by Len on July 12th, 2010 | 129 views |
A couple of months ago Jason highlighted some sites that he turns to for new ideas and creative energy. In case you missed it, here it is. As we discuss in our book Design Matters, references are both a powerful tool and a vital part of the design process. A designer can never have enough cool sites for new ideas and references.
With that in mind, here are some more great sites, full of incredible examples of effectively communicating concepts through visual images, still and moving..
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by The MO Guys on July 7th, 2010 | 365 views |
Let’s face it, not all of us are artists. Many of us are designers, who create inspiring works using great source materials created by talented artists. The web is filled with a plethora of amazing stock art, but sometimes it’s hard to find sources at a size large enough to incorporate into a new finished design. This is especially true when it comes to print work.
Vector art, or art created using programs that use mathematical equations to represent lines, shapes, color and so on can be scaled to any size without any concern of resolution. In other words, you can make it as big as you need it, and it won’t break it up and get pixelated. It takes a lot of skill to create vector imagery, and the learning curve is high, but the good news is that a lot of artists want to give their stuff away for free.
Here are 5 sources for great vector art:
www.123freevectors.com
www.freevectors.net
www.multimedia-stock.com
www.brandsoftheworld.com (Be sure to read how these images can be used)
all-silhouettes.com (Warning: some of the silhouettes on this site are bit risque)
by Jason on May 19th, 2010 | 545 views |
As a graphic artist, I’m always looking for ways to be creatively inspired. When I’m scouring the web looking for inspiration, I sometimes encounter things created by other designers that I know I could never pull off. One might think this would leave an artist discouraged. For me, the exact opposite is true. The inspiration that comes from studying mind-blowing design is priceless. I look at things beyond my reach and feel a strong desire to reach further, do more, and learn techniques I’ve never used.
In the last few weeks as I’ve been recovering from surgery, I’ve occasionally found myself looking for new inspiration. I’ve found some great sites that I thought I’d share here on the blog. In no particular order:
www.motionographer.com – A great site for motion graphic artists to find inspiration. Amazing stuff here!
www.behance.net – This site features all sorts of creative inspiration from users all over the globe. It appears to be a great way to get connected too.
www.graphic-exchange.com – An amazing collection of inspiring designs.
www.redgiantpeople.com – The parent site of this site sells After Effects plugins but there’s lots of cool stuff here to check out-especially in the Guru section.
www.theinspirationroom.com – Several categories of inspiration to choose from. You’ll lose hours here.
So how about you? Where do you go for creative inspiration?
by Jason on March 15th, 2010 | 244 views |
In our book Design Matters: Creating Powerful Imagery for Worship, we look at several rules for good composition. One of those rules deals with leading the eye through a finished composition in an orderly and interesting fashion.
Today I ran across this article that did a great job of illustrating different ways the eyes can be lead through a photograph by way of good composition. Of course the rules apply to graphics as well.
Check out the article.
by Jason on February 23rd, 2010 | 641 views |
There’s no doubt that we live in a visual culture, and that culture has become less and less interested in the institutional church. While we have the most powerful story to tell, the way in which we tell it is often the least powerful way for the time in which we live.
Quite often, the reading of scripture in worship is the least engaging moment of all. Rather than approaching scripture as story, scripture is often shared in a dry, emotionless way or done as a broken, monotone, congregational reading. With screens so prevalent in worship now, the most common approach to scripture in worship is to just put the text on the screen and hope that people read along. Are any of those methods really very effective for our visual culture? Probably not.
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