terrytoledo.com art and design

It’s time for another little vector doodles freebie, this time a collection of vector graphics based on the topic of women’s fashion. The pack contains various roughly doodled clothing items, including shoes, dresses, belts, sunglasses and bags. Feel free to use them in any of your designs, hopefully they will fit right in to a [...]

Last week I posted an Adobe Illustrator tutorial covering the process of creating your own cute and fuzzy vector monster. This week, I’ve put together a little family of monsters, available for free download in the form of icons. Each monster can be found in PNG, ICNS and ICO filetypes for use on your Mac, [...]

For this week’s collection of creative design links check out a site dedicated to free textures, examples of awesome light graffiti, a tutorial on creating a watercolor effect, an illustrator graph tutorial and a Photoshop steampunk illustration walkthrough.

Texture Lovers

Texture Lovers is a new design site by Max Stanworth aimed at presenting free textures along with [...]

Follow these steps in Adobe Illustrator to create your very own super cute fuzzy monster character. We’ll be working with the basic shapes to start, then use a variety of gradients to add depth. We can then finish it off with some detailed fur effects to really lift the design from the screen.

Start work on [...]

For this week’s roundup of cool and creative links we have a collection of the top design blogs to follow; a bunch of designers who share their logo design processes; a tutorial on how to convert web design mockups into XHTML/CSS; a tutorial covering the process of creating a printed promo kit; and a compilation [...]

Detailed digital illustrations come in all shapes and sizes, and often make use of abstract shapes, flowing lines and bright colours. This collection of 50 inspiring abstract illustrations in web design showcases some of the best, eye popping designs out there on the net.

ANidea

IconDock

Wayne Dorrington

Bali Web Creator

DS Design

Funky Remixes

CSSStyle.me

Rob Sheridan

Adventure Drop

Danatur.de

Douglas Menezes

Naumow

Chirag Solanki

Kirdan

Weblody

Twenty2Designs

iPrimi Dieci

Titofelix

Zinaz

Lyrical Media

Sean [...]

Templates are a handy resource for any apparel designer to mockup your awesome tee design and show it off in all its glory. Such resources can be a little tricky to come by, especially those high quality files, but check out this huge collection of T-Shirt mockup templates, featuring plenty of highly useful files in [...]

Templates are a handy resource for any apparel designer to mockup your awesome tee design and show it off in all its glory. Such resources can be a little tricky to come by, especially those high quality files, but check out this huge collection of T-Shirt mockup templates, featuring plenty of highly useful files in [...]

In this week’s bunch of creative web findings, we have a handy roundup of how-to’s on styling lists with CSS; a great Illustrator tutorial for creating mascots; a fab advertising design showcase; an excellent tutorial for creating a detailed icon; and advice from top designers on how blogging can help your business.

Dev Snippets

Dev Snippets have [...]

The best way to learn the ropes of a new application is to get stuck in with a working project. This Adobe Illustrator tutorial covers the simple steps involved in creating a vector RSS icon and includes a range of handy techniques that can be put into practice in future creations.

Adobe Illustrator is a vector [...]

Just a couple of quick tricks, from scratch, on coding up tables. We use the proper semantic tags for a table header and then set it to a fixed position so when scrolling the table the header is always visible. Then we implement row AND column highlighting with a bit of semi-clever JavaScript.

Get your hot [...]

I’ve mused about this before, but I thought it would be good to put it to a poll this time. The discussion before was absolutely fascinating. Many folks saying that it’s our ethical duty to inform clients of our true opinions, and that part of the value of what we provide is those opinions. Many [...]

Yes, all the major browsers have development tools now, but I think most people are in agreement that you just can’t beat Firebug and the slew of other development-specific addons for Firefox. Outside of these tools, I often hear people complain about Firefox being slow, memory hungry, or crashy. I thought it would be [...]

CMSs are beautiful things. Just as CSS allows us to abstract the design away from the markup, a CMS allows us to use a database to abstract the content away from the markup. There are a zillion of them, each with different backend UI’s and different ways to doing things.
But CMSs are for web [...]

As happens with any weird niche societal group, us web nerds have developed some language of our own. Some of this language is perfectly acceptable English, but still sounds weird to an outsider. I thought I’d throw together a list of these words and attempt to explain them in plain English as a reference for [...]

More than any other single feature, what makes WordPress a CMS (as opposed to just a blogging platform) is custom fields. Custom fields are chunks of data that travel along with posts and pages in key/value pairs. This data can be pulled out and used in your templates as you choose, allowing for all kinds [...]

A 404 error on the web is what a web server responds with when it is tasked with serving up a resource that it can’t find.
1. It should still look like your website
If you don’t specifically tell your web server how to handle 404 errors, it will serve up a very plain and generic looking [...]

As promised, the theme I had WP Coders code up as a demo is now available for your perusal and download. It’s called WP Typo and it’s a purely typographical theme (zero images used).

I won’t be cross-posting everything every little thing from Digging into WordPress over here as well, just big news like this. [...]

I was recently asked by the guys at WP Coder if I would do a review of their service. I don’t do it very often, but they seemed like nice guys and WordPress is of particular interest to me lately. As it happens, I was tinkering with a theme in Photoshop right as they asked [...]

Got a little news for ya’ll. Remember when I announced me and Jeff Starr were looking for a publisher for a book about WordPress? Well, that worked, and we talked a number of different publishers. They were all very nice, but after weighing everything out we decided that when we are done we’ll be self-publishing [...]

DreamCSS has written a tutorial explains how to Create Beautiful jQuery sliders with image description and name. The gallery looks so simple but elegant. The text effect it displays the image title and description is very attractive as well.

Requirements: jQuery Framework
Demo: http://dreamcss.comli.com/jquery sliders/
License: License Free

Related Posts

How to Create an Image Rotator with jQuery and CSS
Galleria [...]

Aviary has just launched Screen Capture Talon that can let you capture any webpage from any browser, by simply putting Aviary.com/ in front of the URL. You can capture a page at different resolutions or to only capture a portion of the page as well.
After capturing the page, you can edit it, add simple markup [...]

XRegExp is an open source (MIT license) JavaScript library that provides an augmented, extensible, cross-browser implementation of regular expressions, including support for additional syntax, flags, and methods.
XRegExp adds new regex and replacement text syntax, including comprehensive support for named capture. It also provides a suite of 12 functions and methods that make complex regex processing [...]

With 200 lines of JavaScript, you can drag and drop table content. Content of the HTML table cells can be dragged to the another table cell or another table. Script has built in autoscroll and option to forbid landing to some table cells. Table could have rowspan or colspan cells and different background color for [...]

scripty2 is a complete rewrite of the venerable script.aculo.us library. It is a powerful, flexible JavaScript framework to help you write your own delicious visual effects & user interfaces.
However, scripty2 is still in a prerelease alpha version and not meant for production use at the moment. Even in alpha, the effects engine can now [...]

Komodo Media has developed over 80 refined, amazing social networking icons for the top networks around. The Social Network Icon Pack consists of 40+ 16 pixel x 16 pixel icons and 40+ 32 pixel by 32 pixel icons all in 32-bit PNG format. Social Network Icon Pack is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike [...]

MegaZine 3 is an open source pageflip/flashbook engine, written completely in AS3. It generates an interactive book, which can then be flipped through by the user. MegaZine 3 uses a completely dynamic approach, allowing full configuration through an external XML file. This makes it easy to set up books even if you do not even [...]

While mimicking the OS X dock and stacks isn’t new, it’s certainly not common. Nettuts has shown us a few ways to do “Outside the Box” Navigation with OS X style docks and stacks navigation.
jQuery OS X Stack and Drop Stack is my favorite navigation style out of the three shown in the tutorial. It’s [...]

Since 2005, Socialcast has been a leader in the development of on-demand collaboration software. Socialcast unites traditional intranet features with social networking technology to empower employees to expand, create and share knowledge across the enterprise. Socialcast is a simple, secure, free collaboration tool that helps employees communicate in real time.
Recently, Sociacast has announced that all [...]

Less is Leaner css. Less extends css by adding: variables, mixins, operations and nested rules. Less uses existing css syntax. This means you can migrate your current .css files to .less in seconds and there is virtually no learning curve.
Variables
Variables allow you to specify widely used values in a single place, and then re-use them [...]

David Stairs
Kasule Kizito is not your everyday Ugandan. For one thing, he’s too direct. He says what he thinks without undue regard for taboos or political correctness. In an oral culture this of itself is amazing. For example, he’s the only African I know who’s not in ecstasies over Obama’s victory. Kizito had wanted Hillary. [...]

Raymond Prucher
“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” - Desiderius Erasmus
Images taken at the Qalandia checkpoint inside the West Bank, well beyond the ‘Green Line’ that was set up by the 1949 Armistice.
I became a designer in Palestine. In 2003, three years after we’d [...]

David Stairs
I was trudging through my local neighborhood big-box megastore the other day en route to my weekly rendezvous with groceries when I found myself in what passes for the book section. This isn’t a Borders experience; more somewhere between B. Dalton and the magazine rack at the local regional airport. So I wasn’t surprised [...]

David Stairs
Ezio Manzini is an optimist. Four years ago he envisioned a design conference dedicated to the notion that although things must, will, and do change, perhaps we ought to spend more time planning that evolution. This vision was realized last week at the Changing the Change conference held in the World Design Capital at [...]

Jesse Miller
Outside “Casa Rosenda” Monterrey, Mexico
The Architectural Masters Thesis. High expectations and the culmination of one’s educational career are commonly used to describe this thing that looms as the end of graduate school approaches. It is a thing that has much implied importance and historical baggage. Though all these factors that [...]

Victor Margolin
One of the most privileged populations in America today is dolls. They are the beneficiaries of powerful forces of consumption that seek ever-new audiences for the plethora of goods that is available for sale. In earlier times, dolls were not thought to be such active participants in the consumption process. They were for [...]

Catherine Jo Ishino
Hong Kong and PRC Design from the Reform Era (ca.1978)
In the next two sections, I will explore how China’s marketplace, citizenry, and identity have begun to transform with its entry into the overarching globalization narrative that has been taking place since the last part of the 20th century. Specifically, I will focus on [...]

Since June, Wang Jing in Nanjing and AGI member Robert Appleton in Toronto have been working on an international exhibition of design, art and music to benefit the survivors of the Sichuan earthquake. It opens in Nanjing this Sunday for one week only. “5:12 CHINA’S MASSIVE EARTHQUAKE. A COMMEMORATIVE EXHIBITION.” includes works donated by over [...]

Victor Margolin
Most anthropologists would agree that the number of languages in the world is declining. This is particularly true for those spoken by small communities that over the years have either dwindled to a few survivors or become extinct. While it is common for languages spoken by large groups to overwhelm those spoken by smaller [...]

by Victor Margolin
Anyone with doubts about Barak Obama’s ability to lead the United States should look at how he has run his campaign. Whereas John McCain’s considerably smaller organization has imploded more than once and is now in the process of self-destructing – riven with accusations and recriminations from within – Obama’s army of workers [...]

Unsure of when to use visibility and when to use display to hide an element on your page. This post will answer the question and provide an example so you can see for yourself which is best to use.
Visit Source.

Looking to Hire a Designer or Developer?
Post a free job listing to the DesignM.ag job board [...]

A showcase of 50 Free high-quality & New (X)HTML/CSS template. You will also find among these elegant templates a very well written step-by-step tutorials showing you how to create your own.
Visit Source.

Looking to Hire a Designer or Developer?
Post a free job listing to the DesignM.ag job board for freelance, part-time or full-time positions. Your listing [...]

Two months ago i created a showcase of flash e-commerce sites, which was very much liked by my blog readers. Now i have collected 25 beautiful and creative photography sites.
Visit Source.

Looking to Hire a Designer or Developer?
Post a free job listing to the DesignM.ag job board for freelance, part-time or full-time positions. Your listing will [...]

This list just features 22 resource sites and several very well written articles with premade pattern collections, so you have everything in one place! Enjoy!
Visit Source.

Looking to Hire a Designer or Developer?
Post a free job listing to the DesignM.ag job board for freelance, part-time or full-time positions. Your listing will be seen by thousands of [...]

I’m sure most of you are familiar with the popular design blog Webdesigner Depot. In much less than a year WDD has become one of the leading blogs in the niche. I recently had a chance to interview the man behind WDD, Walter Apai.

How long have you been designing and how did you get started?
As [...]

When you are needing a good shot of inspiration in the veins, don’t get caught up with the seemingly endless variety of logo and design inspiration galleries. Move away from your computer, grab a good book and read up on some case studies.
Visit Source.

Looking to Hire a Designer or Developer?
Post a free job listing to [...]

A specific type of design I’ve seen a lot lately is the iPhone app websites. They generally all follow the same plan of attack but it makes me wonder – are these sites built to blend in with the others or are there some that really stand out?
Visit Source.

Looking to Hire a Designer or Developer?
Post [...]

I’ve compiled a list of plugins you MUST use on every website to take the user experience to the next level.
Visit Source.

Looking to Hire a Designer or Developer?
Post a free job listing to the DesignM.ag job board for freelance, part-time or full-time positions. Your listing will be seen by thousands of talented designers and developers. [...]

We have two questions for you today with a mini-rant in-between.
Visit Source.

Looking to Hire a Designer or Developer?
Post a free job listing to the DesignM.ag job board for freelance, part-time or full-time positions. Your listing will be seen by thousands of talented designers and developers. - Post a job for free.

Today, we have 55 incredible product advertisements from deviantART that you haven’t seen, but are extraordinary examples of how creative and meaningful advertising should be done.
Visit Source.

Looking to Hire a Designer or Developer?
Post a free job listing to the DesignM.ag job board for freelance, part-time or full-time positions. Your listing will be seen by thousands [...]

A redesign can be worth its weight in gold if you get it right. There is a thin line between freshening up your design, and taking a step backwards with a redesign.  Sometimes a redesign can be subtle and simple, and other times it can be a huge re-vamp of a company and it’s goals. [...]

Demo & Info
That’s right, we’ve worked on a Joomla Theme. Although we love Wordpress we realize it’s not everybodies’ first choice of CMS. So we felt it was only fair to make something just as pretty as our Wordpress themes for the Joomla people.
The result, Hallmark, a premium Joomla theme ideal for running news/magazine sites [...]

Everyone knows that WordPress is one of the most, if not the most, popular blogging systems on the internet today. With its out of the box features, plugins, and great theming community, its no wonder WordPress has been accepted as today’s standard. However, sometimes you just want to add a little more.
It seems the latest [...]

Another collaboration between ourselves and WooThemes, the result: this stunning theme with optional layouts. We’ve realized, that while a lot of people no doubt love magazine style themes - there are still a lot of people who would like the option of having something a little more personal. So here you have it!
As always with [...]

A while ago we had the pleasure of working with DreamTemple for a Wordpress Theme which they’ve given away for free on Smashing Magazine. That means you can get this beautiful and unique theme for free, from the king of freebies Smashing Magazine.
We’re very happy to once again have some of our work featured on [...]

This set of free characters is ideal for adding a little personality into your designs. With a variety of actions and poses to chose from you can easily adapt them into your designs anywhere you feel needs it.
Inject a little fun into your dull and boring help pages, emphasize a feature or a button [...]

Creating a website is no easy task. WordPress is an easy solution for creating a Blog, but sometimes something a little more, in terms of functionality, is needed. After trying many other platforms, I have found WordPress to be the easiest to use. Because of it’s wide array of themes, great plugin system, and easy [...]

Ahh yes, the Design Community. I love it! This is the topic of a recent guest post I wrote over at MyInkBlog. Below is an extract from the article, but you can read the full the article here. Please leave your feedback and comments on the actual post rather than here.
Why I love the Design [...]

Demo & Info
To celebrate the launch of Theme Forest and our new theme Evo, we’re giving away 5 sets of $25 credit to be used on any theme on the site. Find out more at the end of the post.
The theme is ideal for either being used straight out of the box, or brilliant for [...]

Demo & Info
First off, I’d just like to introduce myself. My name is Spencer, and I am the lead developer here at Function. I’m the guy that takes Liam’s awesome designs, and turns them into working sites.
Liam had this design laying around, and I knew I couldn’t let it go to waste. So, I’ve [...]

Here’s a quick tip for all you Adobe software users out there: The Adobe Exchange. What is it? The Adobe Exchange (which seems to have recently been renamed to the Adobe Marketplace & Exchange) is a community resource to share and download lots of extras for your Adobe software products: Actions, Brushes, Custom Shapes, Displacement Maps, Filters, Flash Panels, Gradients, Droplets, Patterns, Plug-ins, Scripts, Styles, Templates, Symbols, Patterns [...]

As if a gift from the gods, the new FAIL Sticker is upon us. Making such an explosive impact on the world, Michael Jackson has reportedly risen from the grave to witness such a great spectacle. Seriously, this little palm sized sticker will have you deflating bloated egos and reddening cheeks in your [...]

So you just spent 10 or more hours creating a crazy t-shirt design and your client has officially signed off…so what now?
You may have created stellar photo-realistic mockups and used tons of really cool colors- but none of this means ANYTHING if your screen printer can’t clearly interpret your vision! [...]

Ah the age-old debate. To show prices or not to show prices on your website. There are pros and cons to both and Go Media has experimented with both in the past. We eventually decided to go against showing prices on our website, but the discussion never seems to go away. [...]

Time. There’s never enough of it. But what if I told you there was a way to create more time, particularly in your design life? It’s simple, actually—make your computer do the work.
Over the years, I have found a rather handy set of software utility programs for the Mac that have saved me countless hours [...]

Barton Damer gave us permission to repost his handy DIY guide on making a striped t-shirt in your own backyard with just a spray bottle, duct tape, some bleach, and some good ole American ingenuity.
This weekend I had some fun with duct tape and some bleach making this tee shirt design. Check out [...]

Barton Damer was kind enough to let us repost this article on the zine. What do you think? Do you need a degree to be a designer these days?

There are many potential paths you could follow in the world of “design.” Graphic Art is the term I gravitate towards the most for my [...]

I’ve decided to call these Monthly reviews now since I don’t seem to be able to update them weekly much anymore. I’ve been busy, so here are some notable Go Media happenings for May.

Launched a new Go Media site at www.gomedia.us. We haven’t updated our portfolio and design services site in such a long [...]

We have officially joined the PepperJam Network to help us better manage our Affiliate program. I’m sure most of you know about The Arsenal and only some of you know that you can actually be making money by promoting our products. Yeah, we never really did tell many people about our affiliate program [...]

The following 5 short cuts will save you in expensive pain medication from staring at your screen for far too many hours. I know they’ve saved me in the past. Here’s a little video I did for this article to grab screenshots and such. We won’t be learning how to do this today, but maybe [...]

In this week’s Plus video tutorial, the creator of the extremely popular s3Slider plugin will show you how to build a similar “slideshow” component using jQuery. What better way to learn how to mimic your favorite plugins than to learn from the creators themselves? This isn’t one you should miss! Become a Plus member today!

Join [...]

Hundreds of ecommerce systems exist, but very few can match the power of Magento. In this screencast, I’ll demonstrate how to download and install Magento to a local host, configure some of the site options, and create simple and configurable products and categories for our test e-commerce site.

Screencast

Why Use Magento?
Well there are quite a few [...]

Making a webapp for the iPhone is a lot like making a normal web site, but with a few quirks to abide by. In this article, I’ll give you a wide variety of tips, covering things such as: “must-haves”, usability guidelines, testing/debugging, pitfalls, and performance issues. I hope you enjoy it!

WebApps vs. Native Apps
Keep in [...]

In this tutorial, we will go through the process of creating a small widget that allows users to retrieve turn-by-turn directions to a specified location. We’ll be using the Google Maps API, via JavaScript, to provide this rather advanced functionality.

Getting An API Key

The only caveat with using Google Maps is we must apply [...]

I’ve compiled a list of 30 exceptional web page designs for your inspiration. Most of these are relatively new; so they’ll hopefully give you some ideas for your next project! Enjoy!

1. Alexarts
Alex uses a very simple but modern interface for his site. Click on any of the sections, and a popup displays.

2. [...]

In 2007, Apple updated .Mac (now MobileMe), and introduced the “Web Gallery” feature - a photo sharing service that integrates with iPhoto. Web Gallery offers a beautiful interface, but the layout is done entirely with JavaScript. In this tutorial, we will attempt to recreate the Web Gallery interface using only CSS and a small [...]

In this week’s 30 minute screencast, I’m going to show you how easy it is to work with the MVC pattern and CodeIgniter. This video is aimed at beginners who have no experience with a PHP framework.
For demonstration purposes, we’ll be building a simple image upload utility. We’ll then perform some validation, save the [...]

The PHP Anthology - Free 207 Page Preview
A compilation of the best solutions provided to common PHP questions.
The PHP Anthology will save you time, and eliminate the frustration of completing PHP tasks, with a comprehensive collection of ready-to-use solutions. If you’re building web applications with PHP you’ll never let this book out of your site! [...]

In this article, we will use restful_authentication to add a user system to a simple Rails application. This is great for those first starting out and need step-by-step directions for using this amazing plugin. At the end of the article, visitors will be able to create an account, reset their password, login, logout, and validate [...]

In this two-part series, we’ll be creating a basic ‘Jobs Board’, similar to “FreelanceSwitch Jobs” and “Smashing Jobs”, using the CodeIgniter PHP framework. Sign up!

“This tutorial series will not serve as a beginners guide to CodeIgniter, however you don’t need much experience with it either. I’d recommend to at the least, have an [...]

If you’re looking for a way to break out of the box with a design, creating a unique layout is one way to accomplish this. In this post we’ll look at 25 sites that make use of a creative and unique layout.
Alexarts

Wall Swaps

Lucas Hirata

Colourpixel

BootB

Howarths

Rabotilnica

Ashes & Milk

Jack Threads

Missscha’s Photogallery

Jan Sochor Photography

DJ Yura

X Producciones Graficas

Creative People

Shift (px)

Kobe [...]

With some creativity you can create amazing text effects with Photoshop. In this post we’ll feature 25 of the best tutorials for creating 3D text effects. There are a variety of different types of effects, so hopefully you can find some new tricks to learn.
If you’re looking for examples of inspirational uses of text, please [...]

Websites that use horizontal scrolling in addition to, or instead of, vertical scrolling are becoming more popular. While this trend isn’t a good idea in every situation, the sites showcased here may give you some ideas or inspiration for using this approach in one of your own projects.
Suie Paparude

Sonido

Eric Ryan Anderson

Hasrimy.com

Peter Pearson

Dean Oakley

Visuall

Tyler Thompson Blog

The [...]

Most people who are looking to buy or sell a home are doing research online. As a result, there is a great need for real estate companies and agents to have a website that will provide potential buyers and sellers with the information that they are looking for.
Having a website that can be easily maintained [...]

Last year I published 25 of the Best Photographer Portfolio Websites. Today I’d like to follow up with another set of 25 sites for your design inspiration.
In this collection you’ll see a good deal of variety between the sites. Some use a minimal layout that showcases the photos without distraction, and others are a bit [...]

Tracking time and dealing with invoices and finances are not the favorite part of freelancing for most designers. Fortunately, there are products that can help to make it less painful and cumbersome. Fanurio is offering five free licenses to their time tracking software to Vandelay Design readers.

If you’re not familiar with Fanurio, it is a [...]

If you pay attention to web trends you have probably noticed that a growing number of sites are using designs that give the appearance of three dimensions. 3D design elements can help to make the design look more unique, as well as to highlight something in particular by drawing the visitor’s attention. In this post [...]

Today I’m happy to announce that I have launched a network of five niche gallery sites! Many of us visit design and CSS galleries on a consistent basis for design inspiration, and there is no shortage of galleries to choose from. Some of my favorite galleries are those that exist to showcase work of a [...]

Finding inspiration is important to designers of all kinds. For web designers there is plenty of design inspiration available online through gallery sites and design blogs that compile posts for inspiration. This abundance of potential inspiration makes it quick and easy to browse through these sources, but unfortunately it also tends [...]

Budget limitations are common with non-profit and charitable organizations. As a result, organizations often compromise on the need for an effective and attractive website. However, the websites shown here represent some of the most well-designed websites of non-profits.
The Memphis Zoo

Family Life Network

Custodial Abuse

Common Good Radio

Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research

The Society of Publication Designers

Wiser

Take [...]

“Stuff I find here and there, scanned and cataloged for your enjoyment and mine.”

Collection from flickr user Big Red Robot.

Well, we broke another contest entry record with the RYZ shoe design contest.  1,600 designs were submitted… awesome work.  Now comes the hard part of trying to find a winner from so many great designs.  This is where you spread the word about your designs and get your friends and family to vote for your shoe.  Good luck!

Remember, winner takes home the grand prize - $750 cash and $250 store credit to the RYZ shop - plus free sponsored memberships at COLOURlovers.

Vote Now at RYZ

Details from RYZ

It was tough work, but with the help from our friends at COLOURlovers, we were able to find the Top 9 COLOURlovers pattern designs out of the over 1600 submitted. In keeping with our voting process, we are seeding the voting gallery - top 9 selected by our COLOURlovers Creative Panel are on page 1, then the top 9 selected by our internal RYZ team on page 2. All other designs are listed on following pages and have equal chance in winning.

With the onslaught of multiple designs submitted, we have created a new feature where you can remove an entry from the competition. For those who have entered more than 3 designs, we’ll give you through the weekend to self-select your favorite three (you probably shouldn’t remove your design if it’s in the top 9) - after that we will go through and remove designs for you. Go to your Contest Portfolio and select the “X” to remove a design from the contest. It will be returned to your Personal Design Workspace.

Remember everyone has a chance at winning - post your shoe to your networks, invite your friends and vote often!

Good luck to all and thank you again to the COLOURlovers community!

This is a guest post written by Howard Sullivan who together with Tom Phillipson make up the London based design agency Your Studio. You can see the original post on their blog.

“Underneath Day’s azure eyes, Ocean’s nursling, Venice lies, A peopled labyrinth of walls, Amphitrite’s destined halls.”

As the sun rose and the art-crowds flocked, the great palazzos threw open their doors this weekend marking the opening of Venice’s 53rd Biennale, curated by Daniel Burnbaum and open

Francis Upritchard’s ‘Yellow Dancer’ from ‘Save Yourself’, installation for the NZ Pavillion, Palazzo Mangilli-Valmarana, Venice Biennale, 2009

For the next four summer months. This showcase of the world’s best and most diverse art talent is the modern treasure within not only the amazing crumling palazzos but also at the ‘Arsenale’, a grand industrial L-shaped sequence of double-height brick warehouses and at ‘Giardini’- a large open park scattered with rambling pavilions and outbuildings.

We first encountered Francis Upritchard at Kate MacGarry’s Vyner Street Gallery for the show ‘Feierabend‘ with Martino Gamper and Karl Fritsch.  ‘Save Yourself‘, Upritchard’s show representing New Zealand at the Biennale at Palazzo Mangilli-Valmarana is both entrancing and unmissable.

Francis Upritchard’s ‘Save Yourself’ for the NZ Pavillion, Palazzo Mangilli-Valmarana, Venice Biennale, 2009

Entering the decayed splendour of the top floor rooms of the palace, you feel like you are aparty to something private, privileged to enter a kind of magical assembly. A bande of beautiful and intriguing miniature figures in a kaleidoscopic array of colours sit, dance around, lie back in ecstacy atop long grey formica tabletops which sail into the antique mirrors lining the walls.

A beautiful and tranquil-looking figure from Francis Upritchard’s installation ‘Save Yourself’ for NZ, Venice Biennale, 2009

The power of these colourful characters, made with intricate details, tiny hands and fingernails perfectly crafted, is that they permeate a feeling, from meditation, transcendance to personal bliss, we seem to be witnessing all of them in some state of subtle and personal peacefullness.

Lost in a state of personal bliss- detail of ‘Rested’ figure from Francis Upritchard’s installation ‘Save Yourself’ for NZ, Venice Biennale, 2009

The figures don’t look at us but turn their gazes inwards in some form of compelling transcendence, you can’t help feeling beckoned to join them.
Francis Upritchard explains the subject-matter of her work herself:

“…like dark ages craft adjusted and repainted by some futurist revolutionary caught in a wild dream.”

‘Richard’ from Francis Upritchard’s installation ‘Save Yourself’ for NZ, Venice Biennale, 2009

Amongst Wolfgang Tillmans’ works exhibited this year are beautiful single chroma-coloured photographs hung simply tacked onto the walls in deftly colour-coordinated clusters spanning the gallery corners.

Wolfgang Tillmans at the Venice Biennale, 2009

Also in rows behind Perspex vitrines folded, crumpled and scored chroma-coloured photogrphs form colourful sequences.

Wolfgang Tillmans at the Venice Biennale, 2009

What these photos were of it was impossible to know but you got the sense that you were looking at a detail of something that had been ‘photographed’ as opposed to just a randomly chosen block of colour and part if the enjoyment seemed in deciphering what these close-ups might come from. Your mind can’t help wondering what the image would be if you zoomed out to see the full picture.

Cildo Meireles in the Arsenale presents a series of chroma-coloured walk-through installation. Over a sequence of five rooms, you journey through orange, yellow, green to violet to blue, each room with an enticing doorway giving a sneak into the next saturated super-colour.

Cildo Meireles’ walk-in installation at ‘Making Worlds’, the Venice Biennale, 2009

The corner of each room at eye-level houses a monitor playing what seems to be a view of the corner behind the monitor, but as we move, the colour flicks to one discordant to that of the room, so orange on blue and yellow on green. As a development from his original ‘Red Shift’ installation from 1967-1984, where the red colour theme of the room is made of a myriad of found objects, all in the same hue of red, this work is like climbing into a techno-rainbow, boxed by Tadao Ando. Your mind can’t help responding to the super-saturated brightness of the colours; effective chroma-therapy for the jaded art traveller.

Our final stop away from the main trail of the Biennale was at the Punta della Dogana, the much anticipated second location of the Palazzo Grassi on the tip of the lagoon on the Grand Canal. Squeezing itself literally into every last inch of it’s triangular plot on the tip of the lagoon on the Grand Canal, Guiseppe Benomi’s 17th century Venetian Customs House has been transformed into a double-height shrine to the very best of contemporary art. ‘Mapping the Studio’ the current exhibition there curated by Francesco Bonami and Alison Gingeras sets the personal art collection of the French magnate Francois Pinault (the man behind the Gucci Group) against the waterside views of Venice. And it literally feels like you are walking through a collection of the best art in the world.

Matthew Day-Jackson’s skull piece at the Punta della Dogana, Palazzo Grassi’s amazing new alternative space at the Venice Biennale, 2009

Amongst the amazingly colour-saturated glossy pictures of Piotr Uklanski and the classics such as Sherman and Koons, our favourite was the work of the relative newcomer Matthew Day-Jackson. A row of wax sculls along a series of shelves morph as they progress upwards through the colours of the rainbow from realistic skulls to gradually more hybridised faceted volumes.

A duo of highly engineered polished cases with glass fronts and infinity mirror backgrounds display two hybrid-skeletons. Certain selected elements of the bone structures have been replaces such as the ribcage is now a series of polished brass coils. Unfortunately, photography of the collection was strictly forbidden (and strictly enforced!) so we were unable to picture this work. The work however, feels totally fresh and part of a new colourful movement of artists adding a metallic, psychedelic twist to classic celebration of the dark and macabre.

Haegue Yang’s ‘Symmetric Inequality’ installation inside the Korean pavilion at the Venice Biennale, 2009

Bridging our step from colour to works on an interior scale is Haegue Yang’s ‘Symmetric Inequality’ installation inside the Korean pavilion at the Giardini. Made from a series of multi-coloured blinds constructed the pseudo open dwelling, part hut, part temple flutters in the breeze as the fans surrounding it sporadically turned on and off.

One of more quirky installations but one we loved was Chu Yun’s ‘Constellation’, also at the Arsenale. Described as ‘various household appliances divorced from their usual setting’, Yun has created a miasma of flashing, flickering twinkling lights from a landscape of objects whose LED lights flash on standby.

A modern-day cosmos of domestic white goods/ white Gods Chu Yun’s installation ‘Constellation’ at the Arsenale, Venice Biennale, 2009

Howard and Tom were lucky enough to catch the installations and performances of these other artists: Liam Gillick’s installation, Ttéia 1 | C’ by Brazilian artist Lygia Pape | The Scottish pavillion and Palazzo Pisani with the work of Dundee-based artist Martin Boyce | The work of Yoko Ono | and Charles Ray’s “Boy With Frog”.

See the additional coverage. More on Kate MacGarry & Francis Upritchard.

Photos & Content © Howard Sullivan

A selection of patterns from the COLOURlovers’ group Complex Pattern. Oops, I didn’t read the rules of this group before selecting these and I’ve included some patterns other than x_1013_x.

Group devoted to Complex pattern by x_1013_x. What it means to us, showcasing and picking our favourites. For me it was like discovering a brand new island. Lovely experience. The pattern’s secrets are inside, ways to use it and categories for you to post your patterns in. The complex pattern is by hard the hardest pattern to master. It has so many options to it. It’s just impossible to find the perfect colour scheme. So our goal is to master it.

Here’s a great collection of film posters and matchboxes from India. They were collected by English artist and illustrator Matt Lee.

Matchboxes

Matchboxes from the Subcontinent. Collected during my time working from Bangalore, these matchboxes are the tangible memories of my various travels and experiences through India. The random and disparate juxtapositions of the imagery encapsulate the mix of historic, mythological and contemporary visual culture in India. New matchboxes are added regularly. An interview about this matchbox collection can be read over at www.60over90.com.

South Indian Film Posters

Macho Men and Flirtatious Women. Local language, hand drawn lithographic film posters and the larger, glossier offset film posters contribute largely to the visual culture and character of the streets of Bangalore. Below is an ongoing gallery of these film posters I have been photographing as well as a one minute video sketch of the lithographic printers responsible for a large part of this output. The video was made in collaboration with video artist Smriti Mehra for the City One Minutes art project.

Three out of the four topics in today’s post came from the colorful blog that deserves some love, today and tomorrow.

Optical Illusions

The Best Color Illusion We’ve Seen

Akiyoshi Kitaoka’s incredible optical illusion website

Via @colourlovers; the best color illusion… posted first at Akiyoshi Kitaoka’s incredible optical illusion website and found over at Discover Magazine’s blog.

“You see embedded spirals, right, of green, pinkish-orange, and blue? Incredibly, the green and the blue spirals are the same color. At first I thought Richard was pulling our collective legs, being a trickster of high magnitude. So I loaded the image in Photoshop and examined the two spirals. In the two squares displayed below, the one on the left is colored using the same color from the blue spiral, and on the right using the green spiral.”

3gen

Flickr

“This is the desription of the Flickr set 3gen by |||||||||||||||||||: ? 3 üç üçgen triangle three trois ? ? ? ? III ? ? ? drie ? ? ?´ ? trys trejetas s?n ????? ? tri ?.
Everything clear?” - today and tomorrow

Art

Works by Sarah Spitler

Sarah Spitler

“Colorful chaos.” - today and tomorrow

‘Color Field Paintings’ by Michael Demers

Michael Demers

“Color Field Paintings” by Michael Demers. The color tiles of each painting will be generated randomly, based upon parameters established for each piece. Each painting will exist for approximately 10 seconds.” - today and tomorrow

A downloadable application for the iPhone/iPod that uses the location of the device to generate a color field on the screen. Gallery visitors can download the app on their own iPhones/iPods and place the devices on a shelf in the space, creating various color field paintings.

Website visitor generates a series of browser windows, each with a randomly assigned color based upon parameters established for each piece.

Salmon is a great and fun color which is rarely used and seen. It is a nice change and a great way liven things up a bit, while also softening a look as well. Do you like the color salmon and are you currently using it in your home?

[image above: wallpaper, pendant, diamond bedding, patchwork bedding, tray, pillow, knob]

Brown and beige are rather serene and natural colors. Brown is dark and heavy and beige is light and creamy. Yes, the two can also be viewed as bland and boring, but like the many different colors that exist it can be beautiful and even chic when done the right way.

[image above: rug, dinnerware, frame, pendant, tray, lantern, pillows]

Creating interaction through the experimentation of new media and physical computing, the Shanghai Based ‘multi-discipline design company,’ Super Nature makes things that make me wish I could experience them first hand. And though I suspect the images do them no justice, the videos provided on their site for each of their projects can at least give us a secondhand look at the imaginative color interaction of their installations.

Co-articulation Color Construction

C.C.C. is a synthesis structure of color terminology and new vision of geometrical forms that could be perceived as a visual metaphor through time, space and the sense of movement. It uses water as a medium for visual display as water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. A simple visual form could be articulated by extending the “color wave” and forms a three dimensional form within a liquid space. Through user interaction, color, sound and form transformation are synchronized with the kinematic movements that controlled by the user’s hand movement. For more information: C.C.C. (Co-articulation Color Construction)

The Windcatcher

“The Windcatcher” represents the flow of air and moving in motion. It is an art exploration of searching feeling, color, motion and visualization in a space. This installation is designed like an experimental laboratory which translates wind energy to visualization. “The Windcatcher” embraces a new understanding of nature forces and bringing back our childhood dreams and memories. It conveys good messages pertaining to our natural environment and the connection between human and nature. For more information: The Windcatcher

Rabbit Wonderland

Rabbit Wonderland is a series of innovative outdoor LED interactive sculptures that aims to bring color, laughter and warmth to the streets of Shanghai during the Shanghai eArts Festival 2008. It Is a crossover project with W+K Shanghai. The iconic symbol of “Rabbit Wonderland” is the friendly and lucky Rabbit, which traditionally enjoyed favour among the Chinese for its representation of auspice and peace.

Gorgeous and intriguing; macro shots of soap bubbles perfectly captured by artist Bogdan Chesaru. And I can’t help but agree that the name of his website is also a good description of his work: a kind of magic.

Artist Statement

“A Kind of Magic” gallery depicts the natural iridescent colors you see when light catches a clear soap bubble.

Simply put, I photograph light interference on soap film - a physical phenomenon that surrounds our everyday lives and yet it goes largely unnoticed.

As seen through the camera lens, a vibrant scenery of shapes and patterns, swirling and dancing on the edge of time, arouse both the eye and mind with a sensation of spatial elasticity. Driven by a strong minimalist impulse, my work is a venture into this playground of the most faint air currents, molecular forces and gravity’s relentless pull.

Viewers are invited to freely construct their own visual narrative as they catch a glimse into the ephemeral universe of the soap bubble.

Breathe… click… exhale… The eternal torn from the momentary. A Kind of Magic.

How It’s Made

A flat soap film is made by dipping a wire frame into the soap bubble mixture.
The frame is held above a dark surface, and a studio light is aimed at the bubble. The camera is aimed so that the reflection of the light will be seen over the entire surface of the bubble, and a macro-photograph is taken of that reflection.

All images are created completely in the camera with minor contrast and saturation adjustments.

Please take a moment and see where your imagination takes you.

“After careful and considered review of more than 900 entries, the 2008 jury of the “AIGA 50 books/50 Covers” competition selected a group of 91 examples of outstanding book and book cover design produced in 2008.”

“The jury’s selections will be mounted as a public exhibition during the “Make/Think: AIGA Design Conference” in October 2009 and at the AIGA National Design Center in New York in December 2009, and will travel across the country to AIGA chapters and student groups during 2010. In addition, selections become part of the AIGA Design Archives, are documented in 365: AIGA Year In Design, and the physical artifacts join the AIGA Design Archives at the Denver Art Museum and the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University.”

In part one of a two-part primer on RDFa, learn how semantic features normally confined to the head of an HTML document can be used to add semantic richness to the elements of the body. Mark Birbeck shows us how.

If it takes only 50 milliseconds for users to form an aesthetic opinion of your site’s credibility and trustworthiness, are designers who create visually compelling sites simply wasting time and treasure on graphic indulgences? Patrick Lynch doesn’t think so.

Interface responsiveness is one of many details web developers must consider in their quest to deliver a good user experience. An application that responds quickly enhances the user’s sense of control. In working to maximize application speed, though, one often-overlooked element can affect performance more than almost anything else: database design.

While you’re always optimistic when leading a team, you know that not everyone’s got your back. Liars and poor communicators can wipe out good work faster than a 404 error. Learn how to think critically about verbal and non-verbal behavior and to separate office politics from truth, so you don’t let the Werewolves win.

Does every day feel like a bad day? Blurry boundaries between work and home, and the “always on” demands of the web can lead to depression and burnout. Learn the signs of burnout and how to maintain your bliss.

Have you ever wanted to resize a video on the fly, scaling it as you would an image? Using intrinsic ratios for video and some padding property magic, you can. Thierry Koblentz shows us how.

While our designs can never control people, they can encourage good behavior and discourage bad. In this excerpt from Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web 2nd Edition, Christina Wodtke tells us how to make products that delight people and change their lives by remembering the social in social architecture.

A key to running successful “social networking sites” is to remember that they’re just communities. All communities, online or off, have one thing in common: members want to belong—to feel like part of something larger than themselves. Communicating effectively, setting clear and specific expectations, mentoring contributors, playing with trends, offering rewards, and praising liberally (but [...]

Asymmetry, asperity, simplicity, modesty, intimacy, and the suggestion of a natural process: these attributes of elegant design may seem relevant only to a project’s aesthetics. But the most successful web designs reflect these considerations at every stage, from idea to finished product. Bring heart to the experiences you create by infusing them with intelligence that [...]

If we, the people who make websites, want the world to know who we are and what we do, it’s up to each of us to stand up and represent. This year, 30,055 of you did just that, taking time out of your busy work day to answer the detailed questions in the second A [...]

Everyone needs to grow up some time. And it’s high time that some web companies grow up and begin to embrace the fundamentals of business. If they don’t they will be gone. Their many URLs will find their way to the junkyard along with the thousands that visited the old 404 in the sky after [...]

Earlier this year I posted about flash players worth checking out for including streaming media on your website. On of the players I mentioned was the JW FLV Media Player which I happen to use extensively myself. In the interim months since that post there have been several updates to the JW player that are [...]

A couple of weeks ago a good friend of mine asked me the question, “What’s going on with podcasting?” My reply was something like, “How the hell do I know?” He was a bit surprised because he knows that I’ve been deep into the podcasting game since early in 2005. Truth be told I still [...]

Lots of buzz happening this week with both Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect going live. Lots of bloggers have been writing about these launches and looking at it as if this is merely a battle between Facebook and Google.  There’s definitely an element of Facebook vs. Google happening but there are many other smaller [...]

It looks as though podcast hosting service and directory Podango will soon go the way of the dinosaurs. Early this morning after I read Michael Geoghegan’s post that mentioned a possible failure. Perhaps these two items foretold the impending disaster. They have probably been bleeding capital since the very beginning.
Podango joins an ever growing list [...]

Might be nice to start the new year with a rant on one of my pet peeves. You may or may not think so but here goes. I’m really done with people using the word “startup” to describe small businesses that are involved in the tech space. Social media is chock full of startups. I [...]

Do you remember that old Toys R’ Us jingle? “I don’t wanna grow up. I’m a Toys R’ Us kid…” Lately I’ve been hearing that in my head but with slightly different lyrics. “I don’t wanna grow up. I’m a Web 2.0 kid…” It’s time to grow up Web 2.0 kids. It’s time to go [...]

There are a number of web based services that I use on a daily basis that I find to be very useful. I use FriendFeed to keep track of the postings from people who I find interesting.  I’ve been using Seesmic Desktop recently to keep track of activity on Facebook and Twitter.  I also use [...]

It’s never easy to end a relationship that lasts almost nine years but sometimes the move is a necessary one. I joined Netflix back in December 1999 when the service was still very young. I spent a lot of time traveling then and my newest laptop had a DVD player built into it.  I was [...]

I’ve been using the Google Chrome web browser as my primary browser at home since shortly after it was released. I had previously been using Firefox as my primary browser but I wanted to see what the new browser from Google had to offer.
Having given it a bit of time I wanted to list some [...]

I really hoped to ignore this story, but now that word about it has spread I sort of have to (unfortunately, a mere Twitter update didn’t suffice).
A local web marketing/consulting firm has plastered a MAX train with the question: “Should cyclists pay a road tax?”
The company says they’re doing this campaign to demonstrate how effective [...]

City is rolling out public outreach process for more bike boulevards.(Photo © J. Maus)

The City of Portland is about to embark on a series of open houses to inform neighborhoods about their bike boulevard plans.
The Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) is busy planning and designing 15 miles of new, low-traffic streets throughout the metro [...]

New bike corral installed yesterday in front of Crema at the corner of SE 28th and Ankeny.Slideshow below - (Photos © J. Maus)

Yesterday, city maintenance crews put the finishing touches on Portland’s 19th bike corral (number 20, just a block away at SE Pine, should be done any day now). This one is in [...]

Ray LaHood will learn aboutstreetcar manufacturing progress.(Photo © J. Maus)

U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will be in Portland today. The Daily Journal of Commerce and reliable sources say that LaHood will join regional transportation officials near the Aerial Tram tomorrow morning.
LaHood is expected to show his support for Portland’s burgeoning [...]

Metro Pres. David Bragdon unveiling the new logo.(Photos © J. Maus)

Last night, at the headquarters of Keen Footwear in the Pearl District, Metro Council President David Bragdon unveiled the new name and logo that will serve as the umbrella for a bi-state effort to build out our regional trails and parks system: The Intertwine.
Formerly known [...]

As we’ve been covering with regularity in recent weeks, the City of Portland Bureau of Transportation has been busy installing new on-street bike parking facilities. Known as “bike corrals,” they have proven to be very popular with the community and with business owners.
Each time we cover a new installation, many people wonder how a specific [...]

LaHood: “Portland is the transportation capitol of our country.”(Photos © J. Maus)

In a show of political support the likes of which I’ve never seen, a host of elected officials were on hand this morning to welcome U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to Portland. They assembled at the base of the Aerial Tram [...]

An example of rude bike parking on Vancouver Ave. (Photo by Mary)

A reader just sent this photo in with this comment:
“Shame on You” bike parking today at the Red Cross on Vancouver Ave, near the hospital. Very funny, and sad, and annoying as all hell. I could not fit my bike into the rack, [...]

Entrance to transit station and multi-use path at SE Division Street.(Photo: TriMet)

TriMet re-opened a 1.6 mile section of the I-205 multi-use path yesterday. Word from spokeswomen Mary Fetsch is that the stretch between SE Caruthers and SE Harold is now open since light rail construction has been completed in that segment.
Fetsch also said that [...]

The Portland police have already used our new listings to nab bike thieves.(Photo: Jack Newlevant)

I’ve got great news for bike lovers and horrible news for bike thieves… It’s been about four years since we first launched the BikePortland Stolen Bike Listings and now, after a long hiatus, they are back and better than ever.
But before [...]