Truly Royalty-free, Inexpensive Photography

Big Stock Photo offers an impressive repository of over 1,600,000 photos and artworks downloadable in digital format from their web site. And, if you're in the biz, you'll enjoy an alternative to some of the established bigger companies. I like the company so much that I became an affiliate!

The site offers excellent features/services:
-- Truly royalty-free photography
-- Extremely reasonable prices ($2.50+ USD each)
-- Low, medium and high resolution
-- Purchasers manage their own account, create wishlist
-- Purchasers can submit theme requests
-- Keyword search plus “see similar” links
-- Pay by credit card or PayPal and download files instantly
-- Special licensing agreements available for special usages
-- Photographers: manage your online account; receive 20+%
-- Designers: some object-based photos have clipping paths!

Paper Engineering

Now here's a brilliant idea that marries design and engineering. The Flying Pig Paper Animation Kits company provides downloadable patterns (some are pre-cut, pop-out models that must be shipped) for making animated paper models that you assemble. Even the gear that drives the animation is made of folded paper!

Turn the handle on the "T.Rex" and he bites the caveman at his feet. Crank the "Ewe Boat" and a sheep rows the vessel. Rotate the gear in "Mexican Peck" and chickens feed. For a bushel of fun, purchase, download, print, cut and assemble -- within an evening you'll have delightful animated paper models to play with. The models are very reasonably-priced at about 3 pounds each. There are even a few free ones to test out.

Volkwagen Drives Advertising

In 1959 Volkswagen changed the face of advertising. They selected Doyle Dane Berbach (DDB), an advertising agency based in New York, to create a Print and TV campaign to promote their vehicles across the United States. In doing so, VW, the agency and Helmut Krone (the Art Director behind it all) secured their place in advertising history.

Thankfully, three ad-men/authors --Alfredo Marcantonio, John O'Driscoll, and David Aboott-- saw fit to compile the advertisements into an equally clever book. Entitled "Remember those great Volkswagen ads?", this book has a web site devoted to it and is a must-have for all those who work in the biz. As it's currently out of print, be sure to sign up for notification when the new edition is printed. Enjoy!

Thinking outside the comic strip box

While not a comic strip that I usually read, this installment of Cyanide and Happiness had me smiling. It's very innovative use of the traditional comic strip box shows that the artist is really thinking about form as well as function while creating.

2007 Top 10 Canadian Arts Newsmakers

CBC.ca announced their top ten Canadian Arts newsmakers for the year. I'm pleased to see it's an eclectic mix of singer-songwriters, artists, filmmakers, actors, and novelists. It's a nice mix of both genders, too. I'm especially excited to see Feist on the list -- her quirky music is featured on an iPod commercial. You know the song I'm talking about -- "1234". I bet you've also heard her song "Mushaboom" in your travels.

-- Read CBC.ca's Top 10 Canadian Arts Newsmakers
-- Learn more about Leslie Feist at Wikipedia
-- Listen to a 30-second snippet of "1234" on Apple iTunes
-- Buy Feist songs online at iTunes