HOW TIE™
instructions included

Job Interview? Briss? Court Appearance? Yes, a necktie is definitely called for, and not a clip-on! No problem…relax, take a deep breath, remember your days in the boy scouts, and study the oh-so-easy knot-tying instructions printed right on Fred’s handy How Tie.

Thanks Design You Trust for the link. (How Fresh and Creative Ideas Rules the World)
Follow through to see other ideas too, this one was just my favorite.

I got a kick out of this. not per se MY reasons for being a designer, but i like the pie chart concept. Although i found it funny that money wasn’t mentioned on th……….. wait a minute!! hahaha.
Designer doesn’t equal Money.

Thanks SwissMiss and Change Order.

TiltViewer is a fancy-shmancy web-based application that can be viewed as a single web page, or implimented into your own page. This cool little app lets you view your flickr photos in an easy-on-the-eyes interface with some smooth transitions. Check it out and give it a download to try out on your own site.

Here’s how the game works. First, and foremost, there’s a certain sense of boredom that plays a huge factor in the conceptualization of the images. Secondly, there’s also gotta be a lull in work, or a downtime. Lastly there’s that silent “wait until they open their e-mail” factor you have to be ready for… or in some cases when it’s just too good to be true, a little prod of “hey, buddy, you should probably check your mail” will suffice.

Rules:

Rule 1: All images must be SFW (Safe for work), unless you plan on sending these to a personal e-mail address of the Bingo Bango victim.
Rule 2: Search, scour and google creative keywords to find the funniest pictures.
Rule 3: Build a network, share the images you create in the workplace with other co-workers, just keep the spam to a minimum.
Rule 4: No holds barred. Be creative!
Rule 5: BE LIGHTHEARTED! This is just to help the time in the day pass, and it’s a great way to learn some quick photoshop tips and tricks!
Rule 6: And the most important rule of them all… do NOT neglect your work. Thanks!

Artist: Luke Hodsdon (e-mail)
Title: Art Director
Company: Churm Media (link)

Artist: Brandon Jaime (e-mail)
Title: Graphic Designer
Company: Churm Media (link)

Please, feel free to comment this page with your own workplace Bingo Bango’s! Some comments may await moderation, but i will be sure to get them up! (sorry, had a bad spam problem so i had to moderate)

At my current day to day job I use this technique religiously. It’s fast, easy and extremely effective when trying to achieve better quality photos for print and online. In the following Adobe Photoshop tutorial I’ll walk you though a quick (less than a minute once you learn the steps) process on how to brighten up those dull, dark photos you’ve been sent from your clients… or in my case, taken with your poor digital camera.

The following tutorial was done in Adobe Photoshop CS3, but 80% of the process can be used on just about any program with a “Levels” function (such as the freeware, open source image editing software, GIMP) while the last 20% can be done all the way back to Photoshop CS1 (this is the black overlay feature achieved by holding the ‘option’ or ‘alt’ key in levels).

» TIP: IT’S ALWAYS GOOD TO MAKE DUPLICATES OF YOUR LAYERS IN CASE YOU NEED TO GO BACK IF YOU MAKE A FATAL MISTAKE.

Step 1:

Open the file you wish to adjust and open the Levels adjustment window » SHORTCUT: COMMAND+L (pc users: CTRL+L). This will bring up your image’s histogram and the palette where this tutorial will focus. Locate the white point slider as seen above.

Step 2:

One of the best features of this tutorial is built right in to Photoshop CS1+. While on the white point slider, press and hold OPTION (pc users: ALT) and begin scrubbing the bar left and right. This will give you a black overlay over your image. If you’re using an older version of Photoshop or a different program you can skip to step 4.

» NOTE: THIS FEATURE WILL ONLY WORK IF YOUR IMAGE IS IN RGB MODE.

» TIP: USING ADJUSTMENT LAYERS IS A GREAT WAY TO INSURE THAT YOU DON’T RUIN YOUR ORIGINAL FILES. THIS IS CALLED “WORKING NON-DESTRUCTIVELY”. IT WILL ALLOW YOU TO KEEP YOUR ORIGINAL FILES INTACT FOR FUTURE PROJECTS, OR TO RETURN TO A PREVIOUS STATE IF YOUR ADJUSTMENT LAYERS AREN’T WORKING FOR YOUR DESIGN ANYMORE.

Step 3:

While still holding OPTION (pc users: ALT), scrub your white point slider to the left on the histogram. The key here is to slide the white point until your overlay image starts to get to a point where it turns pure white. This is where we will be setting the white point of your image, thus adjusting the entire histogram to account for the new white point of the image.

Step 4:

Now that we’ve found the new area of the image we want to set our white point, we have to actually do it. Locate the WHITE POINT EYEDROPPER tool, as seen above, and click it once to highlight. Your cursor should now change to the little Eyedropper icon (Depending on how you have your preferences set up in Photoshop, this may or may not happen.). Take the White Point Eyedropper and find the area of the image we designated to be our new white point, click once. You should see an immediate change to your image and a new histogram should be generated in your Levels window as well. If the desired change is too much, or too strong, you can keep clicking around until you get a nice new balance for your white point.

» TIP: DOUBLE CLICKING THE EYEDROPPER ICON WILL LET YOU CHOOSE A BASE COLOR AS YOUR COLOR POINT. PLAY AROUND WITH THIS FEATURE FOR SOME NEAT EFFECTS.

Step 5:

Now we will repeat steps 2-4 above, but on the opposite side of the histogram, the black point. Again, we will hold the OPTION (pc users: ALT) and scrub our black point slider on the histogram, but this time we will be looking for the image to turn it’s blackest.

Step 6:

Now that we’ve found our new black point we will follow the same process as step 4, but using the BLACK POINT EYEDROPPER. Locate the Black Point Eyedropper and click once to highlight it. Now, find the area we designated to be our new black point on our image, and click once. Again, if the desired effect is too much, or too strong, try clicking around to find a more suitable black point. Once you click you should again see an immediate change in your image and a new histogram should be generated.

Step 7:

Lastly, review the changes you’ve made and adjust the slider bars to tweak your image to get it just where you want it. The final result should be a much brighter, more vibrant picture.

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!!

Abduzeedo has added an awesome post about a fun, creative way to create a CD cover. After i read this post i got addicted, neglected work, and did about 6 of these things… 3 of which actually came to fruition.

Here’s the steps….

Do you know when saw that new band cd and thought: “how in the world did they think of that”? Well, someone out there figured out the equation, and man, it’s really fun.

And what equation is that? Simple:

1. Click HERE. The random article title will be your band’s name.
2. Click HERE. The last 4 words of the last quote will form the name of your album.
3. Click HERE. The third picture, whatever it is, will be your cd cover.

Done! Now you got the formula to make some funny, yet great albums. I’ve actually made about 6 last night, and my favorite, by far, is this one.

So. following these easy steps, Here’s what i came up with.
PLEASE feel free to follow these steps and submit your own. it’s addicting, and fun! see what kinds of covers YOU can come up with!

Here’s a collection of 70 of the coolest, most unique business cards i’ve ever seen. Thanks Francesco Mugnai and Justin at Big Head Design for passing around the wealth of this list!!

66 more cards after the jump. it’s a big post, i had to split them to the single page, haha!
Read the rest of this entry »

I thought this was one of the funniest things i’d seen in a while, granted i’m kind of a nerd… i even signed them over the cubicle at my co-worker to describe to him what i was looking at. I didn’t want to spoil it with just SHOWING him the picture!

Thanks SwissMiss via one+infinity

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!

Title: OC METRO BUSINESS Hot 25 2008 Logo Design

Client: Churm Media, in association with OC METRO BUSINESS

Program(s) Used: Illustrator

Time Span: 10 hours (Concept, client revisions, completion)

About: Every year OC METRO BUSINESS host it’s annual Hot 25 Event. the event honors hottest 25 people of Orange County, not a beauty contest. This includes entrepreneurs, business executives, managers, or just anyone in general making huge waves in Orange County. Every year the event is themed, and has to do with the new directions that OC METRO BUSINESS is going. This year the event, and the company, is completely rebranding itself as a web and digital entity, hence the theme “Hot Goes Digital”. The client’s idea was to show how OC METRO BUSINESS is moving into the 2.0, very web friendly.

Designer Notes: My original concept for this logo was to incorporate the feel of web 2.0. Very glossy, colorful, reflections, clean, simple and sleek all into one logo. After showing a first round of designs and color combinations the client didn’t want to stray from it’s branding and the logos went through a revision and font change. The end result is what you see above and a bit different that the original concept, but what the client wants, the client gets.

Here’s a small collection of what WallpaperHD.net has to offer in it’s “Vector Images” section. These are some photo realistic vector renders of people! Which means they could be lossless up to any size, IT’S VECTOR. With the use of Illustrator and a ton of time, i’ve come up with some pretty photo realistic stuff, but these look flawless to point. I wish i had contact into for each artist so we could get them on here for an Artist Spotlight, but the site i snagged them from is a bit clunky and a little tough to navigate clearly.

Through a little bit of link surfing I came across a page called Xpozio and tripped onto these above Playboy magazine covers. I thought it was so interesting to see how our culture has changed so much in just a short 50 years. The old covers at their time were probably considered risque and exposing, but compared to the covers of the 2000’s they seem like a child’s paint by numbers!

Working as an Art Director for Churm Media and designing covers for OC Family magazine and IE Family magazine it’s part of my job to stay up to date and current with magazine design, so when i see something as extraordinary as this national magazine undergo such huge changes it makes me take a look back at the short 10 years that Churm Media’s Family publications have been around and how much they’ve grown and evolved (to come in a later post, it’s on my to do list)

Revolutionary! Sleek! Sweeping the nation! Call in the 10 minutes and we’ll throw in the Flickr pool Photoshop Tennis!!

Basically a community of folks who pick a “game” (a photo), set a couple of ground rules, then let it loose in the forums for their members and readers to pass along changing one thing at a time and handing it off to the next lucky boy or girl! I think it’s GENIUS!! I’m sure they’re not the first to do it, and won’t be the last, but they might be the best right now. With the Flickr community being so huge, it’s got some talent floating around in it’s kiddie pool. A game end when no one posts to the specific forum anymore, or the timeline is met (also can be stated in the rules). So, go follow a feed, open your photoshop or GIMP and let the tennis match begin!

Thanks Abduzeedo for the knowledge that is Flickr Photoshop Tennis. (This particular photo set is from the game “Build It”)

For only $9.95 each, these dioramas take me back to 3rd grade. Granted, mine usually consisted of old G.I.Joes whos mid-section rubber band had broken and then found their way under my brothers wood burning kit… a little read paint, some dirt (which we were NEVER short of in The Antelope Valley), twigs, grass and a bit of hot glue gun. BHAM! instant battlefield! Needless to say, i was a sheltered, bored little child. there’s nothing to do in the desert when it’s 117º outside and the wind is blowing dust devils into your mouth! Ohh how that brings me back to the middle school playground where half of our lunch would be chewing through the rocks that just blew into our faces… mother earth’s all natural pop-rocks; now with no trans fat! I’ll have seconds!

It was either this or stealing my mom’s cookie tins and pitting the black and red ant tribes against each other in a battle of epic proportions. ohh, how they did hate one antoher. And i’m convinced the black ants were either the gatherers or just plain wussies, because the red ants won every time. Even when we stacked the odds with a 1:4 ratio the red team was triumphant. Now, don’t flame me for ant cruelty, this was years ago, i was a little kid. Thanks again boredom!

Incredibly affordable, these diorama kits will most likely give enjoyment long after assembly.

‘Tatebanko is the forgotten Japanese art of creating amazing dioramas and scenic perspectives from paper. Tatebanko was popular and widely admired from the 17th century (Edo period) to the early 20th century. Then it all but disappeared. “It’s a Beautiful Day” has now revived and reinterpreted this simple and elegant Japanese art with two new paper craft kits. The kits feature the works from two famed Edo artists - Hiroshige’s Kambara, Evening Snow and Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Beautifully designed and printed in Japan with elegant metallic accents, the kits are nicely packaged A4 size and make a diorama that is 7 1/2” W x 3 1/2” D x 4 7/8” H. Each kit has a playful secret and interesting details that make assembly fun. With these kits, Tatebanko will undoubtedly enjoy a well-deserved renaissance.’

Hokusai (left): $9.95, Buy it here.
Hiroshige: $9.95, Buy it here.

Thanks Why Me? via Better Living Through Design.