September 2009 Archives

September 25, 2009

Smashing Magazine has a great article on "Kinetic Photography," which is photography using a camera that is in motion. There are some amazing examples, obtained by tossing, flipping, shaking, spinning, or otherwise moving the camera - be sure you can catch it, if you decide to try the tossing method.

I gave it a try, and came up with a much cooler result than I've gotten from just taking blurry pics - the on-purpose blurries can really deliver. This is nothing compared to the examples in Smashing's article , but it's not bad. :)

By kim | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 14, 2009

I'm a believer that including a surprise soundtrack in websites is a bad idea. I'm not talking about sites for musicians, obviously, or games or any other site where it makes sense that music would play upon loading. I'm talking about just normal business sites, portfolio sites, etc. I don't even care how cool the music is - I came across a beautiful site playing a cool Kruder and Dorfmeister song when I loaded it, but the K&D was cranked up really loud and when combined with the what-ever-I-was-listening-to through my earbuds at work, it didn't work.

However, I recently came across this beautiful portfolio site by Jin Young Kim, and I totally forgive her for the music. In fact, the music helps make the site more magical. It really is magical design - check it out (and turn off whatever else you're listening to, turn the speakers on, whichever applies):

By kim | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 12, 2009

I'm sure it won't last long, but it's been nice to have a lull in the workload and to have time to find some great inspiration out there. A friend and I are planning a new site, and I've had a terrible mind-block on how it should look, function etc. Six months or more with little time for checking stuff out can atrophy your creativity. But, I found several sites that are curing that little problem, particularly the two below. I love the bright colors of Design Finds, and this article about using vintage colors directly from the original image makes a lot of sense and can provide beautiful results.

Another nice design site is Let's Kiosk. I'm partial to minimalist sites, but they tend to all look the same after a while. Let's Kiosk has a really nice layout that functions differently than a lot of minimalist sites out there - I like the fixed right and left columns...works well here. Check it out:

By kim | Permalink | Comments (0)