Some useful and funny websites

I'd like to show you some really cool websites, some are funny tools, some are really useful.


1. Seeklogo
Need a logo of an existing brand? Well you will probably find it on Seeklogo. You can download  logos as vector files and of course upload your work.

2. fontbomb
Ever wanted to blow up long texts on websites? Well fontbomb is good for you!

3. Cupcake Ipsum
Tired of 'Lorem Ipsum' as the placeholder text? Give it some love and make it sweeter with Cupcake Ipsum.

4. Incredibox
Incredibox is a really fun and creative game. The main thing is, that you create a beatbox group. You can choose different beats(characters) and mix them together. The graphics are just awesome and you can have hours of fun with it!

5. Quotes on Design
Well I think the name says everything: This site gives you quotes on design. PLUS it looks just beautiful. 

Pixelmator - Cheap Photoshop?

When I first looked at Pixelmator, I was like 'Meh, I have Photoshop.'
But I still wanted to find out, why Pixelmator became so popular, so I read a lot of reviews.
Eventually I decided to buy it, which I didn't regret.
YES, Pixelmator is a lot like Photoshop, but it isn't Photoshop. And I'm not only talking about the price here.
Pixelmator is not as professional as Photoshop and I think every picture you create with it can also be done with Photoshop and Illustrator but not vice versa.

But the fact that Pixelmator is not only for professional graphic designers gives you some features I wish Photoshop had. For example the Generator Filters: While you need a lot of steps in Photoshop and Illustrator to create parallel lines in a shape, Pixelmator has a Filter for creating those lines. All you have to do is create a layer mask.
Another good thing: Default Brushes. Both programs have them (of course), but Pixelmator has two brush sets, which really help me with vintage designs.

I've also experienced weaknesses in Pixelmator. I think photo manipulation (not just editing, really manipulating) is nearly impossible, it just misses too much tools for that. Photo editing works perfect though.

Conclusion:
Pixelmator is the perfect tool for beginner designers, but also for professionals. It can't replace Photoshop, but I think the two make an awesome team.

BUY IT!

It's in the  Mac App Store for 11.99€/14.99$

New Blog Design

Finally my blog is back online, with a brand new design!

Well the layout is the same, but it has a new (kinda fuzzy) background, a new header (which features the new logo) and the main colors are black, white and yellow now (not only on my blog).

Black and yellow, black and yellow black and... whatever.

Posters

Here are some posters that we made over the time...

It is what it is | by TOMato Design

Typovetica Helgraphy | by TOMato Design

Helvetica Neue | by TOMato Design

Special K | by David

Black Holes & Douchebags | by David

Dear Starbucks

Dear Starbucks,

we know each other for 5 years now and I have to say I still love you like on the first day. You're so inspiring, my dear. A lot of ideas pop out of my head, when we are together. For that I want to thank you very much!
But I was thinking... You see, we meet at least twice a week for hours, which is great, but you give me serious financial problems. I enjoy the time we spend together, but I can't afford it so often.
So, I hope you'll understand if I try to get some distance.. I don't know, if I'm able to do this, but I think it's better for our relationship.

love,
Tom

Tilt Shift

We all love the Tilt Shift! We're so fascinated, how a little adjustment in the sharpness can have such effects.

So we three do a lot of shifting. Here are some of our real-life-miniature-pictures :)

SAP Arena, Mannheim | by TOMato Design

Augustaanlage, Mannheim | by TOMato Design 

Augustaanlage, Mannheim | by TOMato Design

Augustaanlage, Mannheim | by TOMato Design

Nature, Anywhere | by TOMato Design

Wan Chai , Hong Kong | by SilVotography

Wan Chai at night, Hong Kong | by SilVotography 

The Mall, Hong Kong | by SilVotography

Giveaway - Facebook Covers

I recently made some Facebook covers for the new timeline and I'd like to share them with you. So here are 9 covers free to use :)

The download link to each picture is under it.

Download this 

Download this

Download this

Download this

Download this

Download this

Download this

Download this

Download this

FUN - Inspired by rawz

David and me were sitting in a nice café and wanted to create something. So we opened Illustrator and thought of some styles… We really love the Abdzeedo Rawz logo and decided to make something in that style. 

We needed a short word, to make the typo look more like the original. FUN seemed great, because everybody likes fun. 

Here's what we got for the main shape:

As you can see, the rawz logo has those little lines inside the letters, so the next step was to create those. We made them a bit thicker, because we just wanted to get away from the original, so it won't be like copy and we liked those thicker lines.

And with that, the typo was done. Now we had to make a cool picture out of it. A modern style seemed good. We thought of a appropriate background and ended up with this:

But for this style, we didn't like the yellow anymore, so we changed it to a bright neonish blue. Both shapes, the black and the blue, got a blue outer glow. And so we were done.

Musee d' Orsay

Another tilt-shift effect picture. This time from the Musee d' Orsay in Paris.

uninspired?

Well guys, I have to types of being uninspired:

1. No ideas, no motivation (well, just don't do anything)
2. Motivation, no ideas (crap, and now? Sitting in front of an empty file for an hour...)

I just found out, if I'm motivated, I should do something. It's amazing, how this actually works.

So I opened Illustrator and thought. I decided to make some typography. Well it started with this: 

And I liked it, so I continued with the other letters and modified them a bit. And soon it became this:

And I really liked it, so I wanted to make it good. Photoshop time. Some colorful blur should help. And it helped. Here's the final result:

You can find the picture in my gallery as well

 

G'day Mate

Hello, I'm David aka 'LesPaul'.

I'm graphic desinger as well as developer working together with TOMato design. In fact I'm the third author of this (indeed awesome) blog. 

And now....enjoy...

TOMato's Logo

This is my new logo for 2012.

It comes in red, green and blue (yes, RGB). Each color can be used for everything, there's no special meaning for the 3 colors. I just couldn't decide what to take, so I took all 3 of them.

I see it as a big improvement compared to the old one. It looked a bit like kindergarten, didn't it?

I think maybe I'll still use the tomatoes, but more frequent the typographic one.


Make sure to check my Facebook, Twitter and DeviantART

Hello I´m Silvia from SilVotography. I like to share some photos of my. Have fun with it. I will try to post alot photos. :)

 I tried to take  moon pictures

Hello World!

Hey Folks,

this is my first entry in my blog! 

Here is where I will post my work, work by friends and everything that inspires me. I hope you'll like it! :)