Noupe

Love in the Background: Valentine’s Day Wallpapers

2012-02-09T10:39:50Z

With the season of love and romance nearly upon us, we thought that we should roll out the desktop decorations for our readers to get them in the ‘mood’, so to speak, for Valentine’s Day. So we have collected a lovely collection of wallpapers designed in the theme of the holiday. Some of these you have undoubtedly seen, but we are hoping that some of them may not have hit your radar before.

So take a look down through the decorative showcase of Valentine’s day wallpapers and load up on the goodness! We are sure that there will be something in this collection that tickles your fancy and entices you into redecorating your desktop with love.

The Wallpapers

Download Here

(rb)

A Look at Inspiring Website Designs of Musicians

2012-02-08T19:17:51Z

As with designer’s, musician’s websites are often some of the most creative, and for good reason. The website designs of musicians should ideally epitomize their sound in a visual medium. It should capture their brand in an online presence.

This is a subtle art, which not all musician’s websites master. However, when done effectively you can almost feel the artist’s music flowing through the web page. Often subtle visual details can evoke their music, whether it be a soft pastel gradient, or shocking/emotive background photo.

Today we look at a huge variety of design styles and musicians. These websites are all beautiful, yet all different. It’s really interesting to see the disparity between some of these designs – a visual testament to the diversity of contemporary music.

A Look at Inspiring Website Designs of Musicians

Vladimir Chmelo
Vladimir Chmelo has a fairly simple site structure, with muted tones and formal typography. The design is made all the more interesting by the large photographic background, which not only enhances the visuals of this website, but let’s us see the man behind the name. The reserved color palette suits the classical, serious nature of his music.

Noise Coalition
A very unusual looking site, but very visually striking. The site acts as almost a kind of cover artwork, with a huge quartered photo manipulation comprising most of the homepage space. The bold red/black combination mixed with the harsh imagery of falling bombs and shattering objects creates a mood of destruction and bleakness. The call to action text ‘DOWNLOAD FOR FREE’ is enhanced by using a bold, red font to encourage action on the users part.

Jonathan Crehan
A great example of effective background design. Our eye is immediately drawn to the artist who is beautifully lit in this photo. The color scheme is very muted, using rich golds, browns and blacks. The typography is clear and legible, and recent news is promoted via a homepage slider area.

Johan Reinhold
A fantastic web design with a very interactive feel to it. You really need to click through and explore the site yourself to fully experience the details of this design. As you scroll down the page the birds in the background design rise up faster than the surrounding content, creating a sense of weightlessness. The dreamy, pastel colors and elegant imagery make this site very easy on the eyes.

Alex Young
A very detailed, nicely designed website. The background is full of intricate details and patterns, and the logo text is incredibly elegant. The central content area is used to promote a free copy of Alex’s latest single, and acts as a great call to action. Overall we get a feeling of sophistication using this website, with no detail overlooked.

Bloch
This site is for a music school rather than a specific musician, but I had to include it in this list. It’s a wonderful example of a visual design bringing music to life. The subtle watercolor background is infused with swirling notes, fractal lines and patterns all building around a central photo montage. The featured child appears to be expelling energy and music as the visuals surround them.

Caring is Cool
A really cute website design featuring a funny illustration as the center piece. The illustration lends a hand drawn feel to the site, and the waving lines in the background feel very abstract. The hand-drawn theme is continued through the site in the sketchy typography and UI.

Daniel Osborne
Another design with an awesome photographic background. Daniel is the centerpiece in his own design, striking a very cool pose by some drums and vintage cars. The sidebar for the site is concise, but explains clearly what he does and gives easy to navigate menu links.

Rivers and Robots
A simple and clean website that’s very easy on the eyes. Rivers and Robots uses a subtle pastel color scheme along with very faint texture application to add depth and detail. The typography used almost universally across the site has an almost western style feel to it. At any rate, the overwhelming impression of the website is slightly retro.

Brad Doyle
Brad Doyle uses a very simple site that is essentially an image map. However, it definitely feels quite interactive and gives a sense of the artist. The navigation is spread across the wall backdrop photo and you can click the various hanging images to browse through the site.

More Hazards More Heroes
One of the most creative designs in this post, More Hazards More Heroes use some really nicely designed elements in their website. Their logo text is hand-drawn and natural feeling. Their content areas often use creative, rough edges. The main background is comprised of a very faint line art, which helps bring the content together and add a sense of artistry.

Miss the Stars
Lovely typography and awesome colors. The pink and blue color palette works great together and the central content slider is really eye catching. The background design is really well constructed and layers up multiple photos, textures and lightings to create a detailed, attractive backdrop for the site.

Buty
Another very creative web design with a sketchy feel to it. Buty’s website uses abstract shapes to construct content areas, breaking, rather than adhering to any kind of content grid. Visuals are given a bold white border which makes them appear like a paper cut out. There are also some great animations happening, such as birds flying across the page constantly.

The Blur Division
The first thing that strikes you about this design is the deep blue background gradient. This is accented by the smoke in the top-right of the page, which adds some nice lighting. Overall the design is fairly minimal, but the colors and typography work beautifully together. The logo is also a great concept, with the word ‘BLUR’ being out of focus.

Fernandinho – Sou Feliz
Fernandinho Sou Feliz’s website has a real grungy feel to it. The rough background textures and faded photo in the backdrop create a worn look. The menu and logo typography are also typically grungy, which is enhanced by grunge elements strewn across the page such as the top-right badge design.

Not Done Yet…

We are halfway through the showcase, but don’t stop yet. You can click through to see the rest of the examples and read more about them here.

Time for Mail: Services That Improve Gmail Productivity

2012-02-07T19:35:27Z

Gmail exploded onto the internet in 2004 (beta) offering users a whopping 1GB of storage. This was unheard of at the time with the largest email service Hotmail only offering a few megabytes of storage. Currently Gmail offers 7GB of free storage with competitors such as Hotmail offering 5GB of storage and Yahoo offering an unlimited amount.

Gmail is popular with business users due to how quick, reliable and customisable it is. In addition to the experimental add ons that Google offers through Google Labs, there are a lot of 3rd party tools and services that help you enhance gmail.

Today we would like to show you 25 great tools that will help you get more out of Googles pioneering email service, and ensure that your personal Gmail productivity rating remains high. Enjoy.

Let’s Get Productive

* Fun fact: Google purchased the Gmail domain from Garfield, who were using it as a free email service for their members.

1. Find Big Mail
Online Service

Find Big Mail is a fantastic free service that helps you locate large emails in your Gmail inbox. All you have to do is enter your Gmail email address and then grant access to the service to check your account.

Once you have done so, you will receive an email advising you that they are processing your request and will email you again after 5 to 60 minutes once their search is complete (depending on your volume of emails). The email details your top 3 and top 20 messages by size. It also shows you the number of emails over 1mb, over 5mb and over 10mb. Each large email is linked, making it easy to review the email and check whether you need to keep it or not (or save the file elsewhere).

Pie charts are also displayed in your email and online. These show you the number of messages by size (small, over 1mb, over 5mb and over 10mb) and the corresponding space by size these messages take up.

It also adds labels to your Gmail sidebar that lists messages that are over 1mb, 5mb and 10mb. Find Big Mail is useful if you are nearing your maximum amount of storage and don’t want to upgrade.

2. CloudMagic
Google Chrome

A search tool that lets you search Gmail, Google Apps, Google Docs, Google Docs and Twitter. Once you have installed CloudMagic and refreshed your Gmail page, you will see a search box at the top of the page. This box can be moved anywhere on the page (as you see fit).

Search works in real time i.e. results appear as you type. You can view results from other services such as Google Docs instantly by simply changing the tab at the top of the box.

It’s worth checking out if you search through your inbox on a regular basis.

3. Google Mail Checkers
Google Chrome and Firefox

Do you find yourself checking Gmail frequently to see if you have new mail? If so, you may find the Google Web Checker (Chrome) and Gmail Watcher (Firefox) add-ons useful. Once installed, the apps will show add a Gmail icon to the top of your browser. Whenever you receive a new email the icon will be updated to let you know that you have received mail. A simple add on that’s very useful.

4. Better Gmail
Google Chrome and Firefox

Better Gmail for Chrome and Firefox are great add ons that add a lot of great features to Gmail.

The exact features differ slightly between the Chrome and Firefox versions. Both versions highlight rows when you hover over messages, adds attachment icons to your Gmail page and help notify you of new messages using pop ups or sounds. The Chrome version also removes advertisements from your page.

5. Google Redesigned
Google Chrome & Firefox

A great extension for Chrome and Firefox that gives Gmail, and other Google services, a complete redesign. Worth trying out if you are bored the default design of Gmail.

It works with Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Reader. You can disable or enable the design for each service individually.

6. Active Inbox
Google Chrome & Firefox

A productivity tool for Gmail that adds a lot of welcomed features. Active Inbox helps you prioritise tasks by allowing you to set which messages are top priority. Emails can be added to a to do list to help you plan what needs to be done.

Emails can also be assigned to projects and notes can be added to conversations too. In the Active Inbox bar at the top of the page, all of your to do items and projects are listed. It also lists those emails that are defined as high priority, emails that need to be tracked until completion and emails you are awaiting a reply on. All of these filters can be applied to emails within each message at the top which makes organising your workload much easier.

7. Rapportive
Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Mailplane

Replaces advertisements at the right hand side of Gmail with an informative profile of the person who has emailed you. It shows you their photo and information about what they do. It helps make new connections via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn too.

8. Boomerang for Gmail
Google Chrome & Firefox

A wonderful application that adds a ‘Send Later’ button to your message compose area. You can send the email in an hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, tomorrow morning, tomorrow afternoon, 2 days, 4 days, one week, 2 weeks or one month. Alternatively, you can also set the exact time the message can be sent or ask for help by clicking on the random time link.

You can also set reminders for important messages and if you don’t hear back from the contact, Boomerang will remind you to follow it up.

9. WiseStamp Email Signatures
Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari

This browser extension makes creating modern interactive signatures a breeze by enhancing your Gmail signature with social media icons and your latest tweets and Facebook posts. You can also add social icons, quotes, your latest ebay auctions, music and much more.

You can create as many different signatures as you want (personal, business 1, business 2 etc). A link is placed discretely at the bottom of each email unless you upgrade to a paid account ($36 per year).

Images can easily be inserted into signatures and you can place information in columns using tables. You can also edit the HTML source directly.

10. Grexit
Online Service

A great application that businesses will find useful. The service lets you share emails in a common shared folder so that other colleagues can easily reference important discussions and information.

11. The Email Game
Online Service

Finding it hard to get motivated to clear your crowded inbox? You may find ‘The Email Game’ service useful. It times how long it takes you to address your unread emails. You can deal with emails right away by replying or forwarding them, boomerang posts or skip them and deal with them later, or archive or delete the email. Points are awarded for dealing with emails quicker, with 3 minutes being given to you for each reply.

12. 0Boxer
Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Mailplane

Another game that aims to help you be more productive. oBoxer rewards points for clearing emails and writing them. You can compete against friends and the site lists weekly and daily leader boards for other users.

Halfway Down

The post continues on page 2 here.

Gaining Perspective: A Showcase of 3D Digital Renders

2012-02-06T09:00:42Z

With the design communities ever pressing pursuit of inspiration and the growing popularity of three dimensional digital renderings, we thought this was the perfect opportunity for these two paths to cross for Noupe’s readers. So we went out across the internet in search of some truly inspired pieces of art that have crossed into the third dimension to showcase for you here. Rendered to perfection by some wonderful digital artists.

So take a look below at the 3D digital renders we have collected for you, and see some breathtaking results. The rich fullness the artists manage to capture that allows the pieces to rise off from their virtual canvases leaving that flat feeling behind, and often feeling like a photograph.

Gaining Perspective

Selfillumination by kutsche

Gir by thekeyofE

Toxic Syringes – Colorful by Stianbl

coffee city by pushOK-12

The real you by Sha-X-doW

Mechanical Flower by coolscene

Subsurfacing Sushi by jeremyengleman

Heavy Mech Final Render by MikeJensen

Automation by Almacan

Haiku by curious3d

Victory by geograpcics

Sewer Dwelling Monster by loden

Abandoned station by your1st

Plastic Series : Broken Marionette by SubversiveGirlArt

Siggraph Animation Mother by meats

Impulse by xelptic

Brain Tower by Almacan

The Sighting by steve-burg

Living behind the clouds by veprikov

Captivity by Ertugy

ShokeR_fireworks by AleksCG

Music: ambiance by ark4n

somewhere in the north by tredowski

undead wizard by bgx1

Color Symphony by k3-studio

Unformed by GrandPa

Rebirth by 00AngelicDevil00

Cybertron planet by JJasso

Big Electron by tredowski

Butterfly by Zjic

To You Who Finds This Letter by owen-c

Animation Mother New Orleans by meats

So,Commander,what is your plan by Suirebit

The traveller – dusty version by leticiakao

Fairy tale by linbrush

Hidden by sentimentalfreak

shoker by AleksCG

Other Worlds by RudolfHerczog

One Tree Hil by phaceless2

Pontiac by PionierUK

(rb)

Incredible Hand-Drawn Works (With a Digital Twist)

2012-02-03T20:18:09Z

Within the creative community there seems to be an ongoing divide between the realms of digital art, and traditional (non-digital) art. Often traditional art is viewed as somewhat archaic, conjuring images of the Mona Lisa or a Monet landscape. Whilst these masterpieces, and much of traditional art is of course pivotal to our conceptions of art and creativity, there still exists this divide in relation to the digital medium.

The smooth gloss of a photo manipulation has nothing to do with a beautiful oil painting. Or does it…?

Today I challenge the divide between old and new, and suggest that the varying mediums within ‘art’ as a whole are not only not unrelated, but inextricably linked. Digital art is of course directly influenced by the fundamental principles of traditional art. As graphic designers this is not a chicken egg scenario, digital art would simply not exist without traditional art.

The beauty of these varying mediums is that they can help one another. Whilst traditional art does have certain limitations (as does digital art), digital art can often take hand produced pieces to new dimensions. Digital techniques are often the best way to lift a piece of traditional art, giving it new life and substance.

Today I will show you three incredibly talented artists, who are each masters of both traditional, and digital mediums. What is especially interesting about their work is how they use digital techniques to enhance their already stunning traditional artworks. In fusing the two mediums their work takes on a new richness.

Incredible Hand-Drawn Works (With a Digital Twist)

Florian Nicolle’s Hand-Drawn Works

Florian Nicolle is very well known within the design community, and for good reason! His portfolio is a vast collection of mixed media masterpieces. Florian has clearly mastered traditional art, producing some incredibly realistic drawings.

What makes Florian’s work so intriguing is his treatment of his original drawings. It actually seems that some of his traditional techniques are influenced by the digital medium. For example his application of watercolor brush marks is reminiscent of the grungy, watercolor techniques used in many photo manipulations.

After he completes his original drawing he will typically scan it into Photoshop and proceed to color the image, often applying background textures and details. A common trait of his work is to use Photoshop to paste relevant words over his portraits (for example the lyrics to Billy Jean are laid over his portrait of Michael Jackson).

Andreas Preis’ Hand Drawn Works

Andreas Preis has one of the most unique styles I’ve come across, and a really wonderful portfolio of art to back it up. His work is typically produced using ink in the early stages. He is a true master of the cross-hatching method of shading, giving his works an incredibly detailed, precise look.

Often he will use Photoshop to digitally color his images, whilst retaining the precise, sharp lines of his original drawing. This is a prime example of how combining mediums can produce the best results possible.

The important thing to remember though is that no matter what effects are applied in Photoshop, it is the strength of Andreas’ original drawings that are the basis for such inspiring art.

Alexis Marcou’s Hand Drawn Works

Alexis Marcou is an awe inspiring mixed media artist with a very unique style. Alexis’ work will typically begin on paper, producing some fantastic drawings. He then uses a range of mixed media techniques to add depth and detail to his images. Some notable examples include using a make up applicator to powder his image with subtle color, and refracting light from a prism to lay over his drawing.

Whilst Alexis’ work doesn’t make tremendous use of digital techniques, he is widely respected within the digital art/design community. His art, whilst using traditional mediums seems to jump away from the typical constraints of non-digital art. His drawings often take on the appearance of epic photo manipulations, with subtle lighting, gradients and coloring. Amazing what you can achieve with a little creativity!

(rb)

Fashion Forward: Showcase of Fashion and Editorial Photography

2012-02-02T09:16:05Z

As we have undoubtedly heard our entire lives, a picture speaks a thousand words. And while that may be true of most, there are those who seek to tell a bit of a story with their works. Editorial photography, and perhaps some would say to a lesser degree fashion photography, is an area where a lot of effort goes into creating a story out of the piece. Through the costuming and composition, these shots come to life and their stories are told to the masses.

Below we have gathered a collection of fashion and editorial photography from some wonderfully talented shutterbug storytellers. We hope that you will enjoy this inspiring showcase of images and the tales they hold that are waiting to be told. Enjoy!