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By: Anthony Palmieri
November 17, 2005

Abstract:

The digital evolution in the graphics art industry continues to expand the capabilities for even the home user. By spending a little bit of money on graphics programs, and a computer, coupled with a bit of creativity, you can turn your digital pictures into much more than just photographs. This evolution has enabled people to express their personality into family pictures as well as other loves such as cars, and pets.

Automotive Art As An Expression Of Your Personality

People find many ways to express their personality, whether it is through sports, music, art, or another outlet. In any case the creative nature that we have comes to the surface once we have the tools and developed ability to accomplish this. One area that has continued to grow as a result of technological advancement is with computer enhanced graphics. Faster home computers coupled with programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator have taken the high end graphics work once limited to corporations to smaller businesses. The most basic photo manipulation is to correct flaws in the picture, which can be expanded to the more advanced creation of fantasy scenes, such as overlaying multiple images and the addition of special effects.

These changes have enabled businesses to start in the areas of custom portrait and pet photography, to wildlife and even automotive areas. For those of you who are familiar with the classic and collector automotive areas, this level of photography is a natural fit. I have traveled to many car show events over the past 20 years, learning a lot about how car owners add that personal touch to their car. As with an artist holding a paint brush, these owners look at their vehicles as the canvas, and leaving nothing overlooked. Attention is taken by these owners to ensure that there is a blinding shine on the chrome and paint, and every component, even the underside is perfect. As with the painter, they are expressing their personality and creativity.

This desire for creativity by these automotive owners has spurred an industry that caters directly to them. The car enthusiast is a proud group that often has many unique ideas that would differentiate their car, but they may not be sure how to accomplish it. They go to the experts for advice on how to enhance their vehicles look and performance, so now they have started to turn to the artistic experts on how to display their vehicle. One company that understands this area extremely well is www.PalmieriConcepts.com. Besides the founder being an owner of collector cars, this company has spent years talking with owners and listening to them to understand their needs and wants before it even became a company. Often the owners knew they wanted something different, but was not sure exactly what or how to accomplish it. By listening to them, and understanding what could be done, their needs were met. Some of the nontraditional examples included the idea of having small circular photographs of the owners car that can be inserted in the center of wheels, to having custom step magnets for placement on the running boards of that custom coupe to keep people from stepping on it.

For the serious owner, most have a theme garage or office with pictures and posters of their car and similar cars. Often these pictures were done in the traditional style of "point-shoot-develop-print-frame". The custom graphics companies that specialize in the automotive industry have now taken the "develop" stage to the next level with custom image enhancements. These enhancements could be as simple as a picture of your car overlaid on the engine compartment, or a key element such as the gas cap of that Mustang GT. By combining this level of graphics, a plain photograph is transformed from just a photograph to an expression of personality.

There are many examples of what I have described on line and Palmieri Concepts has a large selection of examples that will give you many ideas that you can incorporate into your own works.