A glimpse into the design process and approval processes of Saul Bass and Stanley Kubrick for The Shining poster. I can’t imagine Kubrick would have been the easiest guy to work with. If you haven’t seen the BBC Documentary “Boxes”, it is a great insight into the Kubrick’s obsessiveness. Check out the trailer.

A while back I acquired what I consider to be one of the coolest cameras available, a very early Rolleiflex SL66. I’ve only shot a couple rolls through it, and excited to finally own one.

I recently had the pleasure of working with the team at Deen Construction providing the development of a new logo for the first phase of their new brand update.

While there are many visual approaches available to a designer for a construction firm, the strategy we chose was to develop a logo which would visually define Deen Construction as a leader in the large scale commercial industry.

The idea behind this approach was to create a visual that would align itself with the aesthetic tastes of architects, engineers and commercial development firms. By using strong type, bold color and simple yet smart design, the logo provides reference to the building aesthetic and commercial leadership Deen Construction embodies.

We often hear “rules are meant to be broken”. Sure! Why not? The thing is, to break rules we first need to know what they are before we just start breaking stuff. If we haphazardly threw elements on a page as if we were rolling dice, we would not have order, we would have chaos. Though chaos, incidentally also has its place in design, but that’s an all together different subject. To keep things simple, we’ll stick some basic fundamentals of ad design.

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If you are selecting photography for use in your business marketing efforts, either from stock images or originals, there are a few things to keep in mind. First and foremost, you want to choose a photograph or image that is going to compliment your company’s style guidelines or project design style. In addition, color palette, symmetry and balance are principles that will help you choose an image that is both aesthetically pleasing and functional for your layouts.

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This collection contains 26 Color and Black & White (RGB/3400 x 2300) high-res royalty free images for use. Photographed and styled to have a classic film feel, these sky images are great to use for your backgrounds or textures.

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It is said that animation knows no limit. The designers and artists enjoy an unprecedented freedom in the industry and this is what makes an excellent art form. But no creativity is free from the technicality. The artists must understand the basic principles of design. If you are good in fundamentals only then you will not survive in this industry. Your creativity must get reflected in your work. You must know how to apply the basic principles if animation so that the characters are not too detached from reality. We will focus on the essential principles of animation.

Staging

Staging is very important as it ensures that the main focus is on the action that takes place during a scene. The actions should be presented one by one and should never overlap each other. In this manner the audience will understand every move and gesture and the main action will never get lost in the midst of all the things happening around.

Squash & Stretch

This is the most important principle of animation as it instills life into rigid objects. The most common example would be the bouncing rubber ball. The ball appears to be round at the peak of the bounce but it does elongated when it is pulled down due to gravity. However, there is no loss in volume. It takes a certain shape when it is squashed to the ground and this defines the rigidity of an object.

Secondary Action

A secondary action should get noticed without pushing the main action into the background. For example, you may see a character putting his fingers on the table while speaking. This is a good example of secondary action.

Arcs

Have you ever noticed that in real life we always follow a curved path rather than a linear one, if you pick up something using your arm? You are definitely following a curved path. This is the same principle which allows the movement of inanimate objects looks more realistic.

Personality

A character should be distinct from other characters. No two persons share the same personality. Even twins have different personalities. This same principle applies to character animation. The character will move in its own distinct movement, it will have its own thought and not be a puppet at all.

Anticipation

You must have come across certain scenes in cartoons where the wind displays an anticipation of the action before the fall of a character from a height. Remember those funny cartoon characters that pause in mid-air after its step off a cliff and then starts falling. The actions get a lot of depth and character when you add anticipation to it. Not to forget that proper timing is an integral part of anticipation.

Exaggeration

This is the heart of cartoon animation. It takes ordinary animation to a level where it catches the eye. But it must be carefully used so that the actions do not cross the limits of reality.

One thing you must understand that there is no need to apply all the above principles in animation. The onus should be on learning the basics and why. You may omit one or more of these principles at the time of real work.

Margaret is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on cellphonebeat and technology. Beside this she is fond of books. She recently did an article on gizmowatch. These days she is busy in writing an article on cellphonebeat.

Your images are created, stored, processed and even printed in two different techniques: bitmap graphics and vector graphics. It is important to know when it is best to use one type from the other as well as their weaknesses. This article will provide you a summary of the comparison between these two concepts in various dimensions—from its definition, to its subtypes and even their visual differences.

Definition

Vectors are lines and shapes defined by mathematical equations. In this sense, lines are not referred to as lines but as strokes, while shapes are not only shapes but paths. The difference is due to the integration of direction and intensity when it comes to vector graphics by means of mathematical estimation. Another key quality of a vector is its strength and keen detail which is achieved also because of its mathematical construction.

Bitmaps, known as raster, are images composed of pixels. Pixels refer to miniscule boxes that serve as points in a line. Hence, a shape would constitute of line blocks of pixels. Bitmaps are used in a wider range of photo-editing software programs such as Photoshop which enables flexibility in creating or editing your images. Furthermore, it is easier to include and edit photos from digital cameras into your artworks using bitmap.

File Formats

The tables below will show various file formats under the vector and bitmap types.

VECTORS

*compound file formats which means they can handle both bitmap and vector but are most commonly used in vector formats.

BITMAPS

Visual Appearance

To help you observe the marked differences between vectors and bitmaps, graphics will be used below coupled with some brief explanations. Here are two examples of vector graphics with file extensions in .eps and .pdf.

Both pictures show very sharp images even in detail. Furthermore, once zoomed in, the object shows that the line is continuous, with no open spaces in between. This time let’s take a look at bitmap graphics under a .tif file format.

For printing bitmap graphics, typically the minimum resolution is 300 dpi. Examining the image closely at 300 dpi, it showed that the lines are not as smooth as they were in vector format. When zoomed in, we do see one pixel after the other which formed roughness on the edges of the line.

This time, let’s examine a JPG image. Like the TIFF image and given the fact that its quality is already set to High, the JPG image also showed rough patches on the line itself. Furthermore, the white background in-between the lines is no longer pristine, there are spots of different colors which resulted from a compression noise. Another limitation of a JPG image is that it converts spot colors to a CMYK or RGB value which of course loses the purpose of the desired detail.

It may be concluded that vectors will be highly useful and will yield greater quality when use for your images. However keep in mind though that if you need to work with photographic images, bitmap files are much more preferable. This only means that although quality is top priority, you should still try to assess your needs first in order to achieve better results.

Vincent Sevilla is a professional graphic designer and a marketing consultant for You The Designer. The leading source of design news, tips, and tutorials and inspirational graphic designs.

Successful companies turn to design studios that focus on quality design for the solution to their marketing, strategic graphic design and web design needs and many other companies follow suit in an economic downturn. It’s critical for businesses to maintain the company image they have worked hard to create, especially in a tough economy.

Companies have many options to consider when researching what type of establishment to use for their graphic design needs. Many turn to independent design houses that focus on high-end strategic design.

Resilient companies maintain their industry lead through effective marketing and excellent design.

Personally, I have used my 16 years of experience to develop a strong team of outstanding business associates; we design everything from logos to catalogs to e-commerce websites. Our clients receive exceptional quality design services, resulting in unique and effective products every time.

Throughout its life span, a company invests large amounts of money, time and research to create a solid company identity and its components, including logos, websites, catalogs and all other marketing collateral. An investment in good design creates strong customer confidence and instant company credibility with existing clients, potential clients and competitors. Cutting corners on quality design inhibits customers’ confidence by raising questions about a company’s stability. The price companies’ pay in an attempt to recapture customers’ confidence far outweighs the costs of doing it correctly the first time. Resilient companies maintain their industry lead through effective marketing and excellent design.

As most designers and design firms are well aware of…our work always comes last. My personal mission was to spend as many weekends as it takes to finally finish up our new business cards, letterhead, envelopes, and logo update, and now I’m proud to say, “they are done”.