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Showing posts with label design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label design. Show all posts
Wall decals made out of self adhesive vinyl are an easy way to make a big graphic statement with minimal cost and impact to your wall's integrity. Unlike traditional wall art where you would need to drill holes in your wall to install, this look does not require power tools. If you ever want to redecorate, they can easily be removed with out damage to your wall.

The folks at Better Homes and Gardens put together some great ways to use wall decals in your home decor. If you know how to work in Illustrator, creating your own design to cut out with our digital router is a snap. For example, say you would love to have an antique wrought iron headboard, but don't want to shell out the bucks - create one out of black vinyl.

Or bring the outside in with this tree design. This design can make a great family tree. You can add photographs of family members, like they have here, or just their names to continue the simple graphic line look. You could add to it through out the years with new additions to the family. This would also look great in a nursery where you could add elements that match the theme of the room, like animals or a tire swing hanging from the branches.

Before you tackle this home project be sure you are ready for installation. Clean your walls, and if you have recently painted make sure you allow your paint to dry 72 hours before applying the vinyl.
"Decals are easy to apply, but be sure to follow the manufacturer's instructions. Use a level and tape measure as you apply the decal to ensure straight, accurate positioning. Smooth the decal onto the wall. Use the burnishing tool to adhere it to the wall and to remove any bubbles." "Very slowly, peel off the plastic backing. To speed the application and avoid wrinkles, cut the decal into segments, then use low-tack painter's tape to hang sections on the wall."
A common question asked by customers prepping their files for printing in our Display Graphics division, is "Should I send you the files in RGB or CMYK?". When we respond RGB, many people are confused since several of our machines print with CMYK inks. The answer to this question, along with best file practices and in-depth technical information for all of Adobe's CS5 Creative Suite has been complied in this reference guide. To help both sides of the counter speak the same language, and ensure the file printed is exactly how it was intended to look.

Thanks, John for posting!

If you are printing to an inkjet printer or other RGB-based device, you will likely achieve the best results by printing from an RGB image. Despite the fact that these devices use inks named cyan, magenta, yellow and black (often with additional colors such as orange, green, light cyan, light magenta, etc.), they are set up to maximize the wider gamut available in RGB images by converting incoming RGB information to appropriate values for the color gamut of the printing device. The colorants in inkjet inks actually allow a wider range of colors than offset inks: Printing from an image in the smaller CMYK color space limits the output. For detailed guidance, consult the user guide and online resources available from the manufacturer of the device.
Some simple ideas for how to dress up your blank walls.

A great solution for an entire wall is use one single piece of art. This look can also help make a smaller room actually appear bigger. The image seen here is a simple monotone graphic on a single gallery wrapped canvas hung to cover most of the wall from floor to ceiling.

A fun way to add interest to a wall is by using typography and do different size letters as an arrangement. This can look great as a grouping behind a couch or even as a headboard for your bed. You can spell out a word, or just choose different sizes and colors. Our digital router can cut shapes out of many materials with various depths for a layered effect. You can use the color of the raw material or paint them to complement your room. If you set up your own files, you can even pick out specific font styles that fit your taste.


Like the look of wallpaper, but don't want to commit to a pasting it to the wall? Try displaying a couple of strip as you would a banner. Anchor the top and bottom to small rods and use ribbon to hang in place. A less permanent solution that can be easily changed without the hassle of stripping. This look can also be done using fabric.

Our digital printing and routing allows flexibility to be able to produce one offs and not be committed to a large run. Creating a signature design that is unique to your home.



Images from ReadyMade.
Multi-paneled displays and print clusters are a creative way to present your art, and cover a larger wall area.

The most common form of multi-paneled displays are triptychs - three panels that are hung in succession. Using one image broken up in to three pieces creates a unique effect. This look works well with pieces that are free floating and not matted and framed. The images being flush to the edge help unify the panels as one installation and your eye will fill in the negative space between each panel. Canvas gallery wraps, direct to board, and flush mounted prints work well for this type of presentation. The image seen here is designed to emulate the view out of a rocket ship window for a space themed kid's bedroom.






Of course, there is no rule that says there should always be three panels. A row of five images or square grid of four or even nine can make a dramatic impression.

Print clusters are another take on multi-paneled displays. This is where you use different sized images arranged together in a cluster grouping. For this type of display different images can be used that have a continuity or theme; like black and white prints, family photos, or a grouping of images that will accent the room. One way to add extra interest in this type of display is to hang the prints at different depths and overlapping each other. The added depth makes the pieces start to take on a sculptural feel.

Make a multi-paneled display the focal point of your room.
Pantone wants us to think pink in 2011. They released their signature color for nest year - PANTONE 18-2120 Honeysuckle.

Color palettes are available to use in your design on their website.

A Color for All Seasons - Courageous. Confident. Vital. A brave new color, for a brave new world. Let the bold spirit of Honeysuckle infuse you, lift you and carry you through the year. It’s a color for every day – with nothing “everyday” about it.

While the 2010 color of the year, PANTONE 15-5519 Turquoise, served as an escape for many, Honeysuckle emboldens us to face everyday troubles with verve and vigor. A dynamic reddish pink, Honeysuckle is encouraging and uplifting. It elevates our psyche beyond escape, instilling the confidence, courage and spirit to meet the exhaustive challenges that have become part of everyday life.
We love printing big graphics for customers here at Artisan Colour. We also want to make sure that the graphics we produce are effective. If the letters used for the text are too small, created with a font that is not readable, or a color that is hard to differentiate from the background, then the sign is not going to have the desired impact. This article by Signs & Digital Graphics Magazine offers some helpful tips and things to watch out for when designing your sign so that it is able to be seen and easily read from long distances. The formula for how large your graphic letters should be to be read at a certain distance is particularly helpful.

Designing Award-Winning Signs: View from the Road - by Matt Charboneau

Designing monument signs is a balancing act of blending parameters, colors, objectives and graphics into a monolithic mass of aluminum and electricity whose only function is to be noticed, to inform and to bring in revenues for the one who paid for it.
In discussing the effectiveness of a sign, we must address three factors that dominate the design process: visibility, legibility and readability.


Optimum legibility: Letter style, size, color, spacing
If your sign is 35' tall and you need it to be legible and readable at 300 feet, what formula do you use to calculate letter height? Calculating this is fairly complex and involves the use of a left handed abacus, however an easy shortcut is to simply add a zero to the letter height (in inches) and convert the number to feet.
Example: Start with your letter height of 6", then add a zero to it and change the measurement from inches to feet. That means a 6" tall letter would have an optimum legible distance of 60'. Letter 4"tall are best read at 40' and 12" tall letters are best viewed at 120', and so on.
COLOURlovers recently compared the predominate colors chosen for brand identification out of the top 100 most popular websites. Blue and red with their various shades and hues top the list. Sometimes the color is chosen after many hours of market research, and other times the arbitrary can turn out to be poignant. I didn't know before reading this article that Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, chose the now iconic blue shade because he is color blind and blue is one of the few colors he can see.

Since your brand extends beyond the web to all identification and marketing material, when creating a new company or rebranding your current one, think about how your brand colors will represent across all media. Maybe the web popular blue will not work as well for you in print.


The Most Powerful Colors in the World - Darius A Monsef for COLOURlovers

When we released our report on the colors of the social web, based on data analyzed by our Twitter theme tool, we were surprised that blue was such a dominant color in people's profile designs. Was Twitter's default color influencing their design decisions? Or is blue really THE most popular and dominant color online? ...We decided to look at the colors in the brands from the top 100 sites in the world to see if we could paint a more colorful picture.

Turns out the blue-berry doesn't fall far from the bush. The web landscape is dominated by a large number of blue brands... but Red occupies a large amount of space as well. What's driving this? You might want to say that carefully organized branding research and market tests were done to choose the perfect colors to make you spend your money, but a lot of the brands that have grown to be global web powerhouses, started as small web startups... and while large corporate giants with branding departments spend quite a lot on market research, user testing, branding, etc. Lots of the sites listed above got started with brands created by the founders themselves with little to no research into the impact their color choice would have. I once asked Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook why he chose blue for his site design... "I'm color blind, it's the only color I can see." ...and now 500 Million people around the world stare at a mostly blue website for hours each week.
Do you ever think about what happens to a billboard when the campaign is over? Billboards are made to withstand weather conditions for a long period of time while on display. For that reason, they are also durable and easily repurposed in to new uses. Rather than have piles of vinyl wind up in a landfill, some creative people have come up with ingenious ways to give them a new life.


These birdhouses are made from recycled billboard signs and found hardware. Billboards are also used to cover these birch chairs. Both are from the minds of Atelier Bom Design.


In 2005 during the earthquake relief in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, there was an urgent need of large waterproof tents. Recycled vinyl billboard banners were used as rain covers at the refugee camp. Apart from the practical use they also add aesthetic value, the bold colors and optimistic imagery helped brighten up the campsite.



Because of the waterproof nature of the signs, they can also be made in to very sturdy bags. Target Corp. started out with this idea in mind when they commissioned emerging artists Charles Wilkin and Laurie Rosenwald to participate in a billboard project. These art collage billboards were displayed in New York City’s Times Square then turned into limited edition tote bags designed by Anna Sui available for purchase on their website.
Room dividers can be used for many reasons. Probably their biggest use is to create defined spaces out of a larger room. They can also add a decorative accent to a room or even an outdoor area. Folding screen and flat panel screen fabric dividers are very versatile and make easy DIY projects. For the ultimate personal touch start out with fabric printed with your own image or patterned design. Here are some ideas to get you started.

FOLDING SCREEN

A portable folding screen usually has three or four panels which connect to each other with hinges. These are very handy for screening off untidy corners used for storage or providing a private space for, say, changing clothes or computer area.

You may have existing material for the framework, such as old shutters. If that's the case, just hinge them together. Otherwise, make new wooden frames and hinge these together. Simply staple the fabric to the frames. You can print one big image and split up between all of the panels or pick a different images for each panel.

FLAT PANEL

This portable divider is just one panel, standing on feet for stabilization. It can be a great way to split up a living room from a dining room or divide squabbling siblings up in to two individual bedrooms. Durable weather resistant fabric can be used for an outside living areas to help reduce traffic noise, block out neighbors, and create your own personal sanctuary.

A quick frame can be built with PVC piping. Measure out how big of a screen you would like for your space and cut pieces for the top bottom and sides with saw or get them pre-cut at your local hardware store. Connect the top and the sides together with the elbow connection joints. Connect the bottom and the sides with four-way connectors. For the feet place 1 foot pipes into the open slots of the three-way connector, and place covers over ends to finish. You can spray paint the PVC to match your color scheme. To add the fabric you can either sew pole pockets on the edges; or for the sewing challenged, finish with velcro and loop over poles. Once the frame is made it is easy to swap out fabric if you ever want to change the decor.
Artist and photographer Mark Andrews combines his panoramic images with home decor in an innovative way. He prints his images on to canvas material and installs them like wallpaper. That in of itself is not so out of the ordinary. Where he chooses to install the mural is, the ceiling.

Mark begins by stitching hundreds of images together to retain the highest possible resolution and detail for output. His studio will spend hours color adjusting and profiling the image before printing. The final image is printed on a matte canvas. In the installation seen here they emulated copper tiles for a dining room ceiling.

One advantage Mark points out in using a canvas like material for his mural installations is the ease of removing when a new look is desired for the room. "The wallpaper hangers flipped out when they checked out the characteristics of the canvas. Not only is it tough as hot nails when they put it up, especially since most wallpapers are very flimsy, but if you want to strip it off you can pull it off in one strip. It's a 10-minute job to strip one room," says Andrews.

At Artisan we will spend hours meticulously making sure the color is just right before output. We also have a heavy duty canvas wallpaper material for mural printing, and professional installation available. Creating your own Sistine Chapel doesn't take Michelangelo, just imagination, the right file, and a little help from Artisan Colour.

To learn more about Mark Andrews and his studio read Panoramic Ceilings.
The people at HandMadeFont.com combine photography and typography to create custom font sets. They take everyday objects, like toast, rose pedals, oil, grass, and even cheese to construct unique letters, then photograph them to transfer the font sets in to a digital format. The result is not your dad's Helvetica. These real life fonts are available for purchase to be used in your own graphic design.

Paulo Canabarro interviewed brothers and founding members of HandMadeFont.com, Maksim Loginov and Vladmir Loginov, for Abduzeedo to find out more about their font creation process.

You guys have done endless number of different and very unique hand made fonts. What inspires you the most to keep creating all these different fonts?

If we only knew, where they come from (especially the genius ones), we would be very rich. But in our case it is more simple. “In the beginning, there was a word...“. Every object has its own name. Every word consists of some letters. It means, that every word implies some shape. For example, imagine a pencil on a table. We take a lot of pencils and compose a word "pencil“. This is a beginners level. But, going further on, if we compose a word "painter“ using the same pencils, then we receive the shape of the word "painter“, which expands itš sence.

We’re all surrounded by the lots of different things, which can be made into a font. Often we follow our instincts rather than just logic in choosing something. It’s like a man scratching the name of his beloved on some tree never thinks what font he’s using. Same with us. First we make something, than look at the result. Sometimes it’s no good , but usually we are happy with the first choice. It has more integrity and the spirit. The quirkiness of our fonts and the raw feel to it is important to us. It has energy.

The Home & Design Idea Center is a great resource when designing, planning, and shopping for your next home improvement project. The facility in North Scottsdale features 40,000 square feet of showroom space where companies can offer their home-related products and services. Designers and consumers alike can use this one-stop daily expo center to view products first hand from multiple vendors without driving all around town.




A division of Artisan Colour, Mancave Wall Art, has a space at the center featuring custom home products we are able to produce. The murals in the images seen here were digitally printed on our Océ Arizona 350 GT on wallpaper material and professionally installed. Shoppers can see first hand other possible ways we can create a one of a kind look with our direct to substrate digital output applied to a variety of materials like fabric, tile, canvas, and plexiglas.

The Home & Design Idea Center is located at 19120 N. Pima Road in Scottsdale. Stop by Vignettes 4199a & 4199b to see the Mancave Wall Art display.





This psychedelic wallpaper may seem dizzying, but there is a method to the madness. Designer Carnovsky created these overlapping patterns and shapes to work as one or when viewed with a red, green, or blue filter or light to respond to that specific light wave and reveal just one of the layers of the design. The wallpaper was recently shown at the Milan Design Week at the Jannelli & Volpi store.

We wanted to represent the antique theme of the metamorphosis intended as an unceasing transformation of shapes from a "primigenial chaos". For this purpose we have created a sort of catalogue of natural motifs starting with the engravings from natural history's great European texts, between the XVI and the XVII Century, from Aldrovandi to Ruysch, from Linneus to Bonnaterre.







It is possible to design a similar concept and print your own wallpaper. It would be perfect for a nightclub setting.

This is an ingenious idea. It could be fun with an image put in the mix too along with the solid colors. You can change the wall to fit your mood, the time of day, or spell out a message. Found [Via]

Change It! Wall Concept

Amirkhan Abdurakhmanov’s Change It! wall concept; allows you to configure walls in any color/design of your choice. The wall is constructed with three sided colored pixels that can be rotated between black, white, or a more colorful side.

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A standard framed photo hung on the wall is what most people choose for their home. If you’re looking for something new and creative, consider displaying your images in custom shapes or capture images to create your own unique photo alphabet. With our ability to print direct to different substrates, there are countless ways to show them off.

Hearts, circles, leaves, or stars...you can collage your photographs, or choose one photo and apply an artistic silhouette. It is an easy and inexpensive way to create a striking focal point for any room. We can print direct to plexiglas, brushed metal, or a sleek black plastic. The custom shape is easy to apply in Illustrator and cut out on our digital router. Perfect for displaying above a couch, bed, or mantel.

Create a custom personalized piece by grabbing your camera and taking alphabet photography. Pick the word you want to spell out and hit the streets looking for themes that will form your letters. Look for silhouettes, letters on printed signs, shapes found in nature and architecture. Compile the 'letters' together and print out as one piece or print each letter separate to be hung in a variety of arrangements. You can even print on to tiles that can be installed in to a back splash. This composite created by Janelle Bradshaw spells out her last name.

With a little imagination these projects can make a one of a kind accent for any room in your house or as a custom-made gift.

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There are many products on the market inspired by Pantone's color matching system. These items would make a color perfect addition to your home, as a fashion accessory, or gift for any designer or color fanatic.

Some are produced by Pantone themselves, like these birch veneer stools. The first twenty orders of their limited edition series will even be signed by Pantone founder Lawrence Herbert.


These eyeglasses come with a set of interchangeable color stems to suit your mood.

Pantone paints are available in over 3,000 colors, make picking colors to remodeling your house as reliable as flipping through a Pantone swatch book.

Other Pantone inspired products include these aluminum folding chairs designed by Selab for Seletti. They have padded seats and come in 672 C pastel pink, 186 C ruby red, 377 C macaw green, 14-0848 mimosa, 268 C royal purple and Cool Gray.

My Cuppa mugs come in tea and coffee styles that have Pantone chips inside the mug to represent different degrees of brew and cream levels. So making your perfect cup of joe is color coded.

If you want to find your own personal color you can check out Pantone's Colorstrology and look up the Pantone color associated with your birthday. Then design your own Pantone product specific to your personality. We would, of course, be happy to help you print your color matched design.

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Our Zund G3 digital router can do some amazing things. It is able to cut through a variety of materials, from BioBoard to even leather. Of course, the best results are achieved when the print and cut files are set up correctly. It does take a little knowledge of Illustrator to do it right. This step by step guide shows the best way to set up a file for printing and cutting.

First create a new document in Illustrator. Make sure the document size is large enough to fit the graphic plus registration marks outside of the image. (Registration marks are required for the camera guide on the digital router to line up the artwork and cut file properly.)


Next create three layers in the new document. One for the RegMarks (Registration Marks), one for the ThroughCut (or KissCut if that is what is called for in the project), and one for the graphic or Artwork. Each layer should be named appropriately.

Place your graphic in the Artwork layer. Make sure the artwork is inside the document's
bounding box.

On your cut layer create lines and shapes that will go around the artwork. Be sure that proper bleed is built in your graphic and the cut lines are inset at least 1/4" from the outside of your artwork. Create a new swatch named ThroughCut set to Spot Color CMYK and 100% magenta. We recommend making the fill or stroke of the line .5 pt in thickness.

For the Registration Marks layer create .25" black circles. Place reg marks outside the graphic, but inside the bounding box of the document.

Be sure to check for any stray points or lines in the file that would effect your final cut.

When you are ready to save, save two versions of the file. To create the print file, turn off the Cut Path layer and leave the Artwork and Registration Marks layers turned on. Save this file as a pdf or eps. To create the cut file, turn off the Artwork layer and make sure the Registration Marks and Cut Path layers are turned on. Save this file as a native Illustrator ai file.

Master these steps, and you will be able to add custom cut elements to your design projects.
On line stock image agencies are a great resource for designers when creating large format signage, advertisements, and displays. Getting the right image can be as easy as the click of a button. Finding an image that is appropriate for large format output can be more challenging.

There are several sites that have 'large' or even 'xx-large' files. Corbis offers high-resolution files at a premium. Getty Images, a giant in the stock photo industry, also has several subsidiary companies that are narrowed down in to specific genres. WireImage focuses on music, celebrity, and fashion photography, while Contour specializing in the licensing and syndication of high-end celebrity portraiture. iStockphoto, also a subsidiary of Getty, has gained enormous popularity by supplying a variety of subject matter and file sizes. Veer is another source of high resolution commercial imagery. Each site has their own pay structure, depending on file size and usage, via either photo credits or subscriptions.

The most important thing to keep in mind when searching images for large format use is the file size, or pixel ratio of the file. Depending on the final output size, even if you are purchasing the largest version of the file, it still may need to be ran through Genuine Fractals or a similar resizing software to get the best result. A great alternative, if your design allows, is to use vector files because they can be transformed in to whatever size you would like without any image loss. Most sites allow you to specify the type of file you are looking for in the search options.

There are many more websites that offer Royalty Free or Rights Managed stock imagery for your design needs. Stock.xchng is a great place to find free images. Blue Vertigo has a very comprehensive list of sites broken down in to category by use and price, as well as other great references for designers.

With the myriad of sites available, easy search features, and pay options, finding the right image for your large format design became a little less challenging.

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It's amazing when you start thinking about a subject how many things seem to pop up. I've run across a couple of blog articles posted this week that focus on color theory in design, and wanted to share.

Smashing Magazine today posted the first in a 3 part series entitled 'Color Theory for Designers'. Part 1 concentrates on the meaning behind different color families. They dissect warm colors, cool colors, and neutrals with website design samples to support each color scheme. Check back for parts 2 & 3, where they discuss how hue, value, saturation, tone and shades affect the way color is perceived and how to create effective design color palettes.

Color in design is very subjective. What evokes one reaction in one person may evoke a very different reaction in some one else. Sometimes this is due to personal preference, and other times due to cultural background. Color theory is a science in itself. Studying how colors affect different people, either individually or as a group, is something some people build their careers on. And there’s a lot to it. Something as simple as changing the exact hue or saturation of a color can evoke a completely different feeling. Cultural differences mean that something that’s happy and uplifting in one country can be depressing in another.

We Make Money Not Art posted a book review of Chroma: Design, Architecture and Art in Color. The book by interior architect Barbara Glasner and Petra Schmidt explores the creative process behind color selection of artists and architects.

Publisher Birkhauser says: Designers and architects have to make decisions regarding color every day. But how does one find the necessary inspiration? The appropriate color? How do other designers and artists deal with the issue? With "Chroma," the Greek word for color, as its title, this illustrated book provides answers to these questions and makes it clear that color is much more than mere decoration - it is one of the central problems of creative work. In the process, "Chroma" embraces the sensuous experience of color, inspiring and seducing the reader with unusual projects, from industrial products to color field painting. The book presents works by younger designers like Stefan Diez and Arik Levy as well as famous artists like Ellsworth Kelly.

Can't get enough of color? Check out these sites

Color Contrast & Dimension in Design has an interactive presentation that explains color theory, and has examples of how it is used in design and paintings. It covers the power of color, the physiology of color, contrast, hue, and dimension.

Colour Lovers is a fun site where you can create your own color palette and pattern, share it with the Colour Lovers community, and even get rated. They track color trends and offer loads of inspiration.

This is a fun little chart that shows food in season by time of the year and color coded like a rainbow. Found [Via]

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Perhaps you are living in tight quarters with limited space, or would just like the convenience of being able to tuck away your table when not in use. This innovative table from Ivydesign doubles as wall art and a table. Mounted to the wall, when not being used as your eating area, it folds up in to an attractive framed photo. You can use and switch out your own artwork in the frame. The only drawback is that it looks like they currently don't ship to the US. I guess I will have to make my own or wait until Ikea knocks it off. Found [Via]

Picture Table

For private habitations, hotel rooms, coffeehouses, lounges, multifunctional spaces,... A usually space consuming, functional piece of furniture can be turned easily into a decorative, space saving object. The table mounted on a side wall can be rotated towards and fixed on the wall. The poster can be chosen and exchanged by yourself.
Size: 130 x 85 x 78cm


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