Blog | Rupa Media | Designs of Life

Wayne Radford’s Portrait Tips And Techniques

Posted on October 15th, 2012

Wayne Radford’s – Portrait Tips and Techniques (126 pages, iPod/iPhone/iPad compatible, $24.95) eBook on natural light portraiture is a good resource for black & white and colour portrait photographers and enthusiasts alike.

In this eBook you will learn how to simplify and fine tune the essentials for quality portraiture. Discover how to use facial recognition and what lighting techniques should be used to enhance your subject. Also chapters on window lighting, subtractive lighting, how to find suitable locations, plus techniques for exposure and composition.

Bangkok – Urban Identities iPhone and iPad App

Posted on July 5th, 2012

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Bangkok is loud. And quiet. Bangkok is dirty. And clean. Bangkok can be experienced for 30 Euros a day. And for 3.000 Euro. In cheap guesthouse. And in the posh ‘Oriental’. Bangkok is a Moloch. And still, each alley is a village unto itself. Bangkok is perhaps not exactly beautiful, but a pleasure and an experience for the senses.

“He doesn’t try to aestheticise, … but he also doesn’t focus on the strikingly inadequate. Neither does he try to create any kind of phony effects, as it were. And that’s what makes his work so unique.” – Roman Rahmacher, GEO Epoche

Peter Nitsch’s photographs in Bangkok Urban Identities document urban life on the streets of Bangkok with an individual and virtually intimate look at the city: The central theme is mankind within the urban environment of the metropolis. The pictures show scenes, gestures, characters: an old hairdresser, a frame-maker, a traditional soup kitchen and a lady selling Buddha garlands at night-time. They all go to represent an attempt to preserve a little Thai identity within a continuously globalising city.

This app is a total makeover of the printed book – which is sold out –with additional unpublished photographs and is designed for both iPhone and iPad. Download it here.

100 For 10 Patterns

Posted on July 2nd, 2012

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100 varieties of patterns by designer Ploi Malakul will give you a good starting point and great fun with designs. The choice is yours with these Black & White Illustrations from Geometric, Ethnic & Folk Art, Micro & Macro, Flora & Fauna and to Freestyle patterns.

This wide range of patterns can easily be adapted for all your design needs in Black & White or any colour you like. Use them to develop your icon, your webpage, your company’s booth and displays, you app or anything else that needs some graphic inspiration. These Pattern Sets are perfect for design enthusiasts who want to have fun and unlimited applications.

100 FOR 10 PRO PATTERNS ($10) contains 100 Basic Patterns (31MB) as illustrator eps format ready to use. You can buy this set directly here.

Marco Polo Reloaded – An Epic Journey Full Of Extraordinary Adventures

Posted on June 24th, 2012

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Marco Polo Reloaded - An Epic Journey Full Of Extraordinary Adventures

Accompany Lonely Planet travel writer Bradley Mayhew on an epic journey full of extraordinary adventures.

‘Marco Polo Reloaded’ is a four-part documentary travelogue along the length of the Silk Road; a fascinating journey in the footsteps of the great voyager Marco Polo. In the spirit of history’s great adventurer, the British travel writer Bradley Mayhew retraces and explores the historic route across eight countries, from Venice to Beijing. Each app contains a 52 minutes long episode of the documentary film ‘Marco Polo Reloaded’, along with short clips and many impressive photos and travel quotations. Discover what happens on the 8000 kilometer overland trip and share in the incredible and extraordinary adventure. And maybe pack your own bag in the near future.

Marco Polo Reloaded - An Epic Journey Full Of Extraordinary Adventures

“Travelling can be a very addictive thing. Sometimes it’s the intoxicating intensity of sights, sounds and tastes of a new culture that provides the daily drive for new experiences. For some it’s the meeting of new people, both locals with different views on life and also like-minded fellow travelers who share your passions or interests. At other times travel is just a superb escape, a worryless break from the pressures of bills, work and routine.

Marco Polo Reloaded - An Epic Journey Full Of Extraordinary Adventures

Now that travel has become my job rather than my escape, I like to have a reason for travel, a theme perhaps or a goal: to learn more about Islam, to scope out a new trekking route or visit a country about which not much is known. I’ve always thought that the difference between travel and tourism is the element of active exploration rather than passive viewing, of seeing the country at eye-level and close-up rather than above or from a distance. I’ll always take the discomfort of a local bus rather than the ease of an air-conditioned tourist bus.“ – Bradley Mayhew

Marco Polo Reloaded – PREVIEW
http://itunes.apple.com/app/id530135227

Part 1: Marco Polo Reloaded – From Venice to Eastern Turkey
http://itunes.apple.com/app/id530131199

Part 2: Marco Polo Reloaded – Through Iran
http://itunes.apple.com/app/id530132058

Part 3: Marco Polo Reloaded – From Afghanistan to China
http://itunes.apple.com/app/id530132590

Part 4: Marco Polo Reloaded – Through China
http://itunes.apple.com/app/id530133192

Marco Polo Reloaded - An Epic Journey Full Of Extraordinary Adventures

Capture Your Life Through Instaglasses

Posted on June 23rd, 2012

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Instaglasses

Instaglasses is a interesting glasses concept by German designer Markus Gerke. Many people use Instagram. They all love the effects, and every one of them loves to take pictures and to share them with their friends. Wouldn’t it be great to capture your everyday life, your entire life, through beautiful filters? The design concept gives you a short overview on the appearance of (Insta)glasses.

You activate the glasses by pushing “Insta” on the temple stern and option to choose between different filters. Are you enjoying a moment? Just take a picture with your glasses and upload the image straight to Instagram.

Life is beautiful, even more beautiful with filters. (via)

What Once Was A Home

Posted on June 7th, 2012

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What Once Was Home

Peter Granser set off in search of traces of the town of Gruorn on the Swabian Alb, which was forcibly evacuated between 1937 and 1939. His limited edition Was einem Heimat war – What once was a home (800 copies, german and english, ISBN 978-3-9814530-2-7, roughly $35) documents the eventful history of a landscape that was used for over 100 years as a training ground for the armed forces and is thus closely associated with German military history. In 2005, the terrain, still strongly contaminated with projectiles and unexploded ordnance, was declared a biosphere reserve.

The illustrated book What once was a home is composed of several parts. Black and white photographs of the landscape, showing the scars and relics from the period of military use are confronted with a typology of anti-tank ammunition, bullets and grenades. The book includes a five-part panorama as Leporello.

Function Follows Form

Posted on May 21st, 2012

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Function Follows Form

“I know I am not the only Australian to say when it rains heavily that it’s “pissing down rain” as if the universe is taking a leak. Mounds of snow with their rudimentary formations, also have that thoughtless urgency of creation that mirrors urination. Snow is often so devestatingly, stupidly photogenic that a tiny pile of it can look like an Antarctic iceberg. Pristine snow. In Peter Nitsch’s Function Follows Form snow is sprayed in bright yellow by dogs, yet it remains frigidly beautiful even in the face of this marking. Rather than an attack on the picturesque, these canines are paying homage to the skies, replicating the gorgeous abstraction of expulsion.

The design principal that Form Follows Function, here gets a reversal. Function does follow form and very rarely goes against our expectations of it; the functions of snowing, the functions of peeing, they’ve been worked out some time before us. Might as well go with it; Nitsch ramps up the colour of the warm frothy landmarks till they almost fluoresce. The frivolous photos become the colour of smashed eggs, a crystallised map of urgency, a rendering of techniques of urination as cold paws make haste, an expansion of the photographic documentation of the unmonumental in the tradition of Brassai’s Sculptures Involontaires, 1933. Lastly they are simply piss on snow.” – Amy Marjoram, Excerpt Magazine.

100 For 10 Basic Backgrounds

Posted on May 13th, 2012

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With this basic set you’ll get 100 pro backgrounds for just 10 dollars, yeah. This means $1 for each high resolution image!

No matter if you’re a design-minded guru, icon designer, developer, web designer, magazine designer, architect or a “who the hell knows I just need some backgrounds for my iPad” buff, this background set will add some extra pro flavor to your work-life.

100 FOR 10 PRO BACKGROUNDS contains 100 basic backgrounds (784 MB!) ready for print or mobile design in two resolutions: 300 dpi at 5616 x 3744 pixel, perfect for projects that need quality, quality and quality. And low-res images in 72 dpi at 1024 x 683 pixel, perfect for browsing through the images or sending a preview to your art director or client. Included format: jpg. Buy this set directly here.

Instagram Socialmatic Concept Camera

Posted on May 7th, 2012

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Instagram Socialmatic Camera

Since Facebook has bought Instagram for nearly a billion dollars in cash and stock, many users, bloggers, economy experts have thought Instagram could build its first real photo camera. Imagine to pick the Instagram App icon and now imagine it as real camera. This is the main idea of ADR Studio at the base of Instagram Socialmatic Concept. A social camera with 16 GB mass storage, Wi-Fi, bluetooth, optical zoom, webcam apps, QR Code capturing, LED flash, internal printer, 4:3 touchscreen and 2 main lenses with possibility to put on some 3D filters.

What’s In My Bag (On-The-Go)

Posted on April 29th, 2012

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Peter Nitsch‘s background is located back in the early eighties of the German Skater scene. Nitsch has won several international awards both as designer (New York Festival, BDA …) and photographer (Los Angeles International Photography Award, Hasselblad Masters semifinalist …). Furthermore he is co-founder of ‘get addicted to … DAILY MIX OF CREATIVE CULTURE’. Often being asked what he’s carrying in his daily bag, he decided to give you the answer with this photo What’s In My Bag (On-The-Go).

“Over the years, I didn’t have something with me. But nowadays this photograph above show my essential items that I absolutely will not leave home without. All of these items in my daily bag are easy to carry,” says Peter Nitsch. (via)

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