As the internet landscape has evolved at a blistering pace, universities have been left behind and often teaching skills and concepts that are years out of date. I was excited to read about The University of Colorado’s Boulder Digital Work program. Their stated mission is, “developing today and tomorrow’s digital leaders and entrepreneurs.”

This sounds like a very forward thinking program and hopefully it will produce a lot of local talent with a much better understanding of the digital realm than most schools offer today. Courses include Interaction Design, Experience Design, Digital Branding, Social Networks, and Software Development.

I hope this program is successful and that it will help to continue the growth of Boulder as a hub for innovation.

For a more basic reflection tutorial find it here. To start, paste your image into a new Photoshop file. Be sure to leave some room at the bottom for your reflection.

To make the photo appear to be receding back, transform the top layer by selecting Edit > Transform > Perspective.

Select one of the corners and drag up enough to make the photo look like it is receding into the background (don’t overdo it) Once you’re done, hit RETURN.

In order to complete the perspective, you need to scale the photo so it doesn’t look stretched. Select Edit > Transform > Scale.

Select one of the side handles and drag over enough to make the photo look like it has maintained the original proportions (once again, don’t overdo it) Once you’re done, hit RETURN.

Next, duplicate the layer your image is on by right clicking the layer and select: Duplicate Layer.

Now select the bottom layer, and under edit > transform> Flip Vertical.

Use the selection tool and move the image down so that the bottom corner of the top layer is touching the top corner of the bottom layer.

With the bottom layer still selected, transform the bottom layer to match the edges of the top layer. Choose Edit > Transform > Perspective. Select the side handle and drag it up till the edges are touching the top layer.

Still using that same bottom layer, create a new layer mask.

Select the gradient tool, and make sure that your foreground color is black and your background color is white. In the gradient options, select linear foreground to background.

Make sure you still have the mask layer selected (you will see lines bordering the corners). Hold down shift and apply a gradient from the bottom of the canvas to the top of the bottom image (make sure you do this in the middle of the canvas.

Apply an opacity to your bottom layer (and crop the canvas if you’d like), and you’re done!

More reflection tutorials to come. Stay tuned.

Twitter icon: Fluffy Bird from Imulus on Vimeo.

It’s amazing how many times we overlook the importance of usability with objects we encounter on a daily basis. Take for instance, coins. This seemingly simple object has basic usability elements which should be considered during the design process:

1. Weight. It makes no sense to carry a coins which are heavy and are burdensome to transport in a pocket.
2. Size. They need to be small enough so that many of them can fit into a pocket, yet large enough to be easily read.
3. Material. Should be durable enough to resist wear and tear, yet not expensive to massively reproduce.
4. Art. A good coin should say something about the country and the culture it comes from.

I’d also argue there is a 5th trait which somehow seems to be lost in a survey of coins. Accessibility.

Let’s look at American coins.

There is zero logic to the corresponding value of the coin and the size. But most importantly it lacks any numeric representation. A foreigner using American coins needs to either recognize the coin or read the English text to interpret it’s value. Compare this with the Euro, which clearly denotes the value of each piece.

From an accessibility standpoint, American coins are unfriendly. They lack the universal visual data to quickly understand the value of each piece. Since we’re undergoing all this “change” lately, why don’t we just take a moment to revamp all our coins as well. Let’s make a Yankee version of the Euro.

To start, paste your image into a new Photoshop file. Be sure to leave some room at the bottom for your reflection.

Next, duplicate the layer your image is on by right clicking the layer and select: Duplicate Layer.

Now select the bottom layer, and under edit > transform> Flip Vertical

Use the selection tool and move the image down so that the top edge is touching the bottom edge of the top layer.

Still using that same bottom layer, create a new layer mask.

Select the gradient tool, and make sure that your foreground color is black and your background color is white. In the gradient options, select linear foreground to background.

Make sure you still have the mask layer selected (you will see lines bordering the corners). Hold down shift and apply a gradient from the bottom of the canvas to the top of the bottom image.

Apply an opacity to your bottom layer, and you’re done!

NOTE: When working with reflections, it is important to note that reflections SHOULD NOT overlap. This is an example of what NOT to do:

This is correct:

More reflection tutorials to come. Stay tuned.