When it’s working, we call it developing a distinctive style. When it’s not, we call it falling into a rut. Formulaic, trend-based design might help you get the bills paid on time, but it won’t win you any design awards — and let’s face it, what’s most scary about that feeling is the idea that your artistic side might be slipping as you behave more like a manufacturer. While this is a common feeling shared by all designers at some [...]

Nowadays we look around and all over the places see QR codes embedded into the ads, buildings, billboards, newspapers, cups, clothes and even into the roads. The usage of QR (Quick Response) codes in promotional marketing is a great idea and just one more awesome way to engage people to your brand and company. Commercial texts, free coupons, URLs and other data can be artfully hidden behind the black modules arranged on a white background. Their simple, but outstanding and [...]

Taking a black and white photograph and adding partial color to certain key points of the shot is one of the most popular techniques amongst professional photographers. You can understand its popularity when you look at the examples we have for you below. This technique can take an otherwise dull image and make it vibrant by highlighting critical areas of beauty. And, as you will also notice, they can at times be very powerful. At the bottom of this post [...]

A charity or cause may not need the sleek sales pages of a business on the web, but a poorly designed one could still mean the difference between helping people or failing to do so. Therefore, a non profit website design should be appealing enough to invite the organization’s targeted donors and volunteers. The basics of web design are enough to make a difference – An easy to navigate and user friendly website with careful use of fonts, colors and [...]

Some of the best and brightest trends we’ve seen this year (2011) in web design include responsive web design, single page scrolling websites, the proliferation of slide shows and sliders, the spread of font replacement and parallax scrolling. Some of these new trends may be passing fads, but others are likely to represent lasting shifts in the world of web design. As websites like Dribble allow web designers to showcase and share ideas, web design is beginning to develop more [...]

The gaming industry has undergone some mindblowing changes in just a few decades. It seems like only last year that Super Nintendo games were skyrocketing into stardom. Yet now in closing of 2011 we’re seeing brilliant HD graphics running through custom PC rigs, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and the Nintendo Wii consoles. Even with such advancing technology you can never forget the classics that brought us to this era. I’m a big fan of nostalgic/retro art and true gamers will [...]

Obvious but true: inspiration is crucial for visual designers. You get new ideas, you positively influence your style, and your imagination feels energized and revitalized. Not often explored, but music videos are a great source of inspiration: The moving imagery and graphics can give fresh design inspiration in ways that still-image can’t do. It’s like getting inspired by nature, watching films or even listening to music. So, music videos – this article features 20 Japanese music videos for your design [...]

As creative professionals are always seeking inspiration from all kind of medias, the t-shirt design field community is huge and highly inspiring. There are lots of communities created out there where you can create and share your ground-breaking t-shirt. The most memorable t-shirt designs are typically quirky, attention-grabbing and more often than not amusing. But not always. Sometimes they are very detailed with a hidden meaning. You just have to look a little closer. In this showcase you will find [...]

Inspiration is very importation for visual designers. You get new ideas, your style can get shaped and influenced, and you cab become energized and increasingly more passionate towards your visual art. Well, why not use Sony as a source of inspiration? Sony is known for being stylish, and that translates into many of their ads. So for some sweet design inspiration, this article features 20 awesome ads from Sony. We have previously published a post about creative and sometimes controversial [...]

A caricature is the art of producing an embroidered or indistinct portrayal of a person to generate an identifiable visual image. In general, we see lots of caricatures of political personalities and movie stars in entertainment magazines for humorous effect. In this post, we are going to have some fun showcasing some of these caricatures with 50 famous personalities from sports, film, television and the music industry. You can leave a comment below if they brought a smile to your [...]

I found out this morning, as did many of us, that Steve Jobs had died. It saddened me and to be honest I wasn’t really sure why. Although I love Apple products, I’m no fanboy, but still it depressed me. To cheer myself up I thought I’d watch the video “How to live before I die” recorded back in 2005. Photo Credit: Daniel D’Auria We all love a rags to riches story, they help us feel that anything is possible. [...]

Your home work-station has to be perfect. It has to be tailored to both your professional and personal needs. It has to have limited distractions. You have to have speedy access to all of the tools of your trade. And finally, it has to be a place that allows your creative juices to flow. How you achieve this is completely down to each individual, there is no set outline for achieving home office bliss… …but we have found some work-stations [...]

Web design does not have to be limited to a typical grid structured layout. It sometimes feels like we are locked in an endless cycle of header, content, sidebar and footer. That is it. It would be great if we could to tear away from convention sometimes and also force ourselves to break some usability rules. Just imagine what we could create. In today’s post we have for you a selection of sites that do exactly as described above: They [...]