Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Hongkiat.com: Giveaway: $2,000 Gift Cards from CodeMyConcept

Hongkiat.com: Giveaway: $2,000 Gift Cards from CodeMyConcept


Giveaway: $2,000 Gift Cards from CodeMyConcept

Posted: 30 Nov 2010 06:02 AM PST

Got a great idea for new start-up but having difficulties with the coding? need a new theme for your blog or e-commerce website? You’ve come to reading the right post because being a winner of today’s contest allows all these to be done free of charge. Cool huh!

codemyconcept Giveaway: $2,000 Gift Cards from CodeMyConcept

Together with CodeMyConcept (CMC), we are bringing you yet another great giveaway contest at hongkiat.com. This is something creative’preneurs should never miss! More details after the jump.

Not all of us have the skills to code, let alone creating a code-optimized, SEO-optimized and cross-browser compatibility website. But that doesn’t mean we are not allowed to dream big. Companies like CodeMyConcept help designers who lack of coding skills to turn their designs into workable sites.

Written more than 13 million lines of codes, these folks converts your PSD, AI, PNG, JPEG or any other design format into professionally coded HTML, or even themes for CMS. E.g, WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Magento and Shopify.

Click here to find out more about their services.

codemyconcept giftcard Giveaway: $2,000 Gift Cards from CodeMyConcept

Today we are going to giveaway some gift cards of various value, courtesy of CodeMyConcept. These gift cards allow you to get your coding done by CMC almost (if not) for free.

We are going to pick 3 winners. Here’s how the gift cards will be distributed:

  • 1x CMC gift card worth $1000
  • 2x CMC gift cards worth $500 each

How to win

If you are interested in winning a CodeMyConcept gift card, drop a comment below.

Tips: Tell us why you deserve winning, give us really creative answers! Contest starts today, ends 7th December 2010!

Please include e-mail address. We’ll notify winners by e-mail.

20 Beautiful Winter Wallpapers For Your Desktop

Posted: 27 Nov 2010 10:25 AM PST

There is really not much fun facts we can elaborate about winter. Well definitely because it does not makes life easier and the unsatisfactory list can go on and on. However, its also a season where there is much to celebrate about such as Christmas, spending quality time with family anticipating new year and it is also the best month to do shopping for everything is one sale at year end. Guess its a bittersweet sensation after all.

winter wallpapers 20 Beautiful Winter Wallpapers For Your Desktop

Here is another precious fact you can expect from winter – its exceptional solitary beauty. Only during winter you get to see trees painted with white snows, frosted branches, snowflakes, frozen rivers, e.t.c. Therefore fun or extreme snow sports players should appreciate all these great phenomenon.

Here is the compilation of 20 exclusively selected beautiful winter themed wallpapers for your desktop, make sure to compliment it with a mug of hot chocolate!

Winter’s Greetings
By xeophin. Available in the following size(s): 1024×640, 1920×1200

winters greetings 20 Beautiful Winter Wallpapers For Your Desktop

Winter wonderland
By DyingBeautyStock. Available in the following size(s): 3888×292

winter wonderland 20 Beautiful Winter Wallpapers For Your Desktop

Winter wonderland
By Prosperity88. Available in the following size(s): 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1280×800,1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200 and 2560×1600.

winter wonderland 2 20 Beautiful Winter Wallpapers For Your Desktop

Winter wallpaper pack
By nuaHs. Available in the following size(s): 1280×1024, 1600×1050 and 1600×1200.

Winter Wonderland Pac 20 Beautiful Winter Wallpapers For Your Desktop

Winter fall wallpaper
By Last-Savior. Available in the following size(s): 1680×1050.

winter fall 20 Beautiful Winter Wallpapers For Your Desktop

Winter day
By andywon. Available in the following size(s): 1024 x 683 and 4000 x 2667.

winter day 20 Beautiful Winter Wallpapers For Your Desktop

Looking at Cabell Hall
By nice_destiny. Available in the following size(s): 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1280×800,1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200 and 2560×1600.

Looking at Cabell Hall 20 Beautiful Winter Wallpapers For Your Desktop

Winter wallpaper
By alphacoders. Available in the following size(s): 1024×768, 1280×960, 1400×1050, 1600×1200, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200 and 1280×1024.

winter wallpaper 20 Beautiful Winter Wallpapers For Your Desktop

Brown leaves
By alphacoders. Available in the following size(s): 1024×768, 1280×960, 1400×1050, 1600×1200, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200 and 1280×1024.

brown leaves 20 Beautiful Winter Wallpapers For Your Desktop

Winter forest
By alphacoders. Available in the following size(s): 1024×768, 1280×960, 1400×1050, 1600×1200, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200 and 1280×1024.

winter forest 20 Beautiful Winter Wallpapers For Your Desktop

Winter in the woods
By alphacoders. Available in the following size(s): 1024×768, 1280×960, 1400×1050, 1600×1200, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200 and 1280×1024.

winter forest 2 20 Beautiful Winter Wallpapers For Your Desktop

Lake view
By alphacoders. Available in the following size(s): 1024×768, 1280×960, 1280×800, 1440×900 and 1280×1024.

lake view 20 Beautiful Winter Wallpapers For Your Desktop

Winter wallpaper in dual tone
By alphacoders. Available in the following size(s): 1024×768 and 1280×800.

dual tone 20 Beautiful Winter Wallpapers For Your Desktop

White tree
By alphacoders. Available in the following size(s): 1024×768

white tree 20 Beautiful Winter Wallpapers For Your Desktop

Snow Stars
By Berryness. Available in the following size(s): 1920×1200.

Snow Stars 20 Beautiful Winter Wallpapers For Your Desktop

Snow Crystal Landscape
By Maschinenraum. Available in the following size(s): 1024×640 and 2560×1600.

Snow Crystal Landscape 20 Beautiful Winter Wallpapers For Your Desktop

Snokeh
By ishkamina. Available in the following size(s): 1024×680 and 4288×2848.

snokeh 20 Beautiful Winter Wallpapers For Your Desktop

Crystallized Dihydrogen Monoxide
By jaxxon. Available in the following size(s): 1024×633 and 5344×3303.

Crystallized Dihydrogen Monoxide 20 Beautiful Winter Wallpapers For Your Desktop

Eiskristalle
By bby. Available in the following size(s): 1024×683.

Eiskristalle14 20 Beautiful Winter Wallpapers For Your Desktop

Balance
By nxxos. Available in the following size(s): 1280×1024.

Balance 20 Beautiful Winter Wallpapers For Your Desktop

(bellefoong)

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Hongkiat.com: Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Hongkiat.com: Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores


Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Posted: 25 Nov 2010 07:09 PM PST

In times of economic grief, the world of retail becomes a battlefield to attract customers and with so many brands on the market, it takes bold strokes to prevail from the rest. Every few months it seems a new flagship has opened, and brands are making their mark on the map with a radical and explosive architectural vision.

Ami e Toi 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Retailers constantly hunt for established architects and designers to apply their academic sensibilities to elevate a brand in order to create an impressive design. For emerging firms and designers, the chance to create a cool concept store for an establish brand is the way to brand your name on the global design stage.

Nothing here is “I’m here”. It is all architectural landmark, and the following 25 creative and inspirational concept stores are just a peak at the invigorating and competitive world of 21st Century retail design.

24 Issey Miyake (Tokyo, Japan)

Count on Japanese designer Nendo to pack the punch with his contemporary, minimal designs. Drawing from the design and aesthetic of Japanese convenience stores, his restrained sensibilities work well to emphasize the power of the product, while at the same time emphasize innovative and creative design solutions.

24 Issey Miyake 01 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

24 Issey Miyake 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

66 Gallery and Botas (Prague, Czech Republic)

66 Gallery and Botas Store by A1Architects is a seamless fusion of a shoe store for their vintage inspired Botas shoes, and also a contemporary art gallery. The layout references the number 66, and is contrasted using colorr, characterizing the gallery in stark white, and the concept store in black, allowing for optimum presence of the products on display.

66 Gallery and Botas 01 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

66 Gallery and Botas 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Alexandre Herchovitz (Tokyo, Japan)

Brazilian designer Alexandre Herchovitz does not shy from loud prints or bold designs, and Arthur Casas helps make the statement with his design for the Flagship store in Tokyo’s Daikanayama district. Featuring a double-edge razor blade design on the façade, the building is engineered to literally open and close to the public.

Alexandre Herchovitz 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Alexandre Herchovitz 03 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Ami-e-Toi (Arnhem, Netherlands)

The playful concepts behind Maurice Mentjens’ design of Ami-e-Toi, reinvents the retail experience into a fashionista’s private funhouse. Embracing a “Nothing is quite as it seems” theme, Mentjens’ creates a surreal landscape of Art Deco inspired luxury, beautifully marrying boldness and simplicity to echo the contrast between the fashion diva and the women who make the fashions.

Ami e Toi 01 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Ami e Toi 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Ann Demeulemeester (Seoul, Korea)

Located in the Gangham district of Seoul, Korean architect Minsuk Cho creates a stunning organic vision for the Ann Demeulemeester Shop lining the façade with living walls of greenery. Located in a highly dense urban area. The design is a dialogue between natural and artificial, interior and exterior, and lastly amalgamation and confrontation.

Ann Demeulemeester 01 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Ann Demeulemeester 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Ayres (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Located in the El Solar de la Abada Mall in Buenos Aires, this retail project from Dieguez Fridman is an exploration in form and its effect on the function of a space. Using a multi-faceted feature that runs throughout the space, the large white form unfolds, carving the space to make openings for clothes, displays, and fitting rooms.

Ayres 01 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Ayres 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Ayres 03 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

BAPE (Los Angeles, USA)

Japanese street wear brand BAPE makes kills it with their ultra-futuristic Melrose Avenue location in downtown Los Angeles. This corner store makes a huge presence on the strip, with a brightly lit interior, neon tubing, and a dramatic 4.5 meter high glass cylinder in the centre of the space, featuring a rotating sneaker conveyer belt.

bape 01 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

bape 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Barbie (Shanghai, China)

Slade Architecture tackles the 35,000 square foot Barbie Flagship Store for Mattel with all the drama and character you would expect in this temple dedicated to the world’s most famous diva. Unapologetic feminine and expression of Barbie’s dynamic fashion forward sensibilities, the store’s feature is the spiral staircase enclosed by 800 different Barbie Dolls, encasing the viewer like the doll itself.

Barbie 01 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Barbie 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Barbie 03 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Barbie 04 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Brown Thomas (Dublin, Ireland)

Toronto firm Burdifilek explores luxury on a modern level with their design for the Brown Thomas Flagship Store in Dublin. Bringing a progressive sensibility to the luxury retail experience, Burdifilek combines exclusive custom furnishings, unexpected material choices, bold colour and form to conceptualize high end shopping for the 21st Century.

Brown Thomas 01 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Brown Thomas 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Brown Thomas 03 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Camper (London, UK)

Spanish shoe brand Camper enlisted the help of Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka for their flagship store in London. Adhering the brand’s red signature, Yoshioka summons upon the beauty of nature, creating a blossoming red wall from distressed suede, with matching Bouquet Chairs, referencing the ever-changing expression of forms in nature.

camper 01 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

camper 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Creme de la Creme (Vilnius, Lithuania)

One of the 170 shops occupying the award-winning Panorama Shopping Centre in Vilnius, Creme de la Creme’s simplified lightwood interior subdues the user with a true feeling of free flow and weightlessness. Combining the ultra-luxury of Tom Dixon furniture with display cases made from shipping crates, Plazma Architects has created a sophisticated space that summons the spirits of the fields and forests without any cliché.

Creme de la Creme 01 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Creme de la Creme 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Derek Lam (New York City, USA)

Stripped back, and refined like Derek Lam’s sensuous designs, SANAA creates an intimate space built upon the designer’s aesthetic sensibilities. Creating transparent organic forms that house each separate collection, the transparent bubbles create dazzling auras as light bounces from one bubble to the next.

Derek Lam 01 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Derek Lam 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Derek Lam 03 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Dunhill Men (New York City, USA)

In an installation bringing the ghostly cut out of Dunhill’s London Flagship Store, Campaign defines all the elegance and refinement of the British menswear label in a vacant warehouse in New York’s Meat-Packing District. Using aluminum panels and projection technology, Campaign’s approach allows for a caravan-like showcasing of the brand, bringing Dunhill’s luxurious take on retail to any corner of the globe.

Dunhill Men 01 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Dunhill Men 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Dunhill Men 03 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Issey Miyake ‘Pleats Please’ (Tokyo, Japan)

Tokujin Yoshioka’s redesign for Issey Miyake’s ‘Pleats Please’ Boutique in the Aoyama district of Tokyo, is a tour-de-force of contemporary, minimalist, concept-based design. Yoshioka’s conception of the space includes transcending time by conserving the existing space with recycled aluminum, and an expansive light wall to accentuate the product and infuse modern technology into the retail experience.

Issey Miyake Pleats Please 01 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Issey Miyake Pleats Please 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Kymyka (Maastrich, Netherlands)

Award winning designer Maurice Mentjens is well known for his conceptual and innovative takes on retail design. Mentjens lends his signature quirks to the boutique shoe store, displaying the store’s designer shoes and bags balanced on pins and needles.

Kymyka 01 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Kymyka 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Longchamp (New York City, USA)

Creating an undulating landscape seen through a large glazed core cut on the building’s facade, Heatherwick beckons customers from street level up a waterfall of rubber and steel ribbons. The gorgeous incline up to Longchamp’s Soho Flagship Store is a striking work of art, and marks a radical departure from the brand’s traditional image, and has solidified itself as a landmark in creative design solutions.

Longchamp 01 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Longchamp 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Lucien Pellat-Finet (Osaka, Japan)

The fine cashmere and knit items of Lucien Pellat-Finet were the jump-point for Kengo Kuma when designing for the high profile Osaka boutique. Attempting to express the tenderness of cashmere, Kuma creates an organic pattern using plywood to mimic the coziness of the fabric.

Lucien Pellat Finet 01 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Lucien Pellat Finet 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Lucien Pellat Finet 03 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Lurdes Bergada (Barcelona, Spain)

Taking a thousand pieces of beech wood, Deardesign creates a dramatic igloo-like structure to emphasize the hangar-like size of the Lurdes Bergada Flagship Store in downtown Barcelona. Each piece of wood is unique, visibly numbered, and draws attention to the construction of the wall, ultimately relating back to the minimal and industrial design aesthetic of the brand itself.

Lurdes Bergada Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Munich (Barcelona, Spain)

Barcelona based shoe brand, Munich, enlists the help of Dear Design to cement their place on the global retail market with the design of their Flagship Store in downtown Barcelona. A joyous devil may-care configuration of mirrors, dark glass, metal trees, and metal cages from which the shoes have escaped make for a truly energetic and fun space.

Munich 01 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Munich 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Neil Barrett (Tokyo, Japan)

Zaha Hadid’s conceptual take on the design of the Neil Barrett Flagship Store is an elegant physical interpretation of Neil Barrett’s own designs. Using cut-outs, folds, pleats, and fixed points as inspiration, Hadid creates an experience that melds architecture with the realm of sculpture and fine art.

Neil Barrett 01 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Neil Barrett 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Neil Barrett 03 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Patrick Cox (Tokyo, Japan)

Winner of the JCD Design Award for its achievement in the design of futuristic commercial environments, designer Chikara Ohno’s Patrick Cox Shop is a stand-out in the world of conceptual retail spaces. Focusing on the relationship between light and the product, Ohno shapes the space with a lush canopy of cylindrical steel pendants that hang above the product displays.

Patrick Cox 01 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Patrick Cox 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Prada (Tokyo, Japan)

Compromised of 840 diamond shaped glass panels on an iron structure, the Prada Store in the Aoyama district of Tokyo is a revelation in retail concepts, and the potential of a retail building. Reaching four floors, the lacquered white interior is accompanied by a unique “Sound Shower” installation from Fashion DJ Frederic Sanchez.

Prada 01 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Prada 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Reebok ‘Flash’ (New York, USA)

Fusing early 20th Century Vorticism with the vibrant spirit of the 1980′s, Formavision plays with both perspective and depth, tricking the eye by extending three dimensional shapes into distorted graphic patterns. Much in the spirit of the brightcamouflaged battleships used by the Royal Navy in the First World War, Reebok’s Flash Concept Store is anything but a flash in the pan in the world of creative retail design.

Reebok Flash 01 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Reebok Flash 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Ubiq (Philadelphia, USA)

New York firm Architecture at Large goes for the bold, bringing a unique take on gentlemanly luxury to street wear with their remodelling of the Ubiq Boutique in Philadelphia. With a bold black and white colour story, and ultra-lacquered surfaces up and down, the concept is a unique fusion of cold retail showroom and inviting worldly elegance.

Ubiq 01 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Ubiq 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

Ubiq 03 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

United Nude (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Rem Koolhaas tackles the United Nude Flagship Store with all the gusto and moxie the world has come to expect from the famed Dutch architect. This time, designing for his own brand of shoes, the architect presents The Wall of Light. Apart from spanning walls of LED light to showcase the product, shoppers are literally left in the dark.

United Nude 01 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

United Nude 02 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

United Nude 03 Showcase of Inspirational Concept Stores

(bellefoong)