Category: Design

Change is Beautiful

Posted on Nov 5, 2008 - 2:05 AM EST

The United States of America will have it’s first black president! Even as I type this, it feels a bit unreal to think a black man will run the white house… a black man who has managed to captivate America with his eloquent speeches, his calm demeanor and his very sexy website. Yes, his website! In all my years as a web developer, Barack Obama’s website is by far, the most beautiful, efficient, and well structured site I’ve ever seen for a political candidate. I can find my way around in 2 clicks or less, which is what every website should aim for.

So who designed Obama’s website? I did some digging around and here’s what I discovered:

Logo - Obama’s logo was designed by Sender, a Chicago based design studio in collaboration with MODE, another Chicago based design firm.

Website - Obama’s new website was actually all done in-house by a team of designers and coders. The Creative Director for the the website is Scott Thomas with Joe Rospars of Washington, DC based Blue State Digital responsible for most of the technology and strategy planning. Chris Hughes the co-founder of Facebook, is overseeing the My.BarackObama.com portion of the website, activating users to take action in their communities and John Slabyk serves as the Art Director.
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Stock Images for Web Developers

Posted on Oct 28, 2008 - 1:12 AM EST

If you’re a web developer or a graphic artist, you’ve probably spent a good amount of time online searching for decent inexpensive and effective stock images to use on your design work. I know I have. Well, to make your life easier, I’ve made a list of all the stock photo websites I’ve bookmarked over the years. Some of them may be old news to you, some may be new. Either ways, enjoy the list below, bookmark it and share it around.

Most Popular:

istockphoto.com - the most popular one out there and the one I personally use the most.
Punch Stock - my next stop after istockphoto. A bit more pricier, but a wayy better selection - especially for print.
Getty Images - the grand-daddy of all things stock. They have it all - videos, music, paintings, photos etc.
Veer - another one of my favorites. These guys have some of the sexiest stock photos ever.
DRR.net - again, a bit more pricier, but a good selection and it also features a marketplace where you can hire photographers to take photos that meets your guidelines.
Jupiter Images - offers anything from royalty-free DVD collections to standard rights-managed images and royalty-free images. They also own stockxpert.com and comstock.com

Free Stock Photography

Flickr - the obvious choice! I’ve found some of my favorite stock photos here - for free!
Stock.XCHNG - the grand-daddy of free photos!
Photocase - another one of my free favorites.
Free Range - high-resolution free stock photos and free textures
Stock Vault - a photo sharing website with decent photos for free
DevianArt - Once in a while, I’ve also found some quality photos here.

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