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Mattgyver
Currently busy with design commissions

Design & Tutorials

Easy Illustrator Swatch Creation from an Image
Easy Illustrator Swatch Creation from an Image

When color swatches are pulled from an image such as a product photo, graphic, or other visual, they can help carry the tone and personality of a brand. This post focuses on my favorite way to extract colors in Illustrator using the Mosaic command, offers tips on color management, and how to generate swatch information.

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TutorialMatt BensonAugust 13, 2025Easy, Illustrator, Mosaic
Illustrator Ink Effect and Morphing Type
Illustrator Ink Effect and Morphing Type

There are lot of destructive and labor intensive ways to do this inky fluid text effect, but here’s a simple method that is infinitely editable with just a few tweaks in the Appearance panel. Enjoy these plainly written steps with clear visuals. This tutorial is fairly easy too!

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TutorialMatt BensonMarch 20, 2025Illustrator, Easy
Making Turing Patterns with Illustrator
Making Turing Patterns with Illustrator

So you saw a Turing pattern Photoshop tutorial? Let me slap the mouse out of your hand and show you the various ways to create the same beautiful Turing textures solely in Illustrator, and Illustrator alone. Vectors be praised!

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Tutorial, Graphic DesignMatt BensonDecember 20, 2024Illustrator, Pattern, Escher, Tesselation, Advanced, Turing
The Venture Brothers Playing Cards
The Venture Brothers Playing Cards

A private commission for a Venture Brothers-themed deck of playing cards. All custom illustrated characters, pips, typography, and a few other surprises. Go Team Venture!

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Fine Art & Illustration, Graphic DesignMatt BensonDecember 1, 2024Poker
Everything Old is New Again
Everything Old is New Again

I was contacted by the family of a decades-old dairy farm with the request to recreate their vintage brand materials into something new and fresh that they could use. I consider myself a regular Cool Hand Luke, so this gallon of milk was right up my alley.

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Fine Art & Illustration, Graphic DesignMatt BensonJune 19, 2024Milk, Logo, Typography, Product
Data Visualization in Illustrator
Data Visualization in Illustrator

Communicating data in clever and beautiful ways helps an audience absorb information more easily. This article covers various ways to work with data, bring that information into Illustrator, and create a beautiful data-focused poster.

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Graphic Design, TutorialMatt BensonJune 18, 2024Data, Typography, Dataviz
Marching Band Shirt Graphics
Marching Band Shirt Graphics

Band will be back in swing before you know it. Here’s a small collection of graphics from the last few high school marching band seasons.

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Graphic DesignMatt BensonApril 1, 2024Illustrator, Marching Band
Corporate Memphis Kaiju
Corporate Memphis Kaiju

A collection of kaiju inspired by the Corporate Memphis (Alegria) and editorial illustration style. These were really fun to make, and heavily lean on the exaggerated proportions, tiny heads, noodle limbs, questionable linework, and simple color palettes from their inspiration.

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Fine Art & Illustration, Graphic DesignMatt BensonMarch 21, 2024Alegria, Corporate Memphis, Kaiju
Synthwave Pixel Art Skyline
Synthwave Pixel Art Skyline

Let’s create a vibrant, retro aesthetic landscape using two of my favorite styles: synthwave and pixel art. This guide will walk through the process of using Illustrator to reduce any photo or reference into an intricate pixel piece, with all the glowing goodness a child of the 80’s would love.

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Tutorial, Fine Art & IllustrationMatt BensonFebruary 20, 2024Synthwave, Retro, Beginner
Starfield Manufacturing Flow Diagrams
Starfield Manufacturing Flow Diagrams

As a fan of technical illustrations and data visualizations, I wanted to diagram the manufacturing process flow for one of the most complicated outpost constructions in the game Starfield—the advanced nuclear reactor.

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Graphic Design, Fine Art & IllustrationMatt BensonFebruary 14, 2024Starfield, Diagram, Illustrator, infographic
Sullivan's Island Photography
Sullivan's Island Photography

Sullivan’s Island is a fantastic, quiet corner of the South, and an incredible place to stay if you want to slow down time and enjoy life. Just a short hop from Charleston, the island is host to the world’s ugliest lighthouse.

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PhotographyMatt BensonJanuary 23, 2024Island, Beach, Lighthouse
Public Domain is Amazing
Public Domain is Amazing

Get away from the usual Behance and Dribbble stuff and get inspired by the public domain images of yesteryear. Shake off those mental blocks and get the motivation to make something weird and wonderful… using other people’s work 😈

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Tutorial, Graphic Design, Fine Art & IllustrationMatt BensonNovember 6, 2023Public Domain, Typography
Fall Camp Shirts
Fall Camp Shirts

It’s that time of the year again, where fall camp is in full swing and spooky season is just getting started. Gather round friends while I elucidate, and talk about a couple t-shirts before it gets late!

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Fine Art & Illustration, Graphic DesignMatt BensonNovember 3, 2023Tshirt, Coven Camp
Urban Forager Branding
Urban Forager Branding

Get those creative juices flowing! The design prompt for this challenge is to create a fictional beverage company—liquor, seltzer, soda, or whatever—based on your spirit animal. Really dig into the product lore and use modern tools and methods to craft something special.

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Graphic Design, TutorialMatt BensonSeptember 15, 2023Liquor, Opossum, Branding, Logo
5 Books With Beautiful Typography
5 Books With Beautiful Typography

Books that go beyond the story and present their content in an intriguing or clever way hold a special place on my shelf. Here are five memorable books with exceptional typography and layout, and story of course!

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Graphic Design, PhotographyMatt BensonAugust 2, 2023Typography, Books, Design
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Charlotte,
Gastonia, NC, ,
United States
mattgyver@mattgyver.com
Hours

If you’ve found my articles or downloadables useful and would like to send a quick thanks, tips are most appreciated! I never run ads and I’m not a TikTok person—I share things just for the fun of it.

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Footer Profile Matt in the Bob's Burgers style

UI/UX designer, graphic artist, photographer, front end CSS & markup guy, Twitch streamer, and father & husband to the best family in the world. Loves story telling, teaching, explaining things simply, and making life easier for everyone.

Footer profile pic Marybeth in the Bob's Burgers style

Nurse, business manager, quilter, essential oiler, mother and wife to a very creative and busy family. Loves gardening, traveling, streaming cooking videos, and making life more complicated for everyone.

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