Camp Creative Group » Inspiration

Finding Inspiration

Sarah Camp — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:10:38 +0000

Of course, there are inspirational design galleries online. But I’ve found that when I am designing for one medium, it is more useful to look at inspiration in other mediums. For example, if one is designing a website, it would be more beneficial to go outside for a walk, or go to an art museum, than to look at a website design gallery.

Why? Well, if you are looking at tons of designs for that exact thing that you are creating, it will be extremely difficult to avoid having elements largely inspired by those designs. Your design will be more original and “fresh” if you look elsewhere.

I can look out my window and find inspiration in the rain, the trees, the grass. I can go to the mall and watch people; looking at their clothes, their movements, the way they present themselves. I can watch a movie, play a game, surf the web, go for a bike ride. Normal everyday activities should be able to bring inspiration – and they do.

What inspires you?

Camp Creative Group: ‘Beauty’

Sarah Camp — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:41:53 +0000

It’s one thing for us to say that we make beautiful websites that our clients fall in love with, but it’s another thing entirely when we get to hear other people say it. Of course, it’s not always so easy to pass that along to our readers – however, today we have had the honor of receiving a fantastic design critique from wecritiquedesigns.com.

We’ve been listed on several design galleries (such as thebestdesigns.com and cssheaven.com) and even favorited on many, featured on some, and chosen as an “editor’s pick” on w3csites.com (a site that only accepts your design if all of your files validate completely). We were even featured in an article about lighting effects on Smashing Magazine, which was pretty exciting in and of itself.

But none have brought me the sheer joy that this review brought me. It is expertly written and just to see that people really do “get” the design and why it is the way it is, well, that just makes all of the hard work worth it.

The Camp Creative Group are a design agency who live by the moto “Fall in love with your design” and it is their very own website that I have fallen in love with.

To read the review in it’s entirety, visit wecritiquedesigns.com.

Artistic Music Video Series: Artistically Directed

Sarah Camp — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:58:10 +0000

This is the second in my Artistic Music Video Series. The first focused on videos using primarily Stop Motion Animation. This article will focus more on videos which are artistically and creatively directed. I tried to choose videos that took a unique approach to the video and the presentation of material and, of course, that are an inspiration to watch.

Brooke Hanson

Laura Jansen – Single Girls

Marc Webb

Regina Spektor – Fidelity

Adria Petty

Regina Spektor – Laughing With

Regina Spektor – Us

Michael Coleman

The Matches – Salty Eyes

Jeff Stein

Tom Petty – Don’t Come Around Here No More

It’s Not Over Yet!

Not only will we have other segments to this series such as Stop Motion Animation, and also Animated music videos, but we have also decided to split each one into 2 (or more!) parts so that they aren’t too long and a little easier to digest. If you don’t see an inspirational video on here that you really like, feel free to suggest it for a future post!

Artistic Music Video Series: Stop Motion Animation

Sarah Camp — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:52:03 +0000

Film and video directors are designers also, and lots of inspiration can be found in music videos, where artists get to express themselves as well as the songs. Music videos present a very unique medium, since there are not many times when several artistic elements can come together. My intent with this series is to showcase what I believe are inspirational examples of artistic music videos. This first post is focusing on videos that include stop motion animation.

Grandchildren

Grandchildren is work by Sean Pecknold. They’ve done two very different stop animation videos for the band Fleet Foxes. The first, “White Winter Hymnal,” is clay animation, and the second, “Mykonos,” is done with paper cutouts.

Drew Lightfoot

Drew Lightfoot, one of the animators who worked on Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, won an award in 2007 for this video he created for Guster’s “One Man Wrecking Machine.”

Shynola

Shynola created this video for Coldplay’s “Strawberry Swing” in which lead singer Chris Martin becomes a super hero over an animated chalk background.

W+K

This video, “You Came Out” by We Have Band messes with my mind the most out of any video on this page. It’s really eerie, but at the same time hilarious and beautiful.

The face paint animation film is made up of 4,816 separate stills. Each and every frame was hand-painted, shot, wiped off and redrawn, slightly differently for the next frame in order to create a seamless sequence. This time-consuming process involved the band members lying still for two consecutive days in a studio.

It’s Not Over Yet!

Not only will we have other segments to this series such as Artistically Directed, and also Animated music videos, but we have also decided to split each one into 2 (or more!) parts so that they aren’t too long and a little easier to digest. If you don’t see an inspirational video on here that you really like, feel free to suggest it for a future post!