BlogmyQuery – BMQ

As with designer’s, musician’s websites are often some of the most creative, and for good reason. The website designs of musicians should ideally epitomize their sound in a visual medium. It should capture their brand in an online presence.

This is a subtle art, which not all musician’s websites master. However, when done effectively you can almost feel the artist’s music flowing through the web page. Often subtle visual details can evoke their music, whether it be a soft pastel gradient, or shocking/emotive background photo.

Today we look at a huge variety of design styles and musicians. These websites are all beautiful, yet all different. It’s really interesting to see the disparity between some of these designs – a visual testament to the diversity of contemporary music.

A Look at Inspiring Website Designs of Musicians

Vladimir Chmelo
Vladimir Chmelo has a fairly simple site structure, with muted tones and formal typography. The design is made all the more interesting by the large photographic background, which not only enhances the visuals of this website, but let’s us see the man behind the name. The reserved color palette suits the classical, serious nature of his music.

Noise Coalition
A very unusual looking site, but very visually striking. The site acts as almost a kind of cover artwork, with a huge quartered photo manipulation comprising most of the homepage space. The bold red/black combination mixed with the harsh imagery of falling bombs and shattering objects creates a mood of destruction and bleakness. The call to action text ‘DOWNLOAD FOR FREE’ is enhanced by using a bold, red font to encourage action on the users part.

Jonathan Crehan
A great example of effective background design. Our eye is immediately drawn to the artist who is beautifully lit in this photo. The color scheme is very muted, using rich golds, browns and blacks. The typography is clear and legible, and recent news is promoted via a homepage slider area.

Johan Reinhold
A fantastic web design with a very interactive feel to it. You really need to click through and explore the site yourself to fully experience the details of this design. As you scroll down the page the birds in the background design rise up faster than the surrounding content, creating a sense of weightlessness. The dreamy, pastel colors and elegant imagery make this site very easy on the eyes.

Alex Young
A very detailed, nicely designed website. The background is full of intricate details and patterns, and the logo text is incredibly elegant. The central content area is used to promote a free copy of Alex’s latest single, and acts as a great call to action. Overall we get a feeling of sophistication using this website, with no detail overlooked.

Bloch
This site is for a music school rather than a specific musician, but I had to include it in this list. It’s a wonderful example of a visual design bringing music to life. The subtle watercolor background is infused with swirling notes, fractal lines and patterns all building around a central photo montage. The featured child appears to be expelling energy and music as the visuals surround them.

Caring is Cool
A really cute website design featuring a funny illustration as the center piece. The illustration lends a hand drawn feel to the site, and the waving lines in the background feel very abstract. The hand-drawn theme is continued through the site in the sketchy typography and UI.

Daniel Osborne
Another design with an awesome photographic background. Daniel is the centerpiece in his own design, striking a very cool pose by some drums and vintage cars. The sidebar for the site is concise, but explains clearly what he does and gives easy to navigate menu links.

Rivers and Robots
A simple and clean website that’s very easy on the eyes. Rivers and Robots uses a subtle pastel color scheme along with very faint texture application to add depth and detail. The typography used almost universally across the site has an almost western style feel to it. At any rate, the overwhelming impression of the website is slightly retro.

Brad Doyle
Brad Doyle uses a very simple site that is essentially an image map. However, it definitely feels quite interactive and gives a sense of the artist. The navigation is spread across the wall backdrop photo and you can click the various hanging images to browse through the site.

More Hazards More Heroes
One of the most creative designs in this post, More Hazards More Heroes use some really nicely designed elements in their website. Their logo text is hand-drawn and natural feeling. Their content areas often use creative, rough edges. The main background is comprised of a very faint line art, which helps bring the content together and add a sense of artistry.

Miss the Stars
Lovely typography and awesome colors. The pink and blue color palette works great together and the central content slider is really eye catching. The background design is really well constructed and layers up multiple photos, textures and lightings to create a detailed, attractive backdrop for the site.

Buty
Another very creative web design with a sketchy feel to it. Buty’s website uses abstract shapes to construct content areas, breaking, rather than adhering to any kind of content grid. Visuals are given a bold white border which makes them appear like a paper cut out. There are also some great animations happening, such as birds flying across the page constantly.

The Blur Division
The first thing that strikes you about this design is the deep blue background gradient. This is accented by the smoke in the top-right of the page, which adds some nice lighting. Overall the design is fairly minimal, but the colors and typography work beautifully together. The logo is also a great concept, with the word ‘BLUR’ being out of focus.

Fernandinho – Sou Feliz
Fernandinho Sou Feliz’s website has a real grungy feel to it. The rough background textures and faded photo in the backdrop create a worn look. The menu and logo typography are also typically grungy, which is enhanced by grunge elements strewn across the page such as the top-right badge design.

Not Done Yet…

We are halfway through the showcase, but don’t stop yet. You can click through to see the rest of the examples and read more about them here.

Within the creative community there seems to be an ongoing divide between the realms of digital art, and traditional (non-digital) art. Often traditional art is viewed as somewhat archaic, conjuring images of the Mona Lisa or a Monet landscape. Whilst these masterpieces, and much of traditional art is of course pivotal to our conceptions of art and creativity, there still exists this divide in relation to the digital medium.

The smooth gloss of a photo manipulation has nothing to do with a beautiful oil painting. Or does it…?

Today I challenge the divide between old and new, and suggest that the varying mediums within ‘art’ as a whole are not only not unrelated, but inextricably linked. Digital art is of course directly influenced by the fundamental principles of traditional art. As graphic designers this is not a chicken egg scenario, digital art would simply not exist without traditional art.

The beauty of these varying mediums is that they can help one another. Whilst traditional art does have certain limitations (as does digital art), digital art can often take hand produced pieces to new dimensions. Digital techniques are often the best way to lift a piece of traditional art, giving it new life and substance.

Today I will show you three incredibly talented artists, who are each masters of both traditional, and digital mediums. What is especially interesting about their work is how they use digital techniques to enhance their already stunning traditional artworks. In fusing the two mediums their work takes on a new richness.

Incredible Hand-Drawn Works (With a Digital Twist)

Florian Nicolle’s Hand-Drawn Works

Florian Nicolle is very well known within the design community, and for good reason! His portfolio is a vast collection of mixed media masterpieces. Florian has clearly mastered traditional art, producing some incredibly realistic drawings.

What makes Florian’s work so intriguing is his treatment of his original drawings. It actually seems that some of his traditional techniques are influenced by the digital medium. For example his application of watercolor brush marks is reminiscent of the grungy, watercolor techniques used in many photo manipulations.

After he completes his original drawing he will typically scan it into Photoshop and proceed to color the image, often applying background textures and details. A common trait of his work is to use Photoshop to paste relevant words over his portraits (for example the lyrics to Billy Jean are laid over his portrait of Michael Jackson).

Andreas Preis’ Hand Drawn Works

Andreas Preis has one of the most unique styles I’ve come across, and a really wonderful portfolio of art to back it up. His work is typically produced using ink in the early stages. He is a true master of the cross-hatching method of shading, giving his works an incredibly detailed, precise look.

Often he will use Photoshop to digitally color his images, whilst retaining the precise, sharp lines of his original drawing. This is a prime example of how combining mediums can produce the best results possible.

The important thing to remember though is that no matter what effects are applied in Photoshop, it is the strength of Andreas’ original drawings that are the basis for such inspiring art.

Alexis Marcou’s Hand Drawn Works

Alexis Marcou is an awe inspiring mixed media artist with a very unique style. Alexis’ work will typically begin on paper, producing some fantastic drawings. He then uses a range of mixed media techniques to add depth and detail to his images. Some notable examples include using a make up applicator to powder his image with subtle color, and refracting light from a prism to lay over his drawing.

Whilst Alexis’ work doesn’t make tremendous use of digital techniques, he is widely respected within the digital art/design community. His art, whilst using traditional mediums seems to jump away from the typical constraints of non-digital art. His drawings often take on the appearance of epic photo manipulations, with subtle lighting, gradients and coloring. Amazing what you can achieve with a little creativity!

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Since their inception, video games have provided great inspiration for offline artists and digital artists alike. Video games generally adhere to a fantasy theme, which is perhaps what makes them so intriguing visually. Often characters are exaggerated human forms, with bulging bodies, enormous power, or great speed and agility. Many games include characters of another species, possessing magical powers and skills.

Undoubtedly video games offer some of the richest character designs. Of course video games don’t stop at character design. Entire worlds are invented for these characters to inhabit, and whilst they range from the minimal, to the vast and sprawling, these worlds are often visually intriguing.

Today we’ve compiled over 50 examples of wonderful digital art inspired by the video game format. These illustrations range from depictions of famous characters, to epic battles, landscapes and even text effects.

Digital Art Inspired by Video Games

Ry Spirit’s Video Game Art

Ry Spirit is a hugely talented digital artist who has built up a Facebook following in the thousands. His work has very unique style, being both bold/colorful and cartoony. Whilst some of his work does include sharp outlines, generally his compositions have quite soft edges, with a certain handdrawn feel to them.

We get a real sense that these pieces have been ‘painted’ rather than simply filled in with color in Photoshop. The rich shadowing and textures really make this work stand out.

Ry’s work generally put characters at the forefront. Interestingly he captures each character doing something indicative of their existence. Rather than simply placing a character on a plain background, he’ll have child-Link waking up in his bed, or pokemon mid-battle.

Sandara Video Game Art

Sandara is widely known for her detailed, realistic fantasy artworks. She truly manages to capture the essence of each character she observes. Generally her work will utilize lighting very well, engulfing dark characters in deep shadows, whilst using glows/rays of light to bring life to the piece.

There is definitely a sense of fantasy in her work, as her compositions tend to focus on magical creatures (dragons, elves, wolfmen etc…). She also tends to base each piece around a certain color palette, which evokes the mood in each composition. Below you can observe a magical couple amidst a purple, romantic landscape, or a fierce warrior, fighting through a fiery, amber scene.

Nezma Video Game Art

Nezma (otherwise known as Nat from Canada) is a talented digital artist with a penchant for capturing the magical world of video games. Her work shows tremendous diversity, as you can see from the examples below. She ranges from soft, cartoony drawings, to sharp vector designs, and realistic digital paintings.

What is admirable is that whatever medium she chooses, Nezma manages to capture the true essence of her character. The pieces below show great attention to colors and lighting and range from cute to ominous.

DXSinfinite Video Game Art

DXSinfinite has some truly inspiring digital art, much of it based on video game characters. Again, this artist shows tremendous diversity in his work, and can capture an anime scene, or a highly realistic depiction of his favorite character.

His work shows great attention to form, with the vastly bugling muscles of many video game characters providing a wonderful study of the human body. We get a sense of power and energy from many of his works, and he truly captures the might behind some of these popular video game creations.

GENZOMAN Video Game Art

Last, but certainly not least, GENZOMAN whose works are some the of most favored fantasy digital art in the collection. His work is rich in texture, lighting and details, resulting in a realistic, yet still very much fantasy outcome. He often combines his expert shading and digital painting skills with intense light effects in Photoshop, generally used to demonstrate the explosive powers of the characters he is capturing.

The backdrops for these characters are equally rich, and really place each creation in their natural setting. Each composition typically uses very bold colors and rich shadows to capture the ‘larger than life’ visuals inherent in the video game format.

Definitely an artist to keep your eye on!

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Light painting has always wowed audiences, right from it’s inception in the 1930s. Light painting is a photographic technique, whereby exposures are usually taken at night or in a darkened environment, using a moving light source or by moving the camera.

Light painting can create some truly astonishing outcomes, and because it’s a photographic technique, rather than a digital technique the results often appear very natural. In recent years light painting has grown in popularity as a trend. With easy access to professional camera setups many people are able to experiment with it.

This popularity has resulted in some impressive, and not so impressive pieces being created. Pretty sure you’ve all seen photos online of objects outlined by a shaky light source, or even more popular; hand made ‘light typography’, much of which isn’t very legible, or attractive.

At Noupe we know that you enjoy the highest quality in art and design, and so wanted to present some true masters of light painting. These guys have taken a widespread medium and taken it to the next level. Every image is a true work of art, with a tremendous attention to detail and great photographic talent. We’ve included artist’s with very diverse styles, so you can get a true idea of how varied light painting can be.

Jaw Dropping Light Paintings From the Masters:

Eric Staller’s Light Paintings

What can we say about Eric Stallers work? Well ‘wow’ was the initial reaction after stumbling upon his portfolio. Eric uses light painting to give a magical feeling to ordinary landscapes and cityscapes. Each of his works hint at the complexities in his process, as detailed streams of light flow seamlessly around manmade sculptures and structures.

What is most impressive about Eric’s work is how he doesn’t simply apply streaks of light, but applies them like one would a paintbrush. His light strokes vary in width, density and brightness. Many of his compositions rely on bold, eye-catching structural outlines, mixed with delicate, elegant more subtle lines of light. He takes the ordinary and makes it something truly special.

You certainly should check out Eric’s book ‘OUT OF MY MIND’ at his website.

Aurora Crowley Light Paintings

Aurora Crowley has a wonderful eye for photography, and uses light paintings to enhance her already superb photography skills. Much of her portfolio is comprised of fashion-type shots, featuring versions of the human form, adorned with luxurious clothing and jewelry.

Rather than simply painting light against a plain or dark background, Aurora uses light to enhance her work, rather than to define it. She frequently uses multi-colored light sources to overlay slick, artistic lines over her models. Light often emphasizes the clothing/jewelry worn by her subjects. For example, in the works below we see light extending the contours of a dress, rising up from a handbag like smoke, branching out from sunglasses like a kaleidoscope or trailing off from a futuristic bracelet. She is a great example of not overdoing an art form, as light painting is often overdone these days.

Light Art Photography by JanLeonardo Wöllert

JanLeonardo is another wonderful artist who utilizes light painting. He generally focuses on sparse landscapes or barren interiors of buildings. He has a wonderful sense of space and structure in his work, and really feeds off of the surrounding architecture with his light markings.

Due to the sparse nature of his settings, we really get a sense of the light filling the space, and more often than not totally transforming it. Typically Jan avoids isolated light structures, rather preferring his light to spread throughout the setting, totally overwhelming it. In many of his pieces the light structures flow seamlessly through the structures of the background, giving a highly naturalistic feeling, with futuristic undertones.

Due to his photographic expertise Jan is able to create a wonderful harmony between the photography and the light painting, with neither medium detracting from the other.

Jason D. Page

Jason D. Page is yet another talented light painter. He uses light typically in outdoor landscapes to create a magical, abstract feeling to his work.

Jason has a great sense of space and contour, and his light often flows throughout his chosen landscapes with effortlessness and grace. He frequently uses backgrounds with an almost muted, pastel quality to them, whereby his light painting attracts far more attention. Whilst the light is certainly what grabs us the most, it also enhances the surrounding environments, giving them a surreal glow. A great example of how professionally done light painting can add a special little something extra to a standard setting.

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One of the major threats to your career as a graphic designer is to let your work stagnate and your improvement slow down. It’s very easy to fall into a comfort zone where you stop exploring new design techniques and simply stick with what you know. This is why most designers experience the greatest learning curve early on, and why after they ‘find their style’ their future improvement is far more limited.

Today I want to argue that designers should never ‘find their style’. They should always strive to try new styles, to continually improve, and to push beyond their comfort zone. Imagine if you continually improved at the rate you did early in your design career – I’m betting that you’d be a better designer than you are today!

Let’s explore some of the ways to improve as a designer:

Read Design Tutorials

Design tutorials are a fantastic way to improve your skillset. Tutorials usually show you how to make a specific outcome by explaining the entire work process in a series of detailed steps. Tutorial sites usually cover a range of different categories, such as text effects, photo manipulations, web layouts etc… Try to explore a range of tutorial sites, as well as tutorial categories in order to broaden your design skills.

It’s important to read a high quality of tutorial. Many sites publish tutorials that actually teach bad technique (for example, the classic example of photo retouching skin using the gaussian blur tool). It’s also important to not merely skim the tutorial as eye candy. Try to focus on the workflow and techniques that are used, rather than just checking out the final outcome. The sites below all offer high quality tutorials to improve your technique:

Seek Inspiration From a Wider Variety of Sources

The number one killer for design inspiration is limiting your sources of inspiration. I’ve already mentioned the importance of design tutorials, but you should look beyond online inspiration. Offline influences can have a tremendously positive effect upon your designs. Inspiration lies everywhere – in nature, in the everyday, bizarre, and transitory. Look to films, art, posters, street signs and photography. The more varied your inspiration, the more varied your work. If you let all the creativity available in the world benefit you, your work will be richer and more profound.

Instead of merely skimming over design blogs today, why not try one of the following ideas for inspiration:

Choose to Design From Something Specific

Often it can be difficult to improve because you consistently design around the same themes. Broadening your inspirational sources is a good start, but I find that designing around a specific idea can also be beneficial. Rather than designing a photo manipulation around the theme of ‘nature’ for example, why not design around a specific quote, song lyric or even memory. The more personal the specific influence the better, although it can also be interesting to design around an abstract or obscure entity.

When you have selected your lyric, memory, quote, or other influence, try and consider the following:

Utilize Your Other Relevant Talents

As you may have guessed by now, it’s crucial to add diversity to your design work, as this is a key ingredient in improving. A great way to do this is to bring in some of your other talents. If you draw, then scan in hand drawn elements and integrate this into your design work. If you do calligraphy then implement what you’ve learnt into your digital typography. If you have no relevant creative skills (which is unlikely) then learn some! Take a class, or if you can’t afford that teach yourself. The more areas which you feel confident in creatively, the better your digital work will be.

Why not try the following ideas, you should feel more inspired afterwards, which in turn should improve your regular design work:

Be Passionate, Be Original

Don’t follow design trends simply for the sake of it. There are thousands of images out there that look almost exactly the same, and this shows no attempt to improve at the hands of the designers. Always strive to produce original, unique work.

The greatest way to be original is to be passionate. If you’re copying others you’re never going to feel passionate about your work. However, if your design inspiration comes from within, and you really care about what you’re producing then it will show through in the quality of your work. A great way to feel more passionate about your work is to design around something that you really care about (perhaps love, loss or friendship), or perhaps even a political or social cause that’s important to you.

Here are some ideas to evoke more passion and originality in your design work:

Don’t Just Welcome Feedback – Seek it Out!

Feedback is one of the best ways to improve as a designer. Other designers can cast a fresh look over your work and often offer hugely helpful tips to help you improve. You can receive feedback through a number of sources, and I encourage you to maximize all of them. Try looking for feedback at reputable design networks, your personal blog, your social networking accounts, or even friends and family.

I recommend the following design networks for getting some quality feedback on your work:

Consider Paid Resources

I discovered this method pretty late in my design career. For years I avoided paying for anything apart from my software, preferring to use free resources for all my work. I have to be honest, after trying out some premium fonts, photos and vectors the money is honestly worth it. If you’re really serious about improving your design work I recommend finding the highest quality resources to use in your compositions. Don’t settle for a lower quality image simply because it’s free, this will only hold you back.

Another reason for using premium resources is that there are a limited number of quality free resources. This means that these quality freebies have been used thousands of times by designers, and have lost much of their impact. How many times have you seen ‘generic jumping figure covered in Photoshop light effects’. Premium resource websites offer a wider, more unique, higher quality selection, and if you’re using these as part of your commercial work I’m sure you’ll see a financial return due to your improved designs.

Feel free to continue using free resources if this suits you. However, I’m just saying from personal experience that I’ve seen a huge jump in quality in my work since switching to premium resources. Here are some of my favorite sources for these:

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