Art Varsity

25 Cool and Quirky Illustrated Website Designs

Shane — Mon, 11 May 2009 07:05:13 +0000

Three very popular web design styles are web 2.0, torn paper, and grunge. And they’re tremendously popular because they bring a lot of flavor to a site design. But it’s a big world. And there’s more out there.

One of my favorite design elements is illustration. It’s personal, it’s visionary, it’s one style that is many styles. And at the heart of all art and design we find the building blocks. And one of those blocks is just plain and simple … drawing.

Here’s a pretty diverse sampling of what illustration can bring to a web design. It can be slick or haphazard, polished or raw. You can put heavy emphasis on illustrated content or work it into the standard design elements of a website.

You can do a lot with illustration. And some do …

McElfresh Map Company

Comics 2.0 … Amazing, Painted Comic Book Art

Shane — Wed, 06 May 2009 22:28:51 +0000

Thanks to computer graphics we currently live in the 3.0 world when it comes to comics. But back in the late 80’s and early 90’s, there was a revolution in the comics industry. I call it comics 2.0.

Somehow, somebody somewhere got the idea of combining fine art with the comics medium. They changed what comics COULD BE forever. In fact, more and more, they came to be known as graphic novels.

And they were amazing …

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Written by Grant Morrison (nsfw), Illustrated by Dave McKean

It goes without saying that Heath Ledger nailed the hellish insanity of the Joker with his performance in The Dark Knight. But Dave KcKean already got it right a long time ago in the Arkham Asylum graphic novel.

Just stare at it for 10 minutes. And then turn the lights out … Boo!

Batman & Judge Dredd: Judgement on Gotham

Written by Alan Grant and John Wagner, Illustrated by Simon Bisley

Simon Bisley is well known as a cover artist - which is where most really great comic art ends up. But thanks to the “painted comics” revolution he was able to bring his edgy Heavy Metal art style to the insides of a few books and do entire stories as well.

Daredevil: Love and War

Written by Frank Miller, Illustrated by Bill Sienkiewicz

I think most people know Frank Miller as the creator of Sin City, but he’s done a lot. A LOT. Daredevil: Love and War is an amazing example of what comic books can be in terms of storytelling. If it was a so-called “serious” novel, it would be a NYT best seller.

But enough about Frank, we’re here for the art today. And in comics, the artwork is just as important as the story is, in telling the story.

Elektra: Assassin

Written by Frank Miller, Illustrated by Bill Sienkiewicz

My personal fave of all time, bar none. My copy of Elektra Assassin is tattered. It’s been chewed on by a dog. When you open it up, pages fall out.

I wouldn’t part with it for the world.

Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown

Written by Walter Simonson and Louise Simonson, Illustrated by Jon J. Muth and Kent Williams

Meltdown is a really amazing exercise in collaboration. Jon J Muth did all the Havok artwork, and Kent Williams did all the Wolverine artwork … and often, on the same pages! They mailed the pages back and forth between them and did a great job of bringing their different art styles together.

Stray Toasters

Written and Illustrated by Bill Sienkiewicz

Beautiful madness. That’s all I can say about Stray Toasters. If you took the movies Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fight Club, Angel Heart, A Clockwork Orange, and Eyes Wide Shut, and put them all together … you still wouldn’t even come close to the quirky characters and bizarre happenings of this story.

Stray Toasters will be a movie one day. When the world is ready.

Blood, a tale

Written by J. M. DeMatteis, Illustrated by Kent Williams

Like Stray Toasters, Blood, a tale is not set in the bright tights world of superheroes that most comics are. So what’s it about?

Think fangs, immortal beings, blood sucking … I think you can guess.

A Convergence of Worlds

Traditional art + comics = something new. It’s often said that everything’s been done before. But all it takes is a simple equation to see how new things are created each and every day.

Stuck? Need ideas? Just find two things you really love and crash them together.

10 Movie Promo Sites that Create a Rich User Experience

Shane — Tue, 05 May 2009 03:26:24 +0000

I always say, nobody does it better than the people who make movies … except the people who sell movies. And part of what THOSE people do is design great websites.

Most movie promo sites are pretty simple. They go for the money shot, which is a big splashy background and a mercilessly enticing two minute edit of the movie - the preview trailer. These kind of sites work well. They’re bold and tightly focused.

But some movie marketers go the extra mile. They work to build these promo websites into something worth talking about (in addition to the movie). Which gives them more levers to pull in the viral-social marketing arena to help promote the movie.

Let’s look at a few of the movies that decided to make a little more than just a splash …

Multiple Website Promo Campaigns

1. Cloverfield

J.J. Abrams and the Bad Roboteers executed a brilliant viral web strategy by creating over a dozen websites for the movie Cloverfield. These included a Japanese drink site, and a website whose address was the film’s release date. They also created a collection of peronal sites and MySpace pages featuring the movie’s characters as if they were real people.

This internet Easter egg hunt created a lot of buzz and even resulted in people finding supposed Cloverfield sites that actually had nothing to do with the movie or the promotion.

2. District 9

District 9 has a couple of interesting websites that tell different sides of the social struggle the movie portrays. On one side they have the corporate view, and on another they have the mock political anti-corporate blog.

Of course, there’s a little more to the story than these sites are telling. And it’ll take some Maths from Outer Space to figure out what.

3. 2012

For 2012, the end-of-the-world adventure, we find two extra websites to build up the hype, entertain, and maybe even make you ask “what if”?

Woody Harrelson is a quirky doomsday video blogger on one site. And for those who believe there’s always a way out of a tough situation, you can play the lottery at the Institute for Human Continuity. Yep, apparently level-headed scientists already see doomsday on the horizon. And they’ve got a plan!

Raising Support for a Cause

4. An Inconvenient Truth

Important world issues are the focus of a lot of documentary films. They don’t just want to get the word out there. They want people to become aware of and get involved with the issue.

On the Inconvenient truth website you can see how your life impacts global climate change, and how you lessen your carbon footprint. Educating users about an issue and providing solutions to big problems is a great form of interaction.

5. Food Inc.

Food Inc is another documentary. And what’s interesting is their website is part of a LARGER site that’s all about learning, sharing, and taking action on a whole host of issues that affect the world today.

And again, it’s about getting involved and bringing personal responsibilty to the table. They provide a host of resources for you to explore and have worked to create a real sense of community around the issues.

Creating Rich Interactivity

6. The Simpsons Movie

When it comes to interactive movie promotional sites, nobody does it better than Homer. The Simpsons Movie site lets you wander through the town of Springfield to explore all kinds of fun and interactive things. Duoh!

7. Obsessed

For the stalker thriller Obsessed the film makers have come up with a great practical joke website. Upload a picture of a buddy and type in a few personal tidbits about them and BOOM … the site creates a video for your friend … from a crazy obsessive stalker.

8. Untraceable

First, you get recruited as a member of the Federal Cyber Crimes Task Force. Then your computer is hacked by a web 2.0 serial killer, and you have to pit your wits against him in a series of challenges.

Most interactive websites have a handful of bells and whistles for you to explore in whatever order you choose. This is a great example of linear interaction where the website guides users through a step by step storyline.

9. WALL-E Buy-n-Large

The main Buy-n-Large website redirects to the official WALL-E movie site now, but there’s still a few pages up you can go see. The site is (was) basically a mock big-box retailer from the future.

There’s a massive opportunity with this kind of website that I’ll discuss in the wrap-up.

10. Superbad McLovin ID

Some movies, like Superbad, just seem to inspire creative people. There are several websites where you can upload a picture and get your very own McLovin fake ID. Simple and entertaining interactivity.

As far as I know, none of the sites are affiliated with the movie or it’s creators. And this just might be the ultimate example of designing interactive user experience - an experience, designed by the fans.

The Wrap-up

The documentary promo sites I showed you have a natural ability to take ideas and make them a real part of people’s lives. They do that by making you ask your own questions, by suggesting solutions to big problems, and by encouraging social dialog.

From a commercial perspective, what if Disney turned their Buy-n-Large promo site into a REAL ecommerce website; focused on selling things that are science and tech related? Things like the science gizmos and robots you find in hobby shops and assemble yourself.

We’ll start to see more of that kind of thing in the future … where these mock promo websites become real.

Movies take something that’s often, not real (fiction), and they make it as real as possible to entertain us. But the best lie contains some truth. And at some point the lie can become real.

When people get involved, an idea can become reality.

And a great way to get people involved is to design a rich user experience.

35 Inspiring Color Palettes from Master Painters

Shane — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 10:39:39 +0000

Putting together a great color palette for your design work can be one of the most challenging aspects of any project. And many times, color palettes are built from some source of inspiration. So why not be inspired by some of history’s greatest master artists?

Colour Lovers has a lot of great tools including the ability to create color palettes auto-magically from pics you find around the web. It’s a great way to find inspiration when building your palette.

Of course, computer algorithms are not perfect; they miss key accent colors frequently and make questionable decisions on extracting the dominant tones. BUT, this is an exercise in inspiration, so there’s a certain advantage to these imperfections.

Long story short … here are 35 color pallets extracted from the work of some amazing painters with relative ease thanks to the Colour Lovers tools: