Web designers - what is this called?

[RBS]

Is this called vector graphics? I have noticed it as current trend - big icons/buttons looking like 3d, with soft edges, shadows. I do really like this style.
http://www.true-vision.net/images/7713_bianticon.jpg

http://www.dium.lv/userfiles/portfolio_works_pics/foto-19.jpg

[UK Business Network]

I would say artists impressions or 3d rendering, a Vector can be any image at all, it is a file format a bit like .jpg .png etc, the beauty of a vector is that you can resize it without losing quality, ie an A4 picture could easily spread out to a billboard, mostly used in logo design, so that your logo can be sized for any purpose without getting pixelated (like its made out of lego)

We use Kip FX Design for our graphics, hope this helps

[themobilephonesite]

i agree they look better and better image

[Gord]

No it's not vector graphics. Just a '3d' image.

A vector graphic is a graphic file saved as a mathematical algorithm as opposed to a file saved as pixel information.

So , a bitmap , jpg or .gif file ( pixel information ) remembers the individual pixel colours.
Therefore if you enlarge the image , computers do a very bad job 'guessing' what colour all the additional pixels should be and renders a 'dodgy' image.

A vector image , such as produced by illustrator , doesn't remember pixel information, but remembers , say , that a 1 pixel line stretches from the bottom left corner to the top right, and so no matter what the image is resized to , the 1 pixel line will always be correct.( this is a simple definition but it makes the point).

Hope this helps.

[JMCDesigner]

They were probably drawn up in a vector graphics application like illustrator. But those actual images files there won't be vector graphics. I wouldn't really say vector graphics is a 'style'. Like the UK Business Network poster said, its more of a resizeable format within certain applications. But yeh, vectored graphics do tend to look illustrative as your examples

[RBS]

My next webpage will be in this 3d style, it looks amazing :)

[Place of design]

its like all good things, a little can be good, a lot in this instance just looks unreal and cartoon like

[awebapart.com]

Those images are jpgs images (i.e. bitmapped images) which have probably been exported from a vector graphic design package like Illustrator or Corel Draw, where the design package deals with the images internally as vectors.

If you are searching for such images on sites like stock photo sites, the best term to use is Illustration.

For instance there are similar building illustrations (http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-illustration-9050975-ultra-modern-buildings-1.php) on istockphoto, provided in vector format so they can be manipulated further in Illustrator or Corel Draw.

So at source, ideally you want the image in vector format, so you can change it, resize it etc, but when it is ready for your website, then you export it to a jpg, png or gif.

It is also possible, and sometimes easier, with more advanced lighting effects, to create these images in a 3D software package, using 3D models (http://www.turbosquid.com/Search/3D-Models/Architecture/Structures/Office-Building) with file formats such as 3DS, and then export to jpg, bmp, or perhaps even vector (e.g. Swift3D (http://www.erain.com/)).

[RBS]

Thanks Paul, it was the answer :)
Is it called Web 2.0 style what I am seeing and ejoying? Minimalistic, easy to navigate sites with some minimal ilustrative icons/buttons web sites?

[fisicx]

It's not web2, it just a different layout. Web 2 is all about interaction with the website/other users. A particular style became associated with this sort of site and became labelled web 2. But even this has evolved, for a while all 'web2' logos had a reflection, then we had fat rounded borders, light colours and now it appears 3d imagery. It's just trends and fads that will pass in the same way the <blink> and <marquee> dissapeared from our screens.

More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web2

[awebapart.com]

Is it called Web 2.0 style what I am seeing and ejoying? Minimalistic, easy to navigate sites with some minimal ilustrative icons/buttons web sites?
Those images are just a style of graphic design, they are not really anything to do with web 2.

In the early 90s, I worked for a city financial software consultancy who went through a rebranding process and had similar style imagery in their printed brochure, and that was before they had a website.

More intricate imagery has been making its way onto some websites in recent years mainly because faster download speeds (the move from dialup to broadband), better monitors (from 256 bit colour to 16 bit colour to 32 bit colour), larger monitors (and larger web designs), and improved design tools have made this possible. But again this has little to do with web 2.

As for minimalistic, the best example of minimalistic is google, and you wont find a nice 3D illustration of a magnifying glass for a search button on the google website. The magnifying glass image for search (as used on Bing) is a good example of where imagery alone can be confusing or misinterpreted, since the magnifying glass is also used to denote zoom in other sites or other software packages.