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Designing innovative, unique business cards it hard. Since there is so little room to fill in graphics and text, you’re really limited creatively… or are you?

I found quite a few sites that had a nice collection of business card designs.

Resources:

Flickr, has a pretty nice collection

Creative Bits also has a nice collection

You can also have a sneak peak from this amazon book (just click on the cover)

From: rikjansen.com

Have you ever bought home a new album or DVD and thought the cover was horribly design? Even though you’re not a graphics designer, you’d probably know what else would work best right? Well this is where replacement DVD cover art comes in. Many people do not know this, but there are several DVD covers and CD cover arts for the same film.

Let’s say you have a movie that has an ugly cover design. Well, you can access a site like dvdcoversfuzion.com which has a huge database of DVD & CD covers for you to download from.

Save time, instead of mashing up photographs to create a cover relevant to your album or DVD, check out DVD covers fuzion and use their own covers. There is a huge collection and you’ll surely find one that suits your cover perfectly. Why settle for a cover that you don’t like when you can replace all of them with something more appealing!

Raw, simple and orderly. Sending messages of virtue, heroism and patriotism by recounting ancient Greek and Rome scenes, the complete opposite and rebel against the fancied up luxurious style of Rococo. This was what described Neoclassical art. An artist that greatly produced such themes and ideas through his paintings was Jacques-Louis David. Known as a master in his domain, he taught Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres the style of neoclassicism. During the intermediate stage of his career, he begun to paint nude women in a sensual way; by doing so, he showed more of his individualistic ideas than following Neoclassicism. At the end of his career, he accomplished his masterpiece, « The Turkish Bath » (Ingres, 1862) that finally uncovered his ideas, values and goals. With such transformation during the span of his career, Ingres had always kept his ideas and Neoclassicism together.

When first exposed to Neoclassicism by David, Ingres showed strong influences from his teacher in his paintings; Paintings such as « Ambassadors to Agamemnon » (Ingres, 1797) showed several typical Neoclassical traits of detail, idealism, lines and the theme of ancient Greek. For example, in the masterpiece, great precision and care for details on the folds and ripples of Ulysess’s robe was shown. In addition, the forms of the male bodies were ideal since they are very masculine and muscular. Another essential characteristic of Neoclassicism illustrated was the use of lines and order; visually, the men on the right and background are all aligned vertically. Finally, the theme of ancient Greek was shown by reciting the scene where Achilles was being asked to participate in the Trojan War. There were a few original ideas Ingres demonstrated in this piece. Firstly, Ingres’ use of curves is shown on the way Patroclus was standing; Looking deeply into his idea, Ingres had sensualised Patroclus by making him pose in such a feminine way. The curve of Patroclus’ hip, Achille’s lyre and leg were cleverly unified together by the connecting their curves to form one continuous line; again, giving a sense of sensuality between the two men. Secondly the order on the left canvas was broken by the pose of Achilles and Patroclus. Such technique used drew the direction of the painting towards the left, thus making it the centre of attention in the piece. Although this may have seemed original to Ingres, his method can be seen as an influence from David’s « The Death of Socrates » (David,1787) where all of the men, objects and backgrounds qwew perfectly aligned except for Socrates’ left hand which was bent at an angel. With a disruption to the order, the focus was brought to the hand of Socrates. Later on, Ingres’ « Self-portrait » (Ingres, 1804) already showed softness in contrast to David’s « Self-portrait » (David, 1794). Ultimately this foreshadowed how he steered away from David’s vision and grew into his own individual style, contributing different ideas to Neoclassicism.

During the midpoint of his career, Ingres’ unique techniques and artistic vision became more evident through his nude female paintings, leaving behind more typical Neoclassical traits. When he started to paint nude females, critics were shocked because these women were seemingly nude for no apparent reason. However, the critics did not realize his true motive; the portrayal the ideal female body. This direction completely opposed the values of Neoclassicism who’s goal was to spread the message of heroism, virtue and patriotism. Paintings such his masterpiece, « La Grande Odalisque » (Ingres, 1814) was a prime example of how he used curves to express his version of the ideal female body. By elongating her back, he was able to create an extremely curvaceous woman. The long hip curve of the Odalisque, resembling a snake in movement was called the serpentine line. Although humanly impossible to replicate such pose, this was seen as perfection in his eyes. Another piece that showed his idealism was « La Source » (Ingres, 1856). The woman appeared to be a virgin and pure; such impressions were not Neoclassical. In spite of this, Ingres broke the Neoclassical order by bending the woman’s knees. By doing so, her whole body was able to twist elegantly. To emphasize on the curvature, Ingres created additional curves by placing her arms over her head. Not only had Ingres capture his perception of beauty in paintings, he also showed the sensuality of his subjects. One of his works, « Odalisque and Slave » (Ingres, 1839) showed pleasure and sensuality in the woman’s expression and body movement. The main concentration of the painting and theme were not Neoclassical characteristics. However, the background and columns were very vertical and shows order, which was one of the traits of Neoclassicism. In addition to his progress, Ingres also defied Neoclassicism by bringing his themes out of the antiquity and into more modern art; the Orientalist style. This was shown in his subjects such as « La Grande Odalisque » (Ingres, 1814) and « Odalisque and Slave » (Ingres, 1839) who were of oriental descent. Even though his pieces of nude females did not seem Neoclassical, there was still a hint of this art style behind his message. Since he was trying to depict idealism through his art, this was Neoclassical. Although he was revealing more and more of his thoughts in the paintings, Neoclassicism was always in the back of his mind.

Ingres’ last piece, « The Turkish Bath » (Ingres, 1862) summarized all of his visions, values and artistic directions throughout his career. The piece was composed of several aspects that broke Neoclassical rules, one such being that Ingres created his painting in a circular canvas. Also, by painting several naked curvy women. The pose and expressions of the women gave a sense of pleasure and luxury which opposed to Neoclassical goals or rebellion against the Rococo. The only Neoclassical aspect about the painting was the vertically aligned background. Even though the masterpiece was overwhelmed with so many features that are those of Ingres, there was always a place in Ingres for his roots; Neoclassicism.

When Ingres’ career was young, his paintings were pointing towards the direction of Neoclassicism. Halfway through, his nude paintings of women directed him towards his own path and as he moved farther and farther away from his roots, he completely exposed his own vision in the end. Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, like the hand of Socrates from « The Death of Socrates » (David,1787) was one who stood out from the rest of the Neoclassical artists because he was different; he broke the order. Although such difference may have seemed negative at first, it had an importance to the movement, the genre that was knows as Neoclassicism.