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eBoy: an ode and introduction
I don't know where my love for eBoy springs from, but it definitely has something to do with a childhood of 8-bit video gaming and young adult years of raving till dawn. Regardless, if you haven't been introduced to the pixel art collective, then hopefully this will kick off your education. The designers -- Kai Vermehr, Steffen Sauerteig, and Svend Smital -- have been producing some of the most distinctive and nuanced modern art in the world since 1997. As you can tell by even a casual glance at the artist's pics (we've rounded up some in the gallery below), their work is incredibly vibrant -- almost information overload -- and filled with the kinds of minute details that make looking at eBoy images less of a passive activity and more like a scavenger hunt which rewards the dedicated viewer. The eBoy team have expanded their work to run the gamut from album covers, books, advertising, clothing and footwear, and even a forthcoming iPhone game. As masters of the micro, they've built what amounts to a mini-empire. Whenever I get a new device (typically when I'm reviewing something for the site), the first thing I do is tack eBoy images onto the wallpaper. Usually I have to crop them down or otherwise customize them for the platform at hand, and as a result I've ended up with a metric ton of tweets and emails asking where they come from. I figured as a public service I would .zip everything I could find on my hard drive to give to you, the reader. If you've been wondering where and how these came to life, wonder no more. Of course, it's eBoy's world -- we're just living in it. And yes, that's me up there. Thanks guys! Download: jt_eboy.zip %Gallery-93493%
TUAW First Look: Hippo High Jump
There are beautiful games on App Store and there are fun games on App Store, and there are some games that are cool just because of the story that goes along with them. Hippo High Jump [iTunes link] falls into the categories of strikingly beautiful, somewhat fun, and great back story. The story goes like this. Keith Shepherd and Natalia Luckyanova attended the 360iDev conference a few weeks back and joined in in the iPhone game jam. The jam offered an all-night coding marathon, where "people teamed up and had to build a fully working game in 1 night. We built the first version of Hippo High Dive from 8pm to around 6am the next day." You can see a video of the early prototype here. After polishing the game up with the help of their artist pal, Kiril, the pair submitted Hippo High Dive to App Store where it just recently went live. Costing just a dollar, Hippo High Dive does not offer a huge amount of play flexibility. You basically jump your hippo off a diving board and navigate her through burning hoops to a bucket of water below. I'll admit I have the attention span of a gnat with ADHD, but the game did not really keep my attention. The art on the other hand definitely did. The video above does not do justice to the beautiful look of the game. The artistry both retains the original hand-drawn "let's whip up a game" style while pushing it forward into gorgeous design. The layered three-d effects while "climbing" the ladder as a prelude to the dive took my breath away. So, in the end, it's a bit hard to rate the game. I found the actual gameplay a bit meh. My coordination skills are weak at best and this is not the kind of fine motion control I generally enjoy. At the same time, I absolutely adored the visual design. If you're a game developer, consider hiring that artist.
Just announced: La Cie blue eye pro Monitor Calibrator Proof Edition
A lot of us might not care that the color on our screens doesn't precisely match reality, but for most designers color matching is a crucial part of their work. That's why they use monitor calibration systems like the new La Cie blue eye pro Proof Edition (US$429.99) to make sure that what they see on the screen is exactly what they'll see on a finished product.The blue eye pro Proof Edition is the blue puck that you see on the left side of the photo illustration at right. It supports monitor calibration and profiling and can provide UGRA (Swiss Center of Competence for Media and Printing Technology) soft proof testing and reporting.La Cie has announced immediate availability of the blue eye pro Proof Edition, which is compatible with the Adobe Creative Suite, QuarkXPress, Aperture and other design and photography applications. it requires Mac OS X 10.4.5 or later on Intel Macs, as well as a USB port for connectivity.
Joystiq interviews BioShock LE cover artist Adam Meyer
Impressed by the winning entry in 2K Games' BioShock Limited Edition cover art contest, we had a chat via online messenger with the winning artist Adam Meyer about his design and the process he took to get there, as well as a bit on his background.First of all, thanks again for doing those. Tell us a little bit about yourself.Well, I'm 27 I think, I live in the Orlando area with my beautiful wife. And I own my own freelance design business called Crystal Clear Art.How did you get involved with graphic design?I've always been interested in art. And once I graduated high school it became clear that if I wanted to make a career out of art, it was best to get into graphic design over the more traditional stuff. I went to community college but dropped out in favor of just getting right into the field. I got my first design job doing layout work for a small little print company and basically learned what I could from it and the left. I kept repeating this pattern for about 8 years. I'd work someplace, learn everything I could, then quit and find someplace that could teach me new things.After I worked my way up to art director at a local design company I decided it was time to get out on my own. And here I am.%Gallery-3343%
LaCie updates their 300 pro series of LCDs, adds 20-incher
If your future as a professional depends upon having those colors show up just right on your LCD, then LaCie is probably on your short list for display manufacturers. They've just updated their pro-line 300 series with some sexy 12-bit gamma correction, allowing for smoother color gradients and photophile bragging rights. They've also added a 20-inch model to their range of displays, the Lacie 319, 320 and 321. Despite the minor size differences, prices range from $879 to $1599, plus another $200 if you want LaCie's blue eye pro colorimeter for calibration. All that display dollar will get you, at least in the 320, a 1600 x 1200 resolution, CRT-grade color gamut, 700:1 contrast ratio, 280 cd/m2 luminance and of course that 12-bit gamma -- 4 times as accurate as the usually pro 10-bit spec. Not shabby at all, if you can swallow the pricetag. All three displays are available for order now from LaCie.[Via MacMinute]
