Greetings! It seems that QR Codes are becoming more and more popular. My tutorial on How to Design QR Codes got a surprising amount of views and comments. It seems that I helped quite a few people get started on their QR Codes.What about you? Do I need to convince you how awesome they are?

With the amazing growth of the smartphone market it would be a very smart move as a marketer to cover your grounds and get a QR Code designed. If done right you can see interest in your products soar through the skies. You just need the right idea and the proper execution of that idea.

Enter the Designer. I am here to offer you an awesome chance to have QR Codes designed by a website solutions provider who also happens to be an awesome graphics designer. See that contact button above? If your interested in getting an awesomely designed QR Code let me know. :)

And you know what else is awesome? O2 . Scanning a QR Code with the  iPhone 4S would be awesome!

Howdy! QR Codes. If you’ve seen them before you probably remember them as those square black and white ant like thingies. Dispel this impression! It doesn’t have to be this way. Follow me after the jump to find out.

Friends, Designers, Artists lend me your ears. We can make QR Codes pretty! Pretty and Functional. You see I was inspired to write this post after reading this article on Mashable and thought to myself. Wow it is possible. So I began my journey into creating an awesome QR Code for my website.

Here is my Designer QR Code:

Try scanning the above. :) I could have done a lot more but I chose to keep it simple for now. It scans quite fast with the software I currently use on my phone though I will check in a few others just to make sure.

Are you ready to get started on yours? Sure you are! Here we go! :)

Tools of the QR Code Trade

QR Code Image — You can generate your own QR Code Image using this wonderfully useful website.

Graphics Editing Software - I use Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended. The techniques to be discussed would most likely work with other versions and graphics editors(such as GIMP).

An Idea - I don’t have to tell you the importance of this one. :) If you don’t have one yet just stare at the image and use your imagination. Think of what you want the user to associate the image with. Be it a tropical paradise or your brand name.

Step 1) Generate Your QR Code

Go to this website and generate your QR Code. Type the URL or Text you want to encode. Be sure to select 30% in the QR Code Error Correction Level so we can make more changes to the image while retaining readability. Choose what size you want your code to be. Select the file format your most comfortable working with(I chose PNG) then click Generate Bar code. Save the image(You may need to rename the file).

Step 2) Open the QR Code Image

Stare at it and decide what you want to do. Here is my original QR Code:

Remember I told you to choose 30% Error Correction? Now you have to carefully pick apart the image and find the 30% you wish to edit. I chose to divide the image like this and took out the middle part in favor of my branding. Use the Guides feature in your Graphics Software to accomplish what I have done below.

Step 3) Go Crazy (But not too crazy) with it.

Work your Design Magic! It’s time for that awesome clicky thing you do with the mouse. Whatever you decide to just make sure it still works. Which brings us to:

Step 4) Test!

Remember to test your code in a number of readers. No use in a pretty QR Code that can’t be read. It’s a trial and error thing. If you want you calculate exactly what parts you need and don’t need. If you have the math acumen and time for that I say go for it.

Step 5) Deploy! They grow up so fast…

I will be incorporating the above design into my future campaigns. :)

Final Words

I hope you had fun following this tutorial as I had fun writing it. Remember that this is not the only way to do this. As long as the QRCode gets read in a reasonable amount of time you can do anything you want with it.

Good Day and God Bless!

-Leo Aljiro

Greetings! Today we take a look at my favorite Product Packaging 3D rendering software of all time, BoxShot3D. As you can probably tell by the name it creates Ecovers or Box Shots in 3D. You just have to provide the faces. More about the software after the jump.

For the purposes of this review I will be using version 3.5 of the software. First let’s take a look at the Interface.

Interface and Ease of Use

The interface is clean and easy to figure out and use. The amount of settings available make this a very good choice for people who like to tweak to get the best possible results. You can add different shapes/objects then you change the settings. After that’s done you can change the images per face of the object you have chosen. In the example above I have the Software Box shape with my own design faces.

You can move the camera around play with the lighting and more.

Results

When your design is ready you can press the Render tab adjust the settings and go! The software can render some pretty awesome stuff. But of course much still depends on the Designer’s ability to create convincingly realistic graphics

Here is the above design rendered in 1000x1000 set to “Print”. Click the Pic to Enlarge.

Looks pretty awesome to me. :)

Conclusion

If you’re in the market for a new Ecover software maker and if you’re tired of the same old Action Scripts that churn out the same old stuff give this awesome software a try.

–LeoAljiro

Piracy. It’s everywhere. From movies to games. It’s all too easy for one determined enough to acquire something without paying for it. Let us take a look at how software piracy affects the industry and you.

The star of every designer’s toolkit, Adobe Photoshop is arguably the software most commonly pirated by people “trying to be a designer”. I saw plenty of people during my years as a college student that use the aforementioned software to create abominations they call “art” or “design” I saw images that made me want to clean my eyeballs. This brings us to point number 1.

Piracy Lowers The Barriers to Professional Grade Software.

It’s a perfect example for the in the wrong hands proverb. The problem here is that people who are uninitiated are using the software and crank out terrible pictures. An even bigger problem arises when these people start calling themselves designers and start looking for jobs in the design industry. Potential clients will be turned of by the quality they create and decide to just design stuff in-house and not hire freelance designers at all. We must not let them lose hope in all of humanity.

But what if you have decent skills and call yourself a professional yet you insist on using pirated software. Which brings me to my second point.

“Professionals” Using Pirated Software Only Serve to Cheapen The Industry.

If a “professional designer” can’t come to respect the intellectual property rights of software makers what is stopping them from not respecting the rights of other designers? It may be safe to assume that a person who has illegally acquired the main tool in his working arsenal can will have no problem ripping off the ideas and designs of other people.

In my honest opinion, I cannot call one who uses illegal software in the operations of his business a professional. Profiting from pirated software is a bad thing to do(not to mention illegal)

The takeaway:

Being a professional is not just about having the software but having the dignity to buy the license. Invest in your business and at the same time help out the Information Technology field as well. The world is full of bad people. Don’t be one of them. ;)

–LeoAljiro

We’ve all heard the phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover” and its true that we should not judge something by how it appears from the outside alone but to seek a deeper understanding first.

Sadly, very few people take the time to understand and look into things. It may be the lack of time or motivation but one thing is clear. Things will be judged by the cover. If we relate this idea into our work we can conclude that to be an effective designer we must be able to accurately and effectively communicate the product through our designs so that even at first glance a person looking at the packaging can have an accurate picture in his head of what the product actually is.

I believe that to make truly effective product packaging we must have a deep understanding of the product. Like if we are creating the cover of a book the designer should take the time to read one or two chapters. A little research goes a long way to making sure that the cover matches the content.

Obviously a lot more factors play into the creation of a product’s cover but there is always one thing that we should keep in mind. Our designs WILL be judged. It is important for us to do everything in our power to create the image we want to create in the viewer’s eyes.

–Leo Aljiro

Hello world and all who inhabit it! :) Welcome to Leo Aljiro’s Design Blog.

I am Aljiro a freelance website maker, a solutions provider. Apart from being a designer I am also a technology enthusiast. I work with clients around the globe and locally. If you need a website done or if you are looking to get more competitive and relevant in today’s global market do send me an email at leo@aljiro.com or if you wish to know me more you can visit my main website at Aljiro.com

This blog will be the outlet of my professional opinion among other things. Expect tutorials, news, reviews, and other goodies about design, technology, and life. :)

I encourage communication and as such I will leave all my blog posts open to comments. If you wish to say something about my post feel free to speak up.

I look forward to writing my next entry. Stay tuned. :)