Archive for Inspiration
Free stock exchanges for designers
August 13th, 2008 Graphic Design, InspirationTags: Photo, Tips
There is alot of sub-par stock photo exchangs out there, some very costly, others full of low quality unoriginal photos. This list serves the sole purpose to provide artists and designers with a great resource to find stock photography for a variety of different uses.
- stock.xchange - Hands down the best stock exchange website, there is over 50,000 HIGH quality images, easy to use interface, and great features. They provide a lightbox feature so you can search for an image, and sort of ‘add to shopping cart’ and at the end select the best image. If you look to purchase images they offer high quality and original images as well located at the bottom of searches and categories.
- morguefile - Great design, simple interface, and a large variety of unique images. Many of them range in photo quality, but most images are quite unique and differniate from that of other stock photo sites. Minimal and non advasive ad’s make this a well rounded stock site.
- imageafter - This website should definitely be your number 1 location for finding textures and backgrounds, perfect for web design. There is close to 20,000 textures and stock photos you can find on their site. There is minimal ad interference, and the user interface is quite simple but a little lack luster. This website should definitely be in your bookmarks!
- everystockphoto - One of my favorite stock photo sites, their interface is very appealing, but they do search flickr which can create some problems, but the result is very original images. Searching outside pages can be a down fall, because there is some quality issues and badly tagged images, but if you spend time you can find some tottally original images.
Below is a great list of stock photo pages you can try as well, most offer free services but all are above standard and offer something unique.
Stockvault
http://www.freefoto.com/index.jsp
http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/
http://www.freestockphotos.com/
http://www.farmphoto.com/
http://www.sxc.hu
http://www.dieblen.de/
http://www.freeimages.co.uk/
http://www.mediaphoto.com.br/index.php?leng=eng
http://gallery.hd.org/index.jsp
http://gallery.yahoo.com/
http://www.photolibrary.fema.gov/
http://www.visipix.com/
http://www.morguefile.com/
http://www.pixelperfectdigital.com/
http://www.imageafter.com/
http://kepek.creart.hu/index.php?oldal=1&kat=1&nyelv=en
http://www.freemediagoo.com/
http://stock.kriegsnet.com/
http://unprofound.com/pix/
Artist/Designer MUST Have Sources
August 10th, 2008 Graphic Design, Inspiration, Logo Design, Web DesignTags: Graphic Design, Inspiration
All designers and artists need tools, some are more effective than others, and there is always new tools to use. This list is about tools at your basic finger tips, things that could change your designs and portfolio with just a few different clicks.
- If there is one website and resource all designer and artists should have it is COLOURlovers.
The ability to find absolutely amazing color Palettes, and Patterns which are up to date with trends. This resource provides absolutely amazing resource for web design, graphic & logo design, even artists. You can find some simply amazing things from this website, with a great community of people, an active fourm, and constant updates. - Every great designer needs inspiration, and Web Creme provides a great way to stay inspired and on top of trends. They feature a few different sites each week, and have a huge archive of websites. If you are ever in a design rut, this website can prove as a life saver-with designs from simple and effective to breath taking and innovative.
- DesignBoom provides a great home to artists and designers, providing competitions, interviews, opinions, and inspiration. The website is UK based, but still very relevant information for designers nationally.
- A community which is full of help, work, inspiration, and rants and raves-designer talk is perfect for all artists and designers alike. There are alot of design communities online, from deviant art to hundreds of smaller ones, but designer talk really is the best. The community of people are very relevant, offer great information, and many top designers and artists are active on the forum.
Waking Life inspiration
August 9th, 2008 InspirationTags: creativity, dreams, Inspiration
Waking Life is truly a great film, with some high and low points, but some very inspirational and thought provoking theories and ideas. The following quote from the clip really represents to take what life has given you, its about what you do with what you are given-It can lead artists and creative people, or the less creative alike, to forget the social norm, and express your self, be who you want to be.
“Its like you come on this planet with a crayon box. Now you may get the eight pack, or the sixteen pack, its all what you do with the crayons the colors you are given, don’t worry about drawing within the lines or coloring outside the lines, i say color outside the lines, you know what i mean, color right off the page, DON’T BOX ME IN”. Below the movie is a link to the whole movie and its entirety, i highly suggest checking it out.