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Magnificent Ruin: 379

There is no shortage of compelling and inspiring photography in the photostream of Magnificent Ruin. Personally, I'm drawn to these chaotic poster rips and sign excerpts - of which there is an abundance of material to see. Seriously, dive into this stuff - you don't want to miss gems like this.

Distance: Tech Quarterly

If you're in the giving mood this morning you may want to check out this Kickstarter project for a proposed quarterly publication called Distance. Every three months three authors will tackle different tech based subjects and dig into a 3,000 - 5,000 word longform article about the "whys" of design, UI, UX, coding, etc. The project has actually already reached its intended goal but the first issue looks so compelling that you may want to go ahead and chip in a few dollars to pre-order it anyway. Go check it out.

Kitten Halftime Show

Yea, posting links to BuzzFeed isn't exactly the cutting edge of web discovery but their Behind the Scenes gallery on the Kitten Halftime Show from Animal Planet's yearly Puppy Bowl is too adorable of a treat to be missed.

Beautiful Web Type: Best of Google web fonts

Every time I hit up the Google Web Fonts repository I am overwhelmed with the choices - 90% of which feel incredibly amateur, sloppy or just too kitschy for their own good. Fortunately, Beautiful Web Type helps to clear up where some of the finest choices can stm from - Vollkorn, Lato, Gravitas One and Abril Fatface are among the beauties being showcased and you really can't deny how great they look in their context. Maybe it's time to revisit Google Web Fonts after all...

CSS3 Text Handling Progression

• CSS3 Properties to Handle Text and Word Wrapping - forget what you think you know about "word-wrap" - it's out! Read through this article to find out all the great techniques associated with the forthcoming spec for "text-wrap." With Chrome, Firefox and (new) IE auto-updating these days it doesn't seem like we'll even have to wait that long before we can start deploying it.
• New Web Typography - you heard of OpenType? Not quite sure what it means for the web? Well, this article clears that up for ya. Small Caps, Ligatures, Kerning, Fractions and more are all on the way to be standard.

Game Galaxy

Thanks to a handy heads up over at Country Life I went to check out the Arcade Museum at Game Galaxy. It's not often that I get a chance to visit a dying mall in the suburbs that just so happens to have an absolutely thriving arcade; much less two of them. Maybe I'm being over nostalgic but there's a rich history to arcades and it'd be a damn shame if they went extinct. As a bonus, I snapped this pic from the excursion and I can't stop staring at it. Score.

The Artist - See It

Had the pleasure of seeing The Artist over the weekend - somewhat due to its recent Oscar nomination but mostly out of curiosity if a modern day silent film could prove to be legitimately entertaining; not just novelty. If you're unfamiliar, go watch the trailer to get a sense of the melodramatic but whimsical tone of the film. I would think the lack of dialogue combined with contemporary short attention spans (thanks Internet!) would make this feel incredibly slow paced but, turns out, it had my full attention the entire time - possibly requiring more of me because it was silent. Obviously I'm not alone in my adoration of the film but it does no harm to chime in and throw one more recommendation in the ring - go see this.

And if you're a filmmaker; consider embracing something as outlandish as making a silent film in 2011 - maybe the Talkie didn't win out afterall.

Shillington School Poster

Pretty clever campaign over here for the Shillington School (of Graphic Design). I'm a sucker for hand drawn type - particularly depictions of familiar typefaces and the Comic Sans repetition is worth a small chuckle to get your day going.

Groupshot

While I can't personally attest to how well it actually works the mindset behind Groupshot is stellar. Basically it's an iOS photo merging app that lets you selectively choose faces from a number of photos to create the ultimate, perfectly posed, photo. I imagine anyone with a family, particularly small children, would find this to be a rather convenient way to create the perfect image... though there's something to be said for the amusement of a kid acting up in a photo when you look back at it 20 years later.

Wander Preview

The fine folks at Dinevore have something new up their collective sleeves over at Wander. It's not entirely clear what it actually is yet but the two pages I've seen from it are so well put together (not to mention entertaining and playful) that I can't help but be intrigued. Maybe go reserve your username?

Friday Videos - Jan 27th, 2012

Plenty of videos in this weeks playlist but the majority are all pretty short - so you get a quick blast of humor. I am sure you'll enjoy.

• "Let's Dance" - I don't want to spoil the surprise but lets just say that I'm indebted to Lee for the magic that is RockerClogger.
• Coming Soon - Ferris Bueller 2? Some sort of Superbowl promotional something or other? I guess we find out Feb 5th.
• Ball Boy Catch - nailed it. "Everybody's on their game."
• No No Thom Yorke - you will never hear Radiohead the same again.
• Kaylee Blowing out the Candle - basically it's the new David After Dentist but, who cares, it's adorable and hysterical. The entire time.
• Kramer + Skrillex - whatever your thoughts on Skrillex are irrelevant because you can't deny how perfect this blend is.
• Wastelander Panda Prologue - "The tale of the last remaining panda in a post-apocalyptic wasteland." This is actually the prologue to a legitimate TV series in development. Guess who'll be watching that one?
• Romantic Saxophone (HD) - Crudely animated birds? Check. Terrible Water Ripple Effect? Check. Scantily clad woman playing a saxophone? Got it. Favorite thing ever? You betcha.

Have a great weekend.

The Arm

My buddy Blake recently served as Director of Photography on the short film The Arm - directed by Brie Larson, Sarah Ramos and Jessie Ennis. Not only was it accepted to Sundance but it won Best Comedic Direction in a Short. Now it's up for this Yahoo! Best of Sundance award. While I'm not usually one for caring much about online voting, this could do nothing but help out a friend and it's entertaining to watch. So, I'm asking you to head over here, watch the short and scroll down to vote it in to win.

Typographica Favorite Typefaces Of 2011

Typographica has written up a list of their favorite typefaces of 2011. The list isn't a Best Of but, rather, a favorites - typefaces with notable character, technological significance or just worth remembering. It's a great spot for some inspiration if you're in need.

Development Type

• ArcText.js - want your text to bend on a slight arc but don't want to use a PNG? Deploy ArcText javascript and you're good to go.
• A better way to use icon fonts - I'm a big fan of the proliferation of Icon Fonts these days but Eric Eggert has some great insight into how to deploy them even better than what most are suggesting. It's even super friendly to screen readers. Score.

Uncle Skeleton - Sophisticuffs

I am pleased to announce that today marks the official release of the first new music from Uncle Skeleton since his May 2010 record, Warm Under the Covers. This new track / single, "Sophisticuffs", is the first track from the forthcoming double-LP All Too Human - planned for release on my little label. You can snag the four tracks over on Bandcamp or just preview them with the player above.

Many thanks to Burgers for the remix, John Baldwin for the mastering and, of course, Ross for the music.

If you're in the Nashville area, please come out tonight to the Mercy Lounge to see ole Uncle Skeleton play.

Long story short, go download this track and help spread the word!

Sunshine Sakae from Michel Gondry

You might think you've no interest in a commercial for Japanese department store Sunshine Sakae but when you hear that it's directed by Michel Gondry you will watch it immediately... and love it. His unmistakable style is perfect here.

Alessandro Puccinelli

I'm mystified by this photography set, Intersections, from Alessandro Puccinelli. Even though it is described as a work-in-progress collection I find myself poring over each image - the delineation between ocean and sky being incredibly difficult at times. Absolutely lovely.

via Jodi.

Tim Biskup

Really enjoying these mosaic style works from Tim Biskup. He's actually got a nice variety of style throughout his portfolio but I like the "simplification" that's going on with the geometric pieces. Plus, he tackles pop culture entities for some of his work; bonus!

via Jeremy.

The 2011 Warby Parker Annual Report

Excellent 2011 Annual Report from the folks at Warby Parker. Aside from being a pleasant layout with simple sliding animations there's a dense amount of information packed into each page. I love the timeline along the bottom - keeping track of milestones (legitimate or ridiculous) is a practice we should all maintain.

Color: Method Of Action

Take a few minutes today to test your eye for color by playing through Color - a six step game that runs through Hue, Saturation, Complementary, Analogous, Ternary and Quaternary colors. If you're not familiar with some of those words then maybe this is a good place for you to start. There's even a Color Blind Assist mode if you're in the 7%.

YouTube: One Hour Per Second

Did you know that every second there is one hour of video uploaded to YouTube? If you're having trouble visualizing just how much video that is, check out One Hour Per Second; a little promotional site to put things in perspective. Even if you're not having a hard time wrapping your head around that idea, make sure to visit the site as it's a wonderfully illustrated, animated, impressive bit of non-Flash eyecandy.

Lomokino & Lomokinoscope

I bet it's been awhile since you thought about anything LOMO related. With the widespread proliferation of cameras in phones, and the manipulation apps that come with them, it's easy to forget about the world of haphazard analog film that they created. Their latest foray back into your mind is the LomoKino; a 35mm powered movie maker and it's LomoKinoScope viewing buddy. The results it creates are pretty great - very much so in the style of what you'd expect from anything Lomography related and just outside the reach of what I've seen any apps capable of doing. Plus, you actually keep the results if your harddrive crashes. Doubtful that the $99 pricetag is going to make it something everyone runs out to obtain but it's nice to see that they're still fighting the good fight.

HT Mr. Reed.

Wednesday Morning Tech Link Dump

• CodeKit - looks to be a pretty slick application for managing projects, compiling all sorts of nu-tech like Less or Coffeescript and optimizing images. Potentially a one-stop shop for getting a project underway. via Madrid.
• OSX in CSS - while it doesn't do much you have to admit that this creation of OSX almost entirely with CSS3 is pretty impressive.
• Bootstrap 2 on the horizon - the new version of the Twitter developed framework is on the horizon (Jan 31st). I'm committed to building at least one project with this finally; looks to be even better the second go around.