Archive for June, 2009

Just a small collection of oil company maps I’ve found around the web; I wasn’t aware of this fascinating sub-genre of design. This is the sort of throw-away stuff that for some reason is the coolest thing to find in the garage drawer it’s been sitting in for 30 years. I think that Hawaii one is actually just a Casino Versus Japan 12″ cover. That German one is ridiculous; leave it to them to design a map that they give out free at the gas station that betters the collective output of United State graphic designers for the entire calendar year in which it was produced. Way to go guys.

Sources:
Shell Nature Lovers’ Atlas
Shell Deutschland Map
Mobil Travel Map
Shell Hawaii Map

These images are by New York City based artist Robert Longo. Props to but does it float for spotting these, truly a great find. I have always been fascinated with anything and everything to do with aviation, so these are of obvious appeal. The coolest thing is the process behind them; though they look like photographs at first, they are actually graphite and charcoal drawings, based off projected photographs. The background disappears and all that is left is the strikingly detailed subject. These pilot renderings are my favorite, but much of his other work is up on his site for your enjoyment.

via bdif

If you live in NYC and walk with your eyes open, you’ve seen Katsu’s skull grinning at you- from fire escapes, bus stops, urinals and now rooftops. In this chunnel exclusive, Red Bucket Filmmakers Nick Poe and Alex Kalman team up with the elusive Katsu to take Charles and Ray Eames’ 1977 classic “Powers of 10” from outer space to the street.

Now Katsu, we can’t tell you much about, you know how it is. Red Bucket, we can say, have been featured in the NYTimes Magazine looking fly in vests and bathing suits and have been to the Cannes Film Festival twice with feature films. Working out of a downtown sweatshop, the crew turns it out, always fresh, never fancy, always burning the midnight oil.
– Chunnal TV

UPDATE: Comments are closed, we’ll be picking a winner today. Thank you to everyone who entered!

To Inform & Delight is a new documentary about the life and work of Milton Glaser. It’s currently playing in San Francisco, at the Roxie Theater, and will be in other selected US cities this summer. Further info on the site.

In support of the film, we are doing a giveaway of a couple signed posters and Glaser’s new book Drawing is Thinking. The grand prize will be one hand-signed (by Mr. Glaser himself) film poster and one copy of the book (displayed above). The runner up will receive one hand-signed (by Mr. Glaser himself) film poster. To enter, just comment on this post and be sure to leave your email address so that we can contact you if you win (email will not be publicly visible). The winners will be chosen at random from the comments on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009. Click here to enter!

If you’re in the San Francisco area, make sure to get out to the Roxie and catch this before it’s gone. It will be showing through the 25th of June. Also worth checking out is the Hilman Curtis short film on Glaser if you haven’t already.

The other night i’m sitting on the computer and Mux Mool sends me a picture and starts laughing and talking about how there’s a Moodgadget car driving around. In my mind I always thought if I get enough money together one day I might buy a white Honda Element and turn it into the Moodgadget Logo. I might even put the generic man as a tint on the window but now no need because the Nissan Cube came into play. LOOK AT IT! I mean WHAAUUUT IS GOING ON!? who does that with a back window? only the Moodgadget logo.

Let me give a little background about the Moodgadget logo, a lot of people call it MOONgadget maybe because it looks like something that would land on the moon or I can’t pronounce my D’s because I might mumble sometimes but really its a dreamt up idea I had that involves my obsession with pods and early early Radiohead covers, the old Royksopp video, and those cube shaped rooms that take you up a mountain that are used mostly by tourists. The Moodgadget logo was designed by 3 friends of mine: Adrian (Creative Director of the silhouette iPod commercials), Danny (Art Director at Ghostly), and Adam (co-owner of Moodgadget) and the idea came from a dream that I had about these white pods what were controlled by these generic business men sitting inside them that floated almost assembly line style out of a glass dome flying by these row of trees and straight into the sun except for one that was in color meaning still black and white but the glass window was light blue and the guy inside had pigment to his skin. This guy wasn’t in the assembly line he was floating around exploring but not too smart of a fellow because he always questioned everything since it was all new to him and he was just overall really curious. I think that dream of the logo kind of symbolized the music industry back then for me which was a lot generic music and compilations that we’re very specific and what we do at Moodgadget is kind of break down those barriers that were up and share music that is all over the place but still catchy in a way, kind of like the music on the blog that we pick but still educates hopefully and makes you want to try listening to something new.

Let’s get back to the Nissan Cube, not my style because of how bad their commercial was for it which if I remember correctly was probably geared toward break dancers that pop n lock in their cars, people that love glowing LEDs filling their stereo screens and those people that go out to the club with a fedora hat on tipped to the side because they’re soo “street” it hurts. To be honest Nissan should of hired on a creative like Scott or some of you that send in great pieces that Scott reposts and not this Mitsubishi Eclipse regurgitation of a car commercial that probably could be sold to people like me if it was delivered to us in a way that doesn’t make me feel like a soulless 20 year old that can’t speak for himself and wants to dance to Soulja Boy or whatever ringtone Rap is popular now(the stanky leg? I dunno i’m so lame when it comes to the hot tracks on the radio) or Tiesto talentless trance music thats played in the bigger metro clubs around the world.

Either way, I’d like to see a song off this blog make it onto the next Nissan Cube commercial, maybe we’d post the commerical and the 4th generation Nissan Cube get a little help from a design firm from Sweden and we might sell a few of these cars.

Bibio has really stepped it up on his new album Ambivalence Avenue, his older LPs don’t get me wrong are gorgeous and exactly what i personally want to hear but what a way keep your sound and it becoming more inviting for a newer audience that i’m sure will now start searching for his back catalog. Abrasion has a hints of Jannis voice from Choir of Young Believers and I even think Neil Young would be into this and that makes me pretty happy to think about.

My friend last night shared this Rachel’s song with me called Systems/Layers which is from an album that’s a collaborative dance/theater piece with the New York ensemble SITI Company. It’s perfect to collect yourself too, I have a feeling its going to become a nice go to song if you ever feel too distracted and overwhelmed.

You know I had to sneak in something dubby and techno-ish into this post so there is something 4/4 involved, I couldn’t think of a more gentle way to follow the Rachel’s track then including something by debut dub techno artist June from the UK, a real heavy yet elegant track. Languor has these moments where you feel like the song is just going to flutter by and float off like some dense gas that just decides to vaporize.

The same friend that suggested to listen to the Rachel’s also told me to listen to Moving Units, not really my cup of tea because usually I don’t listen to what people are singing about since I listen to mostly instrumental music but in the last minute I do like how he sounds.

Bibio – Abrasion

Rachel’s – Systems/Layers

June – Languor

Moving Units – Hearts Departed

I had no idea Braun ever produced a camera, but here it is. And of course, it’s incredibly well designed. Honestly, if Canon would just package a modern $800 HD camcorder in this sort of form factor I would gladly pay a premium. Then again — if you can put up with film — the Nizo probably destroys any modern camera in terms of output.

The slightly intense guy using the Nizo in the last shot is director Tad Fettig. Top two shots are from this (ended) eBay auction. The Advert is from mrfoxtalbot. Many more Nizo images can be found here.

Update: Vegard sent in a nice example of the Nizo’s output which he has posted on Vimeo:

Recently I posted a debut track by Slow Hands which is coming out on Brooklyn’s Wolf+Lamb label, you may know Ryan from New York’s DJ duo Worst Friends which our Tom Croose is the other half of. I asked Ryan to focus on something eclectic and something for designers and creatives to listen to while working instead of something a little more dance driven and Ryan really delivered by using everything from Slum Village to The Steve Miller Band to DFA’s Woolfy.

Once you get to the Project Sandro track you’ll end up in a slow and steady groove — it slays actually — I’ve been waiting for something like this for awhile and the ending movie sample is pretty sweet.
Look for the next couple of mixes to be non-genre specific and melodic and hopefully something that exposes the diversity in electronic/rock/etc music.

The iPhone photo was taken while Ryan was asleep and then Scott came in and made it proper.

TRACKLIST
Alice In Wonderland (Soundtrack) – The Garden & All In The Golden Afternoon
Slum Village – Fourth and Back
Sade – Sweetest Taboo (Slow Hands edit)
The Steve Miller Band – Fly Like An Eagle
Soulphiction – Prison Song (Feat. Marcin Oz)
Aldo del Lago, Tolousse y Alain Junot – La Isla Bonita
Ab Orchestra – La Isla Bonita
David Bowie – Magic Dance
Project Sandro – Blazer
Woolfy vs. Projections – Isabella
Trus’me – Drilling
Wareika – Belonging (Vocal)
Tensnake – Holding Back (My Love)
Slow Hands – Fast Tongue
Chateau Flight – Instand Replay
Talking Heads – Sax And Violins
Dan Auerbac – When The Night Comes
Princess Outro

DOWNLOAD IT HERE

Slow Hands – “Afternoon To-Night” Mix

Art of the Title Sequence has a bunch of new material up, including an interview with the minds behind the Wall-E end credits. Looks like a staggering amount of research went into this. As usual, the results are terrific. A version is up on Youtube, but as they suggest on the site, much better to consult the Blu-Ray if you’ve got it.

via Kottke

Lettercult — site dedicated to “custom letter culture” — has posted a “Best of the First Half of 2009” list containing many great examples of custom typography. Some inspirational stuff in there: Part 1 & Part 2.