Technically speaking, it's been two weeks since I've posted a collection of videos because ole Mikesell handled the duties last week. So, with that in mind, this weeks playlist is rather hefty. Maybe you've seen them all. Maybe you haven't. Either way, it's another installment of weekly distraction.
Mad Men: The Game - just watch the opening sequence on this. The actual "gameplay" isn't all that engaging but the title sequence done with 8-bit graphics and sound is top notch.
DJ Flula Remixes Celebrities - why not make these press junket interviews interesting? And who better to make uncomfortable than the comic cast of Jeff Who Lives At Home. My favorite part is that Mark Duplass seems incredibly un-amused.
Good Books "Metamorphosis" - Good Books sells books online and pases profits on to Oxfam. The relationship of that idea to this phenomenal animation paying homage to Hunter S Thompson is sort of unclear but... whatever. It looks great.
Sony Xperia via Wes Anderson + Laika - reknowned animation studio Laika and everyone's favorite director, Wes Anderson, did this great bit for Sony Xperia. I've no interest in the product but it's a quality commercial.
Pentagram Sam - words fail me in describing my delight in this video. Is it parody? Is it an actual complaint against people faking interest in dark arts? Is it a legit expression of keeping it legit? Whatever it is, it's captivating from start to finish.
High-Pitched Voice Theory - vocal expert examines neanderthal vocal tracks and theorizes what our ancestors might have sounded like. Because it's British, it's impossible to tell if this is a joke or actual news reporting. It can go either way.
Coca-Cola Contest - just an impressive animation that you should definitely watch.
Kurt Vonnegut on the Shapes of Stories - Vonnegut's delivery style is always amusing and his take on story archetypes is a great example of his perfect blend of sarcasm, bitterness and goofiness.
Don't Talk - I've no background info on this feel good pixel animation and I don't want any. Especially because the ending is just too inexplicable.
There are loads of other videos that you probably shouldn't miss out there on the Internet this week - like this or this or this or this but I'll trust that you've already run across them.
Browsing through the photostream of Joe Holmes I was impressed at the number of amusing or terrificallysolid captures he is consistently capable of. Then I hit up his official portfolio and got my mind blown. Turns out, Mr. Holmes actually uses his photostream for the day-to-day captures and his portfolio isn't just a mirror of that - it truly is a collection of his best works. The Workspace and AMNH sets stopped me in my tracks.
Ever find yourself in need of some Social Sharing assets and end up having to go to Facebook, take a screenshot and clumsily insert a placeholder for your comp? Well, Squidfingers is here to help ya out with this Share Buttons PSD. Go nab it and rest easy on procuring assets until the next social network takes off and you need their buttons.
Are you familiar with the Adult Swim show Superjail? You probably should be. Every episode begins with a complete different intro sequence of bizarre, ridiculous, hilarious or murderous scenes. You can watch a compilation of them here or just head over to the blog of Matt Taylor; who is posting screens from every intro from Season 2. It's hard to imagine coming up with so many different scenarios for every episode but he certainly does it.
Remember when I told you about the forthcoming Hunger Games prequel game Girl on Fire? You know, the one developed by the likes of Adam Saltsman, Danny Baranowsky and Paul Veer? Yea, well, it's now available for download and I recommend snagging it. First and foremost because it's really well put together and entertaining to play but, secondly, because it's Free - so why not? Thirdly, this is definitely a trend we'd all like to see continue (right?) and the more downloads the better for the cause.
The art style is great and the gameplay is simple but not so dumbed down that it's not challenging. Just how a game should be. You can read more about it but, really, just go snag it.
Adobe has released the beta download of Photoshop CS6 - always a vaguely exciting time to check out their crazy new features like Content-Aware Patching and the like but their biggest features are rarely the things I use all that often. Fortunately, the folks over at Bjango have a great list of CS6 improvements for designers - including Layer Styles on Groups, Lorem Ipsum Pasting and a load of other tiny improvements that, on the whole, should make a big difference. I know there are those that argue that Photoshop may be on the way out for lighter alternative but I think as long as they keep maintaining these kinds of improvements, they'll be around for quite awhile long.
Maybe you still don't quite understand Inception or maybe you're just a fan of well designed animated infographics related to topics you enjoy? Either way, browse on over to this Inception Explained site for a bit of scrolling madness. Site creator Matt Dempsey deserves some major pats on the back for his work on such a thing - it's perfectly simple and engaging. I particularly love the little details like the snoring icons or the death badges that appear on characters - well played!
Yesterday, Aziz Ansari launched a new website touting his latest comedy special, Dangerously Delicious. It costs $5 and the funds go straight to Aziz; no middleman distributor or additional hands in the pocket of the artist. You may recall Louis CK doing this first (and Jim Gaffigan planning it for April). It's a trend that's worth repeating. You can watch a preview of the special but if you like Aziz, it's a safe bet that it will be five bucks well spent.
So why is this important to me beyond the comedy special itself? Well, I designed the whole thing in collaboration with VHX and Aziz's people. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out and couldn't be more excited to see the VHX Artists platform (an empowerment tool to sell video directly to fans) make its with someone so worthwhile. Read more about the whole thing right here.
Long story short, Aziz Ansari has a new special you should go buy. Not only because Aziz is great but because it will prove the undertaking by myself and VHX is something worth growing.
I told you about the Kickstarter project for the new album from I Come to Shanghai and, fortunately, it was more than funded. If you weren't ready then to dive right in, please take a moment to watch this video and then hit up their site to hear the whole record. You can still procure the record over on their Bandcamp and I highly recommend that you do - it's a great listen from top to bottom.
It's been almost exactly one year since a tsunami hit Japan and the recovery process is still well underway. Kate pointed me towards one particularly interesting initiative - The Memory Salvage Project. While clearing out rubble from the disaster more than 750,000 photos were found and instead of tossing them away a group of volunteers has taken on the task of cleaning them, scanning them and doing what they can to return them to their original owners. A sampling of the photos can be seen here and a short video on the project itself can be viewed here. It's hard to imagine such a large group of people losing so much but I can I certainly comprehend the small joy that must come from receiving a portion of that lost life.
The fine folks over at Monkey Ink Design (now to be referred to as "MID") have relaunched their site. Finally, there's a proper place to see their portfolio of posters. Their work over the last few years has really stepped up - landing in a place of rather intricate results. The line work and details on the likes of this Black Angels poster or this Swans poster are great - what more can you say?
You know those portfolio sites you encounter and immediately feel terrible about anything you've ever worked on? I get that feeling from Jon Contino and Mark Weaver (to name just two) and now I'm getting it from the work of Curtis Jinkins. The site itself looks great but once you dive into the phenomenalwork... that's when the real awe sets in. Fortunately, encountering work as engaging as this ends up being more inspiring than anything else. The type treatments, the texturing, the illustration styles and implementation are all worth taking note of.
Full Circle is, at the heart of it, a collaboration between fashion label Klezinkski, filmmaker Callum Cooper and sound artist John Kassab. However, none of that is apparent when watching the video - it's just a brilliantly simple idea with the most pitch perfect execution (particularly in the editing department). In summation, the video might be an ad but, really, it's just a pleasure to watch.
Has anyone tried out Sparrow for the iPhone? The intro video looks pretty great but I still feel somewhat burned from that awful Gmail app that came out awhile ago.. you just can't beat the built-in Mail App. Or can you? They certainly seem to have a lot of features at hand that Mail does not and an equally slick interface.
Loving these "Legends" pieces from William Hatch Crosby - vintage portraits skillfully altered with gouache markings. The Lords and Beasts series are also quite nice but there is something vaguely unsettling about those portraits... cultish even.
So I'm finally back from SXSW and fully rested. I'd like to say that the past few days have helped me gather the proper words to encapsulate the event but I can't quite perfectly articulate what's going on down in Austin anymore. Something about the latest incarnation of SXSW Music feels wrong and I'm not talking about the corporate sponsorships from Pepsi, Doritos, Monster Energy, etc. I can deal with some corporate funding to help an event go smoother but it seems like a good deal of the entire undertaking is shifting its gaze from giving independent artists a leg up to showcasing huge acts. How is it possible that the likes of Jay-Z, Bruce Springsteen, Mystikal and Counting Crows are all playing?
Because any surface in Austin can be turned into a music venue (not true for film screenings) it seems like the conference has reached the tipping point. Supersaturation has been accomplished. What good does it even do a band to play down there? Sure it's a good resume builder but when you're competing with hundreds of other shows are you really going to reach anyone?
Long story short, I think we're going to start seeing a change down there. I had a blast hanging out with my friends but something's gotta give!
Since embarking on my freelance adventure I've been quite remiss to update my portfolio with many of the projects I've been working on. Fortunately, I found myself with a little spare time yesterday and did a sweep through of my work folders to showcase some of the goods from the last six months. I seemed to have completely forgotten to mention the new Bongo East Cafe Menu that I designed! It's not an exhaustive list of everything I've done but there's certainly pride in every one of them that's in there. Hopefully there will be even more greatness to come in the next few weeks (that's a lie, I know there will be.. they're almost done).
There's not a whole lot to say about this Animal Planet Rebrand from Double G Studios beyond the fact that, personally, I love the style. It's a great combination of slightly lo-fi, floating planets and somewhat cute animals.You can read a little more about it here but, frankly, you just need to watch it and enjoy.
I'm not sure why they did it but Google has put together a rather impressive campaign for the betterment of online advertising called Project Re:Brief. The site approaches four of the creators of some of the most well known ads - Coca-Cola, Volvo, Alka-Seltzer and Avis - and tasks them with re-imagining their campaigns for the digital world. I haven't had a chance to dig into the videos that go along with each brief but the intro is pretty captivating - not to mention the page layouts for each project.
Maybe Google is pushing to get better ads online or maybe they're just trying to rationalize that ads can be "good" in terms of popular culture but, whatever the reason, this project is certainly worth diving into.
The Disappearance Of One Of The World's Most Beloved Computer Programmer
Take some time (or your Instapaper) and read this great article on Ruby programmer _why. Even if you have no interest in programming, no interest in "celebrity" within the world of programmers or any such semi-related thing I still think you're enjoy it. Author Annie Lowrey approaches the topic from a completely ignorant place; no experience with programming or even the lexicon of programming. So, from that standpoint, she can take a step back and express just how it is that _why is as important as he is (or, was, depending on your viewpoint).
The article also points towards this great introduction to programming & Ruby - Try Ruby. It's as basic as it can get but, honestly, that's the best way to dive right in.
Comments: The Disappearance Of One Of The World's Most Beloved Computer Programmer
yewknee: yoo·ne: n. a. imaginary word with absolutely no literal meaning but an extremely nerdy etymology.
b. Personal website of Nashville resident Michael Eades; freelance web designer and developer, record label experimenter, We Own This Town curator and a man with his hand in many pies.
Currently: Mind currently being blown and completely amused by Face Math. http://t.co/fpMqz6v6
Comments: Friday Videos - March 23rd, 2012