AiBURN - Art + Inspiration On Fire

2009 Plans for AiBURN

Sean Hodge — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 06:55:33 -0700

I got some solid plans for AiBURN for 2009. With over 2,500 RSS subscribers, this site is in a great position to grow solidly this year. I have over a year of blogging experience now, and I have loads of content already planned. I have literally a list with over 100 ideas for blog posts, and just loads of other ideas for the site. Let's take a look at a few of the changes and content plans for 2009 to expect for AiBURN!

Big Thanks for 2008

First off, big thanks to everyone that supported AiBURN last year! 2008 was my first full year blogging, and yes AiBURN has crossed the one year mark. I learned a lot last year and met loads of great artists and designers. I look forward to picking this blog up again this year and getting back to weekly posts.

AiBURN Plans for 2009

I've been a little busy with running PSDTUTS and VECTORTUTS the last few months, but I'm confident I can find time to build AiBURN into a great site as well, while I run those TUT sites. Welcome everyone who's signed up for the feed recently and I appreciate all the interest in this site. Let's take a look at a few of the plans for AiBURN this year.

New Drupal Theme Design

I'll be redesigning the theme and upgrading to Drupal 6, which is long overdue. There will be numerous changes to the layout and some restructuring. I'll be adding a few modules that work well for Drupal blogs and overall just improving the professionalism of the site. And on the professionalism note, I'll be working to monetize the site so that it has long term support and success.

Contests and Community

Last year I had a lot of fun running contests over on the TUTS sites and will continue to do so there. I'll be brining contests to AiBURN this year as well. We'll make the illustration or design contests loads of fun and I'll get some good sponsors. Look for the first contest in March. Also, I'll be utilizing the AiBURN Flickr group more this year by occasionally posting roundups of submitted artwork to help give members more exposure.

Focus on Digital Illustration

This site underwent numerous changes in 2007. This year the focus will narrow a little bit to Art and Illustration, though I'll still cover some design and web design issues occasionally. My plans are to eventually expand AiBURN into a creative blog network and launch seperate sites dedicated to topics like web/interface design. So, in the network, AiBURN is focused on Art and Illustration Burning Up The Web. This means a heavy focus on Digital Illustration, the tools to create great art, and the inspiration to keep your creative fire burning.

Interviews and Reviews

One of the things I love about blogging is meeting new people. I especially like to meet thoughtful and talented artists and bloggers. I'll be looking to bring you more resources and introduce you to lessor known artists.

On that note, if you would like to be interviewed, or you would like a review of your site, feel free to contact me. Keep in mind the more useful your site, or the more interesting your artwork, the more likely I am to post an interview or review. Also, if you have guest post concepts, feel free to contact me as well. I don't have a specific budget for this yet, but I'm happy to discuss options with you.

Vacation Plans

Tomorrow I take off for Orlando, Florida. I'll be traveling there with my wife and son, and can't wait to take them to SeaWorld and Disney World. We're also going to look at apartments and get to know the area, as we may move there later this year or next. I'll be on vacation January 15th to February 1st, which is the longest vacation I've had in a long time.

I'm also picking up a new 15" Macbook Pro. My last laptop was an iBook, which stopped working after 3 years of use early last year. Since then I have been using a Mac Mini with a nice Apple Monitor. I'll still use that, but the flexibility of having a laptop again is going to be really awesome.

Look for AiBURN to Kick it Up a Notch in February

Once I'm back in February, I'll be posting at a minimum weekly and of course more often when I can. My content plans are to post inspirational roundups, artist interviews, reviews of various resources, one tutorial each month, one freebie each month, and more. Feel free to post any requests you have in the comments.

Also, I'll be off Twitter the next couple of weeks, but back posting there during the week again in February. Here is my page on Twitter, if you'd like to follow me. I often post a few links to illustration, design, web design, business, or blogging resources throughout the week. Also, I answer questions and get to know new people there. Thanks.

Feed Hungry

If you would like to keep up to date with all the great content that's coming, then sign up for the AiBURN feed. We'll be kicking off new content in early February. So, stay tuned!

Blog Action Day: Get Involved!

Sean Hodge — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0600

Today is Blog Action Day, and loads of posts have been going up on all sorts of ways to approach helping with the global issue of poverty. Let's take a quick look at some posts that have gone up on PSDTUTS and VECTORTUTS on this issue today and recently. Of course, there are plenty of sites in the Envato network, and thousands across the web participating in Blog Action Day. Visit the Blog Action Day site for updates. Also, you can see a bit about how the site was built in an article over at NETTUTS.

Blog Action Day on PSDTUTS

The post 10 Ways to Take Design Action and Make a Positive Difference in the World discusses lot's of ways you can get involved with Poverty or other issues as a designer. We just concluded the Solving Poverty Badge Design Contest where winning designs are sold on CafePress with funds from sales going to support Kiva. Also, the article 23 Awesome Examples of Design as a Force For Good showcases some powerful designs which were used to raise awareness or support positive change.

Blog Action Day on VECTORTUTS

We just concluded the Solving Poverty T-Shirt Design Contest where winning designs are sold on CafePress with funds from sales going to support Kiva. It was run in tandem with the PSDTUTS contest. Also, the article 25 Powerful Non-profit Logos, Deconstructed showcases an assortment of logo designs for non profit agencies, which is an overlooked topic. Each logos solution is discussed and the concept behind the logo is laid bare.

Just a Small Part of a Larger Solution

It may seem that the efforts you make are miniscule when compared to enormous issues like global poverty, but efforts like Blog Action Day show how much change can be effected by bringing awareness to an issue, and gathering the web community to take action. These are just a few activities I was involved in for Blog Action Day. I'd love to hear what you got involved with on this day or about the issue of global poverty. Let me know!

Train For Humanity Launches

Sean Hodge — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 10:01:05 -0600

As bloggers, designers, and artists we can all make a difference in the world. It may seem daunting at first, but you can contribute in creative or simple ways. I recently had the chance to help some friends with a non-profit project called Train For Humanity.

It's a non-profit entity that allows endurance athletes to use their training to help raise money for humanitarian causes. It's run by some social media savvy humanitarians. Learn more about the project at the jump.

About Train For Humanity

Train for Humanity’s mission is to utilize the web, social media, and blogging, in tandem with athletes in training, to support organizations that help prevent suffering and alleviate the pain of children, orphans, and refugees who have been displaced due to genocide or internal strife and war within their country.

Quite simply, they believe - getting fit + social media + blogging = social good

How Train For Humanity Makes a Difference

The three pilot project athlete-bloggers, Mark Hayward, Dan Clements, and Leo Babauta are hoping to raise awareness for the current crisis in Darfur and funds for the organization Darfur Peace and Development. All three are training for endurance events of varying distances ranging from a triathlon to a marathon.

They hope to show people that with a little creativity and innovation, anyone can assist and make a difference in the world. Mark talks about the origins of this project in his post about Creating a Bottom-Up Online Humanitarian Movement. They plan to open this up to more athletes in the future as well, as Leo states in this blog post about the TFH launch,

Train for Humanity is just in its first phase, with the three of us volunteering as guinea pigs. But we plan to open the site up to a larger group of athletes, so that if you plan to train for an endurance event such as a marathon or triathlon, you can sign up for TFH and have your own sponsor page. This way athletes can do a good thing as they train, and get some motivation in return.

My Role in Train For Humanity

My role in Train For Humanity so far has been relatively minor. I designed the logo. I'll be writing more about the logo design process for TFH in the near future. I'll also be writing more about what graphic designers, web developers, and digital artists can do to make a positive impact toward global problems.

Joshua Clayton handled all the website design and development and donated a tremendous amount of his time to getting this project off the ground. There are also numerous other involved in this project and you can find out about the team here.

What You Can Do

If you would like to learn more, have a look at the Train for Humanity website and please consider sponsoring one of them or spreading the word. I'm really excited about this project and seeing it realized.

Blog Action Day is also going really well. We'll be launching a design contest on both PSDTUTS and VECTORTTUS shortly that will get designers involved in making a difference. Feel free to link up to any other non-profit projects that are utilizing blogging, social-media, or creativity in the comments below.

Inspiration - Doodlage

Sean Hodge — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:11:46 -0600

Doodlage is a super-fun site that will make you smile when you see it. Anyone into art and design (well actually anybody) will like this site. Who can't relate to doodling and drawing little pictures?

If you're addicted to doodling, or like me you enjoy viewing random sketches and crazy visual ideas, then this site is for you.

Introduction

Doodlage is a fun niche art and design blog focused on the subject of doodling. I exchanged emails recently with the founders of Doodlage LeO and RaShell. They answered a few questions for me, as I'm a fan of the site and wanted to let people know about it.

I love how they capture doodles created while bored in a company meeting and elsewhere. They present both professional artist's doodles and average Joe doodles. You'll see sketchbooks filled with doodles. You'll also see doodles carried into greater works of art, like work that starts as a doodle and ends up a vase, a building, or another creation. All sorts of doodle fun.

Jump Over to Doodlage

If you want to, jump right into the Doodlage blog and check it out. Following are a few links to get you started. They show the diversity of content on the site within the topic of doodling.

Architectural Doodles

This article showcases the work of Austrian artists Friedensreich Hundertwasser and Rogner Bad Blumau. The work presented has a sketch to life feeling. The buildings are unique and full of the artistic vision of the balance between "art and nature."

Visit Article

Coffee house heaven

What better place to doodle than a coffee shop? Also, I love the sketches in old book. They remind me of a project I did in college where I got to sketch in old books, fun stuff!

Visit Article

Ukrainian Beauties

This is random collection of doodle artwork showcased. There is more than one Ukaranians work shown so it becomes the title of the post. This post has face sketches, sketches coming out of sink drains, caviar egg sketches, and other irreverent drawings.

Visit Article

Doodles in the Sand

This article showcases some large sand doodles. They must require some planning to pull off well, but they still have a sketch and spontaneous feel to them. They also have the ephemeral feel of discarded doodles.

Visit Article

Wall Art - the new generation

This post showcases some cool stenciled wall art. Much of the inspiration for the article is from children sketching on walls. "A few weeks ago, I caught our friends’ son in front of the vast white space in the hallway with a green permanent marker in hand… contemplating."

Visit Article

Interview with LeO and RaShell

LeO and RaShell post to Doodlage roughly every other day and the blog's been around since March of 2007 - that's a lot of doodles. Let's see what they have to say.

Welcome to AiBURN! Please introduce yourself and give us a brief bio?

LeO: A web developer with a knack for art. Been a closet doodler my entire life.

RaShell: I'm a graphic artist, but I do a lot of drawing, gluing, painting and of course, DOODLING for fun. The fact that I'm a web-addict helps a lot too ;)

What inspired Doodlage and continues to inspire the site?

If you look close enough, doodles are everywhere! The inspiration is endless.

How did the site come about?

LeO: The very first Doodlage post ( http://www.doodlage.com/?p=10 ) sheds some light on site's humble beginning. I found that my day planner was full of "Boring Meeting Art", spontaneous and unpredictable. I'm a pro web developer, so it's only natural for me to turn everything into web sites. And I thought - I'm not alone out there, trash cans all over the world are full of doodled treasures. Let's save them for everyone to enjoy!

RaShell: The idea took off from there and we started seeing doodles in pretty much anything. Furniture, fashion, architecture, you name it.

What's the concept behind the site?

Everybody is an artist! They just don't know it yet.

What's the philosophy behind Doodlage?

The first tagline was "Trashcan Art Salvage". It summarizes our philosophy of discovering true art in its raw form. Doodling is by far the most undiscriminating form of self-expression - kids and grown-ups alike, of any background, any occupation, on any medium - people doodle. (I'm tempted to add - because it's so easy, even cavemen did it...)

Where do you find content for the site?

All over the place. Magazines and newspapers, web (youtube, flickr, stumbleupon), books, stores. When you have a concept in your head, things start popping up everywhere. Or, it can work the other way around. Something catches our eye, and then another thing that's kinda similar, and then you've got yourself a posting for a blog :)

Anything else related to the site that would like to mention?

RaShell: I wish our readers would be less shy. Commenting and sharing their own doodle-finds and actual doodles would be great. We are proud to report that we've had quite a few guest-doodlers to post for us, and several more are going to in the upcoming weeks. All of them have their own blogs and successful artistic careers, but they graciously agreed to participate in doodlage.

Conclusion

Thank you for participating LeO and RaShell and keep up the great doodle blogging at Doodlage.

A Comprehensive Guide to Running a Successful Design Contest Online

Sean Hodge — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 07:36:18 -0600

If you've considered running a design contest on your blog or design community site, then this post is for you. Learn all about the details to consider when construction the guidelines, prizes, and parameters of your contest. Also, take a look at how a successful design contest is run. There are certain activities that are proven to be successful. You'll also find a helpful explanation of how a contest flows.

Introduction

Running design contests can benefit your blog. Your design blog is a community and the members of your community appreciate having the chance to win prizes and gain exposure from winning. It gives younger designers the opportunity to participate and be a part of the process as well. Running a design contest is a great way to get involvement in your design community.

There are quite a few things to consider when running a contest. Let's take a look at both the important areas of consideration and the details. After reading this post you'll have the information you need to run a successful design contest.

Focus on Community Building

Keep your community members in mind when deciding on a contest focus. What type of contest would they most want to participate in. Consider running a blog post that asks this question. Of course, this approach is most helpful if you have a large group of active commenters on your blog.

Here is a post over at PSDTUTS that asks for reader feedback on what readers think would make a great contest. The responses are many and varied. You could also compile the top responses (and your own as well) into a short list. Then run a survey to help decide the contest focus. This leverages the community and gets members involved. Keep in mind though, if you have a killer contest idea, run with it.

Decide on a Great Contest Topic

Part of driving contest participation is a great contest topic. Make it something fun that your audience will want to take part in. You many stumble upon a unique contest topic that's just perfect for your blog in your brainstorming session. Also, you may find it helpful to gain inspiration from other successful design contests.

Veerle ran a really successful poster design contest. Part of what made that contest so successful is that there was a strong concept that made designers want to participate. She asked designers to answer the question, "What is Graphic Design?" The concept was so successful that the Flickr pool for this contest has been opened up again, so designers can continue to explore this topic.

The concept first shows up in a blog post here. Then it turns into the What is Graphic Design Poster Competition. An update to the contest is here. The contest results are located in this post. While the contest was running, it was being linked to all over the graphic design blog community. This was a great design contest.

Offer Big Value Prizes

Part of driving contest participation is the spoils. The more prizes you offer and the larger monetary worth they have the more participation you'll see in the contest. Cash is great and will certainly drive participation. Also, consider the rarity of what you're offering. A unique item could certainly drive participation.

Approaching companies to gather prizes is easier than you think. First of all, have your contest organized. Make it easy to explain in a paragraph. Put together all the benefits of your blog. The higher your blog's traffic and the more active your audiences participation, the easier it will be to gain sponsors. Draft a concise and professional email and send it to the right contact person at the company.

Contact both smaller companies and larger prestigious companies. Play the numbers. Also, if you plan on running another contest, then have an easy way to encourage sponsors to contact you in the contest articles you post.

You the Designer has a multi-part contest with a big value prize. You can win a featured full page spot in Print Magazine. This is a prize that doesn't have a monetary worth, but does have a high value. The winner will receive great exposure in a high quality design magazine. Gino put together some great prizes for this contest.

Leverage the Power of Prestige

It isn't only the prize that drives participation, but the prestige of winning. The more competitors there are, the higher the honor of winning. Also, the more quality design entries in the contest, the greater winning feels. Large blogs and popular web communities certainly benefit from prestige. Designer's may even place this on their resume's and put the winning design in their portfolios.

Post the winning entries on your blog. Also, periodically post some of the top entries in the contest. This gives participants something to shoot for even when they don't win. Being promoted within their community is great.

Smashing Magazine has run several successful design contests. The Smashing Header Graphics Contest showcased the winning entries as free downloads. There were some great prizes, but the predominant drive in the success of this contest was being featured on Smashing Magazine. Smashing gave away the prizes randomly, rather than to the best entries. The contest winners announcement post is located here.

Set Guidelines, Deadlines, and Rules for the Contest

Deadlines are critical to a successful contest. Participants need to know the date the contest starts, and the last day they can place entries. Entrants need to know how long they have to enter the contest. Typically, 2-4 weeks is a good length for a successful design contest. This time frame is long enough for entrants to make something good, but short enough that there is some immediacy to the pace of the contest.

Set clear guidelines on what is being made. Clarify exactly what should be entered in the contest. The audience should know in one or two sentences what they should be making for the contest. Be clear about artwork format. Consider the sizes that can be entered. For example, a wallpaper contest has specific dimensions. You should state what are acceptable dimensions for artwork.

Be sure to mention the number of entries participants can place. You may choose to limit the amount, or set it to unlimited. If you don't make this clear, then this question will come up.

Support and Promote the Contest

A good contest is run well. The contest holder answers all the question received through email and that appear in comments. The better you support the contest, the more it will thrive. Also, you can tie in posts about the contest as well.

If it's a contest on designing a movie poster, then write an inspirational post that showcases great examples of movie posters across the net. This helps support the contest and inspire participation. It gives great artwork examples for those entering the contest to learn from. Tutorials on the topic might be relevant support posts. Use your imagination to support and encourage participation.

You may also want to contact other design blogs about mentioning the contest on their site, or promote the contest in graphic design forums.

Another way to look at promotion is the idea that the contest itself can promote a topic on your blog, a feature of your blog, or your community in some way. Abduzeedo ran a contest on designing the Abduzeedo Flickr Pool logo. You can see the winning entry here or visit Abduzeedo's Flickr Pool to see the icon in action. This contest certainly promotes the Flickr pool for that site.

Utilize Free Resources

A common way to run a graphic design contest is to leverage the resources available at Flickr. First, you may want to form a group for your blog. This gives your community a place to put artwork relevant to your community. You could create a separate group pool just for the contest or use a unique tag for that contest. This allows both participants and you running the contest to see all the contest entries easily.

All About the Flow of Running the Contest

There is a flow to running a design contest. Let's take a look at it from concept creation and contest launch all the way through to choosing the winners and delivering prizes.

Prelaunch

Brainstorm Ideas for Your Contest - You can do this yourself or leverage your community for ideas for a contest.
Decide on Your Contest Topic - Decide what your contest will be about. Make it something great.
Prepare for the Contest - Put together all the rules and guidelines for the contest. Make sure you have your Flickr group and any other resources you'll be utilizing ready before launch.
Put Together the Prizes - Decide the prizes you'll be offering and have them ready to go.
Promote the Contest - You may want to promote the contest on other blogs or in design forums to generate more participation in the contest. This is best done early in the contest. You may decide on a prelaunch promotional strategy. Otherwise, work it in as early as possible in the contest.

Launch

Launch the Contest - Place a blog post that comprehensively lists the contest's focus, rules, and guidelines. Prominently promote your prizes and sponsors. Generate an appropriate level of buzz in the announcement.
Answer all Questions - Be sure to check the comments and your email, especially during the first 24 hours after contest launch, as the bulk of questions will come up right away.

Supporting the Contest

Post Updates - As the contest progresses periodically post articles that update the progress of the contest. This is a chance to showcase some of the best work submitted in the contest. If your contest spans an entire month, than you may have as many as 3 or 4 posts updating the contest. Do as many as feels right for your contest.
News - If any new sponsors come on board, then tie this into a news update. Promote the new prizes in this update. This is an excellent way to generate more buzz about the contest and keep everybody interested. Also, do follow up if any issues come up that contestants need to be aware of.

Announcing the Winners and Post Launch

Announce the Winners - At the very least you'd want to state who the winners are and link to their winning entries. Typically, you'd be placing copies of the winning entries in the blog post as well.
Promote the Best Entries - You may want to do more than announce the winners. You could also tell something about the winners. Give them a chance to promote something about themselves. You could also make this a big blog post and point out a bunch of great contest entries that didn't win, but were best of show.

Wrapping up the Contest

Helping the Winners Collect their Prizes - Keep in mind when the contest finishes you need to help the winners collect their prizes. When cash or products are the prizes this is fairly clear how to do this. With helping winners collect on services, mostly you'll be putting the winners in touch with the company offering the service.
Toward the Future - You may find ways to leverage the success of your contest by writing about it again in the future. Even after the contest is finished, you may find ways to discuss it again in future blog posts. This is something to keep in mind. Also, you could use the success of your first contest to launch another even better one.

Improving PSDTUTS Contests

We're on our second contest now over at PSDTUTS, and it's going great. The first contest went well, but this second contest is even better. A few things are making this second contest better than the first.

The first PSDTUTS contest had a topic that was a bit complicated. It required that participants utilize what they had learned in tutorials at PSDTUTS. This concept was interesting, but difficult to demonstrate for some participants. The second PSDTUTS contest has a really clear topic. It's easy to understand and fun. The second contest is about creating a Desktop Wallpaper for the new AudioJungle site. This is a fun and tangible concept. It's clear to the participants what format to design in.

The second contest has bigger prizes. We're offering more cash and prizes in the second contest. This certainly helps to drive participation.

There are some logistical improvements in the second contest. We've streamlined some posts. This allows me to do things like cut and paste the sponsor's section into any update. This saves time and gives a standardized way that sponsors are promoted. They each get a 468px by 90px banner. We also encourage sponsors to contact us at the end of every update. This has led to new sponsors contacting us.

We've improved the rules and guidelines. This offers more clarity on what is acceptable for entrants. Exactly how they can take their prizes. This way the participant expectations are clear. Also, it improves the professionalism of the contest.

The addition of using a specific Tag in Flickr is a big improvement in running the contest. Here is the audiojungle tag that organizes the second contest entries. It was time-consuming having to go through the entire PSDTUTS pool trying to find the contest entries in the first PSDTUTS contest. I highly recommend using a unique tag when running a design contest that uses Flickr. It keeps all the entries organized well. Anything that streamlines the contest and makes it easier to run will lead to more success.

Conclusion

I'll probably write on this topic again in the future, as we're planning on running more contests over at PSDTUTS.

I also want to run a contest here on AiBURN at some point. This would give me some experience in running a contest for a smaller design blog. I imagine it's more difficult to get a high level of participation on a smaller blog. Maybe I'll run the first contest here when we cross the 2,000 RSS subscriber mark.

This post summarizes what I've learned so far in running design contests online successfully. Let me know if you have any questions.

Vectortuts and a New Direction for AiBURN

Sean Hodge — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 11:36:30 -0600

AiBURN is broadening its focus. It has started to cover more than vector graphics. It's now covering all kinds of Art and Inspiration across the web. I'll be putting new energy into this blog each week.

The next tutorial site I'll be editing will launch next week as well. Vectortuts will be a great place for vector based tutorials. I look forward to getting started with it.

AiBURN Given a New Direction

AiBURN started off as an Adobe Illustrator tutorial blog. It also covered news, resources, and issues on vector art. For it's first 6 months of existence (from late November of 2007 to May of 2008) this was the focus of the blog.

Early this month I decided to widen the scope of AiBURN. The branding remains intact, but a new tagline is being assigned of: Art + Inspiration. AiBURN is changing it's focus. It's now a website dedicated to Art and Inspiration burning up the web today. So the (A) stands for (Art) and the (i) now stands for (Inspiration). Typically all forms of digital art and design will be the focus of the blog. However, I may write on a diversity of subjects and just about anything occasionally.

I'll still accept occasional guest posts, but the blog will primarily be written by me for the near future. When I started this blog I wanted to create a great place to learn vector graphics. I've written quite a few tutorials on the subject here. I'll still write tutorials here occasionally, but the focus is shifting to be more articles. While I'm widening the scope of the subject matter covered here, AiBURN will always have a soft spot for vector graphics.

Vectortuts to Launch Next Week

I've taken on the role as editor of another Eden tutorial site. The site is Vectortuts and will be launching this coming Monday. So, anyone who's looking for a great place to publish their vector tutorials that will be the place. I'm really excited to launch the new site. Right away we'll have great vector tutorials writer's involved, such as: Tony Soh of iStockdiary , Ryan Putnam of Vectips, and Grant Friedman of ColorBurned who's written a few here on AiBURN. I'll be writing tutorials each week to kick off the new site as well.

If anyone else would like to get involved with Vectortuts check out the Contribute Area of the new site. While it will be predominately a tutorial site, we'll be looking for articles as well.

To the Future

I look forward to this new phase for AiBURN and I hope to see everybody over at the new Vectortuts blog. Also, I'll still be editing PSDTUTS, though I'll probably write less articles there to free up some time to write some great vector tutorials for the new Vectortuts site. Let me know if there are any questions.

It's been great building AiBURN up. I went out to dinner to celebrate when AiBURN crossed the 1,000 subscriber mark not to long ago. The blog has been growing at about 100 subscribers a week. I'll be putting some new energy into the blog and likely posting more times per week, while keeping the quality high. Thank you to all the readers and contributors. It's been great getting to know so many students, artists, and designers through this blog.

New Content and Topics to Cover

Now that AiBURN is heading off in a new direction, indicate anything you'd like to see covered here. I have a page available for User Suggestions. Be the first to leave your suggestion!

The Emergence of Gradient Grunge Design

Sean Hodge — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:31:51 -0600

Web 2.0 as a style is not dead, far from it. Styles don't die. If anything they percolate and then fuse into other styles. They get absorbed by the forward movement of design trends. Web 2.0 styles are mixed with grunge designs in many websites and graphics today. This style is Gradient Grunge. Let's take a look at some of the characteristics that make up this growing design trend today.

The Merging of Styles

It's common for styles to merge, especially dominant styles. As grunge rises in popularity on the web more designers (who are used to working in web 2.0 methodologies) will experiment with grunge. There is a crossover point where these styles merge. This is where Gradient Grunge design emerges.

For quite some time grunge graphics were at the periphery of web design. They have risen to mainstream. More and more websites have adopted grunge styles. In most cases, it isn't a matter of a designer wholeheartedly grabbing the next trend. Designers tend to experiment and get inspiration from many sources. Bringing grunge elements into ones design work is a gradual process.

This is typically the way designers working in the trenches change their normal output. They find one project here or there that they can do something different on. They try new types of designs. When web 2.0 style designs are the dominant trend, designers develop workflows and habits built around creating this style quickly, as with any popular design that clients would request.

Many of these designers would simply merge grunge design styles into there existing workflows. It's a common practice when moving from one dominant stylistic trend to another in design. There will be overlap. The combination of web 2.0 styles and grunge graphics is Gradient Grunge.

Some Details about Gradient Grunge Style

Let's look at some specifics. Sure, some aspects of web 2.0 aren't as cool as they used to be, like reflections. However, the use of some web 2.0 styles are still rampant. Review the Web 2.0 design guide to get an overview of this style to decide for yourself what elements are still popular today. Some notable trends still practiced are: Solid Areas of Screen Real Estate, Simple Navs, Bold Logos, Strong Colors, Gradients, and others. Combine these styles with textures and worn imagery and you have a new take on grunge graphics.

This new aesthetic doesn't emulate nature, but rather it stylizes nature. Bright plastic doesn't degrade as paper in real life, but it certainly can in Gradient Grunge, and it looks cool doing it. Typically, Gradient Grunge is brightly colored, though it could be applied with a more subdued palette. In web design, it often combines the use of gradients and other web 2.0 elements with the look and feel of stylized worn texture.

Gradient Grunge at it's more extreme end is the pure combination of Grunge and Gradients. Many examples of this style are of brightly colored gradients blending with textures.

Examples of Gradient Grunge in the Wild on the Net

Nothing explains a style better than to show some example of it out there in on the net. Let's check out some graphics that show a merging of both web 2.0 styles and grunge graphics. Also, we'll look at some Gradient Grunge that is made of gradients merged colorfully into a grunge aesthetic. Following are some Gradient Grunge designers and designs.

Maciej Hajnrich AKA Valp Nietylko

I had the pleasure to interview this designer and digital illustrator over at PSDTUTS. Since then I try to keep track of what he's up to. And he's been making some great Gradient Grunge style work. Check out his Flickr Photostream's Portfolio: Graphic Design Set. He has some brand new work up. Valp has a strong Gradient Grunge style permeating much of his work. The website below shows how he carries this style into web design. Notice the Gradient Grunge badges in the design below. This is a characteristic web 2.0 element given a new stylistic treatment.

Notice how he combines gradients and grunge in such a highly saturated colorful way in his illustrations. For more of his illustration work visit his portfolio.

Sleek Design Tutorial

This tutorial Collis wrote called "Create a Sleek, High-End Web Design from Scratch," has a great Gradient Grunge style. It follows a similar spacious website layout as web 2.0 sites, only it adds in a good mix of gradients and texture.

Notice how a Gradient is drawn over the textured background. The watercolor texture itself has a Gradient Grunge feel to it as well. This top area of the design is pure Gradient Grunge.

Outlaw Design Blog

The Outlaw Design Blog is a graphic design blog that has a grunge style design. While it's not over saturated with color (it's more subdued), it still combines some web 2.0 elements with grunge graphics in an interesting way. Notice the gradients applied to the background designs behind the main layout.

The Gradient Grunge icons below are an example of applying grunge textures directly to web 2.0 style cute icons.

No Ripcord

No Ripcord is a website design project I worked on where I started thinking a lot about this style, and experiment with it as well. The design below is a screenshot from the live website, so it was the choice made by the client. Originally, three options where presented for review.

Notice how unnatural it is for these gradient heavy and color saturated designs to appear worn like this. They wouldn't break down like this in reality, but they certainly can in Gradient Grunge style.

Here is a close-up of the logo design. Notice how an opacity grunge texture is applied within the lime green of the "0" in No Ripcord. Also, all the words have the type being ripped into with the same style of texture. This type of texturing is applied throughout the design. A strong over-saturated green gradient is often broken by this texture fusing in a Gradient Grunge style.

Below is Option two presented to the client. Notice the Gradient Grunge style being applied predominately to the top navigation bar and again to the logo.

Option three is a more news inspired layout. It's tight, concise, and holds more information above the fold than the other designs. Again, the Gradient Grunge style is applied to the top navigation bar, but also notice the top left edge. In this case, a gradient is applied directly to texture.

In the bottom of the design below you'll notice there is even a web 2.0 style reflection of the texture. That is probably going to far, but it shows how web 2.0 style and grunge style can be fused in a design. This is my least favorite of the three designs, probably because the reflection is tacky. I'm glad they chose Option one.

GoBand Tutorial for GoMedia

This is a tutorial I wrote for GoMedia. It's a long 6 part series that starts with creating the design. Then takes that design all the way through theming a Drupal 5 website. There is some characteristic Gradient Grunge style presented here. If you're interested in learning how to achieve some of these effects in Illustrator then check out the tutorial. The full site design is below.

Notice how the header has both gradients and different textures applied. There are both vector textures and photo based textures applied. Notice the opacity of the texture applied to the winged logos, that's vector grunge at work. Overall the combinations of Gradient and Grunge elements fuse in this design.

Conclusion

Let me know if you have any questions about this style, as I plan to write a follow up to this article. I'll point out more examples and discuss additional characteristics of this style. Feel free to link to any examples you feel fit Gradient Grunge in the comments.

Who Should Redesign?

Sean Hodge — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 22:56:48 -0600

There are plenty of web design galleries out there where you can showcase your designs. They are often moderated by a small group of people. It's a little disappointing to have your submitted design not show up.

This site is a little bit different. After a site is submitted to Who Should Redesign, it's put into a rolling lineup, and random people that stop by the site can vote. You can vote that the site either should or should not be redesigned.

Who Should Redesign?

Who Should Redesign is a fairly new site. Each time you land on the page, vote, skip and entry, or refresh the page a new site shows up. You can cast your vote multiple times relatively quickly. It works quickly. The Who Should Redesign site design is good. I think if it submitted itself for review it would do well.

Quick Voting

The site is responsive. After you vote it keeps a running record down toward the footer. The statistics show up on this thumbnail view of your votes.

Should Not Redesign

There is a Should Redesign page, which the sites voted most for needing a redesign filter to the top. They also have a Should Not Redesign (Meaning it's a good design). It's cool to see the Eden site design as second only to Apple on this site.

Conclusion

The big pitfall I found on the site is I hit the yes button because I liked a design. The idea of hitting yes when it's bad, and hitting no when the design is good is counterintuitive. That's something to consider. Though the site is cool. Let me know if you've used it, or if there are other similar sites out there you've seen, as I'd like to check out others as well.

I submitted AiBURN to the list for the fun of it. I really want to redesign this site when I get a chance, so we'll see what people say. I'm thinking a kind of burnt wood gradient grunge style design.

Flickr Groups for Logo Design Lovers

Sean Hodge — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:23:15 -0600

Logo design is one of my favorite areas of design. It allows you to create symbolic imagery and serves as a unique and interesting design challenge. Logo designers need places to get critiqued, discuss logo design related subjects, and show off their best work.

This article showcases some great Flickr groups for logo designers. As with most Flickr groups the longest running groups have huge collections and many members, but the narrowly focused groups often have a higher percentage of quality submissions.

Introduction

There are some good Flickr groups for Logo design lovers. This article has a list of a few to check out on this subject. As with any type of design, it can help to get feedback on your work. Also, participating in communities makes you feel connected. You have a chance to view great work. It also gives you a platform to showcase your best work as well.

Keep in mind, there are few well moderated Flickr groups that have lively conversations and active commenting. If you know of any other Logo Design or Branding focused Flickr groups that you enjoy (that are of good quality), please leave a comment linking to the group. I'm really into logo and branding design, and would like to know about more groups on this subject. Below are some logo design groups I found recently. I've just started posting to them.

Logopond Lillies

I've been a fan of Logopond for quite some time. It's one of the best Logo showcases out there. It also has a strong community. Logopond Lillies is the Flickr group associated with the website. The group encourages posting logos on additional branding materials and websites, both of which aren't allowed on the Logopond site itself.

Some of the best Flickr groups form around an existing web community. The group's feed is displayed on the Logopond site, follow the link to the site display. There are over 200 pics and 100 plus members in this community. So, it's still relatively small.

Design the Logo

This is one of the largest logo design groups on Flickr. There are some active conversation in the Discuss area of the Design the logo group. There are certainly many good logo designs here, though keep in mind that the larger the group the more difficult it becomes for moderation. This group also encourages not only final drafts to be posted, but sketches and works in progress as well. There are over 5,000 images and over 2,400 members.

Identity + Logo Design

This is another Flickr group focused on logo design, though not as big as Design the Logo. The Identity + Logo Design group has over 600 images and 300 members. So, it's still relatively small. This group encourages you to post both your own logo creations and designs you've done yourself.

Logotype

I really like Flickr groups that have a clear focus and strike out a niche. This gives direction to the group and helps to differentiate it from others. The group Logotype stands out by focusing on a specific type of logo. Here is a quote of their introduction, "Logotypes are the graphic representation of a company, group or collective. The mark relies on the use of a typeface rather then in the case of a logo, where an image is used. To create a good logotype - requires the designer to consider the strengths inherent in a typeface and develop ways to highlight these in what might be considered design HIKU." Let me know of any other niche Flickr groups on Logo design you're aware of. This group has over 200 images and over 200 members.

Web 2.0 logo

Last year I did a lot of web 2.0 style logo designs. I still get requests for this style, probably because my portfolio is filled with it. So, the Web 2.0 logo group is a must join for me. I've submitted a logo already and plan to submit more to the group. It's a relatively small group with a little over 150 images and 60 plus members, but a niche I'm into.

Logo Design

This is a logo and identity design group. Logo Design is a relatively small group on the subject. It would probably benefit by focusing on a niche, rather than just being another logo design group, as there are already more popular ones out there. It has over 50 members and 100 plus images.

The Random Logo Project

This group displays logos of images captured out in the real world. The Random Logo Project group looks like a lot of fun. It gives me an excuse to take a camera out and snap some shots of logos in real life. Where I'm living in Venezuela there are many hand drawn logos and weather worn signage that I've wanted to capture. This group inspires me to get out and do it. Let me know of other Logo design groups that capture logo's in real life. I know there are a bunch. Some are really specific as well, like only car emblems. This group has over 400 images and 100 plus members.

Burning Up the Web - May Roundup

Sean Hodge — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 09:39:38 -0600

This is the last month that AiBURN will be strictly vector. I've signed on as editor of an upcoming Vector tutorial site with the Eden team. See the announcement here, which also announces the AudioJungle site and other changes to the lineup. I'll still be editing PSDTUTS as well. The new sister site is called VECTORTUTS. So, I've changed the direction of AiBURN. I'll elaborate soon.

This month saw a flurry of vector activity. Next month the web roundup here will have a different focus, though you'll be able to find all your vector goodness needs at the new VECTORTUTS site.

Tutorials

Creating geometric patterns in Illustrator

This tutorial covers a workflow for creating seamless patterns. It uses repeating symbol instances to achieve the effect. This is a detailed step-by-step tutorial with great results. This is a must do tut this month.

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Create A Wood Grain Texture

This is another great tutorial on creating textures in Illustrator this month. The other uses a workflow where he filtered Graphic Pen effect, which pixelates a rectangle. Then he live traces the filtered graphic. This converts it back to vector. Then he goes in and stretches out the results to achieve a wood grain look. He also uses tools like the Twirl Tool to refine areas of the design. He makes knots in the wood with this tool. Great tut!

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Create camouflage patterns

This tutorial covers creating and working with symbols. It's a basic tutorial that demonstrates how symbols used multiple times don't add to the file size of your Illustrator document nearly as much as repeated shapes that are not symbols. This tut does not cover repeating a seamless pattern though.

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Illustrator Tutorial: 3D Gear

Use simple shapes and Illustrator's built in 3D tools to construct this gear. This tutorial also covers coloring the gear by using a gradient opacity mask. This tutorial covers some advanced tools, but it's easy to follow and complete.

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How to Create a Vector iMac Graphic in Illustrator

Learn how to design a popular iMac computer graphic. It's built using mostly basic shapes, though there is some pen tool action. Learn how to make this simple, elegant, icon style computer design.

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Freebies

Free Vector Pack 10 Sampler

GoMedia is one of my favorite sites. There sampler packs are always of super high quality. I really like their line work illustrations. Many of them have incredible detail. If you missed the recent release of the pack 10 freebies, ump over and grab yours today.

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Free Vectors: Hand-Drawn Decorative Elements

Bittbox has been experimenting lately with creating hand drawn vector decorative elements. I'd be interested in creative uses of these. If you use them in a design Bittbox has a user group, and feel free to submit it to the AiBURN Flickr group as well. Below is the link to the first set and he's released a second as well Decorative Ornaments II

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Free Vector Images - Globe Icon Set

This is a great set of globes. I've had the need for globes come up frequently in icon and logo design. Often, the logo is a part of the overall design your creating. We have a tutorial on creating an icon here on AiBURN that incorporates a globe. It's an esoteric example of the use, but what client project isn't?

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Flash Travel Icons [.fla included]

This blog is loaded with free vector designs. This one stands out as extra special because it includes both an illustrator static version and an animated flash version. When you visit the site roll your mouse over the graphics and watch them animate. The camera appears to snap a photo for example.

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Free Vector Series: War Tools

The Neno blog has been growing an arsenal of weaponry for you to use. This month some axes and swords have been added to the collection. These downloads are illustrated in detail. Check it out.

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Articles

A Design is Finished when... 23 Pro Designers' Opinions

"One of the most important and hardest things to overcome when designing is to understand when the piece you are designing on is actually finished." This article over at Abduzeedo rounds up 23 Designer's opinions on this issue. One of the designer's quoted is me, which is cool. Each designer takes a different approach to the question. I answered from a business perspective.

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Inspiration: Vexel Style Artwork

This article over at PSDTUTS sparked a lot of debate. Vexel artwork is created with vectors, but outputted as pixels. The art has a strong following. Here is the link to Wikipedia on Vexels. The article takes a roundup format so if you're interested in the subject there are loads of great artwork, tutorials, and articles on the subject.

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50+ Designers to Follow on Twitter

This is a list of designers to follow on Twitter. Some giants in the field are mentioned. It also mentions some designers that blog regularly on the topic design, like myself. Now I have to figure out something interesting to say on Twitter. I had a flurry of followers show up after that article. Thanks Vandelay Design. And I found some designers I wanted to follow from that article as well - super useful!

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Useful Podcasts For Designers And Developers

This article took 2 days to put together. I actually listened to a bucket-load of Podcasts to get feel for each one. Some podcasts like the ones from Boagworld and Lullabot I listened to regularly and therefore it was easy to write about. But I found a bunch of Podcasts I hadn't listened to. It was great to discover a whole set of new podcasts. For you web designers, you may find the Smashing article on Web Design Forums I wrote a good resource as well.

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Speed illustrations

Asmaa Murad who wrote the most commented tutorial on AiBURN called How to Create Line Brushes in Illustrator, set an interesting challenge for herself for May. She decided to create 100 illustrations in 20 days. That's an average of 5 a day. She creates stock illustration and wanted to push herself to output more than usual. We could all use some marathoning in our work. I might try a marathon blogging even at some point. Read more about here challenge and success!

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