AD!DICT LABS. REACH BEYOND YOUR INDUSTRY.

Ad!dict Labs is probably one of my favorite...I don't really know what they are. In essence, they're a great source of inspiration. I've seen a lot of companies try to do what Ad!dict Labs does. It's got a lot of great information on design, technology, trends, art, architecture etc. All the "inspiration books" are beautifully designed. All the articles are also beautifully written. Anyway, this magazine completely complements and supports what I'm trying to do with my new agency - look beyond our own industry to learn and appreciate everything beyond our comfort zone, and perhaps one day, use it.

Look into this guys. It's worth 30 seconds of your free time. Here are some sample spreads and here's the website: http://www.addictlab.com/index.php/labfiles

FURNITURE SKETCH.

Okay so I'm sorry for disappearing all of a sudden. I've recently moved from Dubai to the Asian front. Unfortunately, I'm not at liberty to say but obviously, career moves such as this takes a toll on my personal life and this blog.

In any case, I discovered this at my new office and I thought this was just brilliant and worth sharing. There is a design group in Sweden called "FRONT." 4 girls, Swedish girls might I add, run the place. That's hot...but their work is even hotter.

The video below is a mixture of illustration, industrial design and performance art. It's quite something and it's just hard to explain. Enjoy.

THE PERIODIC TABLE OF TYPEFACES.

This was sent to me by a good friend and I thought this was definitely worth posting. If you ever spend a lot of time doing any print work, you often find yourself stuck for fonts. I don't particularly enjoy searching for fonts and this could virtually end up taking you a at least an hour to find the perfect one. So I tend to stick to a set of 10 I've committed to memory. This is not a good thing. So the image above is a really useful tool if you ever need to look for fonts. I think it's a fairly good set of fonts. There are enough that aren't generic and default and large enough so you have enough variety. Of course, the best thing to do is probably grow some patience and dig through your library of fonts. But until then, use the above.

GET YOUR MOJO BACK.

Sagmeister is a master graphic designer but for me, I love his forward thinking philosophy on life. What's important to understand is that his philosophy actually works. The TED talk below is Sagmeister's view on taking regular sabbaticals (an extended leave from the office) and how important it is to gain some new perspective and how it improves your work. Sagmeister's work is always fresh so he can charge more.

Anyway, for those of you workaholics who manage to see this, you can thank me later.

IT STARTED WITH A CHAIR.

Juno: the little movie that did. For the folks that don't know this tid bit, most movies usually don't recover from their budget with ticket sales and only get it back with dvd and promo sales. Juno, however, not only recovered their budget in its opening weekend but profited 20 times over.

Anyway, this post isn't about money. It's about the intro sequence. For anyone that has done any work like this, you'd know that this is a grueling process. I managed to get my hands on the some of the production pics so you'd understand how this is made. It's tough...

HOPE.

Erwin Olaf is...something else. Nobody can get this look out of their photographs. You can definitely tell if you're looking at an Olaf. There's a simplistic look to his photographs but look closely at the image and you'll see an abundance of detail. The photographs have this painting-like quality and I have no idea how he does it. What can I say? The man's an artist: http://www.erwinolaf.com

Click the thumbnails below. They look more stunning large...I promise.

A MAN CHOOSES. A SLAVE OBEYS.

If you own an Xbox, there's no doubt you already own this game or at least heard of it. I've never seen a game implement so much art. There's so much detail in the game, and I'm not talking about textures. I'm talking about the art deco city of Rapture, the paintings hanging on the walls, articles in newspapers, the voice talent and the music.

The most impressive aspect of the game is the script. Here's a sample from the intro of the game.



They made good choices making this game. It's flawless.

VINCENT.

A beautifully written animated short by Tim Burton. In fact, it's his very first film...

DANCE AND ILLUSION.

This is quite old but definitely worth talking about. I don't think I've seen anything quite like it today. David Bernal, aka David Elsewhere, is from Santa Ana California. He was discovered in YouTube after being filmed at a dance competition called Kollaboration in 2001. David classifies himself as an illusionary dancer.

You'll just have to watch the clip to understand what that really means.

EXPLORING INNER AND OUTER SPACE.

http://spacecollective.org - this is a site dedicated to bringing the brightest minds together to shape the future of everything. Here you have a collection of scientists, teachers, students, anyone with significant knowledge in field of technology but specifically, inner and outer space. There's something humbling about the data you'll find here.

Below, I'm embedding their introductory video which should be more than enough to convince you to pay this site a visit. I suggest you watch the other episodes embedded on it.

THE SINGING, RINGING TREE.

This is one of the coolest art installations I've ever seen. It looks like some alien technology that was left behind in the middle of nowhere! There's not much information on it but from here's what I've gathered so far: The Singing Ringing Tree is designed by architects Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu. It's 3 meters tall made of steel pipes of varying lengths. The hollow steel pipes allow wind to pass through them creating this eerie but beautiful sound.

KINETIC SCULPTURES. WIND BEASTS.

Theo Jansen has been occupied trying to create new forms of life. Jansen has created skeletal systems that walk the earth, made from cheap plastic tubes and powered only by the wind. Over time, Jansen has evolved these beasts to adapt to harsh weather conditions. Eventually, Theo Jansen will free his sculptures in herds on beaches to live their own lives.

Beautiful.

3D GLASS PAINTINGS.

This is from Chinese painter, Xia Xiao Wan.  You can see some more of his work and, if you have the spare cash, buy some of his work here: http://www.artnet.com/artist/80470/xia-xiaowan.html

China's art scene seems to be exploding and I'll keep a close eye on some of these artists and upload their work here.

BARE PROJECT.

Here's an interesting initiative from am i collective (http://www.amicollective.com), a great illustration house in Cape Town. They've commissioned their in-house artists along with a select few of outside artists to design these Bares. The Bares will be sent to various galleries all over the world and will be auctioned off online to invited individuals (like moi...). The proceeds go to child welfare.

Because Bares Care!

I must say, these are fantastic. The Bares are beautifully designed. This is art for good. You can see them yourself here: http://bare.amicollective.com

DESIGN BIBLE.

This is one sexy sketch book. It was passed around between 4 artists (2 in Brooklyn, 2 in Belfast) over a span of 36 weeks. Each artist was given 5 days to complete a spread in response to the one that preceded it. Such a simple idea with beautiful results.

You can visit the website at: http://www.lookatbook.com - it's full of great artwork plus the artist's commentary on each spread. Here's a peek: