Twitter is a continually growing trend with a shocking popularity worldwide so it’s impossible to avoid a Twitter-related article here (the Twitter icon on the right side of this very article is enough proof of my statement, and very hard to ignore, indeed!).

This time we will discuss about Twitter from a designer’s perspective and we’ll be referring to Twitter background designs - something you really shouldn’t take for granted if you care about giving a clue of your personality to your followers, and that at the first glance! So we’ll be looking at some Tweeter backgrounds that are impressive because of their original and very well-balanced graphics, and, in fact, because they have style! A Twitter background is much less demanding than that of a site or blog, but considering that thousands of people could relate to you through that, you should give it a bit of thought, however.

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In this post we’ll be looking at some excellent examples of retro-style illustration: those belonging to Dan Page.  He is an illustrator who has managed to combine the simple, descriptive graphics of the retro style with illustration concepts that span from surrealism to extremely intelligent puns. The result is striking and hard to shake off: the visual effect of his illustrations is all the more powerful because of this unusual combinations of the retro style, that conveys conformism to a fixed set of social rules and a certain rigid mentality and the often very controversial, unconventional and mind-blowing subjects adopted.

The concept behind each illustration is in fact essential to Dan Page. As he admits himself: “At the core of what I do is the ‘idea’ behind each image, communication with pictures or creating a thought provoking image is what makes me move forward.”

Dan Page is a very successful illustrator precisely because of this brilliant way of creating his drawings. His client lists include: Time, Forbes, Business Week, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Popular Science, New Scientist and many others.

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The subject of this post is the portfolio of a young and very talented illustrator: Patrick Morgan. This time we will not be looking at an illustrator who completely bans the computer from his work process, but quite the contrary: Patrick Morgan’s illustrations are exquisite examples of digital illustration that manages to keep the complexity of the hand-sketch and combine it with the special effects of the digital tablet. He describes himself his creative process, in a few words: “Illustrators stand on the shoulders of giants pushing fashion, photography, design. I work using all this knowledge and then applying it to my book of wonders (my sketch pad). Once collecting the images needed either from found material or location drawing I am ready for my Mac. I scan my drawings in, maybe bitmapping for a raw edge of just playing with the levels to get real hard black” I hope this description helps you if you feel that you’d like to use the same technique in your own work.

As for Patrick Morgan’s career brief, he graduated Kingston University (London) in 1998 (a Degree in Graphics and Illustration with Commendations for Print Making) and he has been working as a freelance illustrator since, quickly becoming very famous in the field. He has been collaborating with clients from all over the world, including Transport of London, Cingular, Starbucks, Bacardi, Smirnoff, Coca-Cola and Waitrose.

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This article will throw spotlight on the work of a German artistic illustrator, who is already extremely famous in the field and one of the reasons for that might be the fact that he has managed to always reinvent himself and has adopted an extremely original style and working process. First of all, we will mention from the very beginning, if you were wondering how the illustrations displayed in this collection were done: none of them is digital! Olaf Hajek prefers to work as a painter for all his illustrations (some of which are quite close to the fine art aesthetics, actually) and his medium is acrylic on cardboard, paper or wood.

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This post deals with a type of business cards that is being used more and more and is starting to challenge the traditional design - the QR Code business cards. First of all, we have tho answer the question “What is a QR Code?”. Well, a QR Code is a 2 dimensional bar-code that is easily scanned using any modern mobile phone. This code will then be converted (called “dequrified”) into a piece of (interactive) text and/or link and usually, in case of a link, the user will be redirected to that link instantly. This is the long definition. The short one is: Quick Response Code.

The advantages of having a QR Code on your business cards, or any other promotional material for that matter, is: you will make the print interactive (this is one way to make print interact, another one is augmented reality), you will have the ability to track any incoming visitor from your creation and at the same time you will stand out from the crowd as your business card will have a surprising new element.

It is forecasted that smart-phone sales will surpass PC sales in the year 2011-2012 so you should think of helping your clients find you faster with their mobile devices.

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The sketchy look templates are currently a trendy style for illustrators and, why not, for web-designers as well. This is why we have decided to dedicate it an entire article and showcase some of the most original, intriguing and inspiring sites or blogs in this style that we could find. The advantage for adopting this kind of graphics is that you will get a very vibrant, natural look which will convey a sense of sincerity and originality to your site or blog.

It is free, it is natural, it is living art!!! What more freedom do you want other than to draw whatever your imagination dictates you? You can get to extremely interesting combinations of images in this way, that you couldn’t have possibly thought of otherwise. Just the act of placing one drawing next to another can bring very original results to begin with and when you’ll start making these sketches, drawings or cartoons interact, the results will be surpassing your expectations. You have the examples in this collection as a proof of the infinite possibilities you have in this type of graphics.

Probably the best advantage of the sketchy design is that your site or blog will have a truly unique look. No other site on the web will look like it because you have applied your own, personal, drawing style to it. This could be a very true expression of your style, and if you manage to give your hand-drawn graphics a definite, unmistakable personality you will surely have a successful site design.

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Recently I posted a Miniature Faking Effect video using time-lapse tilt shift photography technique here. Today I found another video and I though I want to share with you.

Here’s an amazing video by Daniel Fiantok of the 2010 Budapest Critical Mass Earth Day ride, shot using a technique know as ‘Tilt-Shift’. The Budapest ride is the largest on the planet, with tens of thousands of riders. This makes Budapest, Hungary look like the coolest place on earth for the bicycle-lover. Not exactly your great-grandmother’s ox-cart. This is best viewed full-screen. Why Is Critical Mass Budapest so huge? It’s mostly flat. Bikes have been popular for generations in Hungarian cities. But to get to 40,000 riders and more, there’s clearly more going on.

Do you know any similar video using miniature effect? Please share in the comment form below. Enjoy!

City Of Joy from daniel fiantok on Vimeo.