They all use humour to great effect in order to connect with an audience. Some are surreal, others gruesome, sexy and bizarre, but each one delivers an ingenious comic hit that you can’t help but take notice of.

Don’t forget to check out our previous post where we showcased another 30 hilarious print ads ;)

1. Listerine

2. Boecker: Don’t Let Them Get Comfortable

3. Pedigree: Against Bad Breath

4. Zoo Safari: Blend In

5. Lifebuoy: You Eat What You Touch

6. Bynolyt Binoculars

7. Rubik’s Cube: 25 Years and Still Going

8. Comedy Central: Not a Moment Without Comedy

9. Hut Weber: It’s the Hat

10. Lamborghini Tractors

11. Pattex: Long Lasting Glue

12. Mutual Community: After 70 Years we’ve Seen It All

13. Pfizer: Viagra

14. South Africa 2010: The new home of football

15. Alka-Seltzer: Hangover is Dangerous

16. Jeep: Bringing more people to more remote places

17. WWF: You Can’t Afford To Be Slow In An Emergency

18. Alien Vs Predator

19. Durex: Play Lubricant

20. Ambi Pur: Burst of Lemon

21. Dean’s: Surprisingly Mild

22. Durex: XL

23. Sauber: Absolutely Invisible

24. Paris On Prison

25. Sun Media: Size Is Nothing Without Precision

26. Fujifilm: Nobody Can Resist In Front of a FinePix

27. Cemex: Fast Drying Cement

28. DealerTrack: Tools For a Competitive Advantage

29. InlineCourier: Berlin’s Fastest Bike Couriers

30. Senior Citizen’s Ball: The Good Times Are Back

Your Turn To Talk

I hope you liked this post! Don’t forget to check out Part 1 for more hilarious print ads! Of course make sure you leave a comment below and tell us which ones are your favorites! :)

Today, I have been looking over some of the most famous album covers of all time and I want to share what I found. I’m sure you’ve seen most of those before. I think that for each music style, even cross-genre audiences would be able to pick out the artist from each of these covers even if they didn’t have the name or picture of the artist on the cover. Enjoy! ;)

AC/DC – Back In Black ↓

Bob Marley – Catch A Fire ↓

Korn – Follow The Leader ↓

Backstreet Boys – Millenium ↓

Dr. Dre – The Chronic ↓

Eminem – The Slim Shady ↓

Fall Out Boy – Infinity On High ↓

Guns ‘N’ Roses – Appetite For Destruction ↓

Green Day – American Idiot ↓

Mariah Carey – Rainbow ↓

Green Day – Dookie ↓

Metallica – Master Of Puppets ↓

Iron Maiden – Self-Titled ↓

The Beastie Boys – License To Ill ↓

The Beatles – Abbey Road ↓

Beck – The Information ↓

Blink 182 – Enema Of The State ↓

Jay-Z – Reasonable Doubt ↓

Jimi Hendrix Experience – BBC Sessions ↓

Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison ↓

Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation Of ↓

Lil Wayne – Tha Carter III ↓

Limp Bizkit – Significant Other ↓

Linkin Park – Minutes To Midnight ↓

2Pac – All Eyez On Me ↓

Lupe Fiasco – Food And Liquor ↓

Theory Of A Deadman – Self-Titled ↓

Marilyn Manson – Mechanical Animals ↓

The Beatles – St. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band ↓

Michael Jackson – Bad ↓

Weezer – Self-Titled ↓

Motley Crue – Girls Girls Girls ↓

Nas – Illmatic ↓

Michael Jackson – Got To Be There ↓

Notorious B.I.G. – Ready To Die ↓

Oasis – What’s The Story ↓

Michael Jackson – Thriller ↓

Nirvana – Nevermind ↓

Outkast – Stankonia ↓

Ozzy Osbourne – Bark At The Moon ↓

Paramore – Riot ↓

Pink Floyd – Dark Side Of The Moon ↓

Pink Floyd – The Wall ↓

Rage Against The Machine – Evil Empire ↓

Rolling Stones – Exile On Main St. ↓

Bob Marley – Legend ↓

Snoop Dogg – Doggystyle ↓

The Clash – London Calling ↓

Underoath – They’re Only Chasing Safety ↓

Tool – 10 000 Days ↓

What Album Covers Stand Out To You The Most? And Why?

Let us know in the comments which albums stick out when you look the list over. Don’t forget to tell us why. What did you like about the design?

I would also be very interested to see if anyone here has designed album covers before? Care to share? See you all in the comment section! ;)

While searching for some icons for a recent project I came across some great minimalist icon and symbol sets and thought I’d expand my search and share my findings here with you.

Please note that some of those sets are not free and of course make sure you read the license before using them.

Devine Icons ↓

Only2 Icons ↓

Simple Small Icons ↓

Iconic ↓

Mnml Icon Set ↓

Aiga Symbol Signs ↓

Patricia Clausnitzer’s PC Icons ↓

PICOL Icons ↓

Ecqlipse 2 ↓

Wireframe Toolbar Icons ↓

Devine Icons Part II ↓

Sanscons ↓

bwpx.icns ↓

Goo-EE ↓

Default Icons ↓

Icon Sweets ↓

Mini Icons 2 ↓

iPhone Toolbar Icons ↓

Glyphish ↓

Token ↓

Pictoico ↓

Bitcons ↓

Brightmix Iconset ↓

Android Menu Icons ↓

Monochrome Symbols Icon Set – Part 5 ↓

BacktoPixel ↓

Symbolize Icon Set ↓

Marker Vector Set ↓

Helveticons ↓

Webdesigner Sketchup Icons ↓

30 Vector Icons ↓

Twotiny ↓

Kostenlose Icons ↓

Minimalist Pixel Icon Set ↓

SimplyBold Vector Set ↓

Symbol Signs collection ↓

Socialmonochromicons v.2 ↓

Rocky Vector Set ↓

108 Mono Icons ↓

Pictos ↓

Your Turn To Talk

What do you think? Have you used one of those sets in a project before? Did I miss any? Please feel free to chime in and leave a comment below!

Some people prefer self-hosted solutions like WordPress, but others enjoy Tumblr for its ease of use and because it requires almost no maintenance or even hosting fees.

Today we’ll have a look at some of the best custom Tumblr themes out there. Tumblr provides ready-made templates for users, but customizing or creating your own theme is where the magic happens. Let’s see some examples of what can be achieved:

SimpleBits ↓

David Perel ↓

Allison Weiss ↓

hrrrthrrr ↓

Mark Jardine ↓

Doug Neiner ↓

Art In My Coffee ↓

Gary Vaynerchuk ↓

Gary’s Real Life ↓

MetaLab Blog ↓

Danny Garcia ↓

Vervetbleu ↓

Name That Film ↓

Eat Sleep Draw ↓

Karen Abad ↓

Jeff Finley ↓

Extra Firm Hold ↓

Domo Nom Nom ↓

Faggotry ↓

Kevin Nuut ↓

Moose Garden ↓

Steven Beelen ↓

Matthew Buchanan ↓

HERE ↓

Matt McInerney ↓

9-Bits ↓

52 Weeks Of UX ↓

Heather Rivers ↓

Log.jb ↓

Tumblr Staff Blog ↓

Your Turn To Talk

What do you think? Do you have your own Tumblr blog? Do you know of any other custom Tumblr blog designs? Make sure you tell us by leaving a comment below ;)

When done right, adding visual cues to your main menu can prove very useful in making things just a tad more appealing to visitors. Let’s have a look at some sites that make great use of icons in their navigation menus.

One trend I noticed while looking for sites to include in this post was that a lot of them used monochrome/greyscale icons – subtle but very effective.

TappGala ↓

Komodo Media ↓

Toffeenut Design ↓

Geng Gao ↓

Narwhal. Co ↓

Fragment ↓

Carbonmade ↓

Carsonified ↓

Dan Wiersema ↓

GreenOlivz ↓

Ecoki ↓

Freelance Folder ↓

Vancouver 2010 ↓

WP Bundle ↓

Dustin Allen Pace ↓

Media Loot ↓

Ministry Spotlight ↓

Scarpo ↓

Jonnotie ↓

Fresh01 ↓

Your Turn To Talk

Which ones did you like the best? Feel free to chime in and leave a comment below. Of course let us know if you found other sites that make great use of icons in their navigation menus :)

More than often breadcrumbs are usually styled horizontally and can be pretty hard to miss if created effectively. This provides the user with easy access and can either show their path, location or attribute (which we will discuss further below).

Why Use Them?

There are various reasons why anyone would use breadcrumbs, one of the top choices is the massive gain in usability which allows the user to freely move up or down within your site’s hierarchy with little or no issue. Not only that, but it’ll be easier for them to track their location and eliminate repetitive actions (such as using the main navigation and the browsers back button over and over).

A majority of navigation menus are not designed to leave a “breadcrumb trail” for the user to follow making it harder for them to track where they’re currently at within all the pages of a website.

Some breadcrumbs are also easy on the eyes due to their usually appealing designs that grab a users attention with very little effort. This gives way to a smoother and effective navigation process that uses up a small portion of the screen.

When Do We Need Them?

Now that we’ve covered the why, we’ll be covering the when to use breadcrumb navigation.

Use breadcrumbs when…

• Your users are likely to land on any given page from an external site.
• You’re looking to integrate an element that can be used as a secondary navigation which provides further details.
• The website thrives on a hierarchical structure that delivers content in a similar manner.
• You have pages that are nested deep into the hierarchical structure of your site and can’t be visually seen within the main navigation menu or by any other means except a secondary navigation.
• You’d like to provide your users with a way to track their location and easily browse back to a higher level within your websites hierarchy.

It’s not recommend for you to use a breadcrumb navigation if you have a website that has no hierarchical structure and could benefit the most from a simple navigation menu. As much as breadcrumbs can help, they can also cause damage to the usability of your website if used incorrectly.

Diving Into Its Mechanism

Breadcrumbs seem simple enough to integrate into your website, right? Not necessarily. Just as there are different types of navigation menus that service certain types of websites, there are different types of breadcrumbs that can be used specifically for the type of content structure your website was developed for.

As promised we will cover the three different types of breadcrumbs we briefly spoke of within the introduction. The first one is a path based breadcrumb that shows the user the exact steps they’ve taken in order to reach their current location. This dynamic breadcrumb trail will always give a user the option to backtrack wherever they’ve come from and how they got to the specific page their on.

The second type of breadcrumb is location based, it lets the user know where they’re at within the websites hierarchy. Normally they will used wherever there’s a plethora of pages that are assigned to a specific region within a website.

And the third is an attribute breadcrumb which gives the user useful information that will categorize the page they’re currently on. In example, a user could be navigating through a clothing website, once the user reaches an item they click on it and that takes them to another page where they have a variety of options such as style, color, fabric and more.

Each of these options have their own page and when chosen, the user will be transported to another page that has further options. Now you can say that the pages which contain the style, colors and fabrics are an attribute of the item chosen.

The Showcase

Guarian ↓

The Glasgow Collective ↓

Wufoo ↓

Girl Scouts ↓

Delicious ↓

Apple ↓

Yahoo! TV ↓

CoolSpotters ↓

Hillside Group ↓

BubbleStick ↓

Crooked Tongues ↓

Mia & Maggie ↓

Target ↓

Design Collectors ↓

Bell ↓

Nasa ↓

Ideo ↓

Bridge 55 ↓

Nestle ↓

Marchand Trucs ↓

Your Turn To Talk

I hope you enjoyed this post and learned a thing or two about breadcrumb navigation. Please feel free to chime in by leaving a comment below :)

This is a DMG file – also known as ‘Apple Disk Image’ – ultimately it allows the application to store compressed files and information on a virtual disk so that it may act similar to a data storage device. Not only are DMG files easy to work with, but some are pure works of art that genuinely inspire.

Why Design Attention-Grabbing DMGs?

If you ask why anyone would add illustration and other eye-catching attributes to a DMG file knowing the user has already decided to download the app, then I would ask you to look at it from the software company’s perspective, and you’ll realize that they’ve found a way to captivate the user to the point that clicking (or dragging) to complete the setup is interesting and possibly exciting.

Some software companies use the DMG to add catchy lines, messages, and further advertise their products as well. All in all the following apps have turned DMGs into a creative and colourful piece of your Mac.

The Showcase

These 40 Inspiring and Creative Mac DMGs are sure to keep you wanting for more. Let us know which ones we missed and the ones you like best!

AppZapper ↓

Mflow ↓

Alfred ↓

ColorSchemer ↓

Pastebot ↓

Mac Update ↓

TinyGrab ↓

Machinarium ↓

PostBox ↓

TV-Browser ↓

Wallet ↓

CleanMyMac ↓

RapidWeaver ↓

Corner Stone ↓

Snippet ↓

Clarus ↓

Image Spark ↓

Opera ↓

1Password ↓

CartLoom ↓

Snowtape ↓

MacJournal ↓

Contactizer Pro ↓

Microsoft Office 2008 ↓

DaisyDisk ↓

Delicious Library ↓

iClip ↓

Typeset ↓

MacDust ↓

VirusBarrier ↓

LittleSnapper ↓

Parallels Desktop ↓

Embraceware Awaken ↓

BareBones ↓

OmniFocus ↓

Voila ↓

Zykloid Posterino ↓

Eternal Storms Flickery ↓

Adium ↓

Cha-Ching ↓

Your Turn To Talk

I hope you enjoyed this post and found some of those designs inspiring! Please let us know which ones are your favorites. ;)

Many of them break down the process of something that’s already in existence (i.e. BuySellAds Infographic) while others are close to the developmental stages and/or seen as concepts.

Creating Your Own

One of the most successful approaches for creating an infographic that’s just as effective as it is informative is to develop you’re own “framework“. It will help you streamline your creation process and allow ideas to flow freely. However, an infographic framework is not visual but operates on research, facts, and the data you feed it.

Before you begin designing any infographic you must take a few necessary steps in order to achieve the visualization of the correct data. This is what we call the “framework” because it keeps you focused and eliminates confusion. The following statements and questions can be applied to every infographic you will ever design. You can always alter it to better fit the needs of your project at hand.

• First, you must have a deep understanding of the information you’re essentially trying to convey. What your audience is going to be and how they will perceive the information you’re feeding them.
• Second, as you find out which audience your infographic will target you’ll need to choose what elements of design would be most productive and leave an undeniable impression in the minds of the reader. Which color would be most attractive? And what sort of structure should your infographic embody (i.e. a map, diagram, timeline, chart, and more.)
• Third, once you’ve figured out the above, you must choose the venue in which you will deliver your infographic. With this being said, we’re referring to whether it will be in print, online, will it have animation, sound, and will the user be able to interact with the visualization. These are all important aspects of your design that need to be addressed accordingly or your infographic will more than likely fail to captivate the audience and deliver awesome results.

The Showcase

Please note that many of the following infographics were cropped much smaller due to their lengths. We encourage you to click through the links for a much better view of the information graphic.

Also make sure you check out another one of our posts about infographics titled “The Anatomy Of An Infographic: 5 Steps To Create A Powerful Visual“.

10 Billion iTunes Downloads ↓

Envisioning Your Future 2020 ↓

Apple vs. Flash Infographic ↓

Piggy Trouble ↓

The State of the Internet ↓

Apple Vs. Google Vs. Microsoft ↓

Good Prius ↓

How Long Will It Last? ↓

A HubSpotter’s Guide to the Galaxy ↓

Music And Piracy Infographic ↓

So You Need a Typeface? ↓

Transparency: A History of Deadly Terrorist Attacks ↓

Are We Over the Worst? ↓

Burning Fuel ↓

Transparency: Which Countries Invest the Most in Alternative Energy? ↓

The Apple Field Guide ↓

CreditKarma ↓

Fish to Vegas ↓

Jan Feliks ↓

Vampire Energy ↓

Some More Infographics

• Desde EL ESPACIO hasta tu casa
• Show do milhão
• Aniversario de la VESPA
• Focus Magazine feature July 09
• how to become a profitable souvenir
• Caminho da Índia

Your Turn To Talk

I hope you enjoyed this post! Please let us know which infographic was your favourite. And of course make sure you let us know about other awesome infographics we might have missed. See you in the comment section!

By checking out these 25 examples and seeing what works well for websites, you’ll be able to implement your own footer that keeps people’s attention when they’re at the bottom of your page. Of course, every design is different and a big footer might not work for your site or just be overkill, but on the other hand it might just be what your site needed.

Make sure you take notice on how many different styles there actually are in the footers – link-hub style, strictly design, contact forms, etc…

Superior Contracting Services ↓

Midnighters Club ↓

Fusebox Creations ↓

Rubbik ↓

Demotive ↓

BEC Media ↓

Please Invite Me To Dribbble ↓

Twitter Designs ↓

Grzegorz Kozak ↓

Soh Tanaka ↓

Run Addicts ↓

Foxtie ↓

Morphix ↓

Enpresiv ↓

White House ↓

Andi Gladwin ↓

Irrational Games ↓

Roaaar! ↓

Primo Motif ↓

Vartro ↓

Ronihind ↓

Flourish ↓

Inseo ↓

YoDiv ↓

Indiqo Media ↓

Where’s Your Sexy Footer?

Do you have a killer footer in your site design? Let us know in the comments! ;)

Of course don’t forget to check out one of our previous posts on web usability where we talked about the importance of a great footer.

From just glancing at these posters you’ll notice how technology has changed over the years, producing various different styles and trends, both good and bad, as time has passed.

We love discussions here at SpyreStudios, especially about movie posters! So please do leave a comment letting us and the other readers know what your favorite poster is and why!

Vampire Movie Posters

In the selection of vampire movie posters, we have some classic movie posters such as Dracula (1931), Blood Bath (1966) and The Lost Boys (1987) to some modern day blockbuster hits such as Underworld (2003), Van Helsing (2004) and Twilight (2008).

One thing that is very easy to spot throughout the evolution of vampire movie posters from 1931 to 2010 is the development of designing in a grid (can be identified in the 1960′s and 70′s), allowing the viewers eyes to digest the poster in a shorter period of time and allowing them to focus on the focal points much easier.

1931 – Dracula ↓

1936 – Dracula’s Daughter ↓

1945 – House of Dracula ↓

1960 – Brides of Dracula ↓

1964 – The Last Man on Earth ↓

1966 – Blood Bath ↓

1967 – The Fearless Vampire Killers ↓

1970 – The Vampire Lovers ↓

1973 – Queen of the Vampires ↓

1983 – The Hunger ↓

1985 – Fright Night ↓

1986 – Vamp ↓

1987 – The Lost Boys ↓

1989 – Vampire’s Kiss ↓

1990 – Rockula ↓

1992 – Buffy the Vampire Slayer ↓

1993 – Cronos ↓

1995 – The Addiction ↓

1996 – Bordello of Blood ↓

1998 – Blade ↓

2000 – Shadow of the Vampire ↓

2001 – The Forsaken ↓

2002 – Queen of the Damned ↓

2003 – Underworld ↓

2004 – Van Helsing ↓

2007 – 30 Days of Night ↓

2007 – I Am Legend ↓

2008 – Twilight ↓

2009 – Lesbian Vampire Killers ↓

2010 – Daybreakers ↓

Zombie Movie Posters

Zombie films have always been a big thing in the movie industry, and are only growing stronger with the likes of George A Romero’s Zombie films being remade and various other new plots and directors bursting onto the scene.

By browsing through the following posters, you’ll again notice the development of grid design, from how it was virtually non-existant in the 1930′s and 40′s, to how most movie poster designs are completely based on a grid since the 1970′s, and still are even in the modern 21 century world.

You’ll also notice the use of textured images in the more modern digital art is being used on a frequent basis to recreate an old, vintage and “scary” look, which we also see in some of the older posters being produced in a traditional way.

1936 – Revolt of the Zombies ↓

1940 – The Ghost Breakers ↓

1943 – I Walked With A Zombie ↓

1945 – Zombies of Broadway ↓

1964 – The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies ↓

1968 – Night of the Living Dead ↓

1969 – Astro Zombies ↓

1972 – Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things ↓

1973 – The Crazies ↓

1978 – Dawn of the Dead ↓

1980 – Doctor Butcher ↓

1981 – The Evil Dead ↓

1984 – Zombie Island Massacre ↓

1985 – Day of the Dead ↓

1986 – Night of the Creeps ↓

1987 – I Was A Teenage Zombie ↓

1990 – Night of the Living Dead ↓

2002 – 28 Days Later ↓

2003 – House of the Dead ↓

2004 – Shaun of the Dead ↓

2006 – Slither ↓

2007 – REC ↓

2008 – Diary of the Dead ↓

2009 – Zombieland ↓

source: IMP Awards

Your turn To Talk

I hope you liked this post! Please let us know which ones are your favorites by leaving a comment below ;)

Other Movie Poster Posts

• Evolution of Animation Film Posters from 1937 to Present
• Trends Used In Comedy Film Posters From 1915 to 2010
• Design Trends Used In Action Movie Posters from 1960-2010
• The Evolution of Movie Posters: 67 Years of Old and New
• Fantastic Sci-Fi and Fantasy Movie Poster Inspiration, 1925 to 2010
• A Comparative Design Look at Remakes of Movie Posters