August 03, 2012

(rt) Recent infographic goodness

• Here’s a fun scrolling infographic of the London 2012 Games. (Dig the footer quip.)
• Love the stripy arrows, comrade: Cool Soviet-Era Infographics.
• The Evolution of the Web is a neat, interactive, HTML-based infographic.  
• Could be cool: Information Graphics, a new book from Taschen. 

July 31, 2012

(rt) Assorted Lego awesomeness

• Ryan McNaught has created the “World’s First Lego Colosseum Made of 200,000 Bricks.”
• Lego is celebrating 50 years in Australia by building a life-size forest in the outback.  [Via]
• Holy nerdporn: “Star Wars Relativity V2” is “A visual mash-up of LEGOs, Star Wars and M.C. Escher.”
• Graffiti artist Martin Heuwold has turned a bridge into giant Lego.  [Via]
• Truly, deeply weird: Giant LEGO men dissected by Jason Freeny.
• Check out this lovely Lego bird set concept by Thomas Poulsom. [Via Steve Guilhamet]
• Wonderful: Kids share their uncommon nomenclature for LEGO bricks.  [Via]

 

PS–Semi-random question: Do you happen to know how/where I could buy just Lego train wheels & buffers? My mom just mailed the boys my 1983-era train set, and of course they’re wanting to build more cars. I see that Pick A Brick offers individual wheels & buffers, but I don’t know whether those require separate axles/connectors that aren’t sold there. TIA from the Micronaxx!

June 08, 2012

(rt) Illustration: Honest movie posters, intricate skulls, & more

Having recently been chided for not posting enough non-Adobe links (funny, I used to get nailed for just the opposite), I respectfully submit the following.

• Brutal truth:
  • “Extremely Lame & Incredibly Cloying”: Truthful movie posters, Oscars 2012 edition [Via]
  • “At the airport. F it, I deserve it…” Honest ads. [Via]

• “These pixels are making me thirsty”: A fun illustrated Seinfeld tribute.
• Meyoko draws gorgeous, incredibly intricate illustrated skulls.

• I love Alexandra Pacula’s Blurry Nightlife Oil Paintings.
• “Stacy Green, Will You Marry Me?” Marriage proposal as infographic [Via]
• Unsolicited Proposals for New Beverages: Pass the NyQuil Ice & Earl Grey Loko!

February 25, 2012

(rt) Photography: Space, Battles, & Terrible Stock

• I… I really lack words for these. “60 Completely Unusable Stock Photos.” /via Andrew Kavanagh
• Carnage:
  • The Atlantic features some brilliant photos of the “Tough Guy 2012″ competition. (Well, that plus muddy British guys in thongs.)
  • Nicolai Howalt captured portraits of fighters before and after boxing matches.  (Applies also to PMs after meetings with German dev teams.)
  • *Man*, underwater dogs can look ferocious. (Keep your Nirvana babies away).
  • Behold, Sumptuous Meatscapes (not the name of a band, as far as I know).

• Stellar times:
  • Enjoy “A rare, last look inside Space Shuttle Atlantis“.
  • John Glenn relaxes in “The Coolest Astronaut Photograph Ever” (not sure about that, but I do like it).
  • Aww: Stormtrooper happiness. [Via]

January 04, 2012

(rt) Typography: Death metal, nastiness, & more

• “DeathPop Club“: Pop musicians’ names get rendered in death-metal style. [Via]
• Able Parris has created a fun “Learn to Kern” tee shirt. [Via]
• Curse-worthy:
  • The 8 Worst Fonts In The World (not including Comic Sans)
  • Leg hair font–for real! (type=nasty)
  • WTF? Portraits in profanity.
• Jing Zhang makes super cool architectural letters.
• Fun vintage type: Handlettered logos from defunct department stores [Via]

January 02, 2012

(rt) Photography: Powerful images, rebel fashion, & more

• What a year: The 45 Most Powerful Images Of 2011.
• Take a very worthy of a short pause in your day to appreciate this beautiful world: The National Geographic Photo Contest.
• Odd–and oddly compelling — “fashion” photography: Pickup Trucks of the Libyan Liberation.
• The North Korean regime has certainly nailed the mass human coordination thing. (Theoretically related: the DPRK Party Rock Anthem. “Ain’t no party like a Pyongyang party, ’cause a Pyongyang party is ABSOLUTELY MANDATORY.”)
• Truth & Beauty:
  • An advertising watchdog has banned excessive Photoshop use in cosmetics ads.
  • Men Photographed in Stereotypical Pin-Up Poses. [Via]
  • Interactive: How models morph under makeup.
11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments [1]

December 29, 2011

(rt) Design: Clever costumes, giant spiders, & more

• I love the brilliant NYC subway costume my friend Matthew Richmond made for his 3-year-old son.
• Ade Chong’s simple, pretty business cards look especially useful. [Via]
• Food for thought: ”When radios first came out, people made them look like churches & fireplaces: nobody knew what a radio looked like.”
• This humongous spider is reputedly the world’s largest balloon sculpture.
• Domiciles:
  • How much do I want this insane swimming pool-moat? (Given our sketchy neighbors–a ton!)
  • In my next house: Retractable MagSafe cords in every socket!
  7:42 PM | Permalink | No Comments

December 28, 2011

(rt) Illustration: Film history, politician abuse, & more

• Bizarre Photoshoppery: “Newt’s Nudes: Renaissance paintings featuring Newt Gingrich’s head.”
• This cute illustration by Tymn Armstrong might become my new desktop. (Or, if you prefer, here’s an edgier alternative. [Via])
• A funky art-making machine: The Chromatic Typewriter
• Historical:
  • Neat Mac/UI history: The original sketchbook of Susan Kare.
  • Vintage illustrations: Gremlins posters from WWII.
  • Neat bit of film history: “How they shot the Star Wars opening crawl“.

December 27, 2011

(rt) Design: Knives, gang signs, & beautiful things

• Literally edgy:
  • “Wow, that’s rad,” says Margot: Beautiful Nesting Knives. (The price might cut you, though.)
  • Lovely: Traditional Japanese Hirosaki Knife Box.
  • How cheerful! Hand-carved Skull Nickels. [Via]
• “The Venn Vipers” & more: Design-Thinking Gang Signs. (And don’t forget the Adobe gang sign.)
• Throwbacks:
  • Check out some beautiful retro-futuristic vehicle designs from Captain America.
  • Looks terrific (but pricey): Vintage Royal typewriter as iPad keyboard.
  8:46 AM | Permalink | Comments [2]

December 26, 2011

(rt) Illustration: Outstanding movie poster remixes & more

• Cinematic:
  • Brilliant: Movies revisited as neon animated GIFs. [Via]
  • Solid: 13 Movie Poster Trends & What They Say About Their Movies. [Via]
• Don’t you hate it when people drive RC cars on planes? Happens all the time!
• Recursive Hulk Hogan mustache–can’t unsee!!
• The New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2011 list is up.
• Brian Matthew Hart and Dena Pickering make amazingly intricate light paintings.

December 22, 2011

(rt) Interesting aviation photography

• Gorgeous: check out these long-exposure plane trails. [Via]
• Stunning images of Africa from above come from George Steinmetz & his ultralight. [Via]
• Shuttles:
  • Here’s some interesting HDR video footage (captured at 250fps) showing a Shuttle launch.
  • Shuttle/ISS crews captured a lovely aurora. [Via]
• Giant planes as Russian dolls: One C-5 consuming the front of another one. (Ever since attending a recent air show, our little Henry has been claiming to be a C-17, eating “trucks” (my fingers).)

December 21, 2011

(rt) Type: Skulls, Life Advice, & More

• Grim & Goth:
  • I love this gorgeous typographical skull made using the Seven Deadly Sins.
  • Typography: A nice how-to on creating detailed Gothic linework in Illustrator.
• Food for thought:
  • “Less is More, or Less.” (Kinda sums up the worthless, contradictory, know-it-all advice on building hit apps.)
  • This Might Be The Only Life You’re Getting, So…
• Death of a gyro joint = mass typographical casualties.
• Lettering made from falling liquids. [Via]
• Love this wedding invite alphabet.
• Lady with a giant C. [Via]

December 20, 2011

(rt) Design: Great sculptures, multitouch UI, and more

• Infrared lasers, switchable glass, and touch = An amazing-looking installation from The Mill.
• Super cool Sliced Image and Steel Nut Sculptures.
• Rather brilliant: “Throw & Grow” Flower Grenades.
• Vehicular:
  • Air mail: Tearable Envelopes Create Contrails and Exhaust Plumes.
  • I cannot wait til my boys are of non-Lego-eating age: The Lego Volkswagen T1 Camper Van.
  • Here’s an awesome and thick roundup of vintage car hood ornaments.
• That is one big, and very yellow, bunny. [Via Terry Stone]

September 21, 2011

(rt) Photography: Giant photos and… oh, dear God, *bees*

• Beautiful: Long Exposure Photos of High-Speed Rail Transit.
• How does one exhibit the world’s largest photo? Like so.
• Kim Pimmel “looks around, around/He sees angels in the architecture/Spinning in infinity.”
• I’ve been quite enjoying the quiet photos of Ben Duchac. [Via]
• So, China features a bee-wearing contest. Yes, really. (Makes me think of Richard Avedon’s famous beekeeper image.) [Via Rob Galbraith] Archival bonus: “Oh dear Lord, bees!”

September 19, 2011

(rt) Photography: Jokes, plus people falling

• Self-referential:
  • “Stocking [imitating stock photo cliches] Is the New Planking.” [Via]
  • Had to be done: Artist Mocks the Absurd Poses in Fashion Photos by Showing Them in Real Life.
  • “You can hold your liquor, and now your lens can, too.” The Shot Glass Lens Set.
• People in flight:
  • The Big Picture features an urban cliff diving competition in Boston (yes, really). [Via]
  • Behold, the wonderful (as in, ridiculously contorted) world of the diving face. [Via]

August 31, 2011

(rt) Photography: Canine Love

August 30, 2011

(rt) Scientific photography: Escher in water, eggs exploding, & more

• Moments in time:
  • Love it: an Escher painting refracted in a drop of falling water.
  • Check out some rather amazing food photography (PDF)–e.g. high-speed egg detonation. [Via Margot]
• Space:
  • Ever wonder what a “shooting star” looks like from space? This image was taken during the Perseids meteor shower. [Via]
  • “Look at That, You Son of a Bitch“: Frank perspective on the fragility of Earth, from Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell. [Via]
• Images like this make me suspect that God has a soft spot for airbrushed “Noble Wolf” shirts.

August 29, 2011

(rt) Recent poster goodness

• “Loose Lips Create Rifts”: Modern “Workplace Propaganda Posters” from Steve Thomas.
• “Wire Inspire“: Motivational posters based on “The Wire.” Fantastic. (Or rather, maybe, sheeeeeeeeit.)[kottke]
• Brian Yap drew this Talib Kweli poster entirely using Adobe Ideas for iPad.
• The quality of entries varies wildly, but I’m generally digging these Minimal Movie Posters.
• The Dark Knight vs… Unicorns? You can’t unsee it! [Via]

August 28, 2011

(rt) Odd camera materials (Lego, paper, & wood)

• Behold the Legotron, Mark I, a 4×5 Camera made of LEGO bricks. [Via]
• Going for a softer feel, one can get a working Leica M3 paper pinhole camera.
• You’re welcome, hipsters: the Wood Camera iPhone Case.

August 15, 2011

(rt) Illustrated miscellany

• Remixes:
  • Bizarre & kind of excellent: Soviet Army Monument Transformed into Superheroes.
  • Mona Lisa Remix, reducing the painting to just 140 colors. [Via]
• Heh–I love it, quickly: the “Fastest Possible Drawings of Everything.” [Via]
• Dave Grohl as coloring book: check out the Foo Fighters’ absurdist concert rider. (The ice cubes primer is particularly hilarious.)

• Illustration: Alvaro Tapia Hidalgo is one intense individual. [Via]

July 25, 2011

(rt) Illustration: New posters & infographics

• Posters:
  • I dig the cool use of negative space in this poster for The Dark Knight Rises. [Via]
  • Portman meets Fairey: Obey the Swan.
  • “A Champion Will Rise… About 2 Inches Off The Ground.”
  • “Jefferson X-Wing” & “AC/D2″: Coachella by way of Star Wars. [Via]
• Infographics:
  • Here’s a brief history of Isotype, “the vintage visual language on which modern infographics are founded.” [Via]
  • I’ve yet to explore the new infographics site visual.ly, but it looks promising.
  • What Would Don Draper Do? [Via]

July 11, 2011

(rt) Typography: Great hand lettering, iPad app, & more

July 09, 2011

(rt) Illustration: Groening does Apple, Fairey does Carpenter, & more

• Another reason I loved Apple in the 80′s: Vintage ads from Matt Groening (!).
• More beautifully simple visual puns light up IBM’s Smarter Planet series.
• You Will Obey: Shepard Fairey’s They Live Poster. (It all comes full circle.) [Via]
• You won’t be unseeing Fractal Tom Selleck. And you’re welcome.
• Cute: “Snoutlet, The Pigs Behind Electrical Outlets.”
• Heh: I like David Friedman’s idea for Thing Three and Thing Four.

June 27, 2011

(rt) Design: Daft Coke, Frozen Steve, & more

• Daft Punk does coke… or rather, Coke? Funky packaging.
• Wunderboxes are funky, minimalist dioramas. [Via]
• Architecture:
  • Check out some beautiful, offbeat watchtowers in the Netherlands.
  • I also dig the bold slices of color on a Japanese bank.
  • Most Jawa’d Out. Kindergarten. Ever. [Via]
• iDevice cases:
  • The Booq case holds an iPad, paper, & pen. [Via]
  • The Steve Jobs In Carbonite iPhone Case seems, predictably, to have been yanked from rotation.

June 25, 2011

(rt) Photography: Blackbirds & cursing & migrants, oh my

• Cute: the USB Film Roll packs 4GB of photos into a recycled film canister.
• History:
  • Interesting stories: 10 People’s Lives in Famous Photographs (“Migrant Mother,” the flowers-in-gun-barrels guy, and more).
  • Here’s a beautiful SR-71 Blackbird family portrait, plus a piece on why the SR-71 matters. [Via]
• Fun with profanity:
  • “‘[Screw] it. They’re all the same to me.’ remarked stock photo Steve, as he saved the company another 50%…” [Via]
  • It was almost worth buying the mug for its “shit-language.”

June 24, 2011

(rt) Illustration: Retro “Cars” & more

• I love this retro-illustrated poster for “Cars 2.” We’re taking the kids today (er, this evening, boss, if you’re reading) for their first outing to the theater. [Via]
• How about snuggling up with a Photoshop color palette bedspread? [Via]
• “Blood on the Tracks” as pulp fiction & more: What If Your Favorite Album Was a Book? [Via] Update: Check out this slideshow of all the work. [Via Marc Pawliger]
• I get a weird kick out of this Santa/birds illustration combo. Check out lots of other good stuff at stevenbonner.com.
• “Disposable portraits“: Idan Friedman lovingly embosses artwork into cheap aluminum pans.

June 03, 2011

(rt) Typography: Classic chrome, strange meals

• FontStruct looks to be a cool online tool for building & sharing fonts.
• Chromeography celebrates vintage chrome badges on cars, cameras, & more. [Via]
• Chow:
  • Dunno what this German means, nor does Google, but I’m hoping for “Schlepp fruit in one’s giant underpants.”
  • Leading vs. line spacing get explained via PB&J.
  • “Type Sandwiches” are made from nothing by letters. [Via]

May 30, 2011

(rt) Photographic history: Abbey Road to Mt. Rushmore

• Ever seen the original design of Mount Rushmore; who knew?
• Iain MacMillan remembers the Abbey Road album cover sessions.
• 40 years of industrial design history: Design house ItalDesign commemorates its work via iPad.
• The NYT remembers Willard S. Boyle, father of the CCD. On behalf of all digital shooters, thanks, Dr. B!

May 26, 2011

(rt) Illustration: Silhouettes, CSS, & Mr. Peanut

• I love these clever, subtle silhouettes (Rushmore, PW Herman, etc.) from Olly Moss.
• LayerStyles.org offers a Photoshop-style interface for CSS editing. [Via]
• Ill advised:
  • An illustration I’d almost like to see: “UFC Fighter Has Idea For T-Shirt With A Bunch Of Sh*t Written All Over It.”
  • Worst illustration idea ever? “Gang tattoo leads to a murder conviction“–plus Mr. Peanut!
• To cleanse the palate, here’s some classic Russian design inspiration: The Posters of Dziga Vertov.

May 24, 2011

(rt) iPhone bits & content-aware fails

• iPhone:
  • Hmm: A Leica-iPhone hybrid? (Would this still be relevant if wireless camera-to-phone transfer got good & pervasive?)
  • Though I don’t use the app, I can dig this hip Hipstamatic iPhone case. [Via]
  • Terry White gets detailed on “How the iPad fits into a Photography Workflow.”
• ‘Shop You, ‘Shop Me:
  • An Orthodox Jewish newspaper Photosh–er, digitally removed–Hillary Clinton from a photo.
  • Right back atcha: “Citing modesty, hipster website removes ‘sexually suggestive’ male images from Situation Room photo.” [Via]

May 23, 2011

(rt) Photography: Finding art in nukes, tulips, & more

• Natural art:
  • Wow–this is really a photo, not a composite? [Via]
  • Julian Faulhaber treats tulips in Netherlands as abstract art.
• Conflict:
  • Odd: The Unabomber’s famous hood & sweatshirt. Even odder: The US Marshals are auctioning it all (and evidently use Flickr). [Via]
  • The Atlantic rounds up striking, sometimes ghoulish photos of nuclear weapons tests. The mannequins creep me out. [Via]

May 20, 2011

(rt) Useful online photo tools

• Neat idea: SLR Camera Simulator teaches the effects of camera parameters. [Via]
• StolenCamera Finder “uses the serial number stored in your photo to search the web for photos taken w/the same camera.”
• Bigger camera sensors generally offer better performance. Sensor-Size.com lets you “Compare & Convert Digital Cameras.”

May 16, 2011

(rt) Illustration: Hidden images, Saul Bass, 3D lights, & more

• I love these beautifully designed stamps for the Royal Shakespeare Company. [Via]
• Amazing: illustrator István Orosz hides artwork inside anamorphic drawings. [Via]
• Did you know that Photoshop’s 3D lights can do 2D effects?.
• Bass-o’-matic:
  • Saul Bass’s great work has been pretty systematically wiped from DVDs.
  • Fortunately, fans online have been collecting his beautiful title sequences.
  • Christian Annyas rounds up Saul Bass logo design: then and now.
  11:02 AM | Permalink | No Comments

May 03, 2011

(rt) Photography: Surreal composites, underwater history, & more

• National Geographic shows the first underwater color photo, plus an exploding flash raft & more.
• The “Surrealistic Pillow” is a set of trippy photos composites from Ronen Goldman. [Via]
• If that’s up your alley, see also this atmospheric photography from Swinspeed. [Via]
• Neat: Cartagram lays out popular Instagram photos according to geotags.
• “Switzerland: Come Take a Dump in the Alps!” (Or is that just how I read it?)

May 02, 2011

(rt) Illustration: Buscemi eyes, Ali, & more

• A colleague rushes in: “My God, this site just changed my life!” ChicksWithSteveBuscemiEyes.
• Michael Kalish has made a portrait of Muhammad Ali using 1300 punching bags, held up by 5 miles of stainless steel cable and 2 miles of aluminum tubing. [Via Maria Brenny]
• Check out the neat HTML parallax on the Bloom.io site; scroll down to see it. [Via]
• “Omar comin’, yo!” The Wire gets made literally Dickensian.

April 18, 2011

(rt) Scientific Photography: Sunspots, satellite images, & more

• “Melty roads”: Clement Valla collects unintentionally bizarre results from Google Earth. [Via]
• NASA shows “The extraordinary image of a large sunspot emitting cascades of glowing gas.” (That caption sounds like a Pink Floyd song title.)
• Sonar imaging reveals a submerged WWII German bomber.
• “Luminant Point Arrays” show tube televisions at the moment they are switched off. [Via]
• In case you were wondering what it looks like when lightning strikes the tallest building in the world, well, wonder no more.

April 08, 2011

(rt) Illustrations: Tommy guns, switchblade combs, & more

• Interesting infographic: The History of Web Browsers, though to borrow from AJ Soprano, “What, no friggin’ Mosaic?” [Via]
• “A Neverending Volley of American Justice!!” In “I Always Wondered,” Jarrett Green answers and beautifully illustrates his own most pressing questions.
• The designers at Fubiz take a swing at making minimalist packaging. (“How about we add a feature to dial out extraneous BS in one’s designs?” asks my colleague Bruce Bullis.)
• Switchblade combs! What a throwback. Check out the fun “Mediumcore” illustration & others from Leon Ryan.

April 06, 2011

(rt) Illustration: Movie posters, fractal meat, & more

• Cinematic:
  • Check out Viktor Hertz’s solid pictogram movie posters.
  • Daniel Norris has made a great poster for the old flick Westworld.
• Here’s a rather wonderful birthday card from a dad to his 1-year-old son.
• David Lynch’s hair gets compared to various works of art. [Via]
• Mandelbratwurst: A fractal meat treat!

April 05, 2011

(rt) Typography: Spam ASCII art, ligature charts, & more

• “Almost Extinct” is a gorgeous set of animals formed from wooden type.
• This spam’s use of ASCII art charms me. Time to meet the Russian ladies!
• How great is this word-puzzle wrapping paper? Margot ordered some immediately.
• The intriguing Chartwell font uses ligatures to make charts from text. See what I mean. [Via]

April 04, 2011

(rt) Photography: War, science, & enormous panoramas

• The NYT features an amazing jet crash image & other photos from Libya.
• Eric Guth makes some beautiful, otherworldly glacier cave photography. (I feel like the Alien queen might be lurking around a corner.) [Via]
• Bubble boy: Dig these subtly offbeat photos from Alex Kisilevich.
• A “pancake with a nose” makes for a nifty scientific image: Stingray X-ray.
• This 40 gigapixel 360º panorama taken inside the Strahov Philosophical Library, Prague, claims to be the world’s largest indoor photo. [Via Don Z.]

April 03, 2011

(rt) Illustrations: Famous logos evolved & more

• I love these beautifully simple, graphical Don DeLillo covers by Noma Bar.
• Neat design history: Logo Evolution of 25 Famous Brands. [Via]
• Coke + La Sagrada Familia? Seems vaguely blasphemous, but it works. [Via]
• Center of Attention celebrates the lost art of record center labels. [Via]

March 31, 2011

(rt) Illustrations about, and for, Japan

• Japan’s Dark Spring: A beautiful, haunting NYer cover from Christoph Niemann.
• “Help Japan”–beautiful work from Mitch Fleming.
• Lorenzo Moschi’s seismic contribution is well done, too. [Via]

March 30, 2011

(rt) Type: Lego spaceships, Chuck Norris, & more

• “Chuck Norris doesn’t like children. That’s why Comic Sans is on that list.”
• Delicious letterporn: dig the free Type Specimen for iPad. (I quickly found & downloaded Metalista.)
• Check out Mark Anderson’s fun LEGO Alphabet Spaceships A-Z. [Via]
• Understated as ever: Where Vegas neon goes to die. [Via]

March 28, 2011

(rt) Photography: Strange history, beautiful Antarctica, & more

• Ghostly & strange: Corinne Vionnet overlays hundreds of tourist photos taken from the same spots. [Via]
• History:
  • I had no that Frederick Ives captured color photos of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. (105 years later, other San Franciscans are writing apps like Instagram to mimic the same looks.)
  • Bernard Kalb captured beautiful B&W photos of Antarctica during midcentury expeditions.
  • What could possibly be worse than being married to Hitler? Being married to Hitler in blackface.
• Vehicular:
  • Erwin Wurm makes chubby Ferraris & other absurd vehicles.
  • Terrific plane nerdery: Check out fourteen 360-degree cockpit panoramas. [Via]

March 24, 2011

(rt) Illustration: Clever logos, disturbing art, & more

• Dig the clever use of negative space in this “Snooty Peacock” logo.
• “Possible Reasons Why Your Big Idea Is Destined to Fail…” See more “Pictures With Words On Them” from David Fullarton here.
• A bit disturbing:
  • Resist the Nazi Dinosaurs!! Bizarre faux-vintage posters.
  • “The Totally Insane, Candy-Coated Paintings of Charlie Immer”? Yep, that seems about right.
• The Manhattan street grid is 200 years old this week. The NYT’s Map of How Manhattan’s Grid Grew overlays maps from 1811, 1836, and today.
• Neat: UI Stencils help you draw interfaces on paper. [Via]

March 23, 2011

(rt) Particle Men

• Is he an illustrator or a sculptor? Andrew Myers makes amazing portraits made using pegboards & screws. “He starts with a base, plywood panel, and then places pages of a phone book on top. (Cool fact: He’ll use pages from his subjects’ local area.) He then draws out a face and pre-drills 8,000 to 10,000 holes, by hand.” [Via]
• ⁃Ben Heine creates celebrity portraits made from thousands of circles. Of the technique he says, “I first made a photomontage using several references, then a digital painting and I finally applied my ‘digital circlist’ technique (I placed each circle one by one, there is no automatic process).” [Via] The work makes me think of mosaics by Charis Tsevis, including one of me.

March 22, 2011

(rt) Infographics: Nuclear meltdown & rockin’ hair

• The NYT explains how a reactor shuts down & what happens in a meltdown. [Via]
• Eye-opening: “Chinese provinces compared to countries.”
• Fun poster: A Visual Compendium of Notable Haircuts in Popular Music. [Via]

March 14, 2011

(rt) Illustration: Monster-pimping cheap art, Disney at war, & more

• Involuntary Collaborations: “I buy other people’s landscape paintings at yard sales & put monsters in them.”
• James Gulliver Hancock is attempting to draw “All The Buildings in New York.” (The crazy ambition would go well with Sufjan Stevens’s Fifty States Project.) [Via]
• Speaking of states, what is your state the worst at? Find out with the United States of Shame.
• “I Wish This Was…” Fun stickers let you put social commentary all over your environment. Via]
• I find these Disney-drawn World War II insignia vaguely creepy. (Update for the benefit of one of my censorious, reactionary readers: It’s the mixture of cutesy & death-dealing that I find creepy. Call it like it is–like this.) [Via]

March 13, 2011

(rt) Photography: Outstanding Star Wars, True Grit, & more

• You really should see Avanaut’s beautifully executed Star Wars toy photography (seriously!). [Via]
• Photographer (!) Jeff Bridges has produced an interesting, wide-angle True Grit Book.
• Todd McLellan beautifully detonates all manner of devices.
• Atmospheric:
  • Check out some beautiful mammatus clouds over Olympic Valley. (Didn’t Steve Miller sing of the mammatus?)
  • “This plane photo-bombed a photo of the sun!,” writes Photojojo. “Props to the plane.”

March 12, 2011

(rt) Illustration: Giant maps, Sugar skulls, & more

• With “Google’s World,” Alejo Malia imagines map iconography made huge. [Via]
• ¡Ay, scary Kermit! Dig these offbeat “Sugar Skulls.”
• My wife Margot, seeing Cabel Sasser’s wedding designs, says “Please befriend far less creative people so we can feel OK about ourselves!” Matthew Richmond is similarly humbling.
• Speaking of Margot, this could be a portrait of my curly-headed wife as a cassette tape.
• I love the intricate drawings of Nanami Cowdroy. Margot’s work Mac sports one courtesy of Gelaskins. [Via Paulo Sales]

March 03, 2011

(rt) Illustration: Sheenian Dadaism, gorgeous posters, & more

• Genius: Charlie Sheen Quotes As New Yorker Cartoons. [Via] (The motivational posters aren’t half bad, either.)
• Sketchesnatched offers terrific portraits for Black Swan, 2001, & other films [Via]
• 8-bit:
  • Retro Nintendo fun: Toadstool Terrarium by Jude Buffum.
  • Nice: PacMan turntable.
• Childhood photos + little monsters = a charming little photo-illustration project.
• CV Dazzle applies WWI-era camouflage techniques to human faces, confounding facial recognition software. [Via]
• This Maxell ad homage is a pretty accurate illustration of our sons vs. tomato-based foods [Via]

February 28, 2011

(rt) Typography: Jazz & Chalk

• Dig Paul Rogers’s beautiful Jazz Stamp for the USPS. [Via]
• The useful Fonts In Use shows “type at work in the real world.” [Via]
• Check out some beautiful chalk lettering from Dana Tanamachi. [Via]

February 26, 2011

(rt) Ephemera: Sickening laptops, exploding toilets, & more

• Apple meets Cronenberg; I’m still shuddering.
• Check out a bizarre & rather brilliant paper mod for your Web cam.
• LiveView “allows me to view Photoshop on my phone, live, while I make adjustments. Amazing,” says designer Scott Hansen.
• Sculptural:
  • Buhm-bum buhm-bum buhm-bum: the 2001 monolith as giant VHS tape.
  • Awesome in its simplicity: Lorenzo Quinn’s “Vroom Vroom” sculpture.
  • A toilet made from a Russian anti-submarine mine? That might cause some potty training trauma.
• Watch Jan Hammer rock the keytar; feel your hair start blow drying itself, your sleeves auto-shortening.
• I love bizarre Twitter juxtapositions like this.

February 21, 2011

(rt) Illustration: Star Wars as icons, poisonous treats, & more

• Nice: Wayne Dorrington has retold Star Wars entirely in icons. [Via]
• “Y’know, for kids…”
  • Apropos of nothing, here’s a lovely kids’-book illustration.
  • Weird packaging design: “Won’t This New Energy Drink Result in Children Drinking Poison?“
• I love the gorgeous, textured work of Irish illustrator Eoin Ryan. [Via]
• In an intriguing little video experiment, participants are asked to trace one another’s work as closely as possible. Things degenerate quickly.
• Check out some nifty Charlie Harper-esque illustrations from Ben Newman.

February 20, 2011

(rt) Photography: Ali’s greatness, retro re-creations, & more

• “This is the greatest photo you will see today,” notes Mike Monteiro. Sounds right to me.
• In her “Back to the Future” project, Irina Werning reenacts old photos, posing the same people in the same spots decades later. [Via]
• Plenoptic camera lenses, which use arrays of micro lenses & which can refocus images after the fact, come to cell phones.
• Edi Go has made surprisingly beautiful images of a plastic bag.
• Photo essays like this make me thankful for my immoderate blessings.

February 19, 2011

(rt) Typography: James Brown, Using the Force, & more

• Look at this incredibly simple animation. You’ll wonder how you didn’t see it before.
• “May the force of Typography be with you.”
• Not sure whether it’s G.O.A.T., but it’s certainly great: James Brown in type. [Via]
• “Write a Bike“: Check out some crazy typographical cycles [Via Mira Albert-Bullis]
• Sebastien Cuypers has made 80 hand-lettered iPhone cases. “Mine’s the one that says ‘Bad M…’”
• “I see some A’s! A is for Adobe,” says young Finn. “That’s right, bud,” I tell him, “and P is for Photoshop.” “No, that’s crazy!,” he protests. “F is for Fotoshop!” Phun with Phonics.

February 18, 2011

(rt) Photography: Photographing one’s own murder & more

• Grim & bracing:
  • Katrin Eismann notes, “Tyler Hicks is doing amazing work in Afghanistan.”
  • Bizarre & horrible: photographing one’s own murder. (I really wish this were fake.)
• Might want to have this looked at: Disturbing, if beautifully executed, image o’ the day. [Via]
• “On the Grid” is Gerco de Ruijter’s interesting set of aerial photos of trees.
• Racy back-of-mag ad promises “Larger Size Permanent.” Wow–people still get perms?

February 14, 2011

(rt) Illustrations: Beautiful posters, Escher riffs, & more

• Reelizer is a nicely curated set of movie posters. (I’m digging Jeremy Jusay’s take on The Thin Red Line.) [Via]
• “By Valor & Arms”: It’s The State Mottos Project.
• Reserve monocle? Emergency Oreo? Sixteen Ways to Use Your Wrist Now That Watches are Obsolete.
• Props to the MC:
  • Check out these neat Escheresque images made by Josh Sommers using Photoshop + Pixel Bender. [Via]
  • Oscar Ramos has made some gorgeous modern Escheresque illustrations.
• I love the simplicity of the restroom icons in the Adobe Hamburg office.

February 07, 2011

(rt) Photography: Vertigo, bisected bunkers, & more

• Military history:
  • Jonathan Andrew has taken a perversely beautiful series of photos of WWII bunkers. [Via]
  • This is your bunker. This is your bunker sawn in half & made into art. [Via]
  • These fighters are stuck onto the bomber, and not via Photoshop.
• Instagram:
  • Check out the World’s Smallest Instagram Gallery. [Via]
  • I belatedly realized that the point of Instagram isn’t photography. The point is looking cool. (And I’m okay with that.)
• Great heights:
  • The vertigo-inducing photo o’ the day comes from the transparent floor at Shanghai TV Tower [Via]
  • Here’s a terrific image of an enormous supercell cloud.
• How cool: This keychain-size DSLR sports interchangeable lens.

February 06, 2011

(rt) Illustrations: 1.21 Jiggawatts, The Four Icon Challenge, & more

• Mildly nasty infographic OTD: Starbucks Trenta vs. your stomach.
• Oprah’s “SketchBook O” app sheds light on her audience’s demons.
• “Jigga What?” Excellent Back to the Future & GI Joe shirts. [Via]
• Fun illustrations: The Four Icon Challenge tackles 2001, The Big Lebowski, & more. [Via Chris Regan]
• Let It Dough! – More terrific visual storytelling from Christoph Niemann.

January 31, 2011

(rt) Illustration: Loose Tweets, great posters, & more

• Poster art:
  • “Loose Tweets Sink Fleets!” Brian Moore makes propaganda posters of WWIII. [Via]
  • Mubi.com rounds up the best movie posters of 2010. And here’s another decent, if more mainstream, collection. [Via]
• Art history:
  • Check out the cheerful models who were used in “American Gothic” standing next to the painting. [Via]
  • You can buy fantastic Susan Kare prints of original Mac icons. Moof! [Via]
• I’ll see you on the Dark Side of the Dorito.

January 21, 2011

(rt) Interesting Miscellany: Riffing on Starbucks, Android goggles, & more

• Heh: The predicted ongoing simplification of the Starbucks logo [Via Russell Brown]
• Design:
  • S&P meet PS: Photoshop salt and pepper shakers!
  • I love Randy Hage’s crazy-detailed NYC storefront models. [Via]
• New ski goggles run Android (!), offering built-in maps & video.
• Heh–check out this MacGyver-style iPad drawing aid (low-tech palm rejection).
• Kickin’ it dough-school: Shell-toes in Play-Doh.
• Know who won’t be boldly going through these doors? Girls.

January 13, 2011

(rt) Photos: Bokeh & Polaroids on iPhone, more

• Bokeh from an iPhone? So promises SynthCam from Stanford prof Mark Levoy. [Via Jeff Chien]
• Nifty: the Polaroid iPhone Decal.
• I saw a square, brownish 70′s family photo at Tom Hogarty’s house the other day and thought, “Oh, they used Instagram.” Man, I’m losing it.
• Evil Pregnant Natalie Portman (artist’s conception).
• Happy Family Slim-Slim #5; don’t trust it @ 99 cent store.

January 09, 2011

(rt) Illustrations: Strangelove, disfigured Muppets, & more

• I love “The Haunted Household“: Clever, beautifully simple illustrations from Christoph Niemann.
• “I’m so cute and cuddly! I help you pee!” Hello, Kidney. See also “In Cutero.”
• Check out some great Strangelove-style desktop wallpaper from Ross Zietz.
• Dig these minimalist posters for musical genres. I love the one for the Twist.
• Infographics:
  • The horror! “What I remember most about LEGOs.” [Via]
  • Outstanding: “People Who Touch Your Junk.” (I’d suggest listing my kids, but they do it pro bono.) [Via]
• So, this exists, then: http://muppetswithpeopleeyes.tumblr.com/ (And if you write to say you can’t unsee it, I’ll reply in the vein of Airplane!: “You saw the URL, you knew what you were getting into: I say, let ‘em crash.”)

January 06, 2011

(rt) Photography: Images of the year, “Crouching Child, Hidden Mother,” & more

• The New York Times rounds up 2010: The Year in Pictures–often heartbreaking, occasionally beautiful.
• “Crouching child, Hidden mother:” Who’s up for restoring this weird photographic convention? (The comments are morbid.)
• Your photos + cheap Swedish furniture = Mykea. Neat. [Via]
• I dig this tranquil, snowy photo from Jason Santa Maria.

January 04, 2011

(rt) Holiday leftovers: Assorted design links

• Aural:
  • Tonematrix is a delightful little audio toy from Andre Michelle [Via J. Peterson]
  • Alec Baldwin has made the first truly funny NPR solicitation I’ve ever heard.
• “Reclined Jabba, Salacious Crumb Variation”: Star Wars Yoga. [Via]
• This chair + the hot sun would make your butt look like a Whopper.
• “Soylent.PSD”? The TidyPSD service will organize your Photoshop files for $9/apiece (down from $29, I believe).
• Sculpture
  • Dig these little traffic-cone “ducks” (second photo down).
  • Interesting optical effects created by machined metal “pixels.”

December 29, 2010

(rt) Photos of the year, lost wookies, & more

• Amazing, sometimes brutal, often beautiful: The Big Picture’s 2010 In Photos, Part 1.
• A photographer recently found the AE-1 stolen from him 30 years ago. (As mine was stolen from the Washington Navy Yard in the mid-80′s, I guess I’ve gotta wait a few more years.) [Via]
• Stop! Hammer time. Defaced is “a photo blog all about people ruining other people’s stuff cuz it’s funny.”
• Photo-illustration: “The shroud of Vogue” was made from the last 12 editions of the magazine, overlaid.
• From my neighborhood: Have you seen my wookie?

December 28, 2010

(rt) Illustrations: Best of 2010, Gatsby letterpress, & more

• If all the countries in the world geographic positions based on population, you’d get something like this.
• Best-of:
  • “The Best Illustrations of 2010“: An uneven collection, but containing some gems.
  • “Funniest T-Shirt Designs of the Decade“? Not sure, but some clever, well executed stuff.
• Gorgeous: Letterpress business cards for Jay Gatsby’s guests.
• A beautiful invitation to marriage at the La Brea Tar Pits…

December 22, 2010

(rt) Great recent posters: Star Wars, games, & more

• Star Wars:
  • Check out three terrific posters from Olly Moss. [Via]
  • Justin Van Genderen crushes it with gorgeous posters for fictional cities (including Bespin, Coruscant, and more). [ia Margot Nack]
  • Mondotees offers plenty o’ solid Star Wars posters, though you may need to scroll down. (The line work brings back Bones Brigade memories.)
• “Fake Criterions” is whole blog of overly serious/artsy movie posters. [Via]
• Rachel Morris has made fun posters for the NYU Game Center. [Via]

December 13, 2010

(rt) Entirely random interestingness

• “New Social Networking Site Changing The Way Oh, Christ, Forget It.” (file under Why I couldn’t write for TechCrunch)
• Dressing as Photoshop for Halloween. (Beachball hat, though? Say it ain’t so!)
• Two-wheeled:
  • How rad is this armadillo-esque solar moped concept?
  • Also wild: A crocheted steel wireframe motorcycle sculpture. [Via Chris Davis]
  • How come this can’t be the way the Segway company president died?
• ‘The Wire’ as a Monopoly game? That’s no 40-degree day.

December 09, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Cool vans, Weezer raveled, & more

• “Would it be cooler as a van?” What a fantastic illustration concept: Famous movie cars made “Cooler as a Van.” (Resident car guy Hughes wants to give famous vans the opposite treatment: “What wouldn’t be cooler not being a van?” Mystery Gremlin, maybe?) [Via]
• Check out Tom Whalen’s dynamite Art Deco-styled Batman poster. [Via]
• “Li’l Elvis and his Bad Hair” concerns “a young boy and his bad, but *well intentioned*, talking hair.” (For ten years I have been, you would have no way of knowing, tinyElvis@adobe.com. You’re welcome, spam bots.)
• Weezer Dry Cleaning: “We Won’t Destroy Your Sweater.”

December 06, 2010

(rt) Photography: Ansel does iPad, Mon Calamari, & more

• The work of Ansel Adams has come to iPad. [Via Zalman Stern]
• Heaven & earth:
  • “Skyward“: Patience rewards with a beautiful photo.
  • A neat satellite photo captures the UK & Ireland covered in snow. [Via]
• Photographer John Warner dubbed his father-son photo trip to Ireland “Dad, Lad, & iPad.” I love it.
• Fun with miniatures:
  • “It’s a Frap!!” So nerdy, but right up my alley.
  • Call it “Shirts vs. Tiny Plastic Blouses.”

December 05, 2010

(rt) Brilliant NatGeo photos, painterly fashion photos, & more

• Brilliant photography (amazing storms, bugs, & more) abounds in the National Geographic 2010 contest.
• Mark Leibowitz creates beautifully impressionistic fashion photos. [Via]
• Romain Laurent catches great portraits mid-splash. See his site for even more striking images. [Via]
• Think you’re a hardy photographer? Would you keep shooting after your legs were just blown off?
• “I drew a little balloon,” says spittle artist Finn. So, there’s that, then.

November 21, 2010

(rt) Typography: Font detection, crazy bikes, & more

• Yes, there is a sort of “Shazam for fonts” (letting you snap pics to ID typefaces): WhatTheFont for iPhone.
• “Write a Bike“: Crazy typographical cycles. [Via Mira Albert-Bullis]
• Ian Curtis is spinning in his grave: “Joy Division Divorce Attorneys.”
• “If you touch…” Oh my. A topical, TSA-themed cross-stitch.
• When this is someday done in HTML5, it’ll be considered the best, most revolutionary thing ever. [Update: I probably should have added a jokey wink emoticon to convey my tone on this one. So, ";-)!" I'll shortly post a very long list of big, significant things Adobe is doing to support the advancement of HTML5, so no one need stress.]

November 19, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Pixel art, beautiful cards, & more

• “Achtung!” Here’s a rather brilliant TSA Checkpoint sign. [Via]
• Goodness abounds in the beautiful state card designs in this Dribbble set.
• Pixel art:
  • I love Andy Rash’s pixel Star Wars characters. If those are up your alley, see his pixel Bond, Borat, and others.
  • “Koopa, It’s What’s For Supper.” Jude Buffum’s made meat-cut diagrams for Nintendo characters. [Via]
• Cinematic characters:
  • Halloween party stylings: Four duelling DeNiros & more appear in Ivan Brunetti’s great New Yorker cover.
  • “It’s Murray Time…” Bill Murray as other Wes Anderson characters. (Malkovichian.)
• Lee Rubenstein’s created crazy lo-fi creatures from CS5 splash screens. [Via]

November 11, 2010

(rt) Photography: Frozen explosions, toxic sludge, & more

• Euclidian eats: Ikea’s made a coffee table book of ingredients laid out as patterns.
• This smart poster reacts against domestic violence–literally.
• I dig these colors & compositions from photographer Jim Green.
• Fluid dynamics:
  • You know what’s been great today? Not getting buried in a flood of toxic sludge.
  • NPR shows photos of water balloons caught mid-pop. The water retains its shape for impossible-seeming images. [Via]
• The “Muybridgizer” app creates Victorian-style freeze frames.

November 08, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Black Swans, fun with Carbonite, & more

• “Holy crap is Africa big,” observes Daniel Jalkut. [Via]
• Check out some bold & excellent “Black Swan” movie posters. [Via]
• Star Wars:
  • Heh: Mr. and Mrs. The Hutt Make a Compromise.
  • I like José Pulido’s Día de los Muertos-style Star Wars illustrations.
  • Long, long ago–specifically, from the 70′s: Boba Fett’s invoice to Jabba the Hutt.

October 17, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Beautiful Fireworks, duck fear, & more

• Web tech:
  • Smashing Magazine rounds up impressive illustrations done in Adobe Fireworks, including the Firefox & Adobe CS icons.
  • Colorzilla offers a nice Photoshop-like CSS gradient editor.
  • Check out a beautiful webcam/fluid experiment by Eugene Zatepyakin. [Via]
• “Anatidaephobia” translates as “The best accidental advert placement in the history of mankind.” [Via]
• Nerdtastic: PANTONE Visa Cards. [Via]
• Rocking this laptop skin would be up there with growing a mullet for irony.

October 03, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Van Gogh, Chewbacca, and more

• Rocking this laptop skin would be up there with growing a mullet for irony. (Might get you some good customer reviews & tribute vids, though.)
• Photoshop + Van Gogh = tilt-shift good times.
• “Chewbacca riding a squirrel fighting Nazis = YES!” [Via]
• During the BP oil spill, Bob Staake did a rather excellent Escher-style New Yorker cover.

October 02, 2010

(rt) Photography: Vintage space suits, lenses, & more

• Check out this fun little SLR-shaped USB thumb drive.
• From the escuela vieja:
  • I love this juxtaposition of high & low tech: Space Suit of the Week
  • Rosemarie Fiore has created long-exposure captures of Atari games [Via]
  • Dreamy: pairing Canon 5DmkII plus a 102-year-old lens. (via @daringfireball)
• Astrophotography: “Crescent Moon With Earthshine” created using HDR in Photoshop.
• Canon’s developed one enormous motherscratchin’ camera sensor.

September 26, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Great shirts, Bill Murray, & more

• Shirts:
  • How many can you get? 80′s films as logos.
  • I love Neven Mrgan’s falling-stuff-as-dude Incident shirt.
• Offbeat but impressive: Hand Painting Ads by Guido Daniele.
• “For relaxing times… Suntory Time” Just ordered this great poster. Good Don Draper & Joan, too.
• A nice tutorial on creating a digital bokeh effect using Photoshop’s brush engine.

September 23, 2010

(rt) Typography: Trashing & ‘Staching

• Heh: I dig these typographic mustaches.
• First-world problem, then? Passive-aggressive brawling over Comic Sans. [Via]
• Illustration/type: Journalism Warning Labels; much needed.

September 21, 2010

(rt) Photography: iPhones as Leicas, Photoshop disasters, & more

• Here’s a gorgeous Palestinian kid-with-sparkler image. The rest of gallery is good, too.
• How-to: Make your iPhone 4 look “like a beautiful old Leica.” You can also see Photojojo’s tips on How To Make Your Cell Phone Look Like Your Favorite Camera.
• Photoshop gone wrong:
  • Bloomingdale’s really approved this retouching job? Seriously? [Via John Lin]
  • Credit an Egyptian newspaper for coining “performing surgery” to explain away their manipulation of the news. [Via Harris Fogel]
• Check out this fun little SLR-shaped USB thumb drive.

September 20, 2010

(rt) Photography: Space, power, and iPhone funkiness

• Athleticism:
  • The Big Picture rounds up some amazing diving photos. 8 & 16 are my faves. [Via]
  • “The Beauty of the Power Game“: The NYT features slow-mo video of top female tennis players.
• Space & science:
  • NASA photos: Martian dunes plus a towering Shuttle launch trail.
  • There are great NASA images on the Flickr Commons, including this Apollo 11 launch gem.
  • The iPhone’s rolling shutter vs. a spinning propeller produces a cool effect. Here’s some background info on why this happens, plus more bizarre shots of propellers.

September 11, 2010

(rt) Illustration: AT-AT as Eeyore & more

• Dig James Hance’s Star Wars characters in the style of Winnie-the-Pooh illustrations. [Via]
• Illustration: Three terrific Star Wars posters. [Via]
• Completing the Star Wars tweet hat trick: the excellent San-Francisco-as-Cloud-City t-shirt.

September 08, 2010

(rt) Offbeat illustrations: Bears, bikers, & more

• “Sandwich Defender!” Bizarre, oddly charming plate illustrations.
• Terminator-style child care: Gotta love it when your motorcycle-enthusiast babysitter shows up wearing this. (Go Chris go. :-))
• Rainn Wilson presents “The Greatest Portrait You Will Ever See.”
• Parenting advice for those too dumb to be parents.
• “Partay, Bitchezz!!” WWII on Facebook. [Via]

September 06, 2010

(rt) Photography: Giant imaging, great silhouettes, & more

• Huge:
  • British scientists are using a dried-out lake bed as a massive white balance card for satellites.
  • “The Big Unit” is to become 7-foot-tall rock concert photographer. (Presumably it’ll go better than his career in the Audubon Society.)
• The Big Picture features a great set of silhouette photos. [Via]
• Telling a photographer that his camera takes great pictures is like telling a chef that his oven makes great meals. [Via]

August 28, 2010

(rt) Photography: From Iceland to Insects

• Far & Away:
  • Brent Stirton has captured some amazing photos of indigenous peoples. [Via]
  • Check out a set of beautiful Iceland images from Julieanne Kost.
• Wildlife:
  • You, sir, are one fine-looking bug: Amazing macro photos from Thomas Shahan.
  • Outstanding bird photography blog: Hungover Owls.
  • “Be warned, YOU WILL NEVER UNSEE THIS.” [Via]

August 27, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Amazing 3D street paintings, Apple 1910, & more

• Christoph Niemann (of Lego NYC & other fame) kills with a hilarious visual journal of a flight. [Via]
• This remains easily my favorite book cover, ever. (What’s with the other hand? Crushing your head?)
• Fans of optical illusions will love this set of 3D street paintings by Edgar Muller.
• Cool how-to: Creating gradient rings in Illustrator.
• Retro tech: Apple FaceTime, 1910 A.D.
• Flickr features a whole set of pixel cityscapes.

August 25, 2010

(rt) Photography: History in color, plus Iggy

• The Ghosts of World War II: Sergey Larenkov’s computational rephotography carefully overlays past & present. [Via]
• Is that an onion dome, or are you… no, it’s an onion dome. Amazing Color Photography from Russia in the Early 1900s. [Via]
• The Denver Post rounds up images of America in Color from 1939-1943. [Via Gary Ferster]
• Lust for leather: The Official Iggy Pop Shirtless Aging Timeline. I’m somewhat speechless.

August 24, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Bad Dudes a go-go

• “My Style is ‘Whoop That Ass’” – These 52 Bad Dudes illustrations feature Anton Chigurh, Tyler Durden, & others. [Via]
• Seeing the project takes me back to WDDG’s old Bad As Sh*t Project. (Good luck getting that horn riff out of your head.)
• SAMCRO LEGO: I love these incredibly intricate tattoos on Minifigs. [Via]
• From the Not Really Helping Dept.: Man Uses Photoshopped Photos In Plea For Reduced Prison Sentence. [Via Adam Pratt]

August 14, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Outstanding movie posters

• Man, how great are these? Terrific movie posters from Olly Moss. (His previous work is also rad.)
• Jesus, Hitler, and Superman appear on behalf of the Tokyo subway system. [Via]
• Veerle Pieters curates a collection of gorgeous posters and more. (The content changes, and I wish I could direct-link to some of the standouts. It’s all good, though.)
• Smashing Magazine rounds up 50 Beautiful Movie Posters. Not every one’s a hit for me, but there’s plenty of strong stuff.

August 12, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Egress with beer, Sonic Youth, & more

• Aviation:
  • Awesome! “Proper technique for exiting aircraft.” [Via] Speaking of which, isn’t Steven Slater the guy from “Airplane“? [Via Reen Bodo]
  • Check out the beautiful vector art of Richard Perez’s “Supersonic” series.
• Foxy: I dig these beautifully simple, textured illustrations from Ty Wilkins.
• Jon Contino makes all kinds of illustrated interestingness. [Via]
• Margot’s new bob + specs = apparent Sonic Youth cover audition. (Props to Toon-FX + Diptic on the image creation.)

August 08, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Infinite Keanu & other jokes

• Fractal weirdness: Infinite Sad Helmet Keanu, “the GIF that keeps on giving.” (See the rest of the meme.)
• Waah! A logo for “the League of Internet Commenters.”
• Shirt: “You are here… but I can fix that in Photoshop.” [Via]
• Heh–the iPhone 4 ‘End Call’ sticker. (For what it’s worth, my reception has been fine.) In other now-slightly-dated levity, there’s “apple vs. flash!” and an Orwellian Apple/Adobe shirt [Via Marc Pawliger]
• “I Wish” shirt. (“Now it’s in your head, too,” says Tom Hogarty.)

August 06, 2010

(rt) Photography: Exploding aircraft, baby daydreams, & more

• Awesome: Photographer Luke Jerram chopped up camera to create a projector ring.
• What a great idea for a baby/photo series: Mila’s Daydreams. [Via]
• Airborne photographic mayhem: Crashing fighters and prancing transports.
• DeNiro, Brooklyn, India: The story of Steve McCurry’s shoot on the last roll of Kodachrome. (No photos yet, unfortunately.) [Via Bill Hughes]
• Techy:
  • Huey HD 3D Video Camera: Serious project or elaborate “Short Circuit” homage?
  • Science geeks + salad = Veggie MRIs. [Via]
• When it’s my time to go, I hope “drowning in oil” isn’t in the cards. [Via]

August 05, 2010

(rt) Type: Radical cows, amputees, & more

• I love Massimo Vignelli’s “Melting Pot” typographical flag. (Click the image to enlarge it.)
• “I have found the greatest Unicode glyph name ever,” says Neven Mrgan.
• Uhh… I guess it’s better than “Stumpy’s” Prosthetics. (Hopalongs?)
• Dolce & Gabbana’s determined to ride that damn Mistral font all the way down, Strangelove-style (til it’s cool again?).
• Yuck: The “Hairvetica” Font. [Via]

July 31, 2010

Photography: The Longest & the Largest

• Ghostly passage of time: Stefan Klenke shows The Longest Photographic Exposures in History. [Via Ben Jones]
• 70 Billion Pixels Budapest claims to be “the largest photo on Earth.” [Via Barry Young]

July 26, 2010

(rt) Photography: Summer storms, giant Russians, & awkward stock

• History:
  • The Very Last Roll of Kodachrome Film Ever Made Was Used to Capture NYC, at the hands of the renowned Steve McCurry. [Via] (“If I ever become CEO of Kodak,” says Mark Rosenberg, “I’ll manufacture one more roll of Kodachrome, just to drive Steve McCurry nuts.”)
  • We got your Woodpecker right here, da: Photography of giant Cold War Russian radio tech. [Via]
• Jeffrey Friedl’s cool rollover shows the visual effects of Lightroom’s JPEG export settings.
• Stock:
  • Just what’s promised: AwkwardStockPhotos.com [Via]
  • Similarly great: StockDBags.tumblr.com (Love the Kuato/abs reference!) [Via]
• Man, having grown up in Illinois, I love this photo–”Summer Storm, Chicago” by Ken Tanaka.

July 23, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Mad Men, devils, and Tom Selleck

• I dig these Minimalist Mad Men posters. (Sunday Sunday Sunday…) [Via]
• PSDTuts features A Brief History of Computer Icons. (I wish it included more pre-Mac work, not to mention NeXT.)
• Photoshop:
  • Thomas Scholes makes beautiful, painterly landscapes in Photoshop.
  • Blue Devil: A Pixel Bender + CS5 experiment from Greg Geisler.
• Offbeat:
  • Our 2-year-old Finn, observing classical cherubs cavorting on a gift bag: “Bunch of little nudists on there!”
  • Exactly what it promises to be, oddly enough: SelleckWaterfallSandwich. [Via]

July 22, 2010

(rt) Photography: Great & terrible images, Holgas & spacemen

• Best of:
  • 2009 National Pictures of the Year Nominees [Via Rob Galbraith]
  • The Press Photographer’s Year 2010 [Via]
• Worst of:
  • Gripping, terrible photos: A Look Back at the Vietnam War on the 35th Anniversary of the Fall of Saigon.
• Check out Saikat Biswas’s cool rethink of the Holga design.
• I’m getting a weird kick out of Hunter Freeman’s astronauts-in-banal-situations series. [Via]

July 13, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Dennis Hopper, Piet Mondrian, & more

• “Heineken…!?” Blue Velvet, Lost in Translation, and more: Great postcards to great characters.
• Old-timey:
  • I do love me some retro illustrations by Matthew Lyons.
  • “Yea, Verily Doth This Look Tapestryshopp’d…”
• Check out this do-it-yourself Piet Mondrian painting with movable pieces & changeable colors. [Via]

July 10, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Space, beautiful & laughable

• JoeJesus creates some beautiful space-scape artworks (and some cheeky ones, too). [Via]
• I like this proposed NASA logo redesign, though it’s evidently polarizing. [Via]
• “Fancy, your pants are”: Fun Victorian-style Star Wars portraits from Greg Peltz.
• Colt .45 for all! “I, Lobot: A Day In The Life of Lando Calrissian’s Assistant.” [Via]

July 08, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Infographics, disappearing rugs, & more

• The gorgeous design for utility app Kaleidoscope may take the cake for maximum marriage of aesthetics and geekiness.
• What do you do after drawing a dry-erase Persian rug? (Who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb?)
• Infographics:
  • Art Lebedev provides an interesting peek inside the making of the Moscow Metro map. [Via]
  • I dig this handsome, if now dated, World Cup radial bracket poster.
• I could get behind this mid-century-styled Wooden PC by Design Hara.

July 06, 2010

(rt) Photos & Illustration: Tetris everywhere, the Hand of God, & more

• Don’t hate the game:
  • “Tetris Tetris everywhere“: real-world objects that resemble the falling blocks.
  • What if popular gaming consoles were buildings, as imagined by Joseph Ford. [Via]
• Interesting media:
  • “A Matter of Taste”: Photographer Fulvio Bonavia recreates luxury goods from food. [Via Lynn Grillo]
  • Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal, rendered in Legos. [Via Steve Guilhamet]

July 04, 2010

(rt) Photography: Utterly non-Fourth-related miscellany

• Matt Kloskowski has created Lightroom iPad export settings for easy portfolio sharing. [Via]
• Photos + Photoshop – Wires = Anti-Gravity. [Via Jeff Chien]
• Moodiness:
  • Matt Mawson’s foggy beach photography makes me feel damp. [Via]
  • Dig these dark, atmospheric photos from Garmonique.
• “How on earth does one acquire that many dead birds, and why would one want to?” Macabre museum-keeping.

In any case, despite the thematic disconnect, Happy Fourth of July!

June 27, 2010

(rt) Type: Comic friggin’ Sans, World Cup type, & more

• “I’m Comic Sans, and I’m the best thing to happen to typography since Johannes f*ing Gutenberg!” [Via]
• The New Lens Flare: Typographical hotness courtesy of CSS3.
• Whating them in all night? The perils of careless font choices. [Via]
• Typographic World Cup t-shirts.
• “Ship It!” Check out this groovy pixel-paper card for Panic’s Transmit 4 launch.

June 26, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Goals, gorgeous cars, & more

• Athletic:
  • Retro Infographic: What happens in your head when you shout “Goal!” [Via]
  • Illustrations created entirely of handmade shoeprints for the Chicago Marathon. [Via]
• Automotive:
  • Jeff Koons has designed the new BMW art car. Bold as hell.
  • Stunning: the 1948 Buick Streamliner. [Via]
• Buzzcuts as illustration: an NYT slideshow.
• Heh–here’s a sort of MacGyver-style iPad drawing aid. (Obviously a software solution is needed, but still neat.)

June 13, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Vintage computer art, vector vehicles, & more

• Funky design book idea: The Geometry of Pasta.
• Spirographs can’t be killed. Check out this computer art from the 1950′s.
• Vectortuts features a set of Hot Vector Vehicles.
• “Get Your Mom Off Facebook“: 19 various coupons for tech nerds and web enthusiasts.
• Compare: Spongebob, age 50 vs. real-world Homer Simpson & Mario. [Via]
3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments [1]

June 12, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Peeling faces, physical Photoshops, and more

• “Hipsters, Start Your Photocopiers.” I’m loving The Big Caption. (Sometimes I identify a little too closely with the Thai guy in the helmet.) [Via]
• Real-world Photoshop:
  • Heh: “Photopaddles physically ‘Photoshop’ your pics.”: [Via]
  • Had to happen: A literal adobe photo-shop. [Via]
• Cool: Creating a peeling Escher-style face in Photoshop.
• What if our money weren’t grossly ugly? Check out a proposed U.S. Currency Redesign by Michael Tyznik.
• Video demo: Drawing pixel art on iPad using Sprite Something.

June 10, 2010

(rt) Motion: Killer movie titles & more

• The Art of the Title Sequence features the great “Up in the Air” opening title sequence plus an interview w/its creators. [Via]
• The same site shows the beautiful, illustrative Sherlock Holmes end credit sequence. [Via]
• Check out some fascinating slow-motion launch footage from Apollo 11.
• “The Empire Strikes Back” gets re-imagined as an old-timey movie serial from 1950. [Via]
• Buck has created a terrific animation of a world made from paint chips. [Via]

June 09, 2010

(rt) Type: Never Gonna Give You Up edition

• “Jonas & Francois” make some seriously custom typographical footwear. [Via]
• Typographical Rickroll: you’ve been warned. [Via]
• “Kinetic typography” is often pointless and clichéd, but this Ten Commandments bit is nicely done.
• San Francisco is home to a calligraphic treasure trove? Who knew? [Via]
• “No.” is a blog purely of groovy numerals. [Via]

May 22, 2010

(rt) Type: Asian excellence, Hebrew remixes, & more

• Luscious type & more: “100 Artworks From the Top Digital Artists in Asia.”
• “Cutting libraries in a recession is like cutting hospitals in a plague.” Well said.
• Neat: Hebrew Translations of Latin Logos. (My Hebrew-speaking friends promise I’m not being punked! :-)) [Via]
• What possible need could the Adobe Seattle shuttle bus have for this??

May 18, 2010

(rt) Photography: Lightroom layouts, photographic history, & more

• Halina Veratsennik has created a set of handy free collage templates for Lightroom 3.
• History:
  • Cool: Squeezing digital camera guts into a classic AE-1 film SLR. (The AE-1 was my first real camera.) [Via]
  • 19th-century “photochroms” look weirdly (retro-) contemporary.
• I dig the otherness of Spencer Murphy‘s photography. [Via]
• Olympics bits (that I somehow never got around to posting earlier):
  • As you’d imagine, there’s an excellent Olympics photo collection on The Big Picture.
  • Even more amazing are the photos from the 2010 Winter Paralympics. Hard core. [Via]

May 17, 2010

(rt) Illustration: The UIs of Iron Man, vintage ads, & more

• Atomic age:
  • A Flickr set rounds up beautiful science and tech ads from the 50s/60s. (via @iso50)
  • Animation house Perception has a great in-depth piece about how they created the interfaces, PDAs, presentations, and more in Iron Man 2, including some faux-vintage work. [Via]
  • Graphic design history: Here’s an incredibly detailed history of the iconic fallout shelter symbol.
• “Beautifully Banal”: classified ads turned into graphic design. (I love “Poodle: All Colors”) [Via]
• I really enjoy the lovely colors & palettes from illustrator Lotta Nieminen. [Via]

May 16, 2010

(rt) Miscellany: Vintage space suits & more

• This vintage space suit design featured an “inexplicable crotch window” & nose-picking capability.
• Check out some lovely fake-grass bookmarks (cooler than you’d think).
• If you want Adobe TV on your iPad/iPhone, try its YouTube channel.
• Williams-Sonoma is pimping “Fire Wire Flexible Grilling Skewers“. Can I plug them into my Mac? Will deliciousness ensue?

May 12, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Posters, old-school Mac art, & more

• Check out this set of great travel posters from Heads of State.
• Mac bits:
  • Master digital painter Bert Monroy recently showed me his Escher tribute self portrait done in 1987 using MacPaint.
  • “Make it so.” Sebastiaan de With says, “This 21st century motivational poster sure makes me work harder.”
• “Happy To Serve You“: RIP, creator of NY’s Greek-themed coffee cup.
• Interesting video: The Art Behind Google’s Doodles. [Via]
• Walking Men is a collage of 99 pedestrian traffic-light icons from around the world. [Via]
• Are these photos or paintings? Living still lifes. [Via]

May 11, 2010

(rt) Photography: The Sistine Chapel, Darth Vader, & more

• Check out the beautiful B&W photography of Chuck Kimmerle. [Via]
• Neat “Laptopograms”: Making photos with a laptop screen.
• Heh: “Stages of a photographer.” (Beware HDR.) [Via]
• Fun, cryptic photo: “Sad Vader.”
• Here’s a terrific panorama taken inside the Sistine Chapel. [Via]
• Apparently Content-Aware Fill will not blow ladies’ clothes off.
• Here’s some deep nerdery on DNG spec updates, for those who like such things.

May 07, 2010

(rt) Photography: Historic NYC, war, & more

• Flickr hosts a set of gorgeous photos of New York from the 1940′s. [Via]
• Same city, different era: check out Allan Tannenbaum’s “Dirty, Dangerous, and Destitute: New York in the 70s.”
• “Iwo Jima without Marines… but filled with content awareness,” says Thorsten Wulff
• Neat project: Lining up past & present photos. [Via]
• A cry for Photoshop, if ever there was one: Eastern European album covers of the ’70s. [Via]

May 02, 2010

(rt) Nature Photography: Apocalyptic vulcanism & more

• “Real wrath-of-God-type stuff…” Insanely beautiful and terrifying volcano photos. See also this & this. [Via]
• “Hey, let’s go to Africa and bolt a DSLR + flashes to an RC car & drive it up to lions & elephants!” Meet the BeetleCam. [Via]
• Christies selects the Top 40 Nature Photographs. [Via Franz Lanting]
• Seems like polar bears would be effective against Imperial probe droids. Polar bear steals tripod.

April 11, 2010

(rt) Absolute Miscellany: Go Baby Go & Mo’

• After 42 years, the Heinz ketchup packet finally gets a re-design.
• Sculpture:
  • Ji Yong-Ho’s tire creatures are steel-belted radness. [Via]
  • Gershon Elber has added to his series of models from a 3D printer, “Escher for Real.” [Via]
• Color Picker: Scan objects with a pen, then draw with their colors. [Via]
• “Rock On!”: Crazy rock-balancing tricks. [Via Simon Chen]
• Gonna be one of those days. (I have no real idea what this means, but I still love it.) [Via]
• I *must* arm my car with this thing.

April 09, 2010

(rt) Miscellany: Photoshop performance & Adobe ephemera

• Speediness:
  • DIGLLOYD & OWC are offering a Photoshop/photography-optimized Mac Pro workstation.
  • Big solid state hard drives make Photoshop very happy on large jobs.
• Adobe ephemera:
  • Rad: The tool palette from Photoshop 1.0 is now available as hangable wall art: 30″ tall for US$70. [Via]
  • Also fun/deeply nerdy: Adobe File Format Extension Necklaces. (.PSD FTW)
  • New Photoshop-based slang on Urban Dictionary: “‘shopped” http://bit.ly/9PMZgF Adobe Legal winces. (via Will Eisley)
  • Adobe India: Made from LEGOs (right?). [Via]

April 07, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Literature as cigarettes, Krakens, & more

• Flame is a gorgeous online drawing app. [Via]
• Great literature gets rendered as cigarette packs; well executed. [Via]
• Photoshop joins Bar Mitzvahs, Quinceañeras, and other rites of passage. [Via]
• Mikal Reich & team have crafted some beautiful packaging for Kraken rum. Elsewhere, here’s a round-up of Krakens as portrayed across movies & games.

April 03, 2010

(rt) Photography: Shooting wars, giant waves, & more

• Conflict:
  • The Shooting War features a small but excellent set of intense images from conflict photographers.
  • The iPhone is combat photojournalist David Guttenfelder’s tool in Afghanistan. Note the final shot of his dust-covered traditional photo gear. [Via]
  • The NY Times features What the Still Photo Still Does Best–namely, freezing moments in our shared life, often rendering them iconic. The article features gripping civil rights photos from the late Charles Moore. [Via]
  • Crazy high-speed photo: Bullet vs. cigarette. See the rest of the gallery for more fast action.
• Wild blue:
  • I dig the screen-filling presentation of Jay Watson’s high-res gallery from the Mavericks surfing contest. (The booming action shots start on p7.) [Via]
  • Penguins parade in a gorgeous photo from near the South Pole. (But seriously, there’s a National Penguin Awareness Day?)

April 01, 2010

(rt) Photographic Extremes: Giant panos, putrid water, & more

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March 22, 2010

(rt) Infographics: Space, violence, & more

• Michael Paukner makes beautiful space schematics & more.
• Excellent & eye-opening: The Mariana Trench To Scale. [Via]
• FlowingData renders famous movie quotes as charts and graphs. On the Waterfront is my favorite. [Via]
• Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg created a beautiful visualization of Boston Common over the seasons, made by querying Flickr.
• Here’s the gruesome, functional graphic design o’ the day, which my son and I found while cavorting on heavy machinery.

March 21, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Bond posters, Homer Simpson’s car, & more

• Cinematic:
  • Graphic design history: Posters for all the Bond films. [Via]
  • Abduzeedo rounds up great old spaghetti western posters (originally charmingly mislabeled “western spaghetti;” nice idea for a restaurant name.)
  • “Suck It, Dreamworks!” Funny movie posters: Honest Movie Titles: Oscars 2010. [Via]
• Automotive:
  • Dig this weird vintage car ad. “I love the little bicycle basket between the jet engines,” says Roger Ebert.
  • Visualize the Difference Between Firefox, Opera, Explorer & Safari. (Firefox looks very Homer Simpson-positive.) [Via]

March 20, 2010

(rt) Photography: Darkness, distant underpants, & more

• Alberto Seveso has created some amazing images by dropping varnish into a fishbowl. The shots take me back to playing with Lego boats + food coloring in the bathtub years ago.
• Canon cannons:
  • “I See London, I See France, I See Your Underpants from 32 Miles Away With The Canon 5200mm Ultra Telephoto” [Via Zalman Stern]
  • Canon’s limited edition coffee mug swag resembles a lens that resembles a coffee mug. [Via]
• Panasonic brings touchscreens to SLRs: Via the live view, tap a person to focus on/shoot him or her. That strikes me as very cool, given that I’m always pressing halfway to meter/focus, then recomposing and firing. That’s pretty tedious/error-prone with kids.
• Tenebrae:
  • Check out the Space Shuttle in colorful bands of atmosphere.
  • The Big Picture features Jason Hawkes’s night photography of New York City & Las Vegas from above. It’s cool, though for some reason I don’t find it as compelling as his earlier work over London.

March 19, 2010

(rt) Photography: Stormtroopers, deer-skipping, and more

• Ever wonder what Stormtroopers do on their days off? [Via]
• Is this a painting or a photo? You might be surprised. [Via]
• Nice photographic pun: “How genetics works.”
• From National Geographic: I’ve heard of skipping stones, but skipping a deer? [Via]
• Nice, and news to me: To reset a crop in Lightroom, use Cmd+Opt+R/Ctrl+Alt+R. [Via]
• Wall of Sound: A record groove gets magnified 1000x. [Via]

March 15, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Danger, Dismemberment, & Adobe Tips

• Adobe tips & info:
  • Thorough & useful: All About Transformations in Adobe Illustrator. (Applying transform effects, especially to strokes, isn’t nearly well known enough.)
  • Nice, quick tip on painting dotted lines in Photoshop.
• International Icons:
  • The NY Times hosts an interesting short video covering Olympic Pictograms Through the Ages. (Sometimes the “Genius!/Garbage!” tenor of critiques like this strikes me as a little excessive. I did like our two-year-old son’s observation on the classic pictographic idiom: “Head popping off.”) [Via]
  • Speaking of pictograms + Finn, he and I found this gruesome, functional graphic design yesterday while traipsing around a piece of unattended heavy machinery.
  • No Exit: On Slate Julie Turner offers a nice overview of the battle of the green running man vs. the red EXIT sign. [Via]
• “What is HTML5 good for?” Funny, coarse, and concise. [Via]

March 14, 2010

(rt) Photography: Curves, Frankencameras, & more

• Nikki Graziano takes photographs of curves found in nature & the graphs and functions that go with them. [Via]
• Medical imaging pic o’ the day: “Buddy Sneaks Into Chest X-Ray.”
• Eric Curry makes cool, somewhat surreal photos.
• Peeps at Gizmodo have fun with photographic action sequences.
• Check out a DIY 3D camera rig at the Olympics: Two Nikons lashed together. Looks kludgy but sophisticated. [Via]
• The Boston Globe’s The Big Picture tackles Chile’s quake in photos. Stunning, heartbreaking. [Via]

March 07, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Terrific posters, race cars as graphic art, & more

• Dear God these are good: Tavis Coburn illustrates the BAFTA Nominees.
• Glenn Jones makes excellently droll illustrations. (Our two-year-old is still trying to process Thomas the Tank Engine as a Transformer.) Vectortuts interviews him.
• Zoom zoom:
  • Apple sponsored a race team in the 70′s? Check out the images & short video accompanying “Go Faster: The Graphic Design of Racing Cars” I love the Porsche-as-cuts-of-meat design. [Via]
  • Check out this elegantly simple Mini Cooper convertible ad.

March 06, 2010

(rt) Infographics: Hot Pockets, transmogrifiers, & more

• All the ingredients in a ham & cheese Hot Pocket get laid out in a rad typographic poster. [Via]
• From XKCD: “Kid with Transmogrifier” FTW! [Via]
• Linzie Hunter makes fun, funky map illustrations. [Via]
• Massive infographic: Google facts & figures.
• This infographic “describes 95% of films, 40% of best picture nominees,” says Roger Ebert.

March 03, 2010

(rt) Type: Obsessions, apologies, and “little cows”

• Obsessive/productive:
  • Et tu…? It’s “300&65 Ampersands.” [Via]
  • CreativePro rounds up Jessica Hische’s full set of drop cap letters, from A to Z. Check out her site for higher-res glory.
• “Bestiary” features lovely type & color palettes.
• Letters as a war machine. (Gerwalk much?)
• The Panic guys cleverly used Helvetica slashes to emulate the look of air mail in email.
• Dig this letterpress “Ctrl Z” apology card; nerdy & sweet. (And yes, I too would prefer “Cmd-Z.” FWIW, our toddler calls the Cmd/Apple cloverleaf shapes “little cows.” Go figure.) [Via]

February 28, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Ingenious negative space, beautiful patterns, & more

• “Is that a Riding Hood in your mouth, or…?” Check out some ingenious negative space illustrations by Noma Bar.
• Chopping Blocked:
  • Viva old school: Photoshop “Filter Heroes” poster.
  • Behold, Nerd Rider!
• Check out the beautifully complex patterns that Tatiana Plakhova creates. [Via]
• Star Wars-related:
  • I dig the weirdly offbeat acrylic paintings of Ryan Jacob Smith.
  • These minimalist Star Wars tourism posters are great, but I’d still like to see one for Mos Eisley. (Maybe “Wretched hive of scum & villainy” is too long to be “minimalist.”) [Via]

February 26, 2010

(rt) Type: Beasts, non-sequiturs, and more

• LAIKA is an interactive typeface, changing orientation and weight as its observers move. Check out the demo. [Via Craig McKibbin]
• Yours truly:
  • Awesome: Mike Rankin makes a wordcloud from responses to my “Sympathy for the Devil” piece [Via]
  • My old résumé site (c.1997) featured non-sequiturs flashing by above the text. Apologies to Douglas Coupland, Jenny Holzer, and anyone else whose text I ripped off. And no, I’m not going to show you the execrable rest of the site.
• Dearly departed:
  • RIP Bob Noorda, designer of the classic NYC subway signs. (I’ve got an enamel “Bklyn Bridge” original hanging in my office. I used to change trains there when I first moved to NYC.)
  • A headstone mourns the “soon-to-be-forgotten hyphen.”

February 24, 2010

(rt) Photography: Plane crashes, laser-eyed babies, & more

• The wearable 360-degree yellowBird camera rig is sort of like Google Street View for your head. [Via]
• War & remembrance:
  • Painful new 9/11 aerial images show the World Trade Center collapse.
  • The Online Photographer linked to a striking WWII plane crash image from Iwo Jima. More are here.
• Cleared for Weird:
  • Filed under “Things You Wish You Could Un-See,” here’s some deeply weird Photoshop action: Celebrities Upside Down. [Via]
  • In a related vein, here’s a collection of upside down faces presented as if they were right side up. [Via]
  • Weirdest photoblog ever? Babies with laser eyes. [Via]

February 21, 2010

(rt) Illustration: “Defeat the World!,” great logos, & more

• “Defeat the World!!” Stephen Colbert + Shepard Fairey = Awesome Olympic Poster.
• Logos
  • MTV’s logo, like its aging viewers, has chubbed out. [Via]
  • Abduzeedo rounds up The Best Google Custom Logos.
• Infographics:
  • Nice infographic satire: “Data Underload.” [Via]
  • I’m loving Ward Shelley’s intricate, painted timeline infographics, chronicling the histories of things & people like Frank Zappa & Andy Warhol. [Via]
  • Danny Jones has put together a handsome if not terribly data-heavy Death Valley Sailing Stones Infographic.
  • “In case of emergency, open door with dirty look.” — Jim Gaffigan

February 20, 2010

(rt) Photography: Volcanoes, Olympians, lasers, & more

• Scientific:
  • Martin Rietze captured some beautiful volcanic lightning. (“I’d be charged, too, if I were shot out of the center of the earth,” says my wife.)
  • No sci fi: Infrared photos of a 747 shooting down a missile with a laser. (Can ill-tempered sea bass be far behind?) Apparently it happened not far from where I’m typing this.
  • “If you are intrigued by physics and love photography,” says Katrin Eismann, check out the work of Caleb Charland.
• Olympics:
  • Ryan McGinley brings a fresh eye & fresh palettes to photographing Olympians. [Via]
  • The Big Picture features a high res gallery showing the Olympic opening ceremonies. [Via]
• Oddly compelling: “Vans and the places where they were.” (As long as “lingering outside my house” isn’t featured, we’re cool.) [Via]

February 13, 2010

(rt) Random Interestingness: Music for stupid clients & more

• Cool: Find out what other designers are listening to & sort music by job types (e.g. “Stupid Client Revisions,” “IE6 Debugging”). [Via]
• Speaking of dumb (or at least crushingly uninformed): “What is a browser?” Fewer than 8% of respondents in Times Square knew. It’s also fascinating to see that people keep trying to log into things that aren’t Facebook, not knowing the difference. Neven Mrgan writes, “The degree of faith people put in Google’s top result makes Catholics look like hippies.”
• Behold: “Overwhelming evidence that a 30″ MacBook will be debuted this year. It’s irrefutable.” [Via]
• Hah–it’s my persona, boiled down to a URL: CrankyPM.com. (“I swear because I care…”) [Via Michael Ninness]
• Nice: “It’s a clock” for iPhone. [Via]
• Creepiest Sand Castle Ever? Dead Michael Jackson eulogized in silica.

February 12, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Planets, pushpins, & more

• Check out these gorgeous planetary posters from Ross Berens. [Via]
• “Shaped by War” is a gripping 4-min audio slideshow featuring photojournalist Don McCullin.
• Great linework & palettes populate the retro illustrations of Brent Couchman. [Via]
• Outrageous numbers of pushpins go into Eric Daigh’s detailed photo reproductions.
• I dig the colors & shapes of Marc Kolle’s illustrations.

February 11, 2010

(rt) Photography: Everest 360 & more

• Check out this 360-degree panorama from the summit of Everest. [Via]
• Camera acronym o’ the day: EVIL (for small SLR alternatives). [Via]
• “Worst stock photos of the decade.” Not good, but there’s gotta be worse, right? [Via]
• Beautiful HD time lapses of Vancouver. (via Rob Galbraith)
• Chromoscope provides views of the Milky Way galaxy in x-ray, visible, microwave, & other wavelengths [Via]

February 06, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Bananas, evil, & more

• Dig this super fun Chiquita banana redesign. I want the luchador sticker! [Via]
• Here’s a high-res set of 60 Recent Movie Posters. It’s a bit of a mixed bag, but there’s some solid Photoshop action here. (I like the Crank 2 and Terminator Salvation pieces in particular–more than the corresponding flicks themselves.)
• Newsweek features “Unattainable Beauty: The Decade’s Biggest Airbrushing Scandals.”
• Infographics:
  • “My Heart is Divided“–fun schematic shirt from the Chopping Block.
  • Meet The Milky Way Transit Authority: our galaxy as tube map. [Via Ellis Vener]
  • Man, does Japan have fast broadband. This and other stats get visualized via the State of the Internet Explained In One Giant Infographic.
• “Evil and Lazy” shirt. How nice. (Couldn’t get the Adobe font right, though.)

February 05, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Fake UIs in movies, solid caricatures, and more

• “What you need, my friend, is an Internet Online Website!” Clever tool for educating newbie clients. [Via]
• UI designer Mark Coleran appeared on NPR, talking about creating fictional computer UIs for movies. [Via]
• Depression Press serves up a tasty carnival of retro logos & illustrations.
• I dig these groovy caricatures from Fernando Vicente. [Via]
• Heh–here’s a wry comment on the excessive comping of screens in Photoshop.
• 50 cars or 1 bus? Here’s a vivid visualization of the impact of mass transit.

February 03, 2010

(rt) Random Interestingness Redux

• Six Revisions rounds up 22 Awesome Adobe AIR Applications for Designers. [Via]
• Mobile telephony:
  • Brilliant: Mobile phone history as nesting dolls. (Gordon Gekko just called again.)
  • Here’s a stylish concept for a solar-powered iPhone charger.
  • The $0.99, “recession-style” cardboard iPhone case is my speed.
• Photoshop:
  • Photoshop* around your neck: Icon as neckwear (neckware?). (*or MacPaint) [Via Marc Pawliger]
  • A lightweight, $129 mini monitor to house your Photoshop panels? It even offers touch sensitivity (for a bit more dough). [Via]
  • Speaking of monitors, as I recall the first color Mac 640×480 display cost $3,000. Now that resolution can be smaller than a dime. (Similarly old school: A 15MB hard drive for $2495. Go, march of progress, go!
• Check out the trippy, Tim Burton-esque metal sculptures from Stephane Halleux.
• Apropos of nothing, here’s the actual speech that would have been given if Apollo 11 had not returned. [Via]

January 30, 2010

(rt) Random interestingness

• Spacey:
  • From ’77: The Making of the Computer Graphics for Star Wars. (LaaaaaaBORIOUS.)
  • A helpful note for those attaching a Space Shuttle to a 747.
  • “Burning corpses sold separately”: Star Wars toys that never made it. [Via]
• Sculpture: “Fossils” of now-outdated tech (cassettes, GameBoys, etc.). [Via]
• This ’72 BMW supercar is flatter than my mom’s Chicago “A’s.”
• Objects:
  • Slick, if slightly obvious, maple syrup bottle design. [Via]
  • “What would Jesus read by?” The Jesus Lamp offers a “saint-like halo.”
• New term for “OK” on too-frequent “Are you sure…?” dialog boxes: “The ‘yeah, whatever’ button.”

January 22, 2010

(rt) Illustration: “Crayola’s Law,” Photoshop, & the Beatles

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January 20, 2010

(rt) Photography: JPEGging the hell out of things, grenade tennis, & more

• The American Pixels project uses excessive JPEG compression for artistic effect. [Via]
• “The Moon on Earth.” Vincent Fournier has created compelling artistic photos of astronaut training. Higher res versions are on his site. [Via]
• Tennis with a grenade, anyone? Intense, incredible imagery in The Big Picture’s 2009 in Photos (Part 2).
• Here’s a set of thrilling motorsports shots from the Dakar Rally. (I’m having flashbacks of getting a certain huge RV stuck in the sand in Death Valley, hours from cell phone service. But that’s another story.)

January 18, 2010

(rt) Photography: Life & death from above, & more

• “We are experts in the application of violence…” Intense war photography, shot with a Canon 5D Mk II. [Via]
• Check out some winter gorgeousness (plus weirdness) from The Big Picture. I can’t wait to teach our boys to sled (though living in California, I certainly must).
• Aerial history:
  • From the Iconic Photos blog comes a a photo of the Pearl Harbor attack in progress, taken from a Japanese plane. [Via]
  • Lovely B&W of an American airship under construction. [Via]
• Nocturnal:
  • Night photography from atop the world’s tallest building.
  • I love the beams of light criscrossing Kevin Cooley’s photos. [Via]

January 16, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Best & Worst Logos of ’09, more

• Logos:
  • Brand New collects The Best and Worst Identities of 2009. [Via]
  • I dig the logo for Colossal Pictures.
  • The Museum of Flight features a wealth of classic, vintage airline logos. [Via]
  • Ouch: it’s a tongue-in-cheek TSA logo design contest. [Via]
• Distressed zest: the Mister Retro “Machine Wash Deluxe” filter has been updated. [Via]
• Infographics:
  • Dollars spent vs. life expectancy around the world: US = WTF? [Via]
  • Enjoy some beautiful Victorian infographics. [Via]

January 14, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Classic letterheads, the retro future, & more

• “Batgirl Is Now Prince”: Classic album covers get reinterpreted via superheroes. [Via]
• “V is for Vanish”: Robert Samuel Hanson makes beautifully clean, simple illustrations. [Via]
• Dig these rather spectacular Japanese-flavored vector art from Sheena Aw.
• Printing:
  • Letterheady.com features the custom letterheads of everyone from Einstein to Hitler to Johnny Cash.
  • Maggie Frost has created a tasty papercraft-flavored concert poster.
• The future of the past:
  • The year 2010, as seen from a kids’ book in 1972. [Via]
  • Matthew Lyons illustrates with a retro sci-fi kick. [Via]

January 13, 2010

(rt) Type: Knuckle sandwiches, painting with light, and more

• “This is for using Comic Sans, you bastard!” Check out more from Nebojsa Cvetkovic.
• Beautiful: Arabic calligraphy written with light.

• Alphabet City: Cool letters-as-buildings drawings from Scott Teplin. [Via]
• If MC Escher designed a typeface, it might well resemble Priori Acute. [Via]

January 09, 2010

(rt) Illustration: Killer posters, plus Nic Cage everywhere

• Kings of the road:
  • Here’s a cool large-scale Photoshop job: “Snakes on a Bus.” [Via]
  • Okay, I’m reaching in calling this illustration, but I dig Art Lebedev’s concept for a “transparent” semi truck. [Via]
• VectorTuts has some great ideas/techniques for building a face from typography.
• Posters:
  • Brandon Schaefer makes terrific minimalist movie poster designs. [Via]
  • Check out these cool poster designs for Slaughterhouse Five, Moby Dick, & more.
• Cinematic hacks:
  • “Photoshopped Movies“: kind of speaks for itself. [Via]
  • Photoshop, what hath ye wrought? There’s a whole blog of Nic Cage as Everyone.

January 03, 2010

(rt) Photography: Best of ’09, Edge of the World, & more

• Photojojo has amassed The Best Roundups of the Best Photos of 2009. Chasing tots full time, I’ve yet to dig into these, but I look forward to exploring (you know, as soon as I’m back at work; always gotta see whether the bosses still read this…).
• I must find a Steadicam rig & bring it to Death Valley next time.
• Edge of the World: NatGeo features beautiful images from Scotland’s Hebrides. [Via]
• The Lego iPhone app makes fun images on the fly. (I don’t think they meant to make me envision my child’s smile made from hamster pieces, however.)
• Here’s NASA’s giant new Ares I-X rocket being assembled. (Am I the only one who keeps completely forgetting that the country is building this thing?)

December 29, 2009

(rt) Photography: News photos of the decade & more

• Fascinating: The decade in news photographs on The Big Picture. [Via]

• Amazing photos: The Hubble Advent Calendar 2009. (There’s seriously a “Sombrero Galaxy”? Do they serve horchata there?)

• Lovely vintage car photography: The original Lamborghini Countach concept.
• Gear:
  • “16 Days in the Himalayas” is Craig Mod’s travelogue/review of the Lumix GF1. (Interesting point: “A camera without a viewfinder is less intimidating” to subjects.)
  • Canon DSLR Suffers 3,000-Foot Fall, Camera and Lens Still Work [Via]

December 28, 2009

(rt) Interesting Designs: Killer vodka, brutal cash, & more

• “I can tell you with no ego: this is my finest drink…” Killer vodka bottle design. [Via]
• Retro:
  • I love this super cool “Philco PC” concept. The keyboard reminds me of some cufflinks I have, made from keys of an old typewriter. [Via]
  • Lovely designs: Streamlined steam irons of the ’30s/’40s
• Familiar shapes:
  • Famous structures rendered in Lego.
  • Bitchin’ USA-shaped steel bookcase.

• What Sort of Moleskinneur Are You? (Where’s “Conformist”?)

• “Om nom nom!”–Excellent Pac-Man ring set. [Via]
• Clever, if terribly uncomfortable-looking, new currency design. [Via]

December 27, 2009

(rt) Infographics: Cereal selection, nukes, & killer jellyfish

• “Are you Chuck Norris? Are you high?” Here’s a hilarious cereal-choosing infographic. [Via]
• Solid old cutaways: Nuclear Reactor Wall Charts
• Just about every designer will recognize The Dreaded Killer Jellyfish of Graphic Design Favors!

December 26, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Negative space, minimalism, & more

• I dig these beautiful minimalist renderings of TV shows from Albert Exergian. See also his excellent portfolio site.
• The Web Design Ledger showcases clever negative space in logo design. [Via]
• Crazy, often beautiful: Matt Kish is doing one drawing for every page of Moby-Dick.
• True copy & paste: Billboard hacking with Doom’s HUD. Solid. [Via] Reminds me of Photoshop “adbusting” in Berlin.
• How to make dotted borders in Photoshop. (Not hard, but we should simplify the process.) [Via]
• Amazing–EyeWriter: Physically Paralyzed Artist Draws Graffiti on Buildings w/His Eyes.

December 24, 2009

(rt) Type: Know your history, Great letterpress, & more

• I love this groovy letterpress typesetting from Perky Bros.
• Know Your Type: Histories of Futura, Clarendon, and other faces.
• If at first your get-rich-quick scheme fails to draw suckas, just promise another zero.
• “Ligature, Loop & Stem“: Beautiful typographical products, gratuitously obtuse nav.
• The alphabet spelled out using letters from famous logos.

December 16, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Top 10 Book Covers, Man-hunger, & more

• Book design:
  • “Man Hungry!” Gotta love vintage pulp novel covers. [Via]
  • The Book Cover Archive rounds up the Top Ten Book Covers of the ’00s. Some good stuff, but somehow I’m not quite as blown away as I’d hoped to be. [Via]
• Impediments:
  • Inspired set of “Ideas & their enemies.” (But come on, marketing managers are the Big Bad Wolf? That’s giving ‘em too much credit.)
  • “Four Obstacles to Writing“–funny illustration from Tom Gauld.
• Violence Illustrated:
  • I dig “The Ancient Circle of Mutual Aggression” & other illustrations from Juan Molinet. [Via]
  • “Theatre of Cruelty“: Medieval peeps really did get medieval.
• The “Aqualta” project presents visions of New York & Tokyo under water. [Via]

December 15, 2009

(rt) Motion: Stop-motion intrigue, bustin’ on B-roll

• Canon has posted a beautiful high-def short shot with the 7D. (After all these years, I’m still a sucker for moody Moby.) [Via]
• “Unbox the box”: Check out this neat stop-motion illustration ad for Audi.
• Oh, “We GOT that B-Roll!!” Hilarious goofing on stock video cliches. [Via] Reminds me a bit of the low-fi excellence of Panic’s “Panic Sale!“

December 13, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Accidental geography, Expressionist video games, & more

• “Accidental Geography” consists of photos of objects weirdly resembling recognizable landmasses. (via @kottke)
• Superfly Wi-Fi:
  • “Ernie & Birch”: Christoph Niemann illustrates with nothing but leaves. (Love the “wireless ginko.”) [Via]
  • Check out this beautifully simple ad for Wi-Fi at Mickey D’s.
• Toddler-vision:
  • Our lad Finnegan sees the Champion sportswear logo and says “Mailbox!” He just might be onto something.
  • Finn + Marker + Kix Box = A.M. “art” lesson w/Dad. “Unicorn lady… beard… tattoo!”
• Distilled to the limit: “Expressionist” renderings of classic arcade games. [Via]

December 07, 2009

(rt) Infographics: Megafonzies, mind mapping, & more

• Megafonzies, Kilowarhols, & more: Wired lists some fun units of geeky measure. (“1 Warhol equals 15 minutes of fame, so if you’ve been famous for three years, that’s just over 105 kilowarhols.”) [Via]
• “Create Random Acronyms Pointlessly”: Core77 features a funny beatdown of “mind mapping” cliches.
• The Onion’s infographic take on Jim Brown: “The good kind of crazy, but just barely.” (Love the bit about his empty uniform carrying on after his retirement.)
• Visual Aid: Cool infographics available as posters. (Dig the spacecraft size comparison.)
• Interesting infographic: “Tokyo vs Cairo”: Using word analysis to compare Obama’s foreign policy speeches.

December 06, 2009

(rt) Photography: Gorgeous ice, giant rockets, & more

• National Geographic’s International Photo Contest features some spectacular images. (I find they get better as you scroll farther.)
• Google Image Swirl offers more dynamic search. (Try clicking any of the image results to pivot on that image.) Popular Science has more info on the project.
• I can hear the thunder behind Thomas Prior’s moody photos.
• Photo: Day at the beach with friends: good fun. Getting kicked in the back by said friends: less fun.
• Air & Space:
  • NASA is building one hell of a big rocket to take us back to the moon. (Related: Still no one knows, cares.)
  • Plane nerdery: Pics of Boeing’s cool, swollen “Dreamlifter” chimera.
• Nature:
  • David Hirmes shares some gorgeous ice photos. [Via]
  • Martin Scott-Jupp takes oddly beautiful close-ups of mold.

December 05, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Great business card designs, laser-etched Macs, & more

• DesignrFix rounds up 40 solid business card designs. Dig the illustrated characters in particular, plus the obsessive behavior of Marian Bantjes. [Via]
• Physical graffiti:
  • Peep some sweet hand bags made using book cover illustrations. [Via]
  • Laser-etch art onto your MacBook, Moleskine, etc. [Via]
• Photoshop CS4 wins over an industrial designer for concept sketching. Adam O’Hern shares his findings and tips.
• Europa:
  • Dig the detailed vintage style on display in this “Caricature map of Europe, 1914.” [Via]
  • See Bibliodyssey’s “Theatre of Cruelty“: Medieval peeps really did get medieval.

• Heh–fun poster for the Jewish Film Festival. [Via]

November 29, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Edgy ads, clean vectors, and more

• “Nothing Really Mattress…” Creative, often edgy ads from around the world. [Via]
• Eastern Bloc:
  • Cyrillic lettering Яocks. More cool Russian posters. (Just don’t try to match drinks with this guy.)
  • Abduzeedo hosts a fun collection of modern Constructivist-style posters & illustrations.
• Artists interpret literary figures at Hey Oscar Wilde. (Love the Chekov, Lord of the Flies pieces.)
• Simplicity:
  • I dig the flat, clean illustrations of Katie Kirk. [Via]
  • Nice, simple vector/raster animal art from Ty Wilkins. (“‘Vector/raster’ = Illustrator/Photoshop,” he notes in reply.) [Via]

November 22, 2009

(rt) Type: Krakens, font finders, & more

• “This typography is making me thirsty…” Check out Kraken rum. (I think I met this beast on honeymoon.)
• Adobe’s cool Font Finder lets you dial in parameters to browse 2,200 typefaces.
• Here’s an interesting type treatment for an alternate iPhone lock screen.
• Clever JavaScript trickery = Scollbar typography. [Via]

November 21, 2009

(rt) Photography: Amazing bird photography, Mars, & more

• Andrew Zuckerman just crushes it with his bird book. Outstanding. [Via]

• Droppin’ science:
  • The Big Picture features some totally fascinating Mars pictures. [Via]
  • Check out this year’s Olympus microscopy photo winners. (Many leave me nonplussed, but scroll down for the hero-flea.) [Via]

• History:
  • Have gas mask, will travel. Creepy stuff; recalls animations from The Wall.
  • On CreativePro, Gene Gable shows off the pioneering photo processing of Look Magazine (e.g. the Beatles shot by Richard Avedon). Lots of interesting pre-digital manipulations.
• This 12,000-photo time lapse is interesting even for Yankee-haters. [Via]
12:22 AM | Permalink | Comments [3]

November 20, 2009

(rt) Photography: Lightroom tips for speed-ups, more

• Scott Kelby offers a handy set of “10 Things I Would Tell New Lightroom Users.”
• The Lightroom Lab shares Top Ten Lightroom Speed Tips.
• According to LR engineer Troy Gaul, “Lightroom 2.6, in addition to adding camera support, fixes a visual glitch on Snow Leopard in loupe when panning. [Via]
• Want a one-screen way to scan popular LR blogs? Check out http://lightroom.alltop.com/. [Via]

November 16, 2009

(rt) Infographics: Violent death, Hey Jude, & more

• Brutal: “In my Swedish elevator i discovered one of the worst ways to die.” [Via]
• This excellent interactive infographic shows the relative size of objects, from coffee beans to atoms.
• “Hey Jude” as a flowchart. [Via]
• I love this set of fanciful theme park maps. (As a kid I used to pore over my posters of Great America & Brookfield Zoo.) [Via]

November 13, 2009

(rt) Photography: Historical remixes, Lightroom tips, & more

• Here’s a set of strangely diggable aquatic photos from Asako Narahashi.
• History reconsidered:
  • Iconic Photo Of JFK Assassin Oswald Was Not Faked, Professor Finds. (Adobe has worked w/Hany Farid.) [Via]
  • Bizarre B&W photos: Batman + Fidel, Darth + FDR. [Via]
• Lightroom tips via Tom Hogarty:
  • PLUS (Picture Licensing Universal System) plug-in now available for Lightroom 2; would like your feedback.
  • How to create a time lapse video direct from Lightroom 3 beta: [Via]

November 11, 2009

(rt) Photography: Crushing overloads, HDR moon, & more

• This insanely overloaded truck seems like a metaphor on wheels, crying out for inclusion in a Demotivator. [Via]
• Here’s a pair of striking photos from India, courtesy of Emanuele Nardoni.
• Twins Triptych: Arbus, Kubrick, and (scariest) the Olsens.
• Superfly dragonflies & avian stylings come from Conrad Tan.
• Heavenly:
  • Need to know where/when the sun/moon will rise/set for photos? Use The Photographer’s Ephemeris. [Via]
  • Check out an HDR pic of the Halloween full moon. [Via Ben Hansen]

November 09, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Amazing concept art, Vintage VDubs, & more

• Check out some incredible concept art from Rodolfo Damaggio.
• I love these automotive manual cutaway drawings turned into giant wall art. If the imagery trips your trigger, Bryan Hughes suggests How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive. [Via]
• Cool map to the LA Olympics… of 1932: (More info is here.)
• Tutorials:
  • Slick–How to Create Smoky Brushes and Type In Illustrator CS4.
  • Halloween+Photoshop: Russell Brown shows how to turn people into monsters.

November 02, 2009

(rt) Type: E.Coli as font, El Vetica, & more

• Handmade:
  • Jessica Hische has posted an alphabet’s worth of gorgeous “hand-crafted decorative initial caps” on Daily Drop Cap. Her portfolio site is pretty bitchin’, too.
  • I dig the hand-drawn swoops of Si Scott’s typography.
• Type + Luchadores = Radness. Check out El Vetica. [Via] (Gratuitous personal tangent: You cannot handle the cute.)
• A typographical infographic: Popular Names in Popular Music, 1891-now.
• Perfect for a new Jack in the Box logo design? Dutch Designer Wins €10,000 for a Font Grown From E-Coli. [Via Marc Pawliger]

November 01, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Japanese monsters, skulls, beer, and more

• Seasonal creepiness:
  • I love these bizarre illustrations: Anatomy of Japanese Folk Monsters. [Via]
  • “I want your skulls…” Lots of cool illustrations.
  • Oh, this heart doesn’t look healthy, does it? Here’s more such weirdness. [Via]
• Abduzeedo rounds up great Guinness ads past & present.
• The Chopping Block crew has posted tips on using Photoshop to Prep & Color Scanned Drawings.

October 31, 2009

(rt) Photography: Biggest tree photo ever & more

• Interesting iPhone photography roundup (and images) from Phil Coffman. Includes use of Photoshop.com app
• Thinking of digitizing old photos? Macworld compares scanning services. [Via]
• National Geographic:
  • Biggest, Tallest Tree Photo Ever (Our wee man Finn loves the fold-out print version: “Leetle dudes!!”)
  • A chimp funeral (pic #2)? That’s honestly not something I expected to see today.
• A photo essay in TIME covers history’s Top 10 Doctored Photos (many predating Photoshop).

October 30, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Friday Infographics

• Man, what a gorgeous space infographic. See also the lovely Race to the Moon.
• A three-year-old’s view of the NYC subway. (I have to get my illustration mojo back & start doing things like this for our boys. I keep wanting to do a diagram of baby Henry scootching around his crib, a la the sailing stones of the Racetrack Playa.)
• A Graphic History of Newspaper Circulation Over the Last Two Decades. [Via]
• Map of how long it takes to get to a ‘major’ city (+50k people). [Via]

October 28, 2009

(rt) Interesting Miscellany: Slick designs, terrible demos, & more

• “Horrifically bad software demo becomes performance art.” Oh God, I’ve been so close to being the podium-gripping guy…
• Design:
  • I dig this Brooklyn Bridge-inspired bottle design (less literal/cheesy than it might sound).
  • “Measure twice, rock once” with the Cassette Tape Measure.
• What *possible* demographic buys Playboy (faux) Hot Wheels? (I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know.)
• This forkless cruiser bike looks like a Photoshop job but isn’t.
• Music:
  • “Katzenklavier“: Worst. Musical Instrument. Ever. (Germans, you’re a trippy bunch.) [Via]
  • Rad: Subway stairs as giant piano. Well done, VDub.

October 26, 2009

(rt) Photography: Glaciers from space, famous Legos, & more

• The natural world:
  • Glaciers, as seen from space. [Via]
  • Amazing undersea image from Nat Geo. [Via]
  • Fascinating–MIT Students Build Space Camera for $150.
• Famous images:
  • Check out the interesting “Iconic Photos” blog. (via @kottke)
  • Mike Stimpson offers Famous photos recreated in LEGO [Via]

• Striking aircraft photography from Josef Hoflehner [Via Christina Wiley]
• “Two Weeks in Forever” is the NYT’s interesting 3-minute photo essay about a Marine unit in Afghanistan.
• Here’s a 360-degree pano of some Photoshop & Lightroom guys meeting w/customers last week in NYC.

October 25, 2009

(rt) Offbeat sculptures: Micro Hulk, Bizarre balloons, & more

• Microsculptor’s Incredible Hulk Fits in Eye of a Needle. [Via]
• Buddha sculpture made from 20,000 dead bugs. (I always love hilariously overwrought Japanese narration.) [Via]
• Skeletons made from melted cassette tapes. [Via]
• Weirdest. (And Biggest.) Balloon. Sculptures. Ever. [Via]

October 23, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Martians, killers, and more

• Infographics:
  • A lovely, highly readable, one-image history of missions to Mars. [Via]
  • “A billion here, a billion there…” Gigantic expenditures visualized.
  • “A Killer Among Us??” The Science News Cycle as a handy infographic. [Via]
• Cool: Sketchbook Mobile for iPhone now emails layered PSD files. [Via]
• The recent evolution of various logos (Hilton, Hertz, more).
• Chris Haines makes some amazing photo illustrations (Thom Yorke & others). (They get better as you scroll down.)

October 16, 2009

(rt) Type: German chronographs, Photorealistic 3D type, & more

• Looks like a cool tutorial on “extreme typography” in Illustrator (full reading requires site membership).
• Gollum-flavored license plate spotted at lunch: PRSHSSS. We likes it…
• “IT IS TEN PAST NINE…” Cool German timepiece. Even comes as an iPhone app! [Via]
• Nerd-tastic Cmd-Z necklace.
• Quiz: So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?
• Motion
  • Kinetic typography (photorealistic 3D text as metalwork). Here’s the background info.
  • The “Bored to Death” titles feature fun typography in motion.

October 15, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Mickey D’s to Decapitated KFC’s

• Infographics:
  • Map of the US, visualized by the distance to nearest McDonald’s. Here’s more info. [Via]
  • Beautiful “Nonsensical Infographics” by Chad Hagen.
• I love the excellently simple Decibel Fest poster.
• Check out the nifty retro illustrations from Lab Partners. More are on their blog. [Via]
• The best flag in the world. [Via]
• Filed under Stuff You Were Previously Unlikely To See Today: A dog fox eating Col. Sanders’ head, courtesy of graffiti artist Banksy. Brainstem-lickin’ good.

October 12, 2009

(rt) Photography: Nobel Prizes, Lightroom plug-ins, & more

• “Masters of light”: 2009 Nobel Goes to Digital Photography Pioneers. [Via Todor Georgiev]
• Hot aerospace action:
  • “This photo destroyed a camera,” says Photojojo. “Worth it.”
  • Great plane-from-above photo (apparently from a blimp over LaGuardia). More shots are here.
• Here’s a fairly substantial introduction to available Lightroom plug-ins. [Via]
• Clever: A vase that mimics a Polaroid.
• The venerable German magazine Brigitte is stopping the use of professional models: all too skinny. They to use Photoshop to make them “thicker.” [Via Roey Horns]

October 10, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Bold type, controversial covers, & more

• The original IBM ThinkPad (Spoiler: It’s an actual pad.) [Via]

• Dang–artist Eric Natzke keeps raising his game: “Is it made with Paint or Code?” [Via]
• Tutorials:
  • How to Create Vintage Vector Bottle Caps In Illustrator CS4.
  • Dig the bold 3D type in this poster tutorial.

• “Is God Dead?” The Most Controversial Magazine Covers of All Time. [Via Jackie Lincoln-Owyang]
• Getting clever:
  • “Shoot forth thunder.” Visual plays on Shakespearian lines, as sprinkled through “Romeo + Juliet.”
  • A great set of logos featuring visual puns. [Via]

October 05, 2009

(rt) Photography: Red skies, Robo-bama, & more

• Spooky: Dust storm in Australia on the Big Picture. (Cue up The Fixx…) Make sure to check out the interesting crossfades (e.g. image 4) that juxtapose dust-occluded & normal views of their subjects. [Via]
• Great plane-from-above photo (from a blimp over LaGuardia). More images are in the rest of the post.
• Lovely recycled camera lens wrist cuffs. [Via]
• New Strata tool lets you make 3D models using just a camera. Includes Photoshop plug-in for further tweaks.
• President Roboto: Remix of 130 State Department Flickr photos showing the unvarying Obama smile. [Via]
• Focalware, a cool iPhone app to assist in outdoor photography, has been updated to v2.0.

September 28, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Charlie Parker, Busted coffee, & more

• One bedtime treat is reading young Finnegan an ABC book from the amazing Charley Harper. (Reading him the marvelously weird Charlie Parker Played Be Bop is another.)
• The Photoshop team coffee pot was recently broken again–and yes, QE has graphed the impact!
• This “Tech support cheat sheet” from xkcd is spot-on funny. [Via]
• Here’s a 6-minute video on how Wired makes mag covers. One involved a 1GB (!) Transformers .PSD rendered by ILM. [Via Adam Pratt]
• Check out some impressive photo manipulations/illustrations from Erik Johansson. [Via Kirsten Harris]

September 25, 2009

(rt) Type: From gorgeous to (literally) cheesy

• Beautiful collections:
  • Typarchive is all about hand-lettered sweetness. [Via]
  • “For Your Ocular Amusement…”, it’s LetterheadFonts.com. You knew I’d love these ones. (via Marc Pawliger)
• “Smart, tough, and sexy. Hello Tungsten.” Great font, great name. [Via]
• Windows termination-inspired:
  • Computer lingo x Huge typography = Political statement.
  • Nerdiest/most painful/most puzzling typographic tattoo ever?
• Fun, splashy type treatment for NY Times “T” Magazine.
• Hah! Cheese or Font? (It’s no “Food, Sex, or Cars?,” however.) [Via Adam Jerugim]

September 24, 2009

(rt) Photography: Astronomy, Architecture, & More

• Free* copy of Lightroom 2! (*with purchase of Leica M9) [Via]
• Awesomely bad engagement photos. [Via]
• Hot spatial action:
  • Astronomy Photographer of the Year winners. (The universe has a weird way of sometimes emulating the look of an airbrushed ’77 Econoline.) [Via]
  • A beautiful B&W from the shiny early days of the space race.
• Buildings in stasis:
  • Beautiful, ethereal architectural photography by Kim Høltermand.
  • Oddly lovely: Photos of abandoned houses in Detroit, now being reclaimed by nature. [Via]
• How do people get wildlife shots like this? Timing, timing, timing–and probably serious prep. (Oh yes–and mice as bait.)
7:05 AM | Permalink | Comments [4]

September 22, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Escher, Che-on-Che, & more

• Volkswagen has created a fun MC Escher homage. (Click the images for larger versions.)
• Heh: from the Onion, the “Che Wearing Che T-shirt T-shirt.”
• Fancy a beer? Make mine a Berserker. (“Lumberjacks give them the grunt of approval.”)
• Check out the beautifully simple “Redacted Book Series” project.
• Gene Gable rounds up solid vintage Ex Libris illustrations. I like this one for Woodrow Wilson.
• Enjoy some “Dirty Prancing” with the Swayzaur–not to mention Robocop + unicorns.

September 15, 2009

(rt) Photography: Bitchin’ laser portraits, Frankencamera, & more

• Laser backgrounds + Mullets = Bitchin’ 80′s portraits: Laserportraits.net/ [Via]
• PT’ing in one of Saddam’s palaces has to qualify as one of life’s stranger events. Photo essay by Richard Mosse.
• Gaston Batistini captured a nice HDR-ish balloon race photo. (via @kottkedotorg)
• Lightroom tip: You can show color selectively, desaturating all but a selected region. (Note Density=100) (via @LR_Tom)
• Behold the Stanford “Frankencamera.” We’ve been collaborating with Dr. Levoy & team for a while. I’ll try to share more details sometime soon.

September 14, 2009

(rt) Useful utilities: PS preset syncing, shortcuts, & more

• In response to a reader’s request for FTP to be built into more CS apps: To save straight from Photoshop to a Web server via FTP, try http://www.expandrive.com/
• Bittbox shows off How to Sync Photoshop Presets on Multiple Computers. [Via]
• Haven’t gotten to try it (I don’t use WordPress), but Divine promises PSD->WordPress site conversion.
• Shortcuts:
  • The Adobe Shortcut App lists keyboard commands from across CS4. Being a real nerd for this stuff, I’d like to see it made totally comprehensive. (Would we need 64 bit for the RAM required by that listing? ;-)) [Via Adam Pratt]
  • Handy shortcuts for changing font size in Photoshop: (I had no idea, and I’m usually all over these things.)

[For more utilities, see previous.]

September 12, 2009

(rt) Photography: Motorcycle supermen, Space Shuttles, & more

• Photog Mark Weaver offers up some solid iPhone wallpapers.
• This two-faced Samsung camera features built-in baby-hypnotizer.
• Mentalfloss collects some amazing airplane graveyard pics. [Via]
• NASA’s sharing a beautiful photo of the Space Shuttle blasting off at night.
• Tomatoes, baby. Two hundred & forty dollars worth of puddin–er, tomatoes.
• Percentage of motorcycles getting Supermanned: 100. I love this photo. [Via]

September 07, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Filter Heroes, puke-inducing logos, & more

[Quick reminder: The "(rt)" in the post headline signifies that I've previously posted these links on my Twitter account.]

• Infographics:
  • Venn diagram of mythical creatures. Pretty excellent. [Via]
  • Great infographic: Caffeine vs. calories. [Via]
• Check out the Photoshop Filter Heroes t-shirt from our pals at Chopping Block.
• Eye-popping monstrous illustrated goodness from Niark1. Lots more to like at Niark1.com.
• Design Won’t Save the World. See other words of wisdom for budding designers:
• Layers for iPhone does photo compositing + natural media & exports PSDs (!).
• Awfulness:
  • Ouch: YourLogoMakesMeBarf.com. (But the “Johnston County Cornhole” does richly deserve it.)
  • Hard-core awesome Web design: Havenworks and uh, this thing. (“How can you even look at that without having a seizure?,” asks my wife.) [Via Sam Potts]

August 30, 2009

(rt) Type: The Bonassus, OCD, CSS, & more

• All hail the Bonassus! Fun vintage typesetting. (And check out the back story from Ricky Jay.)
• A map of Paris, expressed as linocut typography. (The ‘net loves it some OCD madness…)
• Typarchive offers up some hand-lettered sweetness. [Via]
• “Quick“: a nice little type-nerd joke. (And by the way, what’s the deal with quick brown foxes in type, anyway? CreativePro explains.)
• I dig the big, bold CSS typography of Oliver Kavanagh. [Via]

August 27, 2009

(rt) Photography: Badass aircraft, Killer origami, & more

• In flight:
  • As Stu Maschwitz says, “Badass photos of badass aircraft are badass.” Word.
  • Captivating photos of helicopter halos (+ some moving stories). [Via]
• Horse + Hood = High-speed badness. (Many beautiful there pix, too.) [Via]
• Grégoire Alexandre: When Green Screens Attack (And Turn Into Origami)
• Lovely, and crafty, underwater photography. [Via]

• Mad Men season three promo images. Love the color and light balance. [Via]
• Harper’s Bazaar shows models sans makeup or Photoshop. (Seems like a microtrend.) [Via]

August 23, 2009

(rt) Photography: The End of (MPx) War & More

• Megapixel War Is Over (If You Want It): New Canon G11 features 4 MPx fewer than its predecessor. I think that’s great, but what a challenge it must be to market “Now with 35% less resolution!” to average consumers. (via Bryan O’Neil Hughes)
• “Always-on cameras” (of which the new iPhone may have one) = Way cool.
• A MacGyver-style camera ring light for $5? Photojojo tells How to Light With LEDs.
• Huelight.com offers free DNG profiles for Canon, Panasonic, Olympus. (Haven’t tried ‘em & can’t offer eval) (via Eric Chan)
• Photo quote o’ the day: “The best camera is the one you have with you and which has a f/1.4 normal prime.” — Neven Mrgan

August 22, 2009

(rt) Illustration: CS4 cupcakes, Orc pee, & more

• “Game over, man–game over.”: Don’t be this (8-bit) guy. The image is part of a funky “Make Something Cool Every Day” collection.
• Colour Lovers features a collection of beautiful vintage typewriter tins.
• Of new Mountain Dew, Neven Mrgan writes, “Two-word review: Orc pee.” And speaking of oddball snack products, apparently Asia features Crotch-Kick Flavor Doritos.
• CS4 icon cupcakes! (Just don’t get the icing on your Creative Suite pillows.) (via Jeff Warnock)
• Awesome URL o’ the day: http://jon.dntfckwth.us/ (Worth a click for some awesome art there, too.)
• Vegetable steamer = awesome spaceship. I *so* did that as a kid.

August 13, 2009

(rt) Photography: Cranes, hills, & mountains

• Chicago crane operator + photography skills = quite a cool gallery. (via Bill Hughes)
• Beautiful, surreal cinematic compositions from Roy Andersson.
• Marcin Sacha makes absolutely beautiful rolling-hill landscapes. [Via Jason Fried]
• JK Keller crushes mountains with the help of Photoshop + JavaScript [Via]

[Update: Man, it had to happen: Managing the baby 2-4AM = retweeting stuff I'd posted not long ago. Gah... I wasn't kidding about running on fumes. Good catch by Timothy Mackey. --J.]

August 05, 2009

Wednesday Photography: Fires, OCD, coffee, and more

I have to admit, with a newborn in the house, a 17-month-old on the loose, and rotating sets of grandparents in town, I’m running on fumes when it comes to the blog. Somehow, though, I can’t quite cut myself enough slack to miss a few days, so let me briefly mention a few recent finds (including re-tweets) I’ve found compelling:

• From the Big Picture, Fires Around the Mediterranean
• Crane operator + photography skills = quite a cool gallery [Via Behues]
• Absolutely beautiful rolling-hill landscapes from photographer Marcin Sacha [Via]
• Even regular jellyfish freak me out. I really can’t deal with the giant Japanese suckers featured in National Geographic.
• The Mona Lisa made from cups of coffee [Via]

August 03, 2009

(rt) Type: Graffiti, lard, & cars

• Check out this groovy typographic soap. [Via] (Zalman Stern remarks, “Yeah, just two questions for the creator: What is the font? and Have you ever been asked to leave a liposuction facility under suspicious circumstances?”)
• Writ large: use a Toyota to draw each letter of a font. [Via]
• BuzzFeed rounds up some hipster bathroom graffiti. [Via] (At Georgetown, dudes made a million grout puns (“Grout Scott,” etc.).)

July 30, 2009

(rt) Photography: Serendipity, chicanery, & more

• Terrific aerial photo of farm combines from Jim Richardson. Check out Jim’s behind-the-scenes post. (And Safari-using photo nerds, note the huge color shift when viewing one version of the image vs. the other. It kills me that Web developers refuse to “get” color mgmt. in any reasonable way.)
• Tips (including a video) on doing complex multi-photo layouts using only Lightroom.
• Chinese pigeons take a cue from Iranian missiles. [Via]
• Long exposures of bugs under a street light. (45 sec)
• Cool photos from Shuttle Endeavour’s visit to the International Space Station. (I especially love this one.)
• MIT researchers create photo-sensitive fabric. (Future: Photog takes pix of clothes taking pix of photog…?)

July 29, 2009

(rt) Illustration: AT-ATs, optical illusions, & more

• Here’s an awesome “Oakland AT-AT” t-shirt. I love those things (both kinds). (via @5tu)
• Vandelay Design rounds up 30 Text Effect Tutorials for Illustrator. Lots of neat ideas here, and I especially like the “Vibrant 3D Pixel Type Treatment.”
• The Daily Mail shows a set of garage doors as optical illusions. (I’m a sucker for folding-wing F/A-18′s myself.) Get ‘em here. [Via]
• What’s on Earth Tonight? If extraterrestrials are monitoring our TV broadcasts, here’s what they’re seeing. [Via]
• RT @khoi: Illustrator S. Britt’s homepage violates all rules of good Web navigation-but it’s so good.
• Fast Food Mafia presents mascots as gangsters. (Click for the higher-res version.) [Via]
• What Apple’s web site would have looked like if the Internet existed in 1984. (via @davecross)
• Teehan + Lax have created a new PSD to facilitate designing for Palm Pre. (They’re the same guys who made the iPhone GUI PSD.)

July 25, 2009

(rt) Useful utilities

• Disk Doctors Photo Recovery promises to recover lost/deleted PSD files.
• Brush Pilot (Mac) offers fast preview of Photoshop brushes. See also Preset Viewer for Windows.
• Cool color utility ColourGrab shows hex values for dominant colors in Web images. [Via Mark Coleran]
• ColoRotate presents color harmonies via a 3D widget. They’re planning to release a Flash panel for CS4 apps.

July 23, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Amazing light paintings & more

• Jan Wöllert and Jörg Miedza create amazing long-exposure light paintings.
• Creative Suite icons done via human pixels from Italy. (via @jdowdell)
• Free 3D models from NASA; can be loaded into Photoshop Extended. (via Pete Falco)
• Finally an Illustrator tutorial that takes advantage of warping tools + blending modes, not just c1990-era stuff: Creating an MRE package.
• “404 Humor Not Found”: fun error pages. More here. (via @gridirondaniel & @inspiredm)
• A personal ad in infographic form: My kind of girl!
• Nicknames for famous corporate logos. (My fave: “Two and a Half Hotdogs”)
• Simple, powerful book cover design for “Busted.”

July 22, 2009

(rt) Photography: Mesmerizing HD video, B-Boys, & more

• HD video of the Kuroshio Sea aquarium, shot with Canon 5D MkII 5DMKII (via @mikegee)
• Awesome (if you’re an old Beastie Boys fan): a photographic history of the Paul’s Boutique corner. (via @khoi)
• Yucks:
  • What would happen If Celebrities Moved to Oklahoma, via Photoshop? (My wife is an OK escapee.)
  • The Onion: “17-Year-Old Thinks She’s Getting Into Photography“.
  • Regarding Nikon ads: “I don’t get this whole ‘I’m Ashton Kutcher and you should care what my goofy ass is doing’ thing.” — my wife.
• Use Google Images without violating copyright. CreativePro.com features tips on using it to find royalty-free imagery.
• Ugh: NY Times was burned by digital photo manipulation. See also their comments.
• Chipmunks vs. Star Wars? (You were a good smuggler once; now you’re just ‘munk fodder…)
• Tips (including a video) on creating complex multi-photo layouts using only Lightroom.

July 17, 2009

(rt) Type: Clever logos, tiny letterpress, & more

• Hope & Fear, nicely typeset
• TypeInspire: Typographical inspiration o’ the day (via @motionographer)
• Super cool tiny letterpress books
• Logo Inspiration With Clever Typography (via @bbb_999)

July 15, 2009

(rt) Photography: Masses of humanity, Star Wars, and more

• Portrait of an eye made from human figures [Via Mark Coleran]
• NY Times gallery: Michael Wolf photos of impersonal Chicago skyscrapers & inhabitants. [Via Stephen Shankland]
• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sucks at Photoshop. [Via @rufusd]
• Fashion mags try going makeup- and Photoshop-free. [Via Tom Hogarty]
• Star Wars-flavored:
  • A Stormtrooper tribute to the King of Pop
  • Star Wars-upon-chipmunks

July 14, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Man vs. tank, Pixar vs. Dreamworks, & more

• Can one commission Chinese artists to batch-paint the Tiananmen “tank man”? One man tries.
• The iPhone GUI PSD has been updated for iPhone 3.0. Way to go, guys! [Via Mark Coleran]
• I like the idea of a Lego Remote: The cartoon is similar in spirit to Adobe Configurator.
• “There is bad taste and then there is this“–the new MSFT Bing logo. [Via Mark Coleran]
• Oof–a probably unfair but funny Pixar vs. Dreamworks smackdown. (via @5tu)
• I had a little weekend fun with Illustrator’s Live Trace feature.

July 12, 2009

(rt) Illustration: PS Playboy, World War III, and more

• Photoshop named Playboy’s “Employee of the Month.” [Via Michael Ninness]
• Optical illusion pavement art: giant hole in bike path. [Via Stephen Shankland]
• Killer hair-based illustration o’ the day [Via Mordy Golding]
• “Someone Tweeted!” Check out these WWIII Propaganda Posters.
• Would you trust this man to draw on your face? If so, that makes one of us. (And yes, the girl turned out to be lying.)
• What’s the difference between a bug and a feature?

July 11, 2009

(rt) Tips: Useful bits for PS, AI, etc.

The majority of my blog readers don’t follow me on Twitter, and I’m not sure how many folks look at the tweet-feed embedded at right. Therefore it seems worth wrapping up some previously tweeted (but unblogged) links. I’m thinking I’ll flag these posts with “(rt)” in the subject line, so that you can ignore them if you already follow the Twitter feed. If you have any other suggestions, I’m all ears.

• Layers Magazine offers 100 Wicked Tips for Lightroom & CS4 apps. I learned a bunch of good stuff.
• Photoshop nuggets:
  • Photoshop tip: Cmd-click the New Layer button to create layer behind current one. [Via Cristen Gillespie.]
  • Photoshop CS4 tip: While zoomed in, hold down H while clicking anywhere. Move the square elsewhere & release. Kapow! [Via @gpenston]
  • “Does CS4 strip lens metadata like CS3?” No. Save for Web now gives you choices. Select “All” to preserve lens data.