The site logo/header for our new iOS app website, Voyage Travel Apps.
We’ve already released our first app and we’re hard at work on our second which we hope to have ready in a month or two.
Download my free Illustrator iOS template.
Since moving into iOS development, I try to do as much of my artwork in vector so that it’s easy to scale, usually moving in to Photoshop to add effects and pretty it up.
To speed up my workflow and to remind me not to forget any of the numerous icons you’re supposed to provide for apps, I’ve created an Illustrator template to help get me started, which works in conjunction with a Photoshop template that I’m still developing (but, thanks to Jon Hicks, now has very precise Vector masks with the correct corner radii).
All of the artboards in this illustrator iOS template have been sized and named according to Apple’s interface guidelines should you decide to go direct from Illustrator to Xcode (although Bjango’s Marc Edwards doesn’t recommend it).
However, by default, Illustrator exports the files as “documentName_artboardName.png”, which would usually mean having to tediously remove the “documentName_” bit from each of the exported files but, thankfully, Matthew Ericson has created a super useful script that solves this particular problem.
This script overrides the naming default and allows you to save everything out using just the artboard name, which means everything comes out ready to drop in to Xcode.
I would also recommend switching on Pixel Preview (Cmd + Alt + y on Mac) so that you can line up your vector shapes to the nearest pixel. This will make it easier to get pixel perfect pasting when moving between Illustrator and Photoshop.
See this excellent article, again by Marc Edwards of Bjango for more about this.
I’m releasing this illustrator iOS template as Freeware, so feel free to download it and use it however you like. You can use it for any of your projects without restriction and you don’t have to give me credit (though it’s always appreciated).
While motorbiking around the island of Koh Jum (pictured, featuring one of the stunning sunsets we witnessed), we visited a cafe that was part of a larger resort. The cafe was overlooking the pool, which was entirely empty as it is currently coming in to the low season in Thailand. We had our swimming stuff with us as we had planned to hit the beach but the pool was becoming more enticing.
Some hotels have a policy of charging outside guests for use of their pool and we were more than willing to pay for access.
After ordering a large lunch at their restaurant, we inquired whether we could use the pool.
I recently finished and released my first iPhone app. It’s called Hotel Checklist and this is the icon that I designed for it.
It was designed to help backpackers decide between hotels when they land in a new place and are looking for a place to stay. It’s a simple app at the moment but if there’s enough interest, then I’ll add more advanced functionality in future.
Given it’s illustrated nature, I’m including it as part of my Illustration 156 project.
For the month of march I took up the 30 Characters challenge. The idea of the challenge is that, for the month of November, you draw a new character every single day for that month.
I only found out about it recently and I didn’t want to wait until this November so I decided to do it for the month of March so my challenge is actually 31 characters in 31 days.
I’ve posted a few of them on the site already, but this week I have collected all 31 characters together in a nice spangly gallery.
The Picture element is clearer and easier to understand. So, of course, they choose Srcset. Ugh. #HTML5 #ResponsiveImages #WHATWG
Hi! I'm Simon Fairbairn and I am very fortunate because I love what I do!
I spend my days designing and building websites and teaching people about Search Engine Optimisation, traffic analysis and conversion rates.
In other words, I help people create beautiful websites and then I help make those websites perform.