I’ve noticed a large trend these days towards using hand-made elements in design. I saw this begin more on the digital ‘art-for-art’s-sake’ side of things, but watched it slowly make its way into design, marketing and advertising. These created by hand elements range from small bits of pencil drawn swirls or sketches blended into something largely digital, to pieces that have been drawn nearly entirely by hand, and then colored, touched up or turned into some sort of montage in Photoshop. Computer Arts has some great articles on this trend, and how to make sure you don’t get left behind. Their tutorial titled Hands-on Design exemplifies one of many ways of implementing real world art into digital design. To learn how to create your own hand drawn font, check out this article that makes it easier than no-bake cheesecake (creative intuition not included).

Hand created graphics are seen in nearly every aspect of the digital world now, from small web graphics like my own current header image, to national television advertising, like “Email Pants“, A commercial for Sprint/Nextel, music written by Chris Kennedy. Sure, there is still plenty of room for design that is created from rough sketch to finished product strictly in photoshop, or on your illustrator artboard, but traditional methods of art and design are coming back and being reinvented in a huge way.