A flash website is like a game…like a new world! Each one of the viewers can  navigate way differently from the other into a flash website!

I don’t deny that it is “heavy” for the brain of our computer….and sometimes there is absolutely no need to use flash to make a website but come on IT’S FANCY!

Here are some websites that cached my attention…and I’m pretty sure that you have at least one to share with us! Be my guest & Join me! Here we go…

A playful website full of surprises…

http://kylesteed.com/

A funny website with so many point of views you’re not gonna believe it!

http://www.mono-1.com/monoface/main.html

An excellent web project with lots & lots of details…

http://www.agencynet.com/

A weird website..interractive and smart enough!

http://www.onetothree.net/

One of my favorites website…like a game…or like a website see for yourself!

http://theoleg.com/

Way too cool for school website…smart and never-ending! I love it!!

http://www.nobodyhere.com/

This has a point…(little flash forward series point of view…but it’s clever!)

http://www.dreamgrove.org/

At this point I have to express my worries about the future of our beloved flash…! What program or language can replace those smooth animations? I’m not obsessed, but I hate THE WAY AND THE REASONS that flash technology is being attacked lately..!

Enough of my worries! so..

What about yours? Share with us your fav websites, links, or even your whole bookmark list!!!

Don’t be shy you designers !

I don’t think that there is something particular, besides taste! But I certainly believe that Concept can make an artwork speak for itself!

Sometimes, when I’m stressed or depressed I want to draw or paint something in order to unzip my mind…and I don’t think that I am the only one who does that ! Isn’t it? The point is WHAT to draw at this moment? What will be the idea, the theme, the base? …the concept!

There are so many illustrations out there that we consider good, bad, or just ok! Why? Because we just like the color combinations and shapes? or because we see something behind the artwork? Does the painting speaks to our minds? Reminds us of something? Inspire us for something else? or just makes an impression to our minds that we can’t take our eyes off of it!

An artwork includes colors, shapes, images, typefaces, and many other objects, textures or patterns combined together and make it happen (make a final impression)! The quality of this final impression is depending mostly on the viewer’s taste, culture and style. So, the artwork interacts with the viewer making him/her think while watching. Trust me, a creative mind needs feedback in order to keep watching something. This is what why a deeper concept of an artwork can make it unique and worth through time…!

” No matter HOW good your artwork looks, it has no value if there is no WHY behind it.”

Enough of theory!

I’m going to introduce to you one of my favourite designers! His name is Glenn Jones, a freelance graphic designer and illustrator based in Auckland, New Zealand. He has worked in the design industry for over 17 years focusing on packaging, corporate identity and illustration. After success designing tees on Threadless.com he is concentrating on his own range of T-shirts at GLENNZ TEES www.glennz.com

I love his style, color combinations, clarity of design, but most of all his concepts! Funny, black, straight, and smart!

Who would you call first? (notice the colors of it! so clear and simple)

E.T. Can call home faster than he thought! (how pure gray can perfectly fit as background color)

Hungry? (message is clear, funny and black! I totally love that one!)

I know you must be crying now! (case closed! That is concept!)

Save as…to save your ass! (gray again! with those ideas…who needs a background anyway?)

No comments here!

Popcorn is not only for cinema! (sometimes the subtitles make the design!)

It’s not what it seems! (clear designs for tees!)

Now you have no problem travelling through space! (simple graphics, great colors, pure ideas)

Busted! No need to repeat myself!

I love the guy!

So, when you feel empty of ideas…think about this! You don’t have to include earth and universe into your artwork to make it look good!

Now, if you STILL have no ideas at all….think what would Macgyver do?

Typography (from the Greek words τύπος(typos) = form and γραφή(graphy) = writing) is the art and technique of arranging type, type design, and modifying type glyphs. Type glyphs are created and modified using a variety of illustration techniques. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading (line spacing), adjusting the spaces between groups of letters (tracking) and adjusting the space between pairs of letters (kerning).

Typography is performed by typesetters, compositors, typographers, graphic designers, art directors, comic book artists, graffiti artists, and clerical workers. Until the Digital Age, typography was a specialized occupation. Digitization opened up typography to new generations of visual designers and lay users.

Let’s admit it! Some of us are crazy about typography, fonts, and symbols, some of us just hate them and some of us can not even understand how to use them properly for a great appearance like the artworks we admire!

Well, I have to say that it’s not always about the final appearance…but it’s mostly the travel through fonts that makes someone understand and love typo!

It’s all about the experiment! Type, sizes, weights, styles, colors, position, shape, numbers, symbols, special symbols, punctuation and so much more that can be included into an artwork or even BECOME the artwork!

Don’t think magazine, forget about boring traditional newspaper…unlock your mind and think that you have no pencil, no brush, no shape, just fonts and letters! What would you do? What would your artwork look like?

First, let’s travel through time to see where all these things started.

First appearance of typography…

The typographical principle, that is the creation of a complete text by reusing identical characters, was first realized in the Phaistos Disc, an enigmatic Minoan print item from Crete, Greece, which dates between 1850 and 1600 BC. It is both strange and encouraging the fact that many typographic artworks nowadays are inspired by this disk and look somehow identical to it!

and then came Gutenberg!

This is a page of Johannes  Gutenberg’s 42-line Bible, the inventor of printing press. By 1450 he first printed a poem in Germany, and just like that typography has made one more step through history! Have a closer look at the First Letter! Back then, the first letter was like a jewel, besides it was the most creative thing on a page anyway!

Who can ignore this masterpiece through the history of typography?

This is a great & famous poster made in 1923 for the Bauhaus Exhibition in Weimar, Germany by Joost Schmidt a teacher or master at the Bauhaus and later a professor at the College of Visual Arts, Berlin. As you can see words are useless here. He perfectly combined typography glyphs & shapes in order to make this masterpiece for us to watch and follow!

And just like that the door of typography left open for all the designers to be inspired and let their creativity continue the history!

In conclusion, untill now we have many kinds of typography, and the fonts goes on….speak for themselves! I’m gonna show you some artworks that cached my attention, but I got to say it was kind of so difficult for me to choose only one for each kind but anyway! Let’s see…

Megan Herbet • type in black/white illustration

Jmirman • Shape made out of typo

Davidpst • Typo into a shape

Mil3n • Abstract typography

Sergio.Stefano • Optical Illusion Typography

Stowe • Combination of typography and shapes making a total shape

Pimp my art • Helvetica font (it is a kind for itself)

CHIN2OFF • 3D shape made out of typo

Um0p3pisdn • Photography made out of typo (my ★!)

Buioaloha • Texture-impression typography

Mark Boehly • 3D typography

Wete & Pau Molas • Typography out of the font itself

Face • Glowing typo

Chris Berthe • Handmade fontmaking (out of anything you can imagine…or not!)

Jordan Metcalf • 3D anaglyph typography

Chris Labrooy • Typography in Architecture

Of course that is just a small preview of what a creative mind can do with typography through time…I have to say I’m pretty amazed !

And the story goes on…I’m positive that many great things are on their way to surprise us…

Well, now it’s your turn!

I’m waiting for you to share with us your favorite pieces and kinds, or even just choose your favorite from the above and comment!!

I would like to share with you one of my best short films…(which also can represent myself perfectly!)

The story is about Antonia, a 12-year-old girl. Who often has daydreams, in which she wonders in to a magical far away forest, where she hides from the problems of the real cruel world of hers. One day, however, her father takes drastic measures to force her into the real miserable dark world and she has to face a decision.
Is your inner peace a utopian state until you have finally escaped the grip of the society and its rules? Or is affirmation a faster way to your personal luck? And what are you supposed to do, if you have to answer this question at the age of 12?
In the Animated Short “The Forest”, the protagonist has to cope with this question and her hostile environment and finds a simple but radical solution.

This film is so atmospheric, both cruel and sweet. I believe that we all have Antonia somewhere deep inside, but the question is…why do we have to let her in the bubble? Think about it!

EUROPRIX 2009 Nominee in the category “Digital Video & Animations”, produced by: David Scharf, Javi Otero, Germany

Funky, Colorful, Playful, and friendly !

I personally love pixel art, it reminds me of the video games I used to play when I was young (…and still..!)

Let’s take a look into some pixel artworks from the past…and try to remember while judging!

How about the first pacman?… every single, each and every one of us have been there!

Super Mario World !!! One of the most amazing worlds! Everybody wanted to live there and jump into a pump to meet the Princess or the little mushroom !

Prince of Persia ! A legend game! I don’t know how many of you had the experience to play this game! So simple, clear pixel graphics…and so much addiction for a game!

Larry Leisure Suit 1 ! Comments are useless here! The game speaks for itself…and not only literally!!!

All these games were made with programs and technologies of their age, and when we mention them today we all want to see and play them again! They were fun, not much violent and we were all happy and cheerful while playing them!

Have you ever consider why today’s games have no addiction like the old-school games back then?… and I don’t mean the online ones!!! Remember the game boxes in game-stores or near pool, having just 2 or 3 color buttons and 2 joysticks for a vs game…how many coins were inserted??? I even remember the design around the box…groovy and funky as can be!! That was the magic!

This kind of art might happen because they didn’t have the technology and masses to make something better…but nowadays, this kind of art is most appreciated and continued.

This is proof!

Spectacular artwork!! Take a closer look to the details…

It’s like a way of living! Creativity has no limit after pixel art!

We can pixelize EVERYTHING in every possible creative way!

we all live in pixels…but only some of us have realized it!

think about it! You can do it!!!!

Let’s admit it! No technology or mass is able to kill pixel art! We all appreciate our roots…and I am proud and happy that we still have this technique and all these awesome artists and artworks to keep it alive!!!

Now speaking of pixels let’s have a more complete aspect while watching this video based on pixel idea as the conclusion of this post!

ENJOY

by Michal Dziekan (http://michaldziekan.com)

and this is pretty much the whole truth!

Tv News are full of monsters! Cruel hungry and dirty as these!

I totally love this technique, color & detail as well as the perfect concept behind it!

Someday a great tutor  told me that ” It’s not about HOW beautiful your artwork looks….but WHY it looks good!”  and he was so right!!!

Great Ideas…to come

Luck…in selling ‘em

and Creativity ….to make ‘em happen!

Best Wishes for everybody & congratulations to all those who added some color and design through 2010 !

I mean, seriously! Ok! It is Christmas, you want to spam something! Why cards?

Aren’t you sick of happy hohoho santa? And Christmas trees? Christmas trees in EVERY possible shape…made out of anything you can imagine…!!

Why Christmas Cards? and most of all….WHY Christmas e-cards..and I don’t mean the animated ones…(this time…) but I mean the spam static crappy cards you receive by mail!!!

Old-school is touching and trendy now, but seriously!  cards??? when we have great programs and minds to create WHATEVER???

Well, if you insist of sending another card this year, I can show you how to make a christmas card of your own in 5 minutes or less!!!

Firstly, you have to decide what your card is gonna be about. Ready?

Have a triangle shape as a guide. Put some things related to you, inside it and repeat in random order. Then put a star on the top of it, and some strass inside.

Glow the stars, draw some snow on a baby blue background. Finally, remove the triangle guide and MAKE A WISH!

Your Christmas Card is ready! As Unique and Glam as you wanted it!! huh?

Happy Holidays!

And remember…. you can always take a shit and call it ART!!

That’s a funny approach to reality..as much as “copy paste” stands for “graphic design” sometimes!

Design for me is just a word…

When remember myself as a child…I drew a lot. Some kids liked my drawings, some didn’t…Simple as that!!

Things got more complicated as I grew up, when I started experimenting with programs as Corel draw (one of the earliest editions) and started realizing some things about graphics and arts..

I met some graphic designers when I was about 16 and most of them were like “I AM the GOD/des of DESIGN and you have no idea how difficult and demanding  job it is..etc etc”, and man! that sounded so bullshit to my ears like a song parody!

As I got to college, studying about technology of graphic arts, many of my teachers and some other people around this field keep saying crap like that…I had no opinion but they still sounded foolish. The funniest thing was that when some of them asked me what I was studying about, their answer was “WHAT IS THIS? and what does this has to do with graphic design?” I laughed like hell!

So what’s design? And what is the difference between a plain artwork and “design”…Terms like “this is Design” seems something like a polished label on a crappy store!

Artwork is just an artwork…good or bad…filthy or awesome! But still an artwork! u like it or not…it’s a point of somebody’s view!

Anyway it’s not like I understood people for more simple things before, so it’s not surprising!

COME AND COLOR IT!

let’s play!