John Nack on Adobe

November 22, 2009

(rt) Type: Krakens, font finders, & more

• "This typography is making me thirsty..." Check out Kraken rum. (I think I met this beast on honeymoon.)
• Adobe's cool Font Finder lets you dial in parameters to browse 2,200 typefaces.
• Here's an interesting type treatment for an alternate iPhone lock screen.
• Clever JavaScript trickery = Scollbar typography. [Via]

November 21, 2009

(rt) Photography: Amazing bird photography, Mars, & more

• Andrew Zuckerman just crushes it with his bird book. Outstanding. [Via]

• Droppin' science:
  • The Big Picture features some totally fascinating Mars pictures. [Via]
  • Check out this year's Olympus microscopy photo winners. (Many leave me nonplussed, but scroll down for the hero-flea.) [Via]

• History:
  • Have gas mask, will travel. Creepy stuff; recalls animations from The Wall.
  • On CreativePro, Gene Gable shows off the pioneering photo processing of Look Magazine (e.g. the Beatles shot by Richard Avedon). Lots of interesting pre-digital manipulations.
• This 12,000-photo time lapse is interesting even for Yankee-haters. [Via]
12:22 AM | Permalink | Comments [3]

November 20, 2009

(rt) Photography: Lightroom tips for speed-ups, more

• Scott Kelby offers a handy set of "10 Things I Would Tell New Lightroom Users."
• The Lightroom Lab shares Top Ten Lightroom Speed Tips.
• According to LR engineer Troy Gaul, "Lightroom 2.6, in addition to adding camera support, fixes a visual glitch on Snow Leopard in loupe when panning. [Via]
• Want a one-screen way to scan popular LR blogs? Check out http://lightroom.alltop.com/. [Via]

November 16, 2009

(rt) Infographics: Violent death, Hey Jude, & more

• Brutal: "In my Swedish elevator i discovered one of the worst ways to die." [Via]
• This excellent interactive infographic shows the relative size of objects, from coffee beans to atoms.
• "Hey Jude" as a flowchart. [Via]
• I love this set of fanciful theme park maps. (As a kid I used to pore over my posters of Great America & Brookfield Zoo.) [Via]

November 13, 2009

(rt) Photography: Historical remixes, Lightroom tips, & more

• Here's a set of strangely diggable aquatic photos from Asako Narahashi.
• History reconsidered:
  • Iconic Photo Of JFK Assassin Oswald Was Not Faked, Professor Finds. (Adobe has worked w/Hany Farid.) [Via]
  • Bizarre B&W photos: Batman + Fidel, Darth + FDR. [Via]
• Lightroom tips via Tom Hogarty:
  • PLUS (Picture Licensing Universal System) plug-in now available for Lightroom 2; would like your feedback.
  • How to create a time lapse video direct from Lightroom 3 beta: [Via]

November 11, 2009

(rt) Photography: Crushing overloads, HDR moon, & more

• This insanely overloaded truck seems like a metaphor on wheels, crying out for inclusion in a Demotivator. [Via]
• Here's a pair of striking photos from India, courtesy of Emanuele Nardoni.
• Twins Triptych: Arbus, Kubrick, and (scariest) the Olsens.
• Superfly dragonflies & avian stylings come from Conrad Tan.
• Heavenly:
  • Need to know where/when the sun/moon will rise/set for photos? Use The Photographer's Ephemeris. [Via]
  • Check out an HDR pic of the Halloween full moon. [Via Ben Hansen]

November 9, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Amazing concept art, Vintage VDubs, & more

• Check out some incredible concept art from Rodolfo Damaggio.
• I love these automotive manual cutaway drawings turned into giant wall art. If the imagery trips your trigger, Bryan Hughes suggests How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive. [Via]
• Cool map to the LA Olympics... of 1932: (More info is here.)
• Tutorials:
  • Slick--How to Create Smoky Brushes and Type In Illustrator CS4.
  • Halloween+Photoshop: Russell Brown shows how to turn people into monsters.

November 2, 2009

(rt) Type: E.Coli as font, El Vetica, & more

• Handmade:
  • Jessica Hische has posted an alphabet's worth of gorgeous "hand-crafted decorative initial caps" on Daily Drop Cap. Her portfolio site is pretty bitchin', too.
  • I dig the hand-drawn swoops of Si Scott's typography.
• Type + Luchadores = Radness. Check out El Vetica. [Via] (Gratuitous personal tangent: You cannot handle the cute.)
• A typographical infographic: Popular Names in Popular Music, 1891-now.
• Perfect for a new Jack in the Box logo design? Dutch Designer Wins €10,000 for a Font Grown From E-Coli. [Via Marc Pawliger]

November 1, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Japanese monsters, skulls, beer, and more

• Seasonal creepiness:
  • I love these bizarre illustrations: Anatomy of Japanese Folk Monsters. [Via]
  • "I want your skulls..." Lots of cool illustrations.
  • Oh, this heart doesn't look healthy, does it? Here's more such weirdness. [Via]
• Abduzeedo rounds up great Guinness ads past & present.
• The Chopping Block crew has posted tips on using Photoshop to Prep & Color Scanned Drawings.

October 31, 2009

(rt) Photography: Biggest tree photo ever & more

• Interesting iPhone photography roundup (and images) from Phil Coffman. Includes use of Photoshop.com app
• Thinking of digitizing old photos? Macworld compares scanning services. [Via]
• National Geographic:
  • Biggest, Tallest Tree Photo Ever (Our wee man Finn loves the fold-out print version: "Leetle dudes!!")
  • A chimp funeral (pic #2)? That's honestly not something I expected to see today.
• A photo essay in TIME covers history's Top 10 Doctored Photos (many predating Photoshop).

October 30, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Friday Infographics

• Man, what a gorgeous space infographic. See also the lovely Race to the Moon.
• A three-year-old's view of the NYC subway. (I have to get my illustration mojo back & start doing things like this for our boys. I keep wanting to do a diagram of baby Henry scootching around his crib, a la the sailing stones of the Racetrack Playa.)
• A Graphic History of Newspaper Circulation Over the Last Two Decades. [Via]
• Map of how long it takes to get to a 'major' city (+50k people). [Via]

October 28, 2009

(rt) Interesting Miscellany: Slick designs, terrible demos, & more

• "Horrifically bad software demo becomes performance art." Oh God, I've been so close to being the podium-gripping guy...
• Design:
  • I dig this Brooklyn Bridge-inspired bottle design (less literal/cheesy than it might sound).
  • "Measure twice, rock once" with the Cassette Tape Measure.
• What *possible* demographic buys Playboy (faux) Hot Wheels? (I'm pretty sure I don't want to know.)
• This forkless cruiser bike looks like a Photoshop job but isn't.
• Music:
  • "Katzenklavier": Worst. Musical Instrument. Ever. (Germans, you're a trippy bunch.) [Via]
  • Rad: Subway stairs as giant piano. Well done, VDub.

October 26, 2009

(rt) Photography: Glaciers from space, famous Legos, & more

• The natural world:
  • Glaciers, as seen from space. [Via]
  • Amazing undersea image from Nat Geo. [Via]
  • Fascinating--MIT Students Build Space Camera for $150.
• Famous images:
  • Check out the interesting "Iconic Photos" blog. (via @kottke)
  • Mike Stimpson offers Famous photos recreated in LEGO [Via]

• Striking aircraft photography from Josef Hoflehner [Via Christina Wiley]
• "Two Weeks in Forever" is the NYT's interesting 3-minute photo essay about a Marine unit in Afghanistan.
• Here's a 360-degree pano of some Photoshop & Lightroom guys meeting w/customers last week in NYC.

October 25, 2009

(rt) Offbeat sculptures: Micro Hulk, Bizarre balloons, & more

• Microsculptor's Incredible Hulk Fits in Eye of a Needle. [Via]
• Buddha sculpture made from 20,000 dead bugs. (I always love hilariously overwrought Japanese narration.) [Via]
• Skeletons made from melted cassette tapes. [Via]
• Weirdest. (And Biggest.) Balloon. Sculptures. Ever. [Via]

October 23, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Martians, killers, and more

• Infographics:
  • A lovely, highly readable, one-image history of missions to Mars. [Via]
  • "A billion here, a billion there..." Gigantic expenditures visualized.
  • "A Killer Among Us??" The Science News Cycle as a handy infographic. [Via]
• Cool: Sketchbook Mobile for iPhone now emails layered PSD files. [Via]
• The recent evolution of various logos (Hilton, Hertz, more).
• Chris Haines makes some amazing photo illustrations (Thom Yorke & others). (They get better as you scroll down.)

October 16, 2009

(rt) Type: German chronographs, Photorealistic 3D type, & more

• Looks like a cool tutorial on "extreme typography" in Illustrator (full reading requires site membership).
• Gollum-flavored license plate spotted at lunch: PRSHSSS. We likes it...
• "IT IS TEN PAST NINE..." Cool German timepiece. Even comes as an iPhone app! [Via]
• Nerd-tastic Cmd-Z necklace.
• Quiz: So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?
• Motion
  • Kinetic typography (photorealistic 3D text as metalwork). Here's the background info.
  • The "Bored to Death" titles feature fun typography in motion.

October 15, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Mickey D's to Decapitated KFC's

• Infographics:
  • Map of the US, visualized by the distance to nearest McDonald's. Here's more info. [Via]
  • Beautiful "Nonsensical Infographics" by Chad Hagen.
• I love the excellently simple Decibel Fest poster.
• Check out the nifty retro illustrations from Lab Partners. More are on their blog. [Via]
• The best flag in the world. [Via]
• Filed under Stuff You Were Previously Unlikely To See Today: A dog fox eating Col. Sanders' head, courtesy of graffiti artist Banksy. Brainstem-lickin' good.

October 12, 2009

(rt) Photography: Nobel Prizes, Lightroom plug-ins, & more

• "Masters of light": 2009 Nobel Goes to Digital Photography Pioneers. [Via Todor Georgiev]
• Hot aerospace action:
  • "This photo destroyed a camera," says Photojojo. "Worth it."
  • Great plane-from-above photo (apparently from a blimp over LaGuardia). More shots are here.
• Here's a fairly substantial introduction to available Lightroom plug-ins. [Via]
• Clever: A vase that mimics a Polaroid.
• The venerable German magazine Brigitte is stopping the use of professional models: all too skinny. They to use Photoshop to make them "thicker." [Via Roey Horns]

October 10, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Bold type, controversial covers, & more

• The original IBM ThinkPad (Spoiler: It's an actual pad.) [Via]

• Dang--artist Eric Natzke keeps raising his game: "Is it made with Paint or Code?" [Via]
• Tutorials:
  • How to Create Vintage Vector Bottle Caps In Illustrator CS4.
  • Dig the bold 3D type in this poster tutorial.

• "Is God Dead?" The Most Controversial Magazine Covers of All Time. [Via Jackie Lincoln-Owyang]
• Getting clever:
  • "Shoot forth thunder." Visual plays on Shakespearian lines, as sprinkled through "Romeo + Juliet."
  • A great set of logos featuring visual puns. [Via]

October 5, 2009

(rt) Photography: Red skies, Robo-bama, & more

• Spooky: Dust storm in Australia on the Big Picture. (Cue up The Fixx...) Make sure to check out the interesting crossfades (e.g. image 4) that juxtapose dust-occluded & normal views of their subjects. [Via]
• Great plane-from-above photo (from a blimp over LaGuardia). More images are in the rest of the post.
• Lovely recycled camera lens wrist cuffs. [Via]
• New Strata tool lets you make 3D models using just a camera. Includes Photoshop plug-in for further tweaks.
• President Roboto: Remix of 130 State Department Flickr photos showing the unvarying Obama smile. [Via]
• Focalware, a cool iPhone app to assist in outdoor photography, has been updated to v2.0.

September 28, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Charlie Parker, Busted coffee, & more

• One bedtime treat is reading young Finnegan an ABC book from the amazing Charley Harper. (Reading him the marvelously weird Charlie Parker Played Be Bop is another.)
• The Photoshop team coffee pot was recently broken again--and yes, QE has graphed the impact!
• This "Tech support cheat sheet" from xkcd is spot-on funny. [Via]
• Here's a 6-minute video on how Wired makes mag covers. One involved a 1GB (!) Transformers .PSD rendered by ILM. [Via Adam Pratt]
• Check out some impressive photo manipulations/illustrations from Erik Johansson. [Via Kirsten Harris]

September 25, 2009

(rt) Type: From gorgeous to (literally) cheesy

• Beautiful collections:
  • Typarchive is all about hand-lettered sweetness. [Via]
  • "For Your Ocular Amusement...", it's LetterheadFonts.com. You knew I'd love these ones. (via Marc Pawliger)
• "Smart, tough, and sexy. Hello Tungsten." Great font, great name. [Via]
• Windows termination-inspired:
  • Computer lingo x Huge typography = Political statement.
  • Nerdiest/most painful/most puzzling typographic tattoo ever?
• Fun, splashy type treatment for NY Times "T" Magazine.
• Hah! Cheese or Font? (It's no "Food, Sex, or Cars?," however.) [Via Adam Jerugim]

September 24, 2009

(rt) Photography: Astronomy, Architecture, & More

• Free* copy of Lightroom 2! (*with purchase of Leica M9) [Via]
• Awesomely bad engagement photos. [Via]
• Hot spatial action:
  • Astronomy Photographer of the Year winners. (The universe has a weird way of sometimes emulating the look of an airbrushed '77 Econoline.) [Via]
  • A beautiful B&W from the shiny early days of the space race.
• Buildings in stasis:
  • Beautiful, ethereal architectural photography by Kim Høltermand.
  • Oddly lovely: Photos of abandoned houses in Detroit, now being reclaimed by nature. [Via]
• How do people get wildlife shots like this? Timing, timing, timing--and probably serious prep. (Oh yes--and mice as bait.)
7:05 AM | Permalink | Comments [4]

September 22, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Escher, Che-on-Che, & more

• Volkswagen has created a fun MC Escher homage. (Click the images for larger versions.)
• Heh: from the Onion, the "Che Wearing Che T-shirt T-shirt."
• Fancy a beer? Make mine a Berserker. ("Lumberjacks give them the grunt of approval.")
• Check out the beautifully simple "Redacted Book Series" project.
• Gene Gable rounds up solid vintage Ex Libris illustrations. I like this one for Woodrow Wilson.
• Enjoy some "Dirty Prancing" with the Swayzaur--not to mention Robocop + unicorns.

September 15, 2009

(rt) Photography: Bitchin' laser portraits, Frankencamera, & more

• Laser backgrounds + Mullets = Bitchin' 80's portraits: Laserportraits.net/ [Via]
• PT'ing in one of Saddam's palaces has to qualify as one of life's stranger events. Photo essay by Richard Mosse.
• Gaston Batistini captured a nice HDR-ish balloon race photo. (via @kottkedotorg)
• Lightroom tip: You can show color selectively, desaturating all but a selected region. (Note Density=100) (via @LR_Tom)
• Behold the Stanford "Frankencamera." We've been collaborating with Dr. Levoy & team for a while. I'll try to share more details sometime soon.

September 14, 2009

(rt) Useful utilities: PS preset syncing, shortcuts, & more

• In response to a reader's request for FTP to be built into more CS apps: To save straight from Photoshop to a Web server via FTP, try http://www.expandrive.com/
• Bittbox shows off How to Sync Photoshop Presets on Multiple Computers. [Via]
• Haven't gotten to try it (I don't use WordPress), but Divine promises PSD->WordPress site conversion.
• Shortcuts:
  • The Adobe Shortcut App lists keyboard commands from across CS4. Being a real nerd for this stuff, I'd like to see it made totally comprehensive. (Would we need 64 bit for the RAM required by that listing? ;-)) [Via Adam Pratt]
  • Handy shortcuts for changing font size in Photoshop: (I had no idea, and I'm usually all over these things.)

September 12, 2009

(rt) Photography: Motorcycle supermen, Space Shuttles, & more

• Photog Mark Weaver offers up some solid iPhone wallpapers.
• This two-faced Samsung camera features built-in baby-hypnotizer.
• Mentalfloss collects some amazing airplane graveyard pics. [Via]
• NASA's sharing a beautiful photo of the Space Shuttle blasting off at night.
• Tomatoes, baby. Two hundred & forty dollars worth of puddin--er, tomatoes.
• Percentage of motorcycles getting Supermanned: 100. I love this photo. [Via]

September 7, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Filter Heroes, puke-inducing logos, & more

[Quick reminder: The "(rt)" in the post headline signifies that I've previously posted these links on my Twitter account.]

• Infographics:
  • Venn diagram of mythical creatures. Pretty excellent. [Via]
  • Great infographic: Caffeine vs. calories. [Via]
• Check out the Photoshop Filter Heroes t-shirt from our pals at Chopping Block.
• Eye-popping monstrous illustrated goodness from Niark1. Lots more to like at Niark1.com.
• Design Won't Save the World. See other words of wisdom for budding designers:
• Layers for iPhone does photo compositing + natural media & exports PSDs (!).
• Awfulness:
  • Ouch: YourLogoMakesMeBarf.com. (But the "Johnston County Cornhole" does richly deserve it.)
  • Hard-core awesome Web design: Havenworks and uh, this thing. ("How can you even look at that without having a seizure?," asks my wife.) [Via Sam Potts]

August 30, 2009

(rt) Type: The Bonassus, OCD, CSS, & more

• All hail the Bonassus! Fun vintage typesetting. (And check out the back story from Ricky Jay.)
• A map of Paris, expressed as linocut typography. (The 'net loves it some OCD madness...)
• Typarchive offers up some hand-lettered sweetness. [Via]
• "Quick": a nice little type-nerd joke. (And by the way, what's the deal with quick brown foxes in type, anyway? CreativePro explains.)
• I dig the big, bold CSS typography of Oliver Kavanagh. [Via]

August 27, 2009

(rt) Photography: Badass aircraft, Killer origami, & more

• In flight:
  • As Stu Maschwitz says, "Badass photos of badass aircraft are badass." Word.
  • Captivating photos of helicopter halos (+ some moving stories). [Via]
• Horse + Hood = High-speed badness. (Many beautiful there pix, too.) [Via]
• Grégoire Alexandre: When Green Screens Attack (And Turn Into Origami)
• Lovely, and crafty, underwater photography. [Via]

• Mad Men season three promo images. Love the color and light balance. [Via]
• Harper's Bazaar shows models sans makeup or Photoshop. (Seems like a microtrend.) [Via]

August 23, 2009

(rt) Photography: The End of (MPx) War & More

• Megapixel War Is Over (If You Want It): New Canon G11 features 4 MPx fewer than its predecessor. I think that's great, but what a challenge it must be to market "Now with 35% less resolution!" to average consumers. (via Bryan O'Neil Hughes)
• "Always-on cameras" (of which the new iPhone may have one) = Way cool.
• A MacGyver-style camera ring light for $5? Photojojo tells How to Light With LEDs.
• Huelight.com offers free DNG profiles for Canon, Panasonic, Olympus. (Haven't tried 'em & can't offer eval) (via Eric Chan)
• Photo quote o' the day: "The best camera is the one you have with you and which has a f/1.4 normal prime." -- Neven Mrgan

August 22, 2009

(rt) Illustration: CS4 cupcakes, Orc pee, & more

• "Game over, man--game over.": Don't be this (8-bit) guy. The image is part of a funky "Make Something Cool Every Day" collection.
• Colour Lovers features a collection of beautiful vintage typewriter tins.
• Of new Mountain Dew, Neven Mrgan writes, "Two-word review: Orc pee." And speaking of oddball snack products, apparently Asia features Crotch-Kick Flavor Doritos.
• CS4 icon cupcakes! (Just don't get the icing on your Creative Suite pillows.) (via Jeff Warnock)
• Awesome URL o' the day: http://jon.dntfckwth.us/ (Worth a click for some awesome art there, too.)
• Vegetable steamer = awesome spaceship. I *so* did that as a kid.

August 13, 2009

(rt) Photography: Cranes, hills, & mountains

• Chicago crane operator + photography skills = quite a cool gallery. (via Bill Hughes)
• Beautiful, surreal cinematic compositions from Roy Andersson.
• Marcin Sacha makes absolutely beautiful rolling-hill landscapes. [Via Jason Fried]
• JK Keller crushes mountains with the help of Photoshop + JavaScript [Via]

August 5, 2009

Wednesday Photography: Fires, OCD, coffee, and more

• From the Big Picture, Fires Around the Mediterranean
• Crane operator + photography skills = quite a cool gallery [Via Behues]
• Absolutely beautiful rolling-hill landscapes from photographer Marcin Sacha [Via]
• Even regular jellyfish freak me out. I really can't deal with the giant Japanese suckers featured in National Geographic.
• The Mona Lisa made from cups of coffee [Via]

August 3, 2009

(rt) Type: Graffiti, lard, & cars

• Check out this groovy typographic soap. [Via] (Zalman Stern remarks, "Yeah, just two questions for the creator: What is the font? and Have you ever been asked to leave a liposuction facility under suspicious circumstances?")
• Writ large: use a Toyota to draw each letter of a font. [Via]
• BuzzFeed rounds up some hipster bathroom graffiti. [Via] (At Georgetown, dudes made a million grout puns ("Grout Scott," etc.).)

July 30, 2009

(rt) Photography: Serendipity, chicanery, & more

• Terrific aerial photo of farm combines from Jim Richardson. Check out Jim's behind-the-scenes post. (And Safari-using photo nerds, note the huge color shift when viewing one version of the image vs. the other. It kills me that Web developers refuse to "get" color mgmt. in any reasonable way.)
• Tips (including a video) on doing complex multi-photo layouts using only Lightroom.
• Chinese pigeons take a cue from Iranian missiles. [Via]
• Long exposures of bugs under a street light. (45 sec)
• Cool photos from Shuttle Endeavour's visit to the International Space Station. (I especially love this one.)
• MIT researchers create photo-sensitive fabric. (Future: Photog takes pix of clothes taking pix of photog...?)

July 29, 2009

(rt) Illustration: AT-ATs, optical illusions, & more

• Here's an awesome "Oakland AT-AT" t-shirt. I love those things (both kinds). (via @5tu)
• Vandelay Design rounds up 30 Text Effect Tutorials for Illustrator. Lots of neat ideas here, and I especially like the "Vibrant 3D Pixel Type Treatment."
• The Daily Mail shows a set of garage doors as optical illusions. (I'm a sucker for folding-wing F/A-18's myself.) Get 'em here. [Via]
• What's on Earth Tonight? If extraterrestrials are monitoring our TV broadcasts, here's what they're seeing. [Via]
• RT @khoi: Illustrator S. Britt's homepage violates all rules of good Web navigation-but it's so good.
• Fast Food Mafia presents mascots as gangsters. (Click for the higher-res version.) [Via]
• What Apple's web site would have looked like if the Internet existed in 1984. (via @davecross)
• Teehan + Lax have created a new PSD to facilitate designing for Palm Pre. (They're the same guys who made the iPhone GUI PSD.)

July 25, 2009

(rt) Useful utilities

• Disk Doctors Photo Recovery promises to recover lost/deleted PSD files.
• Brush Pilot (Mac) offers fast preview of Photoshop brushes. See also Preset Viewer for Windows.
• Cool color utility ColourGrab shows hex values for dominant colors in Web images. [Via Mark Coleran]
• ColoRotate presents color harmonies via a 3D widget. They're planning to release a Flash panel for CS4 apps.

July 23, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Amazing light paintings & more

• Jan Wöllert and Jörg Miedza create amazing long-exposure light paintings.
• Creative Suite icons done via human pixels from Italy. (via @jdowdell)
• Free 3D models from NASA; can be loaded into Photoshop Extended. (via Pete Falco)
• Finally an Illustrator tutorial that takes advantage of warping tools + blending modes, not just c1990-era stuff: Creating an MRE package.
• "404 Humor Not Found": fun error pages. More here. (via @gridirondaniel & @inspiredm)
• A personal ad in infographic form: My kind of girl!
• Nicknames for famous corporate logos. (My fave: "Two and a Half Hotdogs")
• Simple, powerful book cover design for "Busted."

July 22, 2009

(rt) Photography: Mesmerizing HD video, B-Boys, & more

• HD video of the Kuroshio Sea aquarium, shot with Canon 5D MkII 5DMKII (via @mikegee)
• Awesome (if you're an old Beastie Boys fan): a photographic history of the Paul's Boutique corner. (via @khoi)
• Yucks:
  • What would happen If Celebrities Moved to Oklahoma, via Photoshop? (My wife is an OK escapee.)
  • The Onion: "17-Year-Old Thinks She's Getting Into Photography".
  • Regarding Nikon ads: "I don't get this whole 'I'm Ashton Kutcher and you should care what my goofy ass is doing' thing." -- my wife.
• Use Google Images without violating copyright. CreativePro.com features tips on using it to find royalty-free imagery.
• Ugh: NY Times was burned by digital photo manipulation. See also their comments.
• Chipmunks vs. Star Wars? (You were a good smuggler once; now you're just 'munk fodder...)
• Tips (including a video) on creating complex multi-photo layouts using only Lightroom.

July 17, 2009

(rt) Type: Clever logos, tiny letterpress, & more

• Hope & Fear, nicely typeset
• TypeInspire: Typographical inspiration o' the day (via @motionographer)
• Super cool tiny letterpress books
• Logo Inspiration With Clever Typography (via @bbb_999)

July 15, 2009

(rt) Photography: Masses of humanity, Star Wars, and more

• Portrait of an eye made from human figures [Via Mark Coleran]
• NY Times gallery: Michael Wolf photos of impersonal Chicago skyscrapers & inhabitants. [Via Stephen Shankland]
• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sucks at Photoshop. [Via @rufusd]
• Fashion mags try going makeup- and Photoshop-free. [Via Tom Hogarty]
• Star Wars-flavored:
  • A Stormtrooper tribute to the King of Pop
  • Star Wars-upon-chipmunks

July 14, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Man vs. tank, Pixar vs. Dreamworks, & more

• Can one commission Chinese artists to batch-paint the Tiananmen "tank man"? One man tries.
• The iPhone GUI PSD has been updated for iPhone 3.0. Way to go, guys! [Via Mark Coleran]
• I like the idea of a Lego Remote: The cartoon is similar in spirit to Adobe Configurator.
• "There is bad taste and then there is this"--the new MSFT Bing logo. [Via Mark Coleran]
• Oof--a probably unfair but funny Pixar vs. Dreamworks smackdown. (via @5tu)
• I had a little weekend fun with Illustrator's Live Trace feature.

July 12, 2009

(rt) Illustration: PS Playboy, World War III, and more

• Photoshop named Playboy's "Employee of the Month." [Via Michael Ninness]
• Optical illusion pavement art: giant hole in bike path. [Via Stephen Shankland]
• Killer hair-based illustration o' the day [Via Mordy Golding]
• "Someone Tweeted!" Check out these WWIII Propaganda Posters.
• Would you trust this man to draw on your face? If so, that makes one of us. (And yes, the girl turned out to be lying.)
• What's the difference between a bug and a feature?

July 11, 2009

(rt) Tips: Useful bits for PS, AI, etc.

• Layers Magazine offers 100 Wicked Tips for Lightroom & CS4 apps. I learned a bunch of good stuff.
• Photoshop nuggets:
  • Photoshop tip: Cmd-click the New Layer button to create layer behind current one. [Via Cristen Gillespie.]
  • Photoshop CS4 tip: While zoomed in, hold down H while clicking anywhere. Move the square elsewhere & release. Kapow! [Via @gpenston]
  • "Does CS4 strip lens metadata like CS3?" No. Save for Web now gives you choices. Select "All" to preserve lens data.