Don’t miss my latest tutorial on Psdtuts+ if you’re into textures, females or robots (that should cover just about everyone).

This tutorial is aimed at beginner-to-intermediate Photoshop users who want to obtain a rich, textured look with simple shapes and clever effects.
A combination of basic layer effects and great textures gives a realistic, shiny metallic look. It’s easy to expand on this style and adapt it to your own shapes. Have fun!

Check out these posts too:

1. Create a Leather-Textured, Realistic Briefcase Icon
2. How to Create a Swanky Coffee Table Icon in Photoshop
3. Create a Magnifying Glass Icon in Photoshop CS4

Poland has been my home for over four years now. Today it has been hit by a tragedy of great symbolic and practical value: the president, his wife, many members of his cabinet, members of Parliament, most Army commanders and other important intellectual figures died in a plane crash.

My colorful header is utterly of bad taste in a time like this so I’ve decided to tone it down to grayscale for a week, the duration of national mourning.

No related posts.

If you enjoyed my digital painting and were curious about the creative process behind it you can now find it in its entirety in a two-part tutorial I wrote for the Tuts+ network.
Part 1 shows you how to create the basic outlines in Illustrator and Part 2 takes the plain vector drawing and turns it into a detailed illustration using Photoshop’s texturing and painting tools.

Have fun and spread the word: Andrea Austoni creates much more than icons!

Check out these posts too:

1. Mastering Photoshop for Web Design Ebook Cover
2. Create a Textured Female Robot in Photoshop
3. How to Create a Curious Owl in Illustrator

I am finally unveiling my pet project for 2010: Icon Kitchen.

Everybody seems to have a pet project these days. Many have started a “xxx a day” type of blog (a logo a day, a drawing a day…) but that’s something I couldn’t keep up for sure.
It seems natural for an icon designer to open a stock icon store so I did it.

I worked real hard to create the first icon set, SEO Icons. Creating 100 icons, optimized for 7 sizes and packaged in 3 formats (.ico, .icns and .png) is quite an undertaking. I am mostly satisfied with the result and I learned a lot about icon sets. The next ones will be better and better (stay tuned).

Then it was time to make the website.
I tinkered around with it for a while but the design coalesced quite fast. Thankfully!
What you see now is only a temporary static page to cover me while I work on the WordPress version. For now it serves the purpose as there’s only one icon set to buy. In fact I am forced to say that the whole e-commerce stuff is quite new to me and I haven’t been able to implement the real-time delivery of the icons. I will process each order as soon as possible and I apologize in advance if any of you will have to wait a few hours to receive your download.
When the website runs on WordPress I’ll be sure to activate a proper e-commerce system which will immediately send each customer the download link. For now bear with me as I learn the ropes.

The portrait

Back to the design. I knew I wanted to depart from Cute Little Factory’s polished style while keeping key elements to reinforce my brand. I took my controversial caricature and added some more real-life garments to turn myself into a Chef:

Do I really own an apron like that you ask? Of course! I am wearing it right now.
The toque was painted with my trusty Intuos tablet (I hope you got one for Valentine’s Day).

The background

Second graphic element: the tablecloth.
I want my kitchen to be friendly, warm and affordable. None of that fancy schmancy cuisine crap. If you know what a trattoria is you know the kind of place I was aiming to emulate.

I didn’t want to overdo the soup kitchen graphic metaphor so there’s no real tablecloth, just a background pattern. The same goes for any kitchen utensils I might have included: they would have been too literal.

I wanted the icons to take the stage so the graphics had to be as subdued as my flamboyant style would allow. I had lots of fun painting the scroll of parchment.

The header

The header is an experiment: whereas all the other stock icons stores have a clean, company-like look, Icon Kitchen immediately establishes a friendlier, more reachable image.
I tried to create a clear reading path. From the title (1) you go to my portrait (2). Then the arrow points to the preview of the current icon set (3). Its background color and width match the tagline next to the title: Mmh…finger-lickin’ good STOCK ICONS by ANDREA AUSTONI (4).

I’m quite proud of this header. I think it’s fun and clever. I also love the copy. Whatever…

The typography

The typography is not elaborate because the main typeface is so striking that it does all the work: the Phaeton font by Kevin Cornell & Randy Jones.
This font reeks of old restaurant menus. I had to use it! Look at those wonderful swashes. Awesome work guys! (Read more about it)

The body is set in Palatino (Linotype), a good old serif that doesn’t look as good as Georgia on screen but doesn’t look as modern either. I love Georgia, you see it everywhere here on CLF, but Icon Kitchen called for a more quaint-looking typeface.

The layout

Aside from the header, which is final, the rest of the website is still up for grabs, in a way.
I don’t really like how the content is stacked up plus the menu scroll is boring placed like that. I don’t know what I will eventually come up with for the WordPress version.
I know this header will only appear on the homepage so I have to figure out a way to register another header for the internal pages. They will have to include a home link for sure (you can click on the title but it’s better to be explicit).
I will try to avoid the sidebar but actually it can be useful for storing a bunch of links to secondary pages like terms of agreement, post lists and so on. I am open to suggestions and any WordPress and e-commerce related help is appreciated.

Conclusion

All in all I’m quite happy to have gone this far with this project. It’s not complete and it’s not smooth but it was important to ship it as soon as possible.
Header over to Icon Kitchen and download the SEO Icons sampler: you’ll be able to enjoy some of the icons in your personal projects and of course you’re welcome to buy the whole set anytime.
My intention is to always offer a sampler to go with the full set so you can try out my icons before you buy them. What if they don’t work in your project? It would be stupid to buy them.

Now it’s your turn: do you have a pet project?

Check out these posts too:

1. Introducing EDITABLE MESS
2. Realistic Leather Briefcase Icon
3. My Icon Wants To Kill Your Mama

I’m planning a trash can/recycle bin icon set and the first icon is a bathtub. I created a tutorial to show how I did it. Go read it on Instatuts, comment and share.
Stay tuned for the icon set in the near future.

Check out these posts too:

1. How to Create a Shiny Paint Bucket Icon
2. Create a Leather-Textured, Realistic Briefcase Icon
3. RSS Christmas Stocking Icon

My first ever interview. Andy Law, of Web Agencies fame, a client of mine, has asked me questions about my background, my current activities and the way I do my business.
It was a pleasure talking to him and a precious opportunity to raise some issues on the current state of design.

If you’re interested in my background and my views on design drop by Creative Swell and read the full interview.

Thanks Andy! (Hey, I’m sure they never think he’s a woman when they see his name…)

Check out these posts too:

1. You think I’m a woman. I’m not!

I have some news for you: I am not a woman. See?

Since my name is Andrea everybody assumes I’m a woman. In fact, Andrea in Italy is purely a male name. And rightly so! It comes from the Greek word “andros” which means “man”.
Read the Wikipedia article on Andrea if you don’t believe me. Why this is a female name outside Italy is therefore one of history’s more puzzling mysteries.

In order to eliminate all doubts I painted some facial hair on my portrait in the header, where it says “Hire me” (nice plug!).
Of course who am I fooling? Even without a beard it’s clear I’m not a woman: I have white hair, a flat chest and I’m ugly. So the fact that I am mistaken for a woman means nobody actually bothers to look at my website. Such a shame!
By the way, isn’t it interesting that I post this under “News”?

Check out these posts too:

1. Interview on Creative Swell
2. Introducing Icon Kitchen

I called it EDITABLE MESS, what life is.

Where does that name come from? If you have to ask you are not a 3D artist!
It’s a pun on “editable mesh”, a polygonal object found in 3D software (specifically 3DS MAX). When complex mesh objects are viewed in wireframe mode they look like an intricate web of thin lines, an editable mess indeed. Hence the name.
The tag line “what life is” exemplifies my feeling towards life: it is a mess but you can still change it to suit your needs.

Every once in a while I’ll publish doodles and sketches, especially on slow days like last Wednesday. Some of those are made with the tablet but most of them are made by real hands with pencils, brush pens, sable brushes and ink on real paper. It’s the real thing.
So drop in every once in a while to have a taste of my unbridled, captivating weirdness…

Check out these posts too:

1. Introducing Icon Kitchen

I am currently updating all my posts so they fit the new layout so for the next few days the blog will look a bit odd. I apologize for that.
When I finish I’ll write a post detailing what happened behind the scenes. Of course the are many small quirks to iron out and I’ll deal with them as they pop up. For now enjoy the new look and of course your feedback is appreciated!

Check out these posts too:

1. Create a Cute Baby Seal with Illustrator
2. Design a Cute Hamster Avatar

Lately I’ve seen many websites that boast quotes from famous designers (and CEO superstars hailing from infinite loops). I think they’re supposed to show the visitors that the owners of the websites, in many instances designers themselves, are in the know. It probably works but I wouldn’t know, I’m not easily impressed and I’m not a client. To me it just shows that so-and-so has read book so-and-so. Big deal. Anyway I decided to make my version of a design quote and I’m putting it on a T-shirt.

It’s a tongue-in-cheek rendition of the aforementioned statements, only truer to what, in my opinion, they really are: just another way to put ourselves in the necessary state of mind to block out doubt and let the creative juices flow. Fizz!

The T-shirt is available from my Cafe Press Shop.
If you feel like showing other people that you take your profession so seriously you can crack a joke about it, go buy it!

Check out these posts too:

1. T-Shirt Social Icons
2. Design a Fun Invoice Template with Illustrator and InDesign
3. How to Create a Dynamic Design Portfolio with WordPress