I’m willing to bet that when most people think of stock images, they’ve not got a ‘stand alone’ picture in mind. Rather than something you might frame on your wall, stock is surely more about basic, safe and often mundane subjects being executed to a high standard? Well, that may have been the case a few years ago, but times are changing…

With collections soaring towards astronomical figures, stock photographers have effectively exhausted the boring subjects, and are starting to point their lenses at more exciting things. If we take a common search like woman on phone as an example, enter this on *******stock.com and you’ll get 97,124 results … (a photographer trying to stand out here would have to come with something pretty special). On the other hand, if we searched for something like pumpkin man shaving, we’d probably see 0 results … so in theory the subject is available to any photographer audacious enough to try.

This trend is great news for us, as it means we can get hold of more and more creative, art directed photography at low microstock prices. In particular I’ve spotted one agency who are riding the new wave in impressive style. Their name is Ingimage, and as well as supplying the essentials, they seem to be on a mission to gather as much cutting edge and inspiring content as they can. A search on Ingimage often comes up with images you’re more used in finding in Vogue or National Geographic!

Here are some examples of just how ‘not-boring’ stock can be:

Search: “glamorous young couple + deserted town + windmill”

Search: “ice cream mohican”

Search: “elderly woman superhero”

Search: “businessman chasing colloeague + baseball bat”

Search: “woman + black dress + trapped in bubble”

Search: “whippet + gold necklace + cushion”

Search: “elf model + crazy hair”

Search: “woman partially buried in desert landscape”

Search: “epic black & white desert landscape”

Search: “x-ray + crab”

Search: “room invasion + army of toy soldiers”

Search: “man attacked + hover + jealous girlfriend”

If you want more images of this calibre, I can thoroughly recommend a search on Ingimage. They have a free trial on the site, so if you want to print any of these in high res to put on your wall (or just use them to impress your next client) – click here to get started.

We’d love to hear what your thoughts are on ‘super-creative’ stock photos and how you might use them.

Although some designers “make it” in the design industry without a degree, the majority of us aren’t born with that special balance of talent and luck. No matter your skill level, getting your education is something that will benefit you greatly and certainly will not go unnoticed in the job market. Even if you are looking to become a freelancer, clients trust someone with a reputable degree as a true professional to create or manage their business image (and their money!) over someone who appears to have simply turned a passionate hobby into a source of income. Here’s why:

1. Confidence: When you study design at a reputable college, you gain a thorough understanding of design software, techniques, and terminology used daily by professionals. To be able to walk into a creative meeting or sit down in front of a potential employer and “talk shop” is an impressive and sought after trait. It doesn’t hurt to have an outstanding portfolio either.

2. Portfolio: Your portfolio will be the most valuable promotional tool you own. In a degree program, you will create many impressive portfolio pieces and develop your design style under the mentorship of instructors that know exactly what employers and clients are looking for. An evaluation of your portfolio at the end of the program will give you a final review with constructive feedback to make sure you are prepared for the professional world.

3. Experience: It’s no secret that people with more experience land better jobs. Learning design with the most up-to-date industry software and implementing the most current techniques will give you the upper-hand in the industry. Your hands-on projects are a chance to gain real-world experience, again with constructive assistance from industry professionals.

4. Professional Network: Despite whatever injustice it may represent, the phrase, “It’s not what you know, it’s WHO you know” can sometimes be true. Although it is still important to back up your professional connections with technical knowledge, attending college will open the flood gates for networking opportunities. By connecting with other students, tapping into alumni events, and even communicating with your instructors you can build your network of design professionals for future career opportunities.

5. Credential: The beautiful piece of paper you receive upon graduation is not just “a piece of paper,” as some may say. It is a third-part validation that your skills and knowledge of the required material has met a certain, ideally professional-level, standard. It shows that you have built the necessary design skills and proven yourself to be dependable, deadline-oriented, and a creative problem solver.

When it comes to choosing the right school for you, there are many options. Between online colleges and traditional college campuses, there is a lot to consider based on your personality and situation. We may be biased, but if you are considering getting a degree in design we encourage you to check out the programs offered by our sponsor, Sessions College® for Professional Design.

2012 London Olympic Games logo via DavidAirey.com

The 2012 Olympic Games are fully underway and amongst the buzz of gold medals, world records, and outstanding athleticism is the controversy over the London Olympic logo.

A colorful depiction of the year 2012, this jagged and modern design has received more confusion and distaste than acceptance. Design firm Wolff Olins was chosen over 6 years ago to create the 2012 London Olympic Games logo. When it was revealed in 2007, a petition circulated Great Britain that was signed by over 48,000 citizens to have the £400,000 logo scrapped and redesigned.

London Olympics chairman, Lord Sebastian Coe, defends the design at launch in 2007 by saying, “It won’t be everybody’s taste immediately but it’s a brand that we genuinely believe can be a hard working brand which builds on pretty much everything we said in Singapore about reaching out and engaging young people.” Today, the logo is even more contested and controversial amongst all ages. The London Olympic committee, however, stuck to the original design and built a complete brand around it using the 2012 font nearly everywhere in the Olympic Park, including the running track.

Image via CreativeReview.co.uk

View images of the Olympic Park and the branding that has so many people in London and around the world talking.

Aside from this controversy, we thought it would be interesting to look back at the Olympic logos from the past to see the evolution. All of them are colorful and show a bit of the host country’s personality. You can see a few of them below.

Image via Designer Daily

Click here to see all of the Olympic logos since 1924! Each logo directly reflects the current trends in design and fashion from each country and around the world.

The evolution of the Olympic Games logos really picked up steam with the creation of the Olympic flag. These 5 colored rings on a white background that we are so familiar with today was created by Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games, in 1914.

Although the London Olympic logo is not embraced by all who see it, we still come together as citizens of the world to take part in a centuries old tradition of competition and athleticism. What do you think of the Rio de Janiero logo for the 2016 Olympic Games?

Image via Design Boom

At NoD, our definition of ‘summer reading’ does not rely on Oprah’s Book Club nor the current 3-part novel everyone is raving about; or refusing to pick up. No, our summer reads are inspired by the pulse of the industry and our hunger for design.

Our well-informed and curious staff compiled a list of great books by industry experts that they have read or want to read – just in time for all those summer vacations we plan on taking…(Clearly this is sarcasm. If you are a designer, you laugh in the face of vacation and have convinced yourself you not only despise the beach and the sun, but you also refuse to be anywhere that does not have wifi and a work space!)

These design books are instructional, inspirational, informative and most of all, intriguing. From graphic design, Web design, typography, branding and much more, this list covers almost all the bases, enjoy!

In the era of social media and interconnectivity of people through smartphones, it is easy to think you are always connected or can easily reach others through the internet. Company websites and networking websites, such as LinkedIn, do an effective job of gathering contact information and connecting people. However, a website address or a person’s LinkedIn account is easily lost in translation if a person does not have something tangible to remind them to reconnect after the meeting. Regardless of the all technology in everyday life, there is still a need for adding a personal touch, such as a business card, to your networking strategy.

Below are reasons why it’s important and relevant in today’s digital age to include business cards in your business plan.

· Your Contacts Expect Business Cards. Today’s professionals are overwhelmed with emails and requests. Let your business card be a creative reminder. When you are meeting in person, networking with business cards is an easy and affordable approach to reconnecting in the future after your initial meeting.

· Business Cards Get Attention and Showcase Personality. A creative or custom designed card portrays more than just a name and phone number, it is also your brand personality. Make your card stand out by using a professional printing service that offers a variety of patterns and colors to create visual appeal. Creating business cards from Tiny Prints, for example, can help a business gain momentum with attention-getting designs. Imagine being able to hand out a card like this one when giving contact information! Utilizing a business card with an unexpected feature not only sticks in the mind, but also sends the message of innovation and a unique experience.

Designers thrive on creativity. Taking a unique approach, or the road less traveled, is something we do frequently. Being dull is the end of any design career. As a result, be sure your business cards display personality and individuality! We’re personally fans of Tiny Prints because you can easily grab thumbnails from your portfolio and incorporate your own work into the finished product. In addition, you can add custom logos or use the template and pattern options to create a card that speaks to your design personality.

In this digital age, make sure you don’t get lost in technology. Work on your personal brand, make yourself a memorable candidate and always have a business card handy. It’s an easy, fun design project, and a great way to share your personality and style. Business cards stand the test of time – embrace them, and create stylish, creative cards that will help your brand and business grow!

Image via http://dotcommogul.net/

You may remember a previous article, Evolution of the dot Com, we posted this past December that outlined the then upcoming release of gTLDs by ICANN, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. It has begun.

ICANN held a press conference in London last week entitled “Reveal Day” to unveil the 1,900 generic top-level domains that companies, organizations, geographical regions, start-ups and others have applied for. Getting these new gTLDs to the general public, however, will be a lengthy process and most will not be cleared until 2013 or later according to the ICANN forecast.

Amongst the many companies who have applied for multiple gTLDs, Donuts.co has applied for 307 words for domain names with a hefty price tag. “Finding a suitable domain name is a struggle. There are more than 125 million total names in the top five gTLDs, with three-fourths in .COM. As a result, the Internet needs to, and is, migrating toward specificity,” states Donuts’ main site.

And with nearly unimaginable funding (think, $125,000 per gTLD + $25,000 yearly fee for each x 307 gTLDs = $$$$, aka Billions), Donuts has strong and deep resources with which to challenge any other company who has applied for the same gTLD.

Many companies like Donuts have applied to purchase gTLDs with the intent of reselling, much like a wholesaler, to domain hosting power-houses like GoDaddy.com. This could prove to be a very lucrative business transaction, particularly because many gTLDs will be unavailable unless purchased from a 3rd party. You can also expect to see an increase in the marketing of these new addresses as they are released and available for purchase.

This opportunity for variety and diversity in the evolution of the internet is a huge forward leap for companies and individuals alike. It will be interesting to see what develops.

Image via Layar.com

While doomsayers speak of the print industry being pushed to extinction, innovative company Layar has taken revitalization of the medium their own hands. Committed to “make the print world clickable,” Layar is bringing print to life with interactive content that transforms the previously static pages of a magazine into a clickable experience, right from your smartphone!

By using Augmented Reality (AR), Layar allows readers to hover their smartphone (while in the free Layar Creator app available for Android and iPhone) over a page and click on buttons, watch videos, and even purchase products. Not quite sure what AR is? Layar describes it as, “a way of viewing digital information which has been superimposed – or augmented – onto a live view of the physical, real-world environment around you.” And with no need for developers, Layar “places the power of interactive print at everyone’s fingertips.”

Still curious about how this works? Watch the video below to see these amazing tools in action.

Publishers also have the ability to track the performance of their interactive campaigns through analytics just like any other digital campaign. The Layar website states, “Campaigns already see an average click-through rate of 25% and as high as 10% usage.” This is not only changing the game for the print industry, but is also creating another outlet for marketers to reach consumers directly.

You can read the official press release here to get a complete rundown of the future of print and the potential that this driven and innovative company has to change the print industry forever.

We want to know: Would you use the free Layar Creator app to be able to change the way you read and interact with the magazines you love?

To show their support of the design community, Graphic Design USA (GD USA) regularly sponsors national competitions that put deserving designers in the spotlight.

As online design has continued to grow over the past decade (an estimated 72% of graphic designers are now also involved in aspects of Web design) the American Web Design Awards has made its way into the limelight.

This year, more than 200 winning website designs were honored for attracting audiences and consumers, generating engagement and response, and promoting products, services, and ideas. All of the winners will remain on the GD USA website for an entire year, until the next batch of winners is chosen.

Take a look at some of the 200 chosen websites here in the 2012 Winner’s Gallery.

Congratulations to all winning websites and designers, this is quite the honor!

Dr. Taz Tally is an accomplished landscape photographer, experienced digital photography instructor, principal of Taz Tally Photography and Taz Tally Seminars, holds a Ph.D. in geology, and is a faculty member of Sessions College – to name just a few of his activities. He is currently leading a 3-part webinar series titled Photography for Design. I caught up with him after the second webinar in the series to see if we could squeeze a few free tips and tricks out of him for our readers.

Robert: Hi Taz. First of all, thank you for two great presentations so far. I received a message from an attendee saying he is now picking apart all of his previous photographs, and is “unhappy with all of them, and now [he] knows why!” That’s quite a review!

As a photographer, you specialize in landscape photography. What is it about photographing landscapes that draws you to it more than other subjects, like wildlife or portrait photography?

Taz: Good question Robert! You’ve probably heard the often stated adage for writers to “write about is what you know and/or love.” I think the same applies for me when it comes to photography, I love to shoot what I love to do, and that is journey through landscape. I’m all about muscle powered adventure travel including hiking, biking, kayaking, and skiing. I truly enjoy being immersed in the landscapes through which I journey. And my love of geology and understanding how landscapes form and evolve contribute significantly to my enjoyment and appreciation of my outdoor adventures. All the wild landscapes are one of the primary reasons I moved to Alaska, and why I consider Homer Alaska, with its millions of acres of surrounding wilderness, to be perfect Tazmanian habitat.

When I view a landscape, I don’t just see mountains and trees. I see the results of millions of years of geological evolution, and I understand that my view is just a snapshot in the ongoing timeline of the landscape and that I am blessed to be able to enjoy at this point in time. So when I look at the craggy, knife-edge ridge line leading up to Sadie Peak, I imagine the 200 million-year-old basalts in radiolarian charts that were formed deep on the ocean floor under a couple thousand feet of seawater and have been transported 2000 miles north and smashed together through tectonics to form a mountain range that has been, and continues to be, carved up by glaciers and rivers to form the current landscape. All these geologic forces and processes past and present create a mélange of beautiful and intriguing textures and fabrics and shapes and forms. As a photographer, I view my primary challenge capturing and rendering these shapes and forms, textures and fabrics, in their simplest and most powerful states.

Robert: What kind of camera do you use for your landscape photography? Is there a camera you would recommend as a “go-to” for beginning photographers in most scenarios?

Taz: Many people are surprised that I use a Canon G 12 to capture nearly of my landscape images. The Canon G 12 is one of those marvelous technological results of the digital age that provides most of the high-end software and control features of larger, more sophisticated cameras in a very portable format. Since I capture most of my images while I am out on hiking, biking, kayaking or skiing adventures, the Canon G 12 provides me with the portability and flexibility that I need, with enough high-end software controls to provide me with the image capture sophistication that I require. There are of course some limitations such as the lack of interchangeable lenses and limited f-stop range, but I factor these limitations into my photography, and for the type of photography that I love, landscape and macro photography, the G 12 offers me most of the features that I need most of the time. If I were specializing in wildlife photography I would need a completely different camera system.

To answer your specific question about a “go-2″ camera for most scenarios, I would have to say that there is not one camera to meet most needs. However, the advice that I give most of my beginning photography students is to focus their attention on their compositions and light and not worry so much about equipment. The primary characteristics of good composition are the same whether you are shooting landscapes, portraits, or product shots. If you are just getting started in photography having a camera that is too sophisticated and complicated, with so many controls and options, can be real hindrance to learning and enjoying photography. One of the great results of the advent of the digital age of photography is the wide range of camera options available to us. For $400-$500 you can buy very capable, advanced point-and-shoot camera with full manual controls that will be fairly easy to learn and use, and allow you to concentrate more on what’s most important in photography – that being composition and light.

Robert: Looking through your photographs it’s pretty clear that you also have a passion, and a knack, for black & white photography. Do you find that landscape photography lends itself to B&W?

Taz: As I mentioned before, I love to focus on capturing forms, shapes, textures and fabrics. Because of this, black-and-white photography is a natural medium for me. Color, while beautiful and eye-catching, can often be quite distracting and overwhelming. The human eye has rods for seeing tones and cones for seeing colors, and the number and sensitivity of the cones can easily overwhelm our perception of the tonal values captured by our the rods. The eye-brain combo is especially tuned to perceiving and distinguishing colors. Removing color allows us to focus more on textures, fabrics, shapes and forms.

Take a look at the color and black-and-white versions of these 2 tundra shots to see the completely different emphasis on color versus textured fabric.

To demonstrate the often stark visual difference between the emphasis of color and black-and-white images, [below] is a link to a PDF that I show at many of my art shows called fade to black and white, which contains the pixel registration of color and black-and-white versions of the same image.
Fade to Black and White

Robert: That PDF is a great illustration of your point about B&W allowing our eyes to focus on form and texture! Thanks for sharing.

What is your favorite type of landscape to shoot? (If you can limit it to just one!)

Taz: Sure, go ahead, ask me a question for which I don’t have an answer! Honestly, I find my simplest texture oriented macro shots to be as interesting and compelling as my large-scale dramatic beach and mountain range images.

I enjoy viewing this picture of Sea Star Legs, shot on a rainy day on a Homer spit beach, as I do this dramatic waving mountain scene that I shot a bright sunny day on Kodiak Island.

Robert: Contrast is a major factor in B&W photography. The Alaskan landscape, which you have the pleasure of living with, and the abundance of snow and ice seems to provide great B&W photo opportunities for those who know how to look for them. Are there any tips you can give those of us who aren’t surrounded by such a landscape on how to look for such opportunities? (Summer is here too, which means no more snow for a bit!)

Taz: Yes, you are quite right that I love to shoot snow scenes because they often offer such great contrast to begin with. But summer scenes offer great opportunities for creating fine black-and-white images as well. One thing I always look for when I’m shooting long-distance landscapes is good atmospheric clarity and good contrast of colors. I often find this early and late in the day, and often after storms. I enjoy shooting macro photographs on cloudy or rainy days because of the beautiful soft light that often exists.

Robert: If your end goal is a B&W photograph, do you recommend taking the photograph in color and adjusting later or using your camera’s B&W setting? (If adjusting later, what program would you recommend using?)

Taz: I shoot all of my images in RGB color which, if you remember from my color correction and image editing webinar, results in the creation of 3 separate grayscale versions of the image, one for each of the “red”, “green” and “blue” channels. The 3, often very different, grayscale versions of the captured image provide a wide range of tonal values to combine to create just the contrast and look and feel that I want. I have indeed developed the knack for looking at a color scene and being able to imagine the scene in black and white. In fact, often when I’m setting up my composition, I imagine the masks and tools, techniques and settings I will be using in Photoshop to accomplish my transformation to black and white.

Robert: In the first webinar you covered composition secrets for engaging images. Do these efforts differ at all from color to B&W photos?

Taz: The fundamental image composition characteristics I discussed of simplicity, asymmetry, eye line, scale and perspective apply to composing images whether they are color or black and white. However, I do intentionally preview, in my mind’s eye, the way the image will look in black and white and compose with good separation of tonal values in mind.

Robert: Do you mind sharing your (current) favorite B&W photography piece that you’ve shot with us?

Taz: This is a difficult question, because it changes from day-to-day and mood to mood, but if forced to choose, I think the image I am lingering over the most lately is my ice dancing image. I love the mood of this image with the contrasting textures between the ice, the water in which the ice floats, and the soft details of the barely visible background Aspen trees.

Robert: It’s always difficult to pick a “favorite” – I can definitely see the appeal! Do you handle the staging of your colored landscape photographs differently than your B&W ones?

Taz: Sometimes I do go out with the specific intention of capturing a certain kind of image, which might be a beach and wave image, a mountain image, or perhaps shooting macros of textures and fabrics on a rainy day. I’ve even done, and really enjoyed, shooting commission pieces, an example of which is my Triptych that I did of the Homer spit at the request of the owner of The Art Shop Gallery that displays my photography. But more often, I’m out enjoying the journey through a landscape with no particular image in mind, but always on the lookout for the simple and dramatic view.

Robert: And you seem to find it! Well thank you very much for your time Taz, and for sharing some of your images and wealth of experience with us.

Taz will be hosting the 3rd webinar of the Photography for Design series on Wednesday, June 13. Please visit the Photography for Design page for information on the content of the series and pricing (which has just been reduced).

Image from DaltonMaag.com

Consistent branding is important for any business. And the larger the business, the more important having a consistent look and feel becomes.

For multinational companies this can pose a bit of a problem, especially when it comes to typography. A font face may read beautifully in the Greek alphabet, but not carry the same feel when applied to the Arabic alphabet, or vice-versa.

As they work to refresh their visual identity, Finnish based phone company Nokia approached design firm Dalton Maag to overcome this obstacle to consistency with a font for digital media. The result is Nokia Pure; a fresh font-face consistent with the classic Finnish design of Nokia, and one that Co Design claims may be the “ultimate multinational font.”

Image from DaltonMaag.com

Development of Nokia Pure was no small task. Dalton Maag’s website covers the project in depth.

Dalton Maag creative and managing director Bruno Maag spoke further with Co Design about the process and what makes a font “global.”

“There isn’t really a stylistic recipe for fonts to make them particularly suitable to be translated into different scripts…Each script has its own calligraphic and cultural history. It is more a question of matching different calligraphic styles to one another, without the features of one script dominating another.”

The creation of Nokia Pure is part of a larger effort by Nokia that will include a new visual identity and a new series of smartphones as they work to reestablish themselves as a top player in the mobile phone industry.

We just wanted to take a moment to be sure that everyone is aware of the opportunity to contribute to NoD.

We know that many of our readers are passionate, experienced designers with a wealth of knowledge to share with the design community. We’d love for you to use NoD to share your voice and your insight, and to help us continue our mission of inspiring and promoting engaged thinking within the design community.

Visit our newly updated Contribute page for more information on this opportunity and why you should contribute. And please don’t hesitate to spread the word to anyone you know who may be interested in contributing!

How are you inspired? What makes your head settle, what do you do to find inspiration? For me personally, it’s movement. A walk, a run, a bicycle ride will make me feel like all is right in the world (and a quick walk to the bathroom or around the block will give me new inspiration). It’s also true that I am, quite literally, in the circus, so movement is part of my life, every day. I thrive on movement and, when I’ve been too still for too long, I feel it deep in my bones, my brain, the very cells of my body. Movement sings to us all; our bodies are never still. Atoms vibrate in every object, in every surface in front of us.

As the summer stretches lazily out in front of us, promising cookouts and beaches, let’s check out some amazing art that moves us, and some that just moves.

Theo Jansen creates large-scale organic, walking sculptures. They are built of wood and plastic, and walk, seemingly on their own, across vast beaches.

You can even buy kits of the small versions of the sculptures! (Perfect for walking across your desk, no doubt!)

Jansen also created kinetic rings with wings; the wings mimic the flight of birds.

Words aren’t in motion, but language has cadence, an aural movement. Typography takes a language’s cadence and puts it on the page. Word clouds are visual representations of a block of text, using scale and placement to emphasize the most-used words. Wordle lets you create word clouds of any block of text or Web site.

This is a representation of the most common crossword puzzle answers.

This is old, but still fantastic: it’s a video animation of sung lyrics. Not at all a new concept (we’ve all seen VH1) but Mig Reyes’ The Lion’s Roar is engaging, fun, and excellent typography.

A picture’s worth a thousand words, and we have the wonders of the Internet to send tens of thousands of words (and we do, with abandon). However, postcards have a particular charm. What’s nicer than finding a piece of mail that’s not a bill or a catalog? (Unless it’s one of those really random catalogs of items you aren’t sure anyone buys. Those have their own appeal.. but we’re not talking about that!) No, we’re talking about actual letters, written by actual people. If you aren’t quite ready to take the pen to the paper, HazelMail is here to help. Upload a photo, write a message, type out an address and, for $1.50, your digital photo is on a postcard and moving its way through the physical world!

What moves you? What styles do you gravitate towards? Make use of it! Enjoy the activities that soothe your mind and the styles of art you love. Don’t apologize or make excuses for it, go with what moves you and the rest really will follow.

NoD and PrintRunner have teamed up to giveaway two (2) sets of 100 postcards to two (2) lucky readers!

PrintRunner made a name for themselves by offering top-notch print products that range from small-sized business cards, postcards, and bookmarks, up to large format items like posters, vinyl banners, and even yard signs. By offering an in-house team of creative experts, direct mail services, a unique color system and more, PrintRunner has established themselves as one of the leading full-service printing companies in Southern California over the last decade.

How to Enter:
Simply leave a comment below with a valid email address and tell us how you’d use the postcards for your design business, personal promotion, or any other use. Winners will be chosen based on the best response. Points are given for practicality, creativity, and/or humor.

This contest runs from today, May 24, to Thursday, May 31st 2012.

Postcard Prize Details:

*Giveaway is open to US Residents only, ages 18 years old and above.
*Standard shipping fee is included. Expedited shipping is an extra fee.

Good Luck!

To learn more about PrintRunner, visit them online at http://www.printrunner.com.

Image via http://www.aiga.org/Events/

The social value of design business is no secret to designers. In order to succeed, you must connect with people; and no one understands this better than AIGA. To help spread that knowledge to other creatives, AIGA (and various partners) are hosting a conference to connect and share their wealth of experience and expertise with the creative community.

Here’s the rundown:
Who: Designers, business executives, nonprofit leaders, entrepreneurs, freelancers
What: Gain: AIGA Design for Social Value Conference
Where: San Francisco, CA
When: October 9-10, 2012
Why: Connect with industry leaders on design, business and social innovation to create social value
Cost: Registration from $325, depending on membership status. Prices go up after June 6. Click here for full pricing.

Presented by Aquent in partnership with Fast Company, this conference will put you in the room with the movers and shakers of the graphic design industry. This is a unique opportunity to come into contact with 13 power players in the industry and listen to them speak on a wide rage of topics.

There are even discounts on lodging and travel for attendees. Click here to learn more about “Gain,” AIGA’s Design for Social Value Conference. The early-bird registration deadline is June 6, 2012.

Lush layers, attention to detail, and ability to frame nearly any creative endeavor, be it aural, visual, artistic, engineered, edible or textural: Steampunk has emerged as a creative style, a fashion statement, a literary genre, and an excuse to wear goggles with absolutely everything.

Image from PerpetualSteampunk.com

Steampunk combines Victorian era fashion with some elements of steam-technology, science-fiction fantasy and sheer imagination. Take lace and ruffles, turn it inside out, wear a corset on top with goggles (for those velocipede rides) and combine steam-powered Rube Goldberg-esque copper machinery with a healthy dose of creativity and you find yourself in Steampunk. It is grounded in just enough realism to create a genre, rather than a loose conglomeration of styles and ideas, yet open enough to allow for all kinds of experimentation and creativity.

Steampunk has been around since the mid-1980s and continues to find an audience; it hasn’t gone the way of side ponytails and acid-washed jeans (which are making a come-back, and I really can’t imagine why). What is it about Steampunk that makes it endure the decades, and has given it particular gravity recently?

Lace and velvet, a fascinator and… an ornate embellished pistol. But of course! Photo by Brian Garrett.

One possibility is that the Steampunk style offers the option of the complicated, the lush, and an attention to minute detail. This is in stark contrast to the clean lines of IKEA and Helvetica; so much sparseness can edge toward sterility. Steampunk leaves modern sterility behind with a puff of steam and a grind of gears. While Victorian fashion is clean and, literally, buttoned up, Victorian machinery is loud, unreliable, and experimental.

Experimental and largely handmade! Steampunk allows people to try their hands at, well, anything. Those gears don’t have to work, you know, so go ahead and create. The genre supports the imperfect; after all, Victorians were great at the hand-crafted but not the mathematical perfection that our computers today can make.

Steampunk and the surrounding community are forgiving and supportive of the process. Victorians sure didn’t get it right on the first time, either!

It’s not only beautiful, it’s functional. And if it isn’t functional (yet), it’s probably supposed to be. There is something in it for everyone. Artists love to make something beautiful and engineers want to make it work. If it’s not yet beautiful, I am quite sure it will be soon. If it doesn’t work yet, there is a gaggle of engineers poring over the issue as I type this and version 2.0 will be rolling out momentarily.

Jake Von Slatt turns ordinary household items into Steampunk extraordinary items.

Which brings me to my next point: Generosity. It’s a generous genre, one that is wildly supportive of your flights of fancy. Who cares that your steam-powered pennyfarthing bicycle isn’t to scale, doesn’t quite work by steam, and is barely operable?
You tried, it looks fabulous, and it’s a great idea. The next iteration of the project may fare better; you won’t know until you try! You should try, too. Along the way, you’ll meet new and interesting people, find new solutions and some new ideas.

The Steampunk Tree House may not actually run on steam, but the beautiful structure and details within (yes! You can climb into it, up a ladder in the trunk) make it a thing of beauty. Check out the photos of the interior!

Steampunk is lush and layered, and texture reigns. As designers, use organic textures like wood paneling combined with copper rivets, interlaced gears or dense London fog, Here are some tutorials for texture combinations that are beautiful.

Spitfire Aerial Equipment is a circus equipment manufacturer with a steampunk influence in the Web site design.

Steampunk is an excellent genre in which to stretch your creativity in a new way and try something different. It is not, however, perfect. It can be a fascinating resource for inspiration to jump-start your creativity. Feeling inspired, or want to immerse yourself fully? The Steampunk World’s Fair is this weekend, May 18 – 20th.

Go find your goggles, pull up your boots, and find your imagination; I’m sure it’ll be a great ride.

Image via eveonline.com

Gaming just got a little bit sweeter for PlayStation3 owners. If you have ever experienced the frustration of wanting to wage war with a friend online but were unable to because one they own a different gaming console than you, you have been a victim of gamer segregation.

CCP, Iceland-based creators of massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Eve Online, have taken it upon themselves to push to end the online segregation between different gaming consoles and PCs with the creation of DUST514.

Dust514 will be a PS3 based game that bridges the gap between PCs and the PS3. Set in the same world as PC-based Eve Online, Dust514 takes the battle to the planets while Eve Online sticks to the spaceships; allowing online players of both games to communicate, share resources, strategize and cooperate… or not.

One of the largest obstacle in cross-console gaming is the difference between controls, most notably the number of buttons (think keyboard vs. Xbox controller). By making DUST514 a completely different game with different gameplay, a first-person shooter rather than an RPG like Eve Online, they have successfully (and cleverly) avoided any possible controller-based advantage from one platform to the next.

Watch the DUST514 Live Demo from EVE Fanfest 2012

Although DUST514 will be specifically for PlayStation3 owners to communicate with PC players in EVE Online, this is still a huge forward movement for social gaming between platforms, not to mention a possible virtual goldmine for CCP. A review of DUST514 in Fast Company states, “CCP will have a direct link to the 62 million PS3s in circulation–offering a nice potential bump to its current user base of 350,000 computer players.” As console owners are among the most avid gamers, this could unfold to be a very lucrative project for both Sony and CCP. We can only imagine what is to stem from this seed planted in the gaming industry.

Now if we could only get iPads and Android tablets to cooperate on a competitive version of Angry Birds…

RIP Maurice Sendak, may we all venture forth to find our own Wild Things and have our own Wild Rumpuses.. thank you for paving the way of adventurers.

Life has hard parts, and life has scary parts, even when you’re a kid. Maybe it’s because you’re a kid that the big scary parts are even bigger and scarier. Adults may gloss over kids’ fears; it’s too easy to forget, from our lofty, older, adult standpoint, just how large a toy truck looms in a kids’ life. But the hard things are still hard in kids’ lives; they’re just on a different scale than adult lives. Kids also wind through difficult passages of life just to come out the other side, in their own warm beds, better for the experience.

Maurice Sendak understood that experience. He understood how a difficult experience can change the very edges and fabric of your day to show a completely different side of yourself, your surroundings, and your companions. He also understood what it’s like when it’s over, and what it’s like to come home (literally, or metaphorically). Because of this understanding, Sendak’s books are not illustrations featuring well-behaved children with their well-kept pets.

Dick and Jane, the sunny, well-behaved heroes of the self-titled childhood reader series

In many children’s books, trouble is an anomaly that doesn’t last for long, and stories end with morals to preach. The children in Sendak’s books are not the typical children’s book stars. They are petulant and selfish, not at all the cheery-faced heros and heroines that dot most of the books aimed at children in the early 1960s. Put plainly, the kids of Sendak’s tales more closely resemble actual children, with all the messiness and emotion that goes with it.

Sendak passed away this week, at age 83. Where the Wild Things Are received the Caldecott Medal, the Most Distinguished Picture Book for Children, in 1963

Max, of Where the Wild Things Are, was sent to bed without supper. Angry, he flies off to where the Wild Things are. He stares down the yellow-eyed Things and becomes King; to lead the Wild Rumpus. But before he’s swept into the crazy world of the unknown for too long, he goes home to a warm bed and hot supper.

This tale of the ebbing and flowing of anger, of experiencing adventure and fear, is one we’re all familiar with on different scales. How far do we push our own comfort zone before retreating back to our own warm beds and hot suppers? How long do we dance with the Wild Rumpus? Because, after all, we can’t stay down the rabbit hole too long; we get out of the Wild Rumpus and return. We don’t belong “out there,” we belong at home. The concept of a Wild Rumpus and leaving the stability of home is terrifying to adults, more so than to children. To kids, stability is (at least it should be) as invisible as air and easier to challenge.

The flight to a Rumpus is precisely what’s necessary. The understanding that one can fly off to the grandest exploration of soul and spirit, yet still come home to warmth, hot food, and a caring home is a great gift. It’s also an invitation to recognize that what you have isn’t so bad after all.

Joining the Wild Things in the Rumpus is an accomplishment and release for young Max

Librarians and critics came down harshly on Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, thinking the subject too dark for young kids. As it turned out, young kids were entranced by the book; an invitation for a Wild Rumpus was just what they wanted.

What can we learn from from Sendak? Trust in our audience. Trust in our own experience. Push boundaries. Work with the hard parts, don’t sugar-coat. Test the edges of your comfort zone.

Dive deep. Go adventure. Eat it up.

Take on the wild rumpus, with the knowledge that home is not far away.

“Friends”, 2012 by Dain Fagerholm. All images in this article ©Dain Fagerholm

Do not adjust your monitor. The brain shaking you are experiencing is the incredible work of Dain Fagerholm. Dain hails from Seattle, WA but his work is from another world entirely. An illustrator by trade, Dain has created an entire portfolio of hand drawn animated GIFs, which he’s called “Stereographic Drawings”. Dain creates these mind bending images of somewhat sinister characters by creating two parallel drawings and varying the angle between the two of them slightly. When combined, they form a moving 3D image that is sure to capture your attention.

“Creature with Gem Over Head”, 2012 by Dain Fagerholm

This slight animation ads a whole other dimension to these mystic creatures, pulling them away from the background and adding life without them actually moving. Although the transformation from illustration to animated GIF is not the most complicated task in Photoshop, it reminds us that the simple things are sometimes the most extraordinary. And that is not to take away from the actual illustration themselves; which are incredibly detailed.

“Seven Headed Creature”, 2012 by Dain Fagerholm

“Mystery Planet”, 2012 by Dain Fagerholm

I’ve never seen anything like these creations before, and after this I am not sure my eyes will function properly. But the innovation of this technique and Dain’s drive for diversity is what we at NoD love about the creative community.

You can view Dain’s entire portfolio, buy prints, T-shirts, and even iPhone skins on his blog.

Think small! In our culture of super-sized everything, from cars to meals to homes to the waistlines of the denizens that live here, it’s easy to forget the power of the little.

Making tiny art can be a relief; a smaller blank canvas is far less intimidating than a large one. Small art can feel more manageable, easier to complete and you can make many more small pieces than you can large ones. Small art can be sold for less than large art (and is easier to transport, too!). Check it out; The Enormous Tiny Art Show shows exclusively tiny art (10″ x 10″ only). Check out some of this work (and the sizes! Remember that standard business card size is 3.5″ x 2″; some of these paintings fit on a business card!)

Jennifer Judd McGee is a featured artist on Enormous Tiny Art, a gallery devoted to small art, showing only pieces smaller than 10″ x 10″.

If your art can fit on a business card, where else can it fit? On the head of a pin or in the eye of a needle? This isn’t a rhetorical question; Willard Wiggins creates pieces that are nearly undetectable by the human eye that fit on the head of a pin. By entering a meditative state in which his heart rate actually slows down, he makes his moves between beats. The heartbeat causes enough of a tremor in his body to change the trajectory of the tiny tools he uses to create the sculpture. (I had to check Snopes for confirmation on this one; I felt sure I was being snookered. Snopes is with me here! Wiggins creates beautiful pieces that embody the painstaking process behind each one. He puts the mall vendors who write on a grain of rice to shame!

This sculpture would be amazing even at a larger size; check out those whiskers and the mouse’s newspaper!

Language can go small, too! We’ve already determined that we can communicate in small sentences via Twitter or Facebook; how can we creatively use these small language tools?

If you’re technically savvy and adept with a soldering iron, you can outfit your plants to tweet when they need watering or complain that they are over-watered. (Personally I don’t need the stress a tweeting houseplant would add! My plants would be tweeting for an emergency rescue.)

With a bit of wiring knowledge, your plants will be tweeting in no time!

Are you an urban commuter? You can tweet with CommuterFeed to connect to and alert fellow commuters of traffic jams and accidents on your way in!

So, small art can be physically small of course, but what about the process itself? Burning Man is an art festival in the desert of Nevada in late August. Spanning a week’s time in a vast desert, the festival focuses on going large. Huge installation art, giant art cars, wild costuming, the sky is the limit (just ask the on-site airport!). What happens if a large scale art festival turns tiny? Balsa Man is born. The entire process is tiny, including tiny art grants (in small denominations, with applications sent on post cards), tiny people (children are free), and tiny art.

Honey, I shrunk the festival!

Speaking of tiny people, some art directors are quite small (and quite demanding!). Artist Bill Zeman uses input from his toddler daughter (who provides his “client’s brief”) to create fascinating, sometimes adorable, sometimes incongruous illustrations. He then submits his art to the client for review and posts the results. The illustrations and critique are hilarious, adorable, and may hit far too close to home for some designers!

Small doesn’t have to be simple. Check out Melvin the Traveling Mini Machine; a Rube Goldberg postcard “writing” machine. This project was born of a desire to allow a larger Rube Goldberg machine to travel, so the HeyHeyHey design studio designed a similarly complex machine “to go.”

A contraption stamps a postcard in the least efficient, mostcreative and most entertaining fashion possible.

Tiny can be practical, too! Artist trading cards are one-of-a-kind calling cards. They are tiny (2.5″ x 3.5″) and hand-made (not printed, like Moo Cards), and traded like baseball cards.

Artist Ann Ranlett’s art cards are created with colored pencil in vibrant colors.

Art doesn’t have to be anything; art just is what it is. As artists, though, it’s easy to lose that sense of Zen and slip into a sense of what your art is “supposed” to be. One of those “supposed to be” elements can be size; we’re “supposed to” work big, we’re “supposed to” have big canvases, big clients, big projects. The artists we checked out today would agree with my Nana: good things do, in fact, come in small packages.