February 5, 2010 by Catalin Costea
Where to Start In Your Design?
No matter what we are talking about the first steps are always the hardest. This is also true for building a design. The first thing you want to do is decide the line of your design: idea, elements you want to use, color and message. This 4 factors are very important when you decide to start making a design. 
Idea and Message
This 4 elements will help you start your design and also will help you until the end. The idea and the message you want your site to send out are the first two things you want to decide upon. Nowadays sites are becoming less and less interesting. Everyone focuses on accessibility and the content and sacrifices the design. It is true that an unique and appealing design is hard to make and takes a lot of time, but didn’t you ever wish you would have spend a little more time on your design and make it special than having it fast and dull?
Key Elements
After you made sure you have the perfect idea and message for your site now you will have to decide on some of the key elements you will use on your site and the color of the design. The most important elements are the logo, the header and images you will use. The logo isn’t going to be a problem since from now one here at JesterArts you have now the possibility to have a beautiful custom made logo ready for use. Also you have a multitude of images from which to choose from and blend into your site. Also this multitude and diversity allows you to find the perfect combination, but be careful when you choose your images so that they are a match with your idea and message. The color won’t be a problem since as Leo explained earlier changing the color of the illustrations here is very easy to do.
Next…
Now that you managed to have an idea of what we are going to do we will see in the next posts also how we can do this. 
Till next time don’t forget to keep in touch via facebook or twitter.
Tags: Catalin Costea, Color, Cute, design, designer, Idea, jesterarts, leo blanchette, Message, Theme, Tips, Tutorial, tutorials
Posted in Design Tips | Leave a Comment »
January 31, 2010 by Catalin Costea
Some time back Leo made a post about a brand new idea he had and asked for some help with his blog and especially the design posts. As I had been following his blog for 
some time now and especially liked his work I decided to talk to him about writing his design blog for him and work together.
First of all let me introduce myself. I am Catalin Costea, a 23 years old web designer and coder from Romania. There’s not really much to say about me, I have worked on different projects from www.erepublik.com to www.artisticevents.ro. For the last project I am working on at the moment I have decided to make something special, but at the same time something simple to make and fun to build, and also fun to interact with.
I have heard for too long about the “professional” ways of designing a site or about the web 2.0 design. The purpose of the web 2.0 design is push designers to make sites as accessible as possible or as others say to make sites look “professional”. For some time now designers have decided to sacrifice beauty or originality for accessibility. Design is more than putting a background to the information you want to offer to your visitors, it is a way to impress, to make people interested in what the next page brings and also a way to stand out from the crowd.
The tips and tricks I’ll show you in my next posts I’ll be writing will be about building a beautiful, fun, but yet simple and accessible design for your site using the illustrations available here at JesterArts.
Till next time don’t forget to keep in touch via facebook or twitter.
Tags: Art, Catalin Costea, design, Fun, impress, interested, jesterarts, leo blanchette, Orange Man, photoshop, Tips, Tutorial, tutorials
Posted in Design Tips | Leave a Comment »
January 18, 2010 by leoblanchette
The whole point of “Jester Arts” when I started it was simple: Funny, ironic, and thought provoking illustrations. Well, I’m trying to produce more illustrations like that now.
Here are three illustrations free for educational and non-profit use: Factory Farm Cows: Udder-ly hilarious.
These illustrations are on the subject of factory farming where cows are injected with growth hormones such as rBGH to speed up there production. This often ends up being bad for the cows and toxic to people who consume the resulting dairy products.
For the commercially available, large scale and vector versions of these illustrations, please see my website: http://www.jesterartsillustrations.com/
Tags: Ailment, Animal, Animal Abuse, Banned, BGH, Biohazard, Bovine, BST, Cow, Cute, Dairy, Digestive, Disorder, Factory, Factory Farming, Farm, Genetic Engineering, Growth, Hazard, Health, Health Hazard, Hormone, jesterarts, JesterArtsIllustrations.com, leo blanchette, mastitis, Milk, Milk Production, Mistreatment, Poison, rBGH, rBST, Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone, Sickness, Toxic
Posted in Free Illustrations | Leave a Comment »
January 9, 2010 by leoblanchette
Here it is, the coolest development yet: JesterArts 3d models available on www.Turbosquid.com.
From here on, all the 3d models I create (except for mascots) will be uploaded to Turbosquid. Vehicles, objects, scenes…they will now be available for you to customize from the ground up in 3d.
Remember that really cool credit trap illustration? Well, now you can download the model and do anything you want with it!
The Credit Trap
The models generally have a cost, but a HUGE advantage is that they are created in Blender 3d, which is a completely free but high end 3d modeling/animation suite. Be sure to use the external renderer Yaf(a)ray with it since thats what I use along with blender for the realistic look. Please note that a degree of 3d knowledge will be necessary (or at least the motivation to learn it) for you to make good use of these models.
Keep checking back…there will be lots of new models as I continue creating them for illustrations. In the meantime, here is a
free light bulb 3d model for any future bright ideas you may have.
Tags: 3d Models, Blender 3d, design, Free 3d Model, illustration, illustrator, leo blanchette, render, Turbosquid
Posted in Illustration and Design | Leave a Comment »
December 14, 2009 by leoblanchette
The Credit Trap
While credit can be a protection, usually its a trap, and the system of Credit has learned to capitalize on both sides of the coin.
We all know the scenario of the mouse and the trap baited with cheese. It’s such a simple concept, but extremely effective at catching an unwary victim. Amazingly, this works extremely well on people, and sadly, our intelligence as higher beings does not seem give much advantage against this same scenario. All we need is a rectangular piece of plastic, and some cheese of our own choice (a new TV, some new furniture, etc) and *snap*…you get the picture.
So here it is, a FREE illustration. What a relief — no payments necessary. But there is one thing you can do to compensate, and only if you wish: Give it to everyone. Your fellow businesses, your friends…make it into a bumper sticker…a billboard. I don’t care what you do with it, just make sure everyone sees it. 
You don’t even have to credit the artist! Click the pictures to see the large scale versions.
While your on the subject, why don’t you see what Wikipedia has to say on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predatory_lending
The Credit Trap
Tags: Bad Credit, Bankruptcy, Credit, Credit Danger, Credit Problems, Credit Trap, Fraud, Free Illustration, Free Image, jesterarts, leo blanchette, Predatory Lending
Posted in Free Illustrations, Illustration and Design | 3 Comments »
December 5, 2009 by leoblanchette
Hello peeps! 
Its been a while since I posted on this blog. This is too much like a one-man operation. I feel like a one-man band. I have an idea!
Maybe, just maybe, there is a good writer/designer out there who would like to do the tutorials section of this blog in exchange for joined promotion. Yes, no? If you have some good credentials, are a good writer, and want to join the fun, please e-mail me.
Its simple: You create blog posts, and be sure that they link to your services and my site. Your total writing/designer ability should be about equal to my illustration level for the best possible compatibility and continuity. If you’ve used JesterArts illustrations and would like to make tutorials around them, all the better.
Desired content: Mostly tutorials (involving JesterArts Illustrations one way or another), designer tips, and fun talk. Within this content can be placed links to JesterArtsIllustrations.com and the writer/designer’s own work. The writer will not be considered a part of JAI, but simply writing blog content for dual promotion.
Also, you will have access to all illustrations found on JAI site.
Contact me: Leo (AT) JesterArts.net
Tags: Blog Writer, designer, Help Wanted, jesterarts
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
November 11, 2009 by leoblanchette
The orange men get real! Introducing the realistic orange man!
New Orange Man example below;
Tags: 3d, Blender 3d, jesterarts, leo blanchette, Orange Man, render, Yafaray, yafray
Posted in Free Illustrations, Illustration and Design | 2 Comments »
November 10, 2009 by leoblanchette
Continued from previous blog post – creating a little French Bakery (or cafe) for my kidlets. Below is the progress. It is going to house a little plastic kitchen set-up you can buy at many toy retailers. To the best of my knowledge, this should be safe! (Famous last words). I created it in Blender 3d to visualize before actually creating it.
Tags: 3d, clubhouse, Cute, family time, house, http://www.jesterartsillustrations.com/, jesterarts, leo blanchette, little, play, toddlers
Posted in Free Illustrations, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
November 9, 2009 by leoblanchette
I’ve been taking a lot of time off from work to do more family things. Since I have to keep regular on blog posts for those all-powerful search engines, I thought I could share our little project! An indoor club-house for the tots! I whipped up the frame in 3d first to have a good idea of how to make the best end resulting little french cafe.
I plan to finish this graphically before I pick up a hammer:
Club house frame.
Tags: 3d, Blender 3d, Cafe, Club House, Cute, design, Frame, Layout, Toddler
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
