Fin Andrey Gordeev on the web .

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‘If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.’
John Cleese

With the economy the way it is its not surprising to be less than a Kubrick when it comes to being creative; add to that bad clients and running your own company and creativity can seem like a luxury.

What were the first things that got you excited about design? Remember a time when you couldn’t wait to strut your creative stuff in a flickr group? Or show your friends and family your latest digital creation. I certainly can and strive to keep the creative flare alight.

There is a difference between creativity and plain old work, creativity cannot easily be timed or managed. Picture a flood gate or damn, you can pace up and down it all day wondering what to do next, without any water moving, but only when the creative penny drops and you hit the lever will the flood gates open up. This often happens when we go and do something else or do nothing at all.

Why do we need to boost our creativity? Because design is what we fell in love with and we’ll be doing it even when CS20 comes out if we can.

Have you heard the story of Archimedes, one of the brightest mathematicians of antiquity? He was asked by his king to measure the amount of gold in his crown. Archimedes puzzled over this for a while with no answer. After climbing into a bath and displacing the water over the edge he discovered his answer. If the crown is pure gold it will displace the same bulk of water as any other weight of gold. If it isn’t pure it will displace more – he had discovered a way to measure density. As legend had it he ran into the street, naked shouting,’ Eureka’ – which means – I’ve found it.

Enough thermodynamics, the point of the story is when Archimedes relaxed, took a bath and stopped trying to think of a solution the answer was right in front of him.

“The mind needs exercise as much as the body does.”
John Morgan.

These 10 points are proven because they have worked with me.

1

Do Something Else

Simple, right? Yes, not only is doing something else great for taking your mind off a problem it allows your eyes a rest and uncrumples your back. Cut the grass, back up your designs, do something away from the desk. This will take your mind off the design problem often allowing the creative idea to emerge when you least expect it. I find exercise occupies my mind enough to let me think out an idea.

2

Take a Real Break

The whole world isn’t going to stop however much you think it is. If you find this hard, think of it as a way to actually boost your productivity, that way when you take a break you’ll still be working towards your goals. This is different from doing something else as it means no work type tasks, just doing very little.

3

Pinpoint the Core Theme

Focus on the main idea and do all the smaller steps later. As long as you know you can realistically get the project done with the skills and time you have. You should plough all your time into defining the idea ensuring it is creative and original enough. This will allow you more time to dedicate to the work. You don’t have to be Picasso to start with, sometimes just writing titles or even random words can really help.

4

Don’t define yourself

The best style is not to have a style as Bruce Lee said. Even if you have a style you have to evolve it or otherwise there’s no room for being creative. Be willing to try out new styles and ways of doing things

‘God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style; He just goes on trying other things.’
Pablo Picasso

5

Be Relaxed & Start Out On the Right Foot –

Or left foot, just make sure that you feel ready, enthusiastic and open minded. For some this might mean practicing relaxation techniques such as breathing, for others a film will get you in the right frame of mind. This is also part of allowing yourself enough time to properly prepare for the project and time to complete it.

6

Get the Ideas Out On Paper Before they Disappear

I often carry a notebook with me so I never miss an idea; they always come in handy as you never know when you’ll have your Eureka moment. Plus they often don’t come back or are very hard to remember so think of notes as Ctrl + S.

I find writing out all my ideas helps me – I then go through thinking about how each idea could be expanded and  then rinse and repeat.

7

Learn

Remember what really got you excited about design. Look up designers you follow and find out about there design process. Dig through old projects to see what you have done, that works for me. Focus on some new techniques technically and creatively.The fact is you never stop learning and are never really good enough , if you think youv’e reached your peak – think again because theres always someone way better than you. This may sound harsh however it is true.

I hope you find inspiration from this article and now know how to boost your creativity a little more.

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Create a text reflection in photoshop using a displacement map.

Quick Tip No. 1

Today I thought I would start the quick tip series for Photoshop. This series will be covering  how to do certain effects & smart ways to get more done in Photoshop . 

This is a thorough and flexible technique to add a reflection to text on water and in other settings. This technique is also nearly 100% non destructive which is what we should always aim for; the smart filter can be altered very easily as can the reflection – this all makes our design lives easier.

(thanks to Marcus Vegas for the sea image)

Step1

To start download this image of the sea and place it into Photoshop.

Save this as a photoshop psd file and name it ‘displacement map 1’ . Save it somewhere easy to find on your desktop.

Step 2

Add a curves adjustment layer with output at 31 and input at 179 .

Step 3

Ad an exposure adjustment layer with exposure set to – 0.10

Step 4

Type out ‘ Digital Art Empire’, or something else memorable that you like.  A sans serif bold font will work nicely.

Step 5

Add a gradient layer style with the stops in a similar place and colour to these. Black, then dark grey, then Black again .

Step 6

Copy this layer using ctrl + J .

Step 7

Press Ctrl + T to free transform and choose flip vertical , then holding shift drag the copy down so it’s a reflection.

Step 8

Ctrl + T again and drag the top of the copy reflection down a bit.

Step 9

Right click the copied text layer and rasterize type, then right click again and select convert to smart object . This way the filter we use , the displacement map, will be a smart filter and we can change it as we go.

Step 10

With the copied text layer selected go to filter , distort and displace. Choose 3 and 3 for the scales and leave the rest as defaults. Then choose the PSD file we saved earlier called  ‘displacement map 1′

Step 11

Add a layer mask to the copied text layer , choose a black to white linear gradient and drag so the reflection is faded

And that’s it – I hope you had fun and learnt something useful thanks for visiting Digital Art Empire.

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