Overstretched? Not really. His vision is to make an impact on the world through his entrepreneurial efforts. This passion for helping others is what truly makes him a “superhero.”

The portfolio section of Arun’s website.

Hailing from New Dehli, India, Arun has worked with InstaPress, SlideShare, PicTiger and some more startups. He also worked with the world’s youngest CEO, Suhas Gopinath, who founded Globals Inc. In the past he has co-founded Oravel & Bidray (which is now owned by DealDash). Arun currently advices startups on user experience & design apart from doing freelance UX design projects, which means that his time is very limited at the moment – another superhero move, as he somehow still found time to thoroughly answer each of the questions below.

Skills section of Arun’s website which includes an interactive pie chart.

Arun’s skills seem well-developed. Of course, his largest area of expertise is in UI and UX but his XHTML and CSS skills are also highly refined. Add to this list his knowledge of PHP and a bit of HTML5. What really caught my attention, however, in my search for a UX designer (besides the fact that I wanted to find someone not so well-known but just as talented as the big names), was Arun’s heart and passion. In scrolling through his cleverly interactive website, I was captivated by his creative story-telling and fantastic design skills. In visiting the websites listed in his portfolio, I was greatly impressed not just at his ability to create very usable websites but also at his ability to help build a startup from the ground up. His personal blog showed me just how much heart he puts into every single one of his projects, and also how much pure passion he has for helping startups grow into successful companies. This man was one that certainly deserved an interview. Hopefully his answers below will help those of you who are searching for success in your own UX designer careers.

How did you get started?

Arun: Like most other UX engineers, I come from a design background. I started off as a graphic designer in a small company when I was young. Although I had a formal degree, that never really helped. I quickly realized that you’ll learn more about design by sketching on paper than reading a dozen books on design. After 2 years of working with print and graphics, I was introduced to web design by Suhas Gopinath, usually referred to as the world’s youngest CEO, my short time former employer, and now a very good friend. I was fascinated by the way Internet worked, and was amused by the impact of design on making decisions online.

And that was the time when I started taking an interest in UX design. While working with SlideShare, which is among the 250 most visited websites in the world & the world’s largest presentation sharing community, I learned how little details impact user behavior. The metrics give you quick feedback on what’s working and what’s not, whether the users like a red button or a green button, where to have ‘ok’ & ‘cancel’ buttons and where to have ‘yes’ & ‘no’ buttons. In fact that’s the basic idea behind UX, you learn how actions are affected by the smallest of details. You connect to users emotionally.

Slideshare pricing plans page.

What’s your education background?

Arun: I was never a good student. So my answer is not really encouraging for youngsters. Although I have a formal degree (with specialization in Animation & SFX), what I do currently is completely different from what I was taught. I was trained for 3D animation & visual effects in movies but that’s not something I believe I would have enjoyed to work on. I took a different career path and here I am making a lot of stuff easier to use.

I believe my instincts have been right so far. I love what I do and I’m not doing a bad job at it either.

Hiring page for Zeebo, Inc.

Zeebo gaming console: registration page.

How do you differentiate between UI design & UX design?

Arun: User interface is a part of user experience. Although UX in it’s best form is curated, it still needs to be designed.

UI design is entirely visual. It’s mostly about aesthetics and deals with what the different parts/sections of a product look like. The design of a UI will be heavily informed by the UX design.

On the other hand, UX design is a broader term. In addition to the visual appearance, UX deals with what a product feels like, how difficult is it to obtain, how easy is it to use, and whether it adds value to the end user. For some products, not necessarily web products, UX could encompass sales and support as well.

The UI can be a component of UX, but many user experiences don’t have UIs. Some have invisible UIs. For instance, I have once worked on the UX of a telephonic customer support product and it didn’t have a visual UI. A phone caller won’t get to see anything but he still expects and deserves a good user experience.

A very casual way of explaining the relationship between UI & UX would be -

“In the ultimate analysis, the goal of UI is to deliver sex, while the goal of UX is to deliver orgasms.”

Can crappy design still provide excellent UX?

Arun: Of course! Design merely acts as an enabler of UX, good or bad. My favorite web examples are Craigslist and Facebook. From purely a visual design point of view, the sites are very basic, if not crappy, but they still manage to provide great user experiences which can be explained by the popularity of the platforms.

Among physical objects, something as mundane as a wooden chair or a spoon could be an example of crappy designs with excellent user experiences.

Screenshots of the Zeebo Inc. website.

What resources do you reach every day when approaching a UX gig?

Arun: Most of my work comes from personal contacts, past clients, referrals & Dribbble. Although I have gotten a couple of projects from visitors of my website (www.arunpattnaik.com), the quality of those leads have been terribly low, due to the fact that the industry is yet to understand the importance of UX design.

Apart from Dribbble, some of my peers score UX gigs from the following websites:

http://www.uxjobsboard.com/

http://jobs.smashingmagazine.com//

What does the future of UX look like in your head?

Arun: I believe UX, as an industry, is going to be one of the largest in the near future. Companies, both big and small, are starting to invest heavily in creating amazing user experiences by innovating in their respective fields. The product companies have learned to put customers first. As recently as five years ago it was hard to find a user experience designer in a company. Ironically it was handled together by the CEO/Founder and the visual designer of the product. And now it’s common to see teams of user experience designers in companies, either as a separate department or working together with the product managers. Users are now part of the product’s building process. Internet startups are considering UX as their most powerful tool. So I’d say the future of UX is very bright.

Graphic of Dribbble invites Arun made almost completely of free PSDs found on Dribbble.

How will approaching design change?

Arun: Designs are now being done by putting the user first. Engineers are putting more focus on what the user expects to happen instead of what’s cool. Designers are putting an effort in what works best instead of what looks shiny. So the approach to design has taken a different turn. It’s a two-way process now. We learn by the user’s needs & behavior and then design our products according to it. Then we observe the user again. If we find the design didn’t work, we iterate. Repeat. User Experience should be seen as a continuous thread that runs through an entire organization, from one project into the next always pushing to make a person’s entire experience better.

Login section on the left panel of a website for a cabs booking company called Meru Cabs.

What technologies will be standard in future?

Arun: have always believed that technology merely acts as an enabler of what you actually want to do. So I would frame this question as “What methods will be standard in future?” Talking to the users is always the best method of improving your product. The success story of Dunhill is my favorite example of keeping the customer involved in the product’s development process. More and more corporates are taking this approach to design their products, and I am very sure that this will become pretty much the standard for product design. So a typical product release cycle would look like:

1. Find the problem.

2. Ask the user if it’s a problem.

3. Ask the user how has he tried to solve the problem in the past.

4. Solve the problem.

5. Ask the user if his problem is solved. Confirm that with metrics.

6. If not, go back to step 4.

If yes, ask him what did he find annoying and how can you improve.

7. Improvise. Repeat.

How does mobile fit into the future of UX?

Arun: Mobile has an important part to play in UX in the future. It already has, especially with the latest innovations in touch and geolocation technologies in place. Most of the successful businesses, both offline and online, have mobile apps which help them extend their service to users. Mobile is no longer just a communication device. It has now become an important part of our daily lives.

Mobile brings an always-available feel to technologies, which is partly true. But unfortunately we have gotten into the habit of presuming that mobile means on-the-go, desktop denotes a desk, and tablet is on the toilet. But we fail to see the blurring lines on where devices are being used and how they’re being used in unison. And that adds to the user experience regardless of the nature of your business. With mobile technologies, you no longer have to call up and ask friends about directions, journalists don’t have to carry equipment all the time to capture news, twitter has changed the way we communicate and receive news, we no longer have to wait for an important email because we are traveling. These are small but revolutionary changes. We’re saving time and money to do things which are more important. And all this has been made possible by mobile [devices].

Screenshots of the Stealth Android App.

Landing screen of the Stealth Android App.

Superhero UX Designer

Many would agree that a superhero is anyone with superhuman skills and a passion for helping and protecting the weaker members of society. Maybe this is why Arun Pattnaik likes to refer to himself as a superhero of sorts on his website. So, maybe his skills aren’t exactly superhuman, but they are definitely at an expertise level. Maybe he doesn’t fly around the world in spandex and a cape, but he does like to help other entrepreneurial businesses succeed. In my opinion, these descriptions are close enough for me to call him a superhero UX designer that deserves a moment in the spotlight.

He writes about design here. You should get in touch with him on Twitter at @arunpattnaik where he is always willing to answer UX & design related questions.

Author: Tara Hornor

Tara Hornor has a degree in English and has found her niche writing about marketing, advertising, branding, web and graphic design, and desktop publishing. She is a freelance senior editor at DesignCrowd – a marketplace that helps businesses outsource or ‘crowdsource’ custom design from over 100,000 designers worldwide. In addition to her writing career, Tara also enjoys spending time with her husband and two children. Connect with @TaraHornor on Twitter.

The New Logo

Earlier this month, owner Rupert Murdoch unveiled a new logo for 21st Century Fox, the (new) parent company that owns the Fox broadcast and entertainment brands.

Some in the design  community described the logo, created by Pentagram, as mimicking an ’80s telecom’  logo. Under Consideration said it was ‘underwhelming‘ and Design Taxi remarked “the new company logo is much like a minimalistic version of production studio 20th Century Fox’s logo.”

DesignCrowd's Contest

DesignCrowd launched the 21st Century Logo Design Contest to its own community of 120,000 designers, offering $500 in cash prizes to be shared between three winners.

Owner Rupert Murdoch says the new logo “signals the promise of the 21st century.” If you disagree then submit a new design in the DesignCrowd contest.

Get in quick, the contest closes on  June 15. Check out the brief and entry requirements here.

In this tutorial you will learn how to create a striking 3D vector logo. I used Cinema 4D as my 3D software but you can use any 3D program. This logo was created by me for a band called “Traced in Shadows”.

Step 1 – Render settings…

Having the correct render settings is very important. These are the render settings I used for my project:

Output : 1920*1080 at 72 ppi.

Save: Format- PNG with Alpha Channel on (this will render without a background).

Anti Aliasing : Best at min. and max. 16*16 each.

Apply Global Illumination

NO Ambient Occlusion please.

Step 2 – Model the Logo …

The first step is to model the logo. And here is what mine looked like.

..

Step 3 – Apply the materials …

This is a crucial step because how you edit the materials will determine the quality of your vector. Don’t apply any specular or colors just apply a luminance which will give your logo perfect color and make it easier to vectorize. Here is how my “Material Editor” looked like…

Step 4 – Add a camera object…

This is relatively simple, just go to “Scene Objects” and add a “Camera” object

Step 5 – Lighting

Lighting is important too but we do not want realistic lighting because it will ruin the vector. So I found out the trick for perfect lighting:

a) Create a Sphere.

b) Enlarge it so that it engulfs the subject of your logo.

c) Apply a plain white material(only luminance) to it.

d) Apply a composting tag to it and disable the “Seen by Camera” option in the the “Tag” panel.

Step 6 – Rendering.

Render out your logo and now you are halfway through…

Step 7 – Open up the PNG file in Adobe Illustrator.

Open the render in the Illustrator.

Step 8 – Live Trace the image…

Yes you read it correct; Live Trace the image. It is the easiest and fastest way to vectorize anything and because your logo is without shadows and stuff, the trace will be perfect. Be careful about your tracing presets and choose them according to the number of colors you have in your logo. Also, go to Advanced Trace Settings and check the “Ignore White” box. This will give you a transparent background…

Play around with the settings until you get the perfect trace and then go to Object>Live Trace>Expand which will give you the paths.

This is my trace…

Step 9 – Saving

Save it as an AI file and EPS file. These are the formats most clients require and which you need for submitting designs on Design Crowd.

Conclusion

So now you know how to create a perfect 3D vector using Cinema 4D and Illustrator. This tutorial will come in handy for a lot of 3D logo projects, t-shirt projects and what not. So thanks for bearing with me. Hope this was helpful and enjoyable.

Sarao Arts is a freelance graphic designer from Winnipeg, Canada. See his DesignCrowd portfolio here

All web designers love to have cool stuff at their disposal, ready for instant use. Although 100% custom work is always the best approach, sometimes ready-made is the only choice when faced with the challenges of a deadline. On the internet, there are tons of high-quality designs available for purchase, but today we thought to provide you with a small collection of 44 awesome web and graphic design freebies, gathered from all around the web. The collection includes icons, textures, vectors, patterns and other various goodies for you to grab for your library and use in logo design or web projects. We hope all of the following will prove to be useful with your web design or any other professional or personal projects. Feel free to share your thoughts or other freebies with us, by leaving a message in the comment section. Have fun, everyone!

Free Icons

leather texture

PSD toggle switch UI

Switches

6 Greek / Roman Pixel Patterns

Hand Drawn Web icons

iMac free PSD mockup

business card template

12 Blurred Backgrounds

wood texture

Slider

Free PSD synthesizer

Free PSD simple emoticons

Social Media UI Buttons

41 Social Media Icons

Retro Portfolio – Full free PSD pack

Pretty Little Progress Bar

Slabstatic display free font

Moonshiner free font

Pixel UI Icon Set

Newap – Free PSD website template

Marketplace buttons

6 wood patterns / backgrounds PNG PAT

Free PSD USA map

10 High Resolution Rusty Metal Textures

Push-Button

Carbon Fibre Photoshop Patterns

Black Wall Texture

Pattern Kit One: “Ribbon Dancer”

Butterflies

Share Buttons PSD

Google Drive

Replacement iOS Icons

Mimi Glyphs Icons

Crisp Icon Set

Blanka website template

iphone ui

Calendar icon

gemicon

Cart widget

Dark Itunes

Clock

IPhone wood UI

Minimal Calendar

What awesome design freebies did we miss for logo design, graphic design and other design disciplines? Do you use free or purchased ready-made graphics in your design process? Tell us what you think.

Curzon Decor

strong coffee

Strive Studio

Strength&Conditioning

Occupy

Trojack

Power to the Pencil

Army Gear

Epic Comments

BULLMAN

Protected Legacy

House Hold

Silver Gold Bull

Green Power

Warriors

Ultra Fitness

Zeus Fight Wear

Now Make Me A Sandwich

Praemittias

RAMM

VAQUERO

Picthor

Gans Tatverk

Iron Guerrilla

CHOKLAD BUDET

FLYING STAG

Stronghex

Athletic Performance Academy

Mouthscle

Pump ups

Silverback

Templars

Stargym

atlas

God’s Gym

PRYM8

Wellfit

BODYFORCE

VIKINGOO

Power Impression

Truckers fitness gym

Hanuman Shakti

Globull

Gladiator Fitness

Rhinotes

Prevalent Marketing

Muscle Cloud

Silverback

Gryphonism

Growcase

What’s your favorite pick from this roundup of mighty logos? Maybe it didn’t make the list, share your feedback in the comments below.

It can suggest organic growth to a digital mark and add development, connection, continuity and smooth, subtle transition between individual elements. What’s more, transparency can help to make the design brighter, lighter and create the effect of an illuminating the mark. Not convinced? Take a look at this showcase of creatively applied transparency and overlaying techniques to see what we mean.

This candy-coloured logo is by graphic designed Jared Milam. Look at the way the letters overlap to create new tints of each shade, and the beautiful textures that using transparency adds.

This is a stunning example of transparency applied to a typographic mark. It’s for Paranaiv, a blog and magazine about photography and style and makes excellent use of layering to create depth, interest and colour variation.

Here’s an example by Sean O’Grady for Pangur Glass Craft. It uses transparency to add a sense of perspective to the stacked bowls. It also helps to suggest that the bowls are made from a delicate base material; incredibly appropriate for a company that supplies glassware.

In this example graphic designer Joan Pons Moll uses transparency to create texture on the bird’s feathers and beak.

We love the way that transparency can add a sense of fragility to a digital mark, as can be seen in this example by Mattia Moretto. Check out the way the accent colours are repeated over both the letter I’s for attention to detail.

With a seriously reduced colour palette and clever use of transparency, Firebrand, the designer behind this treatment, creates a metropolis of intensity and a real sense of city-scape perspective.

The company is called wraparound, the designer has used transparency to create a brand that wraps around itself to build depth. Simple, effective and super-smart.

Written by Nicky who works at whoishostingthis

The tablet app development platform Oomph has launched Oomph Marketplace, an app marketplace for self-service customizable app templates. Like Themeforest is to Wordpress templates, designers can create and sell their templates in the Oomph store.

Oomph will be launching new functionality in the coming weeks so Designers can sell templates they have created in store.

Leading up to the release of Marketplace, Oomph has launched a $10,000 app design competition on crowdsourcing website DesignCrowd. The competition comprises of four separate contests focussed on four popular app genres. The interactive template designs should be suitable for organisers of arts or music festivals, industry conferences, travel agencies marketing holiday destinations, retailers who want to build a rich media interactive experience for customers and branded magazines.  (See examples of tablet app covers are below.)

How to Enter

Click here for the DesignCrowd contest page. Read the brief and guidelines. Oomph has included template creation guidelines that are required reading. To help you design an Oomph app template, Oomph is giving away a best practice app template, icons and artwork and a blank template. Register at Oomph Marketplace and you’ll receive the free templates in your account, or take a sneak-peak at the tools and guidelines here.

The Prizes

Each contest offers $2,500 in cash prizes awarded to the top 3 designs in the following contest categories:

1. Event Apps
2. Brochure Apps
3. Retail Catalogue Apps
4. Magazine Apps

Designers designers have until January 19 to submit designs to be in the running to win cash prizes.

The contest closed in August after receiving 5, 845 designs from 1,300 designers from around the world.

On 12-12-12, TimesSquare.com announced the top 5 winners on its site.  Sixty-five designers were awarded cash prizes for their efforts.

A Serbian-based designer who goes by the user name Jovan on DesignCrowd, took out the $5,000 first place prize. The winning design was one of 6 designs the designer submitted to the contest.

The top 4 designers were awarded $3,000 in cash prizes and another 60 designers of merit shared in $3,000 in participation payments.

Here is the top 5 roundup.

Winner – Jovan

Top 4 Designs …

REIZZ

OMEE

CTRL+N

LEMONCRUSH

What do you think of the winning designs? You can check out more entries on DesignCrowd.

Angry Birds Star Wars

Somewhere in a galaxy far, far away, the ultimate games app just got a whole load better. Star Wars Angry Birds isn’t just the best incarnation of the game, it’s also the best movie spin off we’ve seen in a long time. Yup, you still shoot birds at pigs, but in this game you get to do it with lightsabres and lasers. What’s not to love?

Fieldrunners 2

The original Fieldrunners was one of the Apple App Store’s first hit games and this version takes to the next level for 2012. It’s a simple premise. Protect your tower and stop the bad guys from getting to the other side of the screen by using a variety of weapons. The more bad guys you kill the more money you get for weapons.

Toca Tailor

The first app from Swedish interactive toy maker Toca Boca, Toca Tailor is a cool game for the over fours. This game lets users dress a variety of characters in an almost endless choice of clothes and is a brilliant game for encouraging creativity.

Toca Band

Hailed as one of the best children’s apps of 2012, Toca Band gets kids to create a song through an easy-to-use interface. All they have to do to make their music is drag and drop the colourful characters across the screen – each one has its own unique sound!

Clash of Clans

Clash of Clans is a cool cross between FarmVille and a war game. Build a village, train your troops and fight with other players. One of the most popular free apps of 2012 on Apple devices.

New Star Soccer

It might not look like much, but New Star Soccer is utterly addictive. Your aim is simple; score as many goals as possible while more obstacles – such as high walls and winds – are put in your way. You need to upgrade from the free version to the 69p incarnation for the real fun though. This version lets you live like a real player, earning wages and building professional relationships with other players and your club manager. Improve your skills and you make more money. You’ll also have to make lifestyle choices to help improve your fitness or, more importantly, attract your very own WAG.

SongPop

SongPop is a free music-trivia app that was named app of the week by ABS News back in July. Guess song clips and challenge your friends – and there are thousands of songs on there, ranging from golden oldies to today’s top tracks.

Rayman Jungle Run

The legendary console platform hero made a successful jump to mobile this year with Rayman Jungle Run. The graphics are gorgeous and the smooth touch-based controls are a pleasure to use. No wonder it was named the App Store’s Game of the Year 2012; it’s an easy game for all ages to get to grips with, but addictively tricky to master.

Waking Mars

This app was one of the biggest smashes of 2012. The narrative is one of the most engaging we’ve seen on this platform and involves the discovery of alien life on Mars and the subsequent mission of first contact. It’s an intelligent, adrenalin-fueled race against the clock to determine the fate of a sleeping planet.

Batman: Arkham City

It may only have been launched last week, but Batman: Arkham City is set to be a last-minute big-hitter of 2012. It’s based on the most popular Batman video game on record and sees Batman fight some of the toughest villains ever – including Catwoman. It’s a hefty download, clocking in at 10.67 GB, so make sure your Mac can handle it before you buy.

This is a guest post contributed by Neeru Pallen who writes on behalf of Print Express UK.

The winner is Studio71, a graphic design studio started by Shane Marchewka who discovered the contest on crowdsourcing site DesignCrowd and submitted six designs to the website’s $1,000 t-shirt design contest.

“I registered with DesignCrowd earlier in the year as a way to boost my exposure as a freelance designer. I am stoked enough to say I have a former Prime Minister as a client however the $1,000 prize money is like a cherry on top of a very sweet cake!” he said.

Mr Rudd tweeted about the contest yesterday and said, “Shane is a great guy who is putting in the effort to start his own small business. He had a range of great ideas and really embraced the spirit of the competition. I wish Shane and Studio71 all the best for taking his business to the next step. I was overwhelmed by the quantity and quality of entries, so thanks a million to DesignCrowd and Australia’s talented graphic design community.”

It’s not everyday designers acquire former Prime Ministers as clients.

Here is the winning design:

Crowdsourcing design is a proven way to generate creative ideas – from logo design to t-shirt design – and now, in an innovative twist, Greenpeace are applying crowdsourcing to environmental activism by asking people to enter an’ad contest’ for Shell Oil via a spoof website ArcticReady.com. Greenpeace’s campaign has generated hundreds of entries and a firestorm on social media.

Here are some of the funnier and more popular advertisements created by the crowd:

It’s not the first time Greenpeace have used crowdsourcing to target an oil company. In 2010, Greenpeace ran a logo design contest to re-design BP’s logo (shortly after the BP Oil Spill) with hilarious results and a big social media impact. Thus, the current Shell Oil ad contest appears to be Greenpeace’s second attempt at crowdsourcing and (given the success they’ve achieved) probably not their last.

It’s unclear what Shell can do in response. It’s probably less an issue related to crowdsourcing and more of a legal question related to using a logo or brand to ridicule that brand (i.e. whether the crowd created these or Greenpeace it doesn’t matter – as soon as they’re published and become popular, Shell will get upset).

What is clear is that the power of the crowd to act fast and generate creative ideas is compelling. While the message is serious, some of the entries are downright funny. It will be interesting to see how the Greenpeace crowdsourcing initiative plays out (while the site be taken down or not). In the meantime, crowdsourcing remains a powerful tool for a range of organisations from small business and big brands to non-profits and activists. Brands and businesses should consider using professional crowdsourcing websites and services (such as DesignCrowd) to manage their crowdsourcing initiatives.

Penn

Grebban

MuscleFire

Nobtaka Nukui

Renhand

Angelis

Ross

Color-Blossom

Mediastudio

Fitwise Training

Mile Deep Films & Television

formgarten

Vladislav Malkovick

Pivotshare

Sommelier

The Argonaut Hotel

Nili Studios

Emporium Pies

Grit Creative Co.

Darlene Dewell

Möbeldesign

Mackey Saturday

Joonas Paloheimo

Privax

Bright Edge Painting

Webshocker

Contreforme

Strahlend

Milky

Radity

Olivier Pineda

iPhone

Business Cards 2012

Which were your favorite business cards and why? Tell us in the comments below.

Symbolism plays a significant part in logo design and extracting inspiration from friendly, trustworthy and sometimes funny looking domesticated animals is a natural place to seek creative inspiration. Although the featured animals in this post are familiar, the logos display a memorable and one-of-a-kind visual appearance. Without further ado, feel free to fuel your creativity with 50 logo designs inspired by these cute, sometimes fierce and often furry domestic animals.

Top dog training

Sheepington

oinky

Las Cabras de Mexicali

Gray Bull

Curly Cat

Great

Buffalo

Rum Donkey

Good Duck

Horses Kingdom

Pis’moved

Goosey Gander

Happy Lama

Yak Works

goldfish inc

Rabbit

Canary

Coy koi

Ratbit

Freebee

Road-Hog

Camel

Elephant Mouse

Selecore

Mack Wack the Duck

Alpine Goat Project

DogCat

White Rabbit

Midnight Donkey

truffle seeker

EMAG

Bullocked

Fatcat Coffee

Bee

Work Horse

Sheep

carrier pigeon

buffalo

Imperial Horses

Store logo in progress

Barcamp Litoral

Bravo Game

Mary Sheep

Nualz

Llama

fold dog

Burro Bar Variant

Laura Bee

Pet Nest

Bull

Which was your favorite design and why? Do you look at animals for design inspiration when you receive a logo brief? Let us know in the comments!

According to Galitsyn’s LinkedIn profile, he studied book drawing in the early 1980s at the Higher Polygraphic Institute in Kiev (known as the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute) during the twilight years of Soviet ruled Ukraine.

Galitsyn’s body of work was extensive  with a distinct style that incorporated line drawing and animal motifs giving his work a contemporary ’neo-gothic’ feel with the effective use of line weight and shadow to create depth and feeling to his designs.

He was an active member of the online design community. Galitsyn’s Dribble profile displays  more than 2,000 followers and 20,000 ‘likes’ for his designs. His work can be viewed on Dribble.com and LogoMoose (see links at end of post).

As a well-liked and respected member of this community, designers from around the world have publicly shared their feelings about Galitsyn’s death.

“I heard about this tragedy. Really liked his unique style. Glad that you guys didn’t forget him. I think that his style should be called by his name, because I don’t know any other designer who designs logos like that, ” said Lithuanian designer Paulius Kairevičius.

We commissioned Felix Diaconu to curate a roundup of Galitsyn’s most recent designs which we’re publishing today. The Romanian designer says, “The following collection of 25 brilliant logo designs belongs to a great man and designer, Yuri Galitsyn.  Our sincere condolences to Yuri’s family and relatives. R.I.P. Gal! Your work will always be remembered in our hearts!”

Bull Restaurant

Lion Football

Shop Honey

Shaman Letterpess

Charterbook

Oldtimer gallery

Cat logo letterpress

Iron elephant

Raccoon

BTS

Happy Lama

Seahunter

Camel

Hockey

STARCOM

City-bike

Guitarshop

Union Express logo

Dachshund

Gorilla

Hopenia

LOMAPOKO

Scherkhan

Dodo Pizza

Logo of Theater Institute

You can view more examples of his work here:

http://www.logomoose.com/members/Gal/
http://logopond.com/members/profile/showcase/35527
https://www.free-lance.ru/users/urag/

Do you know more? If you knew Yuri personally or just admired this prodigiously talented designer from afar, share a link to your favorite designs of his in the comments below.

Season’s Greetings

It’s Santa!

Christmas Ribbon

Simplistic Holiday Card

Present Time!

Christmas Angels

Wrapping Paper

Christmas Spirit

Santa’s Campaign

University Cheer

Retro Santa

Campus Christmas

Stripe Design

Christmas is for the Birds

Santa’s List

Snowy Tree

Cookies, list and coffee?

Christmas Feast

Colorful Christmas

Ring the bells!

Technology Tree

Crack-a-lackin’

Christmas Time!

Christmas and Mistletoe

Reindeers and Trees

Warm Hands

A drop of Christmas

Bells & Charms

We make Christmas

Thanksgiving

Have you spotted others around the web that have inspired you? With all its cliches, good, original seasonal design can be difficult — the more sources of inspiration, the better!

Looking for freelance design work? Participate in Christmas design contests.