Tag: design

As far as the eye can see…

Leave a comment

I’m kind of on a travel roll right now- I mean come on, it’s summer!  This is the time when a lot of us take off and enjoy the warmer weather etc. etc.  so I’m wrapping up the summer with…

august-landscapes

I don’t think you actually have to go too far from home to admire landscapes, but they are something that I definitely notice when I’m the road.  Landscapes say so much about the place and the culture and therefore are difficult to ignore.  Not to mention they are pretty darn gorgeous a lot of the time.  So before we get back to seriousness of life and the weather starts to cool off, here is one more month of “exploring”.

Culture :: Mexican-U.S.Border

Leave a comment

Often we turn a blind eye to the things that we don’t wish to see.  Sometimes it’s outside our window and sometimes it’s a hundreds of miles away.  If we don’t see it, it doesn’t exist, right?

Viewer discretion advised

Visually

Although this short animation doesn’t actually show the violence of the Mexican drug cartels, it conveys the reality of a very real problem on both sides of the Mexican-U.S. border.  Although many of us don’t ever see the reality of these problems, it is an important part of American and Mexican culture. And although it is not a flattering aspect of culture, it should be acknowledged just as we acknowledge the more positive parts of culture.

Culture :: Life Drawings

Leave a comment

How do you make a scene in the round interesting to the viewer’s eye when they can only have one point of view at time?  I think this film has found the answer.

Wriggles and Robins

Not only does this video take something that can be fairly still and turn it into fluid motion, but it takes nudity (which we usually view as taboo) and turn it into something beautiful and natural.

Culture :: Skateboard

Leave a comment

Choose your favorite activity, and then think about how much time in an hour you actual work on that activity.  How much time do you sit there thinking about what you’re going to do?  How much time do you spend hyping yourself up?  How much time do you spend daydreaming about something else entirely?

Now if you were a skateboarder, how much time would actually spend on the board:

Sebastian Linda

Skateboarding is a culture that I know little about, but it seems from this short film that perhaps it’s just like any other activity or culture we are in.  It revolves around relationships and planning and not really doing anything for the majority of the time that we dedicate to it.

And on a more technical note, I think the editing in this is pretty awesome.  Just saying.

Handmade :: Typography

Leave a comment

I have a thing for typography- you’ve probably picked that up from some of my other posts. So although we don’t usually associate type with being handmade, instead, we think of them being more of a computer generated art form, the history says otherwise.

Ben Barrett-Forrest

I have yet to try stop motion when making a film, but with the popularity of it now, I think I just might have to try it sometime.

Handmade :: Sign Painters

Leave a comment

Dir. Samual J. Macon

Probably something that most of us take for granted- signs.  They are every where.  They are on the sides of buildings, on walls, dragging behind airplanes, on street corners, and hanging on door handles.  We cannot go more than a few steps without seeing one, but we probably don’t take the time to think about the origin of each sign.  At least I don’t.  I find that I’ve learned to ignore many of them.

Perhaps I would notice them more if I could tell that time and effort had gone into its creation and that it really was a piece of art.  Sadly, most signs that I see are machine made.  And perhaps that’s why I like this trailer.  It makes me stop and think about what I’m looking at and all the while, pointing out that we have traded in artwork for a cookie cutter print.  Once again, handmade seems to have its advantages…

Handmade :: Sourdough

1 Comment

I love making bread.  I originally started because I thought was “fun” after reading Little House on the Prairie and American Girl’s Kirsten books.  Yes, I was one of those people who wanted to try out the “pioneer ways of life”.  I’ve come a long way since then.  Now I love trying out new combinations of grains, seeds and herbs – and the texture and density has improved significantly from when I first started.  I’m not saying that my bread is by any means anything like this

Image from TARTINE Bakery, SAN FRANCISCO

but it holds its own and actually tastes good.

The bread I aspire create to is pictured above and made by the good people of the Tartine Bakery in San Francisco.  The point of all this prattle about bread is that 4SP Films made a short documentary about the bakery and I would like to share it with you (click on the the sliced bread below to watch the film)

Image from Tartine Bakery, San Francisco

Why share a film about a bakery with you? Well there are several reasons

  1. The graphics in this film inspired the graphics that I created in “Out of Print,” so obviously I like the use of graphics.
  2. I like the use of light and the camera work.
  3. Although bread could seem like a dry subject, it’s actually brought to life as its own character in this film- almost like the live sourdough starter that creates this famous bread.

So now that I’ve made you hungry for artisan bread, go find a loaf you love and enjoy!

Melting into spring

1 Comment

If you live in the Pacific Northwest you’re used to your fresh water supply trickling down from the mountains every spring and summer.  Now that it’s April the mountains are slowly beginning to defrost and the waterways are filling with

Spring-meltdown

Thanks to a plenty of snow this winter we should be set for until next year.

I’ve mentioned before that I love water sports and now that spring is here I’m going from snowflake to the ocean by talking about my favorite outdoor activities concerning water – some of them happily supplied by spring runoff.