One of the final projects my class had from our instructor in Principles of Graphic Design was to select three influential graphic designers from a list to research. I chose Wim Crouwel, Herbert Bayer, and Paul Rand. I probably should’ve gone with a few that I didn’t know anything about, but alas. The research criteria was minimal, only recommending that we had close to 400 words for each separate paper. I really enjoyed this assignment because it served several purposes; to learn about influential designers, to practice using proper leading, to continue working on typographic rags and widows, and to … Read more
Found this video of an conceptual photography shoot by Tavis Glover on youtube, I was really moved by it, so I wanted to share: Read more
I’m sure most of the world knows by now that Instagram has made changes to their Terms of Service which will be taking effect on January 1st, 2013. Lots of people are jumping ship and deleting their photos, or just being more cautious about what they post. Personally, I’m deleting mine and embracing Read more
My toes originally got wet in design when I was about 9 years old. NOTHING I made was functional, systematic, creative, or even worthy of being called design. Starting out in web design, I was using a site generator called Homestead, making bottomless Britney Spears fan sites with stolen images, jumbled all over the place. I wish to this day I had a screen shot of this colossal mess to share, but I don’t. The goal was not to be design savvy at the time, or to particularly learn something. It happened on accident, really. I was blessed with several … Read more
Blurb, Inc. is a company that provides a print-on-demand publishing service for the general public. After you sign up for an account, you have the choice between three different methods of inputing your design, copy, etc into your book. They include: Booksmart, Bookify, and PDF to Book. I have not used Booksmart or Bookify, but from what I understand they are both user friendly generators (one is an downloadable application, and the other is browser based.) I recently used PDF to Book, and wanted to talk about the notable things about Blurb that designers should consider before using their services. … Read more
Posted in Blog, Design, Print/Editorial, Web
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Tagged blurb, book, design, endsheet, herbert matter, indesign, pastedowns, pdf, sigatures
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Jordan Peck, the one man band from Wichita, Kansas. He’s a street performer who sets up in different places all around San Francisco. The drum set on his back weights approximately 40 lbs. Read more
I noticed while working on an assignment for class that there are not any legible timelines for Graphic Design available on the web, so I decided to post my final piece of work on the site. My teacher called for the timeline to be from 3600 BC up until the seventeenth century, so nothing modern is dated. I included the social, historical, and political movements around the time these innovations were happening, so the notable things regarding graphic design are marked in red. I know that this is something common for graphic design schools to do, so for the integrity … Read more
I’m currently taking a Calligraphy course in school, and when I was learning the Roman Capitals, I noticed there wasn’t many templates available or even that much information on them. I thought it would be nice for those interested in the Roman Capitals to have this to print out and practice on. I may post a detailed tutorial at a later date. “roman_capitals_template.png” Read more
Since middle school, I have been coined as one of ‘those’ people: The one’s who randomly incorporate facts into just about every conversation. I got to thinking earlier though, whose to say that these random facts aren’t useful? I find myself constantly using them. They often work as an adhesive from one bit of “important” information to another. Today, I thought it would be pretty cool to make a twitter where I can share my random tidbits– they are usually blurt out as one-liners, so what’s better than a 140 character limit for this? Follow @sillyingredient on twitter to get … Read more
Hey hey! It’s been a few, been pre-occupied lately– I’ve been trying to get back into my routine and ready for school, so I haven’t had much time to post anything, still have a side project pending. I am doing a new layout design/brand design for SearchLovelyHomes.com, it’s a real estate website. I am super excited about getting this site up though. I have been designing intuitively since I started the project, it belongs to my in-laws and I was given complete creative control. That’s always awesome, but I found it difficult, at first, to come up with a good … Read more
Posted in Blog, Personal
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Happy New Years, and also, welcome to my new corner of the web! In light of the new year, I have changed my domain name from britta.tv to pixelairship.com and created a new design for my somewhat same layout! You’re probably wondering (i’ve been asked a few times already) ….why the change? Well, approximately 3 years ago, I had a website and bought the domain name britta.tv to be supplemental with my lifecast on justin.tv. I lifecasted for two years, eventually got sick of being on camera all the time, and once I stopped, my domain name suddenly made no … Read more
Hi there! Merry Christmas to all of those who celebrate the holiday– I have had a great Christmas so far, got to spend a Friday that I regularly would not be able to spend with my husband, had a great pot roast dinner that I kind of made up on the whim (luckily turned out great instead of awful!) and opened presents. I received in my stocking a Steam activation code for a puzzle, point-and-click game called “Machinarium.” It is a beautifully designed game (actually won “IGF’s “Excellence in Visual Art” Award for 2009) that I tried out last year … Read more
Posted in Art, Games, Miscellaneous, Papercraft, Personal
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Tagged alice in wonderland, bunny, French, games, machinarium, mini top hat, nabaztag, steam, steampunk, victorian, violet
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I decided to go with a steampunk-ish theme this time, holds about 12 CS5 Brushes. Also I recently made a brusheezy.com account, so this will be my last brush that I post directly on my site. My first set on brusheezy was of mistletoe, if you’re in the christmas spirit, feel free to download. steambrushes.zip These are free to use, no link back required. (Please DO NOT directly link to the download..it takes my bandwidth) Read more
Hey All! Went to the Charles Dickens Christmas Fair with my husband today…it was a lot of fun! The place was filled with great scents, festive decor and tons of beautiful old English costumes. I have a bit of an obsession with hats, and when I saw the mini top hats the women were wearing, I wanted one immediately! As soon as I got home from the fair I started looking around for instructions on how to make one– there are many sites that give you the instructions or step-by-step pictures of making one, but since I was limited with … Read more
Posted in Art, Blog, Miscellaneous, Papercraft
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Tagged Burlesque, Couture, Creole, French, Gothic, Hand Made, Hand Stitched, Mini Fleur De Lis Top Hat: Aristocrat, Neo Victorian, Pin Up, Purple Felt, Steam Punk
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If you’re just starting out with graphic design, then you probably haven’t thought much about writing. I know that I didn’t. However, design goes a bit further than just selecting a font go to with the feel of what you’re cooking up– Good design is meant to organize information, to make reading quick and comprehensive, and to express an idea. It’s safe to say that a layout is not only a part of the creative process, but also a part of the writing process. I have made a list of TYPE DONTS for aspiring graphic designers: 1. Avoid Widows and … Read more
Posted in Blog, Design, Print/Editorial, Tips, Typography
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Tagged alt codes, etiquette, greeking, kerning, leading, orphans, standards, tips, tracking, typography, widows
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I was playing with Photoshop brushes today, and decided to turn all of the random artwork my friends and family have given me into digital greatness! I’m posting the .abr file for use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. There are a lot of names tied to this file, so you can link to the respective owner, or link back to this blog post. Enjoy! sketchbrushes.zip Digitalized Sketch Brushes by Michelle Pozsonyi(girl brushes), Emmanuel Lara(eye samples), Jamal Fanaian(aliens), Candis Kinser(paint blotches), and Britta Fanaian(robot) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.Based on a work at www.britta.tv.Permissions beyond the scope … Read more
These days, everyone has at least one. By one, I mean a geek. And, they manage to be somewhat difficult to shop for. They either have one, or what you pick just isn’t good enough… it can be very frustrating. While shopping around for my own geek, I have made a list of somewhat safe and inexpensive stocking stuffables you can gift your geek this holiday season to keep them hip and happy. 1. JVC Gumy Headphones – Music is a universal language, so if you really have no clue what to buy your tech savvy person, you can never … Read more
Posted in Blog, Technology
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Tagged android, apple, christmas, geeks, holiday, nerds, season, small, stocking, stuffers, trinkets, xmas
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Hey there! I hope that everyone had a fantastic Holiday, I certainly did; It wasn’t my typical Thanksgiving, this was the first time my husband or myself have away from home (you know, mom-and-dad-home). We cooked our first turkey together, and were accompanied by our cats while we ate. So, I bought a new camera about a month ago (nothing fancy, a little Sony CyberShot) and I realized while looking through my iPhone how little I use the camera on it anymore. Since I have a slim camera now, I take it just about anywhere with me and it’s actually … Read more
Posted in Blog, Personal
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There are more and more commercials on TV about turkeys, and seasonal sales– I think it’s safe to say we have officially entered the Holiday Season! We have two weeks until Thanksgiving, and I’ve been doing a lot reflecting lately about this year. 2010 has definitely been a huge year for me, and I have plenty to be thankful for. I made a list of 10 things I’m thankful for this November. I’m thankful for… My Husband — We have been married for a year and a half now, it has taken a lot of getting used to, but he … Read more
Hi guys! I just comped (put together) a Accordion Brochure with some of my artwork, and I’m very excited to be adding this comp to my portfolio. This is a very stylish and unusual piece and it was actually a lot of fun to put together. I think my favorite part about the accordion brochure, aside from the fold style, is the versatility. You can either keep it unattached (ex.: photo #1) or you can bind it like a book (ex.: photo #). I didn’t spend much time on the spread layout as much as I did the comping in … Read more
Hi there! My name is Britta, and welcome to my *new* blog. Here, I will be posting Adobe CS5 tutorials for public use, mentioning art in the news, and leaving other various mental fingerprints. Happy reading! Read more
Posted in Blog, Personal
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