One of Illustrator’s most powerful and overlooked tools is the Appearance Panel. Think of this tool as a super-Style feature: you can add an infinite number of effects that remain completely editable and the Appearance you create can be quickly added to new objects. Many designers close the Appearance Panel because it seems redundant when you have swatches and styles available. But as we will demonstrate, the Appearance Panel creates opportunities for incredible efficiency and creative exploration.

Postcards are a popular print advertising medium for businesses of all sizes. Whether you are a professional designer or staff in the marketing department, setting up a template for postcard printing is a smart way to get quick, consistent results. In this tutorial we will only use a two-color design for brevity’s sake, but you can design with as many colors as you would like. Just keep some of these tips in mind.

Finally a new wave of those business card designs we can’t get enough of! We’re pretty sure you’ve been seeing the same designs over and over again so if you’re looking for more creative inspiration, we hope this fresh batch will do the trick. See how you can have more fun with color, letterpress printing or simply play with the shape, cut or the material of your custom business cards. The designers responsible for these awesome designs are as indicated so feel free to browse their portfolios for more ideas.

Designing and printing posters that create the most impact and are talked about by viewers and audiences is a common, though not always achieved, objective of any business. But if there was one name or company who knows how to create a stir and turn heads with their dominant ads, without a doubt, it’s got to be Nike. Nike posters are effective as they are known to have strong visuals and minimal but right on the mark text. Here is our own Nike collection of ads and posters.

You would probably agree that among other marketing media, door hangers are usually underestimated, neglected and thought of as insignificant when it comes to the benefits they can bring to your brand. But wait until you go through this list we’ve put together. Door hangers are proving to be evolving with the creative designs of the times. Minimalist, neat and still eye-catching, it is obvious from these designs that if paired with the skills of the right graphic designer, door hangers can be just as effective as any other printed media.

Can your creativity handle the demand for purple? Designing websites for clients can sometimes prove to be quite a challenge especially when clients are set on having purple as a dominant shade on their website. We have scoured the internet to make a list of really yummy purple websites that prove worthy to be an inspiration for those of us stuck in a color dilemma.

What better place to get vicious eye-candy bursting with creativity than a graphic designer’s portfolio? In this first installment of our Coolest Graphic Designer Portfolio feature, we list artists and designers boasting of talent in illustrations, fine art, graphic design for flyers, posters and brochures for print, advertising, web design and photography.

We hope you enjoy browsing through their inspiring portfolios as we have! If you know of any graphic designer’s portfolio you find we should include in our list, feel free to let us know!

Designing your own brochures online, while still a major task, is now very possible with what’s accessible through the WWW. Everything from stock photos, backgrounds, templates to fonts are available online, most are for free and some for just a minimal cost. And just as designing brochures online have become a less than daunting task these days, so is printing brochures with the wide selection of popular brochure printers online. Here are some websites we have gathered together to help you design professional looking brochures faster. Feel free to comment if you know of more helpful brochure designing resources.