I still love the Iconfactory’s Flare app for the Mac. I’ve actually gotten to use it on some print projects lately with great results. Sure, with a little effort, I could probably replicate the effect in Photoshop, but Flare’s a lot more fun and pretty much effortless.

I’ve posted a new preset: Overcast. It will make a photo look dramatically overcast by desaturating it and adding a vignette and rough-edged border.

My new favorite technique with Flare is to apply it to art created in Illustrator. Adds a whole bunch of texture and character. The design below is a sample of my new Raceday font. On the left, the JPG exported from Illustrator. On the right, processed by Flare with my Overcast setting. Big difference.