Design and digital culture NEWS // February 2008
Breaking
news! I Met The Walrus is
part of the shortlist at the 2008
AWN Oscar Showcase! Oh my gosh - congrats to team - which one, happens
to be working in the same studio as a friend of mine!
Way to go Playairways!
Netdiver
Best of the Year (BOTY) are more than a yearly retrospective -
or a trendy compendium. We share the same space as TIME Best of
the Year (via Google)
and for an online sub-culture design magazine, we think that's pretty
awesome.
Review our 100 best of the best! These folks whatever their disciplines
create memorable and dazzling projects, taking us to uncharted territories
where imagination, skill, talent abide - inciting us to keep pushing
forward.
Another
website using mega sized titles with a simple mouseover for navigation.
About Kai Isselhorst?
Well he is 20 year old rooted in graffiti (when he was 10 year old!?!?)
and when you look at his work (reminescent of the 45 degree angles trend
of some years ago and then some, the richness of the textured layers
are incredible) ... this is when we all switch to warp speed to catch-up
with him.
My gosh - imagine the career he will build. Oh, did I mention he is
available for commissioned work!
Brilliant
work by Albert Folch studio who's
still hungry, still foolish! Perhaps like this Bomb poster simply mind
blowing with realism. Most of the works in this portfolio website is
for print and editorial design related with some stunning covers.
And there lots and lots of them.
The
Design Green Project was able to raise over USD$10,000 for the
StopGlobalWarming.org fund and plant over 8,100 trees! In addition,
they shipped over 500 compact fluorescent light bulbs. All winners
received an Apple iPod shuffle, a Roots Global Warming band, a USD$15
iTunes gift card, and a framed award.
Karen
Lacroix, presently studying at the Royal College of Arts, and I share
both the same hometown, Monteal, and a concern for the environment. She
sent me this World Tipping
map with imminent issues to ponder.
I really wonder if we will be able to avoid this?
Simplicity
and quirky little scenes and characters illustration by Chris Haughton
aka Vegetablefriedrice.
Kultnation relaunches
a new website using diffused black and white screenshots to display the
beautiful work of Vinny Morales. His portfolio contains absolutely gorgeous
design and animations. Don't miss his MTV bumper!
Back in 2006, Vinny landed the 2nd place in 1st Digital
Art Competition with this piece.
Luv his logo with inverted 'K' strong and simple..
Vanessa
Dell 
work
mainly centres around people and tries to capture the beautiful, ugly
and funny aspects of everyday life and there is this caricactural quality
with a bit of dysfunctional weirdness in her illustrations that are
endearing.
Jan
Weiss from Spyline makes a short coverage
of Hyper Island which is a unique hypermedia school / education program
in Europe.
They always have produced a string of outstanding graduates and the
year-book available as a website is also a little jewel.
Discover talents!
YouWorkForThem
is an online store ran by designers for designers. Check their collections
of Brush - presently showing issue #15 designed
by Maddy
Nye.
Absolutely
incredible. Just discovered the website of Ab
Rogers whose work, without me knowing, already had made a huge impression
upon me. Why is that? Because when I was in London this past November,
I visited the Tate Modern and fell head over heels madly in love with
the interior design... and clicked away, trying to be an artistic photographer
in this majestic and inspiring setting. As you're reading - just discovered
he is the one behind the recent redesign!
Simply was mesmerized by the black, white and red, the contrast, the
angles and how the interiors just felt sleek and refined with a dash
of intellectualism that was not, for once, self-indulgent.
BTW his studio is hiring - so if you've got the chops - go for it!
Here are a few pictures I took, tokens offered as a poetic attempt to
salute his masterpiece. If you're in London, the Tate
Modern is a must see and I recommend having a light refeshment or
lunch to take advantage of the views from the verandas.
Craig
Atkinson is a UK based artist which portfolio is just a list of
links to projects. With a in your face attitude and child like drawing
lines, sometimes the illustrations can be pretty edgy.
Out
of this world surreal paintings chuck full of contrasting colors can
be found in the fine arts portfolio of Ricky
Allman. Monuments imbedded in cubic like shapes and wonderful fiery
mix of fluid curvy spots. Some would make for impactful editorial illustrations.
Definitely an emerging artist to watch for.
Tristan
Louis and I date way-way back (like in the days of Mecklermedia
before they bought the Internet.com domain) and was recently downsized
after a recent job move. Now he's looking for opportunities in the
New York City area that may fit and challenge his uber experience (executive
roles in software development, program (or portfolio) management, and
product management).
Check his resume to
take in the scope of his accomplishments. If you can help do so, because
you never know when you will need a little help from a friend.
Fifteen
minutes of fame by DesignObserver
“It got us thinking: if graphic design's become so edgy as a profession
that we're getting name-dropped in hit movies, maybe it's time to get
serious about how we're really being portrayed. Herewith, our initial
choices for some friends and likely suspects, appearing soon in Graphic
Design: The Movie.”
Shown, Neville Brody played by Benicio del Toro. You will blown away
by the matches and semblances.
Bionic
Systems is a studio for media crossing design. Located in Düsseldorf,
Germany, they are working for global players as well as boutique brands
of wide-ranging sectors.
Outstanding projects throughout! Must see!
Give
me wings to fly! LoviT is a new by
designers merch and gallery website from Chile. Check them out.
Presenting
the works of a graphic design collective Evening
Tweed which is composed of Jez Burrows, Owen Gildersleeve, Sarah King
and Tom Rowe. Posted are quite diversified works and interesting pieces.
Flickr
Rebellion Brews at Specter of M$ Acquisition by Scott Gilbertson
“A small but vocal minority on Flickr are already staging online
protests at the prospect of a Microsoft takeover. Flickr is one of several
popular Web 2.0 websites owned by Yahoo that loyal users fear will suffer
under Microsoft ownership.”
Read aslo: Microsoft's
big Yahoo bid: Behind-the-scenes details by Todd Bishop
“Microsoft announced this morning that it's proposing to acquire
longtime rival Yahoo for $31 a share, or $44.6 billion. It's a huge move
that, if successful, promises to reshape the Internet industry, pitting
Microsoft against Google in a head-to-head competition between two online
giants.”
World
Without Oil soon to be reality is not a blog nor a new reality
show nor a new doomsday news.
“Can an alternate reality game be used to address a real world
problem? Can a game bring people together to collaborate on a trial run
of their common future? What motivates people to play a game such as
WWO, which doesn't have points or prizes or winners per se? WWO tested
out many game and social networking concepts.”
I don't own a car. Where I live there is little parking space available
and daily, a curfew imposed for 2.5 hours in the afternoon during which
no one can park on my street.. I travel by bus and subway - renting a
car now and then for big errands and all dailies are just a fast healthy walking
distance away.
Check the movie and play?
Keeping
time! Furni creations slick
retro industrial 50s meets Urbania clocks. Slick lines with round corners
- they look sturdy enough and precious at the same time.
Shown: ALBA and ALBA "LittleGiant" currently
sold.
Drop by the industrial section
to view more related stuff!
You
have gotta see this! The Alien Abduction
Lamp concept model designed by Lasse Klein, who works as a design & user
experience manager in one of the largest TV distributors in the Nordic
scountries.
I want one!
Standing
on the complete opposite tip in the specter of minamilist, FLAG is
a graphic design studio established in 2002 by Bastien Aubry (*1974)
and Dimitri Broquard (*1969) in Zurich, Switzerland.
The navigation is a pile of bubble-like white on black titles 'flagged'
by section which show the year of completion. Luv it! Significance of
establishing they've been around and are not rookies, and although both
teach, they have kept this unconformist approach to presenting their
work.
So you know, they work essentially for art and cultural projects such
as catalogues, artists books, magazines and posters.
signal7 based
in Germany is looking for a web developer.
Care
to see what is the value of design? Mix-in a stunning interface design
with the right amount of visual savviness, audience knowledge, high level
interactions and a zest of hooplah to a good cause - as in this example
- BoostUP that invites you to offer
fledging high-school students a healthy dose of push towards completing
their degree.
As listed - a swooping s6,894 encouragements sent so far! Wow!
Oh
the curious craziness. Good
things should never end is probably the longest scrolling flash site.
Is it an interactive experiment? Don't know what to make of it..
One thing for sure - some folks spent a lot of time on this.
I
tend towards minimalist as in delivering the goods - due to
increasing information overload and short span attention of an audience.
This is especially important for an agency portfolio - unless they can
pull in a stunning concept - less is best.
Elastique is no doubt a talented
studio and I like the grid overall - although I find it hard to understand
that while using a liquid site they are cramming the visuals in such
a small space.
I grant them a uniqueness factor of 10/10 - they have managed to stand
out from the crowd.
Errata: I really like this excerpt from one of their previous
projects - Nike Art of Speed. Beautiful! Jan
Weiss just informed me that the Nike Art of Speed was designed by Bionic
Systems.
Louise
Campbell heads
a design studio that delivers furniture, lighting and environment and
states their work “is based on three simple rules / always start
from scratch / find the core of the issue / dare to be different.”
Different they are - some very original forms, structures and materials
are used!
Luv their ecclectic layout website which was designed by StudioMakgill who
are using a pretty straightforward navigation to show their portfolio.
Blink-blink! Kashiwa
Sato entry page is one of the most unusual to date. Bar codes animated
leading portfolio pieces by selected designers which will display rubrik-like
cubes showing the color palettes of a particular project. Wow, can't
imagine how much time it took to build these.
So from the index, pick a palette that intrigues you and see what was
designed! Strong contrasting colors ahead!
Keeping
to the essentials, great photography is all about mastering lighting
to generate unique ambiences. I think moko an
upcoming photographer based in Toronto and Dubai, knows how to achieve
so.
The
Galaxy Bunch are out and ready for their mission. Most are a bit
neurotic and weird looking all displaying serious behavorial attitudes.
Created by Michael Kwong, a toy designer from Hong Kong.
More
and more companies are making dips into the sub-culture by inviting artists
to contribute their work in return for visibility. Latest such I came
across is the Levi's Backpocket
gallery whereas the pockets will be auctioned and money donated for
fighting against AIDS. Although the cause is no doubt important, isn't
this another branding strategy in disguise?
Shown in thumbnail, Source
Creative contribution.
What do you make of that?
Image
creator? More and more designers are using their own photography stock
to generate astounding assemblages and messages! Meet VARIAL* a
visual creative studio founded by Cédric Houin, assisted by graphic
designer Romain Fumey.
Founded in 2004 and deep-rooted in marketing and communication, the
studio is highly driven by a strong passion for beautiful images and
brilliant concepts. They do advertising campaigns, visual communication,
photography, illustration and matte painting.
Be ready to be amazed!
DOGO
Diseño + Comunicación portfolio is a must see! Very
nice work and professional execution. Particularly like some of their
identity and packaging projects and illustrations.
From Buenos Aires with luv!
Lala
aka Lalaladcani is
big into collages and illustrations and has decided to shed the flash
site for a simple list of projects.
Well
I guess when you are a multi-billionnaire it is rather easy to do world
economy rethorics - and afford you a podium to make amends. As you will
read, gotta admit there are a lot of statements (not necessarily ground-breaking)
that I can't help but agree with.
Bill
Gates: World Economic Forum 2008
“But I am an impatient optimist. The world is getting better,
but it's not getting better fast enough, and it's not getting better
for everyone.
As I see it, there are two great forces of human nature:
self-interest, and caring for others.”
Teams
in trees? Well it seems to be the approach Idreams has
chosen for their new website. I got to admit it is a very clean interface
design for a company that works across the interactive spectrum with
the panning tree being just the right amount of metaphorical - to convey
their vision.
“The concept behind it, is our 4D work method, which goes from
dreaming (dromen in Dutch), thinking (denken), doing (doen) and continuing
(doorgaan). In the end, we came up with a tree (hard to miss ;-) ) and
its several stages of growth and blosseming as metaphore for our clients/accounts.
Dreaming only works when the end result is firmly rooted in solid know-how
and expertise, hence the tree that reaches to the sky, but has its roots
firmly established in the ground.” says Eric Steuten.
Pawel
Fabjanski updated his web site with new photographs.
Giving
back to Ceasar what belongs to Ceasar! Pablo Gamba is the illustrator
behind the Monoblock notebooks
we reviewed recently. His work belongs to the imaginary land of characters
that children are drawn to.
From Argentina with luv!
Proud
Creative is a multidisciplinary design studio who have got themselves
a really nice website that is so easy to navigate through to sample
their excellent projects.
Shift has
done an interview with Cristian
Turdera who “has created a dream world for us. When I entered
his place, I found myself in the middle of one of those children’s
books, the ones you won’t let go, those books that will remain
forever inside your deepest thoughts and fantasies.”
Illustrator extraordinaire drawing yummy characters!
Pseudo
Pseudo just launched its portfolio website showing some nice graphic
design projects.
ico is
a small, sociable and prolific design team with a successful 12-year
history. In their central London studio they create brands and produce
print and digital media pieces for clients from the arts, property, leisure,
interior design and museum sector.
A
well rounded graphic design portfolio for Damien
Correll. Some of his snow and skate board designs are quite original.
Kasian website
isn’t the typical architectural showcase containing pictures of
shiny buildings. Instead, it’s a story – a story that shows
how they consider people above all else. A story that reveals how they
think of each project by sketching life. It demonstrates how an inspired
thought can lead to just about anything.
Website was designed by xtra talented Burnkit who
just relaunched a new and very cool website. Check out the projection
surface!
Thinking
for a Living is now available in print version.
This small booklet is dedicated to the concept of open source design
education.
La
pomme croquée serait-elle brune?
“Le site Gizmodo.com constate
un fait intéressant. Les produits récents d’Apple semblent
tout droit inspirés de ceux de la marque des années 60, Braun.”
Can't pass up on this one! If you can't read French, I guess just looking
at the images you will understand what is inferred: that Apple would
have inspired itself from Braun?!?!?
Noroutine is
an audiovisual project, where fantasy, cinematographic creativity, mastership
of actors, stop-motion animation joins together to create an interesting
spectacle...
It’s a website of a short length film, which represents an experimental
genre in cinema. Unfortunately, trailer is not yet available.
Danka
studio is looking for a full-time French speaking Flash Developer
with AS 2/3 knowledge, they are located in Lyon, France. Submit on
their web site.
Duebi
Italia has put together a wonderful assemblage of photographs of
their bathroom suite of furniture and accessories accompanied with
panning and zoomed in details.
Laura
Weider is a talented illustrator and graphic designer and she just
published The White
Black, beautiful solo piano tracks. It is wonderful to discover
talent that adds a new dimensional layer to someone you already appreciate.
James
Touhey invited me to answer some interesting questions and is now published
on FAIRspot and
I'd like to share these with you.
Always a challenge to be honest and true to self when doing an interview
and dig in your experience to pass along relevancy, insights and your
convictions without being a bore or worst, a self-infatuated ego boasting
insipid blabla delivery automaton.
As you know, I am passionate about us, our Industry and rising our voices
- hope you agree.
A
study produced by the Design Council of the design process: Eleven
lessons: managing design in eleven global brands.
“How do leading companies manage design in their businesses? Our
in-depth study of the design processes used in eleven global brands gives
real insights into the way design operates in these firms, and delivers
usable lessons for all designers and managers.”
Available as .pdf
to download.
Alex
Dukal specializes in children illustrations and lives in Puerto
Madryn, Patagonia Argentina. He studied at the National School of Fine
Arts. Like his big bold characters and the finesse of his layouts.
The
Big Flake is community based initiative where you can write down
your wish, which will give life to a snowflake out of the letters and
the goal is to have one big wishflake in some months.
It's never out of season to express what we long for!
From
the snowed under Park City hills, a quick update on Sundance Festival.
Sightings, Ben Kingsley, Robert Redford and Jimmy Hiu.
At midnight tonite I'm excited to see the movie
U2 3D which is not only a concert film, it is a concert experience
in digital 3-D which promises to leave us fumbling around for our jaws.
Look
Ma, we're rocking the New Zealand billboard scene! Thanks to Rachel
Cunliffe for snapping the picture! Over a year ago was contacted
by an agency asking permission to use our URL for an upcoming campaign
by Vodafone (who btw had created this outstanding Future
Vision advertorial).
Ain't that cool or what?
-> more news
^
