How recognizable is a logo if it's broken down to just representational shapes? That's the question behind Graham Smith's Unevolved Brands. If you modify logo to be just shapes, can you still tell who it is for? In some cases, absolutely you can. In others, it's bafflingly difficult. Play along on the Tumblr or on his Flickr set.. good stuff.
This is the sixth iteration of the Halloween mix. That being said, I'm taking a slightly different route this time around. Instead of a straight forward mix designed to be played at a party this is intended to convey, as the title states, a descent into madness. Things start off light and normal and get progressively more abrasive and terrifying.
That's probably a little heavy handed for a compilation of songs just meant to evoke a spooky vibe but that's what I'm going with. I think you'll enjoy it.. even if it does get a little nuts near the end.
Ryan sent me the heads up on this video in which one man, George Clarke, stumbles upon a minor detail contained in some footage from a 1928 Charlie Chaplin film premiere. The detail? A woman passing through the frame that appears to be holding a mobile device to her ear. The conclusion to be made from this? The woman must be a time traveler and is talking on the phone. You can watch the clip and decide for yourself but I suggest watching the whole thing as Mr. Clarke certainly doesn't seem like a crackpot and hearing his setup helps to convince you.
Is it a cellphone / time traveler? 100% Absolutely not! Is it amusing to allow yourself to think so? You better believe it.
Last night, thanks to Mr. John Baldwin, I became aware of the concept of Cargo Cults and, specifically, the John Frum movement. How I had not heard of this before is neither here nor there, I'm just glad I'm aware of it now. The basic gist is that during WWII the US would make supply drops to various islands but not actually set up camp for some time.. allowing any natives on the island (who may not have had any communication with an outside world) to draw their own conclusions. Occasionally this would result in natives deciding that gods had bestowed these items to them. It is certainly an understandable conclusion.. if completely foreign items fell from the sky and landed in my neighborhood, I'm not sure you could really make any conclusion other than that!
Anyway, I'm a total novice on the subject but I find it fascinating and hope to read up more on it. This Smithsonian Magazine article looks to be pretty informative.. I'll start there and see what sort of rabbit hole it leads me down.
How have I not been using Skip Screen up until just yesterday? A Firefox plugin to automate the process of bypassing the tedious click path of sites like MegaUpload, ShareBee, Rapidshare, etc? Sign me up! I tried it out yesterday and it works as advertised.. once the link is loaded into the browser the plugin takes over and you no longer have to worry about wait periods or clicking the right "Download" link. Granted, if any of those sites ever change their process it could cause the plugin to break but, for now, it's working like a charm.
If you aren't reading A Bajillion Hits you are missing out. Author Alex Bragg curates a steady stream of Internet marketing tips delivered with just the right balance of mockery, vitriol and straightforward humor. For example, read The Golden Algorthim For Guaranteed Video Virality and you'll see what I mean. It's entirely snarky but it's smart; a combo we should all be able to get behind.
Loving the work of Jon Contino. The old style letterforms integrated with various images of death are, in my book, pretty undeniable. Do yourself a favor and browse the entire collection of Selected Works.
We Transfer exists as a service for transferring large files along the same lines as MediaFire, YouSendIt, etc. However, their interface is bare bones and their ads are integrated as large background images; rather than pop-under windows or forced timers. It may not remain this way but it's good to know there's an alternative for the time being that provides a large file service without being aggravatingly out of date. Read more here.
Scott sent me a link to min.us stating that it was quicker and more convenient than plopping files into a Dropbox folder. I was skeptical to say the least but, honestly, this is an incredibly simple, easy-to-use and still sleek application. You actually just drag your photos from their origin into the web browser, they upload (rather quickly) and then they're ready to go as a viewable gallery with their own unique URL. It's certainly worth trying out...
The trailer for the forthcoming Alejandro Inarritu film Biutiful doesn't lend itself to much in the way of giving away plot points but I'm still entirely curious now to see the whole film. All too often you know the entire movie after watching some teaser but this keeps it mostly ambiguous. At the end you know Javier Bardem will experience some trials and tribulations and that the film itself looks wonderfully shot. What more do you need to know? Go watch.
While I am sure this thing exists in numerous forms I was particularly smitten by The Road Popper; a bike mounted bottle opener. The design is subtle, unobtrusive and flat out handy.
If you've been paying attention, you know that I'm a big proponent of the debut album Friend Weakend from the band Action! So, with that in mind, please allow me to inform you of some additional info you need to know and, potentially, participate in.
The band will release Friend Weakend on vinyl this coming November 19th. This, in and of itself, is great news.
The band is asking you to put together a video. You can pick any track other than "Sandpiper" and request to claim it for your own. Details here.
If you finish said video by November 10th, your video will be projected behind the band during the vinyl release party and shown all around the Internets.
I am relistening to the record again (for the 100th time) to figure out which track I'd like to tackle but I suggest you contemplate this yourself as well. You know you've been wanting to try your hand at such a thing and now seems like the perfect opportunity.
Last night I had the pleasure of taking in a screening of the documentary Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)? If you are unaware of the goodness of Mr. Nilsson, please watch the trailer immediately to find out what you've been missing out on. The film is a straight forward retelling of his life from childhood through to his death in 1994. The filmmakers did a great job of nabbing interviews with a wide range of people that worked with, played with and partied with Nilsson throughout the duration. The movie is oddly difficult to find screenings of despite it having been made in 2006 but if you can rummage up a copy, I suggest you do so.
The AV Club posted the trailer for the upcoming Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Seth Rogen movie entitled Paul. Apparently it's a buddy movie between Pegg and Frost as comicbook nerds that encounter a snarky alien; voiced by Rogen. The supporting cast is as top notch as the leading roles - Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Jane Lynch, Sigourney Weaver - but the concept is absurd in the worst way. AV Club's comparison to Mac and Me is all too appropriate. In situations such as these, do you hold out hope that the trailer is just a terrible representation of the film or do you accept the reality that there's really no way this one can knock it out the park? Or maybe it's meant to be a kids film and I'm overthinking it to the Nth degree.
I actually posted about the super NSFW yet incredibly awesome in more ways than one El Guincho music video for Bombay a few weeks back but I've since had it emailed in to me as something I would enjoy by multiple people. So I'm guessing some of my readership missed it. Long story short, go watch this video and love every second of it. However, be forewarned that if you watch this around anyone that doesn't appreciate topless women with automatic weapons you will get in trouble.
Loving this eloquent rage from Panic.com regarding a brief glitch in popular loader. Having such an intense reaction to something so, literally, small is what makes a good appreciable designer. I wonder if they'll actually get around to fixing the issue...
This also seems like it would be perfect fodder for Fire that Designer. The issue isn't as ridiculous as most of the items there but it's still enough to warrant a post.
Silent Uproar is a music news site that I've been reading for a long time. As in, somewhere around the neighborhood of ten years. Recently they relaunched a new site design, a new logo and have been pretty much killing it with coverage of music news that is to the point, quick and easy to consume. The new site design is just another bonus to that mindset - clean, pleasant but not without its own personality. Really happy to see these guys continuing to move forward and report the news without a bunch of hoopla.
I recommend following them on twitter and bookmarking their new site.. once you've done that, you'll pretty much be all caught up on relevant music news.
I can confidently say that I clicked through every possible page of the Blake Fili Suarez portfolio and found something appealing on each and every one. I'm particularly smitten with The Eclipsed Zine and this Fanfarlo packaging but that is just a starting point - be sure to exploreloadsmore. Great illustration skills and a very effective use of texture.
I will admit, the plot behind the new Darren Aronofsky film Black Swan does not sound like something I should be intro by but after watching the trailer I don't know how you couldn't be somewhat intrigued. No one does a descent into madness better than Aronofsky.
The film may not come out until early 2011 but a collection of teaser posters have recently been released to keep your interest levels up. I expect once the movie gets closer to a release and the studio starts freaking out that they don't know how to market this movie properly we'll start seeing large floating head posters of Natalie Portman vs Mila Kunis with a swan between them but, for now, there's some superbly stylized art to tell the story.
File this one under: "Good luck trying to make up something this absurd" with the sub-heading "Truth is stranger than fiction."
A Leicestershire vicar says badgers are digging up graves in his churchyard but he has been told he cannot move them.
The Rev Simon Shouler of 12th Century St Remigius Church in Long Clawson said badgers have dug up human bones three times in the past few weeks.
Mr Shouler, who has reburied the bones, is appealing for permission to have the badgers relocated.
That's right, badgers are digging up human bones at this church and they can do nothing about it. I can't help but read this and think it sounds exactly like the premise for a Fawlty Towers or Father Ted sketch. Absolutely ridiculous.
It was announced over the weekend that the alpha version of jQuery Mobile is now available. Given that it is an alpha release I'm trying my best not to judge it too harshly as it will undoubtedly be a very slick framework to have around once it is fully fleshed out. From a coding standpoint, it makes heavy use of the HTML5 data attributes; a very clever and smart way of going about integrating the JS and the markup. From a user experience standpoint, it's not as tight feeling as jQTouch - transitions are a bit awkward and sometimes the click history gets confused on where you're trying to go. However, jQTouch is meant for Webkit browsers and nothing more - jQuery Mobile is throwing a much wider net with their compatibility plan; a huge leg up in their favor.
In other news, jQuery 1.4.3 was released and the improvements made are all quite welcome.
