As I said on the tweets, I don't consider myself a huge St. Vincent fan but the goodness of her latest video for Cheerleader is undeniable. The oversized exhibit in an art gallery aspect is reminiscent of Zhang Huan or Ron Mueck but you couldn't ask for better influences.
Architect Mario Botta is responsible for a lot of beautiful buildings - including the SF Moma. So, he's certainly got an eye for the alluring. Such is the case with Wohnsiedlung in Novazzano, the above image. Simple and compelling. As it should be.
I, foolishly, assumed that the default web browser on Android devices was Google Chrome. I now assume that's not the case because they've just announced Chrome for Android - and the video is pretty snazzy. Great animation style and the features look great; particularly the tab syncing between desktop and mobile. Sure, that may be a bit scary from a privacy point of view but the convenience is through the roof. And that's what matters, right? Regardless, watch this video, read about it and leave a comment if you're actually using it.. I'm curious to hear how it is.
Alex Braidwood spends a good bit of time researching "the relationship between people and the noise in densely populated environments." His Noisolation Headphones are intended to allow environmental noise into your listening space at various intervals to showcase how intrusive the sounds around you really are. The video shows it in action. It looks absolutely ridiculous but it's worth giving a little thought - how much environmental noise seeps into your every day listening (assuming you're a headphones wearer)? Do you go for Pink Noise?
Spend some time with his portfolio - lots of curious undertakings going on.
It's been awhile since I've been privy to new content coming out of Grain & Gram but I'm totally okay with that - content of such intriguing quality should come slowly. Definitely makes it easier to digest and it takes time to make a fine product. The latest profile is on Jason Gregory of MAKR Carry Goods. Like all of the G&G interviews, the end product from the designers is not as important as the process getting there.
Having the liberty to create absolutely anything you want is what every designer wants, but it's also quite daunting. To wrap my head around this, I created my own parameters to work within: the locality of production, the feel and texture of materials, the limitations of my factories — all of these things play into the vision of Makr.
It's also worth noting that Makr is based out of Orlando, FL - probably not one of the first places you'd assume a high end leather shop would be. If the product or the process aren't inspiring (they should be) then maybe the location will be.
Phenomenal work as usual... be sure to watch the video as well.
The above image is from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit capturing the sunset as seen from the surface of Mars. Granted, the image is from 2005 and, quite possibly, old news to many of you but it was new to me. It gives me a strange feeling to see something so familiar from a place so utterly far away. In the good way.
Inge Jacobson executes a number of artistic styles consisting of needlepoint, embroidery and custom cross-stitch - many times resulting in works of art that look like low color level gifs. You can see a great deal of these works here and here. My affections are torn between the full conversion pieces and these overlaid stitches - which put out nice diametrically opposing views.
Smart Lencioni Image Resizer - resizing images on the fly isn't a new concept by any means but SLIR seems to do it with some robust grace that could come in handy. The built in caching is crucial and well implemented.
BRICSS - a simple responsive design test page that creates four iframes with your content inside. Conceptually, it seems super handy. In practice, I've yet to really work it into my standard flow.
The name Wayne White may not ring any immediate mental bells but if spend 2 minutes with his portfolio you'll realize you are likely wildly familiar with his work - particularly his involvement with Pee-Wee's Playhouse. The new documentary, Beauty Is Embarrassing , seems to be a phenomenal look at the life and work of Mr. White. Just watch the trailer and you'll be entirely on board to learn more about the antics of such an inspiring and diverse artist.
Awhile back I shared a pet project of mine called MobileEats aimed at taking Twitter geo-data and plotting it on a Google Map. It seemed like a no-brainer of an idea to connect mobile food vendors with customers by letting them know where they are. Since the first launch I have overhauled the look and feel of the site to be more conducive to a single screen browsing experience and learned a lot about building a "web app" along the way.
However, I have run into a very serious problem. Mobile food vendors in Nashville, apparently, don't understand how to use GeoData in their tweets. Of the 38 Trucks the site monitors, only two of them regularly post with geodata and one of those does so haphazardly. Without the geodata, the site is pretty useless. So, I'm left with two choices: re-code the site to send Twitter data through a series of hoops involving Google Calendar, GeoData Mapping and GeoLocation Requests (good looking out from Dale Liszka on that solution) OR just try the system out with a different city where the vendors are maybe a little more educated on how to press that "Share Location" button when they send out updates.
It's super disappointing that this didn't work as expected right out of the gate but given that it's a pet project not meant to generate any income, I can't be too bummed. So, I'm looking for another city to try this out on. I'm skeptical to go with a well established scene like LA or Portland but it's likely that those vendors know how to harness the geodata better.
TL:DR: there's a new looking version of MobileEats but the map plotting is fairly useless due to lack of geolocation data being included in tweets. What city should I try next or should I just ditch the whole thing?
Photographer Antonio Bolfo was busy working as an animator on Playstation games when he realized he was bored and wanted to make a difference - so he quit and became a cop. Kind of a nutty story in and of itself but the best part is that while on the beat he brought along his camera and documented his experiences. This NYTimes Gallery has a good sampling of his work (lots more on his official site). It's great to get a Behind The Scenes look at a job that's, for most of us, is pretty difficult to imagine having.
These days, immersive Flash experiences are few and far between - particularly impressive ones. So, when Ro-Bros came through my inbox I was skeptical. However, after watching the Intro I was engaged. The site asks you to queue up as a spectator or active visitor and fight robots against one another in real time. Even if you never see an actual fight taking place (I've yet to catch one) it's fun to see the transitions between sections and how Real Art took advantage of using Flash.
Found myself very intrigued by the iUI Framework over the weekend. The implementation looks simple and the results, from the screenshots, look incredibly native to iOS devices. My experience with otherframeworks has proven to be less than stellar. On the whole, I think a framework is a bad way to go and you're much better off using proper Responsive Techniques but it's always good to stay educated and know what's out there - you never know when a project is going to come along that might be perfect for such a thing. Anyone used iUI and have an opinion?
Wes Anderson - From Above - a compilation of overhead shots featuring hands from the works of Wes Anderson. Not particularly zany but a delight to watch.
Old Spice - Bounce - I would be perfectly happy if Tim & Eric stopped doing any of their other projects and just directed commercials like this. It's just the right dose of their insanity.
Apple Scotland - Siri - plenty of NSFW cursing and a questionable Scottish accent but I love seeing Gavin McInnes rage.
Megan Amram on Animal Cruelty - this may come across as in extremely poor taste to some but I couldn't help myself.. I laughed and laughed. Nothing is outside the realm of comedy fodder, right?
Space Stallions - I can not fully explain why I enjoy this. Obviously a bit of nostalgia for 80's cartoons but it stays right on that blurry line between mocking the genre and contributing to it. And the animation style is great.
Toast - you probably know Good Neighbor from their streetinterviews but they do other skits as well. I suggest sticking with this one because right when you can't bear the "toasting" anymore - they take it somewhere absurdly out of left field.
Heavy Panting - absolutely nothing special about this video except the fact that it features 45 Saint Bernard dogs out for a walk. I choose to believe they exist in the wild in this capacity.
Have you seen Letterboxd yet? It's basically the GoodReads / Readernaut for film - giving you the ability to create a personal catalog of movies into your choice of lists and sharing those selections with others. I'm going to try and use it to catalog what I watch in 2012, though I fear I'm already forgetting some things.
Anyway, it's a well designed site serving as a nice tool for people that love movies and and organizing things into lists. If you want an invite, hit me up in the comments - I've got 3 left.
Out of invites for now. If I get more, I'll let you know.
Introducing the Station Street Hot Dogs website. One page. Responsive. No music. No Flash. No PDFs. No muss. No fuss.
If you've ever browsed a restaurant's website you are probably familiar with how awful they can be. I think it's likely due to a lack of concern over web traffic when you're busy trying to run a kitchen. Regardless, these guys are doing it right (the pie charts describing the different hot dog styles are brilliant). It's a great design and a trend I'd love to see become more commonplace.
dotjs - a Chrome extension that runs particular javascript files based on the domain you're visiting. i.e. it runs google.com.js when you visit google.com - giving you the ability to manipulate the DOM to your liking; including removing ads or even loading your own stylesheet. Seems like a handy, and particularly nerdy, thing to have at your disposal.
67Signals - Toke posted a link to this satirical burn on 37Signals the other day and it was totally new to me. I'm sure it's meant in a good ribbing nature but it really does seem perfectly scathing.
Leaving Old IE Behind with Media Queries - a clever and tasteful method for serving up sites to people still using older versions of IE. There are plenty of them out there and this tactic seems to combine the best of both worlds - allowing you full use of contemporary coding techniques and serving a perfectly functional no-frills site to those on a legacy browser.
Comments: How am I supposed to title these nerd links?
Remember that Tribute to Drive that came out awhile back? Well, the same folks have a new project under development - Le Meurtre. I've no details on the release of the full short but I'm definitely curious to see it - love the art style and vibe of the unfolding story.
In celebration of the 25th Anniversary of The Princess Bride, the Alamo Drafthouse has unveiled two bottles of wine - "Inconceivable Cab" and "As You Wish White" - from their wine program "The Bottle of Wits." The bottle and packaging design from Helms Workshop is absolutely perfect. Be sure to check the detail screens to really get a sense of how well they incorporated concepts / quotes from the movie into the overall design. All and all, just another reason to be jealous that you don't have an Alamo Drafthouse in your town - I know that's how I feel.
The folks at Nearly Normal have put together a 3-minute papercraft stop-motion animation that's worth having a peek at. The fable-esque story isn't really the key component as much as the amount of detail on the main character is. Plus, it involves a wolf transforming into a man and getting a job in an office - you wanna see that, right?
Has anyone played Paper Monsters from Crescent Moon Games yet? The reviews make it sound like a very traditional platformer - ala Super Mario Bros - that actually gives the mechanics of DS games a run for their money. I'm still not sure how any iOS / Android game could go up against a device with actual buttons but I'm glad to be seeing that more and more level style adventure games are coming out for mobile devices... as opposed to exclusively puzzle games or fixed screen realms. Long story short, my curiosity is piqued.
Feel Good Lost is a video production company with a long list of quality videos on their belt. To celebrate their one year anniversary of creating such goodness they put together a compilation showreel showcasing all the work they've done in the past year. While you certainly don't get the cohesion you'd normally have with one of their videos you do get a smattering of beautiful and inspiring images. Have a look.
The other day I read through this amusing story of how comic writer Chip Zdarsky was approached to write new additional materials for Alan Moore's Watchmen series of graphic novels and how he intentionally screwed it all up. It's a farce, of course, but it's amusing and shows how revered the series is.
Turns out, much to my surprise, DC Comics actually has planned a massive new series of prequels, sequels and mini-series based around the world created from Alan Moore's vision called Before Watchmen. Moore is not involved.
WIRED has an interview with Len Wein; original editor for Watchmen and now editor for Before Watchmen, defending the new series but I don't think there is any level of rationale that will settle the nerd ire around this one. It's easily the equivalent of Episode I - III for the comic book world, minus any level of actual anticipation.
I'm letting my nerd light shine a little heavily on this one but I am a huge fan of the original series - revisiting the world it created 25 years later just feels like a cash grab. I guess nothing is sacred but it'd be nice if something as visionary and impactful as Watchmen could just be left alone to exist as visionary and impactful; not just the jumping off point for a potential mediocre empire of books. That being said, I'm likely going to buy a few out of morbid curiosity...
There is never any argument that advertising in Japan is off the wall but you have to wonder if it got there gradually or if something snapped along the way and it all hit at once. With this Vintage Japanese Advertising set on Flickr we can at least surmise that their more daring take on things has been around since at least the 1930's. Don't get me wrong, it's not an admonishment in the slightest - it's captivating and inspiring in so many ways.
If you ever needed an example of how Javascript and new browser technologies are taking over the web, look no further than Seriously JS. The site features realtime green screen video substitution (on an OK Go video) via WebGL and is one of the more impressive displays I've seen in awhile. At least worth a quick peek to click through the video filters.
There is no shortage of compelling and inspiring photography in the photostream of Magnificent Ruin. Personally, I'm drawn to these chaotic posterrips and signexcerpts - of which there is an abundance of material to see. Seriously, dive into this stuff - you don't want to miss gems like this.
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.
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.
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...
Comments: Beautiful Web Type: Best of Google web fonts
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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: I don't consider myself a huge St. Vincent fan but this video for "Cheerleader" is tops! http://t.co/MUJDdoG4
Comments: St. Vincent - 'Cheerleader'