Graphic Swing

Music Media, From Vinyl To Bitstreams [INFOGRAPHIC]

Bogdan Rancea — Mon, 13 May 2013 11:29:14 +0000

Selling music beyond first became possible in 1877 with the introduction of the phonograph cylinder. Since then media formats have developed and radically changed the way we listen, and recently even where we can listen to music. We have looked at the last 30 years of music format development and popularity in the infographic below.
Find the embedcode for this infographic at the bottom of the page. Read more about indiGoBoom

Revenue Wars: iOS vs Android [Infographic]

Bogdan Rancea — Tue, 07 May 2013 09:00:25 +0000

It’s billed as the battle of the century, at least as far as app developers are concerned; which has better ROI, Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android? Consumers are split: Apple have the single largest market share, Google have numerous manufacturers on their side; iOS dominates North America, Android wins out in Europe.

If you’re targeting mobile devices, then ideally you want to have releases for both iOS and Android. But in the age of the lean start-up, where minimum viable products are all the rage, you have to pick a side and prioritize one or the other.

Not sure whose team you’re on? Keep reading and we’ll help you decide.

Graphics Design and Marketing

Bogdan Rancea — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:18:30 +0000

It’s no secret that the future of marketing and advertising has been inadvertently switched from physical to digital. Everything effectively advertised is either on TV or in social media sites and the burden on improved and enticing graphics design falls on the shoulders of brilliant web design artists and programmers. In the German market of programmers and web designing, your designs have to be unique and working flawlessly in order to attract clients.
Who would’ve guessed that newspaper ads and Sunday magazines would play second fiddle to online ads in a small portion on Facebook. Since this movement, websites have evolved to exceed both in functionality and looks. Depending on their role, websites are now designed to accommodate online visitors and keep them coming back for future transactions. For example, the ubiquitous nature of online poker sites makes it difficult for any one site to stand out. Gaming portals like Zynga became popular because of its Facebook tie up and all of its browser games became an instant household name. Still other successful portals like de.partypoker.com relied on good sponsorship, increased site functionality and is user friendly to both poker beginners and masters. The site sponsors both Real Madrid and Manchester United under their affiliate company {Bwin} to spread its popularity initially among European countries like here in Germany. Its multilingual setting allows player from all around the world to participate and it launched its own Android app to accommodate players on the go. Pretty soon, marketing and graphics design would have to evolve once again to make room for the increased need for content viewable through mobile apps. Technology is evolving and it’s moving to more compact devices that does everything for the modern man. Once mobile devices become powerful and functional enough to replace desktop and laptop computers, we will see another big change. It’s hard to imagine that entire industries were spawned by the need to go digital. No one could have ever foreseen that education, the way we access information and how we interact with each other or manipulate the market by buying and selling would ever be controlled by search engines and entire movements fuelled by tweets and posts that increase (or decrease for that matter) awareness of what’s going on around us. Roles have been changed and computer programmers and graphics designers no longer just cater to games and leisurely activities online, their role now drives and fuels entire enterprises and businesses.
Change is necessary for growth and it’s the driving force of humanity as a whole. So the next time you admire a design and you linger over it, you’d be glad to know that it has done exactly what it’s supposed to do.

Education for web designers: formal degree vs. self taught

Bogdan Rancea — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 20:38:42 +0000

For many web design professionals, there was no option but to be self taught. Years ago, the academic qualifications simply didn’t exist. Sure, you could study design, but you’d be left to learn the technology by yourself. You could take an I.T. course, but you’d be lacking design skills.

Perhaps that’s the reason web designers come from such disparate backgrounds; it’s hard to imagine accountants hailing from such wildly different career paths. But times have changed, and academic qualifications focussing on both design and code are now commonplace worldwide. Many of those courses have been developed by the very designers and developers who chose to find their own way a decade ago.

So which is preferable? A carefully designed course, filled with modules covering the industry’s most commonly requested skills; or hard work and self application, learning techniques as and when required?

Check out this infographic created by Webdesigner Depot for a better idea of the pros and cons:

Moviepilot’s Most Anticipated Superhero Movie Infographic

Bogdan Rancea — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 13:31:09 +0000

Here’s a cool infographic discussing the most anticipated superhero movie. Click here to view full size image.

Who’s Sharing What – The State of Social Sharing in 2013

Bogdan Rancea — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 14:14:22 +0000

Here’s a cool infographic discussing the latest trends in social sharing: the ecosystem gets busier and busier, and now everybody seems to share (and overshare) stuff all day within their social graph. Click here to view full size image.

Serif vs Sans: The Final Battle [INFOGRAPHIC]

Bogdan Rancea — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:49:28 +0000

Here’s a neat infographic, published by Urbanfonts.com, that explains the differences between serif and sans serif fonts. You’ll learn when to use one over the other as well as examples and web usages.

For free fonts and dingbats, check UrbanFonts.com

The Made in Japan Project: Reimagining Famous Web Logos

Bogdan Rancea — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 21:23:02 +0000

Canon AE-1, Nikon FTn, Ashai Pentax ESII, Minolta XG-1, These cameras are some of the Japanese 35mm SLR cameras from the Vintage 70′s/80′s “the Made in Japan Era”, when Japan set the global standard of producing quality. When we take a look at the vintage 35 mm cameras, we notice that, almost, all of these brands use the same style for their logos and typography (line based logos and extended-outline fonts). By the way they use bold logos on their packaging or advertising in 70′s/80′s. the Production Industry created “line based logos” for metal bodies, probably to cut down the production costs. So we try to see the digital world in the same perspective of this vintage style.

Check out the “Made in Japan” project on Flickr.

Best Responsive WordPress Themes of 2012

Bogdan Rancea — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:07:58 +0000

In this post, we’ve picked some of the best responsive WordPress themes released in 2012 that maybe you haven’t seen yet. No matter what you are using WordPress for, you’ll find some themes below that will work for you.
Responsive design will be the “theme” of 2013 for WordPress Themes so be sure you are ready to provide your visitors a single design that responds to the myriad of devices in which people can access your site (desktop, laptop, tablet, phone).
If you are looking for our absolute top pick in WordPress Themes for 2012, it is without a doubt Elegant Themes.

Ruskin Responsive WordPress Theme

Prepare to launch an incredibly bold and inspiring website. We give you the vehicle to go where no website has ventured before. Ruskin is super clean, ultra smart and the perfect environment for the graphic impact of black and white. A little retro, no nonsense and a whole lot of pizzazz. Just the right presence for a profound business statement and an outstanding portfolio.

Lulu – Responsive WordPress Theme

Lulu is a fully responsive, minimalist, awesome WordPress theme, with 4 custom post types, responsive flex slider, filterable portfolio/gallery, built-in contact form, and on and on. If you’re looking for a classy responsive theme, Lulu is patiently awaiting your arrival…

XO – Responsive Creative WordPress Theme

Reaction WP : Responsive, Rugged, Bold

Designed for basic users, not geeks – all by a dude in Southern California who just loves making rockin’ WP themes for other folks.

The Arcadian Responsive WordPress Theme

The Arcadian is a new portfolio theme designed to look beyond the typical corporate mold and give you the ultimate in WordPress creativity.

Construct, a Responsive WordPress Blog/Folio Theme

Construct is a smart, professional and responsive theme designed to show off your (or someone else’s) work. It can be used as a personal portfolio or as great place to link to anything you think deserves it. It utilises a column based layout and some funky animation effects to keep your users entertained. Construct also takes advantage of AJAX which allows the user to load more corresponding posts on the fly without reloading the page or hindering SEO . It also degrades gracefully if JavaScript is disabled.

Propulsion – responsive business & eCommerce

Propulsion is a responsive WordPress Theme (try resizing your browser), suited for users who want to create a business, portfolio or eCommerce site. The Theme is built on top of the fabulous woocommerce shop plugin as well as the bbPress Forum plugin. It comes with a plethora of options so you can modify layout, styling, colors and fonts directly from within the backend. 3 Slideshows, 21 predefined skins (which are easy to modify from your backend), font and color options as well as dynamic template builder will help you create the Website you need in no time.

Volumes: Responsive Portfolio WordPress Theme

Bold, beautiful, full of character and fully responsive – Volumes is a great asset to any creative freelancer or agency. An attractive showcase for you work packed full of features, a filterable portfolio, custom widgets, custom page templates and more.

Radius Responsive WordPress Theme

Featuring a responsive design, you can scale Radius all the way down to iPhone size and still have a beautiful, full-featured site in the palm of your hand. Try out the demo!
Radius has built-in swipe support for your portfolio images, videos and more! That means your entire portfolio is now fully sortable, scalable AND swipe-able. That’s pretty rad! Using a mixture of custom styles and shortcodes, it’s really up to you how you utilize this adaptive theme!
This theme, like all Okay Themes, comes with an extensive help file and installation video.

Modern WordPress Themes

Bogdan Rancea — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 11:30:23 +0000

High-quality WordPress themes always come in handy whether you use them as they are or you build customized designs upon them. Most of the modern WordPress themes include sophisticated administration features, allowing you to fully control the layout and design of your website. Today’s post is a roundup of ultra-clean and modern WordPress themes, enjoy …

Trim WordPress Theme

Trim is simple, professional, versatile and fast. We have had a lot of requests for a less stylistic, lightweight design, and that is exactly what we created. Trim might be simple, but with that simplicity comes a sense of balance and crispness that is quite refreshing. Coupled with a bunch of great features, Trim is a great theme that will prove useful for a variety of different websites.

| DEMO | BUY |

TheStyle WordPress Theme

Now you can share your content with style. Featuring a crisp, modern design, TheStyle will give your blog that unique visual impact you have been looking for. With its unique jQuery-enhanced fluid width design, your posts always get displayed in a way that is best suited for your visitor’s resolution.

| DEMO | BUY |

Nova WordPress Theme

Nova is a sharp, simplistic design that makes for an intuitive user experience. Nova’s biggest strength is its homepage, which allows you to organize your content into two areas. The Featured Slider is perhaps the most versatile slider we have built, and comes with multiple slider variations that breath new life into the design.

| DEMO | BUY |

Gleam WordPress Theme

Gleam was built to dazzle. With its flashy effects and smooth ajax loading techniques, this theme creates a truly unique experience that is sure to grab your visitor’s attention. Allowing for custom full BG photos for each page, Gleam makes it easy to create a custom stunning appearance for each section of your website. The theme also comes with a full-screen portfolio section, giving you a new way to display your work.

| DEMO | BUY |

DeepFocus Photography WordPress Theme

Now you can turn your WordPress blog into a fully functional online photo gallery while still maintaining all of the features of a normal blog. Along with the gallery layout, DeepFocus comes with a robust blog and CMS-style homepage as well, making it an amazing solution for artists/photographers looking to build an online presence.

| DEMO | BUY |

Chameleon WordPress Theme

Chameleons are known for their ability to change the color of their skin. The patterns and color combinations you find in chameleons are almost endless, and our new theme is no different! Chameleon was created to be a simple and professional theme with loads of customization options that do not require web development experience to utilize.

| DEMO | BUY |

Flexible WordPress Theme

Flexible is a sleek and minimal portfolio theme packed full of some awesome features. The theme puts your work first, keeping the design elements to a minimum while still maintaining a definitive modern style. With its filterable, ajax-powered multi-media gallery, Flexible is perhaps our most feature-rich gallery theme yet.

| DEMO | BUY |

Lucid WordPress Theme

Lucid is a sleek and modern magazine theme that does a great job displaying tons of content while at the same time avoiding the feeling of clutter. Clean design elements and a strict grid give the theme an organized layout that is a pleasure to read. Lucid is also fully responsive, meaning that the design will adapt to mobile phones and tablets for a more intuitive browsing experience.