Neo-Cubist Skull

Here’s a Shout Out from the Artist at Work

Apple WWDC 2010 Remembered

Does Steve Jobs really look like that? Well… that is how I see him.

Commemorating Google i/o 2010 and the Droid

fm “News” Icon

More neocubist technology.

Note: Copyright ForthMedia, used here by permission.

“Design & Technology” Icon

Let’s call this an elaboration of the neocubist theme I’ve been working on for a while.

Like the cubist style invented by Picasso about a hundred years ago, there is a conscious rejection of vanishing lines of perspective. Perspective is a technique artists use to make things look real. Today, of course, if you want a realistic picture of something, you can take one. With your cell phone.

Gradients aside, these images are pretty flat. To give the image depth, you have to move things around inside the frame. Thank goodness for software with layers.

Using a paint brush to represent design, that’s pretty intuitive. How about that gear for technology? OK, you’re probably thinking: technology means computers, gadgets, the Internet. It used to mean something less knowledge-based. More primal. As Alvin Toffler once said, "Brute technology was designed for illiterates–which most of our ancestors were."

Gracenote, Brush, and Gear

Note: These images are copyright Forthmedia, and used here by permission.

50 Cent

Robert Greene

These images pay tribute to The 50th Law, by 50 Cent and Robert Greene. You can read a summarized version of the book on the blog Power, Seduction and War. Here’s one of my favorite nuggets of wisdom:

The public is never wrong. When people don’t respond to what you do, they’re telling you something loud and clear. You’re just not lisenting. – 50 Cent

The Photoshop work was adapted from a case study in How to Cheat in Photoshop CS4 by Steve Caplin. It’s a great reference for sharpening your Photoshop skills.

(The original photo of Robert Greene is by Susan Anderson.)

The Blueglow Icon Collection on Facebook

If you’ve been following along, you know these neo-cubist icons were being worked on for the better part of the year. The idea behind the "blueglow" project has been to craft a fresh, contemporary look for Forthmedia, without adhering too closely to what all the best web designers are doing. I did away with those rounded-off corners the day before public beta.

Along the way, social networking and mobile phone apps have become even further entrenched in the current zeitgeist. I’ve been playing with the Facebook app for iPhone, but it keeps telling me "This photo set contains no photos," which it does, so I’ll give you a link.

The Blueglow Icon Collection on Facebook

Anyway, this is what the Forthmedia doodads look like. I hope you can make out what they’re supposed to be. If not, I guess I’ll be tweaking them some more.

© ForthMedia

I got feedback that the first version of this icon was not "feminine enough." How could you tell? It must be that you are getting used to looking at this neo-cubist stuff. I’ve been looking at this highly abstract icon so long it’s beginning to resemble somebody I really know.

Neo-Cubist Before After

You can see the hand-drawn concept sketches from earlier this year. Look under Tags on the left, for a gallery of neo-cubist works on this blog.

Elements

Photoshop 3D.