Laander » Design & visuals

The Animals vector design

Laander — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:16:14 +0000

I recently stumbled upon blogposts referring to Nacho Gil’s graphic vector design named “The Animals” – and I love it. Beautiful use of simple geometri to create stunning simple vector art.

A few of the illustrations can be seen below. See all animals on Nacho Gil’s own portfolio here.

Typography, frilly bits style

Laander — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:09:43 +0000

Real cool post on Abduzeedo on typography flavoured with ornaments and fleurons – or “frilly bits” as it has come to be called. Check out a few previews below:

WOW, a typographic short film

Laander — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 21:39:40 +0000

With visual perfection, the japanese design agency WoW has made an animated short film called “WOW” – an artistic depiction of typo design. I like it a lot, subtle and stylish. Beautiful!

Permanent link here.

10 dark color-intense designs

Laander — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 21:50:03 +0000

Colors can be very intruiging and attractive. If used in the extreme, contrastive colors create a very strong, visual look with alot of energy embedded. Combining a multi-colored palette with a dark black base can turn out really exciting – judge for yourself:

Focus on the above is on the colors as they are the most interesting parts. Very effectful, but somehow also rather “flashy” in a webdesign cliché sort of way – what to you think?

Stenciled artwork ‘lize’

Laander — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:15:54 +0000

I really like dark, earth-like colors as found on brown paper and cardboard. I also like stencils and monochromatic cut-outs. And, I also like Charlize Theron.

Combined, it resulted in this:

It should be seen full-size to really reveal the details in the work. Flickr doesn’t like very large images, so you can download it locally from the website here (3 MB’s). Hope you like it!

Inspiring website galleries

Laander — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:14:46 +0000

Sometimes your faithful muse leaves you. Sometimes your mind is baffling in circles and your creativiy seems totally paralyzed. Sometimes, all you need is a little external input. I’ve collected a few great web design galleries for an injection of inspiration – uncover your arm and get surfing!

50 Beautiful CSS-Based Web-Designs
Smashing Magazine

Even though this collection is starting to get a bit old, it’s still a great comprehensive source for inspiration.
Single-Page Portfolio Sites
Web Designer Wall

Nice collection of simple, stylish portfolios.
Keep It Simple, Stupid!
Smashing Magazine

Simple is good – it can’t be emphasized too often. Here’s a few good examples.
20 Creative Russian Web Designs
DESIGN Walker

Let the creativity bloom! (if it isn’t too cold over there in Russia)
2008 Design Trends
Web Designer Wall

Man – can you feel the juices rushing to your fingers, urging you to start up Photoshop! Great resource.
40 Creative Design Layouts
Smashing Magazine

As always, Smashing Magazine delivers each time. Very inspiring indeed.

Besides the above posts, there are sites that focus only on showcasing websites of high quality. That’s literally tons of inspiration available, ready to get devoured!

Here’s a few of my favourites:

Web Creme provides a continious stream of well-designed websites
Designer Whore has a more artistic look at web design and supply with a broad range of creative designs
Minimal Sites emphasizes on the minimal design (hence the name) – great stuff
Style Boost is also a great resource to keep an eye on

There’s probably a whole lot sites I’ve either forgot or don’t know about. If you have a favourite you think should be included on the list, feel free to drop a suggestion in the comments

Tales from Thailand

Laander — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:03:09 +0000

Last summer, the family and I had a great trip to Thailand. It’s truly an amazing country. The beautiful nature, the kind hospitable people and the interesting culture (food, religion, traditions, everything…) made it a very experience-rich trip altogether.

I’ve posted a few photos from the trip that I want to share. You can find them at Flickr here. If you’re curious, the colors have been tweaked slightly to give the photos a more old school and/or vivid look.

Typo design ‘for-and-ring’

Laander — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:51:33 +0000

Some time ago at a winter holiday in upper scandinavia, I did a rough sketch of a typographic design set-up that I think came out pretty interesting. I’m a sucker for typographic designs – I love typography (!) - and while I’m not the most talented designer out there, I often find myself doing random sketches of different stuff on paper closest at hand.

Anyway:

Not all perfect, a little off in some places, but let me hear what you think