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2009-2010 Best of Infographics

Graphire — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 08:34:49 +0000

Infographics or Information Graphics are visual representation of data and information. This kind of visual representation is used whenever complex information needs to be presented or explained clearly and quickly. Infographics mostly contain visual elements such as signs, maps, charts, diagrams or other graphic representation that will aid easy comprehension of complex data. They are often more powerful than plain imagery or words in transcending context, understanding and meaning to readers in a manner they have not previously experienced. Thus, treating them to a visual feast to learn, become enlightened, and motivated to learn more.

We have gathered at least 15 of the best infographics made in 2009 to present (2010) to inspire everyone not just in creating visually effective infographics but also to generate ideas and stimulate everyone’s creativity. These are a mixture of different types of infographics from statistical, to timeline to map based infographics.

If you know anything else worth mentioning in this 2009-2010 Best of Infographics list, please mention it in your comment. Enjoy.

1. 37 Minutes Bus Ride By Rayz Ong

2. Adaptation – Inadaptado by Rodrigo Machado

3. Balance Your Media Diet from Wired Magazine

4. Tree of Skills by Peter Grundy

5. DPS for Mens Health magazine, listing UK deaths by Peter Grundy

6. Digital Nostalgia from Wired Magazine Italy, March 2010 Issue

7. The Map of the Future from Wired Magazine Italy

8. Flowing Data Infovis by Luca Masud

9. 2010 World Cup Schedule by Martin Oberhäuser

10. iPod plus iTunes Timeline by Filip Chudzinski

11. The Babel of Beers (consumption, prices, taxation and restrictions: beer world infographic status report) by Francesco Franchi

12. Grandes navegações, Revista Superinteressante / março 2010

13. Student demographics within the Design Faculty at Politecnico di Milano developed by Density Design

14. World Cup Prediction Infographic from Wired UK, June 2010

15. 2010 Chile Earthquake Infographic

Grandes navegações

Hottest Collection of Fire Digital Artworks, Tutorials and Background Images

Graphire — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 12:02:05 +0000

Summer is here and I’m turning up the heat some more by featuring our hottest collection of fire digital artworks, tutorials and background images.

For ages, we have been using fire for cooking, generating heat, signaling, and propulsion purposes. Even with its many uses, fire is also associated with many destructive effects that includes increased soil erosion, increased in atmospheric pollutants, and an increased hazard to human life. With March being the start of summer months in most regions, most countries observe their annual Fire Prevention Month starting this month. But any day of the year, everyone should take extra precaution, continue to educate people and regularly conduct fire drills to inform and prepare citizens on how to prevent and react to a building fire.

Now going back to our featured design free resources on fire, the safest way to use fire is when designers use them in their projects. Fire is very effective in conveying energy, aggressiveness and passion in your designs. So if that is what you intend to project with your design, maybe you can try some of these free fire background images. You may also want to learn creating your very own fire effects with these easy to follow Photoshop fire tutorials, or just amaze yourself and be inspired with some of the best fire digital artworks listed below.

Fire Digital Artworks

1. Eternal Flame by Silvatrez

2. Rebirth Flame by Darkhalo

3. Fire Hall by Pinkuh

4. Vodka by Nikita -trainfender- Buyanov

5. Snail Flame by Ghost3D

6. Heart of Fire by Chymere

7. Fire, Stars, and Fire by Shadow Umbre

8. Incandescence by Benjamin Delacour and Thomas Kim

9. I Love You Collab by Nikolay Ivanov and Stefan Chinof

10. Fire and Water by Artur Napierajczyk (naz)

Fire Background Images

1. Sailor Fire Background 1 by Senshi Stock

2. Nature Fire Background Stock Image Collection by Ayelie Stock

3. Collection of Fire Streak Images by Blary 54

4. Fire Photo Collection by Bcbusinesshub

5. Flame Background Collection by Iran Hot Head

6. 35 Free Hi-Res Fire, Flame and Firework Textures from Designshard

7. 11 Hi-resolution Fire Textures by Shin Rhys

8. 20 Hi-resolution Fire Textures by Frasio

9. 25 Free Fire Textures by Jason Bobich – Heavy Satin Flames

10. 52 Fire Light Textures by Elliptica

Fire Tutorials

1. Fire Tutorial by Windancer53

2. Fox Fire Tutorial by Ashwings

3. Fire Tutorial by Hawk4

4. Hell of Tutorial in Photoshop from Abduzeedo

5. How to Create a Flaming Photo Manipulation

6. Dramatic Text on Fire Effect in Photoshop

7. Create a Stunning Text on Wild Fire Effect from 10Steps

8. 3D Text on Fire from Denis Designs

9. Making of Flaming Hand from 10Steps

10. Creating Blue Flame Text on Carbon Fiber Background from 123RF

30 Astonishingly Fresh Examples of 3D Typography

Graphire — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 11:45:14 +0000

It’s been almost a year now since I last shared a typography inspirational roundup with “Some Amazing Works of Creative Typography“. And now here’s another one showcasing 30 inspiring pieces of 3D typography. You may have seen many similar 3D typography showcase around but I tried my best to feature the freshest among the best, so hopefully these mind blowing 3D typographic pieces will provide new inspirations to everyone.

Typography in itself is one amazing art form that most of us find really interesting and appreciate whenever we see some really awesome artworks through magazines, posters, brochures, or web. And creating these kind of typographic artworks in 3D is not an easy task. Most of these amazing pieces are done in 3D softwares like Maya, 3D Max, Cinema 4D or Lightwave in combination with such pure skils in texturing, lighting and creating 3D objects and elements present in the design. Adobe Photoshop or other image editing softwares are usually used for post-processing these artworks by adding topping it off with realistic elements and backgrounds.

I’m pretty sure there are many more latest and inspiring 3D typography artworks out there, so if you know any outstanding pieces that you think are worthy mentioning here, don’t hesitate to include it in your comments below.

1. Maximum Grunge by GrungeTV

2. Word Search by osbjef

3. Verdana Type Factory by Paul the Illustrator

4. Wash Your Hands by BK1LL3R

5. Earth Day by FaMz

6. Adidas Originality by Steve Flowers

7. Sammii by marcinxp

8. Grunge by chapter3d

9. Calibre by denzoo

10. On us by Shinybinary

11. Waste by Andro Conde

12. Coffee Socks by Andro Conde

13. 50th Anniversary McCaan Concept from Nylon Studios

14. Bauhaus Architectural Typography by Chris Labrooy

15. Helvetica Architectural Typography by Chris Labrooy

16. Star Crossed by xtreamArt

17. Try-type by til01 / Stayros til Georgakopoulos

18. Jesus Iso by Thomas Pavitte

19. Ingratitude by Tomaturge

20. Fresh Style Words by Michele Zamparo

21. Gettin Loose by Luke Lucas

22. Can’t get enough of this byAlex Beltechi

23. CMYK – Colour Your World Project by Markie Darkie

24. Typography is Everything by Simon Page

25. Chaos Type Experiment by Alex Beltechi

26. Some Type Of Wonderful 2010 by Luke Lucas

27. Let there be light by Jeff Osborne

28. Type Illustration by Alex Beltechi

29. Faith by Loswl of INSPIKS

30. Broken Mecore by Michael Schmidt

til01 / Stayros til Georgakopoulos

30 Amazingly Breathtaking Near-Infrared (IR) Photos

Graphire — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 14:38:23 +0000

I’m always fascinated by near-infrared photography just like HDR. They both represent a different kind of surreal world and interesting ways to view ordinary and everyday images. There are a lot of amazing photo possibilities that we can produce with our cameras, from time lapse, to high-speed, to panoramic. But Infrared and HDR photography takes the ordinary imaging concept one step further and shows us the hidden wonders of colors and imaging drama the human eye simply can’t see on its own.

Near-infrared photography is different with far-infrared (thermal imaging). An easy way to understand near-infrared is somewhat similar with its name, NEAR-infraRED, which is basically the color of light next to red, a color that is invisible to the human eye. In infrared photography, the image sensor or film used is sensitive to infrared light. Together with infrared filters, visible light spectrum is blocked, but allows infrared light to pass, thus the filter looks dark red or black. Thus producing very interesting in-camera effects like false color, wood effects, dreamy black and white images, lurid and snowy foliage, dark hazy skies, etc. The possibilities are beyond our normal visual comprehension.

To better appreciate what near-infrared photography is all about, below are 30 amazingly breathtaking near-infrared photos that will captivate and inspire us.

1. lrargerich

2. Jeffrey Klassen

3. 2121 Studio

4. Mr. Walczak

5. Bill Gracey

6. Billy Currie

7. Blackdaddy

8. Robert Brown

9. Roger Sandgren

10. Cavagna Ottavio

11. Nahoj Sennah

12. Rosario Campione

13. Lukas Ondrousek

14. Francois Spenard

15. Rarindra Prakarsa

16. Kevin Temple

17. Rachel Jacklyn Bilodeau

18. Delbert

19. Irene Müller

20. Niek Haak

21. Mutrus

22. Crossie

23. Porg

24. Snailfan Man

25. La Vita A Bella

26. Dannie Tj. – 李泉亮

27. Prokyron

28. Dingodave

29. Werol

30. Szmytke

30 Inspiring Tiger Illustrations to Celebrate 2010 Year of the Tiger

Graphire — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 03:11:17 +0000

I hope everyone had a great time last year. As we enter Chinese new year this coming February 14 (which, coincidentally, is also Valentines Day), we welcome another auspicious year, 2010, celebrating the year of the tiger. And so with that, we are bringing you more tiger today by featuring 30 amazing and beautiful tiger illustrations to inspire us and jump-start our lives this year.

This special feature on tigers was also made not just for 2010 being the year of the tiger, but also dedicated to all tigers of the world. A simple call to everyone to be aware of the imminent extinction of the most beautiful, powerful and gracious animal on earth, who are being slaughtered to extinction every day. Current figure estimates of around 5,000 to 7,500 tigers are left in the wild out of the current five subspecies left. These numbers may not be that accurate but it is also feared that the actual figure of tigers in the world today is much lower. Others estimate that the remaining tiger population will be totally extinct or eradicated by the turn of the century or soon after.

May these 30 amazing tiger illustrations not just inspire all of us but also move our hearts to help them survive. Save the tigers!

1. Water Tiger by Graf Art Club

2. Blue Eyed Tiger Cub by Bovar

3. White Tiger by Raipun

4. Siberian Tiger in Snow by Yuko

5. Smilodon Fatalis by Balaa

6. Bengal: King of Diamonds by Balaa

7. Fearful Beauty by Balaa

8. White Tiger Swordsman by Peterpan

9. The Year of the Tiger by Heise

10. White Tiger by Brooksart

11. Sylphe by Darvete

12. White Tiger Clan by K. Beyit

13. Tiger Queen by Lorenzo Di Mauro

14. Beautiful Tiger Art Wallpaper from Desktop Nexus

15. White Winter Winner by Karl Bang

16. Tiger Painting by Jason Morgan

17. Tiger Limited Edition Painting by Jason Morgan

18. White Tiger by Kentaro Nishino

19. Ocean Bed by Kintaro Nishino

20. The King of Forest by Kintaro Nishino

21. Curiosity by Kentaro Nishino

22. White Baby Tiger by Kentaro Nishino

23. Girl and Tiger from Desktop Nexus

24. Siberian Tiger by Jason Morgan

25. Tiger Pool by Avril Brand

26. Year of the Tiger by Mimi Yoon

27. Good Mates by Eric Sheperd

28. Tigger by BarbBarcikKeith

29. The Embrace by Sandi Baker

30. Amber Eyes by Koop27

20 Amazing Photoshop Tutorials in Digital Painting

Graphire — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:45:23 +0000

I grew up learning traditional painting and have also seen how digital painting emerged, opening a new era in visual arts. Digital painting is applied using digital tools such as a computer, a digitizing tablet with stylus, and softwares like Corel Painter, ArtRage, openCanvas, GIMP, PaintShop Pro and the most widely used and popular Adobe Photoshop. All these digital tools are used to try to mimic what traditional media has, like utilizing different kinds of digital brushes and effects.

Digital painting is also similar to a traditional painting environment minus the mess. Of course, who wouldn’t miss, aside from the mess, the smell of oil and acrylic paints, and the emotional strokes your brushes create against the canvass. Admittedly, I do. Many times I wanted to try doing oil again but never got the time. But definitely I want to try some digital painting myself, probably on my leisure time, if I can afford one.

There has been always debates on which is better, much like the traditional vs digital photography debate. And there will always be drawbacks and benefits. While digital painting gives the artist ease of working in a virtual, organized and mess-free environment, a lot of traditional artist will argue that there is more control when you are holding a physical brush in your hand and there will always be something missing that the digital world can’t provide.

In as much as I want to talk more about digital and traditional painting, there are much more information and resources around that you can read comparing both. And if you really want to learn more and perhaps master the art of digital painting, there’s nothing much better than to learn it using Adobe Photoshop. There are a lot of digital painting tutorials around but most of them are non-Photoshop or combinations of Photoshop and 3D or other softwares. But most of us are only familiar with Photoshop, so I gathered purely Photoshop tutorials that discusses in details the process, techniques and tips you’ll need to learn and master digital painting. So here are 20 awesome Photoshop tutorials that you can read through and learn. Enjoy!

1. Photoshop Painting Tutorial by Ionen

2. The Making of Frodo by Vishal Pawar

3. The Making of Aretha Franklin by Jason Seiler

4. Portrait of Nathan by Jason Seiler

5. The Making of Halloween Witch by Amber Chen

6. Bioshock Videogame Digital Painting by Roberto Campus

7. Landscape Painting with Photoshop by Alain Descamps

8. Me and Louie’s Sister by Daniel Hammonds

9. Painting a Tree Frog by Richard Harris

10. First Digital Painting Tutorial by Ethe

11. Little Panda Girl Digital Painting Video Tutorial by Rodney Mella

12. Making of Naughty Robot by gigsmella

13. Photoshop Concept Car Tutorial by Martin Tyminski

14. Do You Want to Play With Me? by Mélanie

15. Creating a Photoreal 2D Motorcycle by Renze Rispens

16. “Hanagumori” Digital Painting Tutorial by Dianae

17. How to Draw a Portrait in Photoshop by Constantin Potorac

18. Painting Stone and Rock in Photoshop

19. “Aburod Terra” Digital Painting Photoshop Tutorial by Alexiuss

20. “Praetorian” Digital Painting Photoshop Tutorial by Alexiuss

2010 Creative Calendar Print Design Collection

Graphire — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:30:16 +0000

Previously, I shared some generic 2010 Desk Calendar Illustrator template that everyone can use for regular desk calendar giveaways. But if you’re looking for clever and creative calendar designs, then check out our collection of 10 beautiful and creative 2010 calendar print designs.

Sometimes, we designers ran into some standard linear thinking until we get inspired by creative and outstanding designs that draws us out of the box. Same thing, calendar designs doesn’t have to be always rigidly structured calendar months with dates neatly arranged in columns and rows beneath. Out of the box, there could be a number of creative approaches one can consider when designing calendars. But also remember, unique or unusual design doesn’t always follow good design. Good design should not only be visually appealing but should always reveal function and remains usable.

Hopefully most of you will find this creative showcase useful and find something interesting that you can use for your next calendar print design. Happy new year and may you all have a blessed new year come 2010.

1. Colorful wall calendars from Melissa Design (Vanhoosedesign)

2. 2010 Pershing Calendar by Manuel Dall’olio

3. Shim and Sons 2010 Calendar from Etsy.com

4. Flip Book Calendar by Tomato Kosir

5. Bubble Calendar – 2010 calendar with bubbles to pop each day

6. 2010 By The Numbers by Post Typography

7. “You Can Do It This Year” by Jason Wilkins

8. Hard to Read Calendar 2010 by Timi Everent

9. Spiral Calendar 2010 by Alone-zino

10. Multifaith Calendar for 2010 by Pawel Pilat

Top 45 Logo Re-branding of 2009: Plus Preview on the New AOL Brand

Graphire — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:14:16 +0000

You’ll notice I’m doing more roundups these past few days. It’s no surprise because 2009 is almost over and it’s usually this time of the year that we gather and review these things. In the design community, corporate and brand identity plays a major inspirational role. So today, I have gathered at least 45 of the top and famous logo design makeover or re-branding for 2009.

To re-brand or not

Re-branding or logo re-design is no easy task. The overall impact of even the smallest change in design should be considered. Famous companies and brands have already established their identity, and customers will have certain expectations of any products or materials coming from them. Even the smallest businesses that have been building their brand could take a step backwards if re-branding or redesign are not handled properly. Any business that decides to re-brand will have to take the risk and should carefully consider the reasons behind, and the pros and cons cautiously weighed. Re-branding usually requires an increase in marketing spend including advertising, business promotional items, and product packaging to get the new brand out there.

These top 45 logo design makeover/re-branding of 2009 doesn’t necessarily mean they have successfully done a good re-design job and certainly there will be good and bad comments here and there. But that’s exactly what I want to hear. Be the judge and be heard what you exactly think about their new branding.

AOL’s new brand identity

This logo re-branding roundup was also kindled by the latest and could probably be the biggest re-branding in the online community. The new and next generation AOL, now “Aol.” with a period. The period was added to establish AOL’s content structure as in Aol.Personals or Aol.Classifieds, etc. The new logo is in sans serif typography which can be placed on top of any bunch of wild card images, objects, and almost anything that stand behind to prominently reveal the new “Aol.” logo. The new logo will be officially unveiled on December 10, coinciding with AOL’s independence from Time Warner. You can read more about AOL’s press release here.

2009 Top 45 + 1 Logo Re-branding

So here goes our top 45 plus 1, starting off with the latest AOL (Aol.) logo.

1. France tourism logo (January 2009)

2. Sprite (January 2009)

3. Air France (February 2009)

4. Citroën (February 2009)

5. Kraft Foods (February/July 2009)

6. Jack in the Box (February 2009)

7. Cheer Detergent (March 2009)

8. Snapple (March 2009)

9. Hudson’s Bay Co. (March 2009)

10. Valio Ltd (March 2009)

11. Discovery Kids (April 2009)

12. International Film Festival Rotterdam (April 2009)

13. Society for Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD) (April 2009)

14. NFL’s Detroit Lions (April 2009)

15. Packard Bell (April 2009)

16. Sunny Delight Fruit Juice (May 2009)

17. Fort Worth Museum of Science and History (May 2009)

18. HTV (Hispanic Television) Music Channel (May 2009)

19. Spanair (May 2009)

20. Kraft Miracle Whip (May 2009)

21. Quicktime (June 2009)

22. Firefox 3.5 (June 2009)

23. Vistaprint (July 2009)

24. Union Bank of California (July 2009)

25. Design Management Institute (July 2009)

26. City of Melbourne, Australia (July 2009)

27. Network Solutions (July 2009)

28. VR Group (August 2009)

29. Meredith Corporation (August 2009)

30. Audi (August 2009)

31. Good Humor Ice Cream (August 2009)

32. Opera Web browser (September 2009)

33. Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) (September 2009)

34. Sony PlayStation 3 (September 2009)

35. Hilton Worldwide (September 2009)

36. Nickelodeon (September 2009)

37. Hertz (October 2009)

38. Meiji Holdings Co., Ltd. (October 2009)

39. Frigidaire (October 2009)

40. Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) (October 2009)

41. F-Secure (October 2009)

42. Pfizer (November 2009)

43. MSN (November 2009)

44. The New York Public Library (November 2009)

45. Bavaria (November 2009)

Digital Photography: 12 Popular Post Processing Techniques

Graphire — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:48:25 +0000

There are so many photography enthusiasts these days than film photography days. Although film vs digital photography is still debatable, it’s very much obvious that digital photography is aggressively trying to take over film. But a lot of old school photo hobbyists are reassuring that film is definitely here to stay. And whether you are into film or digital photography, you still need post processing at one point in time. Post processing is one of the most important aspects of digital photography; it is just as important as the photo shoot itself. And ever since I featured one of our popular post here about photography, the “10 Tutorials on How to Create Stunning HDR (High Dynamic Range) Images“, I got lots of questions and requests for information about post-processing. So I gathered some of the most popular and useful Photoshop post processing techniques around and featured them all here today. Scroll down and hopefully you find the technique you’re looking for to achieve the kind of result you really want.

1. Adobe Camera RAW for Beginners: Basic Adjustments

PhotoTuts+ has lots of post processing tutorials. I have selected and featured some from them, and to start it off we have Adobe Camera RAW’s basic adjustment tutorial. In this screencast we look at some of the basic adjustments and how they work. Some adjustments work independently while others work best when used together.

2. Quick & Flexible Photo Colour Manipulation

Another great video tutorial from PhotoTut+, in this tutorial we look at a quick, simple and very flexible way to manipulate colour within an image. We’re focusing upon two example photographs to demonstrate the effect.

3. Black and White Photoshop Conversion Techniques

And last one from PhotoTuts+. In this article we run through the most commonly used black and white conversion methods, outlining the pros and cons of each. Instructions are provided for Photoshop CS and if the technique’s available, Photoshop Elements.

4. Image Retouching: Advanced Skin Softening

In this article from photo.net’s Digital Photography Workflow Series, Jean-Sébastien offers advice on how to achieve skin softening using low and high pass filtering. The article is enhanced with illustrative figures and screen shots, and includes example images from Jean’s portfolio. Whether you are just entering the world of digital photography and need some tips and advice on how best to post-process your images, or are a seasoned pro, the insights shared here should be helpful with your own digital post-processing techniques.

5. Exposure Blending Turorial

I don’t want to feature another HDR tutorial this time, but I just can’t help not to include this one to demonstrate simple blending of multiple exposures to create stunning HDR effects.

6. Quick Selective Sharpening Technique In Photoshop CS3/CS4

A very quick tutorial on selective sharpening technique for Photoshop CS3/4. Now you can apply sharpening only where it is needed, such as eyes and hair, and leave skin textures alone. Covers use of layers, selective sharpening techniques, portrait, retouching, filters, brushes, masks, groups, photoshop.

7. Noise Reduction by Image Averaging

Image noise can compromise the level of detail in your digital or film photos, and so reducing this noise can greatly enhance your final image or print. This tutorial compares a couple common methods for noise reduction, and also introduces and demonstrates an alternative technique: averaging multiple exposures to reduce noise. Image averaging is common in high-end astrophotography, but is arguably underutilized for other types of low-light and night photography.

8. Lens Correction Filter in Photoshop

Learn lens correction filter in Photoshop to be able to repair all kinds of distortions. Not only can it remedy the bulging created by a wide-angle lens, and the weird distortion created by taking a photo too close to subject, but it can also straighten images taken at angles and make them appear as if they were shot straight on.

9. Add Dynamic Lighting to a Flat Photograph

Learn from this tutorial how to spice up a fairly dull and flat photograph. It’s very easy and fast! Go from flat photo to a uniquely lit style.

10. How to Effectively Use Contrast, Auto Levels, and Batch Processing

This tutorial will show you a way of safely using Auto Levels and a better way to adjust the contrast. All this can be built into an Action Script that can be turned into a droplet for drag and drop batch processing.

11. Quick Tip: Color Correction in Photoshop with the Curves Adjustment Tool

One of the most important and useful image correction tool we use in Photoshop is the Curves Adjustment tool, it not only helps us in creating desired contrast, but at the same time it allows us to color correct our images. This is another tutorial from PsdTuts+ that will teach you how to use this tool to color correct photos efficiently.

12. Photo Enhancing Using Dragan and David Hill Effects

Here’s a good one created by Erwin Lazaro at The Digital Photographer Philippines forum. This tutorial is a fusion of Dragan Effect using burning and dodging and Dave Hill Effect using some High Pass and Adjustment Layers.

2009 Special Halloween Treat: Free Vector Cliparts and Icons, Fonts, Photoshop Brushes and More

Graphire — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:56:56 +0000

Halloween is fast approaching and there will be lots of Halloween themed events like parties, concerts, etc. Along with this special October celebration, you will need materials for posters, greeting cards, invitations, decorative items and many more halloween related stuff to make it more creepy and halloweenish. So to spice up your Halloween designs, I have created a one-stop-halloween-shop gathering some of the best free Halloween graphic design materials from various resources around the web.

This collection is jam packed with icons, fonts, vector cliparts, fonts, Photoshop brushes and many more. So put on your ghoulish face, download the materials of your choice for your designs and get your dark creative juices flowing.