There’s nothing like a beautiful sunrise or sunset to inspire great design or evoke a strong emotion.
This wallpaper was created by Stephen, one of our amazing web designers. He wanted to do a textural design incorporating beautiful photography and vibrant colors. Don’t you think this design communicates the fresh, crisp feeling of an early morning or dusk?
Fresh Sunrise, eROI Wallpaper
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I have always been a huge fan of cinematography. One of the reasons I like it is because of the dramatic look cinema often has. I decided to try to make some of my photography have that same look in Photoshop. The exact process and outcome is often dependent on the image you start with, so your mileage may vary with the tools and settings I will describe here. Use this as a starting point and play with the image to get it where you want. I am assuming you have a working knowledge of Adobe Photoshop but if you don’t you might try Lynda.com as a good starting point. That’s where I learned the basics.
More than just give you a step-by-step tutorial I am going to describe the reasons why I did the things I did to (hopefully) give you a better working understanding why it works. I can promise you that if you follow along and give it your best shot you will end up with a moody, interesting image. Here we go.
At eROI, we’re all about collaboration and information-sharing. We share ideas, tweets, and even the occasional beer. When we see something cool or inspiring, we want to share it with those around us in hopes that it inspires them, too.
In that vein, we want to share some of our fun, Fresh wallpapers with you. Check out this one from Tom, our music-obsessed, fine point Sharpie-hoarding, designer extraordinaire. My guess is that he came up to this while jammin’ to his favorite tunes. Design improvisation at its finest!
Whenever I see him, he’s carrying around his sketchpad and making fun, happy-accident-type doodles. Don’t you wish your doodling could be this fun and festive?
Fresh Doodle, eROI Wallpaper
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Photo District News is a trade publication for professional photographers based in New York City. First published in 1980, the magazine was originally named after the area of Manhattan that was largely populated by photography studios, The Flatiron District.
PDN’s influence has remained strong over the past two decades, and it has evolved from a monthly print publication to include a family or online properties under the umbrella of PDN Online, which offers resources, community and inspiring galleries for professional photographers.
A yearly staple of PDN’s offerings that I have recently become aware of is their Top 30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch feature, which highlights the world’s most exciting and ground-breaking photography talent. The subject of the chosen artists’ work ranges from fashion to cultural and current event reportage, and everything in between.
In this post I will share 4 of my favorites that came out of this year’s 30. I am not a professional photographer in any sense of the title, but I would like to think I have an okay eye for exciting and interesting images. The 4 artists after the jump all have the ability to make the mundane or ordinary fantastic and enthralling, and will inevitably challenge and reshape the creative and technical canons of modern photography in years to come. Enjoy.
Visual storytelling of one kind or another has been around since cavemen were drawing on the walls. ~Frank Darabont
Storytelling happens in a variety of ways.
It happens quite literally by opening up the pages of your favorite book, by hitting “play” on your DVD player, and by sharing tales of days long gone with old friends over a cold beer.
It also happens on the pages of a website through compelling photography.
Incorporating a visual story throughout a website is simply another way to engage your audience, enhance the user experience, and conjure a positive emotion in your visitors. Sometimes, photography can express something or convey a message that words or copy cannot begin to describe. I find that something magical happens when people are engaged in an entertaining story; they drift into a land of possibilities and step out of time even if only for a few moments. (more…)
This year I had the opportunity to go to SXSW. As a conference newbie I didn’t know what to expect. I heard stories from friends and co-workers and read some awesome blog posts about how to get ready, mainly Last-Minute SXSW 2010 Planning Guide and Tweeting from SXSW — Don’t Throw Up On Me Please. No rookie mistakes for me.
As the new kid on the block, I didn’t know what sessions I wanted to see or which ones would be most appealing. So, after reading through session descriptions, I found a few that I thought would be interesting. Two that I stumbled upon that I found particularly interesting were about web design psychology. Mind control- Psychology of the web by Ben Scofield (here are his slides and blog) and The Art and Science of Seductive Interactions by Stephen P. Anderson (here are his slides and blog).
I had learned about some of these theories from my peers, and most are pretty intuitive, but having them laid out in one place will hopefully be a useful reference or helpful review.
No. Not really. As long as you include wireframing in your process, you’re “doing it right,” no matter the tools you choose or the process you use.
Well, that’s not very satisfying is it? What if you’re new to wireframing and need some help and inspiration for getting started? Luckily there are a lot of wireframe pros out there who are willing to share their process and some examples of their work. The important thing is to not obsess over the details of how the pros do it: which tool they use (Balsamiq, OmniGraffle, Fireworks, HTML) or what the deliverables are (flat wireframes, clickable wireframes/prototypes, paper prototypes, STOP-MOTION paper prototypes, protocasts).
Trying to figure out which is the best way or the “right way” to wireframe before you even start is like obsessing over finding the best ergonomic pen and the moleskine notebook with the perfect paper weight and texture before you start writing your novel. You just gotta start with what you have, and figure out what works best for you as you go.
That point was illustrated very well during a workshop I attended at SXSW called (wait for it) “The Right Way to Wireframe”. Presented by Russ Unger, Todd Zaki Warfel, Will Evans and Fred Beecher, the workshop covered four different approaches to creating wireframes and designs for the same website redesign project: Lend4Health (read the backstory of this idea here, and about the process of choosing Lend4Health here).
Each of the presenters (and their partners/teams) developed the wireframes and designs individually and isolated from the other three, so that they wouldn’t be influenced by what the others were doing. So we get a pretty good idea of each person’s/team’s typical workflow. Plus,they decided that each would use a different tool to create their wireframes, so that we could see four different tools in action — and also see that they all get the job done pretty well. They presented four different workflows, with four different wireframing tools, none of which are the “Right Way to Wireframe”, but simply “ways to wireframe”.
Here are the four videos presented in “The Right Way to Wireframe,” for your viewing pleasure:
You’ll notice that even though they use different tools and have different deliverables, they all follow a similar process: research and requirements gathering, creating personas, creating a sitemap, sketching, wireframing/prototyping and finally, designing the visual look and feel. So if there is a “right way” to be found in the act of wireframing, it is in the process leading up to it: research first, sketching ideas next (lots and lots of sketching) and THEN wireframing. But the act of wireframing itself can be approached from many different angles with many different tools. The way you do it is up to you based on personal preference, the requirements of the project, and what will allow you to communicate ideas best to the individual client or project owner.
The reoccurring gender-ambiguous beaked character. The bright-yet-limited color pallet. The whimsical hand-drawn typography and witty, random and often confusing ideas it communicates. All are part of what makes Parra’s work unmistakably unique in the streetwear, music, skateboarding and fine art landscapes which it permeates.
Parra’s work is approachable, bright, funny, puzzling and graphic. Personally, I am a huge fan, and cite him as a large contemporary influence on my own work. One of his posters is tacked up next to my desk here at eROI. It is high time I share the awesomeness.
Take a peek into Parra’s world. Pictures and video after the jump.
When our long-time client, Wacom, approached us with a new line of touch enabled tablets, they were looking for an integrated marketing campaign that would drive sales and exposure for their new product. Wacom was thinking about abandoning traditional print-based advertising in favor of doing only web-based advertising, which was a major change for them. We took this opportunity to dive in as a team and come up with something truly different. What we ended up creating was a truly integrated marketing campaign that took one central idea and expressed it in several different ways. The results were more than any of us could have expected.
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It’s time to add to the collection of fashionable Fresh wallpapers for you to enjoy on your desktop and share with others!
I can hear the birds chirping! I can feel the sun in my eyes and the cool breeze flowing through my hair. The smell of tulips wafts… Oh wait… I’m here in the office. Well, this wallpaper is just that good.
I’ve used some faded tree and cloud elements combined with a water-color-y wash of lemon yellows and sea green for this wallpaper. Hope you enjoy!
eROI Fresh Wallpaper, Spring Breeze
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