Saddest Vacant Lot

Basically, not much to do one of these days and I was listening to Grandaddy, and I like this song “Saddest Vacant Lot in All the World”. I happened to have Photoshop and Illustrator open so I made this.

Saddest Vacant Lot

For those who don’t know the song, you can listen to it here:

Bored one day… surfing the web… drinking a bud… ran into a picture of Audrey Hepburn. I read the comments on the picture and most people said it was weird, bizarre… so I got the picture and decided to do something with it. And here is the result…

Audrey Hepburn

To tell you the truth, she does look kind of weird in the picture…

Espaço Sonia Pinto

This is one of the latest websites I did. A freelance job with a friend of mine in Brazil. When we got the project, we came up with a great idea for a flash website. One of my favorite websites I’ve created, but I regret it a little for the client got over excited and started to ask for many, many things in the website. Result: the code is not as clean as I wished it were and, therefore, there are a couple of interferences in some elements. Another problem is that it’s a pretty heavy website. We ended up with a lllllooooootttttt more pictures than we had been told to expect. And also videos a lot longer than what we expected and suggested. Even so, the client is very happy with the result and we have seen some of the comments from her client’s which made us pretty proud of this one.

I’m still gonna clean the code so it runs better. And bring own the size of the website as a whole.

Espaço Sonia Pinto

I stumbled upon a pretty cool blog one of these days, had nice inspirational articles and tutorials. But there was one tutorial that I really liked, about a futuristic retro poster design (view tutorial here), and so I ended up doing it.

There were a few things I changed about the way he went on to do the design. To begin with, I used paths instead of selections, mainly because I wanted to be able to change resolutions after it was done. And also because it’s obviously easier to change any of the shards. I also experimented with different blending modes for different effects – but I think so did the Spoon guy. Another thing I did was play with the order of the background colors and textures, to try to get different texture patterns. I’m not much of a fan of simply making layers transparent. There were a couple of other little details I did a bit different from the tutorial, but all in all the results were pretty similar. Here is the result of “lesson”:

Abstract poster

And of course, later I went on to do my own design. I wanted to apply this to an actual image. So I came up with this:

Bird (colors)

And playing a little more, I finished with this image:

Bird

I, personally, prefer this last one. But I put both of them up ’cause a couple of friends liked the first one better.

Bird | Drawing (Photoshop & Illustrator) | Size:25x25 cm

For some reason I’ve been wanting to do a drawing with a bird. Can’t really explain why. But now it’s hanging in my room.

Moon | Photoshop

I was playing around with Photoshop, ended up trying the 3D features, and came up with this. Also made a wallpaper with it.

I started out as a junior art director in an agency in Brazil (Comunicata Comunicação). Back then I didn’t know much about art for the web. I was more interested in art for print media or television. While helping out a friend with a small print job, he asked if I knew how to make a website. For some reason I said “Yeah!! Sure!!!” and then ran to getting information on how to actually build a website. I ended up doing a course which, to tell you the truth, sucked. But at least it opened my eyes to what I needed to learn.

Like most of the people I know who work with the web, I started to study deeper into programming by myself. After having learned how to use DreamWeaver to build a site, I decided to learn hard-coding HTML so I could do even more complex sites and functionalities . And of course, with HTML came CSS and later on a bit of javascript and PHP. Actionscript was a language I didn’t really need but, since I live flash sites, I decided to learn anyway. Most of what I learned of HTML, CSS and Actionscript came from a couple of books I bought, but most of what I now know are from reading tutorials on the web. Therefore, below I’ve listed a couple of sites I used to learn and some that I still use to improve what I already know when it comes to programming.

HTML.net

W3Schools

WordPress

Apart from the WordPress site, the other two are very basic and I used them only to get started with HTML and CSS, and a bit of other languages too. Now-a-days I usually checkout some of the blogs I’ve shared on the previous post to find out new techniques and tricks for programming, mainly Smashing Mag and Noupe. I still prefer reading books on programming because I tire very easy to read from the computer screen, specially after working all day in front of it.

When it comes to finding information on graphic design, it is easy to find many different sources, from books and magazines to websites. But when it comes to web design, I find the sources are more scarce. Most of the books I find web related are directed at programming, or the use of programs. Blogs dedicated to web design and digital art are the best way to go.

Most of the blogs we find related to web design are written by people who work with design, therefore we get points of views very up-to-date. And that’s important in this area. The web is always changing: new technologies, technology updates, some crazy dude came up with a new and better way to design some menu element… Weekly reading of the blogs will help us follow up on the latest trends of design and programming technologies. And of course, they usually have great inspirational and tutorial posts to help boost our creativity.

Anyway, everyone has their favorite blogs they visit. I’m listing some of the ones I really enjoy. If anyone knows of any others that are very good, just let me know.

Smashing Magazine

Design Shard

Web Designer Depot

Noupe

PSD Tuts

GoToAndLearn

Of course, there are many other sources of information on web design. But these are my favorites. I anyone has any other blog they think is very good, please let me know.

Yeah, I know the joke was lame… Anyway, I read somewhere that Walt Disney used to say that “we live in a wonderful world of color”. I guess that, as designers – online and offline, we all agree with that. And it’s also no secret that we spend hours searching for a perfect color scheme for each of our projects. When I started out, I didn’t really put much attention to this. I used to simply go on with the work, searching for colors as I progressed. Huge mistake that was. I usually got to a point where I couldn’t find a nice color to fit in with the rest of the design. Therefore, I went on to study color. And I was impressed on how much more complex the theme was than I have ever imagined. All that talk about hues, saturation, value, primary, secondary… seemed all so confusing. But in the end I realized it’s actually pretty simple. Once you get a hold on the concepts, it all becomes very clear and easy to use. For example, in gradients, I used to change the value (quantity of white and black added to the base color, usually creating tints – adding white – or shades – adding black) of the color I used. Today I change the hue (the color: red, blue, green, yellow…) itself, finding a very similar, but different, color. The gradients look much nicer.

I personally like the monochromatic schemes, which uses on hue with different values, tints and shades. Mixing it with a color or two from an analogous scheme (colors adjacent to the base color) or from the complementary scheme (color from the other side of the color wheel) really pops out an element. But you can really create any type of color scheme you want. I don’t think there is a right or wrong way to use colors, depending on what you want to convey.

What I think the main problem with colors is having your client understand why you used certain colors for their design. I know and understand that sometimes you can’t use a color for a specific client due to some impediment; for example, if the main competitor already uses that color, in order to avoid mistaken identity. This was a huge issue when I worked at TV1, for the Bank of Brazil (BB). All we could ever use was yellow and blue. All other colors – or almost all of them – referred to other banks. That’s fine. These are very well-known institutions. The problem is when a client wants a different color for reasons that seem irrelevant.

I had a project a while back in which the client asked us to change the color of the design because, back in his country, the color scheme I chose contained a color that meant something bad, evil or religious. I don’t really remember what. The way I see it, if we were in that country, or if he was making the site to prospect clients over there, I’d be fine with it. But in this case, I don’t think that was a valid argument, specially because the color scheme chosen complemented his line of work, made it easier to follow. I actually think that the color i question is enjoyed by the general public of the country in which he was prospecting. That ended up being a big disappointment for me. All the cool features and animations I had prepared for the site had to be thrown away because the new color scheme seized to work with the elements in them. Who has ever seen blue or purple wood? Well, that’s part of our jobs as designers…

Anaway, I ran into a nice post on color schemes at Smashing Magazine I found very interesting. So I’m putting up a link to it. It’s actually a three part guide, which quickly and easily describes colors and what you can do with them, what they mean, color schemes…

Color Theory for Designers, Pt 1: The Meaning of Color

Color Theory For Designers, Pt 2: Understanding Concepts And Terminology

Color Theory for Designer, Pt 3: Creating Your Own Color Palettes

And although you can find many, many color scheme sites all over the internet, the one I most like and often use is Adobe Kuler. So here’s the link: kuler.adobe.com .

Mossbrae Falls by Lighttheexpedition

When I was a kid, I remember my parents bought me a book called something like “American Landscapes” or “American Natural Beauty”, I don’t really remember it’s title. But I do remember most of the pictures inside it. Ever since, I’ve been a big fan of nature photography. When I take my camera out for a spin, 99% of my pictures are nature related, pictures of trees and plants, how modern monuments and constructions merge with the landscape. Another thing I love is the – usually – complete absence of people in the photos. Nothing against people, but I prefer having nature left on it’s own.

Anyway, I saw this post and I decided to share it. I hope soon I’ll be able to buy a nice camera to take pictures too.

25 Breathtaking Nature Photography

Winter Photography

Oikos (Nature Photography)