Inspiration

9 Japanese designers’ flash portfolio that you should see

. Inspiration, Japan, Web Design

Japan are one creative country with diverse culture and design movement. Some are going for cute, some are experimentalist and some are towards form and function. Here I present you 9 Japanese designers’ portfolio site which all are built by using flash that everyone should take a look and be inspired.

Masaki Hoshino – hybridworks.jp

A portfolio of a graphic designer Masaki Hoshino. He is very good in designing icons, wallpapers and pixel art. His work is fine and the detail is amazing. The layout is functional and note that you can switch the layout style too, which is very cool!

Masaki Hoshino - hybridworks.jp

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16+ the ten list for web designers

. Inspiration, Resources, Web 2.0, Web Design

As web designers I am always hunt for resources on the web, for example tutorials, gallery showcases, and thoughts from the experienced designers so that I can learn something from it. I subscribed to many designer’s blog feed and surf Del.icio.us regularly, and I found out some The Ten List from various websites to inspire and help many web designers.

What I mean about the ten list is that an article that contains ten essential points that presented in a list. I categorized them into several big categories for better navigation. Please have a look. Continue reading

Having fun with Zoom Burst

. Art & Design, Inspiration

No this is not Radial Blur effect from Photoshop filter. This is one of the creative photography technique called “zoom burst”. To achieve this effect, you need to adjust the zoom ring of your camera, while holding down the shutter button with shutter speed below than 1/60 sec. So to get a nice zoom burst photo, you need a steady hand, while I’m not :P.

According to Wikipedia, photographs taken with this technique are characterized by blurred streaks emenating from the center of the photograph. This effect is nearly identical to a motion blur image in which the camera is traveling towards the subject. For this reason the zoom burst is typically used to create an impression of motion towards the subject. Besides this effect is great for photo shoots that involves movement for example, sports games like cycling or car racing. Continue reading

I love typography

. Art & Design, Inspiration, Typography, Web Design

I have great interests in typography subject since studying in graphic design course. It is amazing that by using a certain typefaces with the placement of the types can create incredible visual language even without the using of images. Typography is actually a very professional skills, because it is not just about selecting the right typefaces, but the layout, the size, the grid and many more.

According to Wikipedia, typography is the art and techniques of type design, modifying type glyphs, and arranging type. Type glyphs (characters) are created and modified using a variety of illustration techniques. The arrangement of type is the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading (line spacing) and letter spacing. Typography can be apply to anything, from displaying text as information to treating text as images. With the aid of digital fonts and design softwares, designers can play with the text freely. Continue reading

Creative packaging inspiration ~modern & vintage~

. Art & Design, Inspiration, Resources

Packaging is one of the most common example of graphic design in the world. Apart from displaying the important information, the packaging has become an important sales tool. With the use of illustration, color, typography and even various packaging materials, designers can create an attractive image and build a brand identity that is eye-catchy and impactful, yet preserve the contents.

A beautiful and attractive packaging or corporate sign can boost the selling and stands out from the rack of competitors. For example the IZZE beverage packaging shown above, their sales grew 450% per year over the first two years without any TV commercials, print and web advertising. It must be its unique & simplicity of graphic approach together with clear and refreshing typeface that attracts people to buy it.

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5+ business card inspiration sites that you can’t miss

. Art & Design, Inspiration

5+ business card inspiration sites that you can't miss

Business card is important. It reflects you and your company’s image and identity. Although the format is small so that it can be fitted into everyone’s wallet and card holder, but the design creativity is unlimited. It depends on how you want to make use of that small space and create the best designs.

Sometimes business card designs can be gone wild too, from transparent material to unconventional shapes. Here i present you 5 sites that will sparks your business card design inspiration and go out of the box. Business card printing is easy. Make your color business cards look their best with Ps Print custom printing services.

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Nice website – LittleDeviant xD

. Inspiration, Web Design

Yesterday, I stumble upon a website and found it very interesting and decided to share with you here. The website is called LittleDeviant xD. When I first visiting this site I never know it is a viral site for Scion, a very creative minded car brand. The site was developed by branding agency ATTIK, to promote the new 5 door xD Scion with a very unusual way.

This flash based site presents a gothic digital novel/video game, “Book of Deviants,” that opens to reveal a pop-up world. The animation is fluid and animation is creepy but fun. Then, you have to going through chapter by chapter to wipe out all the boring Sheeple who makes the city lifeless and gray with a character “Little Deviant”. The Little Deviant (xD) is driving a Scion, and it requires the user play a small game to control the xD to kill the Sheeples as screenshot shown below. I’m using mouse to control the xD’s hand to slash the sheeples, haha.

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Toypography – A puzzle toy of type

. Art & Design, Inspiration, Japan

Wonder how to connect an English word to its kanji character? Well, let Toypography tell you. Toypography, which is a combination of the word toy and typography, is a toy that consisting of fragments of separate letters that can be put together to either English or Japanese letters and characters.

Toypography is created by a Japanese typography creator group called Dainippon Type Organization. The unique features of Toypography is that Japanese expressions can be transformed into English expressions of the same meaning. For example, the picture shown below. The English word “Bird” and transformed into kanji “鳥”. Amazing isn’t it?

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Simpsonize me!

. Art & Design, Inspiration

During the hit days of Simpsons the Movie, I stumbled upon an interesting site, which is Simpsonize Me. As what the title suggest, it lets you to upload your own picture and it will transform the real you into Simpson! I think it was a fun stuff to play with :D.

You can upload your own portrait pictures and then, select some options of about yourself like your genre, age, what kind of hair you want, color skin etc. After that, it will process the options that you had selected then, with just a click of a button, tada! You had successfully transform your portrait to Simpson style!

Actually I Simpsonize myself too, and this is how I look:

Hello everyone! Greetings from Jayhan…. As you can see, I’m quite of a normal looking person hahaha…. To be honest, I LOL’ed when I saw my Simpsonize version, it does actually resembles myself! Kudos to the team who did this, you rocks!

Please remember to try yourself too, save your Simpsonize and send it through mail or as IM avatar, cool.

ArtzMania Super Web 2.0 and Blog addict meter

. Art & Design, Downloads, Inspiration, Web 2.0

To all web 2.0 lovers out there, great news that Artzmania released an e-book about collection of web 2.0 graphics and innovation, free for download at here. I already download and gone through the book, it shows some nice web design showcase, separated in different categories.

Plus at the back, showcasing web 2.0 logos, some useful articles that posted on the net. But sadly, these articles is not linked to the original post. A sat back here. It is not really a comprehensive book about web 2.0 (because most of them I knew already) but it worth to take a look. Nice cover thou.

How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

71%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Originally known this through Etsuko‘s blog, and I curious to test how addicted I am too. After gone through the 14 questions, I got the result that I’m 71% addicted, hahahaha. Yeah, I’m pretty addicted to blogging somehow :-D.

If you are a blogger, please try this too, it is fun mot to mention to nicely designed layout and easy to use navigation. Great! If you tried, don’t forget to post it here or spread this site in your blog hehe.