Chykalophia

Guest Author Post: Get And Give Design Feedback – Sites + Tips

Ari Suardiyanti — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:25:03 +0000

Whenever we as designer working on a design project, we often find ourselves staring at the designs to look for the flaws. Most of the time we need others opinion or critiques to help us improving our design from the layout, spacing/kerning on the typography or text, the illustrations, icons, or event the concept. Alas we are limited to discuss about these with our client who expect us to solve these problems. However, there are numerous design community websites and web tools that can help us to get other perspective about our designs.

Working on a design project with multiple team members has many advantages in terms of getting as many output or ideas as we could. Yet when it comes to have no other team member but yourself, you can check these design community websites and web tool that will give you the feedback you need to make your design ready to go.

Plus there are tips on the do’s and don’t’s whenever you are receiving feedback or giving one. Read the full post Here.

Guest Author Post: 15 Famous And Successful Logo Redesigns – What Has Been Improved?

Ari Suardiyanti — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:05:33 +0000

As we realize that we are now living in the Brand Era, where everything is branded and labelled we are more concern to companies we believe can help us, shops where we can get our supplies, or websites we trust to keep our data or information securely. This is how a company’s logo appeal as the first thing costumer will consider to trust or not.

Among thousands of logos out there, some of them may look cheesy and cheap, and some visually give us confident. In order to grab our attention and get our trust, many companies even consider to re-brand/redesign their logo.As might be expected, the company will have to take the risk and be prepared of the pros and cons of this act. They should have really consider the reasons behind the redesign of their brand.

Here is a list, in no particular order of what I think to be famous and successful logo redesign from their old logo to the latest with explanations of what has been improved.

Guest Author Post: 25+ Sites And Resources To Learn Typography

Ari Suardiyanti — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 08:15:48 +0000

Typography has been practiced and used in our daily life. Range from handwriting in a pocket notebook to the big advertising billboard. It’s sometimes typed using Times New Roman in 12 points for newspaper. Others use Edwardian in 26 points for their wedding invitations. When a designer decide to use the right font for the right job, the typography itself become an art.

Learning typography seems to be easy at a glance, in order to achieve a great impact from typography for graphic and web designs isn’t so easy. Many designers found it as a complicated design aspects to practice. Read more about the 25+ sites and resources we have selected to help you understanding typography basics Here.

Inspiring Graphic Design Magazine – Round Up

Ari Suardiyanti — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:56:31 +0000

Everyone needs inspiration, it doesn’t matter in what department are they involved with in their everyday life. Though, for creatives like graphic designers, interior designers, web designers, and the like, inspiration become the nourishment for their creative brain. With the technology in publications and internet, we are now provided by many variations of magazine choices.

Why magazine? Because it’s simply handy. A magazine usually delivered with tons of informations. As for graphic design magazine, we could find anything we need on it. Range from interviews with the featured designers, information about contest or design events, reviews on design utilities (software, books, or other), tutorials on how to create certain effect or graphic, showcase of inspirational designs, and much more. However, out of hundreds of graphic design magazine out there, sometimes you have to be very selective to choose which one to read. Therefore, I have provided you with the round up for the most inspirational graphic design magazine, the published ones to the free ones you can download from the net. If you found another inspiring graphic design magazine of which you think should be on the list as well, feel free to drop it on the comment section. Enjoy!

Print & Published Magazines

1. p r i n t Magazine

Print is a bimonthly magazine about visual culture and design. Founded in 1940 by William Edwin Rudge, Print is dedicated to showcasing the extraordinary in design on and off the page.

2. HOW Design

HOW magazine’s goal is to help designers, whether they work for a design firm, for an in-house design department or for themselves, run successful, creative, profitable studios.HOW strives to serve the business, technological and creative needs of graphic-design professionals. The magazine provides a practical mix of essential business information, up-to-date technological tips, the creative whys and hows behind noteworthy projects, and profiles of professionals who are influencing design.

3. I.D. Magazine

I.D Magazine is a leading critical magazine covering the art, business, and culture of design.

4. Communication Art

Communication Arts is an amazing art and design magazine that consists of eight issues and includes the Design, Advertising, Illustration, Photography and Interactive annuals.

5. Computer Arts

Computer Arts, the world’s best-selling magazine for digital artists and designers, boasts a strong line-up of tutorials every issue, covering everything from manipulating photographs with Photoshop to creating amazing vector illustrations with Illustrator. You’ll also find tonnes of tips and tricks for web design, typography, 3D, animation, motion graphics and multimedia. It’s the one-stop shop for professional advice.

6. IdN

IdN magazine is an international publication for creative people on a mission to amplify and unify the design community. It has been an active organiser of many design-related events. It is devoted to bringing designers from around the globe together to communicate with, learn from and inspire one another. It has truly become what the initials of its title proclaim it to be: an international designers’ network.

7. CMYK Magazine

CMYK Magazine is where aspiring creatives showcase their talents to an industry driven by inspiration and new ways of creative problem solving. At the same time, CMYK Magazine is where creative directors, agency principals and art buyers recruit students and recent graduates at today’s top art-design schools: art directors, copywriters, designers, photographers and illustrators.

8. Before&After

Before & After magazine has been sharing its practical approach to graphic design since 1990. Because our modern world has made designers of us all (ready or not), Before & After is dedicated to making graphic design understandable, useful and even fun for everyone.

The magazine is available as a PDF or printed as other magazines.

9. Digital Arts

Digital Arts addresses the needs of those within the exploding digital media market by providing relevant and forward thinking content, and by consistently running more exclusive reviews and features than any other magazine or Web site in the market. Digital Arts consistenly delivers high-quality content, providing its professional readership with the latest news and reviews first.

10. .net

.net is the world’s best-selling magazine for web designers and developers, featuring tutorials from leading agencies, interviews with the web’s biggest names, and agenda-setting features on the hottest issues affecting the internet today. If you’re serious about web design, then .net is the magazine for you!

11. Layers

Every page of Layers magazine is brimming with powerhouse tutorials for Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, GoLive, Acrobat, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Dreamweaver and Flash – all the secret Adobe techniques that design professionals need to quickly and easily produce dazzling results.

12. Photoshop Creative

Photoshop® Creative is the perfect magazine for learning more about Adobe’s outstanding application. Each issue is packed with inspirational tutorials covering the whole scope of the software, from creative projects, to practical guides to using tools and techniques. Readers also benefit from a collectable CD-ROM each issue. Whatever you use Photoshop for, Photoshop creative will help you become a better digital artist.

13. Step Inside Design

14. Juxtapoz

Billed as an art and culture magazine, at first glance it might seem like art and counter-culture. A closer look shows some of the most intriguing arts coverage available.

15. Beautiful/Decay

Beginning as a hand-photocopied, black and white ‘zine, some ten years ago, Beautiful/Decay has always prided itself on putting artists—and quality content. In keeping with the spirit of our independent, DIY philosophy, we have decided to break the mold of traditional magazines, cut out the (sub)standard print industry and change up the way we do business. Beautiful/Decay has more of the content you love, with none of the filler.

16. Creative Review

The aim of Creative Review is to inspire, inform and stimulate debate among our readers in graphic design, advertising, digital media, illustration, photography and all other fields of visual communication worldwide. We do this in a number of ways.

17. GD USA

Graphic Design USA is the leading design business magazine and is a great resource for freelance designers and studio owners.

18. Eye Magazine

Eye Magazine is “the quarterly print magazine for everyone involved in graphic design and visual culture.”

19. Desktop Magazine

Desktop is a respected (but still playful!) industry leader in all above-mentioned communication avenues, covering news, events, profiles, inspirations, technical processes, challenges, products and services and in a vast array of creative fields including print, photography, animation, fashion, typography, packaging, digital media, web design, post-production, illustration, gaming design and more.

Free Online Magazine

20. Frespiration!

21. Kromag

22. NewSugar

23. Bak

24. Breed

25. Artzmania

26. Castle Magazine

27. Root Magazine

28. Ideafixa

29. RevolutionArt

30. Multilink

31. Moloko

32. Anti

33. Proteusmag

34. Veer Catalog

35. Gizmag

36. Destructed

37. Blanket Magazine

38. WOW Mags

39. VecKR

40. EXTRA: pdf-mags.com

Guest Author Post: Tips and Inspiration on Creating a Great Website Footer

Ari Suardiyanti — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:59:06 +0000

As most of us know, there are three important parts of a website’s design: the header, the content, and the footer. None of these should be ignored when creating a web design. Sadly it happens in most cases, and many web designers ignore the footer design. Over time the footer evolved from just a line of text with the copyright, legal notice, or navigation into a mini repeated area which is filled with navigation, comments, recent posts, copyright, etc.

In this post, not only are we giving you samples of website footers for your inspiration, but also guiding you 5 important steps to remember whenever you are designing the footer.

Read the basic steps into great website footer creation with examples for your inspiration

Here.

Guest Author Post: 35+ Warm VS Cool Color Website Designs

Ari Suardiyanti — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 18:50:13 +0000

A website resembles the identity of a company, a certain community, or even a person. Thousands of websites live out there on the internet these days, and their number increase every single second. Many of us realize how important a website can be, therefore the design for every website has to be unique, and more importantly has to have the right feel to it.

As a designer, we know how to play around with illustrations, typeface, and colors. I’m not going to get in too deep with illustrations or typeface, in this post but color. Some people classify websites from dark to bright website designs. Others classify them into minimalist and content heavy designs. But now let’s see website designs in the new perspective, in warm and cool colors.

See the selected 35+ Warm VS Cool Color Website Designs for your inspiration and the full post

Here.

Beauty & Creativity of Interior Graphic Design

Ari Suardiyanti — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 10:12:48 +0000

Almost everything in this world wrapped up by designs, shoes design, clothing design, glasses design, and on and on. Any designs. Human eyes loves to see beautiful things, from panoramic view to graffiti’s wall in the streets. The topic in this post will be more specific to Interior Design, but wait. I’m not going to write about Interior Design, it’s more to the graphics. When I search about interior graphic, it seems to be also categorized under interior design. So let’s see more about this.

Interior design is basically creating the usability inside the room, whether it’s the usability of a chair, sofas, tables, beds, bookshelves, or other interior elements. While as you know, graphic design plays more with color, illustration, and typography. When you combine both of these fields in one, it will create an amazing stunning room. Creative agency, restaurants, hotels, spas, or other businesses who really concern about design for their company impressions spend a lot of money to hire both of interior designer and graphic designer for this matter. But of course the result will be worth it.

I have selected beautiful and creative interior graphic design for this post for your inspiration. Take a look and be amazed

Feel jealous to see those rooms with such a pretty designs on their wall? Why not creating yours or grab some from these shop and put them on your wall. Post your decorative wall on the comments below, I will add it to this post if possible

Guest Author Post: 4 Distinct Types of Website Illustrations

Ari Suardiyanti — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:21:42 +0000

There are many elements that designers can consider in creating a website design. Readable text, suitable icons, graphics, background colors or textures, and illustrations. Our eyes are much more easily attracted by designed shapes or figures rather than just plain text. This makes illustrations a very important part of design, as well as in web design. The type of illustrations in web designs may vary depending on the company’s context or concept.

See examples of 4 very distinct styles of website graphics you can select from in order to create a unique, eye-popping design as well as some excellent inspiration sites Here.

Wine Author WordPress Theme

Ari Suardiyanti — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:15:34 +0000

Client: Edwin Soon
Project Type: Freelance Project
Media: Web Interface
Category: Website – WordPress Theme Design

Details…
See details here

Note: He prefer this layout which had been tweak to match his concept (Wine Author Mock Up).

Design in Fashion Industry – Nancy Zhang

Ari Suardiyanti — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 09:28:30 +0000

Fashion inspirations may come from anywhere. There are hundreds or perhaps thousands of fashion styles in this world. From the beginning time, colonial time, the 80′s, the 90′s, the vintage style, and more. To the fashion lover, their fashion style matters. To some of them, it’s a fun daily things. To her, fashion is her work as well.

Her name is Nancy Zhang. She’s currently living in Berlin, Germany. She is an illustrator who loves fashion and vintage stuff. What I really like the most from her work is that she turn the illustrations into her fashion daily styles. Or, may be the other way around as well. The styles she choose are influenced mostly by movies. Check her blog to find out more about her fashion inspirations and her daily fashion style.

Blog// Website//Lookbook.nu