Your friends swear it is the best thing ever. Time Magazine is running a cover story on it. You've heard stories of people getting jobs through it.
And finally, you got yourself a twitter account.
Hopefully, you've quickly acclimated yourself with this awesome service and are on your way to becoming a full-blown "Tweep" (person on twitter). And as you've perused through Ashton Kutcher's, Brittney Spears' and hopefully some more informative pages, you may notice that twitter allows its users to post custom background.
Want a unique twitter background? Killswitch is here to help you make your twitter page all the rage with some backgrounds of our very own design.
Just visit the ftp sites and download the images to you desktop.
Changing your twitter background is easy:
1. Log in
2. In top navigation bar, click Settings (or go to http://twitter.com/account/settings)
3. Click the last settings tab, Design
4. Change your text and background colors and upload your background image
5. Save your changes
We've also included a our Grey Things image as a transparent GIF. This way, if you want to add your own touch to this background (our feelings won't be hurt, go ahead!), you can adjust your background color to whatever you please. However, this is a little tricky...
1. From the Design tab, choose "Change background image"
2. Then, click "no image"
3. Adjust your background color to your liking
4. Upload the "Grey Things" GIF
5. Save changes
And the image should show up on top of the background you selected.
Don't forget to follow us on Twitter for more artwork to come!
When I was small, I remember wondering if people see colors the same way. Do you see blue like I see purple? Is your mustard my marigold? Why are you wearing neon green when it is so clearly a distracting and heinous hue? Furthermore, what does the world look like through colorblind eyes? In a year in which color is such a politically provocative and empowering idea, I wanted to reflect a bit on how it inspires me.
I won't delve into color theory, as there are many designers speaking on the subject who are far more knowledgeable and eloquent than me. And honestly, I'm most often more attracted to a lack of color than vibrant ones — I'm in constant search of the perfect shade of grey (I just can't get enough charcoals and slates and taupes) — so I'm certainly no expert in the ways of color. But every so often, I'll see a combination of colors that just knock my socks off, and it's rarely the overtly bold and bright colors, but the unexpected, the clashing, the subtle.
One of my favorite artists is Mark Rothko, whose highly abstract use of color evokes emotions and energies that transcend the color themselves. "The people who weep before my pictures," he has said, "are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them. And if you say you are moved only by their color relationship, then you miss the point." For him, the relationships between colors and the emotions they evoke make for a spiritual experience, and I can't disagree. Standing in front of a Rothko in a museum, it feels a bit disrespectful to do anything but stare in stunned silence.
In contrast, Gerhardt Richter, Ellsworth Kelly, and other minimalist artists often used the idea of a commercial color chart or paint color chips and subvert them to show the purely visual, objective, and consumerist nature of color. This idea of randomness, of found color, can be very inspirational. I recently received a Color Accordion as a gift, and flipping through the deck makes this monochromatic-loving gal want to add some color to her life. Check out the paint section of your local hardware store (which I've been to a few times lately... 50 shades of white... how do I choose?), and see if you're not inspired by the rainbow of hues and subtle fades.
But most of all, I like to see color through a camera lens, because sometimes photographs can show beauty that we don't notice in our hustle and bustle lifestyles. With a full memory card and a handy Photoshop eyedropper tool, it's amazing what hidden color ways you can find, even in the most mundane of scenes. It's instant color inspiration for art, design, and spicing up the digs. Furthermore, it can be applied conceptually — how relevant would it be to apply a color way from a photograph of a Japanese fish market to a website for a new sushi restaurant in Lakeview? Sure it's a stretch, and no one but you will know the inspiration, but it's a good way to step outside your usual go-to schemes.
Nowadays I've come to the conclusion that we don't all see colors in the same way, although I can't say whether it comes down to matters of taste or perception. But it's clear that colors have the power to evoke emotion. Our marketing manager tells me that in 2009, the 'new black' will be yellow, a color representing hope, sunshine, and warmth. It's a happy thought, one that will support the big changes we hope to see in the year to come. And, thankfully, yellow looks great with grey.
As designers, we are constantly seeking new, innovative ways to communicate the messages of our clients. This May, our design team traveled to OFFF 2008 in Lisbon, Portugal to soak up some inspiration, see what other designers across the world are creating, and to bring that knowledge back to Killswitch to spark new ideas for future creations.
OFFF is a 3-day design festival exploring the latest ideas in a new visual culture, covering everything from graphic design and visual communication to motion graphics and sonic landscapes to advanced forms of interaction, via physical space or digital space. Rather than thinking in terms of the post-apocalyptic world where machines have taken over (think Terminator or Blade Runner) as we did back in the '80s, the new post-digital creation culture considers what we can create next in this diverse, digital spectrum. Now that we have the technology in place and have studied and explored and created, the wi-fi artists of today are re-examining our relationship with technology to push and blur boundaries and to explore new digital avenues. Artists are turning to programming, programmers are turning to music, and musicians are turning to art. As these areas overlap, new breakthroughs emerge. The same code used to generate colors and patterns can be used to create artwork for the walls of your house. Personal data can be calculated and mapped to create a visual diary of communication patterns. A computer's capture and storing of real-time movement can be used to recreate those movements in a simulated virtual environment. These explorations are opening up brand new avenues of communication and interaction, and have exciting implications for the future of our digital culture.
More than 2500 people attended OFFF this year, and the attendees included designers, artists, musicians, and developers from all over the world. Held at the LX Factory, an immense industrial space tucked away amongst brightly-tiled row-houses and cobblestone streets in the Alcantara area of Lisbon, the event boasted floor to ceiling presentation screens, interactive art installations, and a wealth of DJ entertainment. Every presentation in this talented line-up was inspiring, and each one explored a different area of visual communication. Karlssonwilker made us laugh with all of their crazy design experiences, Alex Trochut amazed us with his illustrative typography, Joshua Davis fascinated us with his dynamically generated works of art, Craig Swann motivated us with his playful outlook on the world, Andreas Müller mesmorized us with his swimming type and fluid forms, Fakepilot caught our attention with his Daft Punk-style intro, Hellohikimori engaged us with their colorful, immersive websites, Hi-Res! amused us with their rejection of the expected, and Fallon entertained us with their simple yet highly original advertisements, proving that a big budget is less powerful than a big idea.
The diverse and groundbreaking ideas from speakers at this event prove that what we think of now as "new media" is just the tip of the iceberg. Today's designers and artists defy classification, reject the limitations of technology, and develop their own standards. OFFF was a truly memorable event and one that moves all of us forward.
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