Photoshop (etc?) tutorials, among other things

OK, so there's this program called Photoshop... too basic? Well, at least keep in mind that there is a pretty solid free photo editing tool as well.

OK, so there are lots and lots of Photoshop tutorials out there. I mean really, a lot. Tutorials for beginners and pros alike, because - honestly - Photoshop is such a robust program that even long-time pros at it can gain a lot from seeing other designers' tips/tricks in practice.

One tutorial site that I recently ran across, and on which I see plenty of consistently good (or at least interesting) tips is PSHero. Now, I don't know anything about the folks (person?) who runs the site, and I'm not endorsing them for office or anything. However, I think the site makes lots of good design suggestions - often, but not always, applicable to designers at a variety of skill levels - and walks you through the steps for creating various design documents.

Specifically, their section dedicated strictly to Photoshop (they also cover vector graphics and, sometimes, design in general as well) has some slick-looking tutorials. Maybe go check them out.

Interesting applications of type

Per our discussion today in class, here's a link to some typeface portraits.

On the same blog, there's a post with some videos of designers creating the portraits. It's not exactly a how-to, but you can see the designer set type to paths and then play with font size, weight, etc. to create the portraits.

I also thought this blog had some interesting experiments in typeface. Many of them are hard to read, but when that design decision is made carefully and in a way that doesn't ultimately obscure the message, it can still work, can't it?