Computer Arts issue 161

Photoshop has had such an impact on the life of designers, it’s impossible to ignore it. I’m not saying that if you have a copy of Photoshop you’ll necessarily be a great designer – in fact, far from it. But there’s no doubt that the application holds the key to your potential as a digital artist, enabling you to express your ideas and messages in precisely the way you want to.

This month we bring you an insight into how some of the world’s top illustrators, artists and designers – such as Calvin Ho of Atomic Attack, Sara Haraigue and Nelson Balaban – are using Photoshop to create stunning new work.

Our tutorial section continues the Photoshop theme, looking at how you can use Photoshop along with other apps in Adobe’s Creative Suite. The excellent Shotopop reveals its Warp tool Secrets, Flash developer Matt Booth shows you how to create a cool parallax scrolling effect in Flash and Justin Maller reveals how you can use Photoshop Extended’s 3D tools to enhance your illustrations.

Trevor Jackson is this issue’s Design Icon – and he’s a man with a lot to say about design. And we pay a visit to Barcelona to meet one of our favourite studios, Vasava, and find out how the father and son team started the business.

Next issue we tackle the subject of inspiration. Look out for it in UK shops from Thursday 7 May. Until then...

Rob Carney
Editor 

IN THE MAG

Output

Back to nature
The wild side of design

Studio of the Month
Moxie Sozo invite you in

Weapon of Choice
The design duo choose their fonts wisely

In Depth

Trevor Jackson interviewed
Modest, opinionated, prolific – the design legend talks

Cutting-edge Photoshop
How the application’s role in your work is changing

Vasava
In conversation with the Barcelona family start-up

15 new ways to use Photoshop
Know CS4’s new features and what they can do for you

Technique

Photoshop texture experiments
Warp effects and texturing with Shotopop

Create depth with blends
Sara Haraigue’s tips

3D parallax scrolling in Flash
Online effects with Matt Booth

Illustrator’s dark arts
Vector and pixel combinations

Inspiration Workshop
The secrets of Alex Trochut’s success

InDesign tutorial
Layer comp creativity

Photoshop Extended 3D
Justin Maller demos Photoshop’s 3D prowess

Pixel perfect web design
Slick sites with Photoshop and Dreamweaver

Brief Encounter
Speed up your workflow

Need to Know

Start-up recruiting
Increasing your studio’s people power

Plug it in
The latest Photoshop plug-ins

Wacom Intuos4
What you need to know about the new tablet