Recreating childhood photos with the grownup versions of the subjects has certainly been done before but this Back to the Future set from Irina Werning does it with an accuracy that's hard to argue with. She really seems to dig into the details and get them right in the recreation.
The site was featured on The Daily What so 1) their server is likely being overload and 2) you've probably already seen it. Regardless, it's good to take note of.. as I'd enjoy seeing more in the series.
Thanks to the fine folks at Spine TV there's a great profile piece on McBess; an illustrator you should absolutely be familiar with if you aren't already. He explains his process a little bit and why he's drawn to the different artistic expressions of the visual and musical worlds. Dive in.
No Argument: Thomas Keeps 5-Year Silence - fascinating article on how Supreme Court judge Clarence Thomas hasn't spoken once in the past five years during arguments. His reasons vary from respectable (“If I invite you to argue your case, I should at least listen to you”) to just plain embarrassed (“We look like ‘Family Feud’ ”). Regardless, it's worth a read through to just to get a feeling for how the in's and out's of the court function.
The Dirty Little Secrets of Search - nice NY Times article on how JC Penney was able to bump themselves up to the top of searches for loads of generic terms - i.e. "dresses", "bedding", "furniture" - all through organic search; not paid results. It's an interesting read because it shows how even big business is in the practice of exploiting loopholes in Google's search algorithms. It almost makes you stop and think those SEO firms aren't the most exploitative folks around.. almost.
Google announced yesterday that it has launched a new Chrome plugin called Personal Blocklist that will hopefully help them overcome the problem of content farms showing up as overly relevant search results. They realize that many of the top most search results these days just lead to link / ad portals with no relevant information - people working the system to their advantage. So they've turned to crowdsourcing to help them overcome. See a search result that's content farm related? Add it to your Blocklist and you'll never see it again.. plus it will notify Google that they've been downgraded in your eyes.
About.com - consider yourself obliterated from my search results.
Hopefully this plugin won't be exclusive to Chrome as the more people that contribute, the better.
Nashville's Smallest Art Gallery put up a new show over the weekend - Shuffled by Steven Ketchum. There are 35 pieces in the show, all watercolor and ink, and most of them are actually jam packed into the physical space on 21st Ave. It's good work and certainly worth stopping by to have a peek but if you don't happen to be in the area.. check them all out online.
If you're at all familiar with the history of Banksy this mini documentary will hold no surprises for you. However, it does contain a number of quotable gems from friends / colleagues worth hearing and even more worthwhile insight from a handful of art critics & dealers. I'm still amazed when Banksy gets such high praise from a place like Sotheby's - it really seems like one of the greatest tricks he ever pulled.
Design Language News has a great piece on the Remnants of a Disappearing UI. Specifically, the interactions a user makes on an iPad. I may not agree with the statement that "It’s hard to appreciate the variety of UIs, since turning the screen off removes virtually all evidence of them" because that's true of any computing device and even moreso with one you don't actually touch. One could argue there is more evidence of the variety of UI's on a touch interface because you literally leave a mark on the interactions you made. Regardless, it's a very clever documentation of software and I commend them for it. I'd love to see this be an emerging trend with software - especially to see if users are interacting the way the designers assumed they would. Click through for the big version.
I'm a sucker for a good retro robot design so these T4 Idents were right up my alley. Double G Studios find a nice balance between goofy / homemade and very intentional / well shaped robots. You can read more about the project (and watch all the individual idents) here but the montage is the best place to start.
If you're a fan of Party Down, take some time to read this Complete Oral History of the show - in which Details interviews everyone involved to get an excellent overview of the show's sorted past. If you're unfamiliar with the show; stop slacking and get to watching it immediately.
The past week (and prior) have been really intense at work. Non-stop production.. meaning very little time to browse and just enjoy the Internet. That being said, these selections (and the bonus videos) are just the right amount of distraction.
Dance Battle - every aspect of this is great.. the kids dances, the narrator and the eventual devolution from dance into just crawling around. Hilarious.
Phantogram - "When I'm Small" - still loving this record / band and really enjoying this video. The injection of a little color here and there is done just right.
Reef Shark Attack - watching the fish avoid the reef sharks is impressive enough but at about 30 seconds in the madness really takes off. Remarkable.
Jumping Red Panda - again, another proper palette cleanser for when I'm stressed on the job.
BONUS
The External World - I know I posted about this already earlier in the week but, seriously, watch this.
The unfortunate part of posting about a designer as talented as Public School member Cody Haltom's relaunching of his own personal portfolio site is that there isn't an easy way to showcase the full diversity of his work very easily. Do you choose to show off the incredibly solid identity work or the fun personal projects? The interactive designs or print pieces? Do I point towards the overall clean site design with amusing profile and news pages or focus on the great footer hiding out down there? I guess you just have to look at everything.. because it's all worth your time.
Recently, Arlo loaned me his copy of Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter and I tore right through it. The basic argument of the book is that popular culture is doing the exact opposite of what most assume it is aiming for. Instead of appealing to a lowest common denominator with the simplest / dumbest programming - pacifying audiences everywhere - it's actually getting much much more complex and engaging our brains in a way that it rarely gets credit for. He focuses mainly on videogames, television shows and touches on Internet interactions as well. The book is from 2005 so it is entirely possible that this is nothing but old news to all of you reading this but if you haven't happened to have read this one yet.. please go out and pick it up this weekend, you'll tear right through it. I may not agree 110% with everything in the book but it's hard to argue against the idea that some forms of popular media really have gained a level of complexity over the past thirty years that must be engaging our brains moreso than lulling them into disinterest.
It's been far too long since I've checked out the recent works from Josh Keyes. His style hasn't changed very much but he's certainly honed in on what he does best and only gotten better. I'm still floored looking through these scenes that he creates.. so fascinating and bizarre.
While I'm not actually a Spotify user (as I am a US resident and don't crave streaming music bad enough to proxy it up) I do appreciate the design of this incredibly sleek spotify player. The nitty gritty details can be found here but, basically, it's a custom soundboard, some LEDs, some processing / Applescript scripting and a very clever use of RFID "tags" embedded into chips to tell the unit what to actually play. Even if you don't read up on it more, please watch the video of it in action. Such a great piece of design through and through.
Remember the ridiculous Honor Student videos I've posted about over the years? Well, two of the brains behind said project - Matt and Oz - have a new Tumblr entitled.. Matt and Oz. They post about worthwhile art, funny videos, entertaining indie movies, music, music videos and basketball. Lots of basketball. Aside from that one I totally endorse it.. they gots what I like to call "good taste." So, go bookmark / follow them. You'll enjoy.
Took some time to browse through the recently relaunched portfolio of Jo McCaughey and thought I'd just jump around to see a sampling of the offerings. Turns out, I clicked through every photo in every set and was a little bummed when there wasn't more to see. It's a nice balance of off the cuff captures, ambient surroundings and planned out portrait style... just the right doses of each.
Take a few moments to watch the creation of these Tall Paintings from Holton Rower (and team). Still images don't do it justice.. the oozing movement is the thing. Such a great and perfectly simple idea.
Loving these illustrations from Peter Plasencia that accompany the Franz Born book "Jules Verne: The Man Who Invented the Future." He's also responsible for the illustrations in this Space Alphabet book but I think I enjoy the Adventure aspect of the Jules Verne illustrations just speak to my eyes the most. Regardless, it's a great style!
The other day, Zach pointed me towards Premium Pixels - a resource from Orman Clark that offers a plethora of free design resources. Something as simple as a map indicator can have a little TLC applied to it and people will appreciate the difference. He's offering lots of great textures, icons and inspiration.
