position: absolute - Design resources and inspiration.

Hey kids, it’s video time again. As you may have noticed from a previous post, I’m currently getting in to Adobe After Effects, and on my search for inspiration, my friend Thomas sent me this beautiful music video for Smog’s “Rock Bottom Riser”, created entirely in After Effects from scanned paintings.

We’ve already figured out how to recreate those animated ink worm things. :) You can read a bit about the making of Rock Bottom Riser on Motiongrapher.

Hey everyone. I know there are a lot of you and it looks like you’re really, really shy. Well, I can see you anyways, my stats prove it, so there’s no point in hiding! HAH! This is your chance (yes, I mean YOU) to stop by and say hi! I’d love to know what you do and where in the world you’re from. Designer? Photographer? Coder? Just interested in design? None of the above? No matter what you do, I’d really like to meet you here. Heck, I’ll start out first, so no one has to be the brave first. :)

My name is Jerry, I live in Düsseldorf, Germany, but I actually grew up in Toronto, Canada. I’m a 24 year old designer, working at web agency TWT Interactive. I enjoy writing here on position: absolute because it gives me the possibility to share the knowledge in all those fun and useful links I get daily, and because I want to give back to the design community a bit of what it’s given to me over the past 8 years that I’ve been on the intertubes, in terms of improving as a designer. Oh, and it’s fun!

Ok, now your turn, don’t be shy. :) Hit that keyboard… right about… NOW!

(Image thanks to Paper Napkin)

I’ve been fooling around with Adobe After Effects the past days. It’s amazing what can be done with it, but for newcomers (like myself) it can be very daunting. Luckily, there are a number of very good tutorials around to help you get started, and I’d like to present one site that has been of good help to me.

Video Copilot has some easy to understand tutorials that help you achieve some pretty advanced effects, among others a rendition of the beautiful iPod Nano ad. The best part? All tutorials come with the project files, so you can just dig in and play around.

Please feel free to add links to good After Effects tutorials in the comments section!

Hey everyone, I’ve noticed a minor issue with my feed. It seems my Netvibes feed reader keeps setting all existing entries as new, several times a day. Please let me know if the feed is working fine for you or if you are having similar issues with your reader (and which one you are using) so that I can further investigate. Thanks! -Jerry

Did you know that every thirty seconds, 106,000 aluminum cans are used in the US? Or that 60,000 plastic bags are used every 5 seconds? Or that 426,000 cell phones are retired every single day? The numbers sound pretty high, but they feel very abstract, and seldom we can connect with what they actually represent. With a new series called “Running The Numbers – An American Self-Portrait”, artist Chris Jordan seeks to provide a true impression of exactly how high those numbers are, by presenting the subject matter quite literally. The images are assembled from thousands of smaller photographs, the amount corresponding to the actual numbers in US consumption statistics. The outcome is a series of images that really bring it to the point.

The images leave a feeling of uneasiness with me. What are your thoughts? Can we as a global society reduce our consumption, or do we even need to? Also, if you know further artists who follow similar goals, please feel free to share them with us.

“On May 3 we will attempt advertising history once again. As planet earth turns over 21 different time zones, we will mobilize all the top creative directors—the leaders of the ad world—to carry out the largest advertising portfolio review in the world. Thousands of juniors will receive valuable face-to-face time with the best creative directors in the world.”

Portfolio Night 5 is just around the corner, and they’ve really rounded a lot of creative folk. Ticket prices vary from city to city, but they’re all very affordable and likely a worthwhile investment. Sounds like a great opportunity!

For the freelancers out there, and those of you thinking about taking the leap, here’s a new site that promises to be a valuable helper. FreelanceSwitch is, in its own words, a site built and written by freelancers for freelancers, be that designers, writers, programmers, illustrators, photographers, you name it. And they’re off to a good start, with articles such as 101 Essential Freelancing Resources, an array of tools that’ll help out with time and project management, invoicing, legal, advertising, stock resources, and a whole lot more. Also take a stroll down their front page, you’ll find a lot of articles that’ll make you want to click. Good stuff.

I’ve heard on numerous occasions that buying your stuff at IKEA is kind of not so cool. I can’t really share that opinion. They create innovative stuff that is well designed, the prices are good, and they’re great for DIY projects. The catch, of course, is that a lot of people will have the same things (how’s your Billy bookshelf doing?).

For a more individual touch, designer products come into play. Problem is, they’re terribly expensive. Or are they?

“No!”, say the folks at Designophy, with a list of 50 affordable products by famous designers ($5-$100). Now, you’re still going to have to figure out for yourself if you want to pay $45 for a bottle opener, but these products do stand out. Happy shopping!
(thanks, KNUFFLEBUNNEH !!!).

Here’s an interesting chance to get your art out in the open, make a little money with it and maybe even win a prize. MAiLmeART.com is a project that your postman will enjoy: they collect artwork done exclusively on envelopes and packages. Quoteth:

Submissions can be envelopes or packages which have been drawn on, painted, dipped in acid, covered in paper mache (anything you want really) but they must look amazing and they must have traveled though the post with the postman able to see the work, so you can’t paint a canvas and wrap it up and post it to me. The wrapping is your canvas or in most cases an envelope.

Your work will be posted on the website, and according to founder Darren Di Lieto, there will be an exhibition where your work might be put on display and sold. Artists receive a cut of 70%, the rest goes into covering the exhibition costs. In the meanwhile, all submissions take part in a monthly contest: judges pick a monthly favorite, to which a random prize is awarded.

There’s already some very beautiful art (and some tasty prizes), so go have a look, get inspired and submit something.

I will post the submissions of position: absolute readers right here, so let me know if you take part! I know I will be sending in some art, how about you?

Just wishing everyone here a Happy Easter! And to those of you not celebrating Easter, have a great long weekend!

For more cutesy wutesy bunnies (and plenty of more fuzzy critters) that make a grown man go “aaawwwww”, check out Cute Overload!