An attractive and compelling background adds depth to your graphics, banners or ads; and for this reason is of great importance. Sure there are some people who might not notice backgrounds, but the role they play in making the entire artwork look more interesting and visually alluring is paramount. They really do help to tie the entire piece together, no matter how simply or aggressively they are employed.

[Source: noupe]

Love this video~ great use of “Persistence of vision” ~and the double meaning of “pop” – burst and popular culture.

We continue to nourish you with a monthly spoon of inspiration. This post features 30 free desktop wallpapers created by artists across the globe for May 2011. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free. It’s time to freshen up your wallpaper!

[Source: smashingmagazine]

Film Making : Jérôme Masi (monoeil.fr) & Gaëtan Boutet

Music : Franck Aussourd Sound Design : Nadège Feyrit

This is no ordinary iPhone dock. The Black Diamond exudes a sense of richness and mystery. Think of it as 3D interactive mood lighting powered by a free iOS app. The dock itself is the receptacle. The magic happens when you slide in an iPhone/iPod Touch. A fantastical, dizzying array of colors wash across the gem-like surface of the sphere. It’s also a creative platform for developers. Using the Black Diamond as a vehicle, new apps using light can be created. The potential is there. $45 gets you one with free shipping.

[Source: yanko]

In order to buckle the film trilogy “Transformers”, the realizer Michael Bay decided to show in this very new trailer the principal visual effects for Transformers 3.

[Source: fubiz]

Portfolios can be designed in several forms, specially those related to design, photography and other creative professions. The most traditional ones show pro eminent typography to attract attention and explain what is that the client/user is reading/seeing. The most contemporary one can show huge background images with a couple icons to help you navigate, while others can show minimal and clean design with some links to take you where you want. One way or the other, portfolios are your way to present yourself and your work to your audience and clients, and they are always a good source of inspiration.

[Source: wdl]

A year ago, a massive oil spill began in the Gulf. The entire country was glued to the news until the well was capped, and then we forgot about it.

Rubens Cantuni is a italian illustrator that loves to draw tattooed chubby chicks and other colorful things. I find his style super nice, and I also, his pieces look lovely as tattoos! Well, for more of his work, you may check out his portfolio and personal site. I hope you enjoy these! Cheers.

[Source: abduzeedo]

What a hot car in a super sexy ad!

Colorful reel full of nice animations by Claudio Salas

Almost a billion people live without clean drinking water. We call this the water crisis. It’s a crisis because it only starts with water — but water affects everything in life.

Infrared photographs are images taken with film or image sensors sensitive to infrared light and the result of that is simply breath taking. With this film/sensor sensitive to infrared light, the camera captures light that is invisible to our eyes, creating really beautiful contrast and colors.

[Source: onextrapixel]

Introducing HTC Sensation, a multimedia superphone — featuring premium unibody aluminum design with true widescreen qHD display, rich high-fidelity audio, advanced entertainment capabilities with HTC Watch, full HD video recording, instant capture camera and an immersive HTC Sense experience that sets a new multimedia high for smartphones.

The 100% electric Nissan LEAF shows us the true value of zero through a series of thought provoking images that celebrate the world around us.

Motion designer Dilshan Arukatti based in Paris shows us all his talent in this video realized for The Bullit Agency, specialized in the booking of DJs recognized. Putting in scene the rate/rhythm of the space time on our planet.

[Source: fubiz]

HTML5 is certainly here to stay, from a numerous list of articles, events and buzz about this latest revision of the HTML standard. Some websites using HTML5 proudly show the official logo and state the sentence “support the future now”. So to support all this buzz and the technology we decided to gather a new list showcasing websites using HTML5.

[Source: wdl]

Nothing like a good surreal piece of work to make your sleep go away. Ok, jokes apart, surreal illustrations are a really awesome way to see the artist’s creativity and imagination. Anton Semenov makes some creppy, yet amazing pieces.

[Source: abduzeedo]

“Suzuki. For those who can’t fly.”

Advertising Agency: DDB, Santiago de Chile, Chile

[Source: ibelieveinadv]

Using oranges, copper, zink, some wires and a lot of testing, a chemical reaction takes place and creates a giant multi-cell fruit battery.