The Open Clip Art Library enjoys yet another of it’s scheduled monthly updates, with revision 2.3. With over 32,000 vector graphics currently calling it home, OCAL has grown into one of the largest and most prevalent sources for freely available graphics on the web. Version 2.3 aims to begin building on this solid foundation, by increasing user interaction and content submissions.

The Spring 2010 Clip Art Package brought together a diverse group of artists and pointed them in a similar thematic direction. Over 11,900 individual downloads have proven the themed package format an effective way of presenting similarly-grouped work to the Community. As in the June Release, Open Clip Art 2.3 brings along with it, a compact, user-generated, themed package of clipart.

Familiar ground is tread, in the latest Themed Package Release, as Community artists, like laobc, rg1024, and pianoBrad have focused their attentions on the Summer Season. Summer2010 is packed with useful scenery elements, like rg1024’s beach ball (below),

along with the abstract, seasonal imagery of laobc’s “Sunshine in the Country” (the header for this article).

Any wishing to utilize this smoldering collection can do so individually (by searching for the key term or tag “summer2010″) or by downloading the entire package.

Also continuing this month is a logo design contest, initiated by the organizers of the Free Culture Research Conference. Artists still planning on submitting an entry should mark this Friday (July 9th) as the deadline for that submission. Three more judges, Jonathan Zittrain, Leonhard Dobusch, and Michelle Thorne, have been added to the esteemed panel that will judge and announce the winner on July 11.

For more information on all things related to this Summer 2010 Release, have a look at the official press release.

This Open Clip Art Library Release Announcement is sponsored by Worldlabel.com, a multifunctional label manufacturer.

Despite the digital wave that’s taking over everyday life, the good old business card is still a highly useful tool for any professional. Follow this walkthrough to produce your own modern and stylish business card in Adobe Illustrator, and mock up the design onto the business card template ready for production with Worldlabel.com

Begin by launching Adobe Illustrator and creating a new document, enter the dimensions of 3.5inches by 2inches – the standard size for the business cards at Worldlabel.com. This is a job for print, so choose the CMYK color mode.

With the Rectangle Tool, single click on the artboard to bring up the options box, enter 3.5inches by 2inches to create a background rectangle the exact size of the card.

Fill the rectangle with your chosen colour, here I’m using Cyan (100c, 0m, 0y, 0k), then align the rectangle centrally to the artboard using the Align Palette.

With the Type Tool, begin writing out your name and set in a font of your preference. Here I’m using the classic; Lubalin Graph in two weights to add an element of style to the design. Pay close attention to the tracking and kerning of the words to perfect their appearance.

Continue typing out the elements which will be shown on the business card such as job title, contact details and website URL.

Draw in four guides onto the artboard 0.25inches into the document, this helps balance the design elements. Arrange the type onto the design, using variations in size to provide a visual hierarchy that gives focus to the important aspects of the design.

Draw a range of white rectangles onto the design, which act as background strips to the text.

Change the colour of the text elements to blend in with the colour scheme of the design. I’ve used Cyan on the smaller elements and a darker blue (100c, 60m, 0y, 20k) on the name.

Let’s add a retro-esque background pattern to the business card design. Draw a square and a circle on the artboard, making the square slightly larger with no fill, while the circle has a blue colouring. Select both elements together and drag them into the Swatches palette.

Duplicate the background rectangle and fill the copy with the new pattern swatch, the circle will repeat to fill the background with a cool dotted pattern which helps add visual interest to the design.

With the design complete, go ahead and download the business card template from Wordlabel.com, this provides us with 10 available slots per page. Copy (CMD+C) and Group (CMD+G) the complete business card graphic and Paste (CMD+V) into the PDF document.

Use the Align Palette to line the card artwork to the top left edges of the layout. Then press ENTER to open up the Move options, enter 0.75inches and 0.5inches to move the first card instance into position exactly on the template.

Press ENTER again to bring up the Move options, this time enter 3.5inches horizontally and press the Copy button. This duplicates the card and moves it into position on the second slot.

With both sets of artwork selection, press ENTER once again to bring up the Move options. This time enter -2inches in the vertical direction to copy another two cards onto the next row.

Complete the process a few more times until the template is completely full. The PDF can then be saved ready for sending for print. Select the number of pages you desire from the website options and your freshly baked business cards will be with you in no time!

by Chris Spooner of spoongraphics.co.uk