I spend a lot of time on my personal blog and one of the most important things about my posts are the images. Since I don’t have photoshop I started doing research to find some really great, easy to use, online tools to editing my images. Here they are…

“82% of respondents say that they post photos to their blog, making images the most popular form of multimedia.” ~ “2009 State of the Blogosphere by Technorati”

My requirements for what I consider for good photo editors are:

• All these editors are online sites
• You don’t have to download any software onto your computer
• Easy clean layouts with no garbage on them and full of ads
• You can use most of the tools without signing up for an account.

1. Picnik

Although you have to register for an account, Picnik is my favorite photo editor.  However, the free version only allows you to upload, manage and edit 5 photos at a time. Every photo you add after that will delete one of your other photos.  Just upload your image(s) and use the tabs to; resize, crop, change the colors, etc. Another great Picnik feature  is that you can link it to your Picasa or to any of your favorite social media accounts.

http://www.picnik.com

2. pic resize

This one has a super clean layout and it’s really easy to use. You start by uploading a single picture or multiple pictures and click continue. From here you can crop your photos, rotate, add affects, and resize. When you’re done click “resize my photo” and you can chose to preview, save to your computer, or save to web.

http://www.picresize.com/

3. dr. pic

This one is very similar to pic resize so it’s just a matter of what different effects you might want to do to your pictures. Along with resizing, this site has an feature where you can make your pictures look like Polaroids and you can add text to your pictures. Just start by uploading your picture, make your changes and then save your image(s) to either you computer (disk) or to the web.

http://www.drpic.com/

4. resizr

Not as attractive as the other ones but it still does everything you need to do and is actually easier to use for resizing images. Once you have uploaded your picture you can use the scroll bar to make the image bigger or smaller. You can also rotate and sharpen your pictures.

http://www.resizr.com/

5. Pho.to

I really love playing around with this photo editor. You can edit, resize, rotate, and add effects but the fun part of this site is if you can use the Smart fix and the Touch up tool located on the tool bar on the site. With these tool you can literally photoshop your photos without even using Photoshop. It’s a great tool for pictures on your blog, especially personal ones from events. You can fix red eyes, brighten, or even smooth out those wrinkles.

http://editor.pho.to/

6. Phixr

This editor is free to use for 6 hours (why 6 hours, I have no idea) before you have to log in and create an account for future use. The layout looks like an 80′s version of paint but it’s pretty simple to use. Use the scroll at the bottom to make your picture larger or smaller, and then use the tools on the left to rotate, crop, change balance, or change color on your picture . When you are done you can save to whatever format you choose, email, or even turn your photo into a personal gift.

http://www.phixr.com

7. Cut My Pic!

Ok, I added this one to the list because it really easy to use if you need to crop photos. 1. Upload your photo. 2. Use the crop the tool or make your photo a different shape. 3. Click done. It’s literally that easy, three steps. After you have cropped your image you can either email the photo or you can save to your computer.

http://www.cutmypic.com

These editors should really help you to become more familiar with editing your photos for your blog. If you want to get more creative you can try this really advanced free editor called pixlr. But, play around with some of the others first.

Leave a comment below and let us know which editors you like to use or if we missed any of your favorite editors!

Great selection of photos for businesses and bloggers. You must create an account to download free images, however, you can’t copyright these images or claim them as your own. If you have any questions, a forum is available for members to ask questions regarding specific images.

http://www.sxc.hu/

2. freedigitalphotos.net

This web site is great for bloggers and probably not the best for business websites since you have to credit photographers when you use an image, and you probably wouldn’t want to credit someone on the homepage of your own website. You don’t need an account to download the free images if you are going to credit the photographer. If you are unable to credit the photographer, or you would like high quality images for a website or material materials you must purchase those images. All high quality images start at $5.

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

3. Free Stock Photos.biz

This site is very basic but every image is free and they have a decent collection of photos to download. You do not need an account to download these images however, you just have to agree with their terms and restriction each time you download.

http://www.freestockphotos.biz/

4. freepik.com

This site is simple and has hundreds of free downloadable photos from popular stock photo sites.  The selection is separated into vectors and photos. The vector files are .esp files and you will need adobe software to open them, but they are free. All photos are free but you have to agree to their restrictions before downloading, otherwise you will be directed to a site to purchase.

http://www.freepik.com/

5. Flickr.com

Flickr.com is a great resource for free photos from Flickr user’s libraries. Since they are photos from users, each user has chosen their restrictions. Photo restrictions are labeled with a symbol on each photo. To view which restrictions they have chosen just look on the right side of the website to see what each symbol means. Another negative is that is might be difficult to find a photo if you are looking for a certain genre or theme because these are various photos from user’s libraries.

http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

6. 123RF

Great site to find high quality photos however, there are a few restrictions. You have to become a member of this site to download images. The free images are listed under Free Stock Images where you can browse all images or do a search for what you are looking for. There are time limits on these free images, so you might see something you like but only have a few minutes to grab the images. Also, the free image is only for the smallest size.

http://www.123rf.com/browsefreeimages.php

7. dreamstime

This site has a nice section for free images and there are no restrictions on these images other than you have to sign up and become a member. Please note that there are only a limited amount of available downloads for each free image.

http://www.dreamstime.com/free-photos

8. freepixels

This website is ideal for bloggers. There are no restrictions and you don’t need to be a member to download them. In their terms it states that you can’t, under any circumstances claim these images as your own, use images for logos, resell, and use images as print media for your own products.

http://www.freepixels.com/

9. stockvault

Stockvault is very similar to freepixels.com,  you can’t under any circumstances claim these images as your own, use images for logos, resell, and use images print as media as your own products. You do have to become a member of stockvault to use these images.

http://www.stockvault.net

10. FreePhotosBank

This site is great if you need photos of objects like an apple, flowers, or a computer. There aren’t  a lot of images on the site and you don’t need to create an account to download. The images are good quality and free to download as large zip files. You also have the option to email or print these images.

http://www.freephotosbank.com

11. photogen

To download images on this website you do have to become a member and log in. This site is great for images of places, backgrounds, textures, etc. The restrictions limit you to using the images for logos, to resell, and you can’t use images as print media for your own products or print on items you intend to sell, and anything that will give a bad name to the site or photographer.

http://www.photogen.com/free-photos/

12. easy stock photos

These images are completely free, you don’t need to become a member and there are no restrictions however, each time you download an image the website will put tracking cookies on your computer, so you should be careful.

http://www.easystockphotos.com/privacypolicy.html

13. imagebase

These images are 100% free but you can’t resell these images or use them in anyway that will make the website or the photographer look bad.

http://imagebase.davidniblack.com/main.php

14. Abstract Influence

I couldn’t find any restrictions on this site for downloading these images and they are completely free as long as you register and log in.

http://www.abstractinfluence.com

15. openphoto

Images on the website are completely free to download and use. On the site is says that these images are used primary by students, teachers, artists, and developers. I noticed there are lots of landscape and animal images.

http://www.openphoto.net/

16. morgue File

There is a section on this site for free photos which are completely free to download as long as you don’t claim these images as your own, resell them, or use them in any way that will make the photographer or web site look bad.

http://www.morguefile.com/archive/

17. PhotoRack

No limitations on any of these photos, they would just like it if you would credit them in your blog post.

http://www.photorack.net/

18. freestockphotography

This website also had no limitations however, they are good images and poor images, so you have to do some digging to find what you are looking for.

http://www.adigitaldreamer.com/gallery/

19. Public-Domain-Photos

This site contains over 5,000 different images, useful for travel and scenic photos. However, it’s always useful to keep this in your resource list. These images are all free public images.

http://www.public-domain-photos.com/

20. pixel perfect digital

You have to become a member to download these images but there are no restrictions. If you do want a high quality image, those images are 20 cents per download.

http://www.pixelperfectdigital.com

21. Free.Image.Files

All these images are completely free however there is one catch, you have to link back to their website.

http://freeimagefiles.com

22. everystockphoto

You have to become a member to use this web site. All images are free but you will be redirected to the web site the images come from and you must follow the guidelines for each website. Some of the website are more restricted that others.

http://www.everystockphoto.com

Christine Lagorio, who is Senior Editor for Inc. Magazine reached out to Marvin, to ask him is thoughts when it comes to designing a website, as to what designers should and shouldn’t do. Marvin was quoted on numbers 4 and 7.

Read the article.

Marina City and the Old IBM Building

So as we went up and down the river, our tour guide described the basic details of each building including who the architect was, the type architecture and how it fit into the history of the city.  Within the first 10 minutes of our tour we pulled up to the old IBM Building and Marina City (where I happen to currently live). The old IBM building (see on the right in the photo) is a clear vision of modern architecture, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Meis believed in a simple philosophy, “form follows function”. “Form follows function” simply means that functional usability should come before creative design. This was fascinating because as a Creative Director I’ve followed this philosophy for years. With each of his buildings Mies spent a great deal of time understanding how his buildings would be used by people rather than the creative framework. Most of his buildings use industrial steel I-beams, conformed with glass at perfect right angles. In fact when describing his buildings Mies referred to them as “skin and bones”.

Right next door to the old IBM Building you may recognize Marina City.  They are two corncob-shaped, identical residential towers that sit on the river at 300 N State Street. The architect,  Bertrand Goldberg was a student of Mies.  Ironically Goldberg believed that nature has no right angles and nor was it necessary to put right angles into his buildings. As a resident of Marina City I can assure you there are almost no right angles in either building.  What makes this so interesting is that the Marina towers are circular and each unit is the shaped like a slice of pie.  My bedroom is a small slice and my living room is a big slice.  This made arranging my furniture a big challenge as I am sure it is for all residents of Marina City. Being such a believer in “form follows function” I can’t help but wonder how much Goldberg consider this functional problem?

So here comes the question.  Should form always follow function and are there any occurrences in creative design when function should follow form? Post your comments.  I would love to hear everyone’s opinion.