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How to Create a Website Header Design Using Bohemian Coding Sketch

How to Create a Website Header Design Using Bohemian Coding Sketch

If you have recently added Sketch, the new vector drawing app from Bohemian Coding to your design workflow or are considering a switch from Photoshop, Fireworks or Illustrator over to Sketch, then the best way to fully get to grips with the new app is to design with it! This tutorial will walk you through the process of using Sketch 3 to create what almost all websites have in common, an attractive header design.

Step 1

Open a new document in Sketch. That was easy :). bohemian coding sketch tutorial

Step 2

All documents in Sketch have an infinite canvas. To create an Artboard in Sketch you can use the (A) keyboard shortcut, or Select Artboard from the Insert toolbar icon menu. bohemian coding sketch tutorial

Step 3

Draw a rectangle onto the canvas using the Artboard tool. Aim for 1200 x 600 pixels, but if you find that tricky it is easy to adjust the dimensions of the artboard after drawing. bohemian coding sketch tutorial

Step 4

Now we have our artboard ready, let's add a grid. Click on the 'View' toolbar icon and select Grid Settings... If the grid wasn't already visible, accessing the grid settings will display it. Switch from the default Square mode to Layout mode. For this tutorial the default 960px grid will work just fine. bohemian coding sketch tutorial

Step 5

Select the Rectangle tool from the Insert menu or use the shortcut (R) and draw a rectangle that fills the whole artboard. Use the inspector on the right hand side to give it a dark gray fill (#3E454E) and uncheck the border option if it is on by default. bohemian coding sketch tutorial bohemian coding sketch tutorial

Step 6

Draw another rectangle (or duplicate the first one), set the height to 120 pixels and place it at the top of the artboard. Set the fill to white with the opacity at 10%. bohemian coding sketch tutorial

Step 7

Show the layout grid if it is currently hidden and select the Text tool from the Insert menu or use shortcut (T). Click onto the canvas to create a new text layer and enter the name of your website. The typography settings can be seen in the screenshot above. bohemian coding sketch tutorial bohemian coding sketch tutorial

Step 8

Create another text layer for the navigation menu links. Beginning with 'Home'. bohemian coding sketch tutorial

Step 9

Duplicate the 'Home' layer and hold down the alt/option key as you move it to the right in order to display the smart guides. You should have around 40 pixels between the first and second text layers. Update the text of the layer to 'About' and duplicate again. Then repeat this process for the other links. bohemian coding sketch tutorial

Step 10

Draw a new rectangle and place the layer below the other navigation menu text layers. This will be the menu's active state indicator. bohemian coding sketch tutorial

Step 11

Create 2 new text layers for the main headline and short description. Head over to Lipsum to get some dummy text. bohemian coding sketch tutorial bohemian coding sketch tutorial

Step 12

Draw a new rectangle for the outline of the button. Disable the fill and give it a 2 pixel thick blue (#72B0F9) border aligned to the inside. bohemian coding sketch tutorial

Step 13

Draw a new circle layer this time to begin the icon for the button, and again give it the same 2 pixel thick border. bohemian coding sketch tutorial

Step 14

Draw 2 small rectangle to form the arrow part of the icon. The exact dimensions can be seen in the screenshots. On the second rectangle you will need to delete one of the lower points and move the remaining lower point into the center to form a triangular shape. bohemian coding sketch tutorial bohemian coding sketch tutorial bohemian coding sketch tutorial bohemian coding sketch tutorial

Step 15

Create a text layer for the button label, in this case that is 'Download'. bohemian coding sketch tutorial

Step 16

To create another arrow icon, first draw a thin horizontal rectangle, then duplicate it and rotate 90 degrees to form a right angle. bohemian coding sketch tutorial bohemian coding sketch tutorial

Step 17

Select both of the rectangle layers and combine them with the Union function. Sketch will now treat the layers as a single shape, allowing you to rotate it 45 degrees and form a left arrow. bohemian coding sketch tutorial bohemian coding sketch tutorial bohemian coding sketch tutorial

Step 18

Duplicate the arrow and move it over to the other side of the artboard. Then click the flip horizontal icon, or go to Layer > Transform > Flip Horizontal. bohemian coding sketch tutorial

Step 19

Finally to make the header more visually interesting we will add an image to the background. In this example I used this stock photo. The first thing to do is duplicate the first rectangle layer we created as this will be used to mask the bitmap image. Place the image into the document and resize to fit the artboard. With both the duplicated rectangle layer and the bitmap image layer selected, click the Mask icon in the toolbar. bohemian coding sketch tutorial bohemian coding sketch tutorial bohemian coding sketch tutorial

Step 20

Select the Bitmap layer and apply a Gaussian Blur, then lower the Saturation to 0 to make the image completely grayscale. bohemian coding sketch tutorial

Step 21

Select the Bitmap group layer and choose Soft Light from the Blending options dropdown. bohemian coding sketch tutorial

Result & Conclusion

Sketch 3 is clearly a tool that can keep up with the big boys, and can often make creating web and interface designs like this a breeze. Hopefully by following this tutorial you are now that little bit more familiar with Sketch and one step closer to using it in the wild! bohemian coding sketch tutorial

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