Did you know Mtn. Dew has a limited edition Artist Series of designs for their cans? Yea, me neither. However, it turns out that Ferris Plock is in the running for said series. You can check out his Samurai Cyclops Can Design and, hopefully, give it a vote as well to help him advance to the next round. Yea, it requires registering an account but I think seeing a kick-flipping, bearded ninja cyclops on a can of soda is absolutely worth it.

View It and Vote.

I recently watched the BBC documentary James May on the Moon. The basic idea is that Top Gear host James May will be sent up in a U2 plane to the edge of space and, along the way, interview several legit astronauts and find out about their experiences. From a conceptual standpoint, it may not sound too exciting but in reality, it's a very entertaining and worthy watch.

Aside from being a swell guy in general, the portfolio work of Aaron Robbs is well worth taking a complete walkthrough. Posters, great identity work, packaging design, web design and random creations - they're all there and all superbly done.

• iOS 4.0.1 on the way - apparently being an early adopter has its woes, even for Apple users. The new iPhone 4 has some reception issues that people are understandably displeased about. Personally, I'm just miffed that the software update somehow crippled my phones ability to browse on a WiFi network. Conspiracy theory to force me to upgrade or legitimate oversight? If this is to be believed, there may be an update as early as Monday.. I'll wait until then to pass judgment.
• AJAX Crud - a simple PHP API to quickly and easily interact with a mySQL database. Looks pretty straightforward and could be well worth checking out. Via Will.

Finding wacky captures on Google Street View is certainly nothing new but this Horse Boy article is cracking me up. The way they treat the "mystery" of a man in a horse mask is amazing:

In the town of Aberdeen located in the UK, Google’s Street View captured a snapshot of an amazing sight. It was of a man that appeared to have the body of a man and the head of a horse.

...

It is still not clear if the man is really a horse boy in reality or is just dressing up.

It is still not clear! Hilarious.

You can see the little guy here but, to add to the mystery, the panel with the clearest view of him has been removed.

Fun fact, I have used this image as my desktop for months. More fun fact, it comes from a short piece of excellent animation called Vanishing Point. I believe I originally found it via this guy but was reminded by these guys that it's too awesome not to share.

I realize the Summer Mix Series can be a bit of an overwhelming affair but I think the creativity (both audibly and visually) make it well worth spending some time. It has only been open a few days but there are already a number of mixes that have caught my eye. This isn't everything that I'm enjoying so far but a good place to start:

• An Alternative Retrospective: 1993 - 1996 - all songs from the mid-nineties from a lot of college / indie / non-mainstream types. It's easy to look back on the nineties as just the time of Grunge but there was a lot more being offered; it's worth going back to.
• KNIEVEL - another quality mix from the Schwartzblog family. This one consists of a lot of 60's and 70's rock songs - those type that when listened to in the car will make you want to drive up a ramp and clear 30 buses.
• Four - a mix from Mondo Salvo comprised entirely of bands with four letters in their names. It's a fun theme and he manages to make the tracklisting flow together well.
• BOSS Battle - 8-bit music extraordinaire. I've been listening to this all morning and it invokes a frenzied energy.. good for getting a lot of work done.
• Sunrays and Sand - Music for the Beach is a pretty vague theme but the mix is an enjoyable listen and, thus, recommended for downloading.
• 2010: A Space Opera - a themed mix attempting to tell the story of the human race being evacuated from Earth. It's a daunting task but the break-up of five acts makes it actually work.

There will be plenty more of these roundups - be sure to comment on the site to let the authors know they're doing a great job.

Typically an animal getting an artificial set of legs after an accident wouldn't really be all that newsworthy but this story is a bit different. A new style prosthetic, intraosseous transcutaneous amputation prosthetics to be exact, were used and the metal, skin and bone all merge. Granted, it's been done before (on a human even) but that doesn't make this any less impressive. Apparently there's an octopus in a German aquarium that has been predicting the fate of the German World Cup team. Not knowing anything about the current state of the World Cup I can't say if these predictions are accurate or not but I fully support looking to cephalopod's to start predicting our fates.

Got the heads up from version industries yesterday about some of their latest work - specifically, this cover art for the forthcoming EP from Big Black Delta (a side project of Mellowdrone). I'm reminded of a lot of things by looking at this but I think it's clear they've managed to take a bevy of influences and make something ambiguously curious.

Be sure to listen to the first track from the release, as it really does set the tone of the imagery.

I keep encountering the work of Matthew Lyons in my various web browsing escapades and, despite having said so before, I can't stress how much I enjoy the whole vibe he has developed. Look at these samples and try to tell me there's not something there you totally love. I'm officially putting him and Mark Weaver up in my top list of contemporary designers that have their own obvious style but maintain a unique "voice" in their execution.

Long story short - visit Matthew Lyons if you haven't in awhile and, this time, bookmark him to keep an eye on things.

Most of the money art from Stephen Doyle doesn't do a whole lot for me but the "Let's Dump the Greenback" illustration is pretty perfect. You may remember it WIRED.

Via Drew.

Here's the playlist and the breakdown below. Please don't forget to submit your Summer Mix Series goods!

• Laurie Anderson - O Superman - I'm sure someone will cite some familiarity in here with Imogen Heap but keep in mind this is from 1981. It is mesmerizing.. I wish I could explain why.
• Highlights from Wildwood, NJ - Jersey Shore 1994. I want to see this movie... so many great quotes I don't even know where to start. via Paige.
• Got It At Ross - two challenges: 1) I dare you to make it through the entire thing. 2) I dare you to decipher if this is a viral video started by Ross or an actual rap song? Via Zach.
• Joe Biden on Joe Barton - This isn't a funny / quirky submission but should be seen. Biden gets a lot of guff for all his gaffe's but off-the-cuff speeches like this one are top notch. Really amazing insight, good to see why he's VP.
• Vuvuzela Canyon - This is, admittedly, incredibly dumb.. but the further along it played, the more I was drawn into it.
• Militant Rooster - dumb but appreciated.
• Cats in Bottles - the cats themselves are cute but the narration is the best part. Also via Paige.
• Banned iPad Promo - I know I fall square into the realm of Apple Zealots but stuff like this is spot on and hilarious. Not all the jokes hit home all the way but there are enough to make it worth your time.

Have a great weekend!

As promised, the Summer Mix Series 2010 is now open and ready for submissions. I did a bit of re-coding and have done zero testing for IE / PC - so if it looks terrible, consider this a soft launch.. I'll get it all spruced up later on. I look forward to what people have in store and will likely post about some of my favorite mixes, as well as my own submissions, as they come about.

Get to it!

I don't want to spoil anything but please stop what you are doing and read this entire thread of emails between Shannon Walkley, a distraught cat-owner looking for a little graphic design assistance, and David Thorne, the graphic designer in question. It is easily one of the best things I've seen in a long time.

Consequently, if you haven't read through the rest of the offerings on 27b/6 - find some time to do so.

Via Daniel.

This leaked tour rider for Steve Martin seems just about right. My favorite part:

DRESSING ROOMS
Beginning two (2) hours prior to performance, Steve's dressing room must have a new trophy delivered every ten (10) minutes. Suggested trophies include "Most Beloved", "Best Show of the Year", "Best Musician." Creativity encouraged (Steve starting to get bored with these).

Be sure to read the whole thing; lots of gems throughout.

Thanks to Matt for the heads up.

The summary of Don Kenn's work couldn't be said any better than by himself:

I write and direct television shows for kids. I have a set of twins and not much time for anything. But when i have time i draw monsterdrawings on post-it notes... it is a little window into a different world, made on office supplies.

There's an incredible amount of detail in these - particularly considering their just doodles on Post-It Notes.

via Honor Student.

I love it when album artwork leans more heavily on the artwork side of things; such as with these works from Kathryn Politis and Bill Kouligas for PAN. Just looking at the releases page you can see a nice consistency throughout but I think you'd really have to have the entire package in your hands to get the full impact of execution. Regardless, look here, be inspired, that is all.

Arlo posted this Big Think interview with Jason Fried of 37signals regarding why the modern workplace is designed to not let you get any work done. On the whole, I agree with most of the points he makes. I'd even add that Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Google Reader, etc all add to the distraction possibilities - although those are self-controlled, not external factors at work.

The one flaw in the entire argument is that it assumes all workers are self motivated to actually get things done. I'd venture to say that in a large majority of work spaces around the country that, if given the opportunity, people will sit and do nothing. 37signals is a progressive place where the employees are invested and involved in creating something - a random person at an insurance agency, not so much. But beyond that, I think it is solid thinking and could probably be adopted by a very large number of creative shops to help streamline their process.

Check out this Digital Spy interview with David Cross regarding his forthcoming UK series, The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret. I've mentioned this show many times but it's nice to hear Cross actually talk about the writing and production of it. The most interesting insight provided is that Russell Tovey won't be in the actual show and that they are reshooting the first episode - which means the crazed energy drink rant from the pilot will be entirely new.

One big unfortunate drawback of my current site design is that I don't have an effective way to display more than one photo per post. Sure, I could stack them on top of each other but no one wants that! So, when I encounter some work like Anders Linden photography, I've got to figure out one image to showcase (assuming I want it to be large). That's not easy when there's so much good stuff to pick from. This post has a smattering of works that give you an idea of what to expect but I highly suggest hitting up the official site and browsing through it all. There's a nice variety of styles but the lighting is always a treat in every single one.

Via Gathering Finds.