Very creative Harley Davidson ads!!!

I remember seeing these ads in a magazine many moons ago and since then, they have been stuck in my mind because well, they are some really amazingly cool ads! Great graphic executions!

(Click to view full sizes)

||||||||| Bar Code Arts |||||||||

I work as a cashier and every week I literally check out hundreds if not thousands of products and of course I see bar codes every time I'm on the job. Never once had I thought that those bar codes could become... art. Well, the thought just never crossed my mind. Those boring bar codes don't really click the mind. But they obviously did to some Japanese artists, and those artists decided to create art out of the oh-so-boring bar codes we see probably a ton everyday. Some of them are very fun to look at too. Like these:




For more amazing and fun-tastic bar codes art, check out this website: Bar Codes Revolution !! Apparently these artists are planning to have those bar code arts applied to real products in the near future. Oh well, I don't mind seeing those fun-looking bar codes when I check out those products, they can save me some boring time at work :).

The beauty of carefully designed logos...

When we talk about logos, we immediately think of that tiny little image representing a big corporation or a company of some sort. Logos have been around for a long time and it never loses its importance. For something so small, it does work wonder. I love a well-designed logo, it tends to stick around my mind for a long time, even when the product or company it represents turn out to be very mediocre. I found a website that has a list of 450 very attractive web 2 designed logos. Looking at them I noticed a pattern... the majority of them use vector images, there's very little use of gradients, and the fonts are mostly modern, non sans-serif fonts. In a sense, they all represent web 2 really well, modern, sexy, practical and savvy. Colors and text are favored more than images in most of these logos. It's like they are yelling "We don't like to mess around, we like to get straight to the point." These logos show the confidence of a new age, they are not afraid to be bold, straightforward, and effectively simple. Now, you can look for yourself the list of those 450 logos: Web 2 designed logos .

60 Advanced Photoshop tutorials

I just found this very helpful site that has a list of 60 advanced Photoshop tutorials for those who want to experiment more with the program. Hope that it will be of help :) : Advanced Photoshop tutorials.

Don't judge a book by its cover... do we really?

I hear that proverb all the time, and often I do admit that it's true to some extent. However, I'd be honest with myself here, the cover of the book is always the first thing that draws me to a book. So, design is important after all. Having a good book cover doesn't make a book good, but what if we just focus on the good design on the cover. I found a website that is just exactly what I need in discovering some good designed covers without having to struggle through the book (not that I have to, but you get the point.) So brace yourself for some goodness that is: Book Covers!!! One of the good things about this website is that it doesn't go around making you click page after page to find out what you need to see, it displays all the covers right on the main page and you're free to browse to whatever cover that catches your attention the most. Once you click on the picture, you're taken to the page that has the info about the cover, and the comments so you get to read what others think of the design as well. It's a very well-rounded website.

Book Covers

PingMag - Online Design Magazine

PingMag is an online design magazine based in Tokyo that offers a lot of interesting articles touching almost all facets of design in general. I always find design magazines expensive so having an online magazine like PingMag is a great treat. This online magazine is not only informative but offers a global view as it goes around reviewing designs from many other places outside of the US and Japan as well.

PingMag - Online Design Magazine

Web Designer Wall

I have a little passion for children illustrations, or any type of illustrations in general basically. By chance I visited this very awesome website called WebDesignerWall.com that focuses a lot on the recent trends and ideas of illustrations and gives out a ton of tutorials as well as the latest news technology. The first things that drew me to it were the very colorful, energetic and somewhat exotic illustrations. The whole design just exploded with colors, curves and vivacity. I'm just in love with the detailed posts and updates they have on the site, with posts ranging from great artists of the month to what's new and hot in the illustration community to the latest technology news. Definitely WebDesignerWall is a great place to learn, exchange ideas, find inspirations and connect with others who share the same passion. I'm sure I'm already in for a great treat :).

Web Designer Wall

Great books

I was at Barns & Noble the other day looking for the Flash CS3 book when something delightful caught my eyes. If you frequent the place you will know that Barns & Noble has several bargain isles displaying some really great stuff for artistic and crafty individuals. While I was there I picked up a hardcover copy entitled "The Golden Age of Advertising - the 60s". It's a huge book with over 300 pages of amazing ads from that decade at only $13. This is something that would not be available in the libraries. In fact, I think the libraries have very limited reference books about Art in general. Browsing through the book I saw ads that in many ways were the bases for today's designs but with a softer touch. The illustrations are more detailed and colorful. There's also another one called "The Golden Age of Advertising - the 50s" with even more amazing ads! I think this is great for any graphic design students wanting to explore a bit more with the designs of past decades. You might be able to draw some inspirations from them too as well. I don't think these books are available for purchase on Amazon anymore, so if you're interested, pay Barns & Noble a visit :). Here is a link to read some comments on the book from Amazon:
The Golden Age of Advertising - the 60s