Things You'll Need:
- Adobe Photoshop
- Knowledge in use of Layers
- Past experience with "FREE" textures
- An open mind and 5 minutes to make the biggest difference in your design skills.
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Step 1
Acknowledge that Textures in Photoshop is what makes a pro a pro.
There are a bunch of tutorials online that can teach you fancy tricks. Most are based on trends that come and go- for example- "how to make the 300 effect" (the movie 300?), "how to make the glassy button", or "how to make the mac background". They are useful, but so specific that you have to ask yourself- "When am I going to use these?". And "How long are these fads gonna last?" So are these tutorials going to help you design like a pro? No. They can help you use Photoshop better, but to design like a Pro, you have to think like a Pro. We'll get to that later.
There are also a bunch of freebies online. Free stuff for Photoshop- Free brushes, Free textures in Photoshop, Free plugins abound. Can these help you design like a pro? 5% of them can. 95% is rubbish. And finding the 5% that is worth your time will waste your time. Sometimes it makes your eyes "stupid"- looking at mediocre stuff gets you used to mediocre. Look, I already gave away the point of this article in the headline. The secret- the fastest way to give your design a boost is to stop relying on gimmicks and tricks, and start thinking like a pro- and a pro relies on fundamentals that do not change- like the use of texture in photoshop- not the effects and other useless stuff. But not all textures are good. Most of the free ones are mediocre. And if you want to design like a Pro, you have to use the tools that Pros use.
Don't get me wrong. If you know your sources, every now and then you'll find something worthwhile. Helpful sites like Smashing Magazine take the time to sift through the cacophony and post only the best stuff for free. But you can't rely on every post of theirs to arm yourself with the best texture in photoshop. And you can't keep an eye on 50 different sources either. What you need is one or two places that are go-to places so that when you have a design requirement, and you imagine a solution, you have a place to get exactly what you were envisioning. A premium resource for Photoshop Textures. Is there such a thing? Yes. -
Step 2
Invest in only the Best Textures in Photoshop
Just like there are free stock photo libraries, and there are premium (not for free) stock photo libraries, the same story goes for textures. Free isn't good enough for the discriminating designer, and the question will boil down to this- Are you a discriminating designer or is FREE good enough for you?
If there is one message I want you to remember after reading this it's this- just like every profession, Graphic Design requires you to invest in good tools. A good computer, good software, and good textures. Good fonts too. Invest means- you have to SPEND ON IT. And the fastest way to Graphic Design like a pro is to get a war chest of PRO textures- not FREE textures- and master only one thing in Photoshop- the use of layers and blending styles. That's it. That's not a fad, it's been around since Photoshop 7 (we're in CS4 now, that's like Photoshop 11), and will always be around because Graphic Design is all about layers, and layers are all about textures. -
Step 3
Review What's on the Market.
I found a small website that is a great resource on this- it talks about how you should opt for just texture files not brush files, how royalty-free resources translate to leverage, and where to get premium textures for Photoshop online. Here's the link: http://textureinphotoshop.weebly.com
I hope this article was helpful to you.
