Dedicated to inspiring designers, inventors & the creative spirit in all of us.

Aspex, a leading designer of tabletop scanners, has challenged its online viewers to submit sample items that they are curious to see magnified to extreme precision.  Have you ever wondered what things look like up close and personal?  Well, fill out a form and send them your sample to see whatever you have been curious to view magnified.

Below are common items already submitted and on display for the world to see. A penny, sidewalk chalk, cat hair, a piece of hard candy.  Maybe you can see your sample on their list of items under the microscope.

Keep a creative calendar at your desk or on your wall, and expect creative things to happen, right? Well, if that is the case, try to get your hands on one of these creative calendars.  

Here is a not-so-short, short history of why there are so many variations of the outlet plug around the world. A little history, a little geography and whole a lot of humor. Enjoy.

This advice for how to better render is a good set of guidelines. I, like others who have read this and posted, do not agree with the last one, though. ”Always cheat” is a bad way of saying reference what is around you. Underlays and references to scale and style are not cheating, so the wording threw me for a loop. But overall, it’s a good article.

Scottish-born Robert Gair invented the corrugated box in 1890; that is, pre-cut flat pieces manufactured in bulk that folded into boxes. Gair’s invention, as with so many other great innovations, came about as a result of an accident. Gair was a Brooklyn printer and paper-bag maker during the 1870’s, and one day, while he was printing an order of seed bags, a metal ruler normally used to crease bags shifted in position and cut them. Gair discovered that by cutting and creasing bags in one operation he could make prefabricated paper boxes. Applying this idea to corrugated boxboard was a straightforward development when the material became available. By the start of the 20th century, corrugated boxes began replacing the custom-made wooden crates and boxes previously used for trade.
(Information taken from Wikipedia.com)

Corrugated cardboard is what Lincoln’s famous top hat was made from, along with beaver fur. Everyone has had pizza delivered in a cardboard box. Amazon’s ever-present brown box with smiling logo is corrugated cardboard at its best; shipped worldwide thanks to the lightweight design and structural integrity of this recycled paper wonder. And as you just read, invention can be stumbled upon and its effects can change industry as we know it.

Adjust your speakers and sit back for this one. This is an inspiring video about all things creative. The video was presented at a benefit show for the Ontario College of Art and Design back in 2005, but it has stood the test of time.

100 Essential Blogs and Websites for Designers.

After only about four months, Davison Creators has reached The Big 100! To date, we have 100 posts about everything and anything design that could inspire creativity or contemplation or stir the imagination, including cool images, products and designers. Davison Creators is indeed getting noticed in the global design community, and each month we continue to gain more viewers. Thanks for your growing support.

In honor of our 100th post, here are links to 100 creative blogs and websites that we love to visit. Some are probably also favorites of our readers, but there are sure to be several that are unknown jewels waiting to be discovered.… Enjoy : )

It was said to me not so long ago that I should write a post about the Wacom that I work on everyday in the design studio. Giving it more thought, I could not do what I do without my Wacom. The progression of the workstation is astounding, considering the formats that I have used as a designer and while growing up. So here is the evolution of my writing tools and work surfaces since kindergarten.

Like any other child, I believe crayons were my starting point. Crayons on paper, crayons on cardboard, crayons on walls. Rubbing onto textures, coloring within the lines and even chewing a few crayons. Then I graduated to colored pencils and markers. At this stage, I am mostly talking about dried-out, hand-me-down markers and colored pencil stubs from the art bins in grade school.  

Next, I moved up to graphite pencils ranging from 6B down to 2H. They were commonly under lock and key by my art teacher and were soon followed by Prismacolor brand colored pencils. To have access to Prismacolors was the touchstone of any art student, because that meant your work was respected enough by your instructor to have any color imaginable at your fingertips, and you could hand sharpen them with an Exacto knife. Reaching a greater level of artistic ability opened my grip to bigger and better things like watercolors. New media meant new materials to draw on as well: heavy paper, watercolor tablets and spiral-bound sketchbooks.

College then provided me with the marker rendering experience, old-school style. The thin, accurate Prismacolors of the past were set aside for thick, two-sided rendering markers. Marker rendering had me balling up cotton swabs and smearing baby powder on the surface of marker paper, hoping that I moved in such a fluid motion that it was a ‘one take wonder’ that I would not have to correct. I even learned to inject alcohol into the old markers to revive the dying pens in my small collection. Markers were cool, but markers were time consuming and messy.

All of these different drawing instruments through school led me to a crossroads where style and execution met technology. The next tool to be learned was the computer mouse. 

This challenge was an advancement in my hand and eye coordination like I had not seen since I had first learned to grip a crayon. Learning to use a computer mouse was almost like going back to step one. So many advancements in technology had taken place as I had progressed from crayons to markers that I understood the new standard was the computer mouse. By training my artistic eye to communicate with my index finger and palm, I could bridge that gap between new interface and the elements of design that I had learned through my early years of art education. 

Just as I had learned to grip my crayon and coordinate the far reach of my imagination to the surface of the paper with the movement of my hand, I had mastered the mouse. I went through college learning to use design programs with a clicking mouse. At home, at school and at work I reached out intuitively to grasp the mouse as I worked on any project, click-clicking away. But here is where it gets tricky — as I moved into the design world upon graduation, I had to adjust to a new technology that, once again, brings me back to step one again. The Wacom. 

The Wacom uses an interactive pen display that had me training my hands and eyes to once again adjust to writing on a new surface. No more crayons on cardboard. No more Prismacolor in a sketchbook. No more cotton swabs and alcohol soaked rendering markers. Everything I needed; every tool, every color, every texture within reach of a writable surface. No more dirty palms or stained fingertips. No more crumbled paper, wasted on a bad stroke. The Wacom was revolutionary in how I designed. 

Today, I grip the Wacom pen with the same loose grip as I did when I learned to scribble with a crayon. I select my pen tip, choose my color and draw as I so simply did when I learned so long ago. The Wacom interface that I use today has been so well designed that the action of simulating the crayon in hand is intuitive. I can’t wait to witness the next advancement of the writing tool. I imagine that will include speaking with my hands and illustrating ideas in 3D.  I’m ready, and I can not wait!