I know most of us are still going crazy trying to finish the magazine project, BUT I wanted to share with everyone a website that has gotten little attention yet is one of the most innovative I’ve ever seen. Newsmap is a site that allows you to see as much (or as little) news as you’d like by means of various-sized boxes. After creating a username and password, you can set Newsmap to load different types of news from as many countries as you’d like. Each news story appears in a box that clicks-through to the article, and as a story becomes more popular, has more hits & related stories, etc., the box becomes larger (you should have seen the box for Michael Jackson’s death last year, it practically took up the whole page!).
This site is really inspirational for my web design project. It shows that a simple concept, along with relatively simple execution, can make a site that people will remember and visit repeatedly. Newsmap is now my homepage, and I’m stoked that I discovered it nearly a year ago.
I saw an ad in this same campaign for Ray Ban eyewear in the latest issue of Rolling Stone, and I thought it was a pretty innovative use of color and mixing both older and modern artistic elements. I particularly enjoy the neon colors towards the bottom of this ad, yet the iconic brand’s “Never Hide” is still prominently displayed at the top.
This series of ads is continuing through the rest of 2010, so enjoy! I know I will keep a lookout for the rest of them as Ray Ban rolls them out during the holiday season.
When brainstorming ideas for the magazine project. I googled inspirational magazine covers. This cover of The New Yorker, i believe illuminates the premise that simple is sometimes better. This issue of the magazine was published in the immediate wake of September 11th. At the time our nation was immersed in overwhelming grief. The New Yorker captured the atmosphere prevalent in our nation during the time through making the majority of the cover black.
This week, I thought I’d share one of my favorite sites ever: InterfaceLIFT. This site is a virtual art gallery of photographs and digitally-altered artwork, most of which can be downloaded to your desktop for free. I especially like how InterfaceLIFT lets the user choose your ideal resolution, and every photo is available for many different device resolutions, like Android phones and the iPad. Once you start looking through the photos on InterfaceLIFT, I bet you’ll be hooked on this site too. It definitely has inspired me to think creatively and effectively use mixed media to create something amazing.
Enjoy!
I came across this poster of various business cards. I thought that the different designs may help inspire graphic students in designing their own cards. Hopefully this visual element will help someone complete the assignment!
http://abduzeedo.com/creating-crazy-cool-logo
I just randomly found this logo. The company is named “Zagora”. It’s a little hard to read, and even now I still wonder how the first letter looks like a “z”. But anyway, the logo is quite hug-able. I like the shape and the colors. Warm, light, and cute. The logo makes fell the company youthful and vigorous as well. Good impression.
BTW, the URL link is the tutorial about how to make this logo in illustrator. Hope can help.
This is a cool article that deals a lot with what we discussed in class: breaking down objects into geometric shapes in order to create a logo. From lines to simple shapes, it shares a lot of tips on how to use the right design elements to get your message across. Click here for the article.
This picture’s use of silhouettes is very dramatic and shows how using a simple light source can alter the entire mood of a piece of art. The outline of the trees is a great contrast to the navy, almost gray-black sky, and I particularly like how the actual source of the light is not directly shown, which adds to the mystery in this piece. There are many similar works, including incredible photographs, at interfacelift.com, and I recommend everyone check it out!
Upon being assigned the project to create a poster for a non-profit organization or event, my mind immediately flashed to the Jimmy Fund Poster for the Boston Red Sox. Being a huge Red Sox fan as well as from the Boston area, I am very familiar with the design of the poster. I am able to visualize this poster in my head without even looking at it. I believe that if people are able to formulate the image of the poster, without actually seeing it in front of them, then the poster effectively executed it’s purpose. Without even reading the text on this poster, I am able to to look at the image and know that it is for the Jimmy Fund. The light green color and the font represent elements from Fenway Park as well.
This weekend I was fornuate enough to spend time back home, in Massachusetts. Today, I spent the day shopping with my family in Boston! While driving home from Boston, I looked up and saw one of the most stunning sunsets overlooking the Boston skyline. Unfornuately, I left my camera at school so I was unable to take a picture. However, I believe this image illuminates how beautiful and inspiring something as simple as a sunset can be!
