Forward Creations

25 Awesome Still Life Digital Paintings for Inspiration

youthedesigner — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:00:23 +0000

There used to be a time when paintings were accomplished only by putting brush on canvas. However, with the growth of technology, all genres of art evolved with time. Today, digital paintings have emerged as a wonderful category of art — one that combines both precision and enigma.

In this article, we take a look at some stunning digital paintings. All of these capture still life at its best! The amount of detail contained within each of these paintings is sure to inspire anyone.

1949 by robertmekis

Apple by katzai

boy with a coin by Fleana93

Color Study 2 by TheBlackVerse

Dragonblood by ELConsigliere

Feather Fruit Skull by KatePfeilschiefter

Fruit Bowl by saintchase

Grapes by KoryTheAnimator

Heartburn by phantastes

Mindcage by I-NetGraFX

Happy New Lunar Year by fxEVo

Night at the Saloon by DawnFrost

Pen and Ink by LancerMoo

Pomegranate Still Life by Hamsterfly

Purity by ebrulii

Red Queen by ketka

Rose Coffee by depingo

Still Life by tincek-marincek

Study Still Life 1 by tsabo6

Still Life by al-nay

Still Life by janaschi

Still Life — Fruits by Isra2007

L5R Tuturi’s Tactics by higherdepths

White Still Life by cacodaemonia

Winter’s End by artcova

I hope you enjoyed these digital paintings. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

How to Test your E-Commerce Site Effectively

youthedesigner — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:00:44 +0000

The design and usability of your e-commerce site has a huge impact on driving sales. With A/B testing, you’re able to isolate what is causing a spike or decline in interactions on your site, which in turn can help you improve your marketing. This article will walk you through the steps needed in order to effectively test your e-commerce website. The results will help reap rewards in terms of your business’ conversion rates in the future.

Determine How Often to Test

If you want impactful results, it’s best to test often. Plan for these tests monthly and designate a time ahead of schedule in which to dedicate in doing so. While some big box retail sites isolate their testing to specific elements on the page only, don’t be afraid to expand your testing to all elements on the page.

Test the Right Elements

Product Descriptions

Product descriptions can oftentimes draw the visitor in and convey the attributes of the product in a whole new way. Try testing the description itself, as well as the length for maximum results.

Sign up Page Headlines

Copy is a powerful element in generating trust with the user. You want the sign-up process for any website you subscribe to be as seamless as possible, so take this into account when testing your sign up page headlines. Test out variations letting the user know the benefits or signup or even how long they can expect to devote to the process.

Purchase Buttons

Purchase buttons, along with call to action buttons, are perhaps the most important elements on a given page. Many factors come into play in designing them, so running tests is often the best prescription for determining the colors, size, and text. As a rule of thumb, your button should be a generous size – try 230px wide and 45px tall as a starting point.

You’ll also want to place your buttons in an area that encourages eye flow. Try keeping your call to actions above the fold as this is where most activity takes place. Lastly, test out the button text and see what works the best. Text that conveys urgency is often said to work the best.

Pricing Strategies

The ultimate goal is to motivate the customer to purchase from you. One easy way is to figure out effective pricing strategies, as this has psychological implications on the viewer. For instance: Will ending the price of some items to .99 increase sales? Read this psychological test to see how it can be applied to your pricing strategy.

Search Results and Product Displays

Another area to consider is how many products you wish to show on your homepage. You can test your order of search results as well as the number of them for maximum results. This will help you determine what is most effective at retaining the customer’s interest. Consider using Google Analytics in addition to your findings. It’ll help you discover search page abandonment, or look closer at your bounce rates and exit rates for list view vs. grid view.

Conclusion

A/B testing will take luck out of the equation in determining just what may be prohibiting your e-commerce site from reaching its full potential. Whether you’re testing ratings, product categories, or pricing, the potential for improvement is abundant. How do your approach A/B testing in your e-commerce site? Let us know in the comments!

About the Author

Brad Weitz, Director of Client Services, Maxymiser, Inc.

Formerly the Vice President of Operations for Autonomy Optimost, Brad has been at the cutting edge of online marketing for over 8 years. Now Brad has joined Maxymiser, Inc. where he develops and oversees all client relationships with a 360-degree digital marketing strategy for improving content optimization, increasing website conversion rates and producing outstanding marketing ROI.

Featured image from EMMEALCUBO on Flickr.

5 Red Hot Love Icons – a Valentine’s Day Treat from YTD

youthedesigner — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:09:03 +0000

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with these icons of loooove! Download them for FREE and spread the love to others by giving them the link to this post. Also, kindly leave a comment as we’d like to know how you feel about these icons (and about us, for that matter).

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

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[CLOSED] Help Ink and YTD Giveaway: Win a Shirt and Do Some Good

youthedesigner — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:00:13 +0000

Happy Valentine’s Day from You The Designer! Whatever relationship status you have right now, here’s a way for you to spread the love for now up to the rest of the week!

You The Designer has written a lot about T-shirt design in the past because, what better way to flaunt your good taste while walking down the street than with a suave design on this most basic of clothing? So anyway, we’ve recently talked with a group of people who understand this from both a consumer’s and a designer’s point of view, and managed to tie this up with helping charity as well. To help spread the word about their efforts and spread some good vibes around as well, we’ve partnered with them to host a cool giveaway!

Who’s sponsoring this giveaway?

Help Ink, a group of artists and entrepreneurs working together to aid people in need through the sale of premium art. On their website you’ll find mounted prints, posters and stationery, as well as tees, with 40% of their profits from your purchase going to the designated charity partner. They’ve invited an impressive list of top designers, illustrators, and artists from around the world to use their talents for the benefit of others. Check their website to learn more!

What’s the prize?

A lucky winner will get a free shirt! Their shirts are printed on a cotton/poly (60%/40%) blend from Next Level Apparel and are quite luxurious. Help Ink will also make the regular retail donation to the charity connected to the selected shirt. Here are the available designs:

The Good Deeds Tee comes in women’s sizes, so everyone can definitely join!

Requirements:

- Tweet this message to announce that you’re participating: “Follow @help_ink and RT this message for a chance to win a t-shirt and do some good via helpink.org. #LoveArtLoveOthers #YTD”
- There is no entry limit. Tweet as many times as you like to better your chances of winning.
- Follow Help Ink on Twitter
- Add You The Designer to your Circles on Google+
- Answer this question in the comments: What good deed have you done to brighten this world lately?

Contest ends on February 18th, 12:00 mn PST!

UPDATE: The winner is David Lucius Yarde! Congratulations! We’ll contact you for the next steps!

The Rise and Fall of Famous Brands – Why Do They Fail?

youthedesigner — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:00:31 +0000

We are living in a world where water is sold with a name, clothes are being marketed with signature signs and food items are being promoted with trademarks. The concept of branding has completely shaped the way people consume commodities. Customers in this day and age prefer status symbols over necessity. This shows the importance of branding and its influence on businesses.

It takes years to erect a successful brand identity, but only an instant to destroy it. All the famous brands and corporations have risen to their current status after a lot of painstaking effort. Failure is common for small businesses and start-ups, but have we ever wondered how famous brands falter? Today, I seek to uncover some of the most common reasons why renowned brands fall by illustrating the cases of some famous brands.

1. Confusing Brand with Product:

One of the most common reasons why some brands fail is that they confuse a brand with product. However, the reality is otherwise. Both the terms “brand” and “product” are dissimilar and each must exist separately in front of the consumers. For instance, Nike may not be able to send as many products and merchandise without its renowned swoosh and trademark. For Nike, the product is the merchandise they offer, but their brand constitutes the quality and reliability they guarantee.

2. Short-Term Approach:

For a successful brand, the short-term approach is always hazardous as it restricts the domain and vision of the company. While it is an inherent truth that all companies are there in the market to make money, one cannot keep such a short-term and narrow-minded mindset if it wants to win customers for a longer period of time. A recent case in point was British Petroleum that didn’t accurately forecast the repercussions of its business on the environment and ended up becoming the bad company in the eyes of the general public.

3. Fall Short of Customer Expectations:

For a brand identity system, brand promise is critical to gain customer loyalty. When people start believing in a particular brand, they have certain expectations and satisfaction levels attached to it as well. If the brand fails to meet these intrinsic expectations and fall short of what the customers believe of them, they are bound to fail. Coca Cola met a similar fate when they introduced “New Coke” that failed to live up to their customers’ expectations.

4. Too Slow to Change:

In this day and age, companies cannot afford to lag behind in technology and advancement. Those who were too slow to adapt to the changing environment lost the race in the long run. I remember a 64-Bit Commodore system lying in my attic that was once used by our grandparents for computing and entertainment purposes. The company was too slow to update their systems and lost the race to giants like IBM, Compaq and Apple.

5. Going Against The Image:

Honda, Toyota, Ford and Ferrari – all of these brands have built an image of being reputable car manufacturers. This brand image is attached to the company and affects their future operations as well. If one of these car manufacturers decide to enter a totally diverse field, let’s say, perfumes, would it be appropriate? Most certainly not! A similar case happened in 1999, when the famous women’s magazine, Cosmopolitan, introduced its own line of low-fat yogurt. The brand failed badly since the customers were reluctant to accept a yogurt linked to a female magazine.

To wrap up, brands must not be treated as mere products or items of physical value. They have an intrinsic value that completes the whole brand personality. Companies must align their branding efforts according to the expectations of their customers.

About the Author

Nora Reed runs Logoblog.org, where she writes about logo design trends, tips for logo designers, famous logos and inspiring logo design collections.

Custom Wall Ball Targets – CrossFit Scarsdale

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:25:45 +0000

Custom Wall Ball Targets
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We did these Custom Wall Ball Targets for CrossFit Scarsdale, located in White Plains, NY. These 10″ wall ball targets are customizable for any gym, printed on re-positionable adhesive fabric, using eco-solvent inks, w/ circle die cut. If you are a CrossFit Affiliate and like what you see, drop us a email. We would be happy to spice up your gym with these Custom Wall Ball Targets

We’ve Started Using PunchTab!

youthedesigner — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:00:47 +0000

Here’s another one of our attempts to reward you loyal readers for sticking with You The Designer all this time, and this one is a pretty big deal! PunchTab is a loyalty program that lets us reward you for engaging with the blog, whether you visit, browse, comment on, and vote up our posts and more – with points you can use to redeem a reward from us!

As some of you may have already seen by clicking on the Rewards ribbon tab hovering on the left side of our pages, we have a 30-day leaderboard tracking the most active readers on the blog.

Right now we’re still using PunchTab’s default catalog, but soon we’ll be adding more prizes of our own. And since it’s also a convenient platform for giveaways, we’re looking forward to hosting our next giveaways with PunchTab here on You The Designer too!

Ranjith Kumaran, PunchTab Founder and CEO, comments, “We’re excited to be powering the You The Designer loyalty program. We love their passion for rewarding their most loyal users and their drive to help spread the word about this site across all the major social channels. We look forward to watching their growth and continued success.”

Behance Launches Student Show, an Initiative to Support Emerging Designers

youthedesigner — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:00:48 +0000

If you’re a student, here’s an exclusive design community where you can get your work exposure, get feedback from peers as well as world-renowned creative professionals, and even get hired!

Behance has launched a new student initiative called the Student Show Gallery, which aims to showcase the world’s next generation of creative talent. Membership is free! As a member, your work may be featured, “appreciated”, followed by fellow creatives, and noticed by recruiters. You’ll also receive updates on student competitions and exclusive discounts from some of the world’s top creative brands.

In fact, at the moment there’s a Student Showdown ongoing that you can participate in right now!

Entry to this competition is free, and the current submission round runs from January 11 to February 20, 2012. To participate, all entrants must be currently enrolled in school or graduated within the last 3 months. Check the competition details to see how the series works and what great prizes and perks you can get! New competitions are hosted periodically based on creative field or concept, so keep checking back with the Student Show Gallery for updates.

The Behance Network receives millions of visitors each month, and Student Show is the only program that’s exclusively for students. Why wait until graduation to get your work out there? Start now!

30 Examples of Impressive Concept Art

youthedesigner — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:00:08 +0000

For both video games and comic books, concept artists are necessary to create the aesthetically-pleasing visuals that enhance the storyline’s action and drama. From simple pencil sketches to 3D models, detailed character turnarounds to costumes, fantastic vehicles to intricate weapon design, the possibilities are endless.

These are some examples of impressive video game and comic book concept art.

BATMAN (DC/Rocksteady Studios)

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ASSASSIN’S CREED (Ubisoft)

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BIOSHOCK (2K/Irrational Games)

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DEAD SPACE (Visceral Games/EA)

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FINAL FANTASY Series (Square Enix)

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GEARS OF WAR (Epic Games/Microsoft)

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HALO (Ensemble Studios/Microsoft)

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MASS EFFECT (Bioware/EA)

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MONSTER HUNTER (Capcom)

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PROTOTYPE (Radical Entertainment/Activision)

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The Best Looking Beer Cans – a Beer Can Appreciation Day Special

youthedesigner — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:54:44 +0000

January 24, 2012 marks the 77th anniversary of the day Gottfried Krueger Brewing Co. first brought canned beers into the market. Though it hasn’t been (and probably never will be) declared an official holiday, more and more people are celebrating Beer Can Appreciation Day to pay tribute to the creation that has changed the experience of buying, keeping and drinking beer, forever.

YTD takes part in the Beer Can Appreciation Day celebration with this collection of 35 tasteful beer can designs. Check them out and don’t forget to leave a comment after. Cheers!

Hurlimann Sternbrau

SAA Design
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Intuition Ale Works

DeRouen & Co
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Upslope Brewing Brown Ale

Anthem Branding
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Great Western

Saint Bernadine Mission Communications
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Heineken Rugby World Cup 2011

Raison Pure
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Bulldozer Beer

Firstbase
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Arctic Beer

Tank
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Howe Sound Lager

The Antidote Inc.
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Club Colombia Special Edition

JWT
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Tui Repackaged

DesignWorks
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Glow

Neumeister
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Smrprty

Tank Design
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Abro Organic Lager

Mattias Frodlund
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Austin Beerworks

Helms Workshop
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Pilsner

TAXI
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Vintage Packaging – Beer Cans

Hello Again
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Guinness Beer can re-design

Tamara Maksimovic
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Diesel 6%

Pavel Gubin
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Grolsch Beer Can FC Twente season 2011

Elroy Klee
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“1410″ Beer can design

Ignas Kozlovas
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beer can packaging

Sergey Prostov
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Carling beer brand design

Ingrida Liepyte
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Beer Can Label Design

Gradinar Razvan
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Brøckhouse 33cl Can

Morris Pinewood
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Saku On Ice 0,5L Can

Hannes Paesoo
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Asahi Breweries

Phil Munro
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John Davey’s Cornish Bitter

Pascal de Moratti
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Miller Cans

Tim Pokrichuk
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Three Towns Premium Lager (2009)

Mikael Hulkko
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Hockley Valley Brewing Co.

Andrew Oliver
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Latas tematicas Nova Schin

Fausto Uehara
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Heisenberg Beer

This is
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package design

Tim Murphy
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Negra Modelo

Mauricio Muñoz
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Beer Can Appreciation Day (we’d like to believe) wasn’t just created to give people an excuse to drink more beer. A bit of research about beer cans would tell you that they do deserve our appreciation.

First, beer cans are relatively cheaper than beer bottles. They require minimal energy to produce and most of the materials used in these cans can be reused to manufacture new ones. Second, beer cans do a better job in preserving the beer’s flavor. Aluminum cans prevent beer from getting “skunked” due to exposure from UV light. They are also very durable and contain lower oxygen levels than bottles which increases shelf life. Lastly, the variety of beer can designs makes them perfect collector’s items. And with beer cans that look as good as the ones above, it shouldn’t be a surprise that some people are more interested in the cans than the booze!