Posts tagged: Design

Color Scheme Generator

By ZBog, August 15, 2010 11:28

I personally prefer to choose the Color Code by myself but when you suggest multiple sketches can be an help to dont repeat yourself.
the best tool is free to use on-line:
colorschemedesigner
with Html / Css / text / ACO (photoshop palette) / GPL (Gimp palette!) generator to save the color schem

Linux tools:
Firefox Plugin: Palette Grabber 0.4.1 [testing now come back visit us to know more!]

http://registry.gimp.org/node/15833 [Python plugin!]

AGAVE
ich spiele gerade mit diesen color code generator Agave
Agave is nothing special is only 1,262 kb big

I have found a Python plugin to let Agave run in Gimp ::
Color Scheme Helper for Gimp

A Python plugin that start the color scheme designer Agava for creating a new color scheme. The created color scheme can be saved as a Gimp color palette and loaded into Gimp.
In the software engine the only pretty idea is the contrast between text-background calculation…
changing the color automatically shows if is better a white or a black text on top of this color: Agave calculate if the bg color has a number higher then 555555 THEN the text is black and the opposite when the choosed gamma color is darker then 555555 the text will be white.

I m using AGAVE  as teaching tool, to show direct example of text contrast to graphic design students.

#tk: based on math – hmm naja interesting algorithm anyway … hehe ya should generate for special things like: body-font, screen-bgcolor, … i want some faders that automagically apply like livestyle to the site :D with correct pi and phi equations.

Color Scheme Generator version 3.51  has many new features!

The preview page I dont really like it use the colors in illogical contrast with the background

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Linux gfx Workshops

By ZBog, August 13, 2010 16:36

Linux Works, in cooperation with Bruecken Schlaeger and Synoptx present

graphic design with linux - skillsharing workshops in Berlin!

each Tuesday from 21 September on

in Kreutzigerstr.19 in F’hain in Soned e.V office

starting at 18.00

* migration to linux software

* photo and image editing (GIMP)

* using vector graphic software (Inkscape)

* film animation

* short films, discussions

* and more !

We are looking forward to people who want to come regularly and work on a common project that we will develop together!

The workshop is based on donations.

We will publish what we produce under Creative Commons License.

more info soon on

friedrichshain.homelinux.org

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Style to Sell

By ZBog, August 12, 2010 15:28

There are some tricks to have “style”

When your graphical production does not look harmonic || professional || complete, you have to work on your sketches and find the main style (like a corporate identity) that represents the project.

Colors & Light
The colors change, based on the ambient light where you watch them, that means  if you want to have a realistic effect on your illustrations you cannot use a warm gray and a cold gray in the same image, in nature that will not happen.
But you can use those gray variants  to create a surreal image for example.
Remember that the colors are influencing the mood, so use them with a meaning.
If you are working on web, search for the standard  colors for similar projects, because the meaning of the colors is really different in the different continents and the meaning changes a bit even between the European countries.

Background
The Background is really boring to make but really important to do.
Empty background is a ZEN solution, white for day, and Black for night. works only in ZEN context.
None color works as a single color in professional illustrations.
If you want to use one tone a good suggestion is to make a material background:
*  take many different white and trow them together on the paper
* take a brush technique and use one color, you will get a single color but with brushes signs, a bit of 3D

Minimize or exaggerate
When something does not convince you, here is the best trick to be used:
* minimize: take it out and delete it, minimize the objects  and the number of images helps to make the structure easier to read and be modeled.
* exaggerate: the other way is to take this not stylish component and repeat it, use it multiple times, even always.
For example you are not sure if a text needs to have a Outline color, you can take out the Outline at all minimize(), or make it fat, stronger color and repeat it for multiple text on the composition (exaggerate).

Harmonia and Elegance
Don’t be afraid, is easy. Everything around you can be represented by math, mathematics as convention to explain the world, Music is math based, and Art too. You can compose your images with math help, use the “guide lines”  to see clearly the position of your object on the page, to calculate the empty spaces … and remember Math,  Geometry, Perspective, Harmonia and Elegance are all the same thing !
z.B. Leonardo Da Vinci
The elegance is into clear lines, so if you use a Vector Program  smooth your lines or draw with a smoother plugin activated:
Inkscape  you can realize this in many ways; for example take the tool ->  [ EDIT PATH BY NODES ]  ; now click on -> [ Make selected nodes symmetric ]
Elegance has few lines, not many particulars, like an Armani suite :P
Harmonia is based on the cycle of the objects, how and how many times the object is represented.
If there is an object on the left and on the right is empty, that means the emptyness has a meaning, when there is no meaning make full the right side with something that balance the left content.

In history of art the idea of composition is always present, every artist uses a personal way to do it, but many people use the 3,14 rule, go check how the greek temples were built, how Eisenstein decided the video Editing of “Panzerkreuzer Potemkin”, how  Bruno Munari plans his graphics design.

Probably I will be banned from many Graphics websites after this post, because those tricks and tips are the precious knowledge of who work and study ART || GFX

but you know what? lets support and produce Evolution: OPEN SOURCE, OPEN MIND, NOT COMMERCIAL, SHARE ALIKE

Alice Z Bognetti

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Firefox Firebug plugins for designer

By ZBog, August 4, 2010 16:06

Well supercool plugins for designers arrived fresh on FireBug

Pixel Perfect
Add the layout design in alpha transparency directly over the website in the browser.

CSS usage
Check which css properties are actually called from the code and applied. NOTICE: not everythin inactive is not used, it analyzes only the current page

(I love Firebug!)

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