Veerle's blog 3.0

A Year of Sun with Mr. Persol

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:01 GMT

Most of the folks here know that I have a great affection for vectors. I'm always on the look-out for great work that involves iIllustrations. The result of that hunt is shown on my Inspiration Stream that I try to update once a week. I just came across this beautiful illustrative retro-styled animated commercial that made my heart skip a beat.

Retro-styled animated short

This beautiful illustrative retro-styled animated commercial was created for Italian eyewear brand, Persol. The animated short was directed by Kevin Dart and Stéphane Coëdel and produced by Passion Pictures in London for the advertising agency Winkreative. Other credit goes to:

Jeremy Pires // Animator
Nelson Boles // Animator
Celine Desrumaux // Compositor
Chris Turnham // Background Painter
Dave Newby // Music & Sound

Fantastic staging & great layouts

This animated short is so well executed. The lighting and colors are just right. The light effects of the sunlight in many of the scenes look so real that you almost immerse in it and feel its warmth by just looking at it. The color-work throughout this movie is just gorgeous and makes me happy as a color lover at heart. The chosen scenes in combo with this retro really does its magic. Beautiful typography and just the right music makes it complete imho. This cheerful vibe makes me happy and I like that.

Looks That Kill

To some of my die-hard followers this may ring a bell since I've linked to another illustration movie on Twitter some time ago that got me excited as well. It's the same two people, Kevin Dart and Stéphane Coëdel that also collaborated on the James Bond inspired animated film called Yuki 7: Looks That Kill.

Adaptive Web Design book review

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:12 GMT

If you are a passionate web professional, who cares about Web Standards and best practices, and you have heard of the term "progressive enhancement", but want to know all about it, than this book "Adaptive Web Design", by Aaron Gustafson, published by Easy Readers, is definitely for you. This book will tell you what it means, how it works, and how it can fit into your workflow. Writing a review of this great little book has long been on my "todo" list. Finally I found some time, and here it is…

The book has about 135 pages and consists of seven chapters:

Chapter 1: Think Of The User, Not The browser
Chapter 2: Progressive Enhancement With Markup
Chapter 3: Progressive Enhancement With CSS
Chapter 4: Progressive Enhancement With JavaScript
Chapter 5: Progressive Enhancement For Accessibility
Chapter 6: Take It Away

Chapter 1: Think Of The User, Not The browser

In this first chapter Aaron explains to us that progressive enhancement isn't about browsers, or which HTML or CSS you can use. It's a philosophy aimed at crafting experiences, by giving the user access to content without any technological restrictions. This chapter is an introduction to what progressive enhancement is all about, and how it relies on a principle of "fault tolerance". Aaron explains in detail how this fault tolerance works, and how it allows for evolution. Understanding this is key for understanding progressive enhancement. Aaron also talks about the difference with graceful degradation, and its missteps. Then he concludes that progressive enhancement is about accessibility, but in a less traditional sense than how we are familiar with this term, but in way that we all have our special needs, and that our core focus is the content. It is a layered approach where everything is built upon content, adapting the user experience accordingly to the user's needs.

"Adaptive Web Design", by Aaron Gustafson, published by Easy Readers

Chapter 2: Progressive Enhancement With Markup

Aaron states "if content were soil, semantic markup would be the compost", which is a perfect analogy of what this chapter is all about. The markup is the foundation of each design and experience. Aaron also teaches us how we can enrich our HTML markup by showing how to use the right attributes. Microformats takes up a big part of this chapter, which I find a good thing, because Aaron has a good way in explaining things simple and clear. Not sure how you feel about this topic, but I feel I can never learn enough about it, as I'm quickly confused about how to apply it correctly, let alone memorize everything.

Chapter 3: Progressive Enhancement With CSS

In this chapter, Aaron explains how CSS get parsed by the browser, and how CSS rules that are simply ignored by the browser can work to our advantage. In other words, we can use CSS' fault-tolerance to enhance the experience in capable browsers. He also talks briefly about specificity, the selectors, and the importance of the "cascade", but the book assumes you are already familiar with this. Aaron explains the concept of layering styles, starting by the bare essential layer of when no style is applied, but where the content is completely accessible, and then gradually building up starting with the typographical styles, layout, then color, ending with the full experience, providing a tailored experience for every user. With this technique you also learn on how you can organize your styles so you're able to keep things as flexible as possible. The chapter spends only a little bit on the topic of media queries. You'll find out how you can use them to adjust your CSS to match the layout for different devices. If you want to learn more about media queries, they get plenty of attention in the book "Responsive Web Design" by Ethan Marcotte, which I reviewed here.

Chapter 4: Progressive Enhancement with JavaScript

In this chapter Aaron show us how we can use JavaScript in an unobstructive way so that when JavaScript is turned off, the site and its content is still accessible. As a designer, I found this chapter a bit daunting, as I didn't always completely understand everything if I'm honest. Especially the part about the event capturing and bubbling I found very hard. It reminded me that I'm way more a designer than a coder :) Still, because I understand some of the basics of JavaScript, I was able to follow most of the (jQuery) examples Aaron demonstrates in his book, as he explains them in much detail, line by line. One of the interesting examples he demonstrates is a solution that converts the contents of a nav element into a select element when the browser shrinks below a particular size. He also talks about how you can use CSS (classes) in JavaScript to makes sure the content of the site is still accessible in case JavaScript is not enabled.

Chapter 1 "Think Of The User Not The browser", from "Adaptive Web Design" book.

Chapter 5: Progressive Enhancement for Accessibility

In this chapter I learned a lot of new things. If you know the basics of accessibility already, you'll find out that there is still more we can do to make our site as accessible as possible, all in service of the content. One of the examples Aaron talks about is how you can hide content in your layout (e.g. collapsible elements, tabbed interfaces, and accordion widgets), but still have it fully accessible for screen readers. He also talks about how you can use the ARIA attributes in your code to improve the accessibility of your web pages even more. Aaron's finishing topic is about keyboard access and controls where you'll learn how to use the "tabindex" attribute.

Chapter 6: Take It Away

The last chapter gives you a "progressive enhancement" checklist that you can use for your projects, and a list of other good resources for you to read.

Conclusion

I love books that are practical and so well to the point. This book is definitely one of those. Considering the fact that this book is on the thin side, I really learned quite a lot. For me it's one of the books about the topic of web design and accessibility, that reads easily because it's written in such clear language. It's a must read for people who are willing to cross the "t's" and dot the "i's"in their markup. It's for people who really care to use markup that is most accessible, and and are not afraid to go the extra mile to do so. It's a book I will consult a lot during the coding phase.

Disclosure

You might already know that I designed the cover of the book. Just in case you've missed it, here is an article about the design process I've written about it a while ago.

Life is like riding a bicycle

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:22 GMT

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”

— Albert Einstein

An overview of my tutorials

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 07:19 GMT

With the start of a new year it is a tradition to look back at what has past. I thought it would a good idea to create an overview of the tutorials that seem to get my readers' approval. I'm sure not everybody digs deep down into the archives so who knows maybe there are a few ones in here that you haven't done before.

A mixture of Photoshop & Illustrator

Illustrator full spectrum spirograph

We can achieve amazing results if we experiment with a cocktail mix of simple geometry, great colors and a bit of math. If we add a few cool transparency modes to the mix we can get some rather spectacular results.

Go to A mixture of Photoshop & Illustrator

How to create a shutter shape in Illustrator

Not sure about you, but I find these kind of geometric icons not easy to draw, but always very tempting to try. They need a bit of a pre-analysis, and that's what makes them so attractive for me.

Go to How to create a shutter shape in Illustrator

Illustrator inset effect on text in combination with clipping mask

Whenever I post an Illustrator tutorial, I often receive the question how to do this in Photoshop, or vice versa. There is a lot of common ground in these two. Still some things are easier in Illustrator and others in Photoshop.

Go to Illustrator inset effect on text in combination with clipping mask

Photoshop vintage effect

Letting photos shine by adding some subtle effects is something you learn to do by trial and error. Some photos will work perfect for certain effects and others won't, but it's something we creatives love to experiment with. One of the more popular effects is creating some kind of a vintage color effect.

Go to Photoshop vintage effect

Tips on how to optimize your web design workflow

I'm not sure about you, but I'm still in favor of using Photoshop to create of my design for the web. However, I agree that this application, even with all its never-ending feature set, is not the ideal environment to design web sites in. The ideal application doesn't exist yet, until it does it is maybe not such a bad idea to investigate ways on how we can optimize our workflow.

Go to Tips on how to optimize your web design workflow

Gradient rings in Illustrator

I'm sure you've seen them around on the web, those rather complex looking infographics, showing statistics or other data. Some of them have a circular shape and use these cool gradient rings.

Go to Gradient rings in Illustrator

Textured backgrounds in Photoshop

A follow up on the 'inset effect on text in Photoshop' tutorial that explains how I created the textured background of the graphic used in that article.

Go to Textured backgrounds in Photoshop

Illustrator Eraser tool

Like with any software, if you work in it for many years you develop certain habits and working methods. Sometimes because of this you tend to make the mistake to overlook, or simply neglect some of the new features, not realizing that certain actions can be done in less steps. Don't ignore the Eraser Tool in Illustrator.

Go to Illustrator Eraser tool

Create a snowflake in Illustrator

Winter time and everybody thinks about snow. Perfect timing to create a snowflake in Illustrator.

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Create a geometrical shape in Illustrator

Learn how to create a geometrical shape that is inspired by an old vintage bike that I discovered.

Go to Create a geometrical shape in Illustrator

Gradient ring chart in Illustrator

I'll show you my steps how I created the browser landscape graph, starting from a pie chart and a set of gradient Art Brushes. Go have fun in Illustrator.

Go to Gradient ring chart in Illustrator

Photoshop inset effect on text in combination with clipping mask

In this one I'm sharing how you can apply an inset effect on text, in combination with a background that serves as a clipping mask and have all your text still editable.

Go to Photoshop inset effect on text in combination with clipping mask

Into Life wallpaper design

Learn how I created the main shape in this wallpaper.

Go to Into Life wallpaper design

Wood structure in Photoshop

A quick way to get a satisfying wood structure in Photoshop. The kind of structure you would use as a background in a web site. So not the detailed kind that you would use for a poster.

Go to Wood structure in Photoshop

Turn the background of overlapping shapes transparent using the Pathfinder’s Trim option

A illustration of a nucleus, based on a group of stacked circles, with a white fill, and a black stroke. How to use that illustration in Photoshop but with the background of your document shown through.

Go to Turn the background of overlapping shapes transparent using the Pathfinder’s Trim option

A look into the process of a cover illustration for Jaidene Veda

See my process of the girl that I created in Illustrator.

Go to A look into the process of a cover illustration for Jaidene Veda

Create a cog shape in Illustrator

How I created a cog wheel in my usual step-by-step approach.

Go to Create a cog shape in Illustrator

Illustrator Pen tool exercises

The Pen tool is a tool that needs patience, and a lot of practice until you really master it. Here is an updated version with new exercises that teaches you how to master the pen tool.

Go to Illustrator Pen tool exercises

2012 wallpaper

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 09:48 GMT

To celebrate the new year, I created this 2012 graphic that I used for the heading of our email newsletter here at Duoh!. When I posted this on dribble, some people asked me if I could create a wallpaper version of it. I thought this was a good idea, so why not.

Not sure about you, but I do have a preference for dark wallpapers. So I decided to create a white and a dark version for you to choose.

Download

Enjoy!

Authentic Jobs 50% Off

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:17 GMT

Unbelievable but another year has past. Welcome 2012! I don't know about you but time seems to fly so fast. I like to take this oppertunity to thank all my readers for the continuing visits and support. I'm working on something new for this blog that I hope to launch early in the year.

Post a job and get 50% off

With the year gone it is that time again for our annual tradition. Authentic Jobs, the fantastic Jobs Listings Network and my partner in crime is running their annual New Year’s Promotion. Perfect time to get a jump start on hiring new employees and finding freelance contractors with our annual New Year’s promotion: 50% off any listing.

How to apply

Special Offer

Post a job before January 12th, 2012 and receive 50% off the fee (this promotion also includes the UK site). To take advantage of this special offer post your listing and use promotional code TWELVEERLE during the payment process.

We typically offer a discount this steep only twice a year, so take advantage of the promotion while it lasts.

Illustrator Pen tool exercises

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:20 GMT

The Pen tool is a tool that needs patience, and a lot of practice until you really master it. Though this tool is really essential if you want to be able to draw anything, and don't want to be dependent on shape tools. Back in 2007, I wrote an article about it and provided people with an Illustrator document. This was a great success, and so today I thought of giving this document an update, including a few different exercises…

How it works

You simply follow the numbers and the instructions to complete the exercise. The point you need to aim at in each step is the center of each numbered colored dot. Depending on the instructions, you either have to click, click and press, or click and press and then drag, while sometimes holding down the shift or alt/option key. The document is created in 2 layers. The bottom layer, called template contains the instructions, and is locked. The top layer is the "working layer". This layer is unlocked, and by default already selected. So this is the layer you'll be working on.

What's new

This time I've used big colored dots for you to click in with the number inside. There are 3 different colors: blue, red and green. The blue ones don't require any dragging, but involve clicking, and often clicking and pressing. The red ones, involve dragging, and sometimes a key needs to be pressed as well. The green ones also involve dragging, but this time dragging one of the handles of the anchor point you've just created, while holding down a key first (alt/option). The document is more extended as it now contains 3 pages (the Adobe Illustrator CS3 version has everything on 1 page), starting with the easiest exercises first, and ending with an actual drawing of a simple tree, and a random swoosh shape.

Download

This document is of course just to get you started, but I hope it helps you to understand how the Pen tool works, and how you can get better and better in mastering this essential tool. Enjoy!

Interview with Astrid Yskout

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:39 GMT

It has been a while since I last posted an interview with a talented illustrator, and I thought it's high time to change this. So today I have the absolute pleasure to introduce you to Astrid Yskout, a 26 years old illustrator that lives in Antwerp, Belgium. She combines her illustration work with two part-time jobs. She works in a secondhand bookshop, and teaches children & teenagers at an art academy. I got to know Astrid's work through Flickr, and later on I encountered some of her marvelous illustration work in a Belgian weekly magazine that I'm subscribed to. I immediately fell in love with the beautiful spontaneous sketchy style, and felt the urge to ask her for an interview. Lucky for me she said yes…

Did it take long before you found your own style that you are personally happy with?

While studying illustration, our teachers liked us to work for an adult audience. I knew my way of drawing was more leaning towards children book illustrations, so during my studies I did my very best to give my illustrations a dark, melancholic twist, I wanted my drawings to have this double, mysterious edge. But actually this isn't how I feel at all, I'm a happy person with no hard feelings.

So at one point, after some years being graduated, I became aware of this and decided to draw just the way I feel. One day I made this cat sketch (see image to the right above), it's one of the first drawings I really liked myself. It captures the quiet and ease I feel inside.

Since last year I feel ok with most of what I do, so it took me about four years after graduating to come to a result I'm more or less personally happy with. But I can also get frustrated or disappointed being trapped in my own style, I guess every illustrator has that feeling once in a while. Being aware of this and trying to do new things is enough to keep me going.

Some of the illustrations you can view on her Flickr page.

How would you describe your creative process?

The different steps in Astrid's process.

After a talk with the client I put down my ideas very rough and quick, it can be pages and pages filled with drawings and words. Together we pick out one sketch - step and I can start working on it. I love the sketching part the most because my characters always have more personality, they can be very lively. I can struggle to get the same feeling into the final drawing. Sometimes I change the idea during the process. Here I saw the squirrel jumping in my sketch and thought it would be more dynamic and interesting to make the girl racing the animal. I had drawn the background leafs already when this idea popped in my head. So I made a quick sketch on top of the leafs to send to the client - step I do some extra sketches in search of the right posture - step . Then I make the final drawing, I use pencil, markers, ink and photoshop to add or change color - step - step .

Is it hard to be an Illustrator in Belgium?

I believe so. I'm not a very well-known illustrator, I haven't done children books or published comics yet, but as far as I know, other illustrators too are struggling sometimes. I heard the payment here is quite low in comparison with other countries.

Belgium is small, there are no real agencies so the best is to get international attention. On the other hand, because our country is this modest you get to know other illustrators very easily. I believe belgium has a lot of great young and well-known illustrators (The pazuzu agency illustrators, Ephameron, Brecht Evens, Brecht Vandenbroucke, Ward Zwart,...) and I'm very proud to be (geographically) connected to them.

Vinyl cover "Castles in the air - Full Album" for Claire.

Could you describe a typical working day?

Because I work in a bookshop and teach I mostly make illustrations in the evening and in the weekend, for me this is the best time to work. I get distracted when I work during the day because I feel a lot is happening outside and I cannot join in. In the evening everything gets calm and dark outside, so I feel ok, silently working in my room.

I love the sketching part the most because my characters always have more personality, they can be very lively.

What do you do to recharge your creative batteries?

In the bookshop I get in touch with a lot of subjects. Because it's a secondhand store, the clientele is very mixed, it is a broad mix of different ages, and social statuses. Customers do act weird sometimes or some have strange obsessions, in a way all these people inspire me. When I'm stuck on inspiration or ideas, I take a shower. When I was a kid I used to be a very good and passionate swimmer. I still love lane swimming, your mind gets blank but at the same time it's like everything is getting obvious. Afterwards I can think more clearly. Water has this "healing" meaning to me.

Responsive Web Design book review

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:48 GMT

After having read 'HTML5 For Web Designers' by Jeremy Keith, and A Book Apart's N°. 3, 'CSS3 For Web Designers' by Dan Cederholm, I finally found time to read N°. 4 of the list 'Responsive Web Design' by Ethan Marcotte. I know I'm seriously behind in my reading, as this book was launched months ago, and there are already 2 new ones waiting to be read. Still, the topic of the book is pretty hot and we're just starting to see this web design approach in action. I'm pretty sure there still are many people who haven't heard of this technique… high time for a review of this book.

This book is about designing for the web using a flexible grid-based layout, flexible images and media, in combination with media queries. In other words the book explains an approach that makes your design responsive. The book has 150 pages and consists of five chapters:

Chapter 1: Our Responsive Web
Chapter 2: The Flexible Grid
Chapter 3: Flexible Images
Chapter 4: Media Queries
Chapter 5: Becoming Responsive

“Responsive Web Design” by Ethan Marcotte - published by A Book Apart

Chapter 1: Our Responsive Web

Ethan starts his book talking about how web design inherited its vocabulary from print, and how it has borrowed the concept of “the canvas”. We, web designers, try to mimic the process of starting with a blank canvas, a blank document with a predefined width and height. But there is a problem with this approach, namely the web’s flexibility: the browser window and all its inconsistencies and imperfections. The solution to this problem is trying to create a design that is imposed on the web’s innate flexibility. In other words, a web design that is responsive, that adapts itself to the media that renders them.

Chapter 2: The Flexible Grid

Via an example web site, Ethan explains how you can turn a pixel-based design created in Photoshop into a flexible layout using a simple math formula. It’s the same fluid grid technique explained in one of the chapters in “Handcrafted CSS” which is only the foundation of responsive web design.

Chapter 3: Flexible Images

Since modern browsers resize images proportionally, the image ratio remains intact when using Ethan’s flexible technique of setting a maximum width of 100% for each “img” element via CSS. The image will then resize itself when the flexible container shrinks or enlarges. This same technique can be applied to other rich media or video.

Image source A Book Apart

Chapter 4: Media Queries

As a staunch proponent of non-fixed layouts, Ethan explains how we can build some measure of fluidity into our designs by using media queries. This chapter covers the essence of this book, and so this is the most important one, but also the most extended, where I learned the most from. He explains how media queries work, and how you can implement them. He shows us ways on how you can make a layout responsive, a layout that “responds” to the context it’s viewed in. He also explains why responsive web design isn't just about making your design accessible for smaller screens, and shows us ways on how we can adjust our design for wide screens. He concludes this chapter with explaining the reason why this approach is a flexible foundation which allows us to deal with the emerging range of different mobile devices, followed by a few beautiful example websites where the responsive approach has been used.

Chapter 5: Becoming Responsive

In this chapter Ethan explains us different ways of how we can incorporate the responsive approach to our work. One of the approaches is to design for mobile first, a design philosophy introduced by Luke Wroblewski in 2009. Based on this approach, Ethan demonstrates us a responsive workflow where the process of the design and development phase kind of blend with each other. Followed is a hands-on practical demonstration on how you can use the progressive enhancement technique to ensure quality access for all. He shows that you can use jQuery to the advantage for mobile users with a fall-back for when JavaScript isn't available. Ethan concludes that web design is all about asking the right questions, and that responsive web design is just a possible solution for the web's inherent flexibility.

On another note…

A perfect companion when reading this book, is "Adaptive Web Design" by Aaron Gustafson. A review of this book can be found here, but for those who wonder, this book is all about "progressive enhancement". So the term "adaptive" doesn't stand for another technique as some people like to believe. Aaron explains the difference between "adaptive web design" and "responsive web design" well in this post. You could say that "responsive" is a subset of "adaptive". More about this subject in a future post where I'll review the book.

I'm also kinda wondering about the implications towards creativity with these techniques as they all require that you think in boxes that can move below each other when there is a smaller screen. Maybe it is my typical designer brain that feels the urge for boundless creativity, I don't know, but I haven't seen a site like this one being made responsive. I'm sure it's possible, but I'm pretty convinced it would be a gigantic task. Most sites that I've seen all share the same approach towards lay-out, because the basis of this technique requires it. Of course it is still early days, and this approach is new and will grow up when more solutions become available. Anyway that's me thinking out loud, and subject for another post sometime in the future.

Conclusion

This book shows that designing for the web today has become very different from how it was couple of years ago. It's one way of how you can adapt your design by making it fully flexible for both desktop and the mobile web, using the same HTML markup. It's a must read for everyone who understands HTML and CSS, and who wants to get an insight in this “responsive design” technique. It's the perfect basis to get started, and you'll find a lot of valuable source material and information for fall-backs in certain situations. Even with my earlier rambling in the above paragraph, I still believe this book is a valuable asset for any web designer's arsenal.

International Year of Chemistry 2011

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:35 GMT

I've always been a fan of Illustration posters that consist of only a few basic shapes. If you've been a follower you have undoubtedly spotted a few of those in my Inspiration Stream. In this post you'll see some posters that fit the aforementioned category perfectly. These posters represent the International Year of Chemistry 2011, which coincides with the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prize awarded to Madame Marie Curie.

Encourage interest in Chemistry

The goal of IYC 2011 is to increase the public appreciation of Chemistry in meeting world needs, to encourage interest in Chemistry among young people, and to generate enthusiasm for the creative future of Chemistry.

Year of Astronomy fame

These posters are created by UK graphic designer Simon C Page. You may remember his name because at the end of 2009 he also designed the prints for the International Year of Astronomy. These posters were a massive hit and were seen on many inspiration sites.

New Chemistry Posters

Below with each image is accredited a famous chemist or discovery which inspired the design. Each poster is available in Simon's shop.

Atomise (John Dalton)

John Dalton (6 September 1766 – 27 July 1844) was an English chemist and physicist; professor of mathematics and natural philosophy (1793); developed atomic theory; his theory (1805) accounts for the law of conservation of mass, law of definite proportions and law of multiple proportions; produced the first table of atomic weights; colour-blind and mostly self-taught.

Ions (Lorenzo Avogadro)

Lorenzo Romano Amedeo Carlo Avogadro di Quaregna e di Cerreto (9 August 1776, Turin, Piedmont – 9 July 1856) was an Italian savant. He is most noted for his contributions to molecular theory, including what is known as Avogadro's law. In tribute to him, the number of elementary entities (atoms, molecules, ions or other particles) in 1 mole of a substance, 6.02214179(30)×10^23, is known as the Avogadro constant.

Matter (Albert Einstein)

Albert Einstein (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German theoretical physicist and chemist. Einstein's most famous discovery was the theory of general relativity. Einstein’s 3rd paper on Brownian Motion confirmed the atomic theory of matter. This is viewed by many as the first proof that atoms actually exist.

Atom (Ernest Rutherford)

Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson OM, FRS (30 August 1871 – 19 October 1937) was a New Zealand-born British chemist and physicist who became known as the father of nuclear physics.

In early work he discovered the concept of radioactive half-life, proved that radioactivity involved the transmutation of one chemical element to another, and also differentiated and named alpha and beta radiation, proving that the former was essentially helium ions. This work was done at McGill University in Canada. It is the basis for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry he was awarded in 1908 for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances materials.

Striking (Buckyballs)

A fullerene is any molecule composed entirely of carbon, in the form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid, or tube. Spherical fullerenes are called buckyballs, and resemble the balls used in football.

The first fullerene to be discovered was prepared in 1985 by Richard Smalley, Robert Curl, James Heath, Sean O'Brien, and Harold Kroto at Rice University. The name was an homage to Buckminster Fuller, whose geodesic domes it resembles. According to astronomer Letizia Stanghellini, "It’s possible that buckyballs from outer space provided seeds for life on Earth".

Revolution (Graphene)

Graphene is an allotrope of carbon, whose structure is one-atom-thick planar sheets of sp2-bonded carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice. The term graphene was coined as a combination of graphite and the suffix -ene by Hanns-Peter Boehm, who described single-layer carbon foils in 1962. Graphene has been touted as the "miracle material" of the 21st Century. Said to be the strongest material ever measured, an improvement upon and a replacement for silicon and the most conductive material known to man.

H20 (Henry Cavendish)

Henry Cavendish FRS (10 October 1731 – 24 February 1810) was a British scientist noted for his discovery of hydrogen or what he called "inflammable air". He described the density of inflammable air, which formed water on combustion, in a 1766 paper "On Factitious Airs".

Emission (Marie Curie)

Marie Skłodowska Curie (7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish-born French physicist and chemist famous for her pioneering work on radioactivity. She was the first person honored with two Nobel Prizes — in physics and chemistry. The contributions that Marie Curie made to science are immense. With her help, doctors have been able to treat cancer, manipulate nuclear energy and numerous other achievements have stemmed from her work. This design was initially created for a screening of a Marie Curie documentary.

Substance (Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier)

Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier was born in 1743. He studied mathematics and astronomy with Nicolas de Lacaille (1713-1762), chemistry with Guillaume-François Rouelle (1703-1770) and botany with Bernard de Jussieu (1699-1777) at the Collège Mazarin. From 1763-1767 he studied geology under Jean Etienne Guettard (1715-1786). He was one of the best known French scientists and an important government official.

His theories of combustion, and his development of a new system of chemical nomenclature and the first modern textbook of chemistry led to his being known as the father of modern chemistry. As a scientist, Lavoisier demonstrated the nature of combustion, disproving the phlogiston theory. He also proposed the name "oxygen" for the substance previously known as "dephilogisticated air," and laid the framework for understanding chemical reactions as combinations of elements to form new materials.

Elements (Dmitri Mendeleev)

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (8 February 1834 – 2 February 1907) was a Russian chemist and inventor. He made a number of important contributions but is famously credited as being the creator of the first version of the periodic table of elements. Using the table, he predicted the properties of elements yet to be discovered. Element number 101, the radioactive mendelevium, was later named after him.

Veerle's blog 3.0

A Year of Sun with Mr. Persol

Retro-styled animated short

Fantastic staging & great layouts

Looks That Kill

Adaptive Web Design book review

Table of contents

Chapter 1: Think Of The User, Not The browser

Chapter 2: Progressive Enhancement With Markup

Chapter 3: Progressive Enhancement With CSS

Chapter 4: Progressive Enhancement with JavaScript

Chapter 5: Progressive Enhancement for Accessibility

Chapter 6: Take It Away

Conclusion

Disclosure

Life is like riding a bicycle

An overview of my tutorials

A mixture of Photoshop & Illustrator

Illustrator full spectrum spirograph

How to create a shutter shape in Illustrator

Illustrator inset effect on text in combination with clipping mask

Photoshop vintage effect

Tips on how to optimize your web design workflow

Gradient rings in Illustrator

Textured backgrounds in Photoshop

Illustrator Eraser tool

Create a snowflake in Illustrator

Create a geometrical shape in Illustrator

Gradient ring chart in Illustrator

Photoshop inset effect on text in combination with clipping mask

Into Life wallpaper design

Wood structure in Photoshop

Turn the background of overlapping shapes transparent using the Pathfinder’s Trim option

A look into the process of a cover illustration for Jaidene Veda

Create a cog shape in Illustrator

Illustrator Pen tool exercises

2012 wallpaper

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Illustrator Pen tool exercises

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Interview with Astrid Yskout

Did it take long before you found your own style that you are personally happy with?

How would you describe your creative process?

Is it hard to be an Illustrator in Belgium?

Could you describe a typical working day?

What do you do to recharge your creative batteries?

Responsive Web Design book review

Table of contents

Chapter 1: Our Responsive Web

Chapter 2: The Flexible Grid

Chapter 3: Flexible Images

Chapter 4: Media Queries

Chapter 5: Becoming Responsive

On another note…

Conclusion

International Year of Chemistry 2011

Encourage interest in Chemistry

Year of Astronomy fame

New Chemistry Posters

Atomise (John Dalton)

Ions (Lorenzo Avogadro)

Matter (Albert Einstein)

Atom (Ernest Rutherford)

Striking (Buckyballs)

Revolution (Graphene)

H20 (Henry Cavendish)

Emission (Marie Curie)

Substance (Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier)

Elements (Dmitri Mendeleev)