Mathew's Thoughts and Such

A few months ago I became curious about other designer’s design software usage. Reason being because of the debates I had been a part of at the time about upgrading or not upgrading to Adobe CS4. I’m one of those who decided to stay with CS3 because I didn’t see a worthy reason of paying the price to upgrade to CS4 when it really didn’t have many features that seemed worth it to me. Sure, I could get it by other means, but I don’t even think it is worth all that trouble.

Anyways, I wanted to know if I was part of the majority or the minority when it came to my thinking on design software usage. So I decided to ask my fellow designers on Twitter what design software they use. With some help from Sheri Strykowski (writer_sheri), Gerrel Saunders (gaksdesigns) and Dwyndal (Dwyndal) I gathered 79 responses on the matter. Below are the results:

• Adobe CS4: 44
• Adobe CS3: 26
• Adobe CS2: 7
• Other:
  • Adobe CS: 1
  • Corel 14: 1

As you can see Adobe CS4 was by far the most used proving that I am part of the minority and most are willing to pay the the money for the latest (or at least that is what we are going to go with). Personally, like I said earlier, I don’t see anything in CS4 that makes me go, “Wow! I have to update!” That being said, I will be upgrading to CS5 when the time comes, because already you can tell that it will be well worth it. Lets just hope that Adobe realizes that they need to lower the price of their software when CS5 does come out.

But, enough of what I think, below are some thoughts shared by others on Twitter:

Feel free to share your thoughts and what design software you use in the comments section. I look forward to reading them.

This is a logo that I recently created for a local youth soccer team. The soccer team is part of one of those leagues where all the kids just run around around kicking the ball in groups with no goalie and no score kept. The client wanted something cute, and I think I hit what she want, because when she saw it she let out a big, AWWWWWWWW!

Less than two hours ago a plane crashed into the Hudson River in New York City. And if you don’t know about it then you must not: 1) watch a news channel or website or 2) take part in social networks/social media. Within minutes of the plane crash the news spread across the world like wildfire as hundrends if not thousands of people posted what happened to their Twitter feeds.

One man in particular by the name Janis Krum, took a photo of the plane crash, from the ferry that was rescuing people, with his iPhone and then posted it to Twitter using a service called Twitpic. Shortly there after the photo began making its way across the interwebs and eventually crossed the eyes of the major news companies, and within thirty minutes of taking the photo Janis Krum was being interviewed by MSNBC.

Its times like this that show just how fast news of something happening can spread across the world. And with technology like the iPhone, cellphone internet (3G I’m sure), Twitter and Twitpic its possible that someone who is on the scene can show what is happening to the world before a news station can do the same.

This is the last List Sunday of 2008 and what better way to go out then by putting together one of the most typical list around, a top movies list! But, this list has a bit of a twist. Instead of just concentrating on movies that came out this year I’ve comprised this list of movies that I saw for the firs time ever. No matter if they came out 20 years ago or just a couple months ago. Now, before any one bashes me for not having a particular movie on my list please remember that this is just for movies that I’ve seen this year. So certain movies, like The Dark Knight, may not be on here because I haven’t seen them yet.

10. Employee of the Month

9. Hancock/I Am Legend

8. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe/Prince Caspian

7. Akira

6. Sweeny Todd

5. Juno

4. Four Chirstmases

3. Quantum of Solace

2. Wall-E

1. Wanted

As always I asked those over at Friendfeed to tell me about their favorite movies that they saw for the first time this year. And like always, they came through with many opinions.

While surfing the interwebs today I came across this post on Friendfeed. Its a blog post by PSDTUTS showcasing 48 absolutly amazing photomanipulation pieces of art. You must take some time today and go through and look at every piece, if it doesn’t blow your mind like it did mine, I don’t know what will.

Normally on Wednesdays I do a Photography feature. But, this week I will not be doing one as I want to save it for next week. So, instead I bring you another random art feature! But, before we move on to today I would like to talk about the last artist I featured, Lola Dupré. I contacted her via email the day I posted the feature, she then promptly replied, but unfortunatly for us she declined to do any kind of interview. Saying, “I don’t feel comfortable talking about my art right now.” I made sure to tell her that I totally understood, as not every artist likes to talk about their work. Now on to today featured artist!

Today featured artist comes all the way from Russia. His name (at least his online name) is iunewind and he is a 3D artist/Web Designer, a fantastic one at that. I discovered iunewind earlier this year when I came across one of his many fantastic wallpapers. And ever since then I’ve made sure to visit his site often to see what new work he has posted.

The above image, PhotoArt, is my current wallpaper and my newest favorite work of his. Of course my biggest reason for loving it is the fact that it has a camera in it, but also it is just one sweet looking wallpaper. This man is by far one of the best 3D Artist that I have ever seen and that is why I insist that everyone visit his site and poke around for a bit, I know you will find something you like. Then be sure to bookmark it, because he puts up new work every couple of months or so.

So what is your favorite wallpaper of iunewind?

If you have any artist that you believe I should feature on my blog, please tell me in the comments section or send me an email.

Thanks to the power of the internets I recently came across this fantastic artist, Lola Dupré from Glasgow, United Kingdom. Her work is fantastically unique and when you look at each piece of art work it really makes you think about what the meaning could be. I know nothing about how she does the work or even anything about the individual pieces. All she has is a simple Blogger blog that she post a piece to at least several days a week. She doesn’t write any other information with the post, just the image. I hope to be able to contact her as I would love to learn more about what she does as an artist. If I’m able to do so I will be sure to share that information with the rest of you, that is if she is fine with that.

The image above is my absolute favorite of all that she has posted thus far. Simply labeled as 50, it really makes me think about what it could mean. I won’t tell you what I think as I want each and everyone of you to come up with your own interpretations. Want to see more of her fantastic work? Then be sure to visit her blog and make sure to show her some love and leave some comments. I believe you can also buy commissions from her as well, you can send request to via the email on her blog.

If any of you out there find a fantastic artist that you believe I should take a look at and maybe feature on my blog feel free to tell me so in the comments section here. Also, I would love to hear what everyone thinks that above image means.

Every Wednesday I will chose a theme, then I will scour Deviantart and Flickr, for the best photos that fit said theme. Well, at least that is the plan.

This weeks theme was one suggested by orionstarr on Friendfeed. This theme is a bit of a mix of holiday cheer and fantasy. And since I couldn’t find many photos that I thought were great I only have four from both Deviantart and Flickr. But, these are by far best suited for this weeks theme which is, Elves!

Flickr

DeviantArt

Be sure to check out all the great photos above and show them some love. Also, if there is a particular theme that you would like to see in future Photography Wednesdays just leave your suggestion in the comments section of this post and I will take it into consideration.

I’m a firm believer in voting to get your voice heard. Sure, what/who you vote for may not win, but at least you are speaking your mind when you do vote. Obviously not everyone voted for Obama like I did, I’m ok with that, as long as they aren’t hateful about it. But, they voted, and if Obama does mess everything up they will have every right to complain about what happens.

Yet, there are those who didn’t vote, those are the people I don’t want to hear a word out of. Not a single word! I don’t care who you “say” you support, but if things don’t go the way you want over the next four years I don’t want to hear from you. You lose your right to a voice when you don’t exercise your right to vote, its that simple.

Anyways, to go along with this idea I created a poster yesterday. And well, I just wanted to show it off to everyone of the internets. Enjoy and feel free to share your ideas on the poster or the issue at hand.

Halloween is here! This is by far my top favorite holiday of the year. So to better get mine, and your, computer in the Halloween spirit here are five fantastic Halloween wallpapers for you to enjoy!