Archive for the 'Art Direction' Category

Sweet!!

That “Web 2.0″ look… the elusive holy grail, the new bevel, drop-shadow-du-jour, the page curl of the new millennium… But how does one get that look? Well, now we’ve got every “design” effect tutorial conveniently indexed and logged for your Photoshopping pleasure, thanks to this Smashing Magazine post.

I even put the new mod7 logo through the Web 2.0 machine. Total “design” time: 5 minutes flat!

Funny thing is… it actually looks pretty damn hot!

(Thanks, Mark, for the tip-off)

Anytime a designer or artist complains to you that they don’t have the right tools to do a good job, you just show them this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0Qpc4UzP9g

That guy is the Jimmy Hendrix of MS Paint.

Man, some of the best design and advertising stuff I see is coming out of Brazil these days. Eye-candy galore and an apparent “can-do” attitude (some of these studios are too small to making work of this callibre). Case in point:

http://www.seagullsfly.com/ (well, these dudes are quite big, actually)

And, ok, their interactivity is a bit weak (and one-trick-pony-ish), but their style, eye for detail, and execution values are undeniable.

While we’re on the subject of Brazillians, here’s a shoutout to my bud, Mauricio: www.thesoulsurfer.net

An excerpt from Was It Done With a Lens, or a Brush? - New York Times:

H.D.R. is one of many digital darkroom techniques catching the fancy of amateur photographers. With the rising popularity of digital single-lens reflex cameras and more powerful personal computers has come a growing interest in visual experiments.

At the same time, software makers like Adobe are increasingly automating many of those processes, including H.D.R. While they may not always be straightforward, tricky digital techniques no longer require months of experience or hours of study.

Although H.D.R. photos are often compared to paintings, they are an attempt by software makers to allow photography to more accurately mimic human vision.