Yesterday was album covers, today is concert posters. You'll definitely want to check out Speedlab, an L.A.-based designer of concert "pop-a-ganda" posters. Very cool work!
Album Cover Design: Past Influences, Present Struggles & Future Predictions (CommArts).
Album cover design has over 50 years of history and, despite several format changes (78 to LP to cassette to CD), many things have stayed the same. Cover design projects bring together two artists, the designer and the musician. They offer the opportunity to create a visual to represent a non-visual art.
As one of the designers put it, “There is something about the fetishistic pleasure of holding a designed object in one’s hand and, until that experience can be replicated, the perceived value of the music will not be the same. When I was very young, I had a Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory kit. Basically you melted down some chocolate bits, poured the chocolate into variously-shaped molds, and wrapped the bars in Willy Wonka labels. All the kids wanted the ‘packaged,’ ‘designed’ chocolate bars—no one wanted the plain chocolate, even though the contents were the same.”
Shhhh. Wired has an interesting article about music at its most subtle. Whisper the Songs of Silence.
"Lowercase sound" is the name given to a loose movement in electronic music that emphasizes very quiet sounds and the long, empty silences between them. Created largely by scientists, techies and experimental musicians, lowercase recordings are frequently based on the magnification of minute sounds through a computer, typically a Macintosh.
Recent compositions include a bubbling symphony of boiling tea kettles, the gentle hiss of blank tapes being played through a stereo and the soft bumps of helium balloons hitting the ceiling. One recent album was so quiet, listeners wondered whether it actually contained any sound at all.
A pretty good discussion about Spielberg's latest film Minority Report and its portrayal of advertising (eg. billboards that talk to you). They're Stating the Obvious. [the segue of all segues; groan]
What's on the aviation drawing boards at Boeing? From The Economist, Batwings and Dragonflies.
Still having trouble getting the pre-July 1 archives to show - bear with me.
A couple of articles about the increasing reality of computer games. The Mod Squad
talks about putting the actual game (re)programming capabilities into the hands of its users, thus making the game a new canvas for people. Sports Fantasy Is Catching Up With Reality (requires sign-in) discusses the level of detail going into sports computer games and how online gaming will take it to a whole other level.
It's not waste unless you waste it. A Popular Science article about a group at England's Warwick University that are developing a way to generate energy from sewage and other wet biomass. Power from the Throne.
Wierd Ideas that Work, a fantastic article at Fast Company...
We hold these truths to be self-evident: We recruit people who are quick on the uptake, people whom we like and need. We encourage coworkers to get along. We make decisions based on experience. Now flip those assumptions upside down. Hire slow learners, people whom you dislike and don't need. Encourage them to defy and fight with their managers and peers. Think of ridiculous things to do, and do them.
It is fun to swing by Praystation every so often, just to get lost in the incredible experimental webwork. Flash is pushed to the extreme with many of the working concepts posted in the site's "compounds". Not much as far as story but it does offer a peak at some of the tricks top web designers are toying with.
Perhaps the last and most formidable frontier of ideation is that of mixing cultures. It is widely accepted that ideas are the result of a wide range of sources and inspirations - a stew of disciplines, perspectives and stories - merging. World cultures are rich with systems of knowledge and creative practices that, when shared with other cultures, often present altogether news ways of thinking. With an increasingly global comprehension, this sharing is both inevitable and desired. It not only helps us to understand the past but also to discover the future in ways that we cannot in isolation.
Culture Focus is a site that feels very much like you are paging through somebody's well-shot and well-documented personal photo album. In fact, that is what it is. The site's creator, Steve Underwood, has shared some fabulous pictures from his travels to such places as Peru, Guatemala, Nepal and Egypt - accompanied by interesting background info of the shots.
Simple Sunday link: QuotesBlog The name says it all.
This is kind of different. The Database of Urban Exploration offers various video and photos of abandoned areas, attics, construction places, roofs and deserted industrial space. A celebration (sort of) of forgotten places - all with a haunting Blair Witch feel to it. It is presented by Zone-Tour, a non-profit association whose object it is to promote industrial archaeology and architecture, and to reveal a particular point of view about the city.
That Anime Project is a great site to learn more about the popular Japanese animation style of anime. The site describes different anime techniques, genres and cultural meanings and implications. Information here ranges from introductory to advanced.
The museum of science, art and human perception. San Francisco's Exploratorium.
Been digging in the Fast Company archives. Here's a fantastic article about renound Chicago chef Charlie Trotter:
Some years ago, American cooking schools, in an effort to professionalize an occupation that paid little and was lacking in prestige, began awarding degrees in "culinary arts." The problem was that very little of what these budding chefs turned out even remotely resembled art. It doesn't take "artists" to mimic their instructors, who are themselves mimicking crusty old cookbooks written by ancient French chefs.
Doing things differently is hard in the restaurant business, where new raw materials are tough to come by. Chefs achieve artistry through relentless creativity, tastefully and consistently executed. It's no accident that many restaurants fail. Even good restaurants eventually bore their customers if they don't continue to innovate.
Trotter, who earned a political-science degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1982 but never graduated from cooking school, declared from the outset that no matter what happened, eating in his restaurant was never going to be boring.
Typophile remains the only site where aspiring and professional designers post their work for peer critique. It'a a springboard for honing skilles and refining specimens. As of launch, (March 2002) there are 113 original typefaces in the forums. Their gallery can be found .
Typophile is also holding a t-shirt design contest right now. Deadline is August 30. [Thanks Jason]
Talk about something small making it big. Wired has an article this month about a young New York fashion entrepreneur by the name of Karin Spitzer. She's getting tons of press for a phrase she originally used in a public art project: "no-time".
Spitzer, 27, is a refined example of how little it takes to build a business in the information economy: Her tools consist only of a laptop and some imagination. Based primarily on the Internet, Spitzer has created a successful business called no-time, selling bracelets, armbands, mouse pads and similar items emblazoned with variations on the logo: "no time for...."
CG's been having some difficulties getting the pre-July 1 archives to show up. I hope to have this will be fixed soon. Cheers!
The art of elephants. Elephants are apparently very fond of paint and canvass. Their works are increasingly becoming sought after, both by those wishing simply to support these threatened creatures and by those who seriously collect art. A display of paintings can be found at Novica.
The elephants, it turned out, loved to paint – apparently an extension of their natural tendency to doodle on the ground with sticks and pebbles. The resulting art has created a sensation in the art world, sparking the interest and support of art critics, collectors, and conservationists alike. By making the elephants and their beautiful art widely accessible to the general public, we hope to help raise awareness, encourage conservation, and generate significant funds to help support the elephant sanctuaries.
If you're looking for some uncommon accessories for your place, you might want to click over to UrbanPeel.com. They have some very cool stuff there ranging from unusual lights to funky chairs. My personal favorite is the Chill Out Room, a human cocoon of pillows.
A short but interesting article at Darwin about the possibilities - and drawbacks - to replacing the beloved barcode for a miniscule little chip embedded in each product we buy. Bye-Bye Bar Codes?
The Smart Tag concept is simple enough. The potential applications are staggering: Embed a reader in a delivery truck, and a manufacturer can know exactly where all of its products are, at any stage in the supply chain. Embed a reader in a store shelf, and the Oil of Olay bottles will announce when they're out of stock—or perhaps when they've been swept off the shelf, en masse, by a shoplifter. Embed a reader at the store exit, and there's no need to have a checkout clerk...
But of course! The Muppets introduce a music video - Weezer's "Keep Fishin'" (RealMedia file)
It is a smart new approach for a university's liberal arts faculty - to actually celebrate thinking by challenging those interested in doing or studying it to actually think. Downplay the whole "this will get you a job" slant and hard sell recruitment tactics and go after those who crave intellectual puzzles. That's what The University of Calgary's Faculty of Humanities has done with a beautifully designed booklet and website. See if any of the problems stump you. Come to Think of It.
In a creative business like advertising it is often a very fine line between originality and plagiarism. Sometimes it is obvious that one particular ad idea came before another similar one but sometimes these twins (or triplets or quadruplets...) show up on the radar screen at the exact same time. ... If you wander over to the Badland section of Dabitch's ad-rag site you'll find a great collection of identical-thoughts-slash-ripoffs and often a lively discussion about them. Currently, there is a foursome of dogsledding car commercials.
So what if it's two years old. Here is a great article found at WebReview.com ("cross training for web teams") about shutting off the computer to come up with new and better ideas. Inspiring Design
...the number of students with strong computer and Web design skills who had difficulty thinking beyond computer-based design surprised me. These students' linear, highly focused approach limited them because the Web is nonlinear. Its interactive format naturally allows multiple approaches to presenting and accessing information. A nonlinear approach to design—one not hampered by narrow ideas about content or technique—will make it easier for you to break out of the box.
I love I Love Everything.
The gang at Epitonic do a great job of collecting an ecclectic mix of quality music artists - providing full song samples, bios and links. Pick a genre (rock, folk, pop, electronic, hip hop, jazz experimental and 20th century composers available) and stream the entire page.
Controversial political news meets fast-edit MTV music videos: Guerrilla News Network.
This is the big picture - quite literally. The photography of Yann Arthus Bertrand is impressive stuff. His most popular major project is called "Earth from Above" and it includes breathtaking aerial photographs taken from between 30 and 3000 metres above the ground. The shots, accompanied by thoughtful commentary, represent diverse ecosystems around the world that demonstrate both natural beauty and man's often unfortunate influence on it.
Dollz. Shift has an interesting article, Hey Dolly about online caricature-like icons used, primarily by teenaged girls, to represent themselves online in chat forums. Apparently, however, there is pretty serious designer and collector movement behind these cute pixels.
It used to be that fireworks were simply fireworks - explosives launched in the air for the novelty of having explosives launched in the air. However, fireworks have - pleasantly - evolved into a very refined art form. The pinnacle of this is the "pyromusical" - a 30+ minute show where fireworks are timed - often to the fraction of a second - to music ranging from classical to techno. These are carried out by highly practiced pyrotechnics teams from around the world in competition with each other (often just for the prestige of winning). Curious? How pyromusicals are done (behind the scenes) and Le Mondial (international competition)
Where in the world should we look for inspiration today?... How about Spain and the brilliant architectural designs of Antoni Gaudi. His work in Barcelona led to the creation of some of the city's most notable landmarks. Gaudí was a pioneer in his field using color, texture, and movement in ways never before imagined. His works, both finished and uncompleted, stand as testimony to his genius. Check out Gaudi Central here.