So lots has happened in this past month, causing this blog to unfortunately fall to the wayside. In a whirlwind turn of events, I somehow found myself in retail management (ironically - and dangerously – in footwear), and simultaneously short-staffed and without an assistant, resulting in roughly 80-hour weeks (I wish I was exaggerating). Today is my first day I haven’t had to work 11 hours in nearly a month. Assuming all goes well, I hope to resume the stream-of-conscious aggregation of thoughts that this blog had become.
And to kick things back off on a solid graphic-design foot, here’s a classic that never gets old, and pretty much describes my life for the past month or so: Lokesh Dhakar’s “Coffee Drinks Illustrated:”
Hopefully this won’t be the last post for another month…
Thanks to some faulty internet hardware and 70+ hour work weeks, I still haven’t gotten back into the swing of this blog thing yet. I’m working on it though… i assure you. Soon, hopefully, all will return to normal. But until then, here’s one more video clip for you to enjoy:
The music is Chad Kuchula, and the amazing video, combining tilt-shift, time lapse, and animation in a beautiful yet not overly nauseating way is done by Nat Dart. On top of being awesome, the video makes me realize just a bit how much I miss the trees and the water. The southwest desert ain’t bad, but I definitely miss me some evergreens.
Yesterday, The Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch and Adam Horovitz (more commonly known MCA and Ad Rock) put up a YouTube video as a splash page to the Beastie Boys homepage basically announcing that MCA has cancer of the parotid gland and a lymph node and they would be postponing tour dates and their much-anticipated upcoming new album release.
Fortunately, they didn’t seem all that concerned, so hopefully all will work out well. It’s interesting to see YouTube replacing the traditional press release. The Beastie Boys release their message via YouTube, and the news outlets, including giants like the New York Times, are writing articles entirely based from the video. (NTY article) It’s a unique format in that it offers both information (assuming the creator provides it), and quotes that one can’t extract from a traditional press release. The reporters can comment on mood, atmosphere, setting, and tone, all of which don’t exist in a normal press release. Interesting to see, and certainly speaks volumes for the validity of (at least some) social media outlets.
And as expected, as soon as the news broke, MCA’s Wiki Page was ammended like clockwork.
On a side note I’m amused by the NTY article referring to the guys as Mr. Yauch and Mr. Horovitz. makes me chuckle a bit.
And in other Beastie Boys news, there’s a recently released closer-to-finished version of “Too Many Rappers” featuring Nas. You can check it out here.
And one other Beastie Boys tidbit: Fifteen years have now passed since Spike Jonze directed the video for “Sabatoge” and the Beastie Boys have released a remastered version of Ill Communication, complete with a bonus disc of extra tracks. Definitely worth picking up.
In case you haven’t seen this music video for Sour’s “Hibi No Niero” (tone of everyday) yet, which seems to be popping up everywhere, here it is. Mindblowing orchestration that gives new meaning, new direction, and new possibilities to webcams and social connectivity.
directed by Masashi Kawamura, Hal Kirkland, Magico Nakamura, Masayoshi Nakamura. Amazing. And also pretty stunning to include your existing fanbase in your video.
Most bank ads, even the ones that attempt to be clever, always seem to bore me to death (or changing the channel, which is about the same). Every now and again, one shows up that kind of flips things on it’s head. This Venebles Bell & Partners spot for Barclay is just flat out stunning.
I’ve been meaning to post this up for a while now… I keep looking at and keep laughing, but somehow forget to post it. I myself am on the fence with most social media outlets (as most who try to keep in touch with me probably know). I understand them, but at the same time, I don’t. They make sense, and the advertising/social networking possibilities are huge. But this beautiful diagram kind of sums up the other side of my feelings.
Available as a t-shirt from Despair. And I have to say, there’s some beautiful irony in a social networking diagram on a t-shirt.
I really don’t know what this means. or what’s going on. or why I keep watching it. The combination of music, cinematography, and a bizarre cat combines to make something strangely captivating yet equally confusing. And the cat is named Horatio Pyewackett Caractacus Fearns. You can’t really beat that. And in case you were wondering, the track, as per the youtube page, is The Last Stand Of Pucho Vasquez by Merchandise (which I’m really digging).
Every now and again, a video blows my mind. This short film does just that, on many levels. As some of you may know, I’ve always been perssonally fascinated with Synesthesia: a neurological-based phenomenon that is essentially the blending of sensory experiences (i.e. hearing green or tasting a drum beat). The spectrum synesthesia is vast, yet somehow this video by acclaimed music video directors Terri Timely manages to encapsulate a neurological experience into a tangible and beautifully filmed short.
To see the video in higher resolution, go to the short film’s homepage, and for a bit more info on Directing duo Terri Timely, check out this Q & A at Director File. For a bit more on Synesthesia, check out Mixed Signals.
I just stumbled across this piece from The Guardian showing what they call “The Changing Face of Everyday Design.” Pretty simple, but pretty effective and interesting. If you click through, you can view all of the images at a larger scale. Somewhat ironically, they printed a few corrections noting that several of the police cars pictured were from the incorrect era. It shouldn’t be that difficult… and The Guardian is usually on top of stuff. I guess it just goes to show that some design is ahead (or behind, as the case may be) of its time.
It looks like this has been around for a while, but somehow I’ve missed it until now. GOOD magazine has uploaded all of their Transparencies into a set on Flickr… pretty impressive collection of mind-blowing info-graphics. Kind of a shame they restrict the flickr images to small size, forcing you to click through to the GOOD website. But I’ve seen worse. Plus, their infographics are so amazing, I’ll let it slide.
