Layer Effects - transfer from one layer to the next.

Good to know tip.
Some people may know this - but it is very useful for those who don’t.

Using Photoshop cs2
Q: How do I copy blending option effects (layer style) from one layer to the next?
A: Simply place your cursor over the effect layer - Hold down on alt and than drag the effects to the layer where you want the effects to be added. If you do not hold down on both alt and shift than your effect will simply be replaced and not multiplied.
 

Tips on Logo design.

 

medialoper logo(c) 2005 
Logo Design Aaron

I designed this logo a while back. In general For this logo I went against some logo deisgn rules… but if it looks good, if the concept is catchy and the client likes it than go for it! Very important rule in general about designing logos is that it should be designed in illustrator - vector is ideal for logos. Logos should be no more that 3 colors and they should have little detail  - Logos should be more iconic as opposed to a detailed illustration. They should be made of solid colors and less gradients. - The solid color rule is more for print - while designing for the web, gradients can be really sleek and give a nice effect. Logos should look good  in both large and small sizes - so once you have designed a logo go print it out on a 10cm x 10cm area and another print out on a 2cm x 2cm - if your logo looks good both ways (meaning it sits nicely and you can read the text clearly) - your logo can move on. People will create a logo and spend lots of money doing so only to find out that it is not legible on a business card (now isnt that sad). Remember this - If you are a creative and talented person than you should know that there are no real rules in logo design these are just a couple basic guidelines which are good to keep in mind while desiging a logo - just be creative and do your thing  who knows-  your logo style may be the next BIG thing.

Tip of today.. A cool photoshop clippingmask short cut I want to share.

I dont know what category this goes in - but I would call it intermediate to advanced.

Scenario: Lets say you have a certain image on layer 2 - and now you want to create a adjustment layer over top of that in order to give that image (on layer 2) a certain effect.  That is all good but one problem may arise - You may want that adjustment layer to effect only layer two BUT in reality it ends up effecting any layer which is beneath it also - which is a problem.

Solution A: 1. select the layer which is the “adjustment layer”
2. go to the “layer” menu at the top and select “create clipping mask”.  - voila! its done.

Now the fun short cut: instead of solution A you do the following:
place your mouse (cursor)  in between the adjustment layer and the image you want to be adjusted  -your cursor should be exactly on the line between the two layers in the layers panel. than hold down on ALT (at this time you should notice that your cursor symbol has changed from a hand to a weird circley thing) and while alt is being pressed - click down once.

boom. your done.
in order to reverse the effect (to undo it) you can do the same steps.

I am using photoshop cs2 - if anyone doesnt see the same occurances it is possibly because you are using a previous version.

thats all for today. I hope you can all learn new things from this.