Last week, I wrote a post explaining the individual colours and their meaning in logo design (click here to view this post). Today, I am going to elaborate on this idea and further explain to you the relationship between colours in the colour wheel. By examining the colours in the colour wheel, we can learn how to create beautiful color schemes and harmonious designs.

The colour wheel is a valuable tool that helps us to better understand the relationship between colours. The colour wheel is made up of twelve colours: three primary colours (red, yellow and blue), three secondary colours (orange, green and violet) and six tertiary colours which are the colours created by mixing a primary with a secondary colour. The colour wheel also gives us some clues as to  several basic colour schemes found throughout the world around us.

Complementary Colour Scheme

Colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel are considered to be complimentary colours. For example, red and green are complimentary colours as well as blue-orange and yellow-purple.

Many famous logo designs use a complementary colour scheme. The Visa logo, for example, is one of these logo designs. Its logo design uses blue and an orange-yellow. These colours are perfect for VISA as they represent authority, stability, security, loyalty, trustworthiness, quality and professionalism, all qualities that people look for when it comes to their finances.

The LA Lakers logo design also uses a complimentary colour scheme. This too is perfect for the LA Lakers as purple represents royalty and superiority whereas yellow denotes energy, vibrancy and enthusiasm.

Split Complimentary Colour Scheme

Obviously a slight variation of the complimentary colour scheme, a split complimentary colour scheme is made up of one colour plus the two colours that are on either side of its direct compliment.

There are a lot of logo designs that are created with a split complimentary colour scheme. These logo designs visually contrast and easily capture the attention of passersby.  Both the Firefox logo and Taco Bell’s logo use this colour scheme.

Analogous Color Scheme

Colours that are next to each other in the colour wheel are analogous colours. For example, red, orange and yellow are analogous. Blue, purple and magenta are also analogous. Many famous logo designs use an analogous colour scheme. These analogous logo designs match very well and are usually very pleasing to the eye.

The BP logo design and the Red Bull logo designs are both examples of analogous designs.

The McDonald’s logo design and the Fed Ex logo design also loosely use an analogous colour schemes.

Triadic Color Scheme

Combining every fourth colour in the colour wheel forms a triadic colour scheme. For example, orange, purple and green make up a triadic colour scheme. The famous Burger King logo design uses another triadic colour scheme of the primary colours, red, blue and yellow. Triadic colour schemes tend to be quite vibrant.

, The colour wheel and logo design, http://blog.pixellogo.com/?p=1665, http://blog.pixellogo.com/?feed=rss2, The Pixellogo Blog, ,
Impresion digital 4

As a designer myself, there are a few sites that I absolutely love and constantly go to for inspiration. Of course, there are the classics such as ffffound, Trend Hunter and the Cool Hunter. Then of course, there are also an abundance of designer specific websites such as Smashing Magazine,  psdtuts+, abduzeedo and so many more. Everyone has there favourites and there are thousands upon thousands to choose from. One of my personal favourites these days is Behance. If you haven’t heard of it, visit it now and watch as your eyes slowly gloss over and the next four hours of your life melt into one. Showcasing the work of millions of the world’s best design professionals, Behance is an awe-inspiring site filled with art, illustration, design and everything alike.

Just to spark your interest, here are just a few of the amazing design masterpieces to discover on Behance.

Peter Jaworowski

Peter Jaworowski is an amazing Polish designer that is a partner of the Warsaw-based creative agency, Ars Thanea. He has worked with some of the world’s most heavy hitting brands such as Nike, Discovery Channel, Ubisoft, Nokia, Visa & Nissan.

Lichtfaktor

Lichtfaktor is a collective of artists that “use light to give expression to their creativity”. Based out of Cologne, Germany, this collective has worked with some big names.

TalkTalk Brighter from LICHTFAKTOR on Vimeo.

Adolfo Correa

A Chilean designer, Adolfo Correa specializes in digital art, illustration and typography.

Luke Lucas

Luke Lucas is an Australian typography genius that does unimaginable things with type.

, Inspiration and Everything Design, http://blog.pixellogo.com/?p=1611, http://blog.pixellogo.com/?feed=rss2, The Pixellogo Blog, ,
Impresion digital 4

Step 1: Creating a diamond shape

Open a new Illustrator file that is 1200px by 900px. The first thing that you want to do is to turn on the smart guides. This will make creating your argyle pattern a whole lot easier. With smart guides, you will be able to align everything easily. To turn on the smart guides, go to View -> Smart Guides in the main menu.

Choose the Rectangle Tool (M) and draw a square on your stage that has a fill and no stroke. The fill colour should be one of the colours that you want in your argyle pattern. Convert your square into a diamond by rotating it45 degrees. In the main menu, go to Object -> Transform -> Reset Bounding Box. Squish and stretch your diamond shape until you get a diamond shape that you are happy with.

Step 2: Creating the basis for the argyle pattern

Choose the Rectangle Tool (M) and while holding down the alt key, click and drag out a copy of the original diamond shape. Repeat this step 6 times until you have aligned 7 diamonds together to create the shape below. Change the colour of the top and bottom 2 diamonds so that they are different from the middle three diamonds.

Step 3: Adding stitches to the argyle pattern

Choose the line tool and draw out a line from the center of your pattern to the center of the bottom right diamond. Change the stroke of the line so that it is white, 0.5px and has a dashed line of 3pt-1pt-3pt-1pt.

Create another line just like the last one only this time from the center of your pattern to the top right diamond. Select both lines and choose Vertical Align Center from the Align Palette. This positions your two lines so that they now form an ‘X’. Group the two lines (Object -> Group). Copy this ‘X’ and add it to within each diamond.

Step 4: Adding the argyle pattern to the Swatches Palette

Select the Rectangle Tool (M) from the toolbox to the left of your screen. Make sure that your rectangle has no stroke and no fill. Draw a square in the middle of the argyle pattern. With the rectangle still selected, go to Object -> Arrange -> Send to back. Now, select your entire argyle pattern plus the rectangle that you just created. Drag all of it into your Swatches Palette.

Delete the argyle pattern from the stage so that the stage is blank. With the Rectangle Tool (M), draw out a rectangle that covers the entire background or wherever else you may want to add your argyle pattern. Make sure that the rectangles fill is selected and select the argyle pattern that you just created from the Swatches Palette. This will fill the rectangle with your custom argyle pattern.

, How to create an argyle pattern in Illustrator, http://blog.pixellogo.com/?p=1583, http://blog.pixellogo.com/?feed=rss2, The Pixellogo Blog, ,
Impresion digital 4

The results show that Google is far ahead of the pack. The Google logo is presently the most viewed logo with 47% of the studies participants claiming that Google was either set as their homepage or the first page that they went to upon launching the browser of their choice. The majority of these participants reported that they saw the Google logo over 50 times a day. Participants claimed to be using Google mostly for searches and as a spell-checking tool.

Microsoft and Facebook take up the number two and three spots with 15% and 11% of participants saying that these were their most viewed logos.

This is their list of the top ten most viewed logos:

1.         Google – 34%
2.        Microsoft – 15%
3.        Facebook – 11%
4.        Apple – 9%
5.        Coca Cola – 8%
6.        BBC – 7%
7.        Sony -5%
8.        Sky – 4%
9.        Twitter – 3%
10.      Blackberry -2%

These results come as no real surprise to me. Google has become such a household name these days that ‘google’ has even been added as a verb to the Oxford English dictionary. I, for one, definitely use it at least 30 times a day, if not a lot more. Google just seems to be everywhere and it is such a valuable tool. I too use it for all of my searches and spell-checking as well as for their calendar, webmaster and Google translate tools. I just don’t see this changing anytime soon.

I’m also not surprised that Microsoft and Apple are up there are well. With our constant use of and reliance on computers, of course these two brands are constantly battling for our attention and thus, doing everything that they can to thrust their logo designs into the limelight.

Facebook and Twitter both made the top ten as well clearly demonstrating the increasing popularity of social media networks in our every day lives. I would expect to see Twitter move up over the next few years.

This is a study conducted amongst British citizens. I wonder how Canadians and American’s differ? I suspect that the top 5 most viewed logos would be the same as it was for the Brits. I would be very interested in finding out who would fill the 5-10 spots. Surprisingly enough, there are no fast food chains in the top ten. I hate to say it but I think that at the very least McDonald’s would find itself among this top ten in North America.

The study results published in the above article were found here.

, What are the most viewed brand logos today?, http://blog.pixellogo.com/?p=1572, http://blog.pixellogo.com/?feed=rss2, The Pixellogo Blog, ,
Impresion digital 4

We always have our phones with us but seldom carry a camera all the time. We lose many opportunities for shooting and the camera phone allows us to redeem the situation. That old adage “a Kodak moment” happens all the time but where’s the Kodak camera?  Let’s take a look at a few tips that will encourage you to shoot more often with your camera phone.

1. Shoot lots of photos

This should be obvious. A camera phone is with us all the time but we don’t take the opportunities. Shooting lots of photos increases your chances of capturing a great shot. Okay, so there are limitations on how good the shot will be because of the limitations of a phone camera. But, many will be really acceptable and printable. Taking lots of photos helps you practise and practise makes perfect.

2. Get in close

As with any camera be it compact, film or digital SLR the closer you get to your subject the better the image. Fill your frame with the subject and exclude all unnecessary clutter. With camera phones your zooming feature is digital and the more you zoom the more the image degrades. So move those feet and get closer. Not too close though as you’ll find the image starting to distort and find that blurring will start to occur.

3. Shoot at eye level

By getting down to the eye level of your subject you immediately change the whole image and make it far more engaging for the viewer. Eyes are said to be the window to the soul and by focusing on them will draw you into the photo. Just make sure that they are in focus. Out of focus eyes spoil the image even if the rest of the subject is sharp.

4. Change your angle

Doing this will immediately make your images more interesting. Everyone shoots photos with the subject in the middle of the image. Get up higher, lie down on your back and shoot up or change your viewpoint. All of these angles will make for a far more interesting photo. Don’t be afraid to try new angles and even make a fool of yourself doing it. When you see how good the photo looks you’ll be happy you did.

5. Don’t move around

Change your viewpoint, yes. But, don’t move your camera once you have your viewpoint. Keep very still as camera phones don’t have the best shutter speeds and you need to remain very still. Remain still for a second or two after pressing the button to make sure you get a great shot. Hearing the shutter doesn’t mean the camera has finished taking the image.

Learning to take great camera phone photos is just part of your photography journey. What you’ll probably find is that it will encourage you to learn more about photography. Camera phones have their limitations and your successes will be limited. But, by using them to their fullest will probably encourage you to use your digital camera more often or even buy one.

Make sure that above all you keep shooting photos no matter what camera you have. Practise is key to becoming a better photographer and no matter what camera one uses, we all want to take great images. So use your camera phone photo experience to help you become a better photographer.

Cheap digital camera is available at large merchandising store at a price of $50. Most of us buy digital cameras because of simplicity in use and to get high quality pictures. With greater technology, even novice photographers can get fantastic shots. Everybody can become good photographers because of its ease of use with greater image quality. With the increase in resulting quality of the images, your interest of the product also gets increased and so initially many buy cheap digital cameras for learning purposes and then upgrade their equipment with latest models.

A restored digital camera, also referred to as rebuilt photographic equipment offers all the services that a new model can do. It allows the photographer for viewing the photograph instantly and also to retake the shot within few seconds. Since you are able to see the pictures before developing, it gives you the option to delete unwanted photographs.

A restored digital camera does not require film purchase and picture development, as all the work can be done when connected with a printer and a computer. It gives you the advantage of digital print pictures of your choice at anytime. Photographs taken with used digital camera can also be edited before digital print. You can experience lot of exciting options when you buy a used digital camera.

Used digital cameras are available in camera shops situated at larger communities. Refurbished cameras and their accessories are offered in these shops at a cheaper price with all recently introduced models. The biggest source for buying used digital camera is the online sources. Auction sites in the Internet have exciting offers with extreme discounted pricing.

The only drawback is the quality control that may be lesser than the refurbished camera. The best method of buying good and cheap digital camera is to buy from the manufacturer. The manufacturer often gets returned products from the buyers due to various reasons. All these digital cameras are checked out for minor adjustments and are again sold to buyers with the manufacturer’s guarantee. This method is safe because the standard and quality of the product will be good and you also get guarantee for the refurbished digital camera.

While buying used digital camera, the most important factor to be considered is the reliability of the product and the seller. Reliability depends on aspects like whether the digital camera is cleaned, tested and upgraded before coming for sales again. Find out from the seller regarding warranties and testing done. Other than the manufacturer’s offer, some retailers go beyond offering extended warranty. If you have decided to purchase a digital camera that is already used through an unknown source online, like an auction site, try to get referrals and feedbacks from past customers before making payment.

The extraordinary creation of God can be enjoyed though photography in a wonderful way which makes you relaxed from your busy lifestyle. So try to learn all the aspects of digital photography and get ready for taking incredible snap shots.

But who else is left, beyond the home darkroom camp?  How many people continue to use film?  I know my mother still does.  She uses my daughter’s old film camera and likes the straightforwardness of it.  It’s a basic point-and-shoot camera; she pops-in a roll of film, presses the button, takes the film to the store and, presto, an hour later she has 24 prints.  She doesn’t have to fool with fancy settings, never worries about accidentally deleting some precious images from last week’s family event and doesn’t even think about using a computer to manage her photos.

The old way is so simple, but just doesn’t fit into the paradigm of today’s high-tech world.  It seems that just about anyone you meet these days, fancies him or herself as a serious photographer.  And of course we all love the convenience factor of digital photography.  For a change of pace, I recently loaded film into one of my old cameras.  The first time I pressed the shutter, I immediately looked at the back of the camera.  I was shocked by how much I’ve become accustomed to the convenience of an instant playback.

Film is simply inconvenient.  People are no longer satisfied with the idea of film’s inherent risk.  For those who have been digitally dedicated for several years, the suggestion that they pay for processing before seeing any of their images seems preposterous.  Imagine paying up to ten bucks just to find that up to half of your twenty-four photos are, well, not very good (or worse).

Today’s ‘photographers’ are also reluctant to surrender control of their images to anyone else, let alone the kid who works the photo machine in the back of their local supermarket.  In order to be a full-fledged member of the digital set, it’s pretty much a given that the savvy photographer needs to adjust each and every image using photo editing software.

Yes, digital photographers have a lot of control over their images.  I’m up to my eyeballs in that.  Just like most people these days, I shoot way too many photos than need be shot, whether it’s on vacation, at a family gathering or when I’m feeling visually creative.  Consequently, I spend far more time than I should, going through those images to make the often-painful decision to delete the pics that don’t make the grade.

But it doesn’t stop there.  Eventually photos need to be moved off the cards and into the computer.  You know the drill.  Wait until the stack of memory cards gets so tall, it looks like a miniature coffee table.  When absolutely no more memory is available and you refuse to buy more, it’s time to begin the mind-numbing process of moving your images from the cards to your hard drive in a way that’s somewhat organized.  For me, it’s often complicated by the fact that some of the cards contain images I took two or more years ago.

I rarely stop there.  Next, I spend even more time cropping and adjusting them.  When the process is finished, so much time has passed that the photos may be mistaken for an historical image collection.  The entire process is cumbersome, protracted and often overwhelming.

To make matters worse, unless we want to banish the images to the bowels of our computers till eternity, we routinely spend even more time and effort just so that others can see our precious pictures.  Unless you have a free-prints-for-life arrangement as a result of blackmailing your photo-processing guy, you’ll have to decide on a representative sample of your mammoth collection from your recent photo event.  If you’d rather make a slide show, or better still – a slideshow with music – that will involve even more time in front of a computer screen.

Fast forward to yesterday.  I was visiting my parents, when my mother asked, “Steve, when am I going to get at least a few of the pictures you shot during summer vacation for the past few years?  Never mind.  I won’t even think of asking for the pictures from last weekend’s anniversary party.”

My answer, sadly and as usual, was that I hadn’t yet gotten around to ‘going through’ my memory cards.

Her response floored me.  She said she was tired of waiting for me to get around to it, and she handed me a set of photos.  She took the liberty of digital print a second set from film she just had processed.  She said, “Here.  You can have these.  They’re the pictures from this past weekend’s anniversary party.”

My first thought?  Wow, she pops-in a roll of film, presses the button, takes the film to the store and, presto, an hour later she has 24 prints.  Now, that is convenient.

Go figure!

To read more of Steve Kristof’s “Go Figure”© columns, visit http://themorethingschange.weebly.com/archives.html

Stephen Kristof is a writer and a professional instructor in media production. In addition to his articles and opinion pieces, Stephen is also the columnist for his humorous “Go Figure”

]]> http://www.passolutions.com/digital-photography-%e2%80%93-how-convenient/493/feed/ 0 http://www.passolutions.com/spyrecon/492/ http://www.passolutions.com/spyrecon/492/#comments Tue, 07 Sep 2010 23:39:11 +0000 admi http://www.passolutions.com/spyrecon/492/ We allow you to easily monitor a computer from any location. Do you really know what your family members do online? SpyRecon can do anything from secretly reading someone’s private instant messenger conversations to finding out their email passwords.
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What is eco-friendly digital print? Or better yet, what should the business model be and the mindset of the employees?

After hearing reports and seeing first hand, a business can be certified as being sustainable oriented, but in many cases, sustainability stops at the certificate hanging on the wall. There are business owners that have very sustainable business models that go beyond any fees paid for a meaningless certificate.

It starts with a desire and a mindset for sustainability and is accomplished with a buy-in from all of the employees, and ends with complete follow through. A company comes to mind as a great example among others: Gordon Graphics.

This web page contains information and a PDF  regarding eco-friendly digital print. What is Eco-Friendly digital print?