Beautiful photographs of India by Raj Naik
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Beautiful photographs of India by Raj Naik
The Monoface website features some of the coolest flash that I've seen in ages...love it!!
Here are some photos that I recently took with my spiffy lomography camera.
Ralph Laurens latest shop window display in Chicago has taken a leap forward into the world of technology.
The Christmas themed shop window features 67 inch touch screens which passers-by can use to purchase any item in the store or warehouse.
Nike always seems to come up with visually creative and interactice sites, here is yet another...Nike ACG.
I like the vertical navigation up that takes you up and down the mountain the 'Trail' section.
One of my students showed me this visually stunning website today... Heiwa-alpha
Odd and creepy yet beautiful...Loretta Lux's photographs.
And the site of the month award goes to MsDewey the search engine with attitude. This is fantastic! watch what happens if you don't type anything in. It's also slightly customised to the search that you enter, for example if you type in 'bokstores' MsDewey starts to read a book and gives you a little monologue about judging a book by its cover. Also, everytime you return to the site MsDewey is participating in a different activity. Love it!
Colorium features some lovely illustrations by Argentinian illustrator/designer Florencia Kohan.
Meomi the talented artists behind projects like Monkey Pow! are publishing a gorgeous childrens book called 'The Octonauts' Can't wait to buy it! I absolutely love the illustrations!
The Mercedes-Benz Museum traces the historical highlights of the brand right back to its beginning. A beautifully designed website with one of the best timelines that I have ever seen
Newsmap is an application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Googgle news aggregator. Apparently it uses what is known as a "treemap visualization algorith" ...way too technical for my left sided brain but it sounds good to me! I really like the way that it has redefined the way in which we read news, I particularly like the way in which you can select news categories by colour allowing you to view only your personal interests.
Kind of reminds me a little of Negropontes prediction concerning the customisation of information for the individual. Not that I totally agree with the complete customisation of information for individuals. I believe that a customised view of the world might be restricting and create a narrow minded approach to life, not to mention the wonderful things that they might miss out on if you only get exposed to what you like and know. Where would the element of surprise be? Anyway enough ranting nJoy! news map.
Levitated features a collection of beautiful animated flash experiments. It's visual poetry and a feast for the eyes.
A very nice self promotional website for Cobra Creative
Professor Ken Stephenson a mathematician has created these beautiful and intricate patterns using algorithms of ultrafractal calculations of circles. Not quite sure what that means..I was never any good at maths!
The Digital Design Museum is part of The Design Museum in London.
Sinplex is the work of Shinya Yamamoto, the work titled 'Gift' is just beautiful!
Microsoft Live Labshave created 'PhotoSynth' an amazing tool which redefines the way in which we look at images.
Once in a while you come across a little jewel amongst the digital peebles that lay on the vast lake which is the internet. Today I discovered the work of an amazing artist Stanley Donwood.
His artwork has been used for the newly released album The Eraser by Radioheads Thom Yorke. Click on London Views to see his amazing art and also his surreal writtings. The short stories in Small thoughts are awesome!!
Select Flavor features the illustrations of various upcoming artists the project is a creative collaboration between Flavorpill and Budweiser Select.
Gorgeous illustrations by Badrak
Havianas website is the creation of Adhemas Batista a very talented designer/illustrator based in brazil. Gorgeous illustrations! check out some of her other work also.
DQ Books features a lovely book like interface and some luscious illustrations.
I like Cerberoleso's unique approach to the design of his portfolio website, the text is quite comical and gives us a hint of what he might be like as a person. I think that this is some thing that most of us forget to add to our websites, I think we get so caught up in showcasing the work that we forget to showcase ourselves.
Also check out this querky little animation that he created as part of the Converse Gallery competition.
As I was cleaning up my bookmarks I went to revisit an old favourite that I haven't been back to in quite some time. I don't like chat rooms, and I've never really participated in one, but I do like to browse around the different rooms in Habbo because its just so beautifully created.
NoStatic is the site of Luigi De Aloisio and Italian designer. His experiments sections features some really interesting pieces.
The work of illustrator Linn Olofsdotter
Getty have collaborated with several leading designers including Tomato to create 10 ways which features a series of interactive pieces that showcases Gettys images. Some of the more notables include Greatwork which lets you combine several images to create a short story and my favourite by Sumona called 'information' in which you select different areas of aphotograph and you are taken deeper and deeper into a series of never ending images.
BubbleSoap by Jotto
Although both my little ones have been playing Duplo since they were old enough to sit up, my son Pablo just received an obscene amount of Legos for his fourth birthday, so for the past month pretty much every play time hour has been filled with Lego related activities. Its been years since I last played with Legos and I'd forgotten what a great toy they are. I have to say that Legos are by far the best childrens toy ever invented! They appeal to both males and females all over the world, they are played by all ages including adults and the creative possibilities are endless.
Both Fortune magazine and the British Association of Toy Retailers have claimed that Legos are the 'Toy of the Century' and they are the worlds fourth largest toy manufacturer even though they only have about 7,000 employees. The name lego is Danish and is derived from "leg godt" which means to "play well" in Latin it means "I put together". It was started by Danish Ole Kirk Christiansen a carpenter turned toy maker in 1932.
I really admire Lego as a company their ability to continously invent and evolve the lego stream of products is ingenous. Legos today are battery powered, feature movable robotic parts and even lights, and ever since the invention of the logo figure in 1974 ( the first female figure appeared in 1978 a nurse) legos commenced to introduce themed boxes including space themes, castles and hospitals and towns. I remember playing for hours and hours with my hospital and lego family home that came complete with kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms and of course a family of four.
Since about 1998 they have cleverly pick up on current entertainment themes such as Harry Potter, Batman and Star Wars yet again proving that they unlike some unfortunate brands who lacked vision, continue to create and innovative with each new generation. Lego don't just create plastic blocks they also create interactive games and also have several Legoland theme parks around the world to fully create the Lego experience.
Even Legos interactive activities are great. They have several websites including lego.com, Lego Club, Lego Interactive and LegoFactory. LegoFactory allows anyone to make their own lego creation on their computer using Legos Digital Designer Software, they can then purchase the lego model that they just created and the bricks and bits are sent to their home. Very clever!
Other links:
Flash movie about how legos are created
Reinventing the way fashion is displayed online -Amadeo decada
One of my students showed me this last week...Ikea Dromkok It's a bit like that scene in the movie 'Fightclub' when he walks through his apartment.
Time Magazine has always been able to capture the essence of a particular time in history through its covers. The site has a great feature which allows you to go back and take a look at all the covers throughout history.
Looking for some inspiration? this might be useful...
Annual Reports.com features just about every annual report that you would ever want to find. Some feature some really nice designs, they're listed by industry, company and alphabetically.
The DataTiles system features both a graphical and physical interface. It's similar to Multi-touch interaction screens that I have blogged about previously. Transparent tiles are placed on a sensor enhanced flat panel display and each panel displays different informatin which can then interact with the other panels, it's pretty amazing stuff! Click here to watch the video.
Created for Adicolor this series of short animations are pretty cool. I specially like Roman Coppola & Andy Bruntel's red which is a funny animation that tells the story of how the colour red was invented and also pink by Charlie White which I find slightly disturbing in a glossy sort of way. To view the other colours click on the colours that appear on the top right of the screen. Yellow and Black will be launched later in May.
An amusing concept which once again illustrates the 'community' nature of the web. Even some of the celebs are taking part; I found a Mark Ryden hand!!
Last week one of my students mentioned the latest Sony Bravia advert in which thousands of colourful balls bounce through the streets of San Francisco, most of the students were surprised that the commercial was actually not CGI but real. In this age of high tech special effects it doesn't surprise me; as every year goes by its getting harder to distinguish what is real and what isn't.
I've also noticed that there is now a certain novelty in creating things the old fashioned way. I recently watched the making of 'The Corpse Bride' on DVD and I was quite amused at how much importance the actors and set creators put on the fact that it was all created using stop motion rather than computer animation. In recent months I've seen more of this attitude emerge, it seems that the table has turned.
The amount of labour that goes into 'hand made' effects is quite extraordinary and something to be greatly admired, however when the viewer can't tell if in fact it's a computer created effect or camera create effect you have to wonder is it really worth it?
Other links:
Behind the scenes of Bravia
Parody commercial for a game by Snoken
The agency behind the advert "fallon"
Samorost is a gorgeous and cute game created by by Amanita Design.
The British Library features an online gallery called 'Turning the pages" it features books such as 'Sketches by Leonardo', 'Mozarts musical diary', my favourite 'The Original Alice' plus many more.
The books are interactive and the pages are turned like a real book, it's the most realistic example of turning pages in a book that I have seen so far.
Ever since I attended the web essential conference last year I've noticed that the internet has become the home to many communities. There's something wonderful about humans connecting globally through technology with other humans that they have never met or are unlikely to meet. It makes this large yet small world seem more connected and brakes down the geographical barriers that the internet has managed to blur.
YellowArrow is a beautiful example this and also of how every individual experiences a city in a unique way. It started of as a global art project back in 2004 in the US and now hosts the experiences, memories, insights, secrets and stories of people from all over the world. To quote the New York section of the site "In this city... a lot of extraordinary details pass unnoticed" I guess you could say that about every city in the world.
It's worth having a look at the "video that explains it all" to find out the whole philosophy behind the project. In a nutshell anyone can purchase the uniquely coded yellow arrow stickers. You then stick the arrow in any place that is important to you and record the experience on a mobile phone by using text, sound, image or video. The expereince is then posted on the site and shared with the rest of the world.
I must admit that I was slightly disappointed with the entries for Sydney, so I guess I better spread the word and get myself some stickers.
Brett Yasko's website feaures some absolutely gorgeous work, Brett is a book designer. I can't exactly remember how I came across his site, but when I found it I just fell in love with the installation project called 'First Night'.
His site is in flash so its hard to find. click on the last menu item called 'one more thing' on the bottom left. It's the kind of project which I wish I'd thought of first.
He and his wife created a 7 foot high and 28 foot wide wall which was covered with 7056 squares of paper, each containing a new years resolution. As people walked past, each little square was removed to reveal the words 'I will have hope' . How clever is that?
Lit fuse design
It's not often that I come across a site that really impresses me. Lit fuse design have taken a great approach to presenting their work; it's innovative, humurous and fun. Love it!
Makine Studios
This site also has a very innovative approach to navigation. The little animated contraptions are gorgeous, and the illustrative quality of the site is quite beautiful.
Process of designing solutions by AIGA
And yet another great interactive site by AIGA, features some great info for novice designers.
The work has a child-like quality that I really like, and the concepts behind the illustrations are a little querky. He has also created the illustrations for a site called leboudoir.
Some viewers might find the products sold on the site slightly offensive, but I think the interface is quite lovely and original. The illustrative style of the website has that Parisian Moulin Rouge flavour, which suits the site theme extremely well.
A NYU Media research lab is taking the touch screen to another level. This amazing piece of interaction just crossed my path last night, and once again I heard myself muttering the words 'God I love technology!'.
Touch screens up to now have had a single point of contact, this system introduces not only multiple touch points but also multiple users. If you watch the quicktime video you will see what I mean, its trully amazing. While it's still in the research stage, my mind is boggling at the potential of this kind of interface.
Tall Buildings is an online study of 25 tall buildings from around the world, the site is presented by MoMA.
Sony Corporation presents hellodesign AIWA, a tripy and surreal experience with cure characters who dance to funky sounds!
So Cool! is a site aimed at 20 somethings the style is original and grungy. Although I found it a little hard to navigate through, it was kind of nice to go on an interactive adventure discovering links and movie clips amongst the hand drawn quality of the illustrations.
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I came across Aaron Jasinski website; an artist, illustrator and musician. Aaron's site not only features some fantastic paintings but the way in which he exhibits them online is visually refreshing. Don't forget to check out his sound section as well.
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I find the whole phenomenon of mobile phones fascinating. Everything about them starting from; the variety of designs that have emerged in the marketplace over the years, the brands that badge them, the multitude of interfaces that they feature, the influence on social etiquette, the addiction that humans have acquired towards them and specially the way in which their use is continuously redefined.
Once upon a time the mobile phones primary function was to communicate through sound from ear to ear. Now we can communicate via text messaging, we are entertained by them, we use them to store information and more and more we use them as a source for getting information.
The newest enhancement to your mobile experience is brought to us by a Japanese company;Celsis. They have created Cell phone comics which use a technology called Comic Surfing.
Comic buffs can now read Manga comics on their mobile phones. Each sequence within a comic is carefully timed so that each frame fits perfectly within the tiny screens. Special vibration effects have also been introduced during action scenes and it wont be long before sound effects are also introduced.
"Currently Japanese viewers pay 315 yen ($2.90) to download five manga titles a month by an artist of their choice. The marriage between cell-phone technology and manga comic books, which are wildly popular among all ages in Japan, is a natural progression in a nation where people already download music, games and even novels onto their mobiles."
To view a video clip of how this works click here.
"For 36 weeks a sketchbook was sent in random order between four artists. Two in Brooklyn and two in Belfast.
Every Wednesday one participant would receive book. The following Monday it was sent out giving each artist five days to complete a spread in response to one that preceded it. A small portion of each entry extends on to the following page.
Beyond this, there was no communication between artists concerning the content of the book during its making.
Books first trip across the Atlantic was on 2 June 2003. Its final trip was on 2 February 2004. By the time it was completed, book travelled over sixty thousand miles."
