The Tate Modern is a great place to go to see any contemporary art. Created in the year 2000 from a disused power station in the heart of London, Tate Modern displays the national collection of international modern art. This is defined as art since 1900. It is well worth a visit any time you are in London.
Check out their website at:
I visited this museum a long time ago and it is a great place to be inspired by fantastic product design. They also have special exhibitions by contributing artists that change throughout the year. Well worth a visit and I shall be going again soon.
Check ot their website for details:
In no particular order, here are my favourite websites for research and inspiration.
This website is brilliant as it offers inspiration and also tutorials on how to produce professional results.
This site has tons of great examples and links of upcoming designers.
This site is also great for designers and also has lots of info about architecture as well
This is a great place to go if you love mucking about drawing. Wonderful
A nice little design magazine full of artists work from around the world.
Just the best place to go for artistic inspiration.
Full of great animation videos and short films. A great source of inspiration
- http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/
Another great site offering a variety of tutorials to create some great work.
This site is full of artists and designers from around the world showcasing their work. A great place to go for ideas.
- http://www.instructables.com/
A great site full of craft and DIY projects to have a go at. Lots of really creative stuff here.
These are my favourite and most inspirational architects at the moment. In no particular order:
- Vincent Callebaut Architectures
This is a great concept from Vincent Callebaut Architectures for the 21st century. It addresses the problem of dramatic flooding due to global warming. The Lilypad is a self contained floating island that looks fantastic.
- PTW Architects
The Chinese National Aquatic Center, better known as the Watercube, recently won the most prestigious architecture award from the Australian Institute of Architecture. Although not officially a cube, the incredible aquatics facility was a collaboration between Australian firm PTW Architects, Chinese practices CSCEC and CCDI, and international firm Arup.
- 3XN
3XN’s proposal for a construction on Marmormolen in Copenhagen is both: a town gate and a bridge that links Marmormolen with Langeliniekaj, creating a new coherent area in Copenhagen Harbor.
- Foster + Partners
Foster + Partners is one of the leading architectural firms based in the United Kingdom. The practice is strongly associated with its founder, Norman Foster, and has constructed many high-profile glass-and-steel buildings. They are responsible for some of the most memorable buildings being built around the globe today.
- Grimshaw Architects
Sir Nicholas Grimshaw is a prominent English architect, particularly noted for several modernist buildings, including the Eden Project in Cornwall and the new Bath spa. Having visited both of these buildings I must say I am very impresed with his work.
- Future Systems
Future Machine Aesthetic is a London-based architectural and design practice, headed by Directors Jan Kaplický and Amanda Levete. Many of their designs were strikingly original and organic, acting as a fore-runner of what is now known as bionic architecture.
- Zaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid Architects have been selected as the architects of the Library and Learning Centre (LLC) at the University of Economics & Business, Vienna. The new Library and Learning Centre will be the centerpiece of the University’s new campus and provide a significant upgrade to the University’s services. I love the style of this building – the sweeping lines make it look very impressive.
- Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill
Masdar Headquarters will be the world’s first positive-energy building, using sustainable design strategies and systems to produce more energy than it consumes. The Chicago architecture firm of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill has been chosen to design this structure and it certainly looks impressive.
3Deluxe
Leonardo Glass Cube is a glass-fronted brand pavilion in Bad Driburg, Germany designed by 3Deluxe. Designed for the Glaskoch Corporation and completed in May last year, the pavilion is used for informal meetings and corporate hospitality. The building looks fantastic and the interior is equally impressive.
- Make Architects
London-based architects Make created the winning design for the Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre (yes, that Sherwood Forest ). While obviously pumping up the drama in order to draw upon a child’s greatest treehouse fantasy, this is decidedly grown up architecture too. It redefines contextually-sensitive architecture, sustainable architecture, and destination architecture all at once.
Zaha Hadid Architects have been selected as the architects of the Library and Learning Centre (LLC) at the University of Economics & Business, Vienna. The new Library and Learning Centre will be the centerpiece of the University’s new campus and provide a significant upgrade to the University’s services. I love the style of this building – the sweeping lines make it look very impressive.
Check out their website at:
This is the short flash animation I produced for my university project. It involved a lot of shouting at inanimate objects and turning electrical equipment into projectiles! All in all, i’m quite happy with the results for my first go at computer animation. Let me know what you think.
These are my current favourite graphic designers I have found whilst searching the web.
- Sebdesign
This is the company name of Sebastien Nikolaou, a graphic designer from Greece. He is also a very good web designer. A lot of his work is related to the music industry in the form of flyers and posters. Check out his work online. He definitely has a talent for layout and typography.
-Julien Vallée
I found out about this guy from some of the guys at uni and i’m very glad they told me. he is a graphic designer and art instalation expert from Montreal in Canada and is now based in Germany.
- Emeric Trahand
This is another French graphic designer who does some amazing things with Photoshop. He has a very impressive client list and an awesome portfolio. I am definitely going to have a go at trying to figure out some of the advanced Photoshop techniques he has used in his work so I can produce something similar.
- Antoine + Manuel
These are a pair of fantastic French graphic designers working in Paris. The work they have produced over the years is amazing and they have had clients ranging from Christian Lacroix to Coca-Cola. Their work is inspiring and very different from the norm.
- Peter Becker
Peter Becker is a graphic designer from Germany, but he works in a small agency in Luxembourg as an Art Director. I love the designs he creates – full of fantastic details and effective layers.
- Yulia Brodskaya
This is a Russian graphic designer/illustrator who now works in London. I love the 3D elements of her typographic design and the use of paper quilling to great effect.
- The Designers Republic
This is a Brazilian graphic designer based in Holland. He specialises in all kinds of design – typography, photography and digital art. I like the simple style of his work and letterforms he creates.
- 8vo
This is a Brazilian graphic designer based in Holland. He specialises in all kinds of design – typography, photography and digital art. I like the simple style of his work and letterforms he creates.
- Buro Destruct
This is a very well known Swiss design group that has provided me with lots of inspiration. They are best known for their typography design and their clean, Japanese style of illustration.
- Si Scott
This is one of my favourite designers. His work with typography is extraordinarily detailed and his treatment of animal portraits is also fantastic.
Here are my favourite comic artists at the moment. In no particular order:
- Hyung Tae Kim
Hyung is an amazing Korean artist. I think his work is not only some of the best comic book art but also the finest artwork full stop. I’ve always liked the anime style of artwork but his takes it to another level with fantastic shading and amazing detail in his work.
- Range Murata
Range Murata is a fantastic Japanese artist who does some brilliantly detailed anime artwork. He has published more than a dozen books of his work, the Robot series I happen to own and they are a different level of comic book.
- Jack Lawrence
Jack is a British comic book artist who has produced his own comics from scratch. I love the clean lines of his artwork and the development of his characters.
- Joshua Middleton
Joshua is a brilliant comic book artist who is currently signed to DC Comics. He is one of the few artists in American mainstream comics who does everything from pencils to coloring by himself, instead of splitting the work between multiple people. I love his work and have been a fan for a while.
-Frank Miller
Frank miller has become famous in recent years from his films 300 and Sin City but it was the comic versions of these and The Dark Knight Returns that most stood out in his career for me. The tone of these comics was definitely something new. They had a much more adult theme than was the norm at the time.
-Dan Boultwood
Dan Boultwood is a rising star, British comic book artist and illustrator. His work has a classic style to it and the images he produces are are fantastic.
- Niko Henrichon
Niko Henrichon is a Canadian comic book artist. I only found out about his work recently but I have become a big fan.
- Jo Chen
Jo is a fantastic illustrator and comic book artist from Taiwan. She is currently living and working in America and I urge you to check out her artwork. I found out about her work from some of the cover designs she has created.
- Sean Kelly
This is an Australian illustrator from Melbourne. He is better known by his trading name – Bucket ‘O’ Thought under which he creates a fantastic collection of bunnies. He has also produced several comics
- Stanley Lau
Stanley Lau is a fantastic artist from Singapore. The sci-fi art he produces is amazing and you should definitely check out his website.
Jo is a fantastic illustrator and comic book artist from Taiwan. She is currently living and working in America and I urge you to check out her artwork. I found out about her work from some of the cover designs she has created.
Check out her website at:
Here are my favourite flash websites that I have found in my travels around the internet.
- Upshot.net
This is a great website based around a red sphere that moves around the site. The animation is seamless and the site looks very impressive.
- microsites.audi.co.uk/microsites/RS6
This a great site that is based on the new Audi RS6. All of the sections are interactive and a picture of the car is worked into the pictureboard.
- www.officinanessuno.com
This is a simple little site but it is very well done. All the sections have a nice animation to get to them and is good example of a flash site.
- ecodazoo.com
This is a lovely site full of great animations and a fully adjustable camera view. Well worth a look.
- www.99rooms.com
This is a strange collaboration between animators and illustrators to create a very creepy experience. It is an eerie interactive flash site that is well worth a look.
- www.absolut.com
This is a great site where you can pick up and move the blocks of information within. Great use of Flash.
- www.carlosulloa.com
This site is great purely because it has a car you can drive around the screen. I’ve actually wasted quite a lot of time mucking about with that car.
- www.adidascelebrateoriginality.com
This site has all kinds of little animations on it. There is also a great fully interactive interface on it.
- sectionseven.com/
This site has a very clever unfolding interface. Well worth a look for an idea of clever design.
- http://www.13flo.com/
This site is brilliant and has a great interface on it. I urge you to check it out.
