Designers can get color inspiration from anywhere, and often times it is right from the screen you are looking at. So how do we grab those colors from our screen for use in our projects that are outside of open Photoshop documents?

Use the Photoshop Eyedropper Trick

If you double-click the color selector in Photoshop and get the color picker dialog box, you can sample colors from outside that box, but only from open Photoshop documents. There is a trick you can use in Photoshop though to sample color from anywhere on the screen. Select the Eyedropper tool. Then click and hold down the mouse button inside an open Photoshop document. With the mouse button held down, you can then drag the eyedropper tool outside the Photoshop document to sample color from anywhere on the screen.

Duplicate, duplicate, duplicate. Make copies of your layers after each successful stage. It can be frustrating to get near the end and find there was a mistake early on in the process–but if you have an earlier version to return to, you can correct your errors far more easily.

Name each layer as you create it. If you use a filter, consider naming it with the settings you used – such as “Unsharp Mask, 2, 150, 0”–so you know how the effect was achieved.

Always experiment on a copy. Photoshop is ideal for tinkering and trying out new ideas–but make sure you keep a copy of the original before you start down an unknown path.

Be creative with filters. The Plastic Wrap filter doesn’t just wrap objects in plastic, it can be used to create liquids of all sorts. The Clouds filter may produce lousy clouds, but it’s a great random texture generator. And give the Wave filter another chance, it’s better than it looks.

Don’t erase anything. Use a Layer Mask instead. That way, you can always reveal pat of a layer you’d previously hidden. Once it’s erased, it’s gone.

Rather than applying a Curves or Color Balance adjustment to a layer, use an Adjustment Layer instead. The effect will be the same, except that we can go back and change the adjustment at any time–or copy it to a new layer.

Learn to use the Pen tool. It’s the single scariest Photoshop tool, and many users just give up on it. Take a day to master it and you’ll value it for the rest of your life.

Don’t forget the shadows. Shadows on objects, shadows beneath objects, shadows on the wall behind objects. Once the composition is finished, it’s the shadows that really bring it to life.

Convert layers to Smart Objects in complex compositions. Each time an object is scaled, rotated or distorted, some quality is lost. With Smart Objects, we can tinker as much as we like without losing any quality. It can be heartbreaking to see an image looking soft or ragged, simply because we changed our minds one time too many.

Similarly, convert layers to Smart Filters, you can now apply Gaussian Blur or Unsharp Mask, or any of Photoshop’s many other filters, and go back at any time and change the settings we’ve applied without harming the image quality in any way!

Grids are the core foundation of any design. Think of them as an invisible skeleton upon which visual content is arranged. They structure information so that the viewer can easily assimilate and retain it. They make compositions more aesthetically pleasing. They enhance user experience online. Grids came into public awareness during the International Typographic Style (Swiss Style) of the 1950’s but have in fact been used since the beginning of human history. Even the earliest cultures have employed grids in their town layouts, architecture, and art. The most basic grid systems are usually made of intersecting horizontal and vertical lines (a universally adopted standard) that tend to have a “grounding” effect and are perhaps linked to man’s earliest relationship with time and space: the movement of the sun in relation to the horizon. More advanced grid systems can be made with complex geometry, contain multiple layers, and be three-dimensional or even organic.

Grids, however, seem to have a very low priority in today’s visual design, especially for web developers.

If you are a designer, I urge you to study and understand grids. Grids are tools that we should learn to use and recognize, since it is up to us to create a future rich with effective and engaging communications. Below is a breif slideshow presentation that will help you to begin to understand the Grid System.

Fast access, global demand, short deadlines and quick turnaround have made it all too easy to stray away from the basics of design. If you had a professor in college who taught you design fundamentals, the basics should be engrained in you. If you are self-taught, you may have a book on your desk that you refer to on a daily basis. For the masses, the internet is both a valuable resource, and possibly the source of a design epidemic.

People have flooded the internet looking for design content, and while you might not need to learn the basics before attempting a stellar gradient in Photoshop, there will come a point where this style is left behind and a new style reaches popularity. In history, this lesson has repeated itself with movements like ‘Bauhaus‘ and ‘Swiss Modernism‘ which will soon label our current trends as part of design history.

The fact is, the fundamentals of design will never change:

• balance
• contrast
• emphasis and subordination
• directional forces
• proportion
• scale
• repitition and rythmn
• unity within variety

They are the glue that holds the design industry together and to reach success, we need to learn these from the very beginning.

Oftentimes, the best inspiration comes when you look outside of your circle or industry. You see a fresh perspective and gain new insights for your own field. The reason this works is a lot of fields are creative.

So even though, say, music and design don’t have much in common on the surface, the creative parallels are pretty clear.

It’s true that an electronic music producer or rock band or jazz outfit or whatnot aren’t crafting visual or web designs. But the way they do their craft and the value they bring to the audience is more or less the same as a designer.

Thus, you can find out some pretty relevant tips from how the best musicians do what they do. And then you can apply it to your own field. You’ll become a much better designer in the process. Here are 3 things that musicians can teach designers.

Emotionally Connect With the User

The best music isn’t just something you listen to – you get an emotional reaction. Of joy, of inspiration, of fist-pumping excitement, of reflection. The best music artists emotionally connect with you, the listener.

You don’t just hear, you feel.

And that’s what your designs should be able to do. So the viewer doesn’t just see, the viewer feels an emotional reaction. You go just beyond functionality or a pretty surface and emotionally connect with the user.

Visual and web designs are not unique cases. Any creative work can and should emotionally connect with the user. Whether it’s an incredible tune, or a moving painting, or an involving film, or a lust-worthy gadget, or a supremely elegant and joy-to-use website – the best work invokes an emotional reaction.

Make your design not just functional and visually pleasing, but a joy to use. Or so elegant that the user is blown away. Or add little details that makes the user smile when noticed. Whatever you do, just make sure to go above and beyond to emotionally connect with the user.

That will separate just a great design from a truly memorable one that’s worthy of passionately describing and sharing with friends.

Have a Clear Style and Direction

Practically all of your favorite artists have some distinct style. Or they have a clear direction they pursue. If it’s dark, it’s broody and atmospheric. If it’s futuristic, it’s cutting-edge and synth-based. If it’s fun, it’s humorous and cheeky. And so forth. There’s no clashing of styles, or incompatible vibes being combined. The style and direction is very clear.

And that should be no different when it comes to your designs.

Do you do more industrial, grungy stuff? Or slick, futuristic? Or clean and minimal? Or natural and Zen-like? Go full-force with that style. Make your style very clear. Otherwise, you’ll be middle-of-the-road with no distinct direction in your work.

Think about it: the most prominent websites and brands have a very clear visual style. There’s no mistaking an Apple webpage, ad, or packaging for another company. The same goes for the greatest designers and visual artists. Their stamp is made in the work they do – no matter how much they do tweaks for the client, the distinct style is subconsciously included in all the work they do.

Your style and direction shouldn’t be forced, either. It’s pretty simple: your style is the sum of your influences. You inevitably fuse what you like into your work. No need to over-think your direction: just break down any self-conscious barriers of what you think your work should be like and just create as if you were making it for yourself.

What would you get most excited by? Create like that, and then that becomes your clear style and direction.

Don’t Become a One-Trick Pony

You know those one-trick pony artists. The ones that find a trick or technique which works, and then they proceed to use it in every single tune of theirs. What was a fresh musical aspect quickly becomes repetitive and boring.

Your favorite artists no doubt keep it fresh. They don’t rely on some technique, or use a trick as a crutch, or repeat the same ideas over and over. That’s why they stay relevant to you and other fans, and why they remain exciting and vital.

Be the same with your designs: don’t become dependent on one trick or technique.

When you do find some clever trick, it’s fine to use it in your designs. But don’t rely on it to carry your design work for ever and ever. Your design worth should come from your skills, style, and ideas, not from some trick. And the other thing is others can copy that trick, after which you stop being as unique. Again, it’s the same with music: an artist discovers a technique, others copy, it becomes stale.

Focus on developing your skills, style, and ideas, not crossing your fingers that a trick or technique you discovered will carry you far.