January 2009
38 posts
Scraps
A while back I took a costuming design class at Saint Martins which basically consisted of bizarre, abstract designs and obscure references in the theme of ones final collection sketches. Mine was Elizabethan Britain blended with Smashing Pumpkins videos ala Adore… you get the idea. One class trip took us to the V&A Costume collection, which was so astounding I often return there with...
Rooftop Concert
So forty years ago today, these four guys went up to their roof and played their last public concert ever.
The Beatles last ever public concert took place around mid-day on Thursday, January 30, and lasted 42 minutes. It may well have gone on longer had it not been for the complaints of their neighbor, Stanley Davis, who was quoted as saying “I want this bloody noise stopped....
ABE
Not good with words today, but this woman’s stuff is beautiful.
-a
Seven Days
“i’m illustrator and graphic designer. i like to collage vintage papers with contemporany images. cut, paste. i hate pixels. i love glue and scissors, old magazines and pictograms. and polaroids too.” - Cristiana Coucerio
via Life In Lomo
-a
Procrastination
I liked A’s video post so much that I decided to post a video of my own. This is Johnny Kelly’s Royal College of Art MA thesis film ‘Procrastination.’ At the moment I haven’t the time to procrastinate properly (descaling is an important part of kettle maintenance by the way) but I eternally look forward to the time when I can waste away the hours.
You can...
Death of Domino (et al.)
So I went to lunch and when I came back, literally every blog I read had posted that Domino magazine was folding. March will be their last issue. For me its about 30% sad. Basically I will be out of a readily available magazine to read (i.e. one I can buy at the supermarket). I will have to bring a book to the laundromat or just watch the trash tv they show. Its bad for Conde Nast because...
Snow Day
We have had two days of snow and ice here in Maryland. I cannot possibly explain how much I love the winter. I love everything about snow. I love when everything, which has been brown and bleak for so many months is covered in soft whiteness. I love when ice storms coat all the trees in that glistening ice. I love scarves and gloves and big coats, and sloshing everywhere. I don’t LOVE...
Stockholm Syndrome
Both the Satorialist and Garance Doré are in Stockholm. At the same time. I feel the street fashion photography world is about to fall off its axis.
jo- this bottom one means im getting the wedges. i literally lost sleep over it, but its time to move on from pumps.
-a
Movie Font
There’s a weird subculture of font freaks that obsess over recreating particular movie fonts. Go to any font site (especially those that offer fonts for free) and there will surely be a section devoted to exact replications of movie titles. What is the purpose of these recreations though? Do people plan to turn in their final paper in Sliders font? Or Beverly Hills Cop? How about 1000...
Manahatta Project →
One of the neatest ecological/ scientific things going right now is the Manahatta Project by the Wildlife Conservation Society at the Bronx Zoo. They are using ecological surveys, historical accounts, and GIS to recreate Manhattan as it would have looked when Henry Hudson first saw it. From their website
The aim of the Mannahatta Project is to reconstruct the ecology of Manhattan when Henry...
Los Angeles Panopticon →
I have been reading this one a lot lately. Click over at least to see Radiohead cover New Order’s Ceremony. But Frank seems to find tons of great stuff, and he updates it super regularly.
-a
Holy Kermit Bale!
If you have not seen this yet, it is genius.
Via Jezebel.
-a
Pre-Fall 2009
Hey its almost not really Spring, so of course in fashion speak that means Pre-Fall 2009 looks!
Chloe
Pleated, cropped trousers are the only ones that acually look good on me, so I may be biased here.
Proenza Schouler
This is my go to date outfit. Maybe thats why Im always single?
This one may be a little less brutal of a first impression.
Rachel Roy
Isaac Mizrahi
Louis...
Put Your Best Face Forward
I once heard an interview on NPR all about 1950s pop music with a rock critic who had gone and written a whole book on the subject after others had chosen to distance themselves from the saccharine sounds of that decade’s soft radio rock (I had fun with that sentence). Basically the author described current attitudes towards this excessive twee as bordering on straight up embarrassment....
For Jo, who is in need of some confetti.
Via Flickr, Flickr, Flickr
-a
The Theory of Evolution
Neatorama has a keen collection of logos over time. Above is IBM from their tech logo collection. They’ve also got a fine set of car logos.
There is also the amazing blog Logo Design Love that’s worth a checking out.
p.s. I’m finding Firefox doesn’t enjoy these sites whereas Safari gets along quite well with Neatorama.
-J
Sony Bravia
I found a cool making of video of the Sony Bravia Bouncy Ball commercial.
Bravia has its own channel showing how it is creating its new commercial featuring the footballer Kaká and and the worlds larget Zoetrope, here.
Also see the making of the Play Doh bunnies spot
The pyramids spot
Dominos
Paint
and Foam Bubbles
-a
My epiphany on the laws of nature
Seriously, click through to see this as large as possible. Fractal trees?
and some Fibonacci spirals?
and maybe Sim City- I dont know. I want a print of that one though.
all via The Big Picture
-a
Radio Lab Bonus Gift
Radio Lab gave its podcast subscribers a gift this week in the form of some stunning visuals about natural law. I suggest downloading the podcast and getting all the old episodes too. I listen to them in the car. NSFW because episodes seem to require complete attention, and therefore one finds entire hours of the day disappearing.
-a
Maybe its because I am deathly ill...
But I find this series hilarious. But maybe modern architecture humour is only really funny when feverish- what do I know?
Sort of NSFW- he got banned from youtube because there are titties involved in this clip, but nothing sexual AT ALL.
Mister Glasses Ep. 5 - watch more funny videos
via Daily Dose of Architecture
-a
Death to Motion Type
This effect has started showing up everywhere. It’s really beginning to get to me. In a bad way.
-J
agreed j, but this one is so endearing!
-a
3 tags
Design your own Font
FontStruct
Granted, it might look a bit crappy
3 tags
cinema
I’ve been thinking a lot about film recently and the way in which it is viewed. Above is tiny bit of artists Brendan Dawes’ work Cinema Redux. Taking a screen capture of each second of film Dawes has created a new way of seeing the familiar. The small bit I’ve selected above contains the dream sequence in Vertigo (that white bit is Jimmy falling onto the roof). What does it...
4 tags
World Wide Web
When we think of the internet in terms of design we often think of the main page elements. Good design is everything contained within the frame of our browser. That is, however, to forget that which contains the sites we look at. Is the browser simply a utilitarian vessel that provides the frame with which to display the internet? There is a tiny space of interaction between the contained and...
Slumdog Yellow
Slumdog Millionare won best Feature Length Drama las night at the Golden Globes. Good Movie. See it. Not the point of the post. Yellow is!
The characters wear the same color throughout the film. The main character (Jamal- Dev Patel), wears blue. More to the point, Latika (Freida Pinto) wears yellow! Some shots are below. Last night to the Golden Globes, she wore a beautiful...
3 tags
Gig
Someone alerted me to the fact that A has posted much more than J this week, so I will play catchup today.
Once again I post on the poster, but this time it is the gig poster I speak of. At work I recently returned to a local letterpress and was reminded of how much freedom is allowed with the music poster. It serves no purpose other than to be visually engaging- if you can get someone to do a...
“Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be...”
– C.S. Lewis
Kid Surreal
When I was a kid I had a thing for hyper-real surrealists drawings. I could stare for hours at books by Chris Van Allsburg (you know, Jumanji, Polar Express, The Garden of Abdul Gasazi) trying to figure out how on earth the illustrations were made. They were too clean, clear, had too much mass, to simply be colored pencil. It got to the point where I investigated the books I had under my science...
Heard.
This site is not inteded to offer any sort of political or other commentary, other than aesthetics of course, but I heard this great interview about the current and future state of the economy, on Market Place last night. It is both terrifying and really hopeful, but above all, incredibly smart. Hope you listen and enjoy.
Listen or Read the Transcript Here
-a
New Desk
Somewhere in the midst of moving to a new house and getting ready for graduate school, I have been thinking hard about how to deal with the desk situation. I have one that is actually pretty great. It is a rescused school desk that probably sat three kids, so it is long, put not very deep. I like the idea of a really deep desk, more like a table, especially since my job (and Masters...
Presidential Portraits
Shepard Fairey’s now iconic Hope Obama poster has just been purchased by the National Portrait Gallery.
Ignoring the subject completely, this is interesting both in the acceptance of non-traditional portrait mediums (non-paint/ non-photo) by the Portrait Gallery, but also by the (hopeful) movement of the Smithsonian Institute into a collection more reflective of art from the last 50...
Objectified Trailer!
And that word has nothing to do with women! It has to do with objects! From the makers of Helvetica.
-a
a gift for you!
I made you all a gift! I make one of these for myself every year, and I thought I would share it with everyone.
It is a printable desk calendar! Just download it, print it out, and place the pages in an old CD jewel case.
I like to take the used months and paste them on my wall behind my computer to add some color to cinder block walls. Hope you like it.
-a
p.s....
Tess of the d'Ubervilles
No big surprise, but I LOVE made for TV period dramas. I have no problem sitting through the whole (real) Pride and Prejudice.* The stories are great, but honestly the books are better if you want the story. What the productions give are imagery. Sweeping landscapes, beautiful men, and even better costumes. It is funny to see how current fashion is translated to the period.
Anyway,...
Big Bows on Dresses
Jo asked my advice about what dress to get. I made my choice but have changed it based in this. Go with the one with the big satin bow. French fashion blogs are a weakness of mine, and Betty’s bow makes me swoon. A Lot.
Make sure to click through becuase her shoes are so much better up close.
via Le Blog de Betty
I sort of envision this as book cover, but it is a letterpress (fill in the blank) invitation. Have to admit that the yellow caught my eye. Via Bread and Butter’s Shop on Etsy.
And yes Jo, I believe it was me at the Museum of Brands.
-a