Richard Stelmach - Web Design and Multimedia Portfolio

I like it when I get on sites, it makes me feel warm inside, I then like to tell people about it, hence this post. Soon I will think of something better to write about, until then, all you have are my selfish, ego-feeding lists of sites that the binge has featured on.

This showcase is about the hand drawn, web design style:

http://www.myinkblog.com/2009/05/16/a-showcase-of-popular-web-design-trends/

I agree that is useful sometimes to give a site a personal touch. While a site may often need to appeal to a wide audience, you can still strike a balance between fully personal and expressionistic design, and wide-appealing, user friendly design. This is especially useful in a personal site such as mine which I believe should contain some individualism as it is ultimately, about me.

I managed to appear on this post about breaking design rules. I don’t really see myself as the biggest of rebels, though there is no denying, the Maverick(from Top Gun) - esque connotations are appealing.

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/06/10-web-design-rules-that-you-can-break/

It is definitely true that if you do something original it will stand out, and sometimes breaking the trend or ‘design rules’ is a way of doing this. Also it highlights the old addage that there is always an exception to the rule.

And another illustrative showcase:

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/60-beautiful-hand-drawn-web-design/

Illustration isn’t as common in websites for one reason or another, so I guess it’s no surprise that the illustrative header on this site has helped it stand out.

I always like to show people work I’m proud of, maybe to ego trip or for an innocent pat on the back, I’m not sure. Lately I haven’t been able to share much I have done either as I’ve had to be secret or the sites haven’t gone live yet, hence the stagnated blog :-/

But anyway, I should explain the reasoning behind the ‘yay!’.

I’ve had 2 morale boosters which is always good.

(1) Recently I did a post on ‘top 10′ type lists overwhleming digg.com. Well I’ve kind of come to the conclusion that I usually tend to dislike them unless I appear on them!

http://sixrevisions.com/web_design/30-creative-examples-of-illustrations-in-web-design/

It’s pretty cool that I managed to get on this as I’m trying to further my illustration skills and it’s nice to know this site is still getting some attention even though I designed it over a year ago. + extra morale booster for appearing in the same list as a bunch of design agencies and famous designer Andy Clarke.

(2) Second morale booster is that mach4cs.co.uk, a site I did for Pontefract based, computer repair company got on a design gallery site, generating a few hundred visits, which is bound to help the site’s SEO:

http://www.cssdrive.com/index.php/main/galleryitem/mach4_computer_services/

(creative/design/skills wise)

I need to improve my skillz somehow I reckon. “How? They’re already so good?” I hear you say. My design skills seem to naturally progress aslong as I keep myself busy but I’d like to improve some aspect of my skills further to gain the satisfaction or stop any niggling doubt in my own ability.

Last year I guess I mainly moved forward by learning javascript and now I’m glad that I’m pretty good with jquery and mootools, able to write pretty handy stuff, including AJAX, that is a necessary skill nowadays with javascript able to create very useful features. I’ve also learned Illustrator and improved my illustration skills.

Anyway, as probably most people do, I have a large abundance of ideas that i’d like to do but from either lazyness, procrastination or busyness I probably won’t: fill my new moleskine with amazing drawings, become an amazing ASP.NET programmer, redesign my portfolio and get on all the gallery sites again, be as good at graphic design as I am web design. But hey ho, hopefully I’ll achieve something.

This year I got on design galleries for 2 websites and created a popular photoshop brush set, I need to atleast match that or is that showing some kind of obsessive, masochistic behaviour, I’m not sure.

Atleast I am going to be playing the drums in a band again, this should definitely feed my creative hunger (forgive connotations, I’ve been reading vampire books lately), and now I am wiser, the music could even be good!

If you’ve read my two previous posts you may get the feeling I’m liking illustration of late.

I often go through design phases which to some extent I don’t like as I believe I shouldn’t be constrained to a certain style but at the same time I think it’s unavoidable for any designer.

As well as experiment I’ve also been looking at sites such as grainedit that has awesome daily posts on vintage illustration and design. I’ve always been interested in vintage design which you may be able to see in these: halloween, summer sale, kitchen and jack la lanne. But illustration is another step forward.

I recently had a nice subject matter of a rail offer and I found myself using flat shapes and along with my love for giving texture to designs, it seemed a great combo.

If you can’t see a train running along with smoke coming out, you probably haven’t got flash player installed! Either that or banners aren’t as good as I thought they were!

The banners provided an extra challenge of having a side and front on view. I gave texture by creating a transparent png in Photoshop and placing it on the top layer in the flash movie.

It’s hard to measure the impact of interesting or good design opposed to an in your face super mega tack approach but I would like to think the originality of the banners would attract people to possibly read them or give them a click.

[sorry for this horrendously large white space, but the banner is so high, i’m sorry!]

Today I’ve continued to try and improve my illustration by choosing an illustrative style for a design. The theme was ‘added extras’ so I wanted to create an illustrative montage, quite a common technique, I imagine originating from pop art. This was my initial illustration.

However, I found that the black and white didn’t quite work with the design so I needed to add colour. Also as the design needed a heading and strap line with it the text on the illustration made it too busy.

The illustration progressed to this:

I again enjoyed bringing it into Photoshop to add texture and a watercolour feel. I like how it has a nice friendly feel to it so was fairly pleased with the result.

I followed the style throughout the page by creating the following illustrations representing various things.

I love Photoshop brushes and now I love illustration so I really enjoy combining the two. Finally I couldn’t resist over stylising the main illustration as an experiment.

I’m still planning on doing some artwork around the chav/knife theme. Also I want to buy some ‘how to draw characters’ books to try and improve my character drawing skills.

Of late I have more and more been wanting to get good at illustration. Illustration is very handy in design and although I can do illustrations I have definitely not mastered it.

There are a few things that attract me to illustration. Firstly the expressionistic aspect. I imagine you can just put pen to paper and let your ideas and emotions flow, without need to even have something in front of you to base your drawing on. Secondly I’m a big fan of manga and anime which often inspires me to try it out myself.

This confuses me a little. I did A-Level Art and I think I’m pretty good at drawing real life stuff, especially with the pen. But I’ve never been good drawing off the top of my head. This is not to say I don’t have a good imagination. I can design and have always had a creative imagination, sometimes a bad thing when I watch horror films or Ghost Hunters International! If it is the case that illustrators have such a vivid imagination that helps them draw, I definitely envy them!

On the other hand it could also be practise, much like the BBC programme the other night “The Making of Me: Vanessa-Mae”. It explored the nurture or nature debate and settled on 50/50 which I think I’d agree with.

So there could be hope for me yet! I’ve been thinking on getting some ‘how to illustrate’ books. I’ve always liked drawing so it could be fun even if I’m just recreating characters in the books etc. One things for sure, i really need a small scanner!!! Last time I desperately photographed some drawings, what a crap idea that was…

I have been yearning for a creative project of late so illustrating could feed my hunger. I’ve already had some ideas to do some drawings about chavs and knife crime along with some depressing strap lines, so I’m really pining to do that. Hopefully i’ll have something up here soon.

Earlier I had to do a banner of the 02 arena, I saw a good excuse to use illustration opposed to photographic. Later I stylised it more. I love the combination of bringing it into Photoshop to add texture, giving it an authentic feel. I also experimented with lighting effects (filters > render > lighting).

Here are some nice links for illustrations i’ve noticed lately:

• 58 Wonderfully Cute Illustrated Monster Characters
• Will Murai

I saw some others but can’t remember where now Sorry for the crap list!

O and one last thing, I did manage to get top for Pontefract Web Design! Woo, a small victory, atleast for my ego. Though I didn’t get top for Web Design Pontefract, how bizarre.

As some will know I am from Pontefract, the home of sweets, liquorice and many a happy memory.

The allure of Pontefract, is, lets say, quite subtle, an acquired taste. Perhaps it’s the bald lobster men (as ponte-folk have been described) drinking on a summer’s day with bloated stomachs that have been finely developed with many a pie or the dilapidated castle, a reminder of our former glory that puts people off. Ironically, it was the wise Ponte-folk that knocked it down themselves, sick of all the fighting it attracted. An important part of their lives, this peaceful chasm would need to be filled with drunken brawls erupting from the fine array of drink pits that Pontefract prides itself on. (pictured right: the unhappy flag is perhaps meant to detract people’s eyes from the ‘castle’)

“Bloody Pomfret”, Shakespeare said, a more apt name than recently described on the Pontefract Liquorice Trust site:

“…this gem is almost hidden from the rest of the world.”

Almost hidden, unfortunately not quite.

Yet it does have many a redeeming feature. Historic buildings, cobbled streets and green fields. I can’t help but love it.

Not famous for it’s abundance of web designers, perhaps in a moment of self importance, only a moment, I thought I may have good google rankings for Ponte related web design. Yet in moment of terror I realised I don’t even get on the list for Pontefract. Most disappointing. I realised I didn’t have any meta action, which seems to have become important again.

With my legendary victory over Ed Stelmach many eons ago, I thought my battles were over. But once again I must tussle the unforgiving realms of SEO to claim my deserved place at the top of “Pontefract Web Design” google rankings. I will let you know if I am successful.

Until then you will have to gaze at my latest website, mach4cs.co.uk, he really does do beasty (as in powerful) cheap computers. This and some other recent additions has left my first portfolio page looking its bestest ever. I’ll just have to make sure I don’t put something crap on now to spoil it.

Of late I have been enjoying the beauty of logo design. Looking through my blog posts this love sprouted it’s seductive roots about a year ago when I did these logo designs for a company in Leeds.

Soon after, these roots grew stronger and wrapped their loving grasp around my heart, squeezing creative juices onto my Photoshop, virtual computer canvas. Unfortunately my logo skillz had not quite developed and it sprung some mediocre logos I did for Dan Atkinson. The shame. Luckily I am not yet an arrogant designer and can say that many a crap design must be produced to attain beauty.

Then, a strange thing happened, I actually made the effort of moving my hand away from the mouse and picked up a pen! Yes, now I moved not only my wrist but my hand, fingers, arm, everything, to utilise an ancient device called the pen! By using this pen and the more familiar comupter, I managed to create a logo for idolised.co.uk, an unused masterpiece.

I don’t believe that using a pen is always necessary, but in this case I found it useful in developing the symbol which I could then cleanly re-create in Illustrator.

Shortly follwed by an unappreciated French Meridian logo. Luckily for the logo, it snuggeld up in its new fluffy home of creative binge, a sanctuary for many a rejected design!

Okay, now let’s get to the good stuff.

The great thing about logos is that they are the epitome of design. In one graphic you are expressing a message. It’s the core or essence of design. 100s of choices go into creating this small piece that could maybe only consist of a symbol. As well as creating the brand, it often makes or breaks a web design. Allot can depend on a good logo. And it is these things that I have find challenging and consequently satisfying.

My latest logos are:

and

yayyy…

For both I’m doing interweb spaces for.

Other bingers of note go again to my Rough Edges Photoshop brush set that has now got over 48,000 downloads and 180 votes to say its good! Woo! It also features here.

O and I also got interviewed by Hello! magazine….okay, maybe only for uk2.net, a hosting company…and they did say I own my own company (which I don’t) but hey, maybe some people have read my nonsensical thoughts! Click here to read. Ba bye.

Lately I have developed a deep and twisted love for Photoshop brush sets. They are a great way of quickly and easily adding texture and depth to designs and their usage can be seen constantly on the web.

I think texture and depth are particularly important in web design. Graphic designers get the texture and feel in the material they print on and often flat colours seem to work better in graphic design as lighting and texture come naturally. I think web designers often need to use allot of gradients and layering things up to give depth and makes things tactile, authentic.

This is where Photoshop brushes come into their own. You can of course build things up with images but brushes give a quick and fluid advantage where you can just stamp texture onto the mask of the layer or create imagery when you can’t find the right royalty free image.

Here are some recent examples I’ve seen Photoshop brushes used:

• http://www.mikeposs.com/
• http://www.pixele.fr/
• http://mesa.cityofgrace.com/

Adding Photoshop brushes is easy. Once you’ve downloaded some, all you have to do is open your brush pallette (F5), click on the little arrow top right and then click on ‘Load Brushes’, the new brushes will then be appended to your list.

Here is a great site for free brush downloads - http://www.brusheezy.com/.

I’ve also made my own brush set, you can download it here: http://www.brusheezy.com/brush/639-Rough-Edges

Today I managed to make it onto Best Web Gallery which, well, does what it says on the tin, as that annoying advert guy used to say. I check the site fairly often as the sites on there are always really nice.

One of my aims with the new site was to try and get onto some gallery sites so I’m really happy I’ve made it onto my fave! I’d like to say they randomly picked my site while perusing the web, but in truth, I begged for their approval. They must have felt sorry for me!