CrazyLeaf Editorial I think most of people reading this blog already now what a PSD template is and why do we need it. Main purpose of this article is to help you not making mistakes when creating a PSD template. Everybody loves awesome layouts and even more if you create such ones you can get really well paid. So if you have a few minutes take look at this seven really helpful tips.
1st: Prepare Before Starting
Do you have a clear step-by-step plan of what to do? Have you tried to do a sketch? You must never start a project without preparations. Try to imagine what kind of house would an architect build if he had no plan? Let’s think of what should be included in your preparation part of project. Of course you should try drawing a sketch first of all simple and less detailed and after some clarifications more detailed one. Next step you should think of color scheme and fonts which you will use, it is important to check fonts licenses and compabilities. Here are some links that may be helpfull at this stage:
2nd: Keep Organized
If you have started creating a layout try to remain organized until the end of work on the project. Create folders, subfolders, use smart objects and so on, PS has a plenty of usefull tools for keeping your workplace organized. Why is this so important? Because if you want to change something, it will be much more easy to do if you can find and do it in several clicks, but not after an hour of searching and remebering. Also it makes you think of next step and helps a lot if you share your work with somebody, so that he shouldn’t try to guess what you were doing.
3rd: Look At Professionals
Take a quick tour to the Envato’s ThemeForest, you can see many professional works there. Why do you need this? Try to contact some of the leading designers maybe they will help with an advice. Try submiting your work, you could check out the forum if it would be rejected to find potential problems in your design. Don’t be shy everybody could make a mistake and everybody started like a newbie. And who knows maybe one day your work will be at the top! Here I attached some examples of stunning layout designs that you must see:
4th: Take Breaks
Nobody can do a really good work in few hours, production of a .psd layout takes much more time. Always remember you’re not in a hurry, so think carefully of each step. If something is getting not good think of alternate variants or simply take a break. Sometimes you may need additional inspiration, so watch a new film, read a book or just surf the Web for some inspirational resources. Some projects become finished not in one month, so just don’t give up and return back to work after a break.
5th: Standards vs Creativity
I think here we got the most difficult part of any design project, not only template design. Of course you need to fit some standards while creating a template, on other hand sometimes a lot of standrdisation breaks down all creativity. Where is the answer? It greatly depends on type of job you are doing if it was a personal request made by some company you should fit it’s rules in any case and if it is an own design created for showcasing either selling at marketplace or for personal needs you may try a new ideas. Of course there are some more general standards which you should always fit, but they should be clarified at early preparation state.
6th: Finalizing A Product
Now you are almost ready to finish your template, here comes the time to test some critical points. Check again if your work has right proportions, inspect all used fonts and other design elements like icons, buttons, bars and other that can be third party. Take carefull look at the colors and gradients it means very much for any type of design, you may ask your friends which are related to design(photographers, artists, another web-designers) what do they think about it. It is the right time to take a critical view over work you have done.
7th: Take It To The Whole New Level
Now with a ready product in your hands you must decide where to go. From this last step depends the future of your work, so think again. Maybe it will be more usefull to make a tutorial or to sell it like an exclusive design for a blog/site. Now the promotion part has started. How the work will be apreciated mostly depends on how you will present it, try to make some creative promotional moves. Of course don’t forget of making cool screenshots and demo’s for your template. The next stage could be different, sometimes it is really meaningful to look for coder to make your .psd template a HTML/CSS or WordPress theme. Your project greatly depends of path you follow, so think again and take it to the whole new level!
Conclusion
I hope this basic tips helped you in your design work. I do not pretend to say that this article is single right way to sucess, so it still reamains open for your own ideas and thoughts. And I also think that time taken by reading this will give you twice more income during your work.
About the author
My name is Nicolae. I’m a young and ambitious freelancer from Moldova. I’m greatly interested in web-design and web-programming. Currently I’m working on my own web project.
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