Friday is here again! And on Fridays, I share some of my Friday Favorites. There have been some great things happening around the site including some very useful updates and a special Summer Sale! Also, several of our members’ artwork was featured in one of the leading photography blogs! Check out all the sweet happenings below!

Forum Improvements

Yesterday, we rolled out some improvements to the forums which now allow you to keep up with your watched and group discussions much easier. We’ve added two new tabs to make it easier for you to stay up to date with the conversations in the Community that matter to you most. Check out the forum, to see the new tabs in action!

More Updates to Storefronts

At the beginning of the week we released some more updates to the Imagekind Storefronts that make it even easier to customize. With the new updates, you don’t need to know any CSS to change the colors of your Storefront, simply select the color of your choice from the color options. There are tons of options available, so you can really make your Imagekind Storefront truly customized.

We’ve also made it easier for shoppers to find your Storefront through the drop down menu listed next to your screen name. You can read about these and other updates in the announcement post.

Imagekind Summer Sale!

Love the sun? Celebrate summer with 20% off custom framing at Imagekind! Simply use promo code IKSummer09 at checkout to automatically take 20% off the frame when you choose to custom frame it. But hurry, because the promotion expires Monday, July 20 at Midnight PST. You can find all the details about this promotion here.

If you’re an artist on Imagekind, be sure to pass the promotion along to your shoppers! You can easily copy and paste the image URL to your website, blog, or (better yet!) your Storefront! That way, your shoppers can take advantage of this special summer sale too. Also, don’t forget to share it with your followers on Twitter and Facebook!

Featured on DPS

Desperation by Josh Sommers

Like a braggart parent, I am always looking for ways to show of our amazing member artists around the web. This week Darren over at Digital Photography School, was cool enough to let me show off some of our incredible Photo Manipulation Artists. If you’ve never heard of the Digital Photography School, you definitely need to check it out. There are all kinds of tips and resources shared to help improve your digital photography techniques. Stay tuned though, as you might see more incredible Imagekind artists showing up there in the coming months!

You may not realize it, but Imagekind groups are an amazing way to shop for framed artwork. The Imagekind groups are a place dedicated to showcasing artwork selected by our member community. Each piece included in the groups are hand selected by the artist themselves that directly represent the groups themes.

The Imagekind Groups are a great way to shop for artwork based on your favorite theme. You can shop art from such groups as the Imagekind Illustrators, Cloud Artwork, Digital Art, and hundreds of others!

Below are just a few of the intriguing groups on Imagekind.

Friends of Klimt

For every one who loves the art of Klimt
http://groups.imagekind.com/friendsofklimt

Music

Instruments, sheet music, performers, anything to do with music!
http://groups.imagekind.com/music

Black & White

Some of the most stunning b&w photography on Imagekind
http://groups.imagekind.com/bw

Artists Best Work

One piece from each artist they consider their best
http://groups.imagekind.com/best

Visit the Imagekind Community to shop for art prints from all Imagekind Groups. If you’re an artist selling your artwork on Imagekind, join the community and start adding your art to the groups!

Share and discover your favorite art on Imagekind! With the launch of our new community, we have also implemented some really cool new features. Now you can easily embed your artwork on Imagekind to your site, networking page or blog with just a simple copy and paste action. This new feature also lets you embed your image in the new Imagekind forums!

On every artwork page, under the “share” feature, you can now select to “Clip Image ID.” A box will then appear so you can copy and paste the code where you want! Notice there are two different boxes to copy from, the top is the code for the Imagekind forums. The bottom code allows you to embed your images outside of Imagekind.

As if that’s not exciting enough, we have also launched the ability to select and save your favorite images on Imagekind! This feature is also available from every artwork page. Now, with just a simple click of the mouse, you can add an image to your favorites to view later, whenever you are on Imagekind.

A few more features we’re sure you’ll love!

The Imagekind Summer Games have come to an end. The submissions were collected and the votes were counted. Now its time for the awards ceremony!

What an amazing show of skill! A huge thanks to everyone for participating. You had the opportunity to vote on three events; Unity, Pushing the Limits and Speed. Each event had three winners awarded either a Gold, Silver or Bronze prize. All Winners will be featured on our homepage, in an upcoming email newsletter and will win other great prizes!

In addition to being featured on the homepage, Gold medalists will each get a $50 gift card and Silver and Bronze winners will each receive a print of their work.

We are all amazed at the variety of talent the Imagekind community has shown for this event. It’s fantastic to see all the different artistic styles, ideas and perspectives that make up this artist community. Take a look at all the winners below and make sure to congratulate them on their victory!

Unity Winners

Gold: Generations by Brae Oktober

Silver: Sky Heart by BuffaloWorks Photography

Bronze: Unity by Holly Kempe

Pushing the Limits

Gold: This Wonderfully Wicked Little Town by Jeff Adkins

Silver: Silence !!! Artist Working by Dragos Prioteasa

Bronze: Bridge by Regina Lafay

Speed

Gold: Determination by Paula Suter

Silver: Speed Demon by kellerman

Bronze: WIRED by Mayura Dhume

We had some fantastic submissions for our third and final Imagekind Summer Games event and now it is up to you to choose the winner.

Below are the ten images our esteemed judges determined represent the theme best. Deciding on these images was a difficult task for our judges and one that was not rushed into hastily. Now you get to choose which images you think should take home the gold, silver and bronze!

Vote for the top three that you think represents the theme best. But make sure to vote soon because polls close Friday, August 22 at 10am PDT.

After the polls close on August 22, we will announce all of the winners for the Imagekind Summer Games.

Get voting!

Artwork 1: Determination by Paula Suter
How it Represents Speed: It was inspirational to see the athletes compete in this wheel chair race. The streets of Sempach, a small village in Central Switzerland, were lined with spectators and everyone was cheering for them. I think this shot captures not only speed but determination.

Artwork 2: Speed of Nature by Sherrie Looper
How it Represents Speed: In our fast-paced world, often we forget that the speed of nature is as timeless as it is perfect. The imagery of a seedling growing into its fullness of an ancient tree displays this endless time frame where speed has a more universal and limitless meaning.

Artwork 3: A Day in the Park by Sharon Tatem
How it Represents Speed: This is the story of life as this girl in the red coat and hat is seeing this moment and how quickly she progress through it. She is a child on the bridge, a woman finding love across the water seeing her partner. She is an old woman on a bench with her partner. The hats flying are the movement of time as time speeds by and life moves quickly.

Artwork 4: USAF Thunderbird by Elaine Barnett
How it Represents Speed: United States Air Force Thunderbird making a practice run in Cheyenne, WY in July.

Artwork 5: Wings by Greg Simanson
How it Represents Speed: I have been inspired by the Olympics for my whole life…I feel this image showcases the speed and grace of an athlete.

Artwork 6: WIRED by Mayura Dhume
How it Represents Speed: This image indicates the life around us as it goes at a crazy pace. The boy symbolizes ‘us’ as he watches life speed past.

Artwork 7: Siberian Tiger in Snow – Oil Painting by Chris Chalk
How it Represents Speed: Speed is everything to the Amur ( Siberian ) Tiger. Without it it would simply not survive. A huge animal weighing in at up to 900lbs and up to 10 feet long it is still able to move at unimaginable speed to catch it’s prey. Ironically it’s time is may also be running out due to illegal poaching and loss of habitat. Here I tried to capture the power and speed waiting to be unleashed.

Artwork 8: Portrait of Robin by Sondra Sula
How it Represents Speed: I sketched this in less than 15 minutes! Now that’s speed!

Artwork 9: Speed Demon by kellerman
How it Represents Speed: The sparrow reaches it limits and beyond as it flies through the air leaving its shadow behind.

Artwork 10: Swing Free by Chris Lyons
How it Represents Speed: I think this picture portrays a good sense of speed, as you imagine the people whooshing by in their chairs.

Polls have closed, thanks for particpating!