I'll admit it, ever since Jeremy introduced me to the Bravo TV show Work of Art it has become a bit of a guilty pleasure. If you're unfamiliar, it's the same setup as America's Next Top Model or Project Runway but the competitors are fine artists - competing for a show at the Brooklyn Museum, a pile of cash and all sorts of exposure.

One artist from this season's show is Michelle Matson, a Brooklyn based artist that does a lot of large scale paper sculptures. You can get a good sense of the vibe of her work here or on her official site. There's a slightly gruesome vibe to a lot of it but it's an excellent juxtaposition to the inherent `innocence` in using paper structures as the main building material. Big fan.

Jamie gave me the heads up on Nice Web Type; a repository of resources, experiments and insights regarding type usage on the web. The resources section has a list of handy tools and the Notes section is an ultra-type-nerdy rundown of all things web type. Definitely worth a peek.

It appears as though Flipboard is now available for the iPhone (not just iPad). This is great news for anyone, such as myself, looking for another app to browse through aggregated data in a cleanly designed and convenient way. You can, and should, snag it here. It's free. The folks at Sincerly have launched a new service for dev's called The Sincerly Ship Library that will allow you to integrate printing and shipping easily into your application right through their infrastructure. I could see this being a great new feature in a lot of photo applications to get your loved ones that aren't so tech savvy a piece of your digital life.

Toyota unveiled this concept car video for a pie-in-the-sky futuristic vehicle called the Fun-Vii. I hate to sound like too much of a pessimist but if this is the future, count me out! Sure, there are a handful of good ideas in there but the reality of 99% of these ideas is no good. Yes, it's unfair to bring the topic of reality into a Concept Video (it's like telling someone their mindless doodle doesn't look real enough) but I fear the seeds that will be planted from these mental excursions. Do you really want a color changing car that turns into a giant billboard outside of your favorite coffee shop? Do you really want the entire inside of your car to be an Winamp Visualizer? Do you really want to live in a world where stadiums are filled with color changing cars in the stands?

Just watch the video - you'll get a good chuckle out of it.

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of encountering the work of Joshua Summerville, aka Arcade Death. He was displaying a number of prints that immediately caught my eye. Unfortunately, said prints do not seem to be anywhere on his website but you can get a sub-par glimpse at the style I was smitten with here.

Despite not being able to relive the goodness via the web he does have plenty of quality illustrations and offerings on his site.

I assume The Big Picture and In Focus will run their own Best Of lists sometime relatively soon but BuzzFeed got the jump on both of them and has posted their 45 Most Powerful Images of 2011. You'd think, coming from BuzzFeed, that the images might skew towards the more silly or vapid but, no, they are serious reminders of many of the trials and tribulations the world experienced this year. Some are uplifting, many are a bit crushing and some are downright flabbergasting (such as that Haboob Dust Storm shown above). Obviously, it doesn't cover everything but it's definitely a quality summary.

Duolingo has made a pretty bold goal for themselves - help translate the web properly and teach the user, aka You, another language. The intro video explains it pretty well but the actual site is still in Private Beta so I can't vouch for how the system itself actually works. Regardless, I'm intrigued!

Brain Pickings has a nice preview of the new book Typography Sketchbooks - a collection of sketches and musings from the World's Greatest Type Designers. Anytime you can get a peek at someone's process it is going to be alluring and this is no different - potentially even moreso because type design, to me, is such a foreign topic. You can grab the book here or just enjoy the preview.

There's no telling who actually took these images but this collection of 1940s Billboards around the Nashville area is nice to see. Anyone who knows the area even a little bit should recognize The Hermitage and White Way Cleaners. Anyone entirely unfamiliar with the area should be able to appreciate the typography and design.

Please allow me a little bit of nerding out here. I'm sure this won't interest everyone but I feel compelled to share...

For the longest time now I've been trying to find a proper media management solution for my TV Shows and Movies. Since they are typically encoded as DiVX or MKV they won't import into iTunes. I'm not willing to re-encode everything or wrap all of the files in duplicate Quicktime .mov links... so that's out.

There are solutions like Front Row, Boxee or Plex but they suffer from a number of drawbacks in my mind - namely that they don't really use the mouse as their main input device. You can use a pointer but they aren't really designed to be that way. Additionally, there's a lack of control over the metadata that bothers me - I'd actually prefer to tag and organize my media myself rather than letting an semi-intelligent script do the work. That's not to say they aren't great applications; they just aren't my solution. In the end, I just stick with well named files and click around the Finder.

I assumed someone else had to have a similar experience out there so I did a tiny bit of digging and came across this script that spells out my quandry perfectly. The supplied Applescript changes the "Movie-Type" meta-data to a value that is supported by iTunes and allows importing into the main Library. With Perian installed all of the additional Codecs are available to Quicktime and we're back to Solution 1 - actually being able to use iTunes for any kind of video management.

So, very long story short, this script enables you to import just about any movie file into iTunes and go nuts on your metadata / media management. My question is - What harm could I potentially be doing for the long run by modifying the Movie-Type metadata to an inaccurate value? I'd hate to modify gigs of files only to find that a year down the road I've screwed my entire library into being completely unplayable in anything but iTunes.

Thoughts?

The first of three installments of Charlie Brooker's new series, Black Mirror, started airing over the weekend. It's being billed as bit of Sci-Fi / Twilight Zone mashed up with our current Internet / social culture. If this teaser doesn't pique your interest I'd be surprised.

The first episode, "The National Anthem", follows a very intense situation for the British Prime Minister and how he responds to a bit of public blackmail. It's particularly interesting that the show is just as much focused on the reaction from Facebook, Twitter and the 24 Hour Media as it is with the PM himself. The setup and resolution may seem a bit absurd (it is) but the social engagement angle is entirely believable.

Only being one episode in it is hard to judge where this series will ultimately go but I'm certainly curious for the next two installments.

So I ran across this video over the weekend that tells the tale of the founding of Portland's Schoolhouse Electric Company - a design shop / store making a huge number of inspiring products. The mentality behind their product development is striving to create quality products that actually stand the test of time and, as they wear, may actually improve their aesthetic. I can't remember the last time I looked at a collection of light bulbs and felt excited. The Home and Office collection contains something compelling in every section - from furniture to stationary to gifts and beyond there is always something present to be desired or be inspired by. Not an easy feat these days...

There's not a designer out there that isn't vaguely familiar with the work of Charles Eames and I'd venture to say that the name probably even resonates far beyond the design world - Eames is a name people are familiar with, even if they have no idea why. I certainly could stand to know quite a bit more about Charles and his wife Ray. So, it was quite the pleasant surprise to stumble upon the documentary Eames: The Architect and The Painter. How I'm just now finding it is beyond me but it looks to be a worthwhile view, to say the very least. It is playing in a number of markets and hits DVD as early as December 7th (hopefully this means streaming on Netflix as well). Looking forward to it...

Have you seen the redesign of The Philadelphia Orchestra? If you're answer is no (which, I kind of assume it is) then you need to head over there immediately. Even if you have no interest in the Orchestra , or even Philadelphia, the site itself is a beautiful piece of work. Well designed from top to bottom, completely immersive and no detail spared. It's really rather impressive and inspiring.

The folks at Blue Cadet need a hearty congratulations for their fine work but, based on what I'm seeing in their portfolio, they are no strangers to making phenomenal web sites.

It's been awhile since I've been that awe struck by a site. Thanks to Jamie for the heads up.

Bruce Galpin put together this great repository of Google+ Style Buttons - enabling anyone to easily integrate the button styles from the latest Google redesigns into their own work. The icon set from WebDesignShock is particularly nice.

While I really love what Google has been doing design-wise lately I'm not a huge fan of the idea integrating their buttons into anything else as they seem so exclusively Google. However, they do provide a common visual language for just about anyone using the web so it could be beneficial to an overall more pleasant User Experience. Worth pondering for a moment at the very least... and there's no way to not like that icon set.

HT Daniel

I can't help but think I'm overlooking some grand video with this weeks playlist but I'll just have to forge ahead and know that, more than likely, you're getting your video entertainment from a wealth of sources.* I digress, here's the breakdown of goods:

• Bizzle Gets Some Dunkers - I find this whole dog as human setup absolutely hysterical. I mean, this is Internet Classic as far as I'm concerned and I'd like to see this grow and flourish into a proper meme onslaught.
• Community, Parks and Rec style - maybe Community's ratings would improve if they'd just confuse their opening sequence with Parks and Rec. Maybe the whole slew of Thursday night shows should go this route. I'd be into it.
• Muller Ad 2011 - there is so much going on here it's hard to wrap your brain around it. Knight Rider and Yogi Bear are just the beginning of the bafflement. via Tromant.
• Kung Fu Kids - because you need to see this.
• Dog Disco - everything I know about Disco does not apply to this.
• The Simpsons - 300 - Need a 3D animation project? Why not blend your favorite Simpsons characters with a much mocked scene from 300? The results are.. well, incomprehensible.
• Amazing Amazon Box - if your Amazon package is ever late, imagine it spent a good 48 hours going through this ordeal.
• News Anchor Fail Compilation 2011 - yep, this never gets old. Never. Some NSFW language but that's what makes it good.

BONUS

• Hipster Detail: "The Donut" - the raging anger over Brunch in this clip is absolutely great.
• The Size of Texas - hilarious mockery of End of the World genre movies; particularly by asteroid. The two second Danny Jelinek cameo made my day. Oh, also, it was shot by my friend Blake - double bonus!
• Tribute to Drive - nice animation paying tribute to the quiet brutality of one of this years favorites.
• Mural at the Ace Hotel - I don't think I'll ever tire of time lapse animations of hand drawn type. This example is simple and elegant - right on the money.

Nashville residents should heavily consider going out to the Holiday Porter Flea Market at the East Park Rec Center.. looks to be a good time. Non-Nashville residents, just be jealous!

Have a great weekend.

Totally forgot to include this gem - hilarious for a number of reasons; including the notion that "kissing" is included in the definition of virginity and, obviously, the actual kiss.

A new show just went up at Nashville's Smallest Art Gallery. Haiku Series, 2011 is a collection of lithographs from Manuel Zeitlin. It's sensible that Zeitlin is an architect after viewing the pieces as the influence is quite strong; albeit vague.

Yesterday, Kurt mentioned 500px as being a potential Flickr Killer - a lofty statement in itself but really doesn't seem off the mark. While there really isn't a problem with Flickr in any way - it continues to provide solid service with a load of options - it feels stagnant. 500px has pretty much the same feature set (minus the people tagging and geodata features) and the interface / photo presentation is gorgeous. I also realize that 500px is meant to serve as more of a strict "photography portfolio" than it is a Lifestream of Images but I can't help but be drawn to its offerings as a legit alternative.

This collection of gorgeous space images are but the tip of the iceberg from ESO Photo Ambassador Yuri Beletsky. You can browse his works or the absolutely massive ESO Library - either way you're going to see some absolutely stunning photos of space. Always a good thing.

• PopClip - an OSX bit of software that makes working with text easier. I've not actually tried it myself yet but the examples look pretty compelling. I could see this being integrated directly into the OS.
• Lynda iPhone Training - I've been told that the training sessions from Lynda.com are pretty solid; specifically these iPhone tutorials that make some educational comparisons between Objectiv-C and Javascript. I think I may just have to take the course as a primer!