Design*Sponge has a great article with Julia Rothman, illustrator & pattern designer. In it she sets out the process of creating a never ending, repeatable pattern for multiple applications, such as a website background, DIY wallpaper for your home or even just as a neat excersize.
One of the questions I frequently get emailed is ‘how do you make a repeat pattern?’ I thought it would be fun today to do a little tutorial showing you how simple it is even with a very complex drawing. And you don’t even need a computer! (I usually do my repeats on the computer but today I’m doing it the way I was first taught.) Here’s the old fashioned way of making a tile-able design…
Read more at Design*Sponge
In only 12 or so hours, losing both Irvin Kershner (Director of The Empire Strikes Back) and Leslie Nielson (The great Canadian comedian) can be qualified a tragedy to both the world of film and art in general. Both men brilliant, this clip taken from 1998s Wrongfully Accused (where Nielson’s character is clobbered by a coffee table in a manner mimicing Han Solo when he’s frozen in carbonite) is a nod to Kershner’s Empire. It may explain things better to say that Wrongfully Accused is a spoof of 1993s The Fugitive, also starring Harrison Ford.
Kumi Yamashita has a secret power. She can place wood or metal objects in just the right light to make mysterious shadow people show their true selves. The genius of it all lies in the fact that without the lighting and shadows the objects would never give away her secret. These surprising silhouettes only come out when beckoned to do so. Thanks to Shawn (the fabulous producer of the Last Night tracks) for bringing these to my attention!
It’s Mixcast 5, a bit of high energy music for these slow, cold nights. I’m starting off this Mixcast with a song I can’t stop listening to, have been blown away by and was lucky enough to be around when it was written, Last Night by Aidan Knight and Debra Jean. If you’ve always wanted the hear The xx sound less pretentious, download Last Night here for free.
- Last Night by Aidan Knight and Debra Jean
- Night By Night by Chromeo
- Ghostwriter by RJD2
- D.A.N.C.E. (Do The F.A.N.C.Y.) by Fancy
- Time After Time by We Have Band
- Despicable Dogs (Washed Out Remix) by Small Black
- I Don’t Really Mind by Tame Impala
- American Girl by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
- Candy Girl (Demo) by Trailer Trash Tracys
- Hot on Your Heels by The Mint Chicks
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When I asked for a little inspiration from the world to share back, I wasn’t quite expecting the results I got (though I suppose that’s the point, isn’t it?) Sarah Black turned me on to these wonderful and intricate sketches by John Kenn, a writer and director of children’s television shows. Every one of these Tim Burtonesque wonders is on only a post-it note yet the attention to detail and self-contained stories burst forth.
I love the lines and can’t help but feel reminisce to Maurice Sendak’s illustrations from Where the Wild Things Are back in 1963.
A little dark, a little imaginative and a little mysterious, just the way I like it.
A few years ago, French photographer Sacha Goldberger found his 91-year-old Hungarian grandmother Frederika feeling lonely and depressed. To cheer her up, he suggested that they shoot a series of outrageous photographs in unusual costumes, poses, and locations. Grandma reluctantly agreed, but once they got rolling, she couldn’t stop smiling.
Frederika was born in Budapest 20 years before World War II. During the war, at the peril of her own life, she courageously saved the lives of ten people. When asked how, Goldberger told us “she hid the Jewish people she knew, moving them around to different places every day.” As a survivor of Nazism and Communism, she then immigrated away from Hungary to France, forced by the Communist regime to leave her homeland illegally or face death.
With the unexpected success of this series, titled “Mamika,” Goldberger created a MySpace page for his grandmother. She now has over 2,200 friends and receives messages like: “You’re the grandmother that I have dreamed of, would you adopt me?” and ” You made my day, I hope to be like you at your age.”
Initially, she did not understand why all these people wrote to congratulate her. Then, little by little, she realized that her story conveyed a message of hope and joy. In all those pictures, she posed with the utmost enthusiasm. Now, after the set, Goldberger shares that his grandmother has never shown even a hint of depression. Perhaps it’s because her story serves some sort of purpose. That through the warm words of newfound friends, she’s reminded of just how lucky she is to be alive.
More after the jump
This incredible video of a homemade weather balloon that rose into the upper stratosphere to recorded the blackness of space and most of the return trip home. I must do this one day!
Visit brooklynspaceprogram.org to get the entire uncut voyage. Thanks to Adam Flewwelling for sharing this with me.
Easily one of my favorite shows, I found Look Around You quite by accident back in 2007 when I was looking for actual 1970s and 1980s educational films for nostalgic purpose. In the first series, the “modules” satirise and pay homage to period educational films and school programmes in which a different scientific subject is covered in each episode.
The humour is both patent nonsense and faithful references and homages. For instance, fictional items that have a passing resemblance to everyday objects are shown and discussed. Such items include a pile of iron disappearing while its image appears some distance away, and “Garry Gum”, a performance-enhancing chewing gum which has the unfortunate side-effect of inducing diarrhoea, necessitating the consumption of “Anti-Garry Gum”.
I’d imagine the show still remaining entertaining even to those who didn’t grow up watching shows like this on PBS and in school before Bill Nye became more mainstream, while some of the references may slip by. It always retained an Adult Swim feel which seems makes it all rather fitting that re-runs started airing on the network in January 2009.
Topics ranged from Maths to Ghosts, Brain to Sulpher… there were only two series completed with a total of 15 episodes, but the creators have been in talk with Adult Swim to create a new show for them.
ill Studio has some typographic marvels over at their website including this piece from the 2007 illuminati exhibition at the Lazy-Dog gallery in Paris. I’ve found myself overly drawn to the white-on-white text look with only shadows to spell the words and this is a beautiful piece of balance and form with all the type chosen. It’s also hard not to get excited at how well they can work their logo into a piece, it’s my dream to make logo’s that work so well one day.
A provocative new sculpture has opened at the U.S./Canada border crossing near Vancouver, BC. It’s a ‘billboard’ but not necessarily what you’d expect from your standard billboard. I’ve seen a few different, intelligent and thought provoking advertisements over the years and I’m always intrigued by the concept. I hope to one day work on a project like this, an effective and different approach to the average-every-day-regular… a welcome reprive from the overall marketing trend of make it big, make it bright, make it obnoxious since we have to compare with all the other big, bright and obnoxious ads out there. A little restraint and thought goes a long way in saving the world from sensory overload. We must remember that when everyone’s shouting, no one’s listening.
I love that this advertises nothing. Non-Sign II is the brainchild of the Seattle art and architecture firm Lead Pencil Studio, commissioned by the federal government. Lead Pencil Studio’s Daniel Mihalyo sheds light on the concept:
Borrowing the effectiveness of billboards to redirect attention away from the landscape… this permanently open aperture between nations works to frame nothing more than a clear view of the changing atmospheric conditions beyond.
Images by Ian Gill courtesy of Lead Pencil Studio
An elegant solution to keeping time and the gentleman’s pursuit of never bothering the person next to you, the Mutewatch is, in essence, a vibrating wristband. Maintaining all the basic functions of clock, timer, and alarm, this timepiece will only show its poker face until you give the flat surface a tap to reveal the screen. You’ll be able to use your fingers to navigate through the functions – swipe horizontal to scroll between timer, clock and alarm.
The Mutewatch has no official release date but you can stay up-to-date or get involved by visiting their website.
November 12, 2010 ▴
MusicDebut album Collect Vibrations is a free download from bandcamp. I’ve featured The Bird Day on my first Mixcast and am so totally stoked to download this album and listen to it ASAP. Get yours now!
For the third FP Mixcast I picked songs I can’t listen to enough lately. Which is the basically the same process I use for every other mixcast, but this one is extra special, TGIF! The sweet photography was Tweeted by Douglas H. Wheelock, Astronaut and commander of International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 25. This photo he calls River of Ice is “a look at the stunning landscape of the Coastal Mountains, in British Columbia, Canada. The Silverthrone Glacier through a 400mm lens.”
- Fire in Freetown by K’naan
- Lions In Cages by Wolf Gang
- Weak Ends by MillionYoung
- Older Brother by Pepper Rabbit
- Black Rice by Women
- Farewell by Boris
- Wasted Daylight by Stars
- Red Lights by Holy Fuck
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