Tag: design

Rejuvenation :: Blom & Blom

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I love finding new uses for old items laying around the house.  I can’t say that I’m overly skilled at making things look seamlessly renewed (usually they have a “handmade look”) but I like to know that I’m not giving up on something that has plenty of life still in it.  For instance, my old doll house now houses books and my grandpa’s old army trunk is acts as my coffee table.  Family relics repurposed that house old memories of times gone by.

One thing I don’t dabble in reusing (usually) is anything that needs electrical repairs.  Not knowing how to repair lamps etc. is a little off putting.  However, the gentlemen at Blom&Blom have found just the way to do it:

iGNANT

I love the history of each part that the gentlemen at Blom&Blom use in their creations.  The history of Eastern Germany always seems a little bleak, or at least during the years of communist rule, but the fact that these lights can be made into something original yet practical just proves that anything, however old or seemingly mundane can be made into something beautiful.

Goodwill :: Making Charity Beautiful

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If you went to the kind of schools that I went to, giving your time back to the community was always a big deal . We had to log a number of hours each semester just to graduate from my high school and in college, many of my PR class projects were for non-profits.  Usually this was in the form of creating promotional pieces in print or video form and the most we got out of it was a grade and the simple satisfaction that we helped someone else.

After years of volunteering at soup kitchens and fundraising for cancer research, the hard truth of charity can come through and make things look a little drab at times.  Because lets face it – charity makes you take a hard look at what is not quite right with the world and trying to change that is often messy. I know that it’s worth it in the end to help those less fortunate than yourself, but just for once it would be nice for it to look nice too.

And that’s what Michael does – he makes charity beautiful:

Cory J Pop

I realize that this is my admiration for designers coming out again, but this is something rare that as someone in the creative industry, it’s nice to see beauty and charity coming together.  I only wish that my work space looked as nice as Michael’s!  Something to aspire to, right?

And with that, I’m off to start prepping for Thanksgiving as I’ve been put in charge of cooking this year.  How did that happen?  Stories of dried out turkey and a messy kitchen most like due for next week.  Wish me luck!

Goodwill :: Eco Print

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So many of us sit at computers day after day- for work and for play and here and there we print various documents.  We’re told constantly about the amount of paper that we waste by printing and by using our various devices we can reduce the amount of paper used and read off our our phones, our tablets etc.  But what no one mentions is the ink part of the printing process.

We take for granted (or at least I did) that ink is just a part of the printing process and other than being and expensive office expense, we don’t really think about the other impacts that it makes. But thanks to designers like Dan, a more eco-friendly font could change the impact that we make with our printed pages.

grey london

I love the color contrast between the black and white in this video and it includes typography- something that I have a great fondness for.  Sometimes I wonder if I should have gone into graphic design instead of video production.  I also love the intricacy of the font and the thought that has gone into the development of this font, just so that we can save 33% more ink per page.  And what does it mean for the rest of us (other than saving us money)? It means that we can contribute towards reducing the amount of waste that we create.  How cool is it that we can help the environment AND use a beautiful new font?  Pretty cool.

Escapade :: Advantage

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Getting the “birds eye view” can be very advantageous in certain situations.  When photographing a panoramic view for instance, or mapping out an area. Being chased, or trying to ensure that you stay ahead in some sort of distance race, this rule certainly applies.  Or in this film, all these circumstances collide and prove the point perfectly:

Advantage the movie

What I love most about this film comes in three parts:

  1. I love the color contrast.  Everything is a shade of orange, grey and dark grey and it all seems to meld together, yet contrast so beautifully that you have to wonder how much of it is planned and how much of it is natural surroundings.
  2. I love the movement of the camera.  Something like this could be very stagnant even though the car is moving but the movement of both the camera and the car gives the audience the feel of being part of the chase.
  3. I love the graphics.  They move as vividly as the rest of the film and tie in with the story well, taking it further than the final shot of the driver looking down over the cliff. Very “James Bond”.

Makes me want to go out and see a action film.  A classy action film.

Escapade :: Firecracker Artwork

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When it comes to certain projects, I could say that I tend to stay with more traditional methods and don’t always venture out to try more “adventurous” things.  I’m trying to expand my horizons but I wouldn’t say that it’s because I’m afraid to try new things, it’s because I haven’t thought of trying them in that context – obviously I need to think more outside the box.

For instance, using firecrackers to create artwork:

Cool Hunting

I tend to associate smaller explosives with fireworks at celebrations or demolition of larger buildings.  I would never have thought to use them in creating large pieces of fine art.  Who’d have thought?   I guess you can say that David Sena is one of the few (if not the only) as I have never seen art quite like this before.  I love it!

I don’t know if there is anything particularly spectacular about the filmmaking here, although it is well made.  I think it’s more the topic that really stands out to me.  I makes me want to try something like it myself, but for now I’ll stick with what I know as I don’t have a place to safely try out this method of artwork.  Perhaps someday…

Feet up! :: Stirred not shaken

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Happy Independence Day to all of my American readers!  I’m not a huge celebrator of this holiday although perhaps I should.  I grew up overseas where the most we did was eat burgers for dinner and maybe wear some combination of red and blue.  Other than that, we really didn’t do much.  The Brits aren’t huge celebrators of the American holiday- no surprise really.

As we’re all busy and off to drink copious amounts of beer and BBQ our food with friends and family I leave you with one short video to inspire your festivities and maybe even give you something else to indulge in this 4th of July:

Claire Thomas

 

I love the light in this short!  My only complaint is that some of the text is hard to read – maybe a nice outline or shadow next time?  Hope this inspires some good celebratory fun and hope everyone has a safe independence day!

Meet :: The Fashion Designer

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I’d like to introduce Leanne Marshall, the Fashion Designer:

etsy

I see several dresses here that I would love to try on.  For now though, I will look on admiringly as anything I sew inevitably looks no where near as nice as what you see here.

What do I love about this video?  I love the close ups where you can see the tiny details in the dress structure etc.  I don’t usually look at those kinds of things on my own clothes and it gives me a greater appreciation for the structure of the clothing.

Meet :: The Illustrator

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I’d like you to meet Victo Ngai. She is a very accomplished freelance artist and if you read the NY Times, the New Yorker or other similar publications, you’ve probably seen her work. How cool is that?! I bet most of us have seen her work at some point or other but never knew it.

like knows like

I’ve been working with all sorts of artists over the last few months and it’s amazing how many are out there, but most people never realize it.  This is one of the reasons why I like this film- it gives us a chance to know the artist behind the work in our newspapers.

And if you liked learning about Victo, then check out Like Knows Like, a project that shares the behind the scenes stories (just like this one) of those artists that inspire us, but for all intensive purposes are invisible.

Against the Grain :: Seven Days in 1968

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Animal

I’m just going to dive right into the artistic aspects of this video.  I love it!  There aren’t many times when you find yourself entertained by old black and white stills- usually they seem flat and boring.  Not in this film!  The 3-dimentional effects and the layover of other images, such as the timeline, really make a difference.  The graphics really help too and are another aspect that I really like.

It’s a bit longer than most videos that I post but I don’t feel like its any longer than most.  It’s not an easy topic to address, especially when some could argue that we haven’t come all that far since 1968, but it was done beautifully.