Fun fact, there's a NASA Graphics Manual Kickstarter that has raised nearly 750k to reprint scans of a 1975 manual. The fun part is that NASA just released the entire manual for free. So, if you were curious what the contents were but didn't want a bound book of them, you're in luck.
Hope you had a great week. I think I could get used to this four-day work week thing.
Dead Man's Bones - should I save this for Halloween? Probably but this dance routine is just too spellbinding to not share immediately. Thank you Wijtze.
Reverse Jaws Boat Scene - I saw a gif of this making the rounds and the keyword search to find the original material was too perfect.
Hell's Club - probably the most insane mashup of films I've seen. Yes, I posted it earlier this week. Yes, you still need to watch it.
The Art of Close-Ups with Edgar Wright - love the work of Edgar Wright and will take any chance to hear him talk about his process and filmmaking in general.
Laser Moon Awakens - listen, I tend to stray from Star Wars related anything online because there's just too much of it and the saturation makes everything not funny. So, the recommendation to watch the full 30 minutes of Laser Moon Awakens does not come lightly. Thank you Paul
This Verge article has the full low-down on the Hiroshima Cat Street View but, really, what do you need to know? The name says it all! You're at the height level of a cat and you get to explore Hiroshima, meeting other cat friends along the way. It's a sweet and clever tactic from their tourism board to attract attention to their fair city and, frankly, it's working like gangbusters.
There are plenty of patches and pins making their way through the world of tchotchke collectors and general jean jacket enthusiasts but I'm quite impressed by this Valley Cruise Press collaboration with Steven Harrington. I've long been a fan of his work and it's great to see it realized as a Cool Cactus or adorable Palm Tree Friends.
I mostly just enjoy seeing artists that are more known for their gallery work create something that is accessible to anyone. You may not be able to buy a $10,000 original painting but you can buy a $12 hard enamel pin. The end result is the same feeling of fandom and enjoyable participation in an artist's work.
The Stratos card claims to be a all-in-one card storage device - putting all your swipe-able cards into one. It's Bluetooth connected and you just tap your phone to bring up the interface to choose which card you want to use. The demo video, understandably, looks pretty stellar. I imagine there would be an adjustment period of getting used to the tap motion but having few cards seems nice. It also seems nice that if you lost the card, it could be deactivated and would be pretty much useless to whomever picked it up.
I am curious how this plays with NFC and in card chips. I've had my card number stolen multiple times over the past few months but I'm not sure this would prevent such a thing from happening. Regardless, it's neat tech and worth perusing.
I've admired the work of Forms & Shapes before, aka Peter Skwiot Smith, but he's recently relaunched his site and the new work is astounding. This series, Dots One-Nine, is a shining example of the entrancing swirling painterly qualities he brings to the table. There's a great balance of decomposition and chaos mixed with controlled shapes throughout the entire body of work. It's incredibly engaging and I just want to pore through every piece and look at them in their largest size. By all means, dive in and then follow him.
I am happy to report that the vinyl for the latest Sleep Good album, Dream Dealer, have arrived safely in Austin and will begin shipping out this week. Here's hard evidence of it's wonderful existence.
One of things I like the most about this record is that it feels very summer-y and light but could easily tuck you in for a proper fall evening. It transcends seasons! It really is a wonderful piece of work, please give it a listen.
It's very easy to get inundated with "best new tools" and additional accessories for your workflow that will, supposedly, make you more efficiently but they often just create distractions. I've found these to be non-intrusive and useful.
Icon Stamper - nice little Sketch plugin to automate the creation of different sized icons from one master size. Easy peasy.
Noizio - an ambient sound generator for your Mac. Much like Coffitivity and its ilk but doesn't require an Internet connection.
Graphic Burger - there is no shortage of repositories of assets to use for your project (I'm a Creative Market guy typically) but I like the name Graphic Burger so much that I have to put it into my rotation just to see what I can find that may be useful.
Zeplin - excellent Sketch delivery service that allows developers to take your specs and easy translate them to code. This assumes your comps are pixel perfect but that's normal, right?
What am I missing? What new thing should I be using a lot more of?
This film mashup has been making the rounds but I'd be remiss if I didn't store it here on the site. That is to say, you may have seen Hell's Club already but I suggest giving it a rewatch as it is a rather masterful mashup of tons of films. It's ten minutes, an unheard of captivating time length for most audiences, but it continues to reward you as you keep watching. The number of cameos and different films merged into one night club scene is impressive to say the very least.
There's a lot in the Brandon Todd Wilson portfolio, aka Contraband, to enjoy but I'm particularly enjoying this Numbers Project, a print piece that depicts 105 days of the year through ambiguous symbols. It appears to be a mindfield of hieroglyphs or maybe abandoned corporate logos or maybe something else entirely. Regardless, it's a lot of intriguing shapes and configurations. There's a full repository of the icons, well worth a browse.
If you're a fan of decade retrospective shows but worn out by the overwrought, not funny, commentary of comedians, may I recommend this CNN series The Seventies? It's an eight part series that examines many parts of the culture and history of the time - from breakthrough TV to Crimes and Cults to Terrorism to the Battle of the Sexes. It's a solid series.
