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Design — Calendar 2012: Nature

antzFx — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 03:20:38 +0000

Here is a beautiful and pleasing 2012 Calendar for you. This calendar is titled “Nature.” The photos featured in this calendar are taken by aneeskA (FULLfx). Download links are available below. Also we are sharing the design thoughts. Don’t forget to tell us what you think of our designs as a comment.

Download JPEGs of the whole Calendar (ZIP, 4.38MB) »


January 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)	February 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)


March 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)	April 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)


May 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)	June 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)


July 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)	August 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)


September 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)	October 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)


November 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)	December 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)

Design Thoughts

Compared with the designs of previous years, we have changed the format of the calendar. Earlier we used to give two months in a sheet. This time, only one month is in a sheet and the digits are arranged inside ‘S M T W T F S’ — representing ‘Sunday Monday… Saturday.’ The digits are in the font Constantia.

Following images show the metamorphosis of ’S M T W T F S.’

The first version had ’S M T W T F S’ in Constantia Uppercase. The second version had Constantia Lowercase. The current version uses an outline (without fill) of modified Swatch font.

I modified ‘t’ and ‘m’ in the Swatch font to better adjust the digits inside. The ‘s’ for Saturday and Sunday are rotated 90 degrees. These changes ensured that the dates coming under a particular week are in a single column rather than staggered as you can see in the first two versions (Sunday, Wednesday and Saturday). Also, I removed the black fill of the ’S M T W T F S’ and retained a thin grey outline to give more emphasis to the dates and images on the sheet.

Dear Reader, I hope all of you will like this and will buy a print version from us.

Design Date: 09-Nov-2011

Extra – Our calendar designs over the years – 2011 Flowers, 2011 Green, 2010, 2009

Seed ideas for CEED — Tips from a designer

Pankaj — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 18:22:14 +0000

Can you please tell me what should one have do to be a good product designer. I mean, what are the prerequisites for entering M.Des. course like what software I should know, what books I should read ? I would be thankful for any help you give.

I’m a software professional who is keenly interested in product design and hoping to pursue it by taking up the CEED & DAT exams in Jan’11. Since you guys are also involved in the same area, I was therefore wondering whether any of you could answer a few of my questions about the test and maybe provide some tips, if any..

These are samples of CEED (Common Entrance Examination for Design) or M.Des. (Master in Design) related questions that we often receive. Well, here goes my answer…

Coaching for CEED

As far as I know, there are no authentic coaching centers for CEED or for any other Design entrance exams. But there are a few people who say that they can give you the required coaching like the one mentioned in this website or this one. But if you happen to get a postal coaching from them, you’ll only receive the following books and they will charge a lot of money for them.

Figure Study Made Easy by Aditya Chari.
The Manorama Year Book

Both of these can be bought off the shelf from the nearest Crossword, Landmark or any other good book store. After that, it is just a matter of sitting down and practicing. Still if you think that coaching centers can help you, then send a mail to them and see what they say.

CEED Preparation

The only preparation for CEED is ‘practice.’ So buy the books that I mentioned earlier and start sketching. It will improve your visualizing skills. For the design thinking, buy and read some of the following books:

Design of Everyday things by Donald A. Norman, Don Norman
Design for the real world: Human Ecology And Social Change by Victor Papanek

Besides these, you’ll have have a lot of websites that will tell you about the various fields of Design. My suggestion is to try focusing on the design stream that interests you. There are Product Design and Engineering, Industrial Design, Visual Communication, Animation, Interaction design and Mobility and Vehicle Design at IITs and IISc Bangalore. Visit the website ‘The World of Design in India‘ that tells you all that you need to know about the design streams available in India.

Also, you can look at the following websites to see the quality of professional work that is expected from people who are in the design industry:

Product Design Forums- Industrial Design Community, Blog & Resources
Coroflot – Design Jobs & Portfolios
Behance Network – The Creative Professional Platform

Don’t worry if you are not as good as some of those guys. They have acquired a lot of experience, but you are just starting out. Just find your idol, try to become better than him. If you practice daily, you will be really good for CEED exam.

Cracking CEED

The only way is ‘Practice.’ Find a stream of design of your choice, read about it, find the experts and try to better them. Practice sketching the objects around you. To know more about the examination and M.Des., visit IIT Bombay’s CEED website and download the last year’s question paper. You’ll know the kind of questions that are asked and what you need to do.

Following are the institutions where Master in Design courses are held.

All the best!

Additional Reading

Teacup Blog: CEED Help by Prasanna Gadkari
Here is the secret to creativity by antzFx
Here is the secret to creativity… Reloaded by fullFx

Image Credits
Blackboard in the classroom by Kriss Szkurlatowski, Poland
Happy elves by Fran Gambín, Spain
Egg in C-Clamp by Shaun W, New York

Design — Calendar 2011: Green

antzFx — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 13:41:15 +0000

As promised, we are publishing 2011 calendar. This calendar is titled “Green” and is using brilliant photos taken by Ashveen Maheshwari. For another version of 2011 calendar, visit this post. Download links are available below. Also don’t forget to tell us what you think of our designs as a comment.

Download the whole Calendar (ZIP, 5.74MB) »

January 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 425KB)»

February 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 384KB)»

March 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 376KB) »

April 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 624KB) »

May 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 538KB) »

June 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 434KB) »

July 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 600KB) »

August 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 679KB) »

September 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 696KB) »

October 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 345KB) »

November 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 279KB) »

December 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 783KB) »

Dear Reader, Thank you very much for your time and I wish you a happy and prosperous New Year!

Extra – Our calendar designs over the years – 2010, 2009

Design — Calendar 2011: Flowers

antzFx — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 13:24:20 +0000

As promised, we are publishing 2011 calendar. This calendar is titled “Flowers” and is using colorful photos taken by Urvesh Bharambe. Download links are available below. Also don’t forget to tell us what you think of our designs as a comment.

Download the whole Calendar (ZIP, 4.02MB) »

January 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 448KB)»

February 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 454KB)»

March 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 454KB) »

April 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 452B) »

May 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 453KB) »

June 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 442KB) »

July 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 456KB) »

August 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 457KB) »

September 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 449KB) »

October 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 441KB) »

November 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 453KB) »

December 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 461KB) »

Dear Reader, Thank you very much for your time and we wish you a happy and prosperous New Year!

Extra – Our calendar designs over the years – 2010, 2009

Design — ‘Acoustics For You’ Desktop Wallpaper Calendar 2010

fullfx — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 16:06:53 +0000

I had a little Christmas present earlier when Acoustics For You took my design to be showcased in their site. The design features the theme of their site and service.

Here’s the design for you to download.

Click on the image to go to the download page that has different resolution files

Design

A cinemascope layout was adopted for the design. This decision was made to leave plenty of real-estate available in the desktop even after the full calendar is added. Also this choice of layout makes the central theme of the design to stand out and catch the eye of the beholder.

A metallic background is used to give a premium look. Monochromatic colors are used so that the design will not distract the user when it is in desktop background. Music notes are added to complete the outlook of the company.

Software: Adobe Photoshop
Design date: 25-Dec-2009

Design — Calendar 2010

antzFx — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 19:09:19 +0000

This year’s calendar has a carton box type corrugated paper board look. The graphic used in this design are from the Custom shape tool library of Photoshop.

Design Thoughts
All of us use computers for personal and professional work. My desktop is always messy and I never tamper with the position of taskbar. All the icons or files tend to be on the left side of the screen. So, the calendar wallpaper should not have any numerals on that ‘forbidden’ area. Also, there should be ample space at the bottom to accommodate the taskbar. At the moment, I have not tested the wallpapers in a Linux machine, but I hope that a taskbar at the top may not be hindering the calendar. A graphic can cover the rest of the space with a nice tagline.

Main Graphic: The graphic used in this design are from the Custom shape tool library of Photoshop. It is on a separate layer and I have tried to attain an effect of the top layer being carved off from the corrugated sheet.
Highlighted month: A fluorescent green and red highlighter marking is achieved on the name and Saturdays & Sundays by using an ‘Overlay’ layer effect.
Caption: Most of the captions are from the 2002 song ‘Here I am’ by Brian Adams (OST: ‘Spirit: The Stallion of Cimarron’). The font used is ‘Two turtle doves.’
The coming month: The font used is ‘Two turtle doves.’

Criticism
Some people liked the calendar, some others don’t. One comment I received was about using an image of corrugated card board rather than printing on an actual corrugated sheet. The design was also criticized for not having a central idea. All such comments helped me in planning for a better design next year. More opinions from ad professionals about this calendar design can be read here.

Acknowledgments
All the sheets feature the image ‘Wavy paperboard’ by Pavel Klaus from Chomutov, Ustecky kraj, Czech Republic.

Download the whole Calendar (ZIP, 5.20MB) »

January 2010 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 448KB)»

February 2010 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 454KB)»

March 2010 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 454KB) »

April 2010 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 452B) »

May 2010 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 453KB) »

June 2010 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 442KB) »

July 2010 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 456KB) »

August 2010 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 457KB) »

September 2010 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 449KB) »

October 2010 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 441KB) »

November 2010 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 453KB) »

December 2010 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 461KB) »

Dear Reader, Thank you very much for your time and I wish you a happy and prosperous New Year!

Photo of the printed calendar on grass: Urvesh Bharambe

Software: Adobe Photoshop
Design date: 26-Dec-2009

Design — Calendar 2009

antzFx — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 06:47:43 +0000

I know.

I know that it is too late to design a 2009 Calendar. I am looking at the 2008 tabletop calendar that is faded a little bit and has a lot of scribbling – my reminders of various tasks. I was thinking “Well, so far nobody has given me a 2009 calendar. Can I make one myself?” The result: I designed one yesterday and it appears to be nice. So I thought of sharing it with you.

I started the design as a tabletop calendar. Two sheets can be printed on a single A4 sheet. I can make a tabletop calendar with six such sheets and some cellophane tape. Or, I can stick it on to the wall or partition of your cubicle in my workplace. Later I manipulated the pixel ratio such that anyone can use these images as their computer desktop wallpaper. At the moment only 1920X1200 pixel ratio (widescreen) is available for download.

Let us see what went behind the design. I will try to answer your immediate and obvious questions.

Why a calendar?

When I used to work in a technology company (Now I am a student of Product Design), I had a tabletop calendar gifted by a friend. Everyday, before I switch ON my computer, I always spare a minute to look at the calendar and try to remember the deadlines for the day or coming days. The thought will go on about the coming holidays. The graphic and images on that calendar was interesting and I am sure that most of you will love to start your day with a good image and thought. So, here is a calendar with nice graphics and taglines.

How did you fix the layout?

All of us use computers for personal and professional work. My desktop is always messy and I never tamper with the position of taskbar. All the icons or files tend to be on the left side of the screen. So, the calendar wallpaper should not have any numerals on that ‘forbidden’ area. Also, there should be ample space at the bottom to accommodate the taskbar. At the moment, I have not tested the wallpapers in a Linux machine, but I hope that a taskbar at the top may not be hindering the calendar. A graphic can cover the rest of the space with a nice tagline.

1. Main graphic. Overall colour scheme of a sheet is determined by the dominant tone of this graphic.

2. Current month’s calendar. The font used is Century Gothic. For easy ‘deciphering,’ Saturdays and Sundays are given in a contrasting colour than the weekdays.

3. A flowing curve adds to the beauty of the sheet. In all the sheets, I have tried my best to maintain a continuity between this curve and the main graphic. An ‘outer glow’ effect makes the curve attractive (100% opacity of white, 15% spread, 30 pixels size – if you understand Photoshop).

4. The ‘ground.’ We design school students refer it as ‘ground’ after learning ‘figure-ground theory.’ The ground displays the dominant colour of that sheet.

5. I have tried to add an inspiring tagline in all sheets. Well, we can argue on this point…

6. This is where the promotional matter comes into picture…

7. The coming month’s calendar. Its presence is justified by the fact that people always plan things in advance. These plans can spill over to a date in the next month. So, no need for turning pages in and out while planning a project or a holiday break.

8. Credits of the photos used in the sheet.

The graphics are very interesting. You designed them?

No. Even a single photo taken by me could not find its way to the final version. All the images used in the design are taken by a bunch of very creative people across the world whom I ‘discovered’ with the help of Stock.XCHNG. See the Acknowledgements section for the names and links.

All the photos have ample white space around them so that they are easy to be edited in Photoshop. I have tried to select photos that can be linked to the tagline of the page.

Download the whole Calendar (ZIP, 2.28MB) »

Acknowledgements

All the sheets feature the image ‘The curve (Halm)’ by Martin from Duesseldorf, NRW, Germany

January 2009 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 290KB) »

2009 Graphic — Shlomit Wolf from Jerusalem, Israel

February 2009 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 237KB) »

Painting (Inspiration) — Fernando Mello from Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil

March 2009 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 231KB) »

‘Quake in tie’ — Sundeip Arora from India

April 2009 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 238KB) »

Pinwheel — Michal Zacharzewski from Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland

May 2009 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 258KB) »