Doodle 4 Google - Google Doodles Animation

a competition where K-12 students can play around with the G home page logo and see what they come up with. The theme is What if?

http://www.google.com/doodle4google/

Graphic Design?

Graphic design is the process of communicating visually using typography and images to present information. Graphic design practice embraces a range of cognitive skills, aesthetics and crafts, including typography, visual arts and page layout. Like other forms of design, graphic design often refers to both the process (designing) by which the communication is created and the products (designs) which are generated.

• Graphic design enhances transfer of knowledge.
• Readability is enhanced by improving the visual presentation of text.
• Intricate and clever pictures are used when words cannot suffice.
• Graphic design helps set the theme and the intended mood.
  

Tool:
The primary tool for graphic design is the creative mind.

Critical, observational, quantitative and analytic thinking are required for designing page layout and rendering.

Uses:

Administration - road signs to technical schematics, from interoffice memorandums to reference manuals.

Advertising - sell a product or idea through effective visual communications, Elements of company identity like logos, colors, and text, together defined as branding.

Education - Graphics in textbooks.

Entertainment - From decoration, to scenery, to visual story telling. Cover to cover in novels and comic books, from opening credits to closing credits in film, from programs to props on stage.

Journalism - scientific journals to news reporting - known as information design. Newspapers, magazines, blogs, television and film documentaries use to inform and entertain.

Web - (Graphic designers are often involved in web design) Combining visual communication skills with the interactive communication skills of user interaction and online branding, graphic designers often work with web developers to create both the look and feel of a web site and enhance the online experience of web site visitors.

>> List of notable graphic designers <<
>> List of graphic design institutions <<

Free Color Manipulation tools on the web

Here are some of my favorite online tools for exploring and manipulating colors.
These are free and simple color manipulation tools which require NO installation and can be easily used off the web.

• Color Blender — Very convenient tool to blend any two colors with a varying number of midpoints

• Color Code Chooser — tool helps you manipulate colors in a number of very helpful ways.

swf Image Replacement

swfIR is a new Flash replacement technique that replaces and adds visual effects to images on the fly using simple JavaScript. It’s similar to the the popular Flash text replacement technique, sIFR. You can, without physically editing an image, set borders, shadows, alpha transparencies, blurring, rotation and more to any image on your website. Pretty neat!

This is the most awesome advancement to designer-friendly web technology I've seen in a long time. The fact is that
1. it's easy to integrate and use
2. it's packed full of features that everybody wants and reflect current trends
3. is well-written largely standards compliant code and
4. is free - blows my mind.

If someone blocks your Flash, you'll still get the non-swfIR'd image, which is great. This is progressive enhancement at it's best, just like sIFR is. If people have Flash, they get an enhanced experience. If people don't have Flash (or block Flash), they still get a good experience.

Tips to shoot great snaps with your Digital Camera

Do you wish you were a better photographer? All it takes is a little know-how and experience. Keep reading for some important picture-taking tips. Then grab your camera and start shooting your way to great pictures.

• Look your subject in the eye
  Direct eye contact can be as engaging in a picture as it is in real life. When taking a picture of someone, hold the camera at the person's eye level to unleash the power of those magnetic gazes and mesmerizing smiles. For children, that means stooping to their level. And your subject need not always stare at the camera. All by itself that eye level angle will create a personal and inviting feeling that pulls you into the picture.
• Use a plain background
  A plain background shows off the subject you are photographing. When you look through the camera viewfinder, force yourself to study the area surrounding your subject. Make sure no poles grow from the head of your favorite niece and that no cars seem to dangle from her ears.
• Use flash outdoors
  Bright sun can create unattractive deep facial shadows. Eliminate the shadows by using your flash to lighten the face. When taking people pictures on sunny days, turn your flash on. You may have a choice of fill-flash mode or full-flash mode. If the person is within five feet, use the fill-flash mode; beyond five feet, the full-power mode may be required. With a digital camera, use the picture display panel to review the results.
  On cloudy days, use the camera's fill-flash mode if it has one. The flash will brighten up people's faces and make them stand out. Also take a picture without the flash, because the soft light of overcast days sometimes gives quite pleasing results by itself.
• Move in close
  If your subject is smaller than a car, take a step or two closer before taking the picture and zoom in on your subject. Your goal is to fill the picture area with the subject you are photographing. Up close you can reveal telling details, like a sprinkle of freckles or an arched eyebrow.
  But don't get too close or your pictures will be blurry. The closest focusing distance for most cameras is about three feet, or about one step away from your camera. If you get closer than the closest focusing distance of your camera (see your manual to be sure), your pictures will be blurry.
• Move it from the middle
  Center-stage is a great place for a performer to be. However, the middle of your picture is not the best place for your subject. Bring your picture to life by simply moving your subject away from the middle of your picture. Start by playing tick-tack-toe with subject position. Imagine a tick-tack-toe grid in your viewfinder. Now place your important subject at one of the intersections of lines.
  You'll need to lock the focus if you have an auto-focus camera because most of them focus on whatever is in the center of the viewfinder.
• Lock the focus
  If your subject is not in the center of the picture, you need to lock the focus to create a sharp picture. Most auto-focus cameras focus on whatever is in the center of the picture. But to improve pictures, you will often want to move the subject away from the center of the picture. If you don't want a blurred picture, you'll need to first lock the focus with the subject in the middle and then recompose the picture so the subject is away from the middle.
  Usually you can lock the focus in three steps. First, center the subject and press and hold the shutter button halfway down. Second, reposition your camera (while still holding the shutter button) so the subject is away from the center. And third, finish by pressing the shutter button all the way down to take the picture.
• Know your flash's range
  The number one flash mistake is taking pictures beyond the flash's range. Why is this a mistake? Because pictures taken beyond the maximum flash range will be too dark. For many cameras, the maximum flash range is less than fifteen feet—about five steps away.
  What is your camera's flash range? Look it up in your camera manual. Can't find it? Then don't take a chance. Position yourself so subjects are no farther than ten feet away.
• Watch the light
  Next to the subject, the most important part of every picture is the light. It affects the appearance of everything you photograph. On a great-grandmother, bright sunlight from the side can enhance wrinkles. But the soft light of a cloudy day can subdue those same wrinkles.
  Don't like the light on your subject? Then move yourself or your subject. For landscapes, try to take pictures or late in the day when the light is orangish and rakes across the land.
• Take some vertical pictures
  Is your camera vertically challenged? It is if you never turn it sideways to take a vertical picture. All sorts of things look better in a vertical picture. From a lighthouse near a cliff to the Eiffel Tower to your four-year-old niece jumping in a puddle. So next time out, make a conscious effort to turn your camera sideways and take some vertical pictures.
• Be a picture director
  Take control of your picture-taking and watch your pictures dramatically improve. Become a picture director, not just a passive picture-taker. A picture director takes charge. A picture director picks the location: "Everybody go outside to the backyard." A picture director adds props: "Girls, put on your pink sunglasses." A picture director arranges people: "Now move in close, and lean toward the camera.
  
  

Most pictures won't be that involved, but you get the idea: Take charge of your pictures!!

Xcavator : A cool Visual Search Engine for Images

Xcavator is a cool new Visual Search Engine for Images of very excellent quality. Thanks to this wonderful service which allows to find images that are really beautiful. It is much more useful than the classic search engines since it searches using meta data such as the categories of the images through Tag. One particular interesting feature is the search based on color, it has a very useful comfortable widget with which you will be able to select the exact color which you have in your mind. This is a cool online tool that emphazises that a photo has much to express!!

Easily Identifies colors on the web

Instant Eyedropper

Instant Eyedropper completely free desktop application that lets you identify any specific color on the web with a single click. The Best feature is that it automatically paste's to the clipboard the HTML color code of any pixel on the screen with just a single mouse click.

Supported color formats:

• HTML
• HEX
• Delphi Hex
• Visual Basic Hex
• RGB
• HSB

Something of particular note with this tool is that it allows you to ZOOM to the elements to copy exactly the color you are looking for, this is especially useful when you try to get a color within an image.

It is a fairly lightweight application(415KB) . So give it a try today!!