cyloninthesky

Infographics for Web Designers: Information You Ought to Know

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:18:45 PST

Infographic is a great way to turn the most boring data into the most comforting graphic, which is much easier for reader to digest. As web designers have to deal with pixels and code almost everyday, it would be overwhelming to look at more data and references which are filled with hypnotic words and numbers.

We understand how your eyes feel when they are suffering from sleep induction, and this leads us to compile 43 informative infographics that are relevant to web designers. While some of them are data like current state of the internet or social media, others contain useful knowledge which can also be used as a great reference sheet. So come take a glimpse, enjoy them and grab them! Digesting data and knowledge has never been so fun with infographics!

Hongkiat Exclusive

Freelance to Freedom

An epic infographic that applies well to both web designer and graphic designer. Really scared me as it plotted down all my freelancing experience, and I hope you reached the last stage.

Colors

Color is deadly essential to a website as it not only defines the focus of a web page but evokes the emotion of the site, and in most cases it even represents the branding of a company’s website. Here we collected 6 infographics for you to know about color theory, how color affect purchases, colors of the top web brands, etc.

Color Theory

Basic color theories summed up in 1 infographic, which can be a handy reference sheet.

How Do Colors Affect Purchases?

Color is crucial factor to generate a good amount of sales, and this infographic shows you why.

Color Of The Year 2010

Beautifully designed infographic that presents the favorite color for year 2010, picked by 1000 people from 137 countries.

Colors Of The Top 100 Web Brands

A detailed infographic that reveals powerful colors of the web which are colors implemented by major internet companies in their branding.

Colors Of The Social World (Wide Web)

Based on the data provided by Themeleon, this infographic shows the color preference of Twitter users when it comes to their profile design.

Colours in Cultures

Color usage for 84 subjects from different cultures such as American, Chinese or Japanese, plotted in one comprehensive infographic.

Decision Making

A decision can decide whether you work for client for free and suffer like hell, or not. Being able to make correct decision is vital to a web designer’s success and infographics below can help you carve out the path of the success.

Do You Need A New Logo?

Do you need a new logo? This infographic can help you get the answer.

How Would You Like Your Graphic Design

Extremely truthful infographic to show your client what their design would be with their (mostly impossible) needs.

Should I Work For Free

A perfect guide for designer and freelancer to decide which project you should work for free, just follow it and you are free from trouble.

So You Need A Typeface

Here’s a helpful guide for you to choose a suitable typeface for your current project.

General Survey

General survey is a collection of useful infographics that either entertain or assist you in certain decision. You can either check out the difference between web designer and web developer to determine which species you belong to or perhaps consider to raise your charge by hour based on the data from the survey, ‘All You Need To Know About Web Designers’.

State Of The Internet: Summing Up 2010

Well designed infographic revealing the current state of the gigantic internet.

All You Need To Know About Web Designers

Distribution of age, gender, education, charge per hour rate or probably all you need to know about web designers.

Web Designers Vs. Web Developers

An interesting infographic that puts web designer and web developer into comparison, with a sense of humor.

Search Engine Optimization

The content is indeed the key component to top search engine indexing, yet Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the catalyst that speeds up your success. Infographics collected below will show you what SEO is, and how to do it effectively.

A Visual Guide To SEO

A great reference for those who just started to dive more into SEO.

Understanding Google PageRank

Google PageRank is an ever-changing algorithm, yet we can find some of its traits from this infographic.

The Essential Do It Yourself Guide To Successful Linkbait

As most results of linkbaiting are often less satisfying, this infographic teaches some essential steps to achieve effective linkbait.

Article Optimization

Instructional infographic with step by step guide on optimizing an article for search engine indexing.

Typography

Same with the color, typography is one of the most important aspect to web design, especially for this year as it is predicted by most famous web designers to have a big influence to web design. ‘Periodic Table of Typefaces’ and ‘Most Common Fonts by Operating System’ act as helpful references for your typograhy related studies and works.

Periodic Table of Typefaces

Carefully designed with the same categorizing concept of traditional periodic table, this masterpiece lists out 100 of the most popular and influential typefaces nowadays.

Most Common Fonts By Operating System

A pretty long list showing most popular fonts by operating system which is a good reference for setting fallback fonts for your website or projects.

User Experience

Although User Experience cannot be considered as ‘design’, it plays a vital role on smoothing your site visitor’s experience thus avoiding them slipping away. ‘Good Information Design’ and ‘Fastest Ways To Lose Customers’ are insightful infographics that explore this field.

Good Information Design

As there are lots of different views for good information design, this infographic explores the key components to form a good information design.

Fastest Ways To Lose Customers

Probably everything you need to know to avoid losing potential customers.

Web Technology

Web technology has evolved a lot since last year with the introduction of HTML 5, H.264 video format, WordPress 3 and plenty more web browser updates. Since it would be overwhelming to know them all by documentations with full of terms and words, infographics below can help you to understand these technologies in a more visual and comfortable way.

HTML 5

Detailed introduction about HTML5, with a few comparison to Flash.

Semantic Web

Semantic is a term that often confuse web designer, this infographic explains the concept of the semantic web effectively with comparison method.

The Anatomy Of A Perfect Landing Page

A must-see infographic for web designers to build an effective landing web page that actually attracts users.

Performance Comparison Of Web Browsers

As different web browser has different capabilities, this infographic acts as a good reference on showing the difference of capabilities for major browsers, which are also rarely mentioned in common web articles.

Apple, Flash and H.264

A full introduction about the famous issue, Apple drops Flash and embraces H.264 video format.

How Cookies Work On The Web

Still can’t understand how cookies work? Here’s an infogprahic with relaxing images to tell you what web cookies are, and how they work.

[Freebie] “BiZ” Business Website PSD Templates

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:14:47 PST

This exclusive freebie is a pack of 5-page business website templates in Photoshop format. The design uses a clean, slick and professional look throughout the templates especially designed for website selling products/services. The design is also ideal for your business or corporate needs.

The design comes in 5 templates: Home Page, About Us page, Services page, Portfolio page, Image Pop-up page and Contact page. All the pages are fully-layered PSD files, and are neatly organized in folders for easy identification and necessary editing of logo, text and graphics.

Since the templates are all ready for slicing, you can get them coded with appropriate modifications to fit your business needs.

These business website PSD templates are created by GraphicsFuel and released exclusively for Hongkiat readers, so you can use them for your personal or commercial purposes. Redistribution without permission is prohibited.

Preview of “BiZ”

Let’s take a look at what’re included:

Home Page:

About Us Page:

Services Page:

Portfolio Page:

Image Pop-up Page:

Contact Page:

Download

All 5 Photoshop PSD files are included in the following single zip file.

Download “BiZ” Business Website PSD templates (45.3Mb)

6 Simple & Effective Ways to Speed Up Your Mac

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:13:20 PST

We are all impressed with the smooth running of the Apple Mac OS X as we compare with the contemporary Windows OS like Vista or Windows 7. However, there are times when your Mac might be slowing down as you put in more stuffs in your hard drive and work the system hard. That is perhaps a good time to evaluate where the bottleneck could be and clear it.

In this post I’ll be sharing tips I found useful in speeding up the Mac. While most of the tips do not cost you extra bucks, they also help you to clean up your Mac to not only make it run fast like cheetah, but also keep it as powerful as lion. So spend some time to get really well with these tips, then you’ll be smiling happily as you run your Mac smoothly!

If you are not only looking to optimize your Mac but also seeking to optimize your workflow in Mac, below we’ve got posts with 200 useful applications introduced to you!

Mac: 100 Free Useful Applications (Part I)

Mac: 100 More Useful Applications (Part II)

And you can discover more about Mac in Hongkiat!

1. Clearing Your Desktop

Your desktop plays a part in how long it takes for you to boot the system because it’s the first screen that it has to load up. As much as possible, try to keep it simple by minimizing the number of icons from the dock and clearing up the amount of files you can see. You can either delete them or put them into folders so that the operating system doesn’t have to waste additional resources to load them upon starting your computer.

Doing this will take the toil away from your memory, especially if you’re using an older Mac system. This will not only ensure that your boot time will be shortened, but also improve the performance of your Mac in general.

2. Managing Startup Items

When you install some applications, they automatically configured your startup setting such that these applications would be loaded up when you boot up your Mac. Depending on your usage, such a setting can either make it convenient for you (if the first thing you want to do when you boot up is to use that application), or slow down the booting time with no additional convenience for yourself.

Leaving such applications can also draw some valuable resources away from your Mac such that it slows down the system. As much as possible, try to remove those which you rarely use. For Mac OS X Lion’s user, all you need to do is go to System Preferences > System > Users & Groups > Login Items, and uncheck the application(s) you want off from the startup.

3. Cleaning Up the Hard Drive

Mac operating system actually utilizes whatever free space you have on your hard drive as ‘virtual memory’, which plays a significant role in the performance. In other words, the more data you have in your hard drive, the lesser the amount of memory you would have for the smooth running of your applications. The obvious solution to a slow-running Mac operating system is to free up hard drive space to make room for the ‘virtual memory’.

I’m sure you know where to begin when you’re cleaning up your hard drive, such as emptying your Trash, removing rarely used applications, etc. Alternatively, you can also remove languages that you don’t use through programs like Monolingual. This would save at least several hundred megabytes of disk space. It may not be much, but why waste resources?

4. Monitor Your Activity Monitor

Sometimes you wouldn’t know what’s taxing your memory and slowing down the system in the process. This is where the Apple’s Activity Monitor comes in handy. You get to see the CPU usage, Random Access Memory (RAM) and virtual memory usage from the monitor, which the info will help greatly in optimizing your Mac!

When you notice that there’s a spike when you use certain applications, you can infer that these are the ones which are draining away your memory and making your system sluggish. That way, you can either choose to minimize your usage on these applications or make room in your memory like closing down other applications when you’re going to use them.

On top of that, the monitor lists down in details all the applications which are currently in use. You can see how much each application is eating up your CPU, real & virtual memory. You may choose to quit those that are consuming an awful lot of your system’s resources to speed things up.

If you need more explanations on the Activity Monitor, do check out this comprehensive guide.

5. Embrace Cleaning Utility Tools

Perhaps the most straightforward way to optimize your system’s performance is to run multifunction utility tool like OnyX. What it basically does is that it conducts system maintenance and cleaning functions to smoothen the running of your system. Temporary files stored as caches are cleared so that they don’t ‘jam’ up the performance of your system.

If your goal is to sustain a top-notch performing Mac, then such utility tools can be programmed to run as scheduled routines. This way, unnecessary files and browser history or any other cache files are regularly removed from your system so that it will run at its best most of the time. In fact, it is highly recommended that all Mac users do such consistent maintenance.

If OnyX doesn’t seem to cater to your maintenance needs, you can also try out others like CleanMyMac and MacKeeper.

6. Getting Hardware Upgrade

Worse comes to worse, if the above tips didn’t significantly improve your Mac’s performance to your liking, you can always consider purchasing hardware that would more or less guarantee a speed boost. This would, however, require you to throw money to resolve the issue, as compared to the previous tips which are all free.

Upgrading your RAM is probably the simplest way to ensure a faster computer. As compared to upgrading your processor, it is also much cheaper. If you only have one piece of RAM attached in your Mac, consider getting another one.

At the very least, your Mac should have a 2 GB RAM minimum, and 4 GB RAM is recommended for web designer who run premium graphic editor like Adobe Photoshop which eats up a lot of memory and hard drive space. If you are using 2GB/4GB ram and still finds it running slow, consider getting an additional 2 GB RAM that would logically speed up the performance by 50%. Of course, this depends on how much memory your Mac can support, so ask the professionals before you proceed.

Another alternative is to get a faster hard drive or use a Solid State Drive (SSD), but they don’t come cheap. One way is to get the SSD to run only your operating system and other applications, while leaving the other data on your old hard disk. Here is a good site on how to set up a SSD drive.

That’s all from us! What’s your personal secret to speeding up your Mac?

Futuristic 3D Glass Portraits of Celebrities

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:11:15 PST

Combining modern technology with more traditional art techniques is an interesting symbiosis that can produce magnificent results. A Miami-based Indian-American artist, NFN Kalyan, took his hand drawn artwork and used a laser etching device commonly employed to make holograms; the result was spectacular 3D sculptures that wow everyone who views them.

If you’ve seen The Cell (Jennifer Lopez’s ambitious acting attempt), you must remember the scene with the horse getting sliced into pieces. The method used for these sculptures is pretty similar. There are several drawings that have no meaning on their own. They need to be combined with the others present layers of a complex structure. With the right lighting, over 20 glass panels with drawings engraved on them using the laser become one picture, creating a realistic human face.

Kalyan’s choice of models is quite colorful, from famous NBA player Lebron James, to the Dalai Lama, to Barack Obama. The exhibition, entitled “Nature of the Beast,” portrays people that Kalyan finds interesting in some way.

While choosing the first African-American president of the United States or the Nobel Peace Prize winner seems quite obvious, some celebrities like Lebron James have intrigued the artist in a different way. The realistic effect of these portraits is truly astounding. When you’re in the same room with them, you almost feel like you’re standing face to face with a real person. If you love cool portraits, check out these colorful mosaic portraits created from old junkmail.

Encouraging Words for 2012

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:10:49 PST

Back in the summer of 2009, Portland, Oregon-based designer and creative director Ian Coyle decided that he would print a daily thought for 73 days straight. Using his 1950′s letterpress, he printed and inked by hand these messages that seem to take on new meaning as we begin this new year.

See more at My Modern Met.

10 Quick iPhone Photography Tips

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:08:37 PST

Before I got my iPhone I had a Nokia phone with a pretty good camera on it… apparently… but I never really used it much because it had such a long lag on it from clicking the shutter to the picture making it to the phone that it irritated the willies out of me… talk about a way to make you not inspired to shoot with a phone!

Since I moved into the world of Apple though, a whole new world of photography opened up to me… my photos in the beginning with it were pretty dire… now I am right in the swing of it and loving the results.

First of all the best thing about phone photos over fancy DSLR shots is quite purely and simply, ease, accessibility and weight. In my world with 3 kiddos and generally being busy a lot of the time, I don’t have time, although I must say I certainly have the inclination, to get out my big camera, start fiddling around with what lens to use, start playing around with the settings, yadda, yadda, yadda… it’s heavy and bulky and means that I have to have an ugly camera bag with me.

Phone cameras change all that – and having that little baby in my pocket has taken me on another journey with photography, one I certainly did not see coming or expect and one I am enjoying immensely.

Phone photography for me means freedom and capturing moments with my family and things about Australia that I am inspired by that otherwise I would miss.

It was tricky at first to get a good shot though.

Here’s what I have learnt over the last few months:

The Beach Cottage Top 10 Tips to Phone Photos

1. Hold the phone like you would a camera

When I first got my iPhone and discovered the camera I was holding it with just one hand and almost gliding it around… now I hold the ‘camera’ in two hands and with my right hand I ‘click’ the shutter as you would a regular camera…

I also imagine my camera screen as the viewfinder on my big camera – when I first started iPhoneology I was holding the phone out in front of me at a ridiculous angle and doing some strange straight-armed, head back movement, robot style. Now I hold the phone in front of me with both hands and ‘look’ through the screen to what I am taking a photo of as I would with the other camera rather than kinda looking past the phone… I hope that makes sense?

2. Don’t zoom in with the zoom on the camera, zoom in with your feet

If you want to take something close up actually walk up to it, get close and click. Mmy iPhone loses heaps of quality even with a tiny bit of zooming and it becomes really grainy and pizelated. So I never move the zoom in. Moving from a telephoto lens on a Canon 50D to no zoom on a phone is a big difference and has been great for teaching me about light and my composition comfort zone has been seriously jolted… ahem, still learning here!

3. Shoot the same thing a few times

The great thing about digital photography is it allows for a lot of attempts and a lot of mistakes. Add to that benefit, the speed and ease of a camera phone and you have the opportunity to take a few shots so one of them will be good. You can just take multiple shots of the same thing and one of them will be vastly better than the others.

I love shooting at the beach with my phone, as you might have gathered and I will sit, with a coffee or on a walk and take a bundle of shots, upload ‘em when I get home and poof delete them right off. Too easy!

But don’t delete those shots you think are no good when you are out and about because often when you get home the things you think looked rubbish on your phone screen actually turn into interesting things on your computer monitor. The first time I got sun flare on my iPhone I was on the ferry to the city and shooting like mad with my iPhone. Checking the images I was a bit disappointed on the quality – they looked really over-exposed, too bright and patchy. When I got them uploaded to the computer later I realised that the elusive fingers of God were all over my pictures.

4. Light

Light with camera phones is important – the lower the light the more grainy and bad quality it becomes – unless you are taking photos of the sun and the sea keep the light behind you and your subject well lit.

But don’t lose those dark and night time opportunities. Shoot with your phone at night and dusk and see what it produces. I am doing this all the time lately and learning a lot along the way. I love shooting the sky at night – results have been a real mixed bag but are inspiring me to get out there with my real camera and have a go like a big girl.

5. Check out the resolution and picture quality settings – and set them on high

6. Keep the camera as still as you can because the jitters will make your picture blurred. To keep it still look for something to lean your arm/hand/camera on – this makes a big difference to camera jitters and my phone photos. Keep your hand there for a second after you ‘click’ too just to make sure, in case your phone has a big shutter lag.

7. Move around and get in different positions

The thing I love about my phone is that it is small and easy and you can get get down low and dirty with it or you can point it up and high really easily. Tou can move right on in to a shell or a flower and you can get it into awkward places and positions that a regular camera it would be more tricky with. So move it in bundles of different angles to see what you get – it doesn’t cost a penny.

Also move the angle of the phone as you take the pictur – I have experimented with this a lot with the horizon and the sea… haven’t posted any of the images yet ‘cos it actually looks like I was drunk when I took the photos, ahem maybe there was the odd Limoncello involved in some of them actually… but the shots are really interesting in my own personal photo-taking journey.

8. Clean the lens… duh!

I didn’t do this for ages and I don’t do it enough now still. My phone is in my bag, in my pocket, floating about in the car and ultimately has grubby little kiddo fingers all over tit so cleaning it makes a difference to the resulting shot.

9. Process!

All of my phone pictures are processed. I think that is the beauty of phonology, you have the ability to whip that baby out and capture something amazing you see, even though the quality and look might not be what you wanted. Then wham bam thank you mam, technology and a lil bit of foofing gives you a pretty nice shot…

I usually use Windows Live to tweak the contrast, light and saturation etc. It’s normally the light that makes the big difference in shots. I turn the highlights and brightness and often exposure right up. A real photographer would probably shudder at my processing, but the look I like, and hey that’s who I’m doing this for, is overly bright photos.

I also nearly always turn the temperature down. I like my photos on the err of blue and you would never have guessed but I like ‘em pretty white too. You can also do this with an app if you have an iPhone. Qhen I first got mine I went on a serious iPhone frenzy and got a lot of phone camera apps but really none have them have honestly floated my boat that much. Nowadays I just take the photo with the regular phone camera and do the foofing later.

There are a few apps for processing too but I find it fiddly and too small to try and see what’s going on on the small screen of my phone, I much prefer getting them uploaded and doing it on the big screen.

10. Clutter

Don’t have too much going on in your photo. One of the reasons, in my humble little opinion, some of my phone photos are still fairly good even though they are pretty grainy and not even in the same league in sharpness and quality as my DSLR camera shots is that there is not too much going on in the photos. This allows you to get away with a lot.

Keeping one main subject and a scene where you want all/most of it in focus are best. As you can see in the photo above, the quality is average to poor and pretty grainy (when viewed at full size) but hey I LOVE the pink sunflare, I love the clouds, I love the sea and baby I captured it… bingo… and that’s what photography is all about for me!

That’s how I take photos with my iPhone, hope these ten tips for phone photography might help you too… main thing though… just shoot ‘em up baby!

Sarah is a busy mum blogging from the beaches of Sydney about her sea-change from the grey skies of London to Australia, she logs the renovation of an old cottage and life by the sea, since picking up an old Powershot that had seen better days when she first started her blog, she began on an unexpected journey with, and new found love for, photography…slowly moving up the camera ranks, she replaced the Powershot with a Canon G10 and soon moved onto a Canon 50d…and nowadays also uses her iPhone when she’s down the beach to capture it all….

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

30 Free Photoshop Actions Which Never Fails To Amaze

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:06:51 PST

Photoshop actions can speed up the workflow for designers, artists and photographers by containing commonly desired effects in a prepacked file.

Check the full collection of Free Photoshop Actions here: creativefan.com/free-photoshop-actions/

Steve Jobs Resigns as CEO of Apple

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:51:10 PST

Apple Inc.‘s Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs is shown in this combination of file photographs dating (top row L to R) 2000, 2003, 2005,(bottom row L to R) 2006, 2008 and 2009. Jobs has resigned his position as CEO of Apple,and recommended that COO Tim Cook replace him, the company announced August 24. (Reuters)

Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs (L) stands beneath a photograph of him and Apple-co founder Steve Wozniak from the early days of Apple during the launch of Apple’s new «iPad» tablet computing device in San Francisco, California, in this January 27, 2010 file photograph. Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple, the company announced August 24. Tim Cook, the company’s Chief Operating Officer, who has been standing in for Jobs during his medical leave, has been named the new CEO, with Jobs becoming Chairman. (Kimberly White / Reuters)

American businessman and engineer Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer Inc, at the first West Coast Computer Faire, where the Apple II computer was debuted, in Brooks Hall, San Francisco, California, April 16th or 17th, 1977. (Tom Munnecke / Getty Images)

The Idol-makers of Kumartoli, India

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:51:47 PST

An artisan works on semi-finished clay statues of Hindu deities in Kumartoli, the idol-makers’ village of Kolkata, India, on August 22. (Dibyangshu Sarkar / AFP — Getty Images)

An artisan at work in Kumartoli. Ongoing monsoon rain has made it difficult for the artisans to finish their idols on schedule, with the recent economic slowdown and high inflation adding to the difficulties of the idol-makers ahead of the festive season. (Dibyangshu Sarkar / AFP — Getty Images)

Artisans work on clay statues of the Hindu goddess Durga. (Dibyangshu Sarkar / AFP — Getty Images)

An artisan works on a statue of the Hindu goddess Durga. (Dibyangshu Sarkar / AFP — Getty Images)

The Incredible Digital Paintings of Serge Birault

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 03:04:55 PDT

Fuchsia

This piece was a gift for Maria Gibson and features a model riding a reflective pig while holding a whip with an apple attached to it.

Alien Tako Sashimi

Maria Gibson makes another appearance in Birault’s work but this time she’s dressed as a "Space Chick," sitting on a shiny squid.

Military Bambi

This piece features Bambi, a characher that Birault did for 2D Artist Magazine. In this piece Bambi is sitting on a tank, dressed as a sexy tank commander.

Poker Pin Up 1

This piece was done for a poker website. Lots of details were added to the money.

RTFM

This image was created from a refrence photo of Irina Sheik. You can see a tutorial of the steps here.

Steampunk Wonder Woman

This image is a Steampunk version of Birault’s favorite super hero.

Subabysse II

This painting was done for a cover for Subabysse II, an RPG game.

Vamp Nadine

This image is a caricature of Vamp Nadine, a model from the Netherlands.

Amanda Seyfried Caricature

This image was Birault’s contribution to the Caricaturama Showdown 3000.

Comic Book Character Design

This piece was a concept for a comic book character that Birault worked on.

Daisy

This piece was an RPG character concept inspired by Norman Rockwell’s style and tones.

Gong Li and Tentacle

This is a caricature of the beautiful Gong Li.

ImagineFX Cover

This image was the cover of the zombie issue of Imagine FX Magazine.

Malyficarum

This piece was done for a pin up exhibition in Paris and Montreal.

Old Style

This piece was inspired by the work of Rembrandt.

Pamela Bouguereau

This piece was inspired by the work of Eric Tranchefeux on Rembrandt.

Perla

Poker Pin Up 2

This piece was done for a poker website.

Rosie Lugosi

This caricature portrait was commissioned by Rosie Lugosi.

Psychobilly Girl From Hell

Saori and Tentacle

This piece was a gift to Andrew Hickinbottom. You can see how the piece came together here.

Space Bambi

Here is another rendering of Bambi riding a space rocket.

Warlock Kitsch Fan Art

This piece is fan art of the 80′s german metal band Warlock and their singer, Doro Pesch.

The Girl, the Chainsaw…

A girl and a chainsaw.

Whitechapel

This piece was inspired by the work of Thomas Lawrence’s paintings in the National Portrait gallery.

Opus Magazine Cover

This was done for a cover of the Swedish Magazine, Opus.

Chocolate

Amazing Cathedral Of Salt

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 19:36:29 PDT

New Advent links to a story about an underground cathedral built entirely of salt by devout Polish salt miners. Simply astounding!!

It may feel like you are in the middle of a Jules Verne adventure as you descend in to the depths of the world. After a one hundred and fifty meter climb down wooden stairs the visitor to the salt mine will see some amazing sites. About the most astounding in terms of its sheer size and audacity is the Chapel of Saint Kinga. The Polish people have for many centuries been devout Catholics and this was more than just a long term hobby to relieve the boredom of being underground. This was an act of worship.

Amazingly, even the chandeliers are made of salt. An act of worship indeed.

How Different Age Groups Are Interacting Online

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:52:26 PST

via news.community102.com

The Beatles by Mike Mitchell

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:54:08 PST

altered perspectives

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 04:17:35 PDT

Leslie at Swarm is always involved in the most interesting projects. The latest is an amazing series called “Altered Perspectives” with Little Owl. The goal of the project is to combine two unexpected objects (like these paintings and transferware) to create a new scene. I love the Dutch landscape paintings above and below — they juxtapose the blue and white plates so well and make for a really interesting contrast in textures. You can see more of these pieces online at Little Owl right here. xo, grace

20 Incredible Video Examples of Guerrilla Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 08:59:35 PDT

What is guerrilla marketing and why is it a big deal? Guerrilla marketing is packed with creativity and a combination of different ideas to get your message across to the consumers. The big difference between guerrilla marketing and traditional marketing is big budgets. Usually small companies cannot compete with huge retail chains, because they lack financial complications.

Let’s say there is a small coffee shop in a little town, and Starbucks just opened up a store nearby. How will the small business owner compete against the coffee giant? By realizing that the marketing budget of Starbucks is way bigger, the small coffee shop owner will have to come up with creative ways to advertise his/her business. This is where creativity comes in, and fights a large sum of money. This problem happens all over the world to the little guys being picked on by the corporate brands, however guerrilla marketing is always there to help!

If you are an entrepenuer that has or is about to launch a business, the following examples should get your creativity flowing. As an entrepenuer you are great at analyzing the rights, wrongs, and problems with things. The problem that many people face when starting out is lack of cash, yes this is obvious and very generalized. Many people use it as an excuse for not succeeding, however if you posses creativity nobody can touch you. Without further ado enjoy the following guerrilla marketing campaigns!

1. Global angels: Help someone far away

This creative campaign was for one purpose only and that is to end poverty. The undercover actor walks around with bags full of groceries. When he drops them around people that are walking by, this quickly shows how many strangers are willing to help a person in need.

Company: Global angels
Agency: Lapiz USA, Chicago
Country: USA

2. Mountain Dew: Paintball street art

What happens when you use paintball guns to create graffiti? Just watch this video and find out, the end results are amazing!

Company: Mountain Dew
Agency: Redblue Viral
Country: United Kingdom

3. Coca-Cola: The wallet of happiness

In celebration of Coca-Cola’s 125 years, this guerrilla marketing video shows peoples honesty. If they return the lost wallet to it’s owner, they will be congratulated with a happiness’ welcome. This video was filmed in a crowded district in Lima. The wallet contains $100, let see how many honest people there is shall we? 70% of the people who participated were honest enough to return the stolen wallet.

Company: Coca-Cola
Agency: McCann Erickson
Country: Peru

4. Polish federation of cancer survivors: Shoplifter

Well this is a cool way to get women’s attention. This campaign for The Polish Federation of Cancer Survivors won a bronze Lion at the 2011 Cannes advertising festival. The whole point to get across was that women should not only check their breasts for lumps but they should also get a mammogram at a hospital because sometimes: “What a person can miss the machine will find.” This creative campaign consisted of a security tag that would be detected at the entrance of the store. When the alarm would beep the women quickly stopped and looked to see what they had in the bad. How did they manage to get the security tag in their bags after they purchased the clothes? Watch the video and find out!

Company: The Polish Federation of Cancer Survivors
Agency: EuroRSCG Warsaw
Country: Poland

5. WWF: The greenest leaflet

WWF created the most greenest ad campaign ever*! With only one copy of the print ad they’ve reached 285,142 people. Check out the video below to see how they achieved this task!

Company: WWF
Agency: Akcio360, Budapest
Country: Hungary

6. Volkswagen: Translator

Volkswagen’s park assist sure is a handy feature. Check out how they advertised it in a Brazilian ad.

Company: Volkswagen
Agency: AlmapBBDO, São Paulo
Country: Brazil

7. Nike vs. Adidas Detox Challenge

Nike vs Adidas, who will be the first to eliminate hazardous chemical discharges from their supply chain?

Company: Greenpeace
Agency: Unkown
Country: USA

8. The world’s biggest hug

How can the statue of Christ the Redeemer at Rio de Janeiro give a hug? Watch this video and find out! This has generated an incredible amount of press and awareness on the serious issue of sexual abuse in Brazil.

Company: Conselho Nacional Do Sesi
Agency: Monumenta
Country: Brazil

9. Doritos: The rise & fall of Esteban Ortega

This campaign is extremely creative, and for that we love it! In a matter of two minutes you will witness the rise and fall of Esteban Ortega, who is a professional Dorito flicker. As funny and ridiculous as that sounds, this video is definitely worth a watch.

Company: Doritos
Agency: AMV BBDO
Country: United Kingdom

10. Road safety authority: Loaded weapon

Very touching ad, this really makes me think smarter and make wiser decisions while driving or operating a vehicle.

Company: Road safety authority
Agency: Irish International
Country: United Kingdom

11. First animated tattoo ever

On June the 16th 2011 Paris based tattoo artist K.A.R.L. realised the first ever animated tattoo ( interactive tattoo to be exact). The process was streamed live on Facebook with the users being able to comment and interact with the event. This campaign used social media very well and should be used as an example for all advertising agency’s.

Company: Ballantine’s
Agency: Work Club
Country: United Kingdom

12. Amnesty International: 50th anniversary

Amnesty International just celebrated their 50th anniversary. In order to show how far the organization has come they hired an agency to deliver the following animation.

Company: Amnesty International
Agency: Eallin Motion Art
Country: USA

13. Viagra: Golf

The following video might seem uncreative, but Viagra manages to get the message across in 18 seconds. We are not gonna lie, that is pretty impressive!

Company: Viagra
Agency: Taxi, Toronto
Country: Canada

14. BMW: M1 vs Helipad

Hate it or love it, but this campaign is extremely creative and alarmingly scary to watch. Check out the following videos of BMW’s M1 to see what we are talking about.

Company: BMW
Agency:Cundari, Toronto
Country: Canada

15. Volkswagen: Join the Rebellion

Remember the Volkswagen Star-Wars based Superbowl ad? Well apparently Greenpeace is attacking Volkswagen, because of their refusal to reduce its carbon emission. This campaign is very clever on Greenpeace’s part, and it makes us wonder is Volkswagen will react?

Company: Volkswagen
Agency: Deutsch
Country: USA

16. Cannes Lions 2011: Direct

Rom was loosing it’s appeal with the young Romanian crowd. In order to make them care about the country’s traditional chocolate bar, the wrapper was changed to the american flag. Not only did this stir up attention, but also made peoplevery unhappy. Check out the video for the outcome. This campaign won the Grand Prix Cannes Lions 2011 award.

Company: ROM
Agency: Mccann
Country: Romania

17. Pause: Human Jukebox

We have never seen a CEO go this far for his business. In order to advertise itself against big retail chains, a Stockholm electronics store Pause went above and beyond. You have to take crazy chances in order to win the press, and all the effort succeeded with the Human Jukebox! Although this makes us wonder how he got the piece out and whether the he will have cancer in the future….

Company: Pause
Agency: Mccann
Country: Romania

18. Homeplus: Virtual Subway Store

Looks like QR Codes are saving the day in South Korea. According to research Koreans are the second most hard working people in the world. The last thing they want to do is go shopping after their long work day. In order to make shopping easier, Homeplus created virtual stores in subway stations in which the customers could do the shopping on the go. Once they scan the QR Code the item will be placed in their basket allowing them to check out. They purchased items would then be delivered directly to their homes.

Company: Homeplus
Agency: Cheil Worldwide, Seoul
Country: South Korea

19. Volkswagen: Speed Camera Lottery

Fun can change the human behaviour for the better, and this video will showcase exactly why. What happens when you speed? Your ticket payment will placed in the lottery. What happens when you obey the speed? You will be entered into a lottery, allowing you to win cold hard cash for your good behavior!

Company: Volkswagen
Agency: DDB, Stockholm
Country: Sweden

20. Glassing Eyewear: Prank

How to introduce a new sunglasses collection at a fair without going inside? Easy, just watch this video and find out! This is not extremely creative, but very well done!

Company: Glassing Eyewear
Agency: Y&R
Country: Italy

So there you have it, 20 extremely creative guerrilla marketing campaigns. You are probably saying to yourself, “These campaigns are pretty cool, but I will never succeed..” The truth is it’s 2011 and everything goes viral if done correctly. All you need to do is be creative and people will notice. So if you are trying to promote your business/service but do not have the sufficient advertising funds, brainstorm with you team about guerrilla marketing techniques you can launch. Who knows, maybe we will be writing about you next!

Beatles’ First U.S. Concert Photos Sold for $360K

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 08:29:23 PDT

These never-before-seen Beatles photos, taken by Mike Mitchell, went up for auction at Christie’s yesterday. Fifty silver gelatin prints were sold individually. Estimated to fetch a total of $100,000, they ended up selling for over three times that, or more than $360,000.

See more at My Modern Met.

30 Creative Tri Fold Brochure Template Designs

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:48:48 PDT

Trifold brochure template, as the name suggests, is a brochure with Three fold instead of commonly seen two fold or single page brochures.

Check the full collection of Tri Fold Brochure Template Designs here: http://slodive.com/inspiration/showcase/tri-fold-brochure-template/

People & street photography to inspire you

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:48:26 PDT

Street photography is a type of documentary photography. It’s about documenting the human condition, recording peoples’ states as they go about their lives. Most simply put, street photography is taking candid shots of people in public places such as streets, cafés, malls, and about anywhere human life exists.

For a shot to make it as a street photo it needs to be able to tell a story, it should be able to make an impression, it should be able to transfer an emotion. Street photography is not about making the right composition, following the right rule, or making the best measurement. It is solely about telling a story. It is about speaking to the viewer. It is about having someone wonder, or connect to a person in that split of a second that the shutter goes off and that vision is recorded and saved for good.

An area that aspiring photographers may have difficulty with is shooting close portraits of strangers. After all, human beings are protective and defensive by nature, and if someone feels their own personal space is being violated, they most probably are going to react. I’ve written a post in the past providing a few pointers on how to approach people in the street to take their photo (more about that can be found here).

Below I’ve shared a collection of some wonderful examples of colored as well as black and white people & street photography for you to check out, and hopefully find some inspiration.

Photo by 85mm.ch

Photo by _ankor

Photo by chloé.ophelié

Photo by Sailing "Footprints: Real to Reel" (Ronn ashore)

Photo by Arianna_M

Photo by Nick-K (Nikos Koutoulas)

Photo by _TooL_

Photo by Chris JL

Photo by Sailing "Footprints: Real to Reel" (Ronn ashore)

Photo by Eric Vondy

Photo by VinothChandar

Photo by josemanuelerre

Photo by Noel Feans

Photo by _TooL_

Photo by Gilderic

Photo by Chris JL

Photo by VinothChandar

Photo by 85mm.ch

Photo by _ankor

Photo by 85mm.ch

Photo by _ankor

Photo by digitalpimp.

Photo by Arianna_M

Photo by ZedZAP

Photo by 85mm.ch

Photo by Pensiero

Photo by Martin Gommel

Photo by orione1959 

Photo by Sailing "Footprints: Real to Reel" (Ronn ashore)

Photo by Nick-K (Nikos Koutoulas)

Photo by Chris JL

Photo by Sailing "Footprints: Real to Reel" (Ronn ashore)

Photo by Martin Gommel

Photo by BBluesman

Photo by Nick-K (Nikos Koutoulas)

Photo by 85mm.ch

Photo by Martin Gommel

Photo by Sailing "Footprints: Real to Reel" (Ronn ashore)

Photo by Ivan Constantin

Photo by Sailing "Footprints: Real to Reel" (Ronn ashore)

Photo by BBluesman

Photo by Funky64 (www.lucarossato.com)

Photo by fomu

Photo by Fouquier

Photo by Gilderic

Photo by MedoRRa

Photo by _ankor

Photo by Martin Gommel

Photo by Brandon Doran

Photo by Stathis Stavrianos (Stathis_1980)

Photo by Martin Gommel

Photo by Iguanasan

Photo by Gilderic

Photo by Brandon Doran

Photo by BBluesman

Photo by pynomoscato

Photo by Xavier Luque

Photo by Struggle for life

Photo by nandadevieast

Photo by Jerolek

Photo by RobinG91

Photo by gato-gato-gato

Photo by Jerolek

Photo by pynomoscato

Photo by Stuck in Customs

Photo by Buldrock

Photo by BBluesman

Photo by Ranjith Shenoy

Photo by nandadevieast

Photo by Pensiero

Photo by _ankor

Photo by Martin Gommel

Photo by ubo_pakes

Photo by digitalpimp.

Photo by Martin Gommel

Photo by mugley

Photo by Martin Gommel

Photo by puthoOr

Photo by Stathis Stavrianos (Stathis_1980)

Photo by Ryan Vaarsi

Photo by mugley

Photo by Noel Feans

Photo by Gilderic

Photo by Martin Gommel

Photo by Ivan Constantin

Photo by gato-gato-gato

Photo by BBluesman

35 Beautifully Animated Photographs a.k.a. Cinemagraphs

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 09:20:23 PDT

What do you get when you mix a fashion photographer, and a master of animation? If you said beautiful gifs, then you are 110% correct! Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg have teamed up to bring us beautiful animated photographs, a.k.a Cinemagraph. These Cinemagraphs are more than a picture, but not quite a video. Their main goal is to visually illustrate a short story. To give you a comparison, think of the magical newspaper from the movie Harry Potter.

Now you are probably scratching your head and thinking how in the word are these different from a GIF(Graphics Interchange Format)? An animated .gif is usually a sequence of stills pulled from a video, combined together and repurposed into a .gif. Cinemagraphs are different because Jamie and Kevin use a single photograph while adding a living moment within it. The process takes many hours of manual editing. If you wish to know how it’s done, check out the following articles:

These gifs have been attracting attention like crazy in the last few weeks, we respect this art form and would love to share it with the world! Today we have collected some of the best gifs that Jamie and Kevin have created! For more inspiration visit Jamie’s Tumblog Fromme-toyou.tumblr.com.

Nyan Cat in the Bottle

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 06:13:09 PDT

Black Mago is an artist who creates very cute mini-sculptures and puts all of them inside the tiniest of bottles. The bottles feature things like Pokemon, Kappas, Nyan Cat and even a few Studio Ghibli creatures.

Tribute to Transformers The Movie: 86 Inspiring Artworks

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 20:38:19 PDT

Back to the time when the Transformers movie was still in development, the design team was asked by director Michael Bay to produce some concept arts. They made some experiments which was later commented as old-school, thus they decided to bring a massive redesign to the Transformers, making them very, very cool robots.

(Image Source: Alon Chou)

That’s how the brand new design of Transformers was formed, and undoubtedly the redesign is too successful that it brought in massive numbers of brand new fans (including me). That is not the end of the story, the team has actually redesigned those appeared Transformers throughout the sequel to make sure they are even more attractive, and of course, epic.

As usual in Hongkiat, we don’t prove you something with just words. To help you get the awesomeness of Transformers’ design and the hard work put into it, we have lined up 86 totally awesome and inspiring concept arts, comic book cover arts and fan arts for you to enjoy Transformers in detail. Full list after jump!

Note: Introductions for Transformers below are mostly based on Wikipedia and Transformers Wiki, thanks for their extremely detailed info!

Concept Art

Ever seen unapproved version of Bumblebee, or want to take a close look to Megatron? This section includes approved and also some unapproved quality designs of Transformers, with introduction for each of them along the showcase.

Protoform. ‘This is the design for what would ultimately be called the Protoform which Autobots take as they enter Earth’s atmosphere, crash, and seek their vehicular form.’ (Image source: Ben Procter)

Protoform: Humanoid. Autobots’ humanoid form before they found their own vehicular form. (Image source: Ben Procter)

Optimus Prime Endoskeleton. Optimus Prime’s mechanical endoskeleton. It was made during the development of visual and engineering language of the robots’ extraterrestrial ‘Cybertron’ forms. (Image source: Ben Procter)

Optimus Prime. Optimus Prime is best known as the leader of the Autobots, a faction of heroic Transformers who battle with the evil forces named Decepticons since the time they are both in their own planet, Cybertron. (Image source: Ben Procter)

Optimus Prime Back View. Every Transformers’ design in the movie is the combined effort of professional design teams. Take Optimus Prime as example, his front design is honed by Victor Martinez while Ben Procter developed the back. His head was a tag team effort by Ryan Church and Paul Ozzimo, and then interpreted into 3D by Alex Jaeger and ILM modellers. (Image source: Ben Procter)

Optimus Prime Arm Gun Revision. Concept art means there are lots of revisions before the design is approved as final, here is one of the revision of Optimus Prime’s arm gun. (Image source: Ben Procter)

Jetfire Front View. As the elder of the Transformers, Jetfire is one of the few Transformers left since the beginning of humanity. He appears in the movie Revenge of the Fallen as a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. He is ‘Decepticons turned Autobots’ as he doesn’t support the destruction and violence idea of Decepticons. (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Jetfire Back View. How can an old Transformers looks so cool even his back? Jetfire was combined with Optimus Prime in the movie Revenge of the Fallen to ultimately defeat the Megatron. (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Optimus Prime Power Up. Jetfire + Optimus Prime = Almighty Jet Prime! Who cares if it’s cheating if we can beat Megatron! Sorry I was kidding, and this design is ultimately epic. (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Optimus Prime Power Up – Unapproved version. Another concept art for Optimus Prime’s power up version, pretty epic also! Which version do you prefer? (Image source: Concept Art World)

Bumblebee. Bumblebee is one of the primary protagonist appeared since the first Transformers movie. He chose Chevrolet Camaro as his vehicular form, and he communicates though selected playback of radio and television signals, due to his voice injury. (Image source: Ben Procter)

Bumblebee – Unapproved Version. Unapproved version of Bumblebee, looks pretty cool but I believe most fans prefer the approved version. (Image source: Ben Procter)

Bumblebee On Tow Truck. One of the coolest moments in the first Transformers movie, never stop battling unless you die, spirit of the Autobots! (Image source: Ben Procter)

Ironhide. In Transformers movie, Ironhide appears as a custom GMC Topkick C4500 pickup truck. He’s described as Optimus Prime’s oldest friend and the weapon specialist of the Autobots’ team. (Image source: Ben Procter)

Sideswipe. Sideswipe is a Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Concept in the movie, Revenge of the Fallen. Transformed version has two wheeled feet, and armed with 2 retractable Cybertanium arm blades on each of his wrists in robot mode, along with an extra gun on his back. (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Sideswipe. Another design concept of Sideswipe, similar to Arcee I think. (Image source: Concept Art World)

Springer. Judging from the design, Springer should be originally designed to be appeared in the movie, but was dropped with unknown reason. However, his cool design is hardly ignored, thus making him produced as a toy available for fans. (Image source: Concept Art World)

Breakaway. Although the concept art’s title says Firestorm, this Autobots is widely recognized as Breakaway. Unlike other Aerialbots who focus more on aerial acrobatics, Breakaway put more power on straightforward flying with terrible speed, making him the elite flyer in Autobots. (Image source: Concept Art World)

Arcee v05. Arcee was planned to be casted in Trasformers movie but her appearance was finally replaced by Ironhide, with the rumor that the movie doesn’t have extra time to explain the gender of the Transformers. Her transformed design was based on the Buell Firebolt motorcycle, done by Ben Procter. She was also initially set to battle with Blackout in the film. (Image source: Ben Procter)

Ratchet. This is actually the unused version of Ratchet, that means you didn’t see Ratchet with this design in the first Transformer. Note that this design is pretty similar to common robot design, so it might be earlier experimental sketch for discovering spectacular Transformer’s design. (Image source: Ben Procter)

Model T. ‘The Ford Model T automobile is a Seeker, was dispatched thousands of years ago to Earth, adopted a Model T automobile as a disguise, and that’s about all we know.’ – Transformers Wiki (Image source: Concept Art World)

Megatron Front View. Megatron is the leader of Decepticons, who is also the antagonist of the Transformers movie. He appears as a Cybertronian Jet in first movie then in second film, he gains an alternate flying tank mode. He was heavily redesigned during the sequel and his design has more focus on the alien aspect of Transformers, which made him looks very different with the Autobots who have more mechanical aspect on their design. (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Megatron Back View. By looking his back you can feel how much extreme hard work has been put into designing it. (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Megatron Vehicle Mode. The reason of why I stand on the Decepticons’ side, Megatron’s vehicle mode is just too kick-ass! (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Megatron Vehicle Mode Rear View. (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Megatron Flight Mode. Isn’t it kind of cheating? Love the design anyway, all hail Megatron! (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Blackout. Don’t be fooled by the titles on the concept art, it’s absolutely the design of Blackout. Blackout transforms into a Sikorsky MH-53 Pave Low helicopter, and he is the largest Decepticons in the first Transformers movie with 2 arm-mounted gatling cannons, 2 energy cannons and has the ability to disrupt electronic devices via EMP blasts. (Image source: Ben Procter)

Blackout. Another design of Blackout but with the name, Devastator. Well the character actually went though couples of rename due to some issues, and he wins the ‘most name changes during development’ award. (Image source: Ben Procter)

Starscream. Starscream is a jet-shaped Decepticons who has some hatred against Megatron and seeks to be the ultimate leader of the Decepticons. His vehicular mode is always a jet, like Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor in the movie. He’s primarily armed with a missile launcher that carries 6 missiles in both arms, and a high caliber machine gun to backup the attack. (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Brawl. Brawl appears in the first Transformers movie as a M1 Abrams tank. He is an offensive type with high strength, which enables him to pulls Autobots Jazz off with only one hand. He fought together with Megatron against Autobots and human, and was destroyed by the combined shot of Bumblebee and human forces. (Image source: Ben Procter)

Devastator. Different with most Decepticons, Devastator is actually combination of Constructicons, thus he has surprisingly huge body and physical strength, and an ability to create a powerful turbine that sucks everything in sight into the mouth for destruction. (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Devastator – Unapproved Version. Another design for Devastator in the movie Revenge of the Fallen. Trivial: Devastator has less intelligence compared to other Decepticons, due to the fact that his every move and thought has to be agreed by combining Constructicons. (Image source: Concept Art World)

Scavenger. It’s hard to differentiate between Demolishor and Scavenger, but according to Transformers Wiki, this gigantic Transformers is Scavenger. Scavenger stands around 86 feet tall to the top of his wheel, and he also forms the torso of Devastator with Overload. (Image source: Concept Art World)

Long Haul. Named Long Haul, this badass enjoys and thirsts for battle by using his projectile weaponry. According to the Transformes Wiki, there are actually 2 Long Haul in the movie, Revenge of the Fallen. The first Long Haul has combined with other Constructicons to form Devastator, while the other one fought against the NEST forces and was destroyed by United States Air Force’s air strike. (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Overload. This Decepticons is spotted when the Constructicons combine to form the torso of the gigantic Devastator. He’s about 30 feet tall, and seems never transforms into robot mode. (Image source: Concept Art World)

Mixmaster. As a weapon designer of Decepticons, Mixmaster is an expert in poisons, corrosive substances and explosives. Like Long Haul, there are 2 Mixmaster in the movie Revenge of the Fallen, one which forms the head of Devastator, the other fought NEST forces in Egypt and was sliced by ex-Decepticons Jetfire. (Image source: Concept Art World)

Ravage. Ravage was originally planned for the first Transformers film, but the movie team later decided to use the Scorponok. Similar to Scorponok, Ravage’s look is based on the life form in Earth, and it’s armed with twin heavy machine guns that either fires standard projectiles or Cybertronian ammunition. Other possible weapon will be its tail and razor edged claws. (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Pretender ‘Alice’. Decepticons-transformed-human. Transformers’ decision to disguise as a machine rather than human is wise as machine can’t talk, so the chance of being discovered is probably lower. (Image source: Concept Art World)

Scalpel. Known as ‘The Doctor’ in the movie Revenge of the Fallen, Scalpel has great anatomical and mechanical knowledge, and excels in disassemble technological device and biological life forms. Sounds professional, the only disadvantage of him is, he always left some parts after performing the reassembly. (Image source: Concept Art World)

RC Truck Bot. Probably one of the weakest Decepticons with most dirty moves. His strongest point is perhaps the speed of changing his mind from being Decepticons to Autobots. (Image source: Concept Art World)

The Twelve. A series of Decepticons which I’m not really sure about, but as their designs are similar to The Fallen, they must be some ancient Transformers that have something to do with The Fallen a.k.a final boss of the Decepticons. (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Mountain Dew Bot. ‘Do the dew or I will eat your brain!’ (Image source: Ben Procter)

Microwave Bot. ‘The microwave bot is an evil Appliancebot who can conceal himself in the form of a microwave oven. He’s homicidal pretty much from birth (probably doesn’t come with Popper or Soupy) and that’s about all we know.’ – Transformers Wiki (Image source: Concept Art World)

Nokia Bot. Seriously I won’t mind my Nokia turning into an Autobots, provided that it will not boom my house. (Image source: Ben Procter)

Nuclear Sub. I’m seriously not sure about this Transformers, but according to my study most people guesses he’s Tidal Wave, but the look is far too different with his original design. (Image source: Concept Art World)

Carrier Attack. Carrier Attack, one of the heart-pounding scenes in Transformers’ sequel, Revenge of the Fallen. (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Matrix Of Leadership. Also named as Creation Matrix, the Matrix is actually the Autobots talisman of legend, passed down from leader to leader. In the movie Revenge of the Fallen, it is used to activate the Sun Harvester hidden in Egypt and was protected by ancient Primes. (Image source: Concept Art World)

Comic Book Cover Art

Featured here are comic book cover arts done by Josh Nizzi and Dcjosh. Josh Nizzi was hired to do concept art for the Transformers’ sequel, Revenge of the Fallen, while Dcjosh is the artist who does the cover art for Transformers’ comic series. Without a doubt, their artworks are absolutely awesome.

Adaptation #1. (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Adaptation #2. (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Adaptation #3. (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Adaptation #4. (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Destiny: Alliance #1. (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Destiny: Alliance #2. (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Destiny: Alliance #3. (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Destiny: Alliance #4. (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Destiny: Defiance #2. (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Destiny: Defiance #3. (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Destiny: Defiance #4. (Image source: Josh Nizzi)

Movie UK Reprint Cover. (Image source: dcjosh)

Movie UK Reprint Cover 1. (Image source: dcjosh)

Target Excl. TF Movie Prequel. (Image source: dcjosh)

TF Movie Prequel no3. (Image source: dcjosh)

TF Movie Prequel 4. (Image source: dcjosh)

TF Reign of Starscream 3 cover. (Image source: dcjosh)

Fan Art

While I’m searching for Transformers’ fan art, I have a requirement in mind which the chosen artwork must be ‘something quality’. However, after some serious searches, I have changed the requirement to ‘something that can compare to original work’. These fan arts are just too cool and professional!

Armadillo. Armadillo actually did not exist in the Transformers movie, but his design possesses many characteristics from the Transformers’ design in the movie, thus causing many movie fans think that the artist should be hired to design Transformers for the film. (Image source: Jolin and JesterJJZ)

Autobot. This gorgeous fan art is also a tutorial that shares the progress of making Transformers, follow it to create your own Transformers! (Image source: Tamás Tóthfalussy)

Autobot Portraits. Probably one of the most epic portraits in the human’s history, could also be a good advertisement poster to persuade Transformers to join Autobots. (Image source: dylanliwanag)

Autobots Roll Out. Another cool portrait, note that they are in battle mode. (Image source: dylanliwanag)

Birds Of War. Best fan art that brings out the beauty and the fierceness of Starscream. (Image source: Jimmy Xu)

Bumblebee. I love the color scheme used for this artwork, it’s seriously as professional as comic artist like Dcjosh’s work. (Image source: EspenG)

Bumblebee ROTF. Very detailed Bumblebee fan art, I call this professional. (Image source: dylanliwanag)

Cosmos. Amazing fan art of Cosmos, the spaceship-sauced Autobots from Generation 1 series. (Image source: Jolin JesterJJZ)

Death Blow. I seriously can’t convince my eyes to believe that this is a fan art, until I saw the tutorial which the artist shares his thought on making this masterpiece. (Image source: Alon Chou)

Decepticons Portraits. 5 badass in 1 portrait = epic. (Image source: dylanliwanag)

Giant Frikkin Robots Are Comin. Fan art from the comic artist Dcjosh, awesome as usual! (Image source: dcjosh)

Motormaster. Yet another heavily designed Transformers from Jester and Jolin, they did really well in designing Transformers. (Image source: Jolin JesterJJZ)

Movie Blackout. Looks exactly like a cartoon movie poster, uber cool! (Image source: dcjosh)

Optimus Prime. ‘No sacrifice, no victory!’ Very realistic 3D fan art with great detail in mind. (Image source: Kevin Bao)

ROTF Jet Convoy Charity. Almighty Jet Prime! The way the author draws has really brought out the powerful feel of the geared Optimus Prime. (Image source: dcjosh)

Swindle. Concept art for Swindle, if you saw concept arts above you can feel that this piece is very similar to them, professional production! (Image source: Elder-Of-The-Earth)

Trailbreaker. Looks very promising, Jester and Jolin’s strength lies in designing Transformers that looks powerful. (Image source: Jolin JesterJJZ)

Transfomers. The heart-pounding scene in the first Transformers movie, captured into this sensational fan art. (Image source: Wanbao)

Transformers Fan Art. Engaging fan art with random Autobots vs random Decepticons, and both do not really exist in Transformers’ universe. Concepting Transformers is not really easy, but Genesisa has done it very well. (Image source: genesisa)

Transformers Screenwriters. A funny yet cool poster produced by Jester and Jolin, I thought the Robertobot refers to Roberto Orci, and Alexatron refers to Alex Kurtzman, and both of them are screenwriters for Transformers movies. (Image source: Jester Pictures)

Transformers The Movie. Drawn by using 2B pencil and colored by Wacom and PainterIX, very cool fan art with personal style imbued. (Image source: Wangyuxi)

Unknown. An unknown work from unknown author, but still looks nice! According to the discussion in Superhero Hype, all different body parts of this Transformers are taken from original concept arts. Hat off to the author. (Image source: Unknown)

Heavy Metal Man: 50-ton Gigantor Statue Gives Kobe Hope

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 20:37:58 PDT

Can a giant robot save Japan? Yes, yes it can! Well, sort of… in the city of Kobe, a 50-ton statue of Gigantor standing nearly 60 ft tall was built to spark and symbolize the city’s recovery in the aftermath of the devastating Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995.

A Tin Man with Heart

(image via: Somberi)

Japan has experienced the tumult, terror and tragedy of earthquakes throughout its long history and is known today as one of the Earth’s most seismically active countries. On January 17th, 1995, the Great Hanshin Earthquake struck the central Japanese city of Kobe, causing the deaths of nearly 6,500 people and leaving 300,000 homeless. Livelihoods were shattered along with lives, and as Kobe picked itself up, dusted itself off and embarked upon the difficult task of reconstruction, citizens and city authorities looked around for some symbol of inspiration that could give people hope for the future. They didn’t have to look very far.

(images via: SiliconEra, Soundtrack Collector and Anime.com)

Robots (among other things) are synonymous with Japan’s post-war rejuvenation and one of the most famous heavy metal men hales from Kobe: Tetsujin-28-go! Literally “Iron Man 28”, the robot was the brainchild of Kobe native Mitsuteru Yokoyama and first appeared in comic-book format in 1956. By 1963, Tetsujin-28-go achieved national fame by starring in an animated TV series and in 1966 he made his American television debut, dubbed into English and renamed Gigantor.

(images via: Senkanburian, Fantastique Arts and Kaiju Art)

Mitsuteru Yokoyama (above, right) died in April of 2004 at the age of 69 from injuries suffered in a house fire. Yokoyama’s many fans engaged in discussions of how best to commemorate the artist, his works, and the city of Kobe as a whole. By 2006 the Kobe Tetsujin Project was announced as a non-profit initiative backed by the city of Kobe, local business associations, and manga fans worldwide.

(image via: Cartoon Leap)

From these various sources, approximately 135,000,000 yen (about $1.6 million) was raised to cover construction and design expenses with the City of Kobe offering space in quake-flattened Wakamatsu Park for the Project’s landmark creation: a “life-sized”, 50-ton, 50.2-ft (15.3 meter) tall statue of Tetsujin-28-go!

The Big Build-Up

(images via: Danny Choo, My Anime List and Mainichi Daily News)

Once funding was secured and blueprints were drawn up, construction on Kobe’s giant Gigantor statue swung into full gear at a nearby factory. Judging from these images, the builders didn’t fool around. Showers of sparks spilled from welding torches as the massive, all-metal monster slowly took shape.

(images via: My Anime List and Mainichi Daily News)

You might be forgiven for thinking Japan had embarked upon a serious rearmament program, what with teams of helmeted and suited workers piecing together steel-ribbed structures looking a lot like aircraft fuselages, submarines and bunker-buster bombs.

Here’s a video taken on-site that shows the righteous robot taking shape:

Life-size! Production of Gigantor, via Sora3824

(images via: Kaiju Art and Japan Probe)

Excitement in Kobe and among the world’s animation fanbase rose in conjunction with scaffolding in Wakamatsu Park as Tetsujin-28-go steadily reached higher and higher into the sky above Kobe.

Danny Choo

Meanwhile beneath Gigantor’s formidable feet, some serious infrastructure ensures that, quake or not, the menacing metal man won’t take any midnight rambles through downtown Kobe.

Gigantor is GO!

(images via: Do You See What I See?, Alafista and City of Kobe)

By the end of September 2009, the finishing touches were being put on both the statue and its permanent home in Wakamatsu Park. The latter was repaved with interlocking stone and lighting (until 9:30pm each night) was provided by themed streetlamps designed in the image of the robot’s head.

(images via: Robot Watch)

The big day finally arrived on Sunday October 4th. Builders, luminaries, entertainers, fans and ordinary citizens assembled for a gala ribbon-cutting ceremony. The climactic moment occurred when 78-year-old voice actor Minoru Yada, who spoke for Tetsujin 28′s fictional inventor Dr. Shikishima in the original TV series, shouted out “Tetsujin-28-go!” while holding a mockup of the robot’s remote control operated by Shoutarou Kaneda (Jimmy Sparks).

Here’s a video of the ribbon-cutting, conducted to the sound of a choir who belted out the animated series’ theme song:

Tetsujin 28 is finally complete ceremony!, via Kobedigital

(image via: Figure.Fm)

It was a great day for Kobe and for appreciators of giant robot culture everywhere… but Tetsujin-28-go’s work was far from done. As a symbol of Kobe’s resurrection and revival, Gigantor had to do more than just “be”.

Economic Shake-Up

(images via: Tokyomango, Plastic Pals and Robot Japan)

Step 1: Build giant robot. Step 2: Publicize giant robot. Step 3: Profit? Wakamatsu Park is easily accessible via the Shin-Nagata train station in Kobe. In addition, the city has authorized a couple of taxicabs to be decked out with Gigantor decals, full sets of the Tetsujin-28-go manga for passengers to peruse and imitation remote controls for the kids. All that’s needed are people to come, see and conquer with their hard-earned yen, euros and dollars.

(images via: Ginkgo Telegraph and Neoshinka)

The hype and press may be working, as about a million people visited Kobe expressly to see the statue during the first 3 months after it was opened to the public. The visitors have made a positive impact on a nearby shopping arcade, many of whose vendors are moving significant quantities of Gigantor-themed merchandise.

(images via: IO9 and Hamachi!)

According to Japan Probe, the economic impact of the Gigantor statue quickly fades the farther from the statue one gets. Maybe the answer isn’t more press, but more statues. Kobe still has plenty of free space and Japan has many, many more manga robots waiting in the wings… a few even HAVE wings.

Here’s a video taken of Kobe’s giant Gigantor statue just after twilight by an obviously impressed tourist who enjoyed very clear sightlines:

Tetsujin 28 Robot Statue in Japan, via Palmisano

(images via: Cotaro70s, Giant Monsters on the Loose, DVD Talk and 80millionmoviesfree.com)

As an economic booster, the use of giant robots has shown only limited success but in the case of Kobe’s Giant Gigantor statue it can be stated confidently that money isn’t everything. The statue has helped boost civic pride while reminding citizens of Kobe’s success in the post-war era. Perhaps government authorities in Japan’s shattered northeast could take a page from Kobe’s book and design a giant statue to watch over the region’s tsunami-prone coastline. Godzilla, Ultraman, Astroboy, prepare to answer your casting call!

Akio Hirata’s Exhibition of Hats

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 20:37:36 PDT

Nendo‘s latest project is Akio Hirata’s Exhibition of Hats.

An installation of about 4,000 mass-produced non-woven fabric hats seem to become the walls and ceiling in no specific pattern, enabling the viewer to wander through the space in any way they like.

The exhibit runs through this tomorrow at Spiral Garden in Tokyo.

Photos by Daici Ano.

Akio Hirata’s Exhibition of Hats

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 20:37:35 PDT

Nendo‘s latest project is Akio Hirata’s Exhibition of Hats.

An installation of about 4,000 mass-produced non-woven fabric hats seem to become the walls and ceiling in no specific pattern, enabling the viewer to wander through the space in any way they like.

The exhibit runs through this tomorrow at Spiral Garden in Tokyo.

Photos by Daici Ano.in Art | Permalink | No comments"

India Skateboards

noreply@blogger.com (cylon) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 20:37:25 PDT

Pour la marque Oxelo Skateboards, le Studio Ores et Guilhem Machenaud ont réalisé cette vidéo tournée en Inde. Parcourant des centaines de villes, les 3 skateurs suivis par deux cameramen nous font découvrir l’Inde au travers du skateboard. A découvrir dans la suite en vidéo.