Wallpaper - "I sold my bed, but not my stereo"

Wallpaper - "I sold my bed, but not my stereo"

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DOWNLOAD THIS WALL IN THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTIONS:

1024x768 | 1280x800 | 1366x768 | 1440x900 | 1600x900 | 1680x1050 | 1920x1080

1920x1200 | 2048x1152 | 2560x1440 | 2560x1600 | 3840x2160 | 3840x2400

The official first wallpaper download is here and I've got a good one for everyone. I kept it simple with flat design and a bright colour. The quote is from one of my favourite alternative bands, Capital Cities with the song title "I sold my bed, but not my stereo."

This was very inspirational reminding me that music is my life and I would do almost everything just to listen to a song. I hope this inspires you to also invest yourself in lyrics and the art of music to motivate your everyday choices and keep your spirit up.

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***Feel free to provided feedback so I can improve on the way I distribute these files. Constructive art and design feedback is always appreciated.

New horizons for 2014

Almost at that time of the year where everyone starts to count down until 2014. What a year it had been! So to just keep it short, I've worked on a few projects over the holiday time which i think you guys will love. For the new year I've prepared a surprise for everyone which I will talk about later but for now lets get to whats happening today!

You might have notice that some of the links at the top navigation bar of my blog has been updated and can now access more stuff. Well to kick off 2014 I will post a weekly wallpaper that can be downloaded to your screen resolution size! I've put in a lot of time making this accessible to everyone so I am keeping the file sizes low but still in high quality suited for your desktop resolution.

I've prepared a very simple graphic wallpaper for you guys. You can find it in the next post with all the download specifications. Please note that if you cannot find your screen size, please leave me a comment and I will gladly add your screen resolution to the collection.

So go check it out and tune back tomorrow to find out more about the surprise!

Till Later!
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Merry Christmas! Again?

So I woke up this morning realising it is a day before Christmas! MAN how time sure flies when you are being kept busy. This year have been a hell of a year with many challenges and exciting beginnings for most people. I for one surely had a relatively great year. Even though there were some stages I felt like flinging myself off a building I luckily had a rope tied to my waist.

I can proudly say that I was positive and good things came onto my path which opened my eyes and appreciate life even more. I graduated (yay!) which wasn't really the highlight of my year, I am just glad I made it through.

So what I really wanted to confess is that I didn't really achieve my goal for blogging so much... sigh... but that is life, hey? It doesn't always turn out as planned, this I can say with a year of experience!

Thanks for making this year awesome, for everyone who contributed to my degree and thank you for the support in what have been a crazy year. To all those who I done some design work, thank you for believing in me. Next year will be a challenge since I am entering the industry with more mile points to be set, but there is always time for another design ;-)

So enjoy your festive holidays and be safe!
Merry Christmas.

Till Later!
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12,000 VIEWS

It finally happened! After 2 years my blog hit 12,000 views!
I just want to say a BIG THANKS to everyone who have supported Franco Creations after all these years. For all of your continued support I will update some features on the page to make things more accessible to everyone. Keep an eye out!

Till Later!
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Jolandi Matric Ball 2013

So last night was my little sisters Matric ball (a.k.a. Prom) and she looked absolutely amazing! I was honoured to have been her photographer for the evening. Can't believe my little sister is all grown up already. So I am going to keep this short and just show you the photo's. Enjoy!

Till Later!
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iOS 7 Revealed!

It is finally here! The day we all where waiting for! iOS is being released today and I think many of us cannot wait to hit that download soon. Luckily I am registered as a developer and could download it much earlier and I have been using it for 4 days now and there is only one word to describe it; MIND-BLOWING!!!

Just to recap what iOS will have in stock for you guys. Well it's completely re-designed in the look & feel. The font is thin and clean looking, the icons have been re-designed to a more smoother edge. The way you work on the iOS have changed completely but is more accessible. Everything looks and works just perfect. Check out some screen shots I took;

Isn't it just beautiful? I mean after all these year the iOS has finally changed in the way we handle our iPhones every day. Everything is smooth, exciting and evens feels great when working on it. A lot of features have been added to the iOS 7 that was always complained about or missing from the iOS 6. The reception of the iPhone with the new iOS 7 is fantastic. Usually I would be lucky to get 3 bars of reception, now it is full all the time.

Answering your iPhone has never been easier. In the previous iOS version when you received a call the slider usually gets stuck and does not want to slide to answer. Now imagine how frustrating that must have been... I am proud to announce that it has been fixed. The battery life on your iPhone is AMAZING! I get full 4 days with my iPhone now where I use to get only 2 days (BTW I still own the iPhone 4). With that said, I unfortunately don't have all the features such as Siri and the moving backgrounds, but it's ok, the iOS self is MIND-BLOWING! What I love about the iOS the most is the fact that when you apply a wallpaper your entire iOS changes into that colour pallet, it is SO freakin' awesome! I just love everything about it. Oh and don't forget the new ringtones that came along with the iOS. Personally it is not so much Apple's style of ringtones, but I understand that they wanted to make it fun, hence the colour options and personalisation of everything. But it still cool to have an entire new iOS that makes a 2 year old phone feel like a brand new one.

So to end of, I really feel that if you own an iPhone 4, iPhone 4 S or iPhone 5 you should really consider updating! The update is big though, 1.3 Gig download, but believe me it is TOTALLY worth it. Here is a demo video I did with the new iOS showing off the fun new features. Enjoy

Till Later!
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Apple's New Design Innovation?

I guess everyone (who is an Apple fan boy) have been following the talk about the new iOS and new iPhones being released this week. I am pretty excited about everything though I am not going to upgrade soon. Anyway so you might have heard all the talk regarding the sales for the new iPhone 5C which is suppose to be more cheaper than the original iPhone 5. I think we all expected too much of Apple though and selling a phone that is just a $100 cheaper makes a big difference, but not for us down here in South Africa.

I guess I am disappointed to see that the phone will cost you $100 on a 24 month contract (in the US might I add) but it is still so expensive! It will probably be R299 again on a low budget contract and believe me you, this is NOT cheap when living in South Africa. I am paying R560 for my iPhone contract! Most people prefer the standard route which probably is R120 or even R75. So the point that I want to make is that unfortunately it won't be cheap, but who knows, maybe things change once it arrive in South Africa.

Back to the design of things!
I was reading a comment the other day where a bunch of know-it-alls has claimed that Apple might have lost their mo-jo. Announcing a suppose to be new innovative Apple iDevice, they just change the colours of the iPhone 5 to make it more attractive to people. They way I understand what Apple is trying to achieve here is not to actually bring out "a new iPhone" but to improve on the ones we have. That said if you would go back in history and look at the iPhones released previously;

      2007 - iPhone 3G (better known as the 'Jesus phone')
      2008 - iPhone 3G S
      2011 - iPhone 4
      2011 - iPhone 4 S
      2012 - iPhone 5
      2013 - iPhone 5 S + iPhone 5 C

To just recap what is going on above; In 2007 when the revolutionary iPhone was announced it was then when Apple made history in the mobile markets, just like when they released the iPod, EVERYONE wanted one!
If you have noticed the pattern of the iPhone release dates, Apple is just improving on the models with every release. So the point that I want to make is these people discussing Apples lack of innovation are just a load of crap. Sure Apple has probably fail to impress YOU but do they really need to impress the world all the time?

The latest iOS is being released today! and I think to celebrate a new innovation people have to turn away from the iPhone for a while and appreciate the incredible re-design of the iOS (more about this on the next post). So people also complained that they expected Apple to reveal some sort of iWatch or iTV. What people need to understand is once there is a new trend going around Apple won't follow that trend because that is not what type of company Apple are. Obviously they want to be the best, but being the best going towards other companies with fancy gadgets and stuff is just NOT Apple's style. People need to realise that Apple is NOT a trend follower but a trend setter. That said maybe next year they will release a new better iPhone that will make other companies like Android or Samsung look bad. Not that they plan to but they know when the time is right.

I think the new iPhones look actually cool, and yes I will upgrade to one of those iPhone 5C. Some has said it may be a class difference thing when purchasing the cheaper iPhone, I think NOT! The price is just not on that level to actually call it cheap. And because it is plastic does not mean it is literally cheap nor does it look cheap. It has class on it's own, celebrating the release of the first iPhone and for the first time ever targeting a larger set of audience with the customisation options of colours and covers. Although some might think there is absolutely nothing innovative about this, think again. It is more of just being innovative. It is not even suppose to be 2 new iPhones, the 5 C is just something extra (I think) and to have a choice not just black or white.

Here is something cool, not the official colours though but a nice idea of being versatile and appealing to a lot of different people. 

Hope you loved this article, give me your feedback on what you think about it and if Apple has really lost their "spark."

Till Later!
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OS X 10.9 Mavericks - Concept Art

You might have heard of Apple's latest OS (operating system) being released soon! I can't tell you how excited I am to get the new OS X 10.9 better known as Mavericks. So let's start by going back in time and explaining Apple's revolutionary operating systems.

Since OS X 10.0 launched in 2001 Apple only worked it's way up the ladder with ahead-of-time technology to reach the potential of the OS which we have today. It was a challenge to be ahead of the game competing with Microsoft Windows, so Apple had to come up with a marketing strategy to promote their OS. It all started with the branding of the OS promoting it with big cat names. Here is a timeline of the names since 2001;

(1)	Mac OS X 10.0  :  Cheetah	2001
(2)	Mac OS X 10.1  :  Puma	2001
(3)	Mac OS X 10.2  :  Jaguar	2002
(4)	Mac OS X 10.3  :  Panther	2003
(5)	Mac OS X 10.4  :  Tiger	2004
(6)	Mac OS X 10.5  :  Leopard	2006
(7)	Mac OS X 10.6  :  Snow Leopard	2008
(8)	Mac OS X 10.7  :  Lion	2010
(9)	OS X 10.8  :  Mountain Lion	2012
(10)	OS X 10.9  :  Mavericks	2013

As you can see that Apple has ran out of cat names, and I think it is about time. I mean how long would they have gone with it. The lion is the kind of the jungle, I doubt that a mountain lion is ranked higher. Anyway to get to Mavericks. It is actually very clever, the latest OS X is named after the place of birth of Apple, Mavericks - California. This will be a new era for Apple's OS naming it after landmarks and I think it's pretty cool. But to make this more interesting I want discuss the new OS and what it contains.

We all are familiar with the OS interface? if not, see the list below;

OS X 10.0 ⇢		OS X 10.1 ⇢
OS X 10.2 ⇢		OS X 10.3 ⇢
OS X 10.4 ⇢		OS X 10.5 ⇢
OS X 10.6 ⇢		OS X 10.7 ⇢
OS X 10.8 ⇢		OS X 10.9 ⇢

Looking at this list you notice that there hasn't been much change to the interface or where the main controls are place. The task bar is always at the top and the dock is at the bottom. That is how it has always been and probably will stay for the time being. The visual aspects of these components such as the windows and dock just gets enhanced with every operating system keeping up with the new technology.

Apple don't want to follow in the footsteps of Windows latest operating system Windows 8 where they removed the start button and made it more tablet based. I mean they've altered the entire user interface and changed the way people uses a PC! Even though Macintosh also added tablet features gathered from the iOS platform (e.g. Notification Centre and Launch Pad) they've done it in such a way that it is a preference and not a requirement. 

Mac OS X 10.9 - OS X Mavericks

So what is new that makes this OS so popular that people are raving about. Is it maybe the fact that you get new features like reading books on your Mac? Is it because you need to check Apple Maps instead of Google Maps? or is it the new filing system with new added security features? I sure hope that Apple decides to tweak the interface design a little, not so much as the Windows 8 fiasco but enhancing the visual aspects like they did during 2001 and 2006.

Even though OS X is as minimalistic as it may come, I think it could be enhanced. With the upcoming iOS 7, which will be the best and most beautiful OS for mobile Apple has ever designed,  I still feel that migrating these design elements of the iOS 7 with the OS X Mavericks will be another mile stone on Apple timeline. Just look at how beautiful transition that happened during 2001 up to 2012. I will write another post about the iOS 7 once it has been released which hopefully will be on the 10 September at the conference in Cupertino.

I did some design of my own! Extracting some elements of the new iOS 7 I migrated it with the OS X interface to give the sense of translucency which is part of the new look and feel. I've added all the new neat features such as the labelling and tabs in the finder window. The intention for the frosted windows are that it changes depending on your wallpaper. I reverted back to the first official dock with a more modern feel in honour of the first OS X. In the right hand corner on the dock I've added a new feature where you can scroll between docks. In my experience I always need to add stuff to my dock but only when I use them. Wouldn't it be cool to add different sets of docks which you can switch to design or editing or writing whenever you like? Last but not least I made some small changes to the classic Apple folder design. I touched it up by making it white with the apple logo in the top corner to give it that special touch.

So we will have to wait and see whether Apple will change the interface a little for the big reveal of the Mavericks OS, by the look of what they posted on their site, I doubt that they will make changes. But hey, it's always nice to imagine "what if."

⇢ Flat translucent dock with new OS X icons. Dock refers back to the first OS X 10.0 Cheetah that sits from edge to edge on your screen.

⇢ Frosted translucent Finder windows to makes your workspace just better looking than ever before. Included with colour tags to find your work easier and don't forget those new Finder tabs to open multiple windows in one window like in Safari.

Rumour has it that the new OS X Mavericks will be released at the end of October 2013! Hoped you guys enjoyed the concept art, tell me what you think down bellow. Like my page, Like my blog and see you guys on Friday at 10:00 SAST for another exciting post.

Till Later!
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The Me Feature!

During the month of June I had to do an internship as part of my studies and I decided to apply at RamsayMedia Publishing. For those who are not aware, RamsayMedia is one of the many publishing companies in South Africa that publishes magazines. I had the privilege to do a 5 week internship at RamsayMedia where I've put my skills to good use finally working in the industry after 4 years of study. It felt good waking up every morning and go to work for the first time in my life. There is something exciting about going to work, sitting down at your desk and do what you love. Obviously you need to enjoy it if you plan to pursue that certain profession that is going to keep you busy for the rest of your life.

I met a lot of talented and amazing people who guided me through the work process and made me feel at home. One thing that was weird, none of them asked me to make them coffee or do their dirty work, everyone was extremely nice! This made a hell of a lot of difference that they treated me as one of them. But enough about how they treated me, it is more about what I've learned. The experience was phenomenal! I mean, I've been to print factories during my years of study and I work-shadowed a guy at another publishing company, but seeing how much thought and process goes into a design of a magazine layout is incredible. I've learned a lot during my studies but I have to tell you guys, nothing beats that like how they do it in the industry.

I was not only entertained by the talented people working there, but was also assigned some small projects and layouts to design for some magazines! Seeing your name printed in a magazine knowing that the entire country will see that you have worked on that specific magazine felt GREAT! I think you get use to the whole publishing after a while, though feeling as if you achieved something greater than you did before, can't ever go away.

So when I left I actually wanted to lock myself in a room and stay there forever. The feeling of being needed get stuck in you wanting to work, but seeing that I have to finish my studies made me realise that I have something to look forward to at the end of the year. People encourages you when you are young to become something great and get a great job one day, but just before you reach that level they would stop you and scare you with talks about "how awful the big bad world is" and "reality will bite you in the ass." Honestly, I don't understand why they do that. We have to grow up someday! And I had a taste of reality, not really fun, but I am willing to jump right in and start my life.

OK so I ramble a lot, that's me! Finally getting to what I actually wanted to talk about is my magazine feature, well me inside of the magazine rather. Yeah I was called by an online magazine Shift4Ward that is a youth magazine for young professionals, students and graduates looking for an opportunity into the world of work. I was recommended by someone I worked with at RamsayMedia (THANK YOU BY THE WAY!) and I was phoned up and asked to be featured in the article 'I Want Graduate'. I got some of my friends to do a photo shoot and help me write a good article. For the first time ever I felt appreciated and that here is where my life begins as an adult looking forward to the future and becoming someone I am meant to be.

So tell me what you think of the article and please subscribe to this magazine, it is really amazing!
Also keep an eye out for more posts to come.

Till Later!
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Pleased to meet You - Photo-shoots

In my mid third year I had to design a digital magazine with photographs that is put into galleries. I had to do a photo-shoot before the project and I must admit doing this photo-shoot was made my year just so much more awesome!

Thanks to one of my dearest friends, Gina Jeanz for modeling for me. You are the BEsT! The most fun I had every doing a photo-shoot. Hope you guys enjoy this, to see even more of the images please check it out on my Facebook Page HERE

Till Later!
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