Resources for Students
Fascinating set of sketches over at Deeplinking. Above is the original concept for what became Twitter. You can see the wireframe sketches for Vimeo and Flickr, and several others as well. See, we aren’t teaching you this process just to be mean- this is what people do! Plan first, execute later.
- Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
- Never use a long word where a short one will do.
- If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
- Never use the passive where you can use the active.
- Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
- Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
I’ve been a fan of the Moo mini cards for a long while, and they’ve taken their amazing customer service and nifty “put as many different images as you want” technology into the standard-size business card. As you can see above, these are an AMAZING way to show off your work, especially as a visual artist. Plus, you can get them in short runs instead of having 2000 cards left over with the wrong phone number on them.
I’ve posted about Linda’s furiae.com before, and while she’s still off on sick leave, the work there is timeless and her tutorials are always worth a look.
So, imagine my surprise when I took my periodic trek into her site to find some new content! This time, it’s papier maché masks, and they are no less than astounding. I was actually saying, “that’s papier maché?!” right out loud - people on campus pretty much already think I’m nuts, though, so that’s OK.
Just as amazing are the photos of the masks. Beautifully lit and composed on live models, the photos and the masks have me not sure if I want to get back into photography or start anew at mask making!
A fun little progression video I put together of a painting I created last week. I started with a free stock photo of a male model, used the Liquify filter to push his face around, and then painted over top with the Wacom tablet and a small default Photoshop brush.
What you’re seeing here is all of the layers I used, turned on sequentially until the whole painting is shown. I didn’t add colour until nearly the end of the painting process, as that made it easier to determine the value and tone of the shapes on the alien - particularly the bumps and holes.
Full-sized, uncompressed painting when you click on the image below!
The 404 Error page - Page Not Found - is often neglected by designers, mostly because it’s not something you see right away, or something you even process when you do see it. But if you neglect the 404 Error page, you’re missing out on an opportunity to redirect users to content you want them to see.
Here’s how you create your own 404 page.
Once you get the basics down, check out this great compilation of fun, useful, and creative solutions to the lost/mistyped URL:
Fascinating collection of book cover designs. People really do judge a book by its cover, and it is the job of the designer to interpret the book’s theme correctly into a visual medium.
1. Thou shalt not abuse Flash.
2. Thou shalt not hide content.
3. Thou shalt not clutter.
4. Thou shalt not overuse glassy reflections.
5. Thou shalt not name your Web 2.0 company with an unnecessary surplus or dearth of vowels.
6. Thou shalt worship at the altar of typography.
7. Thou shalt create immersive experiences.
8. Thou shalt be social.
9. Thou shalt embrace proven technologies.
10. Thou shalt make content king.
