New depthcore chapter released. Check it out.

I’m honoured to mention that official artwork for North American Tour by Pendulum was exposed in recent Advanced Photoshop issue, along with Wolfmother, Omega Code and La Roux designs.

New artworks are posted in showcase, including personal illustration triAngel (above) and three website designs.

Enjoy!

The Merging of Styles

It’s common for styles to merge, especially dominant styles. As grunge rises in popularity on the web more designers (who are used to working in web 2.0 methodologies) will experiment with grunge. There is a crossover point where these styles merge. This is where Gradient Grunge design emerges.

For quite some time grunge graphics were at the periphery of web design. They have risen to mainstream. More and more websites have adopted grunge styles. In most cases, it isn’t a matter of a designer wholeheartedly grabbing the next trend. Designers tend to experiment and get inspiration from many sources. Bringing grunge elements into ones design work is a gradual process.

This is typically the way designers working in the trenches change their normal output. They find one project here or there that they can do something different on. They try new types of designs. When web 2.0 style designs are the dominant trend, designers develop workflows and habits built around creating this style quickly, as with any popular design that clients would request.

Many of these designers would simply merge grunge design styles into there existing workflows. It’s a common practice when moving from one dominant stylistic trend to another in design. There will be overlap. The combination of web 2.0 styles and grunge graphics is Gradient Grunge.

Some Details about Gradient Grunge Style

Let’s look at some specifics. Sure, some aspects of web 2.0 aren’t as cool as they used to be, like reflections. However, the use of some web 2.0 styles are still rampant. Review the Web 2.0 design guide to get an overview of this style to decide for yourself what elements are still popular today. Some notable trends still practiced are: Solid Areas of Screen Real Estate, Simple Navs, Bold Logos, Strong Colors, Gradients, and others. Combine these styles with textures and worn imagery and you have a new take on grunge graphics.

This new aesthetic doesn’t emulate nature, but rather it stylizes nature. Bright plastic doesn’t degrade as paper in real life, but it certainly can in Gradient Grunge, and it looks cool doing it. Typically, Gradient Grunge is brightly colored, though it could be applied with a more subdued palette. In web design, it often combines the use of gradients and other web 2.0 elements with the look and feel of stylized worn texture.

Gradient Grunge at it’s more extreme end is the pure combination of Grunge and Gradients. Many examples of this style are of brightly colored gradients blending with textures.

Examples of Gradient Grunge in the Wild on the Net

Nothing explains a style better than to show some example of it out there in on the net. Let’s check out some graphics that show a merging of both web 2.0 styles and grunge graphics. Also, we’ll look at some Gradient Grunge that is made of gradients merged colorfully into a grunge aesthetic. Following are some Gradient Grunge designers and designs.

Maciej Hajnrich AKA Valp Nietylko

I had the pleasure to interview this designer and digital illustrator over at PSDTUTS. Since then I try to keep track of what he’s up to. And he’s been making some great Gradient Grunge style work. Check out his Flickr Photostream’s Portfolio: Graphic Design Set. He has some brand new work up. Valp has a strong Gradient Grunge style permeating much of his work. The website below shows how he carries this style into web design. Notice the Gradient Grunge badges in the design below. This is a characteristic web 2.0 element given a new stylistic treatment.

Notice how he combines gradients and grunge in such a highly saturated colorful way in his illustrations. For more of his illustration work visit his portfolio.

Sleek Design Tutorial

This tutorial Collis wrote called “Create a Sleek, High-End Web Design from Scratch,” has a great Gradient Grunge style. It follows a similar spacious website layout as web 2.0 sites, only it adds in a good mix of gradients and texture.

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I’m happy to announce Winter Espionage illustration is one of ten Design of the Year finalists in 3rd edition of Punctum Day, which is iStockphoto’s annual celebration of all things arresting and puncturing. Besides of graphic design there was also a huge competition in video, vector, photo, flash and audio fields. Verdicts will be delivered on August 19th - keep your fingers crossed!

Related posts:

> ‘Winter Espionage’ in 2009 Punctum Day Award (Voting Opened)
> Design of the Week award by iStockphoto

Some of the pages from the latest WebDesigner magazine, featuring the mahoosive Photoshop for the Net article by Radim Malinic. I was invited (with Loic Sattler) to say a word or two along with other designers. Hope you will catch it  before new issue.

More photos here.

I had a pleasure to talk with Nicholas Z. Cardot, owner of SiteSketch101 - a website about resources for bloggers and webmasters. I’ve enjoyed our chatter about blogging (here) which is great supplement for my ‘year of blogging‘ anniversary post from last week. The interview goes online today, hope you will like it ;).

I had a big pleasure to answer few questions for Design Taxi’s Front Seat Interview, which is currently online. Now you have a chance to grab some more and fresh informations about me and my art, like where did Valp Nietylko (and next Valp Now) name came from, what do I love in graphic design and finally why I am currently living out of my dream and more.

Enjoy!

It was a while ago when I introduced Crossover Design, a book by NewWebPick, published by Cypi Press this year. I’ve received my copy few days ago and took some photos to make you sure what’s inside. I’m glad to be one of the artists involved into this publication and happy to see my artworks (Trust the Future, P7, Last Supper, A Touch of Me, Cogitatur.pl, Beltaine-Koncentrad and a collab piece Back From Space, made with Loic ‘Lysergid’ Sattler) along all other various designs. This book is not focused on one design style or medium - as the name says - and I believe you may be interested in picking it up for a great resource of inspiration.

Available at Amazon.

More: photos at my flickr page: Press/Recognition set, photos at NWP facebook page: one, two

On 15 of July 2008 I made my first post up here - hurray!! During that year I learned a lot about blogging itself. While I was trying to add some inspirations and other stuff I’ve realized that it’s unnecessary option. Currently I’m focused on posting only about my work and things related to that. I’m planning to add more exclusive content here in future as well. So thanks for visiting and stay tuned for more!

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