Wallpaper of the Week #42 - Mayheam

Wallpaper of the Week #42 - Mayheam

The wallpaper of this week is another design from Mayheam, a young digital artist from Virginia, US. Once again we highly recommend that you check his site out.

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35 Fantastic HDR Pictures

Applied carefully, High Dynamic Range-technique (HDR) can create incredibly beautiful pictures which blur our sense of the difference between reality and illusion. In graphics HDR imaging is a set of techniques that allow a far greater dynamic range of exposures than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to the deepest shadows. This is usually achieved by modifying photos with image processing software for tone-mapping. And the results can be really incredible; in fact, many artists and designers come up with some pretty fancy results.

This post covers 35 extremely beautiful and perfectly executed HDR-pictures. Some of them might look surreal, too colorful, even magic or fake, but they are not — keep in mind that they've all been developed out of usual photos, and not a single image is an illustration.

Please notice:

(*) the selection isn’t supposed to be complete which is why I encourage you to post links to further excellent HDR images in the comments to this post;
(*) there is no ranking, all pictures have been selected due to their outstanding quality and excellent execution;
(*) you can explore further works of the designers and photographers I’ve featured below by browsing through their sets on Flickr;
(*) all screenshots are clickable and lead to the pages from which they’ve been taken;

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Wallpaper of the Week #41 - Super Silo

Wallpaper of the Week #41 - Super Silo

The wallpaper of this week is an incredible robot designed by Martijn van Dam, AKA Super Silo, a graphic designer at Momkai, an independent, interactive agency based in Amsterdam. We have already featured Super Silo on a previous article, Beautiful Flyer Designs by Super Silo.

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20 Beautiful HDR Pictures

There are some photography techniques that really give me the goose bumps, but the good ones. HDR is one of those techniques... and you'll probably love these as much as I do.

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25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

Animated short movies are excellent for tedious coffee breaks and uninspiring monday mornings. To put some beautiful story in a short 2-5 minutes sequence isn't easy, but even in this case designers and artists are quite creative and manage to come up with very surprising and unusual results. The selection below is supposed to make you cry, laugh, feel bizarre or even shocked — in every case being absolutely smashed.
Let's take a look at the collection of 25 brilliant animated short movies. Among them you'll find funny cartoons, typography-related movies as well as artistic masterpieces — hopefully everybody will find something interesting and unusual for his/her personal taste.

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25 Mind-Blowing Gadgets

Few weeks ago we've presented a number of innovative gadgets, devices, designs and concepts. Unless explicitly specified, none of them has been officially released or produced yet, and none of them is currently available for end-users. But what about existing products? What about innovative designs which are already available in stores and can be bought straight away?

As part of our monday inspiration series we present 25 mind-blowing gadgets and devices which are already available today. Among them you'll find loudspeakers, turntables, TV sets, furniture, laptop sleeves and further accessories. Please notice: most of them aren't cheap at all, and many of them cost over $10,000.

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Innovative Designs and Devices

Steve Jobs stated once that the “design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” While this statement has proven to be crucial over thousands of years, one shouldn't misinterpret it by emphasizing the functionality despite the design. When it comes to product design, the significance of aesthetics of a given device, the way its design looks and feels, determines the choice of the customer once the functionalities of multiple devices are more or less similar. If supported by sound user interface and a well-tested, clean implementation, innovative design solutions can drastically enhance the user experience.

This article presents innovative, futuristic gadgets, devices, designs and concepts. Unless explicitly specified, none of these cut-edge concepts is currently being manufactured. None of them is available for end-users which is why neither the price nor links to the stores are mentioned.

Please keep in mind that the main idea of this article is not to do the sell-talk for trendy products, but to showcase innovative design solutions and futuristic devices which can become reality in 2008 or over the next few years.

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Entoptic Phenomena by [Paul Boag]

OK, that’s strange. And creative. Cover your friends with a cloth, ask him/her to jump in the air and make photos while they are jumping.The result is the effect which is called Entoptic Phenomenon in digital photography and medicine. [via Paul Boag]

25 Photographs Taken at the Exact Right Time

Creativity Spark From Masters Of Illustration

Creative thinking is an essential part of design workflow. Whatever sketch you are working on, at some point you find yourself in the situation where you simply need some fresh ideas to find your path around the creativity block. Going away may help. Listening to the music may help. But particularly the works of the famous graphic artists may help. In fact, studying them very closely, you can not only explore new ideas, but also learn the smallest details - they form the profound foundation of every masterpiece. In this post we'd like to present you an ultimate breakthrough for your creativity blocks; over the last weeks we've been searching for the most popular graphic designers, illustrators and artists around the world. We've selected some of their works to give you an idea what style they have and what details of modern design you can expect and learn from them. So what do we have as result? Over 100 breathtaking illustrations from some of the best contemporary graphic designers, illustrators and artists; besides you'll also find references to further (mostly unknown) sources for inspiration you can use on a daily basis.

Once you've selected the artist whose works you like, click on the image to get to his/her portfolio and explore his/her work in more depth. Please notice that most artists listed below are well-known in the worldwide design community (and so are their works); hopefully you know not all of them. Please be patient, it may take a while until the images are loaded. Please be aware that it also may take a while until you've seen most of showcased images. Further suggestions and ideas? Please comment.
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Wallpaper of the Week #40 - Mathias Townsend

Wallpaper of the Week #40 - Mathias Townsend

The wallpaper of this week is from Mathias Townsend, a designer and illustrator from Porto Alegre, Brazil. We have already featured Mathias on a previous article, and he, kindly, sent us a wallpaper to share with the community. For more information visit Mathias Townsend page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mathiastownsend/

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