Cool, I appreciate your reply about taking time to find the right artistic setup and I’m studying lighting fundamentals on CG Cookie. In design work that I do, realism has always been a given when we desire it, and the things you consider “compositing” in blender are the post-processing that I would do in photoshop/illustrator.
So for me, the priorities are: believability first, then, mess with the settings and post-processing second to make the realism be more punchy and well-composed. If something looks computer generated and (most often) isn’t conducive to the aesthetic of the site or collateral, it’s likely to be useless. In different cases you’ll have abstract shapes or designs by choice, or isometric or cartoon-like illustrations, but for me I’m focusing on photorealism first before trying to stylize lighting in blender.
