Remember that whole thing about me being kind of a geek… well this is like my holy grail. As a kid i always used to play with Legos, i never bough the pre-make stuff, it was always the bucket. So i was never short of imagination (clearly short of friends though). When my fingertips hurt from pushing against all the sharp corners it was cleary time to go massage them on an old NES controller. Something about the 80’s and their block, non-ergonomic designing. Enjoy… just as i did!! THANKS GEEKOLOGIE!!

Harumph! Europe gets all the fun stuff! This year’s “Cans” Festival was help under Waterloo station and was an orgy of art. Artist from all over could come and leave their mark on the walls and sidewalks. Take up a paint bruch, spray can, markers, pretty much anything you can find and go to town. There was even a guy playing a piano in the tunnel! Art is a boundless medium.

Thanks Justin for another great post over at Big Head Design. Next year we plan the trip to Euoropeville and get OUR mark on the streets… literally!

Graffiti already has a special place in my heart. I’m not going to lie and say that i’m from the streets, but i was quite the minority in a city filled with Graffiti’d walls. There was no way a new construction site could build a wall without it being tagged on within the weed, most of the time days to hours. So, i’ve come to appreciate the art that is graffiti. It’s colorful, captivating, and more of the time, impossible to read… but it sure looks pretty. From Abduzeedo, by way of Big Head Design, i came across these HDR images of a BUNCH of graffiti artwork. They’re stunning! Anyone who appreciates art AND photography will definetely get what they’re looking for out of these images.

Fact: HDR pictures are totally cool. HDR makes colors pop-out, they appear really vivid and shiny. And what kinda art uses lots of vivid and shiny colors? That’s right, grafitti! And the combination of these two will blow your mind!

I appreciate good graffiti art as much as the next guy, but when you throw the HDR aspect onto these vividly colored murals, they transcend into a surreal form of artwork that serves to enhance these awesome murals. Definitely some of the most amazing photos I’ve seen.

Many more pictures after the jump.

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My parents recently took a trip for their 31st (i could be wrong on this, great son, i know…) anniversary through california up into Nevada. On their trip they passed through a little ghost town in the middle of nowhere, in Death Valley, and got some amazing shots of some artwork that, unknown to them and myself, had a series of sculptures to follow up the series. Artist Charles Albert Szukalski (Born April 4, 1945, Furth im Wald, Poland — Died January 25, 2000, Antwerp, Belgium) Had a sculpture of “The Last Supper” (Pictured Above). When my parents were showing me the photos i was blown away by them; one, that my folks were savvy enough to capture such great photos (i kid, i kid), and two, that something so amazing would be set up in the middle of the desert, without graffiti, intact and seemingly unguarded. When i got near a computer again i started to do a search for “Death Valley Last Supper” and discovered the other sculptures in the series.

UPDATE: After doing a little bit of research, i found out that this isn’t just ome random little ghost town in Death Valley. It’s actually called the Goldwell Open Air Museum.

Watch the video of the artist and a little of how he made these sculptures.
Video after the jump… JUMP!

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Veerle’s Blog put on a competition asking the question “What is graphic design?” The response must have been overwhelming because from all the submissions they picked 15 winners. Click through to see the entire post.

Well i’ll be damned if these aren’t the best use of typography ever! And clever to boot. Helbotica, who comes up with this stuff?! Ohh, wait, this guys does. Seemingly a college student with possibly too much time on his hands, or design genius… i’ll leave that up to you, but i choose the latter. Two more “Fontbots” after the jump…

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“Ohh Ohh, stop, stop… i can’t breath” (compliments of ‘The Grape Lady’ [you tube]), is all i can think about when i see this flash site. Vogue posted their photo shoot of Eva Mendes (a couple TASTEFUL, but still, NSFW Images [4]) and it’s amazing. They took the classic look of a flash photo gallery, and added depth, movement, and environmental features. Some programer must have spent some long hours building this template. Give it a look, you won’t be disappointed. And even if you don’t get excited about neat, innovative, creative flash design like I do, it’s pictures of Eva Mendes for moot’s sake!!

OK… it’s official… i completely want this in my house! I’ll tear up the carpet, saw through the wood, scrape the glue and polish the grout. This has to be one of the most innovative things i’ve ever come across in my years. The detail is so amazingly accurate as a concrete inlay. Take it from someone who’s worked with the medium, it’s not the easiest of things! I want to learn more, but the website i saw the images on is in a different language… sigh. Someday… someday you will be mine. Ohh, yes, you will be mine!

One more photo after the jump….
Ready, set, jump!

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Big Head Design has a great article up on his design blog site about the powerful use of typography. It’s amazing to me how typography alone can bring an entire project together. The example above is just one of thousands that demonstrate this concept to perfection. It’s Clean, Simple, Elegant, and, as Justin at Big Head Design puts it, “green…..it’s so HOT right now”.

Thanks Justin for another Great post.

Read more from Justin after the jump…
GO!

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Title: Red Struck Four’s re-design for their MySpace page

Client: Red Struck Four, Power Punk band from Huntington Beach / Redlands, California

Program(s) Used: Photoshop, CSS Coding (by hand)

Time Span: 10 Hours to completion

About: The lead singer, Paul Lapinksky, came to me and asked for me to do a rush job on their MySpace page, as they were going on tour within the ending of the month. With an agreed upon rush job, this design had to come from concept, to completion in a very short period of time. Some unique and fun things were done with the CSS coding to make objects “float” on the page. PNGs were also used to give the feeling of depth and realism.

Designer Notes: This project was for a good friend of mine and was just good old fashion FUN! I got the chance to dust off my CSS & HTML Coding cobwebs and jump right in to this project. One weekend and a lot of energy drinks got me…through…this……*yawn*… time to crash….

My good friend over at Big Head Design is back on the ball. He’s gone from a graphic designer to a Lead Designer in just under 2 years! Congratulations on the big move and the new site.

Big Head Design specializes in full company branding and identity. They’ve got the tentacles and outreach to do everything possible, from flash to business cards. With cutting edge designs and ‘in-the-now’ knowledge of design trends and directions, BHD is the right choice for anyone’s business branding needs. From jobs as simple as a letterhead to jobs as giant as billboard advertising, Justin at BDH, treats each job with the utmost importance. No job is too small, or too big, for this full service company to handle!

Good luck Justin and the BHD team!

During my recent web scouring i came across a great 9 step program. Yes, you guessed it, they cut out 3 of the 12 steps to help me break my addictions! who needs to “admit they have a problem” when designing is just a solution TO a problem! ha! Ok, but really. these 9 steps are for helping designers get out of that designers block that we all dread so much!

Here are a few things you can do when you recognize that you’re in a lull:
1. Take a deep breath, relax and ENJOY it. That’s right – you’ve (probably) earned it, so take a moment to stop and smell the roses. After weeks of being “slammed” it’s good to take a break. Realize you’re slow, ratchet down a gear, let the stress you’ve built up flow out of your body. Assume a more relaxed state of mind and let your “batteries” recharge. Ok, 5 minutes of that should do it. Now move quickly onto number 2.

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Ready to put out your next rap album cover Mad Money Millionaires? Need to add a little Zazzzz to your webpage? Well look no further! This great tutorial will show you exactly how to get the desired “bling” effect you’ve been waiting for. With this easy to follow, easy to replicate tutorial all you have to do is follow along… a monkey could do it. Well, you know, if that monkey has a wacom tablet and a stylus.

Click through to see the entire Bling Tutorial.

This tutorial will show you step by step on how to create a “Badass Bling Effect” using layer styles in Photoshop. Once you create the layer style, you can easily “blingify” any layer. There is also a video tutorial as well.

Here’s my shotty attempt at it. Don’t let the poor quality fool you, i assure you i am a good designer. HAHA. This was a quick, step by step, learn the tutorial, image… it came out ok, probably should have worked with a larger DPI though. Live and Learn!

I found all these images off quick google searches, so the quality was pretty poor. And i only had about 15-20 minutes before work to get this up finished and posted. But, enough excuses! TO THE BAT CAVE!

French artist Miss Tigri has a great series of artwork on her website. The colors and simplicity are amazing. I’m really impressed with the consistent subject matter

Warning: The site is in French, so a web translator might be required unless you’re like me and just like to look at the pretty pictures.

Big Head Design has created an awesome logo for one of their newest clients. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Client: Take 2 Entertainment. Programs Used: Illustrator (CS3). Project span: 3 weeks. Description: Logo design for an entertainment coordinating company. Wanted to incorporate the marker, use purple, and have a modern typeface. I wanted to create a logo that would have branding opportunity with a shortmark, and logotype.