Articles by: Jeff Finley
Tutorial: Create a Torn Paper Effect like Eternal Sunshine – Smart Object Template Available
One of my favorite movies of all time is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I also really love the movie posters that featured a torn paper effect across the person’s eyes with some text underneath. Nice job by BLT on the original posters. I thought it would be cool to make my own version and show you how I did it.
If you want to skip this whole thing and make it easy, I’ve made a Smart Object Photoshop Template so you can easily add your own photo and text. Just double click the smart object layers, paste in your photo, save, and voila! You can even swap out the torn paper images if you’d like.
Tutorial: Designing a Digipak Layout for Campfire Conspiracy
I’m going to show you how I designed the digipak for my band Campfire Conspiracy‘s debut album. If you’ve been following along I’ve written design tutorials about art I’ve created for the bands I’ve played in. You’ve probably seen the band logo tutorial I…
Step by Step: Printing Weapons of Mass Creation posters by Mama’s Sauce
We are pleased to show off the new art print for Weapons of Mass Creation 5! The lettering was done by the talented Mary Kate McDevitt and the printing is done by Mama’s Sauce! What follows is a step by…
eCommerce Nightmare: How CS-Cart handcuffed us for years and why we switched to WooCommerce
Oh dear, where do I start? I feel like there’s a huge story behind the scenes that we’ve never let our community in on. To be honest, we’re quite embarrassed about it and we’ve been trying to make things right ever since. But I think it’s time to come clean.
TL;DR: We’ve been trying to upgrade our graphic design resource marketplace, the Arsenal since 2010 and have failed miserably due to working with a heavily customized version of CS-Cart which seemingly handcuffed us to their development team. 4 years, headaches, panic attacks and tens of thousands of dollars later we are FINALLY breaking the chains and getting a taste of freedom! We’ve switched our platform over to WordPress and WooCommerce. Wordpress and WooCommerce both happen to also be Go Media’s preferred solutions for so many of our own clients…
So what was the problem?
How to Create Your Own Vector Pack – and sell it!
So you’ve seen all the crazy vector packs we sell over at the Arsenal. Today I’m going to teach you how to create your own stock vector pack and show you how you can sell it online with Gumroad!
How I Built a Killer Morning Routine
This post was originally written on my personal blog Maker/Mistaker and I thought I should repost it here.
So you call yourself a night owl huh? Most creative people I know (myself included) felt like they get in the zone after midnight. All is still and quiet and you can finally focus on your work. And if you’re not working, you’re doing something until the wee hours of the morning. If you’re like most night owls, you dread getting up in the morning.
That was certainly me. My wife too. Over time our bed time kept getting pushed back later and later because there was always “something to do” that we just had to do. We weren’t tired and going to bed felt like giving up on the day.
Fear of Making Money
This post was originally written on my personal blog Maker/Mistaker and I thought I should repost it here.
A while back I was having a conversation with a friend of mine Danielle Harper. We were discussing a lot of things that affect us as entrepreneurs. One of those was money. Danielle was describing a criticism she received but defended herself by saying, “and I didn’t even make any money on it.”
I stopped her right there because what she said made me realize something. She defended herself by reminding me that she didn’t make money. Why?
Check out her post on her blog about this very conversation.
So why did she resort to the “but I didn’t make money” defense? I notice this a lot with the people I surround myself with. Grown adults who grew up on punk rock that never quite fit into the system. The whole DIY movement is sort of a fuck-you to capitalism and corporate greed. There’s a certain badge of honor doing things yourself and trying to “stick it to the man.”
Weapons of Mass Creation Fest short documentary film
Three Days that Changed Our Lives Weapons of Mass Creation Fest 4 went down in the summer of 2013 in Cleveland, OH at the historic Cleveland Public Theatre and inspired us greatly. Over 1,500 dreamers, doers, makers and mistakers joined…
How to Design an Iconic and Memorable Band Logo
My new (pop punk) band Campfire Conspiracy was gearing up to play our first show and I had two weeks to finally come up with a logo and get it stenciled or painted onto our bass drum. We had a demo…
Athlete Originals: Connecting Designers with Pro Sports Stars
I was contacted by Chris Dey, the founder of Athlete Originals with an earnest request on how to build a crowd-sourced design website that professional designers actually liked. He had a great idea and it was cool that he was…
Tutorial: How to Design and Print Custom Silk Screen Die-Cut Stickers
This post is a revealing walk-through behind the design, illustration, and sticker printing process. I’m proud to show off the new artwork I created for the upcoming Weapons of Mass Creation Fest 4 event. The artwork below is going to be…
7 Side Income Strategies for Designers
I’ve seen some posts recently about how designers can make extra money online. Too often those posts are filled with crowdsourcing or design contest websites. Sure, you can submit a design to Threadless and maybe win some money or you…
WMC Fest 4 Date and Venue Announced!
Weapons of Mass Creation Fest partnering with Cleveland Public Theatre Rapidly growing midwestern art, design, and music festival remains in Cleveland’s Gordon Square neighborhood, moves to August 16-18, 2013 CLEVELAND, August 8, 2012 — On the heels of its largest-ever…
Photoshop Action: Stamp/Print Effect
Works great on any single color logo, emblem, mark, seal, crest. Because of the great response to my Aged Type action, I took it a bit further and made a similar effect that could be applied, not only to text,…
Thick Line Art: Creating Iconic Vector Art
I recently posted a new illustration on Dribbble called “Revivalist” and it got quite a lot of likes. I thought I’d write a tutorial about how I created it. So let’s do this! Introduction One of our clients Disciple Clothing…
The Making of Thread’s Not Dead
It’s been about 8 months since I launched my first ebook entitled Thread’s Not Dead: The Designer’s Guide to the Apparel Industry. We’ve sold over 1,000 copies of the ebook and we recently celebrated the launch of the hardcover edition.…
Daily Inspiration: Go with the Flow
Go Media president Bill Beachy sits down to give you some daily inspiration and advice. Bill shares his years of experience building Go Media into the company it is today. Topics in this video series include Getting Started, Happiness, Humility,…
WMC Fest Recap: From the Founder’s Perspective
There’s a lot of recaps being posted around the net from those who attended the 2nd ever Weapons of Mass Creation Fest last weekend. And I love it. I love seeing their photos and their stories. I wanted to post…
Video Tutorial: The Making of Andrew Jackson Follow Up
Hey guys, It’s me, Jeff Finley, with a quick video message for everyone thinking about grabbing The Making of Andrew Jackson video tutorial. You know I still get emails asking about the process & techniques I use to achieve that…
Hot Topic T-Shirt Wall Game: Name That Designer!
I thought this would be a fun game. I’m sure you’ve been into Hot Topic and looked up at the t-shirt wall for inspiration on designing tees. You might even have the pleasure of seeing one of your OWN designs…
Inspiration: Designers Who Started Their Own Clothing Line
As I’m writing the “Designers Guide to the Apparel Industry” eBook that I plan to release soon, I started to take notice of WHO are the role models that inspired this book. Essentially, who are the designers who started freelancing…
Design Show: Go Media’s Dirty Laundry
Go Media is airing our laundry for all to see! All GoMediaZine readers are cordially invited to our first annual Design Show “Dirty Laundry.” Please come and partake in our celebration of the past year, and allow us the opportunity…