What if you are not an Artist?

People enjoy graphics. Picture and colour attract attention and hold people’s interest. Look at the front page of any daily newspaper. What grabs your attention first? The big bold headlines and any picture, especially if they are in colour.

If graphics will do all these things, why isn’t everyone who has to communicate using them? Most of the people think you have to be an artist to do it, and they feel that if they aren’t artists they shouldn’t try. This is like thinking that if you aren’t a professional like Narain Karthikeyan, the race car driver, you shouldn’t take a car to road.

You can create simple graphics with nothing but the alphabet and few coloured felt pens. Then you can stretch a little to draw a few simple icons, and have graphics your audience will find useful and enjoyable….even if you have no talent at all.

Does this mean you can create graphics without being able to draw? Of course you can! Thousands of people do it every day. A graphics is a tool using words, shapes, pictures, colour and blank space together in some combination. The purpose of graphic is to get a message across to someone else. It could be conveyed in print, on a computer screen, on a slide or any other way of showing information to people. Anyone can make simple graphics using these tips.

• Use colour effectively
• Use words and letters as graphics
• Use lines, borders and shapes
• Use a “graphic alphabet” to create simple picture
• Use simple picture to convey ideas
• Think up the pictures
• Use focus and balance
• Get special effects
• Plan a series of visual to support a presentation.

Who Moved My Job?

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Approved CoverDesigned in CorelDraw - Mac Leopard OS X

Ideas

A Simple Way to Start Ideas Coming
Being creative means dealing with ideas. The world runs on ideas. Good things rarely happen accidentally. Long before electric lights or television or heart surgery or even the wheel came to be, they existed as thought in somebody’s mind.

Everything we deal with in our everyday lives existed first as an idea. When you snap on the light switch, remember that Thomas Edison thought of electric lights long before anybody built them. A car was an image in Henry Ford’s mind long before they first model T rolled out of the inventor’s workshop.

The Source of Good Ideas
Where do good ideas come from? You’re probably not a mad genius working in a laboratory, churning out miracle drugs and magic potions for living. But that doesn’t matter. Many of the extraordinary inventions we use in our world today came from quite ordinary people. And those same ordinary people can get good ideas to improve their financial situation, their relationships with others, their circumstances at work and home, and countless other things. Ideas can come to anyone who’s willing to seek them out.

Wild

Real freedom lies in wildness, not in civilization.
Charles Lindbergh

Health and Safety

Office ergonomics: Your work environment
Working more efficiently will benefit you little if you ruin your health in the process, and the graphic artist's workplace offers a multitude of health hazards, from eyestrain to carpal tunnel syndrome Setting up your work environment properly will allow you to function more effectively, and to enjoy your work more.

Seating
The right posture is important, your furniture should foster it A straight back, feet firmly on the floor for support, and elbows bent without strain are what you want. Invest in a decent chair, one that suits your physique. if you choose a stock office or "task-chair it, should be fully adjustable hi height, seat tilt, and back rest giving full lumbar support some people find that the backless, "kneeling "seating suits them better There are also "bike seat" chairs that encourage good posture and flexibility, if possible.

Work station or table
The work surface should be stable and drop low enough for comfortable viewing, keyboarding, and mousing. The height will vary (27 inches is average) so have a friend check your measurements while you are seated in your ergonomic chair: elbows to floor, floor to tops of thighs Allow plenty of room for legs, thighs, and free move­ment. consider such Items as articulated keyboard shelves, monitor risers, and adjustable table tops. Armed with your measurements, space requirements, and list of features, shop the computer catalogs, maga­zines, and retail stores.

Listen to your body and be prepared to change your setae if you notice continuing discomfort; that's a warning sign.

Input devices
Although the keyboard and mouse are ubiquitous, the input device used is a matter of personal preference and work style. The type of mouse pad you use Influences the mouse's tracking ability, as well as your own comfort. It should not be thick enough to force your wrist into an awkward angle. Fabric pads tend to offer more traction, but are harder to clean and can leave solid deposits in the trackball, requiring eventual mouse cleaning. Hard surface pads are easier to keep clean, but offer slightly less traction than fabric.

Posture
back: Angled slightly backward to widen angle between torso and thighs, increase blood flow, deepen breathing, and ease compression on spine

Arms: Relaxed and loose at sides. Forearms and hands parallel to floor

Thighs: Angled slightly down from torso. transferring some of torso's weight to legs and feet.

Knees: At right angle to thighs.

Chair
Back rest: Supports lower back, matching curve.

Seat: Incline forward slightly to transfer Some weight pressure from back to legs and feet.

Cushion: Curves down at front to reduce pressure on thighs.

Arms: Out of elbows' way, allowing full movement of arms. Should be adjustable and removable.

Controls: Should adjust height and tilt angle of back rest and Seat, allowing both flexible and locked positions.

Base and feet: Should offer plenty of stability (5-spoke base is best), swivel, and rolling casters. A chair mat allows free movement of the chain

How to Identify a Typeface

Many typefaces are available to the graphic designers. Gating to know them has always been a problem, especially for the beginner. Adding to the problem is the ability of digital systems to distort a basic alphabet into hundreds of variations. Aside from obvious differences of basic styles (roman, italic, sans serif, script, etc.) certain key characters and their parts should he carefully studied.

Most differences are in the lowercase letters. The one letter that is most often different in different alphabets is the lowercase g.
• Shown on the above image is the variety that exists in twenty-four typefaces.
• Note the subtle difference in the Garamond, Jenson, and Times Roman
• Also note the Caslon 540 and Caslon old face: they are not the same, but the casual observer might think that they are.

Characteristics of other letters are also shown to give the reader some clues for further recognition.

There are three basic groups of sans serif types:
1. grotesque or gothic
2. geometric
3. humanist.

Grotesque (often shortened to Grot) and Gothic are 19th century designs with nearly uniform proportions See Helvetica and News Gothic. Sans serif types, like Futura, are very mechanical. Humanist designs follow classic proportion of Roman Capitals and Renaissance lowercase. Many have thick/thin stress and calligraphical elements. An example is Optima.


Here are many varieties of lowercase t. The tops are flats or curved or pointed, and the bottoms are either flat or curved, parts to be observed in identifying a typeface style.

Observe the variations on the letter e set in different typefaces. The cloister has an angled crossbar. Baskerville blends gracefully from thick to thin. The Garamond has a freehand look, with a high loop and crossbar. The Bodoni changes abruptly from thick to thin and has a straight curve. The curve of Caslon 540 has weight towards the bottom.

Here are five varieties of serifs on the letter u. Serifs are not the only way to identify type, but you will become more sensitive to such subtle changes as these when developing a better understanding of letter forms.

In any alphabet more differences in form will be found in these letters than in any others

Hope this post will help you in understanding different typeface types.

Photograph converted to vector

Sunday Shooting

God loved the birds and invented trees.
Man loved the birds and invented cages.
J. G. Holland

It is a beautiful Sunday morning after a drizzle in night. I was in a mood of relaxing and still in my bed. Suddenly I disturbed and woke up by a raucous voice of a crow sitting outside my balcony. I picked up my mobile and clicked a snap of it.

Then I think to shoot some more photographs of birds. My mission starts with a couple of pigeons living under the shadow of my balcony cover sheet.
I shoot some more Pigeons and crows sitting here and there on cables, buildings windows etc.
By that time everybody at home knows that am on a shooting practice today. Then my sister told me that there is an owl sitting on our neighbor’s bathroom window. It is rare to see an owl in my area so I rush to the rooftop to see it. It is clearly visible from there. I focus my mobile camera and clicked the photo. The moment I clicked, it flies away.

Desert

Everyone values things differently. In other words, they place their own value on everything that affects their lives. Also from moment to moment they may even change their values. Such as a person, who values diamonds above all else, might be willing to trade a gallon of diamonds for a drink of water to save his life in a desert. What this means is value is a relative thing depending on a need or a perceived need. Yet, how many people will argue and even violently fight over the perceived value of something or some idea only later have an entirely different view point or value.

I am sharing my another vector here, I named it Desert and I hope that you understand why. There are desert waves in the visual. The blue circle indicate the presence of water in desert. It shows that there is water in a desert but in a very small amount and it is deep inside the surface. Same way brown to green circles indicate the presence of plants, they are also deep inside. There are clouds, they are huge and covering the sky but the dark sky indicate that they are passing without raining. There is a Sun and Moon, they both are visible at the same time. Sun and Moon indicates that this is they story of desert all days and nights. It is dry, it has no greenery but still it gives inspiration to others to draw a visual on it.

Parts of typeface

In typography, a typeface is a coordinated set of glyphs designed with stylistic unity. A typeface usually comprises an alphabet of letters, numerals, and punctuation marks; it may also include ideograms and symbols, or consist entirely of them, for example, mathematical or map-making symbols. Described here are the correct names with definition and example for the parts of type characters. One should always use them whenever referring to the parts.

STEM: The stem is the main, usually vertical stroke of a type character. It also known as "stroke". The vertical, non-curved portions of L, l, d, B, and p are examples of stems. H, N, and M have two stems each. Some letterforms such as y and A may have a sloped or diagonal stem.

CROSSBAR: The horizontal stroke across the middle of a type character is called crossbar. It also known as bar, arm and cross stroke. The cross bar connects the diagonal strokes of an uppercase A or the vertical stems of an H. In contrast, the cross stroke intersects the stem of a lowercase t or f while the arms of an uppercase F connect to the stem only at one end.

ARM: The arm of a letter is the horizontal stroke on some characters that does not connect to a stroke or stem at one or both ends. The top of the capital T and the horizontal strokes of the F and E are examples of arms. The arms of an uppercase F connect to the stem only at one end and the arm of an uppercase T sits at the top of the stem and doesn't connect at either end.

EXTENDER: An extender is that part of a letter that extends above the x-height or below the baseline. An ascender and a descender are extenders.

TAIL: The descending, often decorative stroke on the letter Q or the descending, often curved diagonal stroke on K or R is the tail.

BOWL: The curved part of the character that encloses the circular or curved parts of some letters such as d, b, o, D, and B is the bowl. Some sources call any parts of a letter enclosing a space a bowl, including both parts of a double-storey g and the straight stem on a D or B.

EYE: The eye refers specifically to the enclosed space in a lowercase e. It also known as counter.

EAR: Typically found on the lower case g, an ear is a decorative flourish usually on the upper right side of the bowl. Similar to a serif, the ear can be a distinctive, identifying element of some typefaces.

SPUR: Similar to but generally smaller than a serif or beak, a spur is a small bit at the end of certain curved portions of a character such as the end(s) of a C or S or the middle of G. It also known as barb, cat's ear.

BEAK: A beak is a type of decorative stroke at the end of the arm of a letter, connected to the arm by the terminal. Similar to a spur or serif, it is usually more pronounced.


Other parts of typefaces are shown below:

Laws of nature for corporate success

Option: 1
Approved for first edition

Approved for second edition

Designed in CorelDraw - Mac Leopard OS X

Effects: Option 1: Buring text in Photoshop, First edition: Claw scratch in CorelDraw, Second edition: Torn paper in CorelDraw

Never Miss a Sunset

Movement in steadiness

Showing a moving river and sun through the steady mountains. River is like life and colourful moutains are life different experiences we go through in a life. Think about it and add your thoughts about similarities between river and life through your comments.

New Year RESOLUTION

Music

Now playing punjabi pop Nachle Soniye (Jassi)

It took me long time to draw this Winamp3 player. You can notice detailed features and 3D effects. Hope u like it, your comments are most invited. Made in CorelDraw 11 • Windows XP

Creativity Quotes

The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.

– Linus Pauling


To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.

—Joseph Chilton Pearce


My future starts when I wake up every morning... Every day I find something creative to do with my life.
—Miles Davis

First Step

Hello, I am sharing my work and my views on creativity and other points related to designing through this blog. As most of people think design is not always decorative. As a form of self-expression it can convey a specific feeling, emotion, mood, or impression. A design can communicate a message when it incorporates words, symbols, or representational shapes that are readily understood by the viewer.

I think any design must start with an understanding of what is required by a given problem, and end with a valid solution to the problem. When I deal with visual forms of communication, my concern includes conveying messages, explaining ideas and thoughts, providing guidance and direction, persuation, and stimulation of emotions; all of these constitute the functional aspect of design.

Today designing is useful in many fields like marketing, branding, advertising etc. I will discuss the role of designing in business and how it helps in different areas of work in my upcoming posts. I would love to hear your comments on my posts. Thank you for reading.