2PM – Low-Focus Work + Entertainment
3PM – Stretch Break
4PM – Event Resumes
4:30 – Last Push
5PM – Event Ends

I hope to see you there!

For the Love of Fonts 3: Typography Tips & Terms for Beginners

Now that you know how to pick the perfect fonts and match them up, I’m sure you’re eager to start using them. For me, there’s nothing more satisfying than turning everyday words into something eye-catching, effortless, and effective. Which is deeply ironic, since text-only design used to be the bane of my existence. Ah, if Past Elza could only see me now…

Despite our rocky beginnings, typography is an integral (and enjoyable) part of my graphic design work. Today, I’m going to help you begin to make sense of the various concepts, common terms, and techniques that make up the world of typography.

Continue reading “For the Love of Fonts 3: Typography Tips & Terms for Beginners”