Designn Magazine 4

4th edition | www.designn.org | a free digital publication

designn magazine

interviews

With exceptional photographers and videographers, and a display of some of their best works!

tutorials

Web designing and graphics designing from the best free resource providers online!

features

Ultimate state-of-the-art workplace features and a top 5s list of the best design websites online as selected by the designn magazine.

offers

Exclusive designn magazine freebies included + a $50 coupon code for your very own web hosting package!

GAVICKPRO www.gavick.com

A fully packed edition, with the lastest digital arts news, amazing graphics, offers and as always 100% free!

Printed editions available on request.

A free product bought to you by www.designn.org | made by deviants for deviants!

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www.designn.org The Designn Magazine | 4th Edition | www.designn.org | Online Edition

3 4th edition | www.designn.org | a free digital publication

designn

Contents Page

magazine

This times edition officially sponsored by:

GAVICKPRO www.gavick.com

interviews tutorials

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5 6

3 4

2

With exceptional photographer and videographers, and a display of some of their dest works!

Web designing and graphics designing from the best free resource providers online!

features

Ultimate 3D game creating software features and a top 10s list of the best design websites online as selected by the designn magazine.

Arts Submissions by deviantart members.

offers

Exclusive designn magazine freebies included + a $50 coupon code for you very own web hosting package!

A fully packed edition, with the lastest digital arts news, amaing graphics, offers and as always 100% free!

Printed editions available on request.

A free product bought to you by www.designn.org | made by deviants for deviants!

9 10

8

Mini Tips Watermarking For Wordpress your work

16

From the Editor

Wordpress Tips, Tricks and Features!

13 14

Interview Zev Vel Director of Photography

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17 18

Of Beards and Men: A Portrait of Man A kickstarter project

25 26

Artwork By deviantart member

11 12

Amazing Workplaces

Top 5 Wordpress Plugins As chosen by the Designn Magazine

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Contents You are Here!

Designn Project All about us! www.designn.org

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21 22

Top 4 Stock Resources Sites As chosen by the Designn Magazine.

Interview with Iva Hobbyist Photographer

27 28

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29 Designn Magazine

Out of inspiration?

Article by Nathan

Arts Submissions by deviantart members.

Written by deviants for deviants

The Designn Magazine - an initiative of the Designn Project founded by Udara Jayawardena. Vist www.designn.org to contribute and support this free project.

For constant updates and special offers follow our blog at www.designn.org/blog

Credits Thank you all!

Calypso

by Cyril Rolando

mag.designn.org

Beginners Guides Top 5’s Interviews Misc. Articles

The Designn Magazine | 4th Edition | www.designn.org | Online Edition

Nam inum alia adicia Am ipsapid mi, eici Tem faccum vendaeped.

Tiam libusti sitatur reiustem et endipsam es qui vel ipit quibus doluptis ipienti anditae il et expeligent atest, sinctibus.Im nuscit am sintint, consediatur?

Muscianda eos simpore perroriae pro veliquo coritate dus dolumqu iatempore ipsanda velit eumquid quisit re nonsequi aut unduci

4th edition | www.designn.org | a free digital publication

Editorial This times edition was a truly amazing run; we caught up a large number of supporters after the special edition and some of them have contributed largely towards making this edition a success. The fourth edition of the Designn magazine would concentrate on a few introductory tutorials, interviews and looks mainly into featuring some amazing online services and products (along with some special offers that our team was able to get for you).

One of the greatest breakthroughs in this times edition is the fact that we can have special printed editions on a pre-order plan (to pre-order email us at support@designn.org). The printed edition would of course have to come at a price but as always the online edition would remain free and any profits earned by us would be given back to the community as gifts, prizes and offers. We’re even considering giving away free printed copies from the profits on a first come first served basis if things work out well.

Even with our amazing advancements over the last few months which include our new blog, sponsorships for printed editions and the digital edition, I’d like to reiterate to all our fans, readers and writers that Designn will always remain a free online project, run by the digital arts community for the community! So feel free to always submit articles and artwork to be used, because this is your magazine! We welcome anyone who wants to contribute to join our team and not a single one of them would be missed out from the credits page.

I like to keep things short and straight, so that’s all I have to say for this edition, I hope you enjoy and benefit from our publication, and as always keep devious!

Udara Jayawardena

Founder of Designn www . designn . org

designn magazine

This times edition officially sponsored by:

GAVICKPRO www.gavick.com

interviews With exceptional photographer and videographers, and a display of some of their dest works!

tutorials

Web designing and graphics designing from the best free resource providers online!

features

Ultimate 3D game creating software features and a top 10s list of the best design websites online as selected by the designn magazine.

offers

Exclusive designn magazine freebies included + a $50 coupon code for you very own web hosting package!

A fully packed edition, with the lastest digital arts news, amaing graphics, offers and as always 100% free!

Printed editions available on request.

A free product bought to you by www.designn.org | made by deviants for deviants!

Founder & Editor Udara Jayawardena udara@designn.org

Magazine Manager Natalie Rowlands tehangelscry.deviantart.com

Editor Cristina CD lintu47.deviantart.com

Editor Raveena Weerabahu

Contributor Iva lpdragonfly.deviantart.com

Contributor Senna V. Reymaan treo-legigeo.deviantart.com

“Good design means never having to say “Click Here.” ~ Shawn Leslie

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Wordpress, tips, tricks & features Razzel.me

Razzling your online presence!

Razzel is the newest way to present yourself online! Our free online service, sleek design and consistency makes browsing and viewing profiles a pleasure for anybody!

Join us today at www. razzel.me and claim your free gold account!

Go WordPress!

‘WordPress is web software you can use to create a beautiful website or blog. We like to say that WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.’-www.wordpress.org WordPress is a top end blogging web application which provides great simplicity for the novice and is at the same time fully customizable for those looking for custom templates and features!

In this guide I hope to share with you in length some amaz-

ing tips, tricks, offers, must know facts and details about WordPress. Even though it’s listed as an introductory tutorial I won’t be going anywhere near giving you steps on setting up WordPress – a simple Google search would turn up literally thousands of tutorials on it!

The first tip for you, is choosing what you would be sharing via your blog; is it personal blog? or a business website? This is important when choosing your theme, the right plugins for your service and the necessary hosting. I’ll be starting you off with choosing

The Designn Magazine | 4th Edition | www.designn.org | Online Edition

the right web hosting service along with an exclusive offer bought to you by Designn.

Hosting with Dreamhost I fully recommend that you host your website with Dreamhost, they are not only listed officially on WordPress.org as recommended web hosts, but have also recently introduced a new web hosting package known Dreampress made specifically for WordPress.

Use our coupon code DESIGNNPROMO to get $50 off and a free lifetime domain when you start off with

Dreamhost.

Most webhosting companies offer shared web hosting and dedicated private servers, there is also a large price gap involved, however if you are hoping to open a blog where you would be expecting thousands of users to view your site weekly then we highly recommend you go for dedicated hosting despite the costs since all of the server’s resources are dedicated to your blog and would help you run it smoothly. As for a starter you can always begin with shared webhosting, which still allows you all the features of WordPress and the day you are ready to step it up Dreamhost would allow you to easily upgrade to dedicated hosting.

Our recommendation for theming would be GavickPro WordPress themes (www.gavick.com); you can either buy a WordPress membership and get free access to all their themes for free, or purchase their themes individually at www.creativemarket.com/GavickPro. And oh! Don’t forget to go through the weekly free goods section at www. creativemarket.com and www.themeforest.net where they occasionally give away premium WordPress themes for free.

Theming

Security

I did some research on this topic and one of the main things that struck me was the fact that a custom, fully featured WordPress theme costs around $2000 to $3000 to be designed and coded by most

Once you open up your WordPress blog ,security would be one main factor to consider. The best part is there are many plugins that would allow you to automate this and leave you to worry on just writing to

agencies. But that is not to say it’s the only option, there are thousands of free WordPress themes available online and more fully featured premium ones for around $50 each.

your blog! One of the most popular security plugins is the Better WP Security plugin which can be found at the WordPress plugins sections (wordpress. org/plugins/betterwp-security/). It offers tons of security features and most features are activated on one-click. At the same time it also allows much more advanced features for experienced users.

You should note that there is more that you can do to protect your blog, for example using strong passwords and not installing untrusted plugins and themes. The plugin referred to above provides protection against nearly all these vulnerabilities, however taking more steps would only make it more secure.

Review

Dreamhost www.dreamhost.com

Dreamhost is an amazing web hosting service. Currently they host over 1 million domains and own over 1500 servers at state-ofthe-art datacenters.

Having everything from shared webhosting at the best price, to dedicated servers at a very resonable price Dreamhost is the full deal with extreme reliablity!

Publisher

ShareThis

WordPress Blog Theme for Personal Websites

Thinking of starting your own wordpress blog? Here’s an amazing fully featured, satisfaction guaranteed wordpress theme by GavickPro which you can download at www.gavick.com

Share Buttons and Sharing Analytics

With access to 120 social channels (including Facebook, Twitter, Like, +1, Email and more), the ShareThis widget is a quick and easy sharing solution for your site to keep your audience engaged in your content and increase traffic to your site. You can also customize your widget for seamless integration to your site. You have the option to use small or large buttons, add counters and place the widget in a clear location for your users to share.

SEO is a must for any WordPress blog.

Schedule Blog Posts

Its what gets your website to the top of search engines and the only way to get your site ranked up. The first step is to ensure that your blog contains unique content which focuses on your primary keywords. Place proper images with the file names as keywords, related titles and alternate text which gives searching engines an extra thing to grab from your posts and in turn increase your ranking in the long run.

F

ooters are a very important part of any blog, in general they usually display credits or a copyrights message, but it’s now a trend to use it as a full fledged content section to display further links, latest posts, gallery and even adverts!

It is best for any blogger to follow a consistent publishing schedule maybe one post per day/week/ month. The easiest way to achieve this is by going to the Edit Screen of the post which you would like to schedule, locate the box named publish and on this click the edit button next to “Publish Immediately“ and thereby set the date which you would like the post to go live on.

M

anage your Sidebar Most sidebars are stuffed with adverts, social media icons and information which can distract readers from the actual post or page. Try to keep your sidebars to their absolute essentials and clean.

The Designn Magazine | 4th Edition | www.designn.org | Online Edition

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Watermarking your work What is a Watermark?

A watermark is essentially an image, or piece of text, you add to the top of your work to protect it.

Depending on placement, it can prevent others from claiming it as their own; if you add text to the edge of your canvas, it is easier to crop out / remove than if it is in the middle or covering the focal.

Why use a Watermark?

They’re completely customisable.

You make the watermark! You can edit and design it however you like.

They’re easy to implement. You take the image you have made and layer it atop your recent work, changing the colour and opacity as necessary to ensure it is as unobtrusive as possible, whilst still being legible.

If placed correctly, they’re difficult to remove. As mentioned above, placing it on the edge of your canvas can prompt people to crop it out if they want to steal your work; however, it is less obtrusive than placing it in the center of your work, or over a focal (the latter option clearly offering better security). It is your own discretion as to where you place your watermark.

They’re predominantly unobtrusive. Unless you make it large and at a high opacity, they often do not distract the viewer from your piece of art. Remember to keep your watermark subtle, but not hidden.

In this piece, I (*TehAngelsCry) have placed my watermark Written by: off-focal, which means that it's near the focal but not intruding on it. A simple drop-shadow ensures it's legible N. Rowlands on any colour (since it's covering a lot) and the dropped tehangelscry.deviantart.com The Designn Magazine | 4th Edition | www.designn.org | Online Edition opacity helps it blend into the background.

Designers and their workspaces

Linda Eliasen Linda is a Designer and Illustrator living in Brooklyn, New York. She currently spends her daylight hours designing internets for Squarespace and her moonlight hours as a freelance illustrator.

Jory Raphael Jory Raphael is a designer and illustrator based in Burlington, Vermont.

He is the co-founder of Notabli and specializes in the clean and usable at Sensible World.

Osvaldas Valutis Osvaldas Valutis is a web designer who specializes in website design, typography and front-end development: HTML, CSS, JavaScript.

Jason Wu Jason is a San Francisco based designer, an Apple fan, loves snowboarding, photography and believes design is delivering on simplicity and functionality.

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Zev Vel Director of Photography

Zev Vel is a 17 year old director of photography based in Woodstock, NY. He has worked on a wide variety of film sets including music videos, documentaries, feature films, and live performances. His experience varies from working as a director of photography, key grip, gaffer, and editor. Zev is currently attending Bard College at Simon’s Rock as a freshman.

W

hen did you start your career?

W

hen I was a freshman in high school I realized that I had a true passion for filmmaking and photography. Since then it has taken on its own form and really just propelled myself forward to many new projects and an endless amount of fun as well as hard work.

H I

ow will you describe your style?

definitely like having truth in my images while at the same time having an artistic tone. My favorite form of cinema is that of films based on a true story. As a result, if I am telling a story (fiction or nonfiction), I want to hold true to the character, the plot and the environment in which it takes place.

This may seem easy for an untrained eye, but next time you watch a film, take a look at a still frame from the film. Look at it carefully, look at the lines, the colors, the light sources, the clarity, the depth of the image, and any other aspects you may see. Hundreds of decisions must be made in an instant to produce such an image, and those decisions must all come back to the truth that you, or the director wants to convey.

W I

hen did you first discover your creative talent?

don’t think I really understood that my work was actually of such a strong quality until I received some of the feedback from The Symbol of Peace (http://thesymbolofpeace. com), my first film to go to film festivals. I knew that I had jumped in quickly and really enjoyed what I created, but I was a critic of my own work (as I think everyone should be), and until I was accepted into film festivals and people came up to me to say “that was incredible, thank you for creating the film” or “I have never seen something that impressive from such a young person”, that I realized that maybe my passion was really helping me draw something creative and amazing.

W

hat inspires you to keep making theseTip! amazing

arts?

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orking on film sets is an absolute joy of mine. Many people my age enjoy relaxing by playing video games all day, but for me that isn’t even close. I would much prefer to wake up early in the morning and get on set. When the lights are on and you’re shooting, there’s nothing better.

I

n your point of view, how has DeviantART helped you?

D

eviantART has helped me immensely. It is the only online website that I trust to really bring artists together in a communal environment that is both caring, fun, enjoyable, and safe. When I say safe, I don’t mean in the sense that it is policed so heavily that you can’t say anything bad, but more in the sense that true community members vouch for each other, care for each other, help each other, and in the end build what I consider to be a family.

These people, who in many cases you may never meet, can be from anywhere and as a result, their culture, religion, sexuality, or anything else that people often are “defined” by, don’t matter. People are who they present themselves as and as a result, you can be who you truly are in this community without any disrespect towards you.

In addition, there are times when an artist may need help (financially, socially, artistically, etc.) and there are always people willing to lend a hand. This is something very special about this community that is not always the case.

The Designn Magazine | 4th Edition | www.designn.org | Online Edition

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ow long and how much dedication did it take you to come to this professional level?

W

hat jobs have you done other than being an

artist?

I

can’t even say how many hours I have spent filming, editing, on set and building connections and a group of colleagues who I care for and care for me. It is an endless learning experience as every new situation has its own path that it teaches you and everyone else. Yes, you can know the basics of lighting, for example, but when you get into a situation where everything you know isn’t working, you have to think on your feet and be ready to come up with something entirely new.

am pretty tech savvy, and as a result I work for my college’s Information and Technology Services, I also do a fair amount of paid ‘personal’ IT work (setting up computers, advising on purchases, recovering files, etc.). If I had to choose a secondary path, I would want to work with technology, but on a more advanced level. I would love to help design new software or technology. I often have a lot of ideas that I wish I could implement or create, but do not have the knowledge to code, design, or otherwise formulate it.

W

W

I

I

hy did you choose to be an artist?

don’t really think that I chose to be an artist, it just came to me.

W T

hat is the funniest moment in your life?

hat’s a tricky question! I guess I will go with the time that I worked on set with a very famous award winning actor, and I ended up being able to spend a lot of time with this actor. I later came home and told my mother what had happened and she ‘fangirled’ over it.

She was so excited, and I ended up standing there for about 20 minutes while this was going on barely saying a word.

W I

ho is your Favorite Artist?

have many favorites of different categories, genres and ages.

Alfred Hitchcock (director) is for sure one of the most brilliant filmmakers, but while I love his work, I also love the work of Christopher Nolan (director) and Hans Zimmer (composer). At the same time, I also love the work of Ben Heine (photographer) and George Holz (photographer), who I actually had the opportunity to work with.

hat art do you most identify with?

I

would say that I identify with film, photography and traditional/ digital (hand or computer drawn) art. These three forms, for me, allow for a style that is always being improved. No one makes any piece and says “this is perfect” as there is always a way to improve for the next time.

P I

rofessionally, what’s your goal?

want to work as a full-time director of photography and have that be a lifestyle that supports me financially.

After receiving over 100 scripts from seven different countries, Meredith and Zev chose a single script from Emilio Iasiello to be developed and produced. THE DANCE, tells the compelling story of young newlyweds experiencing a rough patch in their relationship. When driving home from a company picnic, www.visual-narrative.com

they stumble upon a yard sale where Hank, a widower, warns them of the consequences of letting life slip through one’s fingers.

The Designn Magazine | 4th Edition | www.designn.org | Online Edition

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DESIGNN PROJECT

www.designn.org

The Designn Magazine | 4th Edition | www.designn.org | Online Edition

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1

The ultimate magazine covering everything to do with art and design!

2

We design for free! Yes! Tell us about your startup, project or business and we’ll help you out with the design.

3

Volunteer to work with us and contribute towards making this project a success! Every volunteer is recognized!

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Retina Press - Wordpress admin theme Retina Press – The brand new retina display custom theme designed for the Wordpress admin. This Wordpress admin theme now gives you the ability to offer your customer and clients a completely new and customised dashboard, setting you apart from the competition. www.codecanyon.net/item/retina-presswordpress-admin-theme

MyMail - Email Newsletter Plugin A super simple Email Newsletter Plugin for WordPress to create, send and track your Newsletter Campaigns www.codecanyon.net/item/mymail-email-newsletter-pluginfor-wordpress

Related Posts by Zemanta Zemanta recommends your content to new audiences both on your blog and across our network of high-quality sites. www.wordpress.org/plugins/relatedThe Designn Magazine | 4th Edition | www.designn.org | Online Edition posts-by-zemanta

BackupBuddy

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Back up your entire WordPress installation. Widgets, themes, plugins, files and SQL database - the entire package! Just like your laptop or desktop computer, you should be doing regular backups of your website. With BackupBuddy you can schedule backups and have them sent off-site to Dropbox, Amazon S3, Rackspace Cloud, an FTP server, or your email. Or download them right to your desktop. www.ithemes.com/purchase/backupbuddy/

Gravity Forms Build and publish your WordPress forms in just minutes. No drudgery, just quick and easy form-building.

Select your fields, configure your options and easily embed forms on your WordPress powered site using the built-in tools. That's way more satisfying (and less fattening) than a peanutty candy bar any day. www.gravityforms.com The Designn Magazine | 4th Edition | www.designn.org | Online Edition

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~ of Beards and Men ~ A Portrait of Man - by Joseph D.R. OLeary -

Of Beards and Men provides an intimate peek into the world of men and their beards.

What is it about a man with a beard? Debate looms large….is he more attractive? Respectable?

Trustworthy? Does it define him, or not? Does he use facial hair as a form of creativity, self-expression or perhaps a little rebelliousness?

release in Fall of 2013.

Questions & Answers: Why a book of bearded men? So many dynamics converged to yield this project.

• Over the years I have perused many historic “Of Beards and Men” is a photographs and books labor of love for graphic of portraiture and was indesigner and photogratrigued by the prevalence pher Joseph D.R. OLeary. of beards on so many of Over the past 18 months, the men from generahe’s photographed 130+ tions past. I started thinkbearded men. Each ing about and discussing portrait is an exploration the lack of acceptance into that man’s passions, beards have today personality and unique among influential, imporindividuality. tant, even respected men in society and wanted to The next step for this dispel our current biases project is printing a hand- of the shaved vs. unshavsomely designed and ex- ed man. quisitely produced book that brings together all • I was looking for a way 130+ portraits. The book to refocus my enerwill include three essays gies and distract myself by art critic George Slade, following a difficult photographer and educa- 2011/2012 during which tor Douglas Beasley and my brother unexpectTwin Cities’ arts writer edly died and I endured a Andy Sturdevant. The debilitating bout of Lyme book is scheduled for disease.

• As a photographer, I’ve always been compelled by portraiture — of myself and others. People are fascinating and everyone has a story to tell. It is these “stories” that need to be recorded through portraiture.

The project transformed from a simple study of photographing bearded men to an indepth exploration of how men define themselves — personally, professionally or spiritually — in a culture that seems obsessed with defining masculinity as well as granting the freedom of defining your own personal style.

The guys I met during this project were inspirational. Hearing their stories as I photographed them was amazing. Capturing a glimpse of their lives infused the images with a warmth, personality and beauty I hadn’t expected.

How long did it take to photograph everyone? 18 months — from February 2012 to July 2013.

The Designn Magazine | 4th Edition | www.designn.org | Online Edition

Who are the guys in the portraits? The guys are people just like you. They all answered the call to give their beard its “15 minutes of fame.” Initially, they were all local to the Minneapolis area, but as word spread about the project, bearded men came to my studio from throughout Minnesota and beyond including Texas, Missouri, Illinois, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and Washington.

Ultimately, what connected them was not their beards. Rather, it was the fact that they all had a story to tell and they all stepped up to “tell” it.

Fund and follow up on this project at : http:// www.kickstarter.com/ projects/jdro/of-beardsand-men-a-portrait-ofman

Happy, joyful, honest, creative, curious

Iva

Hobbyist Photographer www.lpdragonfly.deviantart.com

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ho are you and what do you do?

M

y name is Iva and I am a hobbyist photographer. I’m also an English teacher.

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hen did you start your photography career?

I

have loved photography since I was a child and I remember having a camera and just taking photos of everything I thought was interesting. I became more seriously involved in photography when I discovered DeviantART about six years ago.

I

n your point of view, how has DeviantART helped you?

D

eviantART introduced me to the world of not only photography but art in general. It gave me the opportunity to communicate with other artists, share my photography and gain recognition. It made me appreciate art even more and enabled me to polish up my skills.

H R

ow would you describe your photography style?

omantic, dreamy, gentle, girlish...

Full of life and color. I mostly focus on macro and close-up shots of flowers and other nature.

W

hat inspires you to keep making these amazing photographs?

T

he beauty of nature. Most of my photographs are those of flowers and I just have the need to capture their beauty and share it with the world.

W

hy did you choose to be a photographer?

I

t’s not something I chose to do, it just happened.

P

rofessionally, what’s your goal?

M

y goal is to improve my photography skills even more. And one day I’d like to become a professional photographer.

W

hat jobs have you done other than being a photographer?

I

am an English teacher and this is the only type of job I’ve ever done.

W

hen did you first discover your creative talent?

W

hen I had just started photography I never considered myself to be talented. I took photos because I liked doing it and not because I thought I was good at it. And honestly at that time I wasn’t really good at it. Over the years I practiced and practiced and gained more and more skill. That’s when I started receiving comments from different people that I’m a really good at photography and that I should keep doing it. And I did.

W

ho is your Favorite Artist?

I

can’t really name a specific person, but I often browse galleries on DeviantART and constantly find amazing artists whose photography I really admire.

H

ow long and how much dedication did it take you to come to this professional level?

I

t took lots and lots of practice every day, exchanging thoughts and critiques with other artists, browsing different artist’s photographs, reading photography magazines and so on.

Tip! Nam inum alia adicia Am ipsapid mi, eici Tem faccum vendaeped.

Tip!

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DeviantART

www.deviantart.com

DeviantART has an incredibly diverse array of stock available to everyone; you will be able to find great images of clouds, alongside fantastic stock images of warriors in full body armour. Unfortunately, since stock submissions are not monitored, you may end up using a copyrighted image which someone else has uploaded as stock without the original artists permission; so always check the comments and artist. If it doesn't look legitimate, don't use it. The required pixel size for stock images has recently increased, so you're more likely to find larger images of a better quality.

Stock.XCHNG

www.sxc.hu

Despite all of the current issues surrounding what you can and cannot use stock.xchng images for, remember to always check with the photographer. Some photographers may allow derivative work to be created using their stock. Either way, the stock here is monitored, so you’re always guaranteed usable images of an extremely high quality. Diversity is a little lacking though.

For a more detailed response from stock.xchng, check out this journal: www.fav.me/d5xqvvl

The Designn Magazine | 4th Edition | www.designn.org | Online Edition

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Free Images

www.freeimages.co.uk

Free Images has no limits on what its stock can be used for, and allows them to be used for derivative pieces, so long as credit is given. Again the quality of submission is monitored, so you are guaranteed resources at a high quality. The website itself is a little primitive, and there isn’t much diversity to the stock images; but if you can find what you need, it’ll be decent.

Freestock.ca

www.freestock.ca

Freestock.ca was formed in 2012 with the intention of providing free high quality stock photos. As owner & contributor, I, Nicolas Raymond, have been lucky enough to travel the world. In the process, I’d like to think I have gained a profound appreciation for the intricacies weaving this planet together... although I have to admit it is always a work in progress, a never-ending journey to discover new things.

- Nicolas Raymond Owner & Contributor

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Out of inspiration?

Do you find there are sometimes days when you will sit down in front of your tools of the trade and find you cannot come up with anything new? Or maybe you are working on a job or assignment and just would rather do something else but don’t really want to leave your desk. Well here is something I do both to get the mind working again and also as a break from work.

I skim through my old files and find something that is either unfinished or that I like and I believe I could re-imagine in the context of the things I’m working on at the moment. Here is an example of both: Two character designs. The first is an old character of mine I created back in 2011 from a project I’ve got shelved while I’m at university. The second is a sketch of another character from the same project from a year later which I never did bother finishing because I didn’t really see what I could add to it except more polishing.

Now it’s 2013. I’ve grown a year or two and learnt much more about character design, exposed myself to much more art, film, music, and general sights in the world. The way I see and understand things

has changed slightly. So now when I think “futuristic princess who is also head of state scientific research”, I see something completely different and better than the one I drew two years ago. Now I see someone regal, young and smart with at least one gadget on her person at any time. Yet in the context of the world she lives in, she isn’t cyberpunked:

you left behind but would mix well with your current way of working will refresh your work and lead to the creation of some brilliant pieces.

Your thoughts?

- Nathan hawthornearts.deviantart.com

And for our Genie? Now I see that he could be more decorated, some ornate gold, a more complicated headpiece that adds mystery and danger to his look, plus some chains somewhere to show he is bound to something.

Use your breaks wisely and you give yourself room to learn a lot.

Ideas and methodologies which

The Designn Magazine | 4th Edition | www.designn.org | Online Edition

25

Astronaut Concept

by Ivan Laliashvili

The Designn Magazine | 4th Edition | www.designn.org | Online Edition

Credits The Designn Team thanks every single writer, artist and volunteer who contributed towards this magazine in any way possible and helped make it a success.

Our team has worked hard to ensure that no one is missed from the credits, and if by any chance you/anyone has been missed out it’s solely accidental and if informed we shall try to add it onto the magazine or one of its future editions.

(All links used were functional at the time of publication and may have changed since then)

+ Red Haired Samurai by Sakimichan www. fav.me/d4v1z1t - used on cover page + Vector Toons by Maria www.mariakellerac. com + Overlapping the twilight by ELK64 www.fav. me/d6373dd + Frozen Frame by Omar Sealtiel & Exodo Digital Workshop www.fav.me/d4ua7op + Calypso by Cyril Rolando www.fav.me/ d62qd70 + Designn would also like to thank all the other contributors, artists, interviewees and any others involved for their contributions towards making this times edition of the magazine a success!

Calypso

by Cyril Rolando

Designn Magazine Written by deviants for deviants

The Designn Magazine - an initiative of the Designn Project founded by Udara Jayawardena. Visit www.designn.org to contribute and support this free project.

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