This is a new free desktop wallpaper I recently made. I took a watercolor doodle and digitally collaged the flowers together. It’s been very rainy and grey here, recently. I needed some color, some vibrancy. Enjoy!
RedBubble: Edits and Lovelies
March 4th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink
Within the past month, I signed up for RedBubble, a sort of artsier Zazzle, if you would. This past week, they’ve changed the set-up of their portfolio collection, making it increasingly easier to customize your individual page. Taking a cue from several other RedBubblers (RedBubblees?), I created some linked icons for social networking and highlighted some prize creations of mine.
The new categories has made it much easier for artist to organize pieces by style, medium, etc. while neatly showcasing work by preference rather than time uploaded. RedBubble, I applaud you! What a nice touch for users to create unique pages while maintaining order and dignity. Facebook could learn from you, my friend, instead of designing reactionary pages due to MySpace graphic-ickiness. However, perhaps RedBubble just attracts people with more design… acuity? taste?
In any case, excuse my ramblings and be sure to check out my RedBubble page for more visual scintillation. Enjoy!
Finding Truly Free Images: Part #2
February 4th, 2011 § 2 comments § permalink
Please note: this article is a follow-up to Part #1 of the series “Finding Truly Free Images.” I’ve added some material to better explain “Free as in beer” vs. “Free as in speech.”
When I first started doing digital collages, I found it difficult to find images that were truly free. I wanted to respect others’ creativity and licensing. However, where could I find images that were completely license-free and free of charge.
Where to Find Truly Free Images:
Flickr Commons is an excellent resource for vintage images. Most of the images have been uploaded by museums and non-profits. All images have “no known copyrights” as many are of unknown subjects taken by unknown photographers. These images are in the public domain. (The various institutions place this disclaimer on all the images just in case someone comes forward to claim the image.)
MorgueFile is an excellent resource for finding a mix of amateur and professional stock photos. I have found some great images with white/clean backgrounds that were easy to remove. MorgueFiles clearly states that you may
- Remix — to adapt the work.
- Commercial — to use this work for commercial purposes.
- Without Attribution — to use without attributing the original author.
However, you may not sell, license, or claim the image as your own. Read more here. Pretty amazing stuff.
The GraphicsFairy has a huge array of vintage images that are within the public domain. You are welcome to use them free as in anything. Here’s what this lovely lady has to say about usage:
The Graphics Fairy is an Angel Company. You are free to use all clip art and photos, with the exception of the banner and any guest photos, in any of your projects created for resale or pleasure. Please do not use more than 6 of the graphic images within any one project, or within a single page of a blog or website. A link to the Graphics Fairy is very much appreciated, when including clipart on your blog or website. Thank you!
I have found beautiful images of animals, holiday cards, text, labels, and many other vintage finds! Beautiful things.
Smaller collections of Vintage Images:
WWII Clip Art
MrsInnman's Vintage Images
I will continue to add to this collection of links to truly free images. I am also hoping to add my own truly free images soon. I’ll keep you apprised of the details. Have a lovely Friday - and weekend too!
Analog for Two Weeks
January 27th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink
So my computer has been on the fritz recently. First, it sort of died. Then, the day after Apple fixed the death-problem, the power cord sparked and died. Thus, I have only a few minutes before my battery dies to post this message. 
So, what does a designer do when your computer goes kaput? I started sewing. And painting more. Sketching more. Reading real books more. All in all, it’s probably a good thing to get me to be more productive instead of being online doing “research.”
Above, you can see the “softies” I’ve been making for kids in Haiti. I’m hoping to ship them off by the end of the month.
More images and articles soon. Thanks for all your feedback on the “Free Images” article. A follow up is coming soon.
2011: Movie Posters
January 6th, 2011 § 1 comment § permalink
Happy new year! I hope you have enjoyed a little internet withdrawal, perhaps due to excessive yule-log-watching and eggnog-consumption. Now, it’s on to the year 2011. The year that continues to plague me as I want to say “oh-eleven,” which sounds downright silly. 2011: the year of the rabbit, international forests, of honeysuckle – PANTONE color 18-2120, and awesome movie typography. And I’m not just saying that as yet another movie has been named after me (see above).
I’m a fan of the grunge factor here as well as (what I believe to be) the faux-hand-drawn typographical nature of the title elements. Nice touch, but why not just hand-draw the title?
I love collages – photo, multimedia, paper, you-name-it. This movie poster draws me in with all the interesting paraphernalia laying on the desk. I wish my desk was full of such lovely papers. And this neat.
Check back soon. I plan on being a more active, lovable, sociable blogger. Till then, H.
Finding Truly Free Images for Blogging (Part 1)
November 22nd, 2010 § 2 comments § permalink
I am extremely gullible to any sort of eye candy. Despite my English major training, I continue to judge books by their cover design. I snub websites that utilize Comic Sans as their main typeface. I generally prefer to examine window displays than go shopping. I adore beautiful visual anything.
I must make another confession: I have read (or chosen not to read) blog posts or articles based solely on the featured image. And I know that I’m not the only snobby reader to do so. However, as a blogger, it can be difficult to find truly free images on the web. There are a variety of subscription stock photo sites as well as pay-per-image sites. There are also a huge amount of websites that kindly offer free images, asking only for a little credit.
The Basics
There are almost infinite amounts of clipart, photos, graphics, vectors, and the like out there just waiting to be “saved as…” and uploaded to your server. However, the tiny matter of copyrights makes this issue complicated. Most visuals floating around on the web are copyrighted in some form. In essence, the artist or publisher is saying, “Hey! I made/published this image. Please respect the fact that I put effort into this piece. Since it’s mine, I get to say how and when you use this image.” And some really serious dudes may add, “Or I will sue you if you don’t listen to me.”
Don’t be nervous. Most people are nice.
Creative Commons
From my observations, most creatives use some form of the Creative Commons (CC) designations for copyrights, especially since Flickr now offers Creative Commons licensing on images. As there are many expert articles already written on this subject, I’m not going to detail Creative Common’s policies or copyright categories. This is a good, basic PDF break-down of all the categories. Digital Inspiration site also has a great article on how Flickr is not quite fitting the strict Creative Commons mold. You may use ImageCodr to reference images a la Creative Commons as well as search for copyright-free images.
Images: Free as in Beer or Free as in Speech?
You may have heard of the phrase, “Free as in beer or free as in speech.” It’s a common phrase among developers, especially those working on open-source projects. Basically, “free as in beer” means that the item is gratis, free of charge. “Free as in speech” means that the item is free of restrictions or copyrights (applications and software may be referred to as open-source).
Example: the phrase “free beer” conveys the idea that someone is offering you an alcoholic beverage free of charge. Obviously, you’re expected to drink the beer. You would not take the beer home to analyze and, later, attempt to start your own brewery. If someone asks where you got the beer, you would point and say, “See that pretty girl over there named Hannah? She was screaming ‘free as in beer!’ Now, she’s handing out beer to everyone!” Clearly, “free of charge” is free to everyone, one and all. However, it comes with the caveat – enjoy the beer, give credit to the pretty girl, and be reasonable and don’t try to replicate the beer. Bottoms up.
To explain “free as in speech” it helps to think of it a friend telling a joke.
Adam: … So that is my monologue for Stand-up Comic Night. Remember, don’t tell anyone as I want them to know how very awesome I am. What do you think?
Bob: Ha ha ha. That’s really terrific. Want to hear my joke? You can this joke to anyone. I heard it from Claire. Okay, here it goes: two peanuts walk into a bar. One was a salted.
Adam: Oh. Ha. That’s, um, great.
This is not the greatest example, but I think you get the point. Adam’s original, creative monologue is his intellectual property not to be reproduced. However, Bob’s joke is more mundane. Anyone can repeat Bob’s joke as it’s part of a communal joke repository.
I look for images that meet both requirements. Note: if you intend to edit the images or use them for your photoshop project (for commercial or non-commercial use), make sure the image is free as in speech.
If you google “Free Images,” over 2,660,000,000 results will pop up. Most of these sites provide royalty free images for a price. This is a complicated form of copyrights that media people use. Basically, you have to inform the site you purchase stock images from how many times you intend to use the image (and if you want to be the exclusive user).
So what is a blogger to do? Stay tuned for part two of the series. Part two will include
- My favorite internet sources for truly free images
- Keywords to find your own content
- What print resources can help you on your quest for FREE
- How to pay it forward to web community with your own FREE images
Holiday Crafty-ness (aka Why My Husband Deserves a Medal)
November 18th, 2010 § 2 comments § permalink
Our little apartment has been transformed into what can only be termed Grand Crafting Station. In other words, there are buttons, hot glue sticks, and paint tubes everywhere, but mostly there is paper, paper, paper, paper. I love paper with a passion. I never thought of collecting paper as an official hobby. Instead, my sister and I have amassed a large amount of paper, vintage ribbons, and various bits of ephemera. And, when I got married this past June, I was sure to bring along many books and lots of paper. Actually, books and paper were my only dowry. My poor minimalist, feng shui husband! He had no idea how much baggage (literally!) I came into this marriage lugging, pasting, and gluing. Thankfully, he loves me very much and carefully overlooks the mess until it reaches the breaking it point. Note to self: don’t reach the breaking point.
I’ve signed up for my very first craft show this December. My husband set us up with a account with Square so we can now accept credit cards. The whole idea is truly mind-blowing. Credit cards? It makes me feel very shoppe-like. Does anyone have any feedback, good or bad, on Square? I’d be happy to hear thoughts on the app.
Meanwhile, two of my paintings are now hanging out at a local coffee shop. Seeing the two of them (including Fly Painting above) just hanging out on the wall felt surreal and sort of odd.
More details of craftiness (and some crafty-ness too!) very soon. H
Fun and Games with ColourLovers (and listen up, designers!)
November 2nd, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink
hjconti themeleon
I’m not sure how I missed these oh-so-fun (and did I mention free?) tools from ColourLovers. I changed my Twitter background like twenty times as I wanted to try out all the different styles, colors, and patterns. Make your own patterns and palettes as well by logging into the website.
The Photocopa tool (below) is helpful (and fun!) for creating color palettes. Upload your own photo or use one of theirs. ColourLovers provide the Hex, RGB, and HSV color codes, so, designers, listen up!
via colorlover
Designers and Coders: Finding Marital Bliss
October 30th, 2010 § 1 comment § permalink
I’m definitely a right-brained gal. I think in colors, typography, layers, and gradients. I married a very handsome left-brained man who gets very excited about codes, telecom, programing, etc. Prior to getting married and moving in together this past June, I did not think too much about our brain differences.
The day or two after our wedding, we went grocery shopping together. This was my first experience as a wife of how different we could plan and execute a simple excursion like groceries. Andrew, my husband, created a detailed, categorical list of everything we needed at the grocery store. The list was mounted on a clipboard. And he crossed things off as we shopped.
I usually head to the produce section, looking for dinner inspiration among the beautiful veggies that are on sale or seem especially delectable. Then, I head row-by-row down the aisles, searching for things we need around the house or for the dinners I’ve planned in my head moments prior. I have a rough idea of what I must come home with, but the rest is more up in the air. Andrew’s method was clinically more productive and time-saving. I continue to appreciate my husband’s “Plan and conquer!” methods that were first demonstrated at the grocery store. Andrew (I think…?) has also benefited from my design theories for supper (different colors, shapes, and sizes for the sides and main course to balance out the “design” of dinner!) and more spontaneous methods of shopping. I think we balance each other out well.
All this brings me to the past few weeks. I’ve been tweaking (subtly and not-so-subtly) my wordpress themes, styles, plugins, and widgets. I moved to WordPress from Blogger; thus, there has been somewhat of a learning curve as I discover more about css, HTML5, and jQuery. Andrew and I have been discussing the website. I focus on design. He wants to discuss usability and navigation. I want to talk about how to make this particular sidebar look like this and how transparency in such-and-such should work. After reading this Oatmeal comic about designers, I realized that I’m not the only one to feel like the “emotional arteest” at times.
I’m thankful to have such a wonderful guy to help in moments of crisis such as “Andrew!? I broke the website again! Come fix it please!”
PS: I love this guy’s website and this article in particular, “Are you a designer, a coder, or both?”