Pegaweb Web Design & Photoshop Tutorials
This site features web design and Adobe Photoshop tutorials written by Daniel Piechnick, a professional web designer and graphic designer from South Australia.
Pegaweb focuses on helping beginners use Photoshop to design graphical layouts for their own websites.
Alternatively, if you want to learn how to set up a website, please click the link, and visit my Website Setup Guide.
Web Design & Photoshop Tutorials for 2009
Manager's Lunch - Photoshop Tutorial - 28th Jun
Make a website layout that features several letters, a sandwich on a plate, and a smouldering cigar.
Website Layout that Looks Like a Circuit Board - 28th Mar
Create a website design with various components and wires.
Adsense Experiments: What's the Best Adsense Placement? - 20th Mar
My experiments with placing Adsense ads on Pegaweb.
Total Newbie's Complete Guide to Setting up a Website - 5th Mar
Ultra-simple, start-to-finish guide to setting up your own website from scratch.
"Moonbase" Website Layout - 23rd Feb
This tutorial shows how to make a starkly lit sandy website template, with a menu of blue buttons.
How to Design Your Own Business Cards - 18th Feb
Three easy Photoshop tutorials that show you how to make your own business cards.
The Pegaweb Store Opens - 7th Feb
A new "Store" page has been added, with products relevant to Pegaweb visitors on sale there. You can have a look at some web hosting, or buy Adobe Photoshop online.
Leafy Villa Photoshop Tutorial - 5th Feb
Create a rustic website template, covered with leafy vines.
Open Book with Pages - 19th Jan
How to design a website layout that looks like a book.
Silhouette Website Header - 17th Jan
Design a website header with a moonlit industrial theme.
Beginners' Guide to Adobe Photoshop - 11th Jan
This Photoshop training video tutorial goes through the basics of using Photoshop. This tutorial uses Adobe Photoshop CS2.
Earlier Web Design & Photoshop Tutorials
Table Top
Shows how to design a website that looks like a desk. Complete with stained wood, note. 30 Jan 2006
Foliage
Creating leaves and flowers as a border for a web page. 4 Jan 2005
Website Checklist
A list of the most common criticisms I have about websites I'm asked to review. 1 Jan 2005
Atlantis
How to design a website whose buttons are islands that sink beneath the waves. 1 Sep 2004
Creating a website with an Aurora effect
This tutorial goes through the steps to creating a website featuring a beautiful skyline above a grassy field. 24 Aug 2004
Parchment Wedding Invitation
Create a scorched parchment texture, for a website or wedding invitation. 7 Aug 2004
Roll Over Beethoven
This tutorial demonstrates how to give a button that pressed-down look, while the mouse cursor is over it. 31 Jul 2004
"Splat" Website Layout
By using a few gradients, and applying the Wave filter, it's possible to make this simple website layout. 24 Jul 2004
Glitter Swirls
This tutorial goes through the steps to creating a swirly, glittery website layout. 24 Jul 2004
Pegaweb Interview Transcript
This is the transcript of an interview I did recently, posted here due to requests from visitors. Please enjoy my very opinionated responses. :) 7 Mar 2004
New Photoshop Tutorial – Sunlight
This tutorial demonstrates how to design a website with a very nice, sparkling, sepia effect. 31st Oct 2003
New Photoshop Tutorial – The Slime Factory
Follow along with the steps I took to create the website design for the "Slime Factory". This website mixes metallic textures with gelatinous substances. 10th Oct 2003
Part 1 - Part 2
Photoshop & Web Design Basic FAQ
Answers to the most common questions I'm asked about Photoshop, web design, and other topics, such as web hosting. 2nd Sept 2003
"Antiquity" Website Template Added
This new template has a nice wooden texture, and soft yellow highlights. You can buy cheap website templates on the templates page. – 26th July 2003
Duotone Web Page Menu Tutorial
This tutorial goes through the steps of making a simple, two-colour menu for a website in Photoshop. 25th July 2003
Tigerskin Web Design Tutorial This tutorial demonstrates goes through all the steps of how to make a website with a realistic tiger skin texture in Photoshop. 23rd July 2003
"Crimson Shadow" New Website Template
A new website template is now available for download. The Crimson Shadow template features a dark red swirling texture, and a marble menu bar. The template has been designed to be easily editable by the user. Just download the template, edit it, and upload it to your web hosting provider. 18th June 2003
"A Touch of Class" Complete Website Tutorial
By popular demand... another complete website design tutorial. If you'd like to design a site that's a bit more elegant than the standard business web design style, open Photoshop and follow along with this tutorial. 9th June 2003
Part 1 - Part 2
New Article – Setting Up Your First Website
If you're one of the many web designers who are setting up, or about to setup, their first website, here's some important information that will help you get started. Domain names to buy, web hosting, keywords, and more. 8th June 2003"Simple Website Design" added to Photoshop Tutorials section
A lot of websites look cheap because the web designer has tried too hard to make the graphics look good, without knowing what they're doing. If they just hadn't tried as hard, the site would have looked a whole lot better. This tutorial is ideal as a small business website design. 3rd May 2003
"Metallic Buttons & Menus" Photoshop Tutorials
This tutorial shows how to use Gradient Overlays and the Gloss Contour option to change your buttons and menus from play-dough to realistic silver and gold. 23rd Mar 2003Writing a Business Proposal Just being able to do the job well is not good enough. With the right business proposal, you have an excellent chance of winning a contract, even when it's just you, competing against a large firm. 11th Apr 2003
Beginners' Guide to Adobe Photoshop By popular demand... Ever wanted to learn how to use Adobe Photoshop, but had no idea where to start? This thirty-minute Photoshop course shows you only the things you really need to know to get started. 8th Feb 2003 Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4
Digging for Links
How to improve your link popularity and your site's Google Page Rank. Implement your own link exchange program, and find the best places to get inbound links. 3rd Feb 2003
"Overgrowth" New Website Template
A new website template has been added for purchase. The Overgrowth template is straightforward, and has a nice, viny, flowery theme. 8th Jan 2003
Modern Style Web Design Tutorial
Welcome to a world of sans-serif fonts, monocoloured areas, objects that don't cast shadows, colours that don't contrast, and text saved as picture files. :) 18th Dec 2002
Creating a web page header in Photoshop
The most important graphic design element of any website is its header image. It's the image that will be seen more than any other on your web site, so it's important to get it looking good. 11th Dec 2002 Part 2 - Part 3
Design your own Company Logo in Photoshop
Having your company logo design done by a professional is usually not cheap. Why not use Adobe Photoshop to to do your own professional logo design yourself? 14th Nov 2002
Seamless Web Page Backgrounds
With many web page backgrounds, the tiling lines are very visible. This tutorial shows how to use the Shear tool to create a line-less web page background. 13th Nov 2002
"Nightfall" New Website Template
The Nightfall website template has been added to the Website Templates section. Once purchased, you can then upload it to wherever your web hosting is. 17th Oct 2002
Making Web Buttons in Photoshop
This new addition to the Photoshop tutorials section goes through the steps to making the various layers of a nice gold-coloured web button. 30th Sept 2002 Part 1 - Part 2
Creating a Realistic Wood Texture in Photoshop 7.0
Ever tried to make a realistic wood texture in Adobe Photoshop? Here's how to make a wood texture for your web design projects that looks a whole lot better than Adobe Photoshop's sawmill wood texture. 30th Aug 2002
The Power of Random Lighting
In graphic design, as in nature, things look real because of two factors - lighting and randomness. Learn how to create both, and some nice wallpaper, using Adobe Photoshop's Noise Gradient tool. 5th Aug 2002
Separating an Image from its Background
Tutorial added to Photoshop tutorials section. This tutorial shows how to easily cut out the foreground of an image, without leaving an outline or any jaggy edges. 2nd Aug 2002
"Sandstone Forest" New Website Template
A new website template has been posted. Sandstone Forest was created in Adobe Photoshop 6.0 and uses natural colours. It comes complete with rollover buttons, and at $10, is a rather cheap web site design. 13th May 2002
"The Piglet Factory" Photoshop Web Design Tutorial
There's a new addition to the web design tutorials section. Follow the steps I took in Adobe Photoshop to create the fictitious "Piglet Factory" small business website design. 1st May 2002
Article on Website Navigational Structures
Ever get lost on a site? Over-complicated navigation structures are everywhere. Here's how to avoid making your site a labyrinth of links. 1st May 2002
Making a Nebula in Adobe Photoshop
I've created a new Adobe Photoshop tutorial, on how to make realistic-looking nebulae. They're ideal for use as desktop backgrounds. 20th Apr 2002

