If you're anything like me, every once in a while you just need to try something new. I believe that for creative individuals this is an extremely important practice. When I'm craving something creative I'll explore tons of different things such as: digital painting techniques, photography, or branding a fake company. This week, inspired by my memories of 8-bit Nintendo characters, I decided to "pixelize" the llamas. At first this seemed like an easy endeavour. I quickly found that it was exactly the opposite. Working with single pixels, you are obviously limited. The more pixels you have – the more room you have to be detailed, and thus, the easier it is to create a recognizable character. It's amazing how pixels force you to completely rethink how to portray the subject you're creating...

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the office, No keyboard was silent, not even a mouse. Our team members were working with detail and care, In hopes that their projects online would appear… This year at Classy Llama Studios, we decided to make an extra creative effort in sending our clients a token of our appreciation for this Christmas holiday. Through the help of various team members and our creative team, we skipped buying a generic Christmas card and created something a little more personal. Our goal was to create something with a little more of "us" in the card. Well, after a few logistical hiccups, a fun-filled photo shoot, and some broken Christmas lights, the card was finished. We hope all that received the cards were left with some good holiday cheer...

Since joining the team a little over a year ago I've learned some things about myself.  One thing I realized early on is that I was allowing myself to settle for "good".  It's easy to create "good" design, and it's way too popular these days.  I know this because I see "good" design all over the web:  blogs, portfolios, and galleries.  It's cheap. When I first joined the team it was difficult to hear Joey (the CLS Creative Director) pick apart my designs, and force me to rethink, redo, and start over.  I would think in the back of my mind, "It's good enough, why is he creating such a fuss about this?".  After far too long I finally began to realize that I was unfortunately right.  It was "good enough". But should I be satisfied with just being "good enough"?  This was a slap in the face...

At a loss for words?  I may have a solution for you! If you're a web designer and you're not familiar with the Lorem Ipsum language, then shame on you! Wikipedia explains Lorem Ipsum as "placeholder text (filler text) commonly used to demonstrate the graphic elements of a document or visual presentation, such as font, typography, and layout." Basically, this gives designers one less thing to worry about, so as not to get in the way of the creative process. If you don't like doing a search online for "Lorem Ipsum", finding the right amount of text needed, and then copy/paste into your design every time you need to use Lorem Ipsum, then you should download Loremify.  This widget allows for quick and easy grabs of the perfect amount of text for your need. Tobias Bjerrome Ahlin is...