I love these stamp designs created for the Royal Mail by Hat-Trick Design and letterer Marion Deuchars. There's just something about black, white, and red that makes a subject a bit more profound.
This is the rare case when lettering that might normally be construed as having a light or lyrical tone is successfully paired with a serious subject. Why is that?
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This paper, mentioned widely in recent days, addresses the digital alteration of photographs. Eric Kee and Hany Farid are the authors of A perceptual metric for photo retouching, published by the Department of Computer Science at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH.
I found this passage and much that follows to be most interesting, "We propose that the interests of advertisers, publishers, and consumers may be protected by providing a perceptually meaningful rating of the amount by which a person's appearance has been digitally altered. When published alongside a photo, such a rating can inform consumers of how much a photo has strayed from reality, and can also inform photo editors of exaggerated and perhaps unintended alterations to a person's appearance."
You can image the ramifications of such a rating could be both good and bad. Thought the authors devote much of their focus to "...highly idealized and unobtainable body images," I can image particularly practical uses of the technology such as detecting the amount of retouching used in creating that mouth-watering photograph of a hamburger.
Interesting, the acknowledgements tell us, "This work was supported by a gift from Adobe Systems, Inc., a gift from Microsoft, Inc. and a grant from the National Science Foundation...".
A perceptual metric for photo retouching (2.6MB PDF)...
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The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, in New York have co-organized an international exhibition titled Graphic Design: Now in Production — what is being called, "an ambitious look at the broad-ranging field of graphic design".
As the exhibit's website describes it, the exhibit "explores how graphic design has broadened its reach dramatically over the past decade, expanding from a specialized profession to a widely deployed tool." The work featured, "explores design-driven magazines, newspapers, books, and posters as well as branding programs for corporations, subcultures, and nations".
Whether or not you are able to visit the exhibit, I encourage you to order a copy of the exhibit catalogue, a 225-page book that includes hundreds of examples plus twenty-some opinion pieces on the recent history and current state of graphic design by the exhibit's curatorial team and others.
The irony is graphic design, as Ellen Lupton puts it, is "about doing something in the world" or pragmatics — and the very nature of such an exhibit is to look at the work and describe it (for the most part) outside the context for which it takes action. It will fascinating to see how well the exhibit is able to bridge that divide.
I'm anxious to see it — here are the venues:
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis through January 22, 2012
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, New York, May 16, 2012
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California, September 30, 2012
Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas, July 19, 2013
Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC, Oct 24, 2013
About the exhibit catalogue...
Purchase the exhibit catalogue...
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If you were in search of an unusual photograph or illustration in the pre-digital years, one source you could turn to was the Bettman Archive. Typically, you'd call their New York offices and talk to a researcher. You'd explain what you were looking for and they would search Bettman's huge collection and send you a package of photocopies of what they had on the subject. If, for example, you needed a steel engraving of an old oak tree — they'd give you five or ten from which to choose.
Fast forward to 1995: The Bettmann Archive is sold to Corbis, the digital stock photography company founded by Bill Gates. Then to 2002: The entire collection is transferred to a secure, climate-controlled, underground storage facility maintained by Iron Mountain, an information management company.
This is the first time I've seen a "civilian" report on the Corbis collection. It's are real treat to see the facility and get an update.
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How often are you asked to use an image that is too small for the application? If you're like me, you typically explain that it is impossible to add information to an image that isn't already there.
Yes that's true, but to be fair, there are ways of faking it — techniques, applications, and plug-ins for up-resing or increasing the resolution of an image to match print or online applications that require an image larger than the original.
Though this first explanation is a bit dated, the science holds true. The links that follow it will introduce you to the current crop of tools and to further insights on the subject.
Digital Photo Enlargement by Sean McHugh...
Further analysis... Interpolation Revisited by Ron Bigelow...
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On July 11, 2011 a website called Historypin was launched by a non-profit organization known as We Are What We Do.
As they describe it, "Historypin is a way for millions of people to come together, from across different generations, cultures and places, to share small glimpses of the past and to build up the huge story of human history."
"Everyone has history to share:," they say, "whether its sitting in yellowed albums in the attic, collected in piles of crackly tapes, conserved in the 1000s of archives all over the world or passed down in memories and old stories. Each of these pieces of history finds a home on Historypin, where everyone has the chance to see it, add to it, learn from it, debate it and use it to build up a more complete understanding of the world."
Thanks to Jim Green for pointing us to Historypin.
The Historypin blog and one of the first posts...
The We Are What We Do website...
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David Friedman is photographer who, as he explains it, "...Sometimes gets ideas for photos, designs, gadgets, and other projects." Ironic Sans is where he writes about such things.
You got your picture in my logo...
They don't make computer manuals like they used to...
Idea: Pre-pixelated clothes for reality TV shows...
Idea: A new typography term...
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Last week I spent two days art directing a photography shoot inside a steel foundry and manufacturing plant. It reminded me of how interesting the job of a photographer (and designer) can be.
In fact, some of the most interesting folks I have met in my life are professional photographers. The reason is becuase, to do the job, you've got to be confident, outgoing, opinionated, technically skilled, and able to react quickly to the inevitable changes many projects present. That combination of traits makes for an eclectic, complex, personality.
Today I want to point you to a site dedicated to photographers and the nitty gritty of their business: APhotoEditor.com. The site is published by Rob Haggart, the former Director of Photography for Men's Journal and Outside Magazine, and features topics such as business practices, legal issues, marketing for photographers, and so on.
You'll have to visit it to get a feel for what distinguishes it from other photography resource sites — suffice it to say, I think the point of view is particularly intriguing.
Real World Estimates - Bribes And Kickbacks...
Reference to discussion about how photography is used to exaggerate...
"The Daily Edit" is Heidi Volpe's column which points to great editorial content...
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Being a creator of templates has not endeared me to all designers. Some folks get itchy when you provide others with even partial alternatives to using full-blown professional services. (If they were to look closely, they'd see my templates are designed to provide a framework for designers to begin a project with, not as finished designs.) So I have some sympathy for the fallout Mariano Pastor will suffer from his venture with Via U Photography.
It's actually a pretty smart idea — a flat fee product photography service ($70) for folks who need a decent product shot but don't have the budget to hire a professional photographer with a studio.
I can see how Via U would make sense for a certain group of clients in a specific niche — the site, in particular, recommends the service for users of the Esty.com handmade marketplace. That said, if you've got ten products and the equivalent budget of $700 I'm guessing you could probably afford to hire a photographer with a small studio.
In any case, I think it's worth a look.
The Via U! blog offers some ideas for do-it-yourselfers...
A press release about the service...
Mariano Pastor's website (the founder of Via U!)...
What the heck, while you're at it, check out my templates...
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If you're searching for current imagery and information about the countries (and entities) of the world, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) publishes an excellent, up-to-date resource titled The World Factbook — in print and online.
In addition to photographs, maps, flags, and so on of all the current entities (267 at this writing) it includes a written snapshot on each country's history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, and military.
More good news: The World Factbook is in the public domain. That means much of it can be used without permission of the CIA — but be sure to read the copyright pages. (You cannot, for example, use the CIA seal.)
A map of the Arctic (1.6MB PDF)...
An example of some entity-specific photographs — in this case, from France...
Read this copyright information before using anything...
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Anyone who has ever art directed product photography for a catalog will appreciate the kind of situations that Catalog Living makes fun of. If you've done enough of it, you've had at least one occasion when you asked yourself something like, "What the heck was I thinking when I put a watermelon on the couch?!"
Catalog Living spoofs images from catalogs such as Arhaus, West Elm, and Pottery Barn. Photographs that, in an effort to be attractive (at times), end up being a bit bizarre.
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One of the things my wife and I did on our vacation recently was tour the Charles W. Morgan, an 1840s wooden whaling ship that is being restored at the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard in Mystic Connecticut.
As we climbed through the narrow doorways and rooms I couldn't help but think of the long dead souls who had manned that ship and sailed it to faraway places.
So my reflections were fresh when I came across a wonderful new website titled Dear Photograph. It captures, through photographs, the idea of matching up images from the present and the past.
It is, in and of itself, a fascinating, touching way of drawing memories from the current reality but the designer in me wants to think of ways of using the same idea in other ways. It's easy to think how the same idea could be used to demonstrate the differences between old products and new products, to document the before and after of a location, and so on.
Any other ideas of how this concept could be used?
Dear Photograph was created by Taylor Jones...
An article about Jones and his idea...
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As the story goes, Adobe was founded in 1982 and named for the Adobe Creek that ran behind John Warnock's house in Los Altos, California. Who could have predicted what Adobe would become — the company that started as the home of the PostScript page description language, ended up precipitating the desktop publishing revolution and today has 9000-plus employees and revenues of $3.8 billion.
But the magic, to me, is what Adobe has done for my profession. It has helped to grow seemingly creative disciplines -- graphic design, photo editing, illustration, animation, and so on -- into scientific collaborations and pursuits of the highest order.
Adobe invests 20% of its revenues in research and development. But, as they explain it, "The company's commitment to innovation... goes far beyond dollars spent. With a wide range of initiatives that provide resources, tools, and support to stimulate innovative practices at every level of the company's activities, Adobe has ensured that innovation remains an essential element of its long-term strategy."
For a guy who once used a T-square and press type, the stuff going on in places like the Adobe Advance Technology Labs is science fiction made real.
Cosaliency and image triage...
Articulated puppet building...
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If you're a writer, designer, illustrator, photographer, editor, developer, or marketer, the obvious answer is yes. The proof is in the many new studios popping up to specialize in the development of content for the new generation of phones and tablets.
Electric Type, for example, bills itself as a digital book foundry. Here, they provide us with a taste of how some of the aforementioned players have collaborated to reinvent a storybook.
A video tour of their first project: The Jungle Book...
Illustrator Nigel Buchanan's portfolio...
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If you need pure inspiration, print advertisements are hard to beat — each one reveals a different architecture for drawing a reader in and communicating a message through an abbreviated set of words and imagery.
If you learn to distill and combine and deconstruct those ideas, you'll have an endless stream of ways to kick-start your thinking. How do you create something new a fresh? Get a sense of what's already been done.
Here are some good sources to track.
For deep international coverage, Ads of the World...
Lürzer's Most seen ads this week...
For some history: Duke University's 30,000-plus advertisement collection...
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Here's a recent, graceful adaptation of GIF animation produced in a collaboration between photographer Jami Beck and designer Kevin Burg. They take still images and add subtle movement in a discreet area of the image. The result is a still image with isolated movement — a very nice effect. (Be sure you wait for them to load fully so you don't miss the effect.)
Thanks to Daniel Will-Harris for pointing us to it.
Photographer Jamie Beck's blog...
Designer Kevin Burg's portfolio...
A brief interview with Beck and Burg on Turnstyle...
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I think it's important to be aware of what I don't know. By that I mean, it is important to acknowledge that there are many possibilities outside my current field of vision. To me, continually expanding one's vision is a critical part of growing as a designer.
For example, I never would have predicted my clients would have the opportunity to advertise their products and services by sight — twenty miles out and 10,000 feet above.
Yet that is precisely what MondoWindow, a new service now in beta, offers to airplane passengers. They define it as, "A platform for online, in-flight, location-based content and entertainment," and explain it as "A map that tells you where you are and what you're looking at as you fly." It is an outgrowth of the Window Seat book series written by one of MondoWindow's founders, Greg Dicum, about reading the landscape from the air.
An article by CNET's Geek Gestalt (below) explains the commercial application as follows: "Dicum thinks that there is a lot of advertising opportunity when dealing with a captive audience onboard planes, especially when the advertisers will know precisely where the users are going."
A overview by Daniel Terdiman, the Geek Gestalt at CNET...
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An adaptable talent — Johnny Miller is one of those photographers who is able to shoot lots of different subjects, each of them with his signature insight.
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Vivian Maiers must have loved photography. Without doubt she enjoyed the process of creating it. Assuming the figures are roughly correct, she generated about 100 images for every month of her life — over 100,000 images in 83 years. The shear magnitude of her work is noteworthy, but what I want to point you to is the quality of it. I love and appreciate great images and (to me) many of these qualify as superior.
If you have even a passing interest in photography, or creativity, or you just enjoy a good Cinderella story, you owe it to yourself to make the acquaintance of Vivian Maiers and the man who is introducing her to the world, John Maloof.
Imagine the passion it requires to devote your life to a pursuit that you rarely share and get little or no recognition for.
A gallery of Vivian Maiers' photography...
A news story about the find...
John Maloof's website dedicated to the photographer...
John Maloof proposes a documentary on Kickstarter — and was quickly funded...
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Love these weird, wonderful portraits and Sauceda's other collections: Class Portraits, Still Lifes, Sign Painters, and so on.
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Before I can design something — a website, a logo, a brochure, whatever — I've got to understand what needs to happen. What my client's purpose and motive is, and the action they want their audience to take.
Once I understand what I am being asked to accomplish, I can design with purpose. I'm not a decorator, I'm a designer — my job is to determine the combination of elements — the images, typefaces, and user interface — necessary to communicate messages in a way that makes them interesting and accessible.
Teaching that process is what John McWade is so expert at. Through the pages of Before & After Magazine, he has been teaching what others don't, in ways that others can't, since the days when the first version of Aldus PageMaker was in beta testing. He parses, deconstructs, and studies a design problem, then packages a solution in a form that is easy to understand, digest, and reproduce.
I've written for B&A and I can testify that there's nothing easy about making things simple. I have pointed you to John in the past, but there is some new news worth sharing: John McWade has begun a series of wonderful short stories about design — video snippets that once again have me thinking about what is possible.
One in the series, How to design without graphics...
The beginnings of the new collection...
Plus, for the first time, the entire Before & After collection goes digital...
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David Hobby writes, is, Strobist. As he describes it, the website is about one thing: "Learning how to use off-camera flash with your DSLR to take your photos to the next level. Or the next ten levels."
Lighting and composition are the distinctions that separate boring images from brilliant images. Whether your new to photography or a seasoned pro, you'll find some excellent insights into the art and science of lighting.
On assignment: How to light specific scenes...
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These images are a testament to creativity. Photographer and designer Carl Warner creates and shoots elaborate landscapes made from food. First commissioned by advertising agencies for clients, they are now published as moving pictures, posters, and books — amazing.
Thanks to Leslie Green (my wife) for pointing us to them.
An article in the UK Daily Mail...
Warner's soon to be released book...
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Does it taste as good as it looks? In this case, it would be a difficult challenge.
Beatrice Peltreas is a food stylist, photographer, and writer. She writes and illustrates a blog titled La Tartine Gourmande (the gourmet sandwich), the name of which she explains as a combination of, "...une tartine (which) means an open sandwich with a topping or spread on top. Gourmande is the French to describe anyone who cannot resist food. I think this is a good term to describe me too."
I love the clean, vivid imagery she creates.
Bea Peltre's food and life blog, La Tartine Gourmande...
Her food photography and styling portfolio...
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Many of the photographs you find in catalogs, brochures, websites, and other marketing collateral pieces include objects and materials that help to establish a particular style or to tell some part of the visual story. They are not the focus of the photograph, but they add some significance. Determining that style and/or searching out and delivering the objects are the purview of the photo stylist.
If you've ever searched out props for even a few photographs (no less an entire catalog) you know how difficult a task it can be. Not only do you have to find what you want, you have to make arrangements to rent, borrow, or buy what you've found and have it available when and where it is needed.
Here, for example, is a look at stylist Jeffrey Moss — a stylist for retailers such as Pottery Barn and Target. First, a gallery of images showing his home, a clear expression of his design point-of-view.
Watch how he uses some of the same ideas in photographs for the Pottery Barn...
Jeffrey Moss' website, Workhorse Production...
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Branding is about associating a story and a style with a product, service, or organization. It is no wonder, more than a few designers have used the human form to communicate the personality of the products they promote.
The designers: Subplot Design ...
Example 3 (not always human)...
The designers: Tokyo Agency Inc...
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Here's something for entrepreneurial photographers, illustrators, and designers to think about. Photodeck offers a full blown e-commerce platform (for a modest monthly subscription) that allows you to display, license (in a variety of ways), and sell images.
I like the fact that it moves control of the work back into the realm of its producer. I can't see why the same idea wouldn't apply to illustration and design work as well.
I like the convenience and variety the big conglomerates offer, but I also like the personalization and access afforded by sites that are handled by the people who do the work. I hope, as technology packages such as this become more widely available, that we'll see a better mix of both.
PhotoDeck is a fully customizable, brandable e-commerce platform for photographers...
I found PhotoDeck through a photographer who uses it Toasto.com...
Another implementation of PhotoDeck — KennedyStock.com...
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I like what's happening with the brochure for The Australian National Academy of Music. Watch how the designers integrate type into the photographs—it really is musical isn't it?
The Australian National Academy of Music brochure...
A PDF of the brochure (8.4MB PDF)..
The designers—Creative Page...
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I found The World We Live In (a Tumblr blog) through Flipboard on the iPad. Hosts Julie and Karishma have an eye for dramatic, color-saturated landscape images. It is well worth a visit.
Topaz Adjust is one of the Photoshop plugins some photographers use to saturate and adjust images...
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TinEye.com offers a unique tool for searching out images: photographs, illustrations, logos, and so on. You show it an image--by uploading a file or pasting in an image url--and TinEye finds other occurrences of the same image in various places around the Web. As you will see, it is a technology being used in a growing number of commercial applications.
Why would you use it? To find the source of a photograph or illustration, to find modified versions of the same image, to find a higher resolution version of the image, and so on.
As you'll see, Idée (the maker), is developing all kinds of interesting image recognition technology. Worth a look.
Another interesting project from Idée: Multicolor Search Lab...
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Everyone wants a piece of the stock image pie. Each new entrant re-invents the microsite model in the hopes of finding a new formula or hook that will attract the enough sellers and buyers to make a go of it. Here are two worth noting...
A while back, Lawrence Gould, formally the CFO of Getty Images launched vivozoom.com and, in April added the name Tony Stone to the door. (Stone is one of the premiere names in the stock photography business.)
And brand new on the scene is stockfresh.com--a site started by the founders of the old StockXpert.com.
If you buy or sell stock, both are worth a look.
Interested in the microstock business? Follow microstockdiaries.com...
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Whether you call the technique "miniature faking" or "tilt-shift" the idea is to selectively blur sections of an image to simulate the shallow depth of field you'd see in a close-up photograph. In this case, the image is in motion.
When you adjust the focus and speed up the film, the effect is mesmerizing.
My post about tilt-shift from 2008...
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I came across some "wiggle" stereoviews the other day and it reminded me of the bullet-time (time-slice) stuff made famous by the motion picture, The Matrix. I was curious as to how the effect is created and thought you might be interested as well. Here are some examples of the technique and details about how it is achieved.
One version, 360 degree imagery created by photographer Mark Ruff...
Two examples from Time-Slice Films—example 1...
The folks from Time-Slice show how it's done...
Those "wiggle" stereoviews I was talking about...
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The first issue of Popular Science magazine appeared just seven years after the close of the Civil War. This month it began offering (in partnership with Google) its entire 137-year archive for free browsing. Each issue appears just as it did at its original time of publication, complete with period advertisements. Amazing.
How the new Popular Science is printed, for example, is detailed in the October 1938 issue. It explains, "At the huge Dayton, Ohio, plant where POPULAR SCIENCE is printed, a workman, the other day, pressed an electric button and this record-breaking machine whirled into action." Then it goes on to show and tell one of its signature stories—filled with informative photographs and illustrations.
Thanks to Jim Green for passing this on—great find.
October 1938, page 74, How the new POPULAR SCIENCE is printed...
March 1984, page 99, Introducing the 32-bit Apple Macintosh...
August 1950, page 93, Typewriter with a memory "sets type" on photo film...
March 1963, page 35, Commercial art talent hunt open to you...
May 1872, page P5, Issue number one...
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As every graphic designer knows, you are not free to simply add an illustration or photograph to a brochure or web site without first knowing who owns it and what rights they have to it. Some images are copyrighted—which means the owner dictates how it can be used. Others are copyright-free or their copyrights have expired (generally referred to as being in the public domain)—which means (in most cases) you are free to use it without permission.
The good news is there are millions of public domain images available for use&mdashthe bad news is it isn't always easy to distinguish what is protected and what isn't.
All that said, I have compiled a few pages that point to the issues and one that will get you started finding what you're looking for.
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Eric Baker started out spending 30 minutes each morning finding and sending odd and interesting images to a friend online—a good idea soon draws a crowd. If you need an occasional creative nudge, check out Eric Baker's Today, it just may do the trick.
Baker's first post from October 2008—Today on designobserver.com...
Baker is one of the principals at The O Group. Their portfolio...
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What I like so much about Fred Showker is that he sees the graphic design industry from more than one angle--he's is a working designer, an experienced teacher and presenter, a bit of a technoid, and the creative mind behind one of the top marketing and design resources on the Web--the Graphic Design & Publishing Center.
Not only does he stay curious about what's next, he has amassed a huge archive of insightful articles and tutorials on design, photography, typography, marketing, and the business of graphic design.
He recently did a major reorganization and re-launch of the site so, if you haven't already, I urge you to take a look.
The Design & Publishing Center...
Example 1: Visual Proofreading: 10 Rules...
Example 2: Designing Spaces...
Example 3: Throw Your Press Release in the Trash...
I've been a subscriber to his newsletter, DT&G NEWS, for years...
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A work of art? I certainly believe it is.
Here's a bit of a controversy I'd like to hear your opinion on.
I love the Shorpy photographic site but something shown there struck a (dull) chord with me. It is the coloroization of an iconic black and white photograph--Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother.
I don't think the contributor is a bad person for doing this, I just think they don't fully appreciate the fact that it is wrong to copy and or edit someone else's work without their permission.
Personally, I believe a photograph is a creative work that should be protected from this type of defacement (ethically, if not legally).
I can't image anyone having the temerity to colorize Ansel Adams' The Tetons--Snake River. Or Pablo Picasso's Guernica. I doubt most would look favorably on a budding writer who decided to add a chapter or two to Joyce's Ulysses and republish it.
Is this any different?
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Photograph 1 is fascinating. Photograph 2 is shocking. The difference is not that both animals are strange, the difference is that the second animal is shown in a totally unexpected context--surrounded by a pristine white background.
Makes me wonder how I better communicate a message by taking something people are used to seeing in one context and showing it in another.
See more of these wonderful creatures...
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The intro page here says 97 percent of the LIFE Magazine photography collection has never been seen by the public. Now, 10 million images from the LIFE Photo Archive are being added to Google Image Search. To tap it, add "source:life" to any Google image search or search from the archive page.
Proof-positive that Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall were actors, not interior designers...
There is some amazing stuff here going back to the very beginnings of photography...
You can also have the images printed and framed...
In the Ideabook Design Store: Before & After: Graphics For Business...
I was talking with a photographer friend today and we were talking about our propensity to get so wrapped up in the creative process that the business side suffers.
Digital Railroad, as they put it, is "An online archive platform and marketing services company for the professional photography community. DRR's mission is to empower the community of photographers, photo agencies, and image buyers with trusted technology so they can focus on what they love--being creative."
It is also a place for you and I as designers to license images from top photographers that you will not find on the mass-market sites.
Digital Railroad Marketplace—the front door for the buyer...
The back door for the seller or agency...
This will give you an idea of some of the seller who use the service...
An example of the quality of the work (in this case, by photographer Jimmy Williams)...
In the Ideabook Design Store: Pantone Guide to Communicating with Color...
What is your favorite holiday? Christmas? Thanksgiving? Halloween? As if we don't have enough reasons to take the day off—Corbis (the photography and footage supplier) is celebrating World Pinhole Camera Day with the release of a series of do-it-yourself camera designs. You download a PDF of the design, print the parts, cut them out, and build your own pinhole camera.
One of the camera designs (1.4MB PDF)...
In the Ideabook Design Store: Task Force Clip Art...
Great. I have a new addition to my list of delusions—next time you see a photograph of a tiny little, toy-like model of a “real” scene, look again. It may not be a model at all, it may be the real thing edited using the “fake tilt-shift” effect in Photoshop (“real” tilt-shift is accomplished using a camera lens by the same name).
This is an illustration technique you will definitely want to add to you toolbox. The effect is achieved by changing the depth of field (among other things).
In the Ideabook Design Store: The Color Harmony Guide...
The photographs at Notes from the Road are stunning—they're captured using a traditional large format sheet-film camera. But the layout is why I'm pointing to the site. Though the understated, neutral palette and the type treatments are well worth noting, what caught my eye was how the bottoms of the anchor photographs are feathered into the article text—a simple but effective technique for integrating two dissimilar elements. (You'll have to dig deep to find the context of the Hokey Pokey bumper sticker.)
Erik Gauger's Notes from the Road...
About the author, designer, illustrator, photographer...
In the Ideabook Design Store: Moleskine Notebooks...
There is a great lesson here. Photographer Andrew Zuckerman photographed animals commonly seen in the wild and brought them into a studio and photographed them on an infinity cyc (a seamless, white cyclorama used to focus all attention on the objects placed on it). It helped him to capture images that are very different than what you normally see.
My point is this: when you take a subject and isolate it from the normal ways in which it is described and shown, you are likely to find a new way of communicating it.
Creatures by Andrew Zuckerman...
In the Ideabook Design Store: Design-It-Yourself: Graphic Workshop...
Here's another interesting illustration technique. Group94 adds a mesh or screen overlay to the background images of its portfolio. To me, it adds a sense of continuity to the diversity of images. The same type of effect could be equally valid in print. The question becomes: What type of screen or overlay can I employ in my work to create a visual connection between a series of diverse images?
In the Ideabook Design Store: Getting It Printed...
Here is a stunning collection of 360 panoramas. I'm somewhat surprised we haven't seen this technology used more in conventional web design. (You typically see them used to tour a house or an automobile interior.) Have any suggestions?
360icon spherical HDRI panoramic photography...
More on the process and tools at panoguide.com...
In the Ideabook Design Store: Design-It-Yourself: Graphic Workshop...
If you are not yet familiar with HDR (high dynamic range) photography, here are some images and tools to pique your interest. An HDR image is photographed using a range if exposures that are then converted to form a composite. The resulting image provides a more complete range of information than a conventional image and gives the artist far more control over the range of shadow and light, the manipulation of color, and the application of effects. So much more control that I think of some of these examples as more illustrations than photographs.
Pete Carr's tutorial for creating composites using a conversion tool called Photomatix...
Ryan McGinnis's tutorial for creating composites using Photoshop...
More example by Michael Seljos...
I'm honored to have been invited to help judge The Crestock Photoshop Contest for 2007. There are four rounds with different themes. Looks like a lot of fun and they are offering an impressive lineup of prizes—one for each round.
Crestock is a high-end “microstock” provider of royalty-free images contributed by a worldwide network of photographers, illustrators, and designers. If you have not seen it, I guarantee you will want it on your list of resources.
Details about The Crestock Photoshop Contest for 2007...
A black and white photograph shot using a large-format camera often has a depth and stillness to it that is nearly indescribable. Some images are so sharp, the people so real, I fool myself into thinking I can sense what it would be like to be there—like a time machine. Shorpy.com, named for a child worker photographed by Lewis Wickes Hine in 1910, is a photo blog about “what life a hundred years ago was like.” The challenge I pose to you is this: how can you and I apply this type of photographic storytelling to our design work?
A subset of Lewis Wickes Hine photographs...
New in the Ideabook Design Store: Creative Advertising...
As I heard it, Tom Shortlidge worked at Young & Rubicam Advertising in the late 60s and moonlighted part-time at Crate & Barrel to make ends meet. The owner, Gordon Segal, asked him to take a look at some packaging designs he was considering. Mr. Shortlidge had a better idea.
Make no mistake about it, Crate & Barrel has a long track record of searching out, designing, and developing products that people want. But I doubt they would argue that Tom Shortlidge played a major role. He established a design palette that makes the product shot the center of interest—a palette so simple and insightful that it has survived, nearly intact, for over thirty years.
Photographing food is a true art. If you haven't watched an experienced photographer and stylist work, you may not appreciate the magic that goes into attaching emotion to food. Foodesign.com, home of veteran stylist Lisa Golden Schroeder, provides some interesting insights on the process and an extensive list of resources.
Portfolio of master practioner Jim Scherer...
What does it look like when you combine an interest of motion picture special effects with conventional photography. A world that is too fantastic, to be real, and too real to be fantasy. On the inside menu choose “photos” and be sure to click “how it was done” at the top left of each image—fascinating.
A great photographer can take a simple object and give it an aura of its own. Foster's Web is as elegant as his work.
For her “Walk Through Durham Township” blog, Kathleen Connally says she shoots in RAW format and does some post-process work with Photoshop CS. The product is stunning. Three of my favorites:
http://www.durhamtownship.com/portfolio/archives/001329.php
http://www.durhamtownship.com/portfolio/archives/001771.php
http://www.durhamtownship.com/portfolio/archives/002435.php
Don't blame me if you don't get anything accomplished today. I didn't create the New York Public Library's Digital Gallery, I'm just going to point you to it. I find the photographs of everyday New York in the 1930s particularly fascinating. I can't help but think that, if you could awaken someone who died just seventy-five years ago, they would see today's world as science fiction.
A few samples: Herald Square:
http://images.nypl.org/?id=1219153&t=w
The Bread Store:
http://images.nypl.org/?id=482591&t=w
Whelan's Drug Store:
http://images.nypl.org/?id=482744&t=w
The cover page:
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/
Black and white photography has a magic all its own. Watch how these stunning photographs tell the story.
http://www.niebaum-coppola.com
The Science Photo Library (SPL) is a UK-based provider of science photos covering all aspects of science, health & medicine, space exploration & astronomy, technology & industry, earth science, satellite imagery, and nature & wildlife.
A truly great photographer has two talents—an extraordinary ability to capture and interpret the moment and the discipline and foresight to get to, and be in the places where the moments happen. Frans Lanting, obviously, is a great photographer.
http://www.lanting.com/index.shtml
If you buy royalty-free or stock photography and you are not yet familiar with the Visual Symbols Library—I have a real treat for you. These images are drawn from the best of designer Clement Mok's acclaimed image collection (formerly sold as part of PhotoDisc's Object Series). It is not only great stuff, the price is right too.
My favorite type of photography involves the documentation of everyday things. Show me how people live their lives, the human condition, and off-the-beaten-path sites. That is just what designer, photographer Eugene Kuo does in his stunning travelogue of China.
http://www.226-design.com/china/
Once you've seen it, you'll find it easy to recognize Pete McArthur's distinctive style of photographic illustration. His clever concepts grace the pages of many publications and are used to market all types of products and services. How do we get into the action? He licenses stock images and custom work through his Web. (Love the cover.)
My favorite of his illustrations?
http://www.petemcarthur.com/portfolio/index.asp?offset=14
As stated in its mission, “The National Archives is not a dusty hoard of ancient history.” Among its assets is an enormous collection of fascinating design and photography—I haven't met a designer yet who did not draw inspiration from the imagery of the past. The NARA site offers this ever-changing gallery of exhibits.
While you're there, to catch “Picturing the Century.”...