The use of photography in graphic design had its birth way long ago, back in late 1920 decade, when Herbert Bayer, after leaving Bauhaus school, where he was the teacher of  “Print and advertising Workshop”, started to study the interconnections between “advertising science” and psychology.
He started then to integrate photos in his work, with montages and screens, in order to give more dynamics and expressiveness to his creations and make of them what he called “an architectural framework“.
Those really were first photo montages of graphic design history.

In our days, with the use of computer graphics the use of pictures in any kind of job is a must.

Recently I’ve read an article in a blog that stated: “it is useless to spend a lot of time in Stock Photography websites to search for the right shot while you possibly have a nice camera and you can do the shot yourself”.
I personally STRONGLY disagree with this point of view.
Unless you are an experienced photographer yourself, I firmly believe that a paid job is not the moment to make experiments and play with the brand reputation of your customer!

An image in a website, in advertising or any other printed composition is never just a “shot”.
It has, in a first instance, the task to grab attention.
It has then to engage, beautify, tell a story, create desire, and all of this it must be done being consistent with the image of the brand.
To make it short “it has to sell”.

Your photography necessarily must be “professional”: if photography misses the mark, your brand message will be diluted, if not damaged!
After you’ve spent so much time brainstorming about a message that compels, it must be supported by compelling imagery.
Notice also that if you need your image for printing, professional quality is necessary to guarantee quality reproduction.
Never think customers won’t notice it: they will, whether consciously or not.

Furthermore, if you use photos with people you NEED to have the Model Release, a legal document signed by subjects portrayed, that grants you the permission to use and publish the photo.
I have read a lot of times on various design groups on Usenet, both about people that got into trouble because they used a picture without legal permission and others that were bragging about suing others because they used one of their shots, so, I always use professional stock photography.
A thing you have to know, however, are the differences between various kind of licenses:

• Royalty Free is the most common and affordable license type, often called just RF. As the name says, you can use the image purchased as many times as you want without paying an additional royalty. They have usually good prices, that may vary according to the company of your choice. The only downside is that these images are not exclusive.
• Rights Managed license (or RM) gives you exclusive (but time-limited) use of a stock image. This means that if you buy this kind of license you are the only one to use the image in the period specified in the contract. Photos can be used only for one project and for a period of time, sometimes even only on specified geographical areas. This is an expensive licence, but it protect you brand from competition using the same image.
• Extended/ Enhanced licenses. Not every company offers this kind of licenses, which extends the use of a previously licensed work. You have thus the permission to increase the printed copies featuring the image, to use it for resale purposes or for other method of distribution. It is advised to carefully read the contract, as uses allowed vary from company to company.
• Subscription. This is pretty new, it is not available everywhere also, but this kind of offer is quickly expanding. You pay a monthly fee, often choosing among different price plans, and you can download a set number of photos of your choice. This is probably the best deal if you have to download images often. As a plus, you usually have no limitation about the use.

Here are the stock photo companies that, to my opinion, offer the best value for money:

Getty Images

Probably one of the most famous and one of the first to offer licensed images, since 1995. According to what they say, every months about 4 million people utilizes their website. You find there award winning images, illustrations and even videos and music. Their new offers are The Flickr and the Vector collections.

Thinkstock

A great offer for a great value. They have subscription plans that allows you to download up to 25 images a day in a database that has millions of images.

Jupiterimages

Another huge collection of photos of famous photographers and a lot of niche collections. They often propose discount. Actually you can have 10% discount with the promo code in the home page.

To finish, some sample images from these websites:

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder but functionality’s got to be a slam-dunk.
If it’s a store, it should be obvious how to buy stuff, right?
It’s a rare ecommerce site that combines beauty with utility. Some of our favorites are below – in no particular order. But remember: a website is only as functional as its hosting service.
So if you sell things online, it’s critical to find a reliable ecommerce web hosting company.

• Threadless: http://www.threadless.com/

This German company expands its core audience by offering an English version of the website.
Attractive splash page offers community and interactive features (like submitting your own tee design or voting for your favorite shirt) but lets the user who wants to cut right to the chase with links to the online store.

• Shoe Guru: http://shoeguru.ca/

No ambiguity whatsoever about what this site is selling!
The photographs on this site will turn even the most shoe-adverse into Carrie Bradshaw. Seamless navigation lets you go very deep into the site almost instantly. Our only quibble: It takes four clicks before you get to the page where you can actually buy something.

• Habitat Shoe Boutique: http://www.habitatshoes.com/

Another online shoe store with a crisp clean look that offers users not just the opportunity to browse and fall in love, but also the ability to hunt down something they’re looking for through a search box on the very first page.
Clueless and shoeless?
Then you’ll want to check out the Habitat’s Trend section (through a link on the splash page) devoted entirely to the hottest new looks. The site also allows users to compile their very own Wish Lists.

• Emptees: http://emptees.com/

Okay, this company loses points by having a name that’s not only ambiguous but, if you think about it for any length of time, is actually a deterrent to the “call for action” that all effective ecommerce is about. But once you get the website, it’s a stunner: The photos of the tees alongside the graphic art displayed upon them is so eye-catching it immediately makes you want to look some more.
You can personalize the site by creating your own account – and it’s a club most definitely any hip person – Emptees’ target audience, obviously – would like to join.

• Itself: http://www.hereitself.com/

We like this website for its minimalist design and the fact that you can start shopping on the entry page. The fish bait leads: “Free shipping on orders over $60!” Hey, we’ll spend $65! It also announces right upfront that its shopping cart is a secure technology. In these days of massive insecurity over identity theft and economic downturns, it’s always a good thing to let prospective customers know their money is safe with you.

• Fugitive Toys: http://fugitivetoys.com/

First of all, the name is just terrific. It lets you know your purchase is more than just a purchase – it’s an opt-in lifestyle.
It doesn’t get “stickier” than that. Customers will be returning to this website again and again and again.
The pricing breakdown is a terrific customer-friendly tool, as is the links to various social media on the right hand side of the page because these are purchases customers will definitely want to talk about.

Honorable Mentions:

Tilly Moss: http://tillymoss.com/

This site’s outstanding graphics will make you long to buy the product — even if you have no idea what a “sleeve” actually is.

Shop Curious: http://www.shopcurious.com/

The text is wobbly and hard to read, but we really like the eye-catching, diagonal graphic on the upper left.

Little Catwalk: http://www.little-catwalk.com/

Photographs could be somewhat better, but we the concept of lifestyle magazine content will draw perspective purchasers in.

Bridge 55: http://www.bridge55.com/

Great site in every way but one: the graphic underlying the product slideshow — a crumbling wall — is really a turn-off.

This really is a place and a typography masterpiece I would love to visit and take picture of .

The photo you’re watching (more in the whole article) belongs to a 18th century chapel, the Ermida Nossa Senhora da Conceição, in the Belém area of Lisbon – Portugal – reopened as an art gallery that shows work by contemporary Portuguese artists.

I don’t know why, curiously, in others blogs you can read that this building belongs to a surgery association (!!!), in truth, the real owners of the gallery and R2 Design Studio, that realized the facade, was inspired to create this composition to reunite in it both the original spiritual use and the actual cultural destination by creating something artistic, in order to attract the attention of new visitors in an area full of important historical buildings.

They started by painting the building white and then used it as the canvas for the repetition of plenty statements referring to God. The name itself of the project is “Vai com Deus” (Go with God). The authors, Lizá Ramalho and Artur Rebelo explain some technical detail in SEDG site:

“The words were rendered at various depths and scales in Knockout type, chosen because it is a sans serif typeface that offers a wide range of sizes and expressions. The letters were built from Intasa MDF hydrofuge sheets, an environmentally friendly product recommended for moist environments. A thick paint made it possible to simulate the texture of the façade.”

The whole thing was built up in only two months and with a small budget, but it has been a real success.
They won an Honor Award from the Society for Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD) and is one of the winners of the Type Directors Club’s TDC 55.

Well done!

Photography by Fernando Guerra

Cover creation from Peter Belanger on Vimeo.

 
This great video shows how much work goes in the creation of the cover of a MacWorld Magazine, to start from the planning of the first shot to the positioning of every single pixel, showing us that really nothing is left to chance.

Time lapse is so compressed that half a day goes in 30 seconds!

This video has been uploaded on Vimeo by Peter Belanger.
You can visit his Vimeo page to read his article about it and the technical details about the cameras and lenses he used.

Enjoy!

Stumbleupon really is a huge treasure vault of  incredible and talented artists.

A while ago I found this guy that makes amazing images from cut-out pulp book covers.

As I’ve already stated here and there in this blog I like vintage stuff and imagery, and seeing those creations really made me stunned.

Inspired by children pop-up books he loves, Thomas has had one of those ideas each creative always starves for, but his work goes beyond that.

His job is not limited to cut the paper and putting in position the slices.

He is an inspired director of stage, light, and composition, really bringing  photos to life, projecting you in the  world he’s seeing.

By making tri-dimensional sets of what once was a bi-dimensional picture, all carved pieces becomes part of a whole new story to tell, adding to it mistery, tension, irony, just like in a typical ’50 movie, a western, a noir, a spy story.
Decay of the paper itself is part of the tale.
Then, a spotlight and a new shot, make the  image bi-dimensional back again to freeze the moment to eternity.

Am I a bit visionary?

It may be, but considering the success the man is having I’m not the only one.

He takes part in several exhibitions and has even printed a book Thomas Allen: Uncovered, a 48 page “jewel” featured in Amazon Top 100  Best book of Year 2007, and whose reviewers speak of very highly (not to mention that his blog really worth reading).

Recently Thomas has teamed up with the webdesigner and blogger Kitsune Noir (another blog I follow) for his “Desktop Wallpaper Project”, so now all of us can have a piece of his creativity to download for our desktop at various resolutions even for Iphone and PSP.

This is called “INFECTIOUS” and features a man with a wrapped slightly bloodied hand, looking worried toward the woman standing at his shoulder.

Still there? What are you waiting to download?

The Brazilian design studio PS2 created this beautiful self promotional typographic memory card game.

This concentration game consist of 20 pairs of card, each one with a different type family.

Set has some extra cards with a typographical glossary and the explanation of the sentence that names the gift: “the quick brown fox jumps to over the lazy dog”.
The package also contains a text about the evolution of type design, locating in history each font used in the cards.

Set is the annual gift to customers and friends of the graphic design universe and of the agency and comes in a limited edition of 300 numbered copies.

JUST BRILLIANT.

Some Spec:
Principal Type: Univers Condensed, by Adrian Frutiger
Paper: Condat Silk + Matte
Colors: Pantone
Finishing: Lustre Lamination + Die Cut

Click to view a larger image

Hi people. Here I am again after more than a month of isolation (I’ve had to change my pc and requested to my ISP an upgrade of my ADSL – wich I never received).
First of all I want to thank all of my readers, that kept on visiting this website in search of new articles.

The one I’m going to publish today was written before my old pc broke.
I admit it is not a fresh news now, however, when I wrote it I did it a lot of research, and you can see and read here things you can’t easily find somewhere else. I think I did a rather good job. Any comment is always appreciated.

Some days ago (it was 25th march when I was writing) I received from Citroën itself the email you can see in the screenshot above (Who told them I need to change my car?).

Here it is its message:

“CITROËN REINVENTS ITSELF.

CRÉATIVE TECHNOLOGIE.
Creativity and technology. Innovation. Ecologic performance. These are our proofs.

CITROËN is a strong culture.
CITROËN is a relationship.
CITROËN is ambition.
CITROËN is a vision.

A brand is a promise. A great brand is a kept promise.

Discover New Brand Image”

An impressive message, I admit it.
Last line of it lead to flash website www.creativetechnologie.com.

To celebrate the 90th anniversary, the motor manufacturer has not only redesigned its logotype but completely aims to reinvent itself. After enduring a difficult period the brand flourished stronger than ever starting from 2000 and currently is the third-largest French automobile brand.
CITROËN now introduces the new course with this website to its customer (well, even to potential one it seems).

Prepare yourself: website is quite heavy even if you choose the low broadband version, however, it really worth to see its videos about rallies, innovation and ecology (I’m not sure if they are available in all languages).

Showroom, which are a key factor in managing relationship with customers, have been completely redesigned, a new series of cars, the DS series, is about to be launched starting from the upcoming Geneva Motor Show and it is said that 6 new models will be introduced in next 3 years.

Talking about what’s strictly related to us, new identity surely is a good upgrade of the previous one.
Logo typography has some sci-fi and futuristic trait, but really leaves nothing to chance and it’s like its newly acquired soft curves makes a perfect match with the soft pronunciation of the name of the brand.
I am a bit puzzled, nevertheless, about the 3D rendered design of the 2 chevron.
Beautiful, no doubt about it, probably designed to appear prominently on new media, but I’m old school, and I’ve always known that a good logo has to look good first of all black and white, so I would like to see how it prints in a fax too.
Just curious.
I am pretty sure Landor made a perfect Corporate Identity Manual with all possible version of the logo, even a 2D one for such uses.

For those who wants to know a little history, these are the milestone of the brand and two chevrons:

• in 1919 André Citroën founded the brand and released the Type A. The iconic chevrons made their first apparition on the radiator shell, to reference Citroën’s early work on double helical gears, however, official logo was a blue and yellow type;
• a badge with the graphic of the Type A radiator shell was made and Citroën gave the French government 150 000 branded road signs bearing it;
• The Traction Avant range of 1934 abandoned the double-chevron badge. Its production bankrupted Citroën;
• André Citroën died in 1934;
• Flaminio Bertoni designed in 1955 the famous two chevron logo recently redesigned by Landor;
• In 1985, official colors was changed: from André Citroën’s preferred blue and yellow to red and white.

A 1920 image with the first logo. Andrè Citroen was the first to use the Tour Eiffel as a giant billboard.

The 1934 Citroen Traction Avant that almost bankrupted the company

As many of you probably know, Type Directors Club defines itself “an international organization for all people who are devoted to excellence in typography, both in print and on screen”.
This year edition of TDC2, its Typeface Awards had 165 participants from 26 countries resulting in 18 winning entries representing 8 countries.

The jury was chaired by Fiona Ross, lecturer at University of Reading, and Associate Designer to Tiro Typeworks , included Ken Barber (House Industries); Jonathan Hoefler (Hoefler & Frere-Jones); Richard Kegler (P22 Type Foundry), and Gabriel Martinez Meave (Kimera Type Foundry, Mexico ).

All winners have been awarded with the Certificate of Typographic Excellence in Type Design.

All winning entries will be published in Typography 30: The Annual of the Type Directors Club available at the end of 2009 (free to all members of TDC).
While you’re waiting, you can enjoy a copy of Typography 29 (with last year’s winners, and a lot, lot more), which I highly recommend.

Here it is again the list of my 10 favorite readings of the week.
Let’s start.

• Most brilliant is new Zippo advertising campaign. Even if message clearly exaggerate the amount of space taken by discarded lighters, it shows an interesting point of view that probably few of us had considered before. Read a full article on StillAd ;
• Most Useful is The 13 most essential plugin for WordPress by Net-tuts. Even if I don’t agree to all of them because I think some plugin in list are not strictly necessary (don’t forget that each plugin you activate eats resources and slows a bit your wordpress!), there are some I didn’t know. I would add to list Login Lockdown: detect and record IP addresses of every failed login attempt and if more than a certain number of attempts are detected within a short period of time from the same IP range, then the login function is disabled for all requests from that range;
  
• Most stunning is Step into my Cardboard Office from CR Blog. Their article tells about Nothing, a new Amsterdam creative agency that built its internal working spaces with cardboard. Article has plenty of amazing pictures of the studio;
• Most funny is Comments you won’t have seen by DavidAirey.com. I read this clever and wit blog very often and surely there are a lot of graphic design post to point out (I especially like the “Logo of the month” series), but this one was, really, exhilarating;
• Most Interesting is Achieve your goals with Incremental Persistence. I’ve found this article on DevLounge. Very powerful explanation about how persistence conquers all. You can’t miss the linked John Reese article on Income.com too;
• Most Beautiful is a showcase of SmashingMagazine of 40 typography-related websites and blogs. Astounding creativity and a lot of knowledge here;
• Most Inspiring is a DesignM.ag Showcase about landscape photography. Incredibly, the shot of the cypresses has been taken not far away from where I live. Those trees are really famous among photographers here;
• Most Valuable is The Ups and Downs of Business by Chris Tomlison. I’ve found by chance this 5th and last article of an interesting series, so, my advice is to read them all;
• My favorite artist is Jay Horinouchi creates dreamy and intriguing worlds filled with Japanese-inspired creatures. Amazing painting technique. He is having a solo exhibition at Möbius Gallery in Los Angeles until April 7, 2009.

It is possible that my couple of reader will think that I am a soft drink addicted now (if so I Would never tell, LOL), but surely I couldn’t let this news unnoticed.

Coca-Cola launched about a month ago a limited edition design for the Coca-Cola Light bottle. And a very coool and eye-catching one, I have to say.

Bottles have been styled by Natalye Rykiel, daughter of the talented end eclectic French stylist Sonia Rykiel, ex model, actually art director of the family griffe.

Rykiel’s creations mark the 20th anniversary of Coke Light and the 40th year of her mother’s fashion house.

Lovely colored Diet Coke bottles are customized according the typical style of Nathalie Rykiel, the same way some time ago was done by Roberto Cavalli and Patricia Field.
Cavalli embellished 300,000 bottles with three of his typical animal prints.

Patricia Field edition (the designer became famous because she was the costumer of “Sex and the City”) had four color designs, that aimed to represent some aspects of a woman life: Career (gold), Love (pink), Passion, and, naturally, Fashion (the light blue bottle).

Nathalie Rykiel collectors bottles are sold at Monoprix and Grand Epicerie de Paris for 1,25 Euros (about 1,60 USD) but in EBAY there already is collector war, and there are some sold for 15 Euros and more!

Visit official Coke website presentation of the design HERE.