theCubes part 2 by DivineError

Ah, the 3D cubes wallpaper. It’s a well-abused trend, and sadly very few attempts turn out nice. DivineError’s take on it, however, is brilliantly balanced in terms of color, size, and flow. I love how even though they’re structured cubes, he manages to make it look fun and even a tad silly (or is that just me?)

The Pinksplosion Wallpaper by emciem

Perhaps something slightly less cubical, then? Emciem uses a well-proven method for creating dynamic images: use one neutral tone (gray), and one bold tone (pink). I’m a particular fan of this because I like my wallpapers to be minimal (makes it easier to see icons).

Think Again by mushir

Typography wallpapers tend not to top my favourites list, since it’s rare to find one that you can appreciate for a long time. But in the interest of being fair to all tastes, I’m tossing some in here . Mushir’s ‘Think Again’ is a charming typography wallpaper that uses a nice color palette that isn’t too loud or too chaotic. I’m not crazy about the use of Myriad Pro (if I’m guessing correctly, that is), and it’s hard to figure out if I’m supposed to be able to read something from this, but otherwise it’s a solid first attempt.

Christmas Imperfection by DivineError

Another winner from DivineError, I found this one to be irresistible. It’s perfect for the upcoming holidays (and if you’re not ready for a Christmas wallpaper, there’s a non-festive version available here), plus it’s hilarious. If you take a look around his DeviantArt gallery, you’ll also find plenty more scenarios that involve this poor little guy and his misfortunes.

Laser Beam by Jason-C

I was browsing through Jason-C’s gallery, and among all the images, this one drew me in immediately. And if I had to pick one thing about this wallpaper that I like, that would be it: it draws you in with its fantastic sense of depth and perspective. I think it’s supposed to be a mirrored surface, but even if you don’t see it it still looks amazing.

Typographic World Map by vladstudio

Among all the wallpapers I’ve featured here in this post, this one is without doubt my favourite. And this is especially peculiar since I’m not into typographic wallpapers in the first place. I think it’s because he’s used the copy in such a visual and impressive way that it’s almost graphical rather than typographical. Add in the lovely sepia palette, and you have a fantastic wallpaper that screams attitude. It also reminds me of World War II, for some reason.

- E N T H U S I A S M - by For-Certain

I have to admit, I picked this one because of the quote. In case you can’t make out how to read it, it’s as follows: “At moments of great enthusiasm it seems to me that no-one has ever made something this beautiful and important.” That being said, the wallpaper itself is a beautiful work of dramatic lighting and colour choice. The slight 3D effect that the shadows supply helps to add strength and drama to the piece.

- R E V O L U T I O N - by For-Certain

Looking at my choices, I think I’m slowly starting to become a fan of typographic wallpapers . For-Certain is certainly (heh) not helping, with another fantastically dramatic piece. “The Art and Design Revolution”, as it spells out, is something that I feel very strongly about and I look forward to every time it happens in my life. Those darkened borders (are those burn effects? Watercolour effects? I have no idea, but they look lovely) heighten the drama, and the color combination he used is unorthodox, but works beautifully.

Country house by bigusfilm

One look at this wallpaper and it’s immediately apparent why it made the list. Sometimes Mother Nature likes to show that she’s the best designer there is. That being said, I’d only use this wallpaper if I wasn’t going to have any icons on my desktop.

Fantasy Island by celsojunior

Vector wallpapers typically get a bad rep because a lot of vector wallpaper artists don’t bother to put effort into getting the details right, which always makes the vector look half done. This wallpaper defies that, by going into impressive detail with the tree and the island. Balance it out with some nice sparkly bits at the back, some clouds for atmosphere (see what I did there?) and a nice citrusy orange to help make the silhouette stand out, and you have a winner.

Radar Wallpaper by minimanjapan

COLOURS! This wallpaper makes me feel all happy inside, simply because I love rainbow-themed art. The flow of energy in it is also amazing. I especially love how the colours start as separate bands on the left, before converging on the right.

PEACE wallpaper by punkdbydaniels

If you’re a fan of statement pieces, this one’s for you. PEACE by punkdbydaniels is a simple, almost minimalist piece, but the message is clear. I also love how instead of just hiding the parts of the words that don’t fit into the PEACE letters, he’s used differing layers of opacity to fade them out, almost as if they were clouds.

Twitter typographic wallpaper by jez’

For those of you who really, REALLY, like Twitter. I can’t quite decide if I like this one or not. I love the colour theme; combined with the font choice it reminds me of old printing plates. However, that much wording on my desktop? Not sure if I’d be okay with that. What do you think?

Typographic Rain by Vladstudio

I know, I know, it’s another typographic wallpaper from someone who claims not to like them. But how could I resist! Vlad’s adorable wallpaper uses only typographic characters to create an adorable visual of a little person caught in a storm. There’s even a little asterisk to represent the sun, complete with a subtle background gradient to suggest so (although I didn’t get it at first). I also love the lowercase ‘b’ used for the shoes, they actually look like boots!

Teardrops by hyper2

And speaking of rain (or at least water), Teardrops by hyper2 rounds up our collection. This wallpaper comes in a pack with several sizes, all of which are available in these two colour variations showcased here. I couldn’t quite decide which one I liked better so I put both up . I love how it’s detailed enough to  make it lively, but not so detailed to make it cluttered.

That’s all, folks!

Yep, list’s over! Of course, there will be more list posts in the future. I’ve already got about 5-6 planned, and if you have a particular list you want me to feature, please let me kn0w. Also, if you know any wallpapers that deserve some love, send me a link. If I find something I like, it goes up in the next wallpaper post (along with a second link provided by the voter, meaning you, as a little incentive).

Till then, let me know what you think about the ones above in the comments below!

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And really, whatever you feel about black and white, it’s highly unlikely that you’ve lived this long without seeing some color. Barring aside being colorblind (which, as far as I know, only rules out certain colors, not all of them), the eyes of every man, woman, and child who can see has, at some point, feasted on the green of nature, the blue of the sky, and the bright, electric yellow of a lemon.

What about in design? The usage of color to convey meaning and emotion in design is an age-old tradition that still reigns supreme as one of the top guiding principles during the design process. Think about it; when you show a mock to a client, what is he most likely to comment upon? When you ask him what he envisions the design to be, what non-abstract description first comes to mind? Because color is one of the most primitive of design elements, it is also one with which your client feels most comfortable.

‘Hue’ are you working with?

It’s amazing how much your favorite color can tell about your personality. In fact, I sometimes use the “what is your favorite color” test to judge my clients in terms of working together, and methodology. He likes red? I can be more creative with my approaches. Brown? He appreciates history, and would like a design that respects it. Bright orange? He’s trying way too hard to fit in with the young and peppy crowd. So try it sometime, and see below what your client’s personality may be like.

Two notes I have to mention here:  Firstly, this is based on a mix of general color psychology as well as my own experiences, and is not based on scientific research or facts. Use a generous helping of common sense when applying anything from this article. Your client choosing red doesn’t mean you should only come up with acid rock themes for his dental clinic. Secondly, I’m referring to the client as male (‘he’,’him’,’his’, etc) purely as a matter of convenience. It goes without saying that the same rules may apply to female clients.

Red

As mentioned, your client leans towards being adventurous. He will appreciate you being energetic in your presentations, and using strong visual cues (show me your jazz hands, people!) during your discussions. As for designs, he likes it when you take bold approaches (note: I say bold, not wild.), or attempt a slightly riskier approach that sets his business apart from his competition. On the other hand, this client may be caught up in the heat of things, and choose the one that speaks the loudest to him, instead of to his customers. And while this is common sense for all clients, this type of client means that you have to get things in writing as much as possible. Predict changes of mind, and lots of them.

Orange

This client’s mantra can be summed up in two words: “natural energy”. If you’re working with him on a project related to health products, or a fitness lifestyle, or anything to do with health and fitness and nature, you’re in luck: chances are his lifestyle already has some of those elements in it. When talking to this client, dial up the positive energy, be sure to smile, and give a firm handshake. He likes people that are on the go, so don’t drag. His mantra also extends into his choice of designs, where he likes layouts and visuals that have a strong flow and energy in it. Don’t get fooled with all the positive energy, however; this client is not perfect. He is likely to say that he likes several of your designs, and that he wants to integrate it all into a big happy positive…mess. Arm yourself with arguments on why things like white space and typographic balance are vital to the quality of your design, and continuously impress on him what his customers may think of it.

Yellow

Sunshine! Buttercups! Bright yellow boots! The ubiquitous smiley face! Having a dash of yellow in your life never fails to brighten your spirits, and having a client who prefers yellow can have the same effect. Like his orange brethren, positive energy is a large part of his life, and perhaps even his work. Unlike his orange brethren, the aggressive, go-getter energy isn’t. That’s not to say that this client is lazy, but he is likely to be more passive about things. He’s the type of person that appreciates breathing space, so you can be a bit more spacious in your designs. There may be also a preference for sans-serif fonts over serif, but this should probably be dictated more by suitability for the project rather than his taste. The key here is to remind him about the importance of the design attracting viewer attention. Also of note, he may tend to think that viewers see a design as a whole, and you will need to impress the importance of a proper visual flow to him.

Coming Soon!

In my next post for this series, I’ll cover the cool trio of green, blue, and purple. White, black, pink, and brown are also down the line. If you have any colors that you want discussed here, let me know!

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And the one source of inspiration that has always topped, and will always top them all:

You.

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As designers, we’re often taught a standard design process. Use whatever techniques to generate your ideas, and then, based on the critical requirements of the brief/client, filter out the ideas that don’t apply. Repeat the process until you’ve distilled your ideas down to the very best few, then proceed onwards.

One thing I notice, however, is that after a while, the generating process develops its own filter. Instead of producing ideas in the first stage and evaluating them later, we evaluate them immediately, and if found lacking, they don’t make it into our mind-map/chart/sketches at all. Those ideas are considered bad design, and since we already know that in the next step, those ideas would be eliminated, our mind takes a preemptive step by applying a negative prejudice on the idea the moment it comes out.

Do you know what this means? This means that a potentially good idea was eliminated from the drawing board before it had a chance to truly shine.

But is there all that there is to it? Here are two reasons as to why not only should you not toss out bad ideas, but you should give yourself some room to expand and experiment with them.

Failure makes for a better teacher
It might seem otherwise, but think about it. When you fail, you learn something. Maybe this approach didn’t work. Maybe you need to try using different materials. Maybe you do not understand the brief correctly. But success only teaches you one thing: what you did worked.

Observing and analyzing bad design is critical to the success of your design. Why doesn’t this design work? What can I do to improve it? If I changed element X, what would happen?

Get the ball rolling
Let’s see a show of hands: how many of us have experienced designer’s block at some point in our career? Yeah, I thought so. But what do you consider designer’s block? Are you truly unable to come up with anything, or are you unable to produce anything good? Think back on the times you’ve been stumped for ideas, and analyze your thought pattern. Were you mentally writing ideas off as rubbish?

Does this mean you were wrong and that those ideas were actually good? No, chances are they really were rubbish. But the mind is a wonderful thing. Once you bring rubbish out of your mind onto paper or any other medium, the mind stops seeing it as rubbish and starts to see it as inspiration. And now there’s space for a new idea, one that, thanks to the aforementioned inspiration, is better. And as you slowly continue this process, your mind’s gears pick up the pace, and BOOM! Designer’s block is a thing of the past.

So really, when you think about it, bad design is so helpful to you that it seems unfair to call it so. After all, many great inventors and designers of the past freely admit to coming up with failed designs or ideas before they achieved the success that made them famous. But one quality that they all have which I respect profoundly is the sense of respect and importance they have for their failed ideas. The ‘bad’ designs are no less important or vital to their success than the good one.

So what about you? What do you consider ‘bad design’, and how much of a role has it played in your career, if at all? What is your approach to bad ideas when they appear during your brainstorming sessions, and why so?

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For the most part, my inspirations have come from logos. While all designs carry their own strengths, logos are particularly useful for inspiration because a good logo has identity, personality, and flavor. So in gratitude for the various logo designers that have indirectly inspired me with their works, I’m starting my own list-post series of logos. For now most of these are from Logopond and Deviantart, but I’m guessing my sources will widen as I get better with this.

To add a unique spin on this, I’m going to designate a keyword to each round of inspiration. Today’s keyword, of course, is fun.

And yes, I’m only rambling this much because it’s the first time. I promise to shut up the next time :). So without further ado.

1) colourfly by filipev

2) Ghost Chip by mavric

3) Foodball by garavi

4) Flyer-city by Matto

5) Nacho Macho by Oronoz

6) Toronto Bodyworks by Luke Despatie

7) Sertifi by Logo Diver (Yury Akulin)

8) Gelato Vero v2 by andreiu

9) THERMO-COOL by Mikeymike

10) mango by tass

If you’ve got any suggestions for the next round of logo inspiration (or if you have an idea for another type of inspiration post series), do let me know in the comments!

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This year is the year of the tiger, the third animal in the zodiac. I did a bit of digging (read: Wikipedia-ing) and found some fascinating facts about the majestic cat and its place in the zodiac.

1. The Tiger’s motto is “I Win”. How awesome is that? This year is DEFINITELY your year to succeed, folks.
2. It’s usually associated with spring, the month of February, the element of wood, and the diamond. And a person can never have too many diamonds.
3. Countries that have a stronger connection to the tiger zodiac are Russia, Romania, Spain, Turkey, El Salvador, and North Korea. I wonder how they calculate that?

Victory Stripes

As you can see, the tiger zodiac is a powerful one that heralds success. So, to help you harness some of that energy, here are some tiger wallpapers for you from some amazingly talented people at Deviantart.

Tiger in the Grass by Benbenhotep

Tiger Splat by thegenome

Tiger by Baddad

Jungle Tiger by owdesigns

Night of the Tiger by BlackHawk00021

Tiger, Black and White by tompot

and a white version as well.

Tiger by tommy999999 

Tiger Funkeh Go by artemiscrow

Tiger Girl Wallpaper by mashi

White Tiger by monkeymagico

Wild Tiger by comradekowalski

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