In this first July posting, I am not so much talking about the Independence Day celebrations, as I am the freedom to find new ways to express yourself with digital creations from Matte Watch.  My first selection for the week is a notable digital plaque creation that reminds people to celebrate their ability to be different.  The photo used in the composition was taken at a Johnson County Kansas softball complex entrance, where this interesting bit of landscaping stood out in its summer glory, posing like a peacock for the picture.  It was the only one of its kind in the area.  The inscription on the plaque was inspired by the shot, proving that it does not matter whether you hunt for a picture to match an inspiration, or an idea to match an image.

Is this bush smiling?

My matted photo for the week was a beautiful little bloom from the Master Gardener display at the Deanna Rose Farmstead in Overland Park, KS.  It is no small wonder why so many people fall in love with flowers as the subject for their photographs.  Flowers are a universal favorite, which have the power to mesmerize viewers.  With digital photo treatments, their beauty need not fade so quickly.

This flower does not need water to stay fresh.

During his recent visit to Kansas, the Vice President was covered by the press for his speech regarding an economic stimulus allotment.  What the press did not cover was Joe Biden’s award winning performance in accomplishing a more obscure “hidden” agenda as evidenced by the following digital award presentation.  Way to go Joe.

A secret energy policy negotiation?

My final offering of the week comes as a result of an inquiry about creating a specific type of digital calendar design.  This graphic is based primarily on functional utility and information, while also offering a pleasant esthetic theme without incorporating digital photos.  The 3-up calendar page also reduces the amount of page turning and costs associated with building a year’s worth of information on fewer pages.  Using this design in a digital picture frame is a nice way to display a calendar that will capture attention, and provide a lot of information at a glance.  Users only have to turn the page once every 3 months.

Better picture frame calendars are available from Matte Watch

If you want me to create a unique design from your photos or specifications, just send an email to jdir@bhotechnologists.com and tell me what you have in mind.  Please do not attach photos to your email.  I will tell you everything you need to know about how to start getting the most from your digital picture frame content.

Starting off the line up for this week is the final June 2009 digital calendar page offering before we begin presenting July pages.  This design was spawned from one of my favorite spots in Overland Park, Kansas.  This shot of the happy little girl statue makes a nice summer calendar composition.  These calendars look great in a digital picture frame or as a screen wallpaper. 

Get in on June before it is gone.

A friend of mine remarked that he does not like to keep track of too many calendars, so he did not want his pictures made into this kind of beautiful calendar page.  All right Mr. Utility, save your picture money for something else, and I will enjoy some of my own pictures this way.

The second item on this week’s boat ride is a nice screen wallpaper or digitally matted photo treatment of a picture I took at Brush Creek on the Plaza in Kansas City, MO.  My wife said this composition looked like the Earth springing a leak.  Maybe it has sprung a leak from all the rain we have been having this year.  This is just one of many digital matting techniques available from us for your photographic enjoyment.

Sometimes pictures are more fun with the right matting and effects.

My third piece is something from the digital plaque revelation realms that make me reflect on how much time I spent looking up at lofty corporate heights and wondering why I was not seeming to reach them.  This plaque represents how often we are told about that upward mobility which never quite seems to arrive.  Oh well, at least the clouds are pretty up there.

Limitation or inspiration; you decide.

The last offering for the week is a rarely talked about award which understandably few people ever have a chance to receive.  For those who qualify for this digital award honor, you now have an excuse you can use for why people seem uninterested in staying at your house for long.  If you can make a rooster duck his head, you may need to think about using some Fabreeze.

Some awards might be rare for a reason.

As one of our readers, perhaps you have not yet discovered that if you would like to use any of the offerings you find on this site, just donate $3 to the buy page for each item you use.  This will keep the designs coming, and help us pay the bills for doing all the work. Send us an email if you want us to work with your photos, or create something special for you.  When you ask us questions, there is no obligation or charge for information.   Obviously, due to our low prices, we prefer not to talk over long distance unless you want to pick up the tab for that.  If you use our stuff without paying, you could find yourself becoming more radioactive with each day that passes.  Please do not cheat, it just is not worth it.

This week, our featured favorites show off a calendar design that is simple, but eye catching in the details.  Beyond the obvious contrast of a dual set of Fall pictures on the May calendar page, the subtle shading of colors both inside and outside the framed areas draws the eye to the pictorial content. The clean metallic tones make this a nice calendar choice for displaying various photos year round without much change to the inner matting needed.

This calendar design works well with few changes.

The next selection is an award alternative format which could be used by organizations such as the Master Gardner program to inexpensively recognize participants for completion of their volunteer work.  This award simulation is only a representation of one possible design that could be offered.

Digital awards make recognition easy and inexpensive.

Our third image for the week is the matted photograph that was used to create the previous award.  The textured matte is drawn from colors in the photo, as is the colors of the inner matte.  This simple treatment enriches the elements in the photo, while at the same time blending with the content to make the composition stand out.

Simple mattings add value to using pictures in other objects.

The last offering for the week is an inspirational plaque design that offers some nice wood, marble and metal tones to bring out a colorful contrast to the gray colors of the snow covered Spring landscape in the photograph.  Much like the award designs we offer, the decorative digital plaque designs provide another avenue for making the most of your favorite matted photos.

Inspirational plaques draw on matted pictures to enhance message.

If you are using any of our images from the site in a digital picture frame, the resolution is designed for 1024 x 768 viewing.  We can make images designed for other resolutions on request.  Please donate $3 per image for any of the content you download from the site.  If you would like us to design something from your photographs, send us an email and let us know what you want.  All custom designs are $3 per image page, and set at 1024 x 768 resolution unless otherwise specified.  We make all our items for use as screen wallpapers or digital picture frame content, but the work can be printed conventionally as well.

The short answer to the question in the title of this post is, yes.  Conventional wisdom would point to this blog and say that the purity of blogging should not be used to sell products, (or so I have heard from a few people.) 

If this site is a blog and also intended to be a point of sales, how the heck is that supposed to work? 

My answer to this question is that I don’t have a deviously brilliant plan associated with the approach.  The point is that I have a bunch of ideas for creating a wide range of interesting digitally designed products, and a vision for the stuff that keeps rolling out of sight in its potential for unique and original work that I would love to get paid to do for people, businesses, organizations, and whoever else wants to raise their hand.

Secondarily, I like to blog about my digital design ideas and bring things from my work table to the site as they come to life.  There are no other real “experts” in the digital designs industry (other than me,) so it seems like a good time to start bringing the potential of this beautiful technology forward, without working toward the conclusion that digital picture frame technology needs to be warped into becoming yet another full featured computer system lying around unused with high potential.

Matte Watch is a site where I dream that people wandering by will look at the images we post and be inspired to want more than the examples they can download from here.  By looking at the high quality images that are possible from cooking up these virtual ingredients, and seeing that we are only asking $3 from any of them, we hope to make some bells go off in your head about how much more we can offer than other commercial sites.  Go ahead and search the web to see if you can find others who offer you this level of work for the price in the real or virtual universe.

Do we have any limits? 

Sure we do, and if you reach them, we will let you know; after all, what do you expect for only three bucks?

If you are not interested in digital picture frame technology, does Matte Watch have anything for you?

The answer here is YES.  You do not have to be a digital frame fanatic to enjoy the expanding scope of images and material we can offer to make for you.  The versatility of digital designs allows them to be used in so many different ways, we are sure you can find at least one way to take advantage of what we provide.  The images work as images on DVDs, computer monitor wallpapers, prints, and even presentation projections. 

If you do not think this idea is exciting, or that the quality of the examples is not worth paying $3, then take some time to tell us why.  If you want something you do not see, send us an email and see if we can make it for you.  Our virtual factory is efficient and ready to start delivering more dazzling creations fueled by your requests.  Get the flow of recognition and rewards started that has been blocked too long by a high price tag.  With virtual designs, the value of three dollars goes a long way, because whether we are working with photos, metals, fine finishes, or any other virtual material to create your design, it is all an electronically produced image, so it all costs the same.  You can own some truly fine virtual designs that would cost hundreds or thousands to own in real world materials.  I am here “priming the pump” waiting for anyone who is ready to open their eyes and take a drink.

The game of golf has been around for a very long time, and continues its strong traditions moving forward.  As with many different sports, there are a range of golfers from casual players to high stakes professionals.  One of the distinguishing aspects of golf is the dedication shown by those who love to play.  It is a sport that pits the athlete as much against themselves as it does an opponent.

While working through some digital designs, I thought that local clubs could have new ways to tap into the competitive spirit in the hearts of their members.  By offering some elegant, yet inexpensive ways to recognize personal achievements in casual play, digital award designs might offer club members a way to be rewarded for their own level of play. 

Depending on programs a local club might offer as an incentive to boost membership, digital awards for reaching personal best game scores, weekly best scores, or other casual “tournaments,” could help provide incentives to keep moving forward, and a nice extra for joining the club. 

In the following examples, the three winning plaques represent first, second, and third place rewards.  As a digital design, the graphics could be offered in a digital picture frame, with each subsequent win added to the content, or printed out in a hard copy. 

Virtual awards make it possible to reward many levels of play.

Digital awards can bring recognition to clubs and members alike.

Digital awards make excellent ways to recognize personal accomplishments.

Since digital awards are electronic there are many different ways they can be used by recipients, and they will remain fresh as the day they are created.  Because of this, they can be duplicated easily and displayed at clubs and in players’ homes at the same time at the same cost.  Images that look like a million cost only $3.

With digital matting and photos, the designs that arise from this approach can produce some unique and interesting results.  Take a look at this image used as a Valentines Day greeting.

Digital designs can create some nice seasonal greetings with a personal touch.

The format of this offering can be used as a screen wallpaper, displayed in a digital picture frame, or even printed.  This “greeting card” can also be delivered via email.  With this particular idea, the sender set up the picture as a wallpaper on his wife’s computer, so it would be there when she booted up her system.  As couples look to keep their romance kindled, this form of little “note” gets the point across quite nicely.  For other seasonal occasions or “just because” we can design digital greetings that you can print or send to friends and family.  If you have other family members with digital picture frames, you can send each other nice keepsake holiday wishes using the creativity of digital matting techniques.

In designing the piece, the sender used photos of himself and a Valentine’s Day wreath, his wife had made, as the focus of the message.  We took that theme and surrounded it with a rose colored background, burl wood, and onyx frame, with a golden sheet metal front to capture the sentiment of the words.  From the feedback, the personalized idea went over better than a box of candy.

If you have some ideas for seasonal greetings or personalized messages you want to create from your digital photos and images, send us an email, and find out how we can help.  At only $3 per designed image, we cannot afford to return long distance calls, so stick with emails please.  If you like our designs, please donate $3 for each image you use to help us continue offering fresh ideas.  Come often and tell your friends about us.

In the following design, we have brought a number of unusual elements together in creating an advertisement that appeals on a number of different levels.

Get your advertisement noticed using digital designs.

Using this thematic concept, it is possible to combine the attraction of a high quality digital plaque format with a clever punch line that will get attention.  The display uses a hard hitting approach that captures casual viewers on a variety of different personal levels.  The dollar bill draws the eye of money minded people, the rich plaque provides the centering and draw of a nicely crafted award, and the gold matted photo of the restaurant suggests a fine dining experience.  When all these elements are combined with the simply worded slogan, viewers get the point with minimum exposure to the intent.

When this form of advertisement is used in a digital picture frame, a variety of interesting shots are possible, each delivering their own miniature “billboard” effect.  Variations on this type of layout could be used to create eye catching coupons for discounted goods and services, creating another subliminal level of customer rewards for utilizing merchant services.  It might even be possible to use digitized media to create a means for selling merchant partner advertisements in a small space.

Presenting advertising in the plaque format helps to take advantage of what people have already been conditioned to accepting as part of their personal enrichment experience.  Whenever anyone creates a new form of media presentation, it is not long before others begin exploring how that media can pay off in advertising dollars.  If you want to explore more ideas, send us an email.  If you want to use any of our images, please donate $3 per image to keep these offerings coming. 

Keep us in mind for your digital matting needs, and tell your friends about us.  We appreciate your business, feedback and ideas.  Visit often, because you never know what kind of new things we will have to offer next.