*notcot - , 19:27 -

FitzsuGrandPrix

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This is a first for me, i’m somewhere in the air about an hours flight west of Kansas City, can’t sleep anymore, so popped the laptop open and noticed that the Fitzsu Playsam GrandPrix page is still open… so since i wanted to post about it when i got home, so, why not now? So just pulled images from that one page to create the collage above!

Playsam is a classic Swedish company, creating some of the sleekest minimalistic toy cars i’ve ever laid eyes on, with their perfect balance of wood and gloss paint, there isn’t one that doesn’t fit in as well on an executive’s desk, as rolling across a child’s playroom. Well step that up a notch, and let over 33 designers have their way with this design classic - and you have the Fitzsu Grand Prix. Everyone from Karim Rashid, James IRvine, Michel Graves, Scott Henderson, + Yves Behar to Touma, Mark Mothersbaugh, Tarina Tarantino, and Viktor Schreckengost to name a few. FitzsuGrandPrix an LA event on October 19, 2006 where the finished one-of-a-kind wooden toys will be auctioned off to benefit the World Childhood Foundation. (via SwissMiss)

See Previous Playsam Posts here: Roadster and MORE and iCar

*notcot - 10.15.06 , 08:18 -

Rodrigo Bruna

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This redefines my view of a starving artist… his work is all made of TOAST. It was mind-blowingly beautiful, yet you know that at any moment, pigeons that sneak in could destroy days/weeks of work when they invite their friends over for a feast. Came across the work of Rodrigo Bruna at the 10th Annual Dumbo Art Under The Bridge Festival yesterday over in Brooklyn. Lots of fun toasty pics below.

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*notcot - 10.12.06 , 22:43 -

Kurt Halsey Frederikson

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Ryan posted the incredible work of Kurt Halsey Frederikson to .org the other day, and i’ve been smitten since. Can’t get the brilliantly emotionally moving painfully blunt imagery and text collages out of my head. More of my favorites below, and many on his site.

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*notcot - 10.11.06 , 01:18 -

Designed For Natural Living

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RUGenius would like to make the claim that watching tv is productive… because she just saw this incredible “Designed for Natural Living” Campaign… then tracked it down on youtube - then found the french Novotel campaign site - complete with better quality video, desktop wallpapers (see my favorites below), and screensavers. By Young and Rubicam, music by Emilie Simon.

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*notcot - 10.09.06 , 01:45 -

Executive Coloring Book

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The Executive Coloring Book - it took me all day to even pick images to show you from this, it is too funny. Some great excerpts… “This is ME. I am an executive. Executives are important. They go to important offices and do important things. Color my underwear important.” — “This is the product my company makes. It is an inter-fibrous friction-fastener.” — “This is our competitor’s product. It is a nail.” — “This is my pill. It is round. It is pink. It makes me not care. Watch me take my round, pink pill… and not care.” Best part is? This is by Marcie Hans, Dennis Altman & Martin A. Cohen way back in 1961.

*notcot - 10.08.06 , 14:11 -

LA Weekly Detour + Caltrans

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It’s all a bit of a blur this morning. The usual loud people filled music/street festival type of a morning after blur. You know what i mean. The surprising thing was this was in LA. I’m used to them almost anywhere BUT here, strange isn’t it? And then as you stumble around the kitchen reaching for some water, your eyes start to focus on the front page of the LA Times, and then theres that moment of, OH. Right. LA Weekly Detour Festival yesterday. There was some pretty cool art there - surprisingly put on by Caltrans (more pics below).

Check out this LA Times article about how LA (downtown especially) is changing… there were 4 massive events going on in downtown yesterday apparently (this certainly explains the INSANE traffic all night long) ~ Game at Dodger Stadium, Game at the Coliseum, Moon Festival in Chinatown, AND the LA Weekly Detour. Wow. Suddenly i’m amazed i got in/out alive. For a great description of what the scene was like, read the LA Times Article. Best quote “For an afternoon, the center of LA seemed suddenly awash in hipness. Unlike the button-down workday crowd, the visitors were a mass of skinny jeans, slouchy boots and oversized sunglasses.” This multi stage festival even veered into St. Vibiana’s cathedral (same place the GOOD Mag party was held)… only this time we caught VHS or Beta spinning and there were many black leather couches to chill out on. Beck and his marionettes were cute too.

But back to art. Chickenwire-frame/plastic wrap car… mangled casts of bodies under a flag… seahorses… neon light maddness… lots of projection art… and performance are in the Caltrans plaza, more pics below.

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*notcot - 10.06.06 , 22:28 -

VAG Rounded

vagrounded.pngBeen working a lot with ThisNext, and i’m sure you may have noticed i’m pretty into the sticker branding they’ve got going for them… and with the amount of graphics i’ve been developing using their signature font, VAG Rounded, i’ve grown quite attached to it. So when i looked into it and realized it had quite a history behind its initially bizarre name… had to share. So here it is: Developed for Volkswagen AG in 1979, VAG Rounded is a variation on nineteenth-century grotesque sans serif designs. What is unusual about VAG Rounded is that the terminal of every stroke is rounded. Use it for technical or instructional manuals, or advertising. Designers: David Bristow, Gerry Barney, Ian Hay, Kit Cooper, and Terence Griffin.

*notcot - 10.02.06 , 04:00 -

Beck - Anti-packaging

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Gone is the day of the fancy designer cd cover, here are the days of customization… and design emulating the mixed tape/cd look of DIY covers? The new Beck album “The Information” comes out tomorrow, and over at Design Observer, Dmitri Siegel shares with us the playful customizable nature of the cover art… it is blank, and you get stickers. Not any stickers, but stickers from some of the best artists around (yay Genvieve Gaukler) Cover art for The Information by Beck. Art direction and design by Matt Maitland/Gerard Saint at Big City Active with Beck. Sticker art by: Jody Barton, Beck, Juliette Cezar, Estell & Simon, David Foldvari, Genevieve Gauckler, Michael Gillette, Jasper Goodall, Mercedes Helnwein, Han Lee, Matt Maitland, Ari Michelson, Parra, Melanie Pullen, Gay Rie[***]aleksey Shirokov, Will Sweeney, Kam Tang, Adam Tullie, Kensei Yabuno, Vania Zouravliov, 2006.

From the Amazon description for Beck “The Information”, “The artwork for The Information is either non-existent or infinite, depending on one’s point of view. Each copy will come in a blank package with one of four collectible sticker sheets specially designed by European and American artists and representative of the unique Beck aesthetic.” ….. Seeing Beck perform on Saturday! Anyone else going to be at the LA Weekly Detour?

*notcot - , 00:31 -

URBN Ascii

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Anyone else notice the Ascii art on the Urban Outfitters bags? Mostly 8’s with some d’s, b’s, T’s and Y’s thrown in to help shape out the letters… but the ascii art lover in me came back out when i noticed this… here’s a quick scan of it (bigger below) ~ will try to remember to add a picture of the full bag if there’s interest.

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*notcot - 09.30.06 , 18:13 -

Representations

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While those miniatures below intrigue me, Cynthia Greig’s more recent “Representations” series mesmerize me and mess with my head far more… “Focusing on the representation of ordinary things, I draw directly onto 3-dimensional objects (which I have painted over in white paint) to create visual hybrids that appear to vacillate between drawing and photography, black-and-white and color, signifier and signified. My photographs intend to draw attention to how we see.” And that, they certainly do… below are the more which i simply can’t stop staring at… its as if you’re living in a 2 dimensional 3D world… and i love that the phone line is cut… not sure why, but its quite amusing today. (Great title for the series as well.)

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*notcot - , 17:54 -

Senses of Scale

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“Life-Size” by Cynthia Greig really messes with your sense of scale. (And if you saw the new CSI last night, doesn’t this remind you of that insanely detailed mini murder replica?) In her statement about the work, i love this excerpt “I am fascinated by the fact that almost anything (from sunglasses and cameras to hypodermic needles and condoms) can be found in miniature. I’m equally intrigued by the desire to collect such tiny replicas of objects from our own material world. As a smaller scale surrogate of the original, the miniature seems to imply the existence of some kind of alternative universe where we (as larger bodies) are like gods, omnipotent and in control.”

It’s fascinating to me how detailed the pieces she made are, and how she manages to recontextualize the everyday by having people interact with them as they would the originals… and that she picks everyday objects like condoms, pills, hypodermic needles, pipes, cameras and more… More of my favorites below.

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*notcot - 09.29.06 , 18:11 -

Ipsa Scientia Potestas Est

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I am realizing i really have a thing for when science and design meet ~ i now look forward to SEED as much as i do Wallpaper. So when just saw their pullout “Thank a Science Teacher Postcard Campaign” had to scan them in to show you the playful designy sciency crests they made. Fun stuff, click image to see larger.

*notcot - 09.27.06 , 14:02 -

Ariel Olguin

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Checked out the Abbot Kinney Street Fair down in Venice Beach last weekend, and amongst your usual bazzar type vendors, found this gem of an artist, Ariel Olguin, who’s work is definitely worth sharing. Larger images of some of my favorites below, including the mural and pieces hanging in Trim (an edgy hair salon that was filled with pirates, art, and booze as well as people getting their hair done that day ~ great mix, no?). But beyond the mind blowing street/liquid feeling art and hats, Ariel’s story is one of those classic rags to riches, American dream style tales…

“I was born in 1979 in the mountain town of Balcarse, Argentina. I came to the United States in 2000 for vacation in Miami and never left. I was working as an elevator operator and realized how much people appreciated my work. I sold my art to the passengers on the lift. With the last 250 dollars that I had in my pockets I made my way across the states to California. Thanks to some dude, I was able to live in a mobile home in the Home Depot parking lot. In the beginning I was drawing some shit just for kicks, to pass the time. Somehow I ended up with a pretty decent internship at an advertising agency as an illustrator, in the creative department. It was at this time I realized I needed to get out and show my work.” Wow? Go see more below.

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*notcot - , 13:01 -

Design Charts

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Like the Billboards only for design? Or thats their idea anyhow… ironically, the interaction on their site pains me greatly, i roll my mouse around and the site bounces up and down and gah! too much. But the idea is cool, a nice way to see who the Top 40 Design Sites are for the week as judged by merely 3 sites… Designaside, Dope Awards, Website Design Awards. And felt it was worth a mention, since sometimes even in the bounciest of sites we might be able to find some worthwhile pages to browse? Design Charts [via UnBeige]

*notcot - 09.26.06 , 10:59 -

ISP - Internet Soul Portait

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Does your website have a good soul deep down beneath all that CSS? Can you recognize these? [Here we have Amazon, MySpace, Google, stripped down to their basics.] Fun project by Mazamedia entitled ISP: Internet Soul Potraits ~ really recontextualizes the way to perceive your everyday websites… via Computerlove & Core77

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