*notcot - 04.16.06 , 23:46 -

HAPPY EASTER

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HAPPY EASTER everyone, 13 more minutes left of it in my time zone, but better late than never. Here i bestow upon you the “Essence of Rabbit” - as illustrated by over 500 international contributors in the form of over 1500 bunnies. This is an incredible exhibition by Pictoplasma… and to purchase your own Rabbit Mandala is impressively affordable at a mere 22 Euro.

*notcot - , 00:01 -

Brownjohn

brownjohn.jpgIn looking for inspiration on typography and design, i found myself browsing the archives of the Design Museum London - and i came across the works of Robert Brownjohn. This PEACE card is a nice concept, and it just seemed worth making a note of. And the math geek within was momentarily amused by the math typography piece as well.

*notcot - 04.15.06 , 02:21 -

From the Fields

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Strange night, been through so many websites while i can’t sleep and somehow there feels like a dry spell in design/art inspiration [other than the very well covered salone events in milan] - untli i found these Field Figurines. Since this is Easter weekend, at first glance, i simply assumed they were made of chocolate. [and actually with the uprising of designer toys, i think there’d be a market for designer toy chocolate, you already have the molds made]. But i digress - the brilliant folks of Monster Factory designed these for the Collection of Foreign Objects exhibition “Generated Habitats” which is running till April 29 in Toronto. Far more pics below!

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*notcot - 04.10.06 , 20:39 -

Life Lessons

lifelessons.jpgLife Lessons have never been easy, that’s why they are life lessons. But TLC (yea The Learning Channel) - has created this ad campaign utilizing these gorgeous little “Precious Moments”-esque figurines in hilarious ads on tv… but best yet is the e-cards, you can change the hair color, skin color, eye color, and best of all - the message on the plaque. And you can even buy a few of these as real figurines, shipping in June.

*notcot - , 19:57 -

Washingtons

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Doodling is healthy, and it happens any/everywhere. This is a very impressive collection of “Dollar” doodles also at ATYPYK.

*notcot - 04.07.06 , 12:05 -

Bye Bye Cannon

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CalTech Loses their cannon - swiped and relocated 3,000 miles to MIT’s campus where it now wears a giant “Brass Rat” MIT class ring… and points at Pasadena. The “Howe and Ser Moving Co. is an accomplished national moving firm known for its excellent customer service. It has been described as, “assertive, low-key, and really willing to go the extra 3,000 miles to ensure a bang-up job.”’ Whatever will they do to retaliate? I’m sure it will be good.

*notcot - 04.06.06 , 20:11 -

Moving Fashion Photography

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Hm. Remember art school - the “medium is the message” stuff - and how video art first started? Well - take that and add a dash of high end fashion photography + Metropolitan Hotel + couture + top models put to bed in their own rooms and filmed/photographed. Yes thats what those stills are from - Nick Knight in 2001. Check out the vids here. [yea thats devon aoki in the first one apparently]

On the same note - have you seen the motion photography style project with Kate Moss pretty much jumping around topless in fancy jeans rocking out to loud music while ripping up the red paper she is posing in front of? In Paris 2005, she did this piece with Nick Knight.

*notcot - , 18:50 -

Popsicle sticks

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The Art Office in Indio (yes, home of Coachella) - has been making these incredible structures out in the desert - that are much like enormous popsicle stick art. “WOOD SCREEN CYLINDER AT JOSHUA TREE
Our proposal seeks to transform and record the colors, light, and landscape of the desert through a folding, geometrically manipulated, structural wood screen cylinder created from a very simple, readily available, construction-based module: a douglas fir surveyor stake.” Phillip Smith, one of their principals emailed us about this gorgeous project, and you certainly need to go see more. I wish i had a screen like that in my house! Or it would be perfect in those SF Bay windows!

*notcot - 04.05.06 , 02:07 -

Jet Blue Bliss

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At a time when american airlines are charging for basic meals and sandwiches, leg room seems to be shrinking, plane upkeep is lacking… JetBlue soars ahead with adding more “luxury” features… and this time in an interesting move with Bliss (the fun blue branded spa line, whose spas are in many a W hotel) to supply coast to coast travellers with a little bit more R&R… the “buh bye red eye, hello shut eye” kit. Read more about it in the Post article.

*notcot - 04.04.06 , 14:08 -

Animatronic MiniMan

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Mark Ho pretty much apprenticed in Amsterdam with a metalworking artisan for 6 years to make this incredible little guy. With joints that mimick every motion of the human body, yet still emotionally and artistically human feeling - the ZOHO is pretty incredible… not a detail out of place, and cast in purely bronze and sterling silver. All parts are handmade - take a look at the specs: Height: 16.93” (43 cm), Weight: 13.2 lb (6 kg), Number of parts: 920 (of which 101 are found in each hand), Number of mobile parts: 85. This first artform will be limited to 25 sculptures. I can’t wait to see what happens when this type of craftsmanship meets the brains of something like the Robosapien!

Great article from the Craftsmanship Museum.

*notcot - 04.02.06 , 12:29 -

Into Your Folder

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“thats why i copy and paste, into your folder, the folder with your name, it’d be more than i could take if i just told you how i feel…” Such a cute song/video! Song by Plastic Operator and incredible Motion graphics artist BitState.

Read my old grad school friend’s site, Christian who had this cute entry “More than one year ago, when I started working in London I met two very nice guys. One was in a duo electro-pop and the other a very talented motion-graphic designer. After having heard the song “Folder” from Mat, the musician, I instantly thought how much a lovely song like that could have success if represented from a very nice and funny video. The only person I knew that would have been able to do was Pete, so I introduced the guys to each other with the hope that one day that thought would have come reality. After many months of dealing with the label that published the song and some very interesting preliminary sketches, the movie has been finished. I didn’t put any effort on its development but I’m still proud that my senses pushed me to make this guys meet. Enjoy this master piece! “

*notcot - , 00:05 -

Muji Design Award

award_img01.jpgMuji Design Award! Muji is one of those companies that continues to inspire me - and Fukasawa is one of the judges! “The theme is “SUMI”.
The objective is not to design something that is placed in the middle of the room, but towards the edges, not at the centre and not directly around the centre; you should look for somewhere that evades the eye, send us an object designed for that place, and name it as you wish. We are not asking for any particular genre, it could be anything from furniture, stationery and office equipment, to everyday items.” So grab your sketchbook already!

*notcot - 04.01.06 , 22:36 -

Yosoh

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Yosoh sent some sweet pics in from his solo show recently. In case you are not familiar with his work, he does gorgeous digital prints on ceramics! A very unique blend of mediums old and new. His description of the process “Creating and collecting images, I scan them into the computer and manipulate them to fit the concept. The new image is output onto transparent film that acts as a stencil for transferring the image to a silk-screen. Glaze is then used (instead of ink) to print the image on to a slab of clay. Once completely dry the slabs are fired. Producing an image that will stand the test of time indoor or outdoor.” Fascinating. Pretty too.

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*notcot - 03.28.06 , 17:08 -

Um. Wow.

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So i couldn’t resist showing this in this minimal context - but if you simply can not resist, click below to continue reading and see the image of these objects in use. I figured it might be more fun to guess what you were looking at first.

… ok so now that you’ve guessed - it’s Alice Wang’s Pet Plus project “aimed to explore how people treat their pets as human surrogates.” It claims to offer packages which act as “social supplements” as your pets veer into taking on the roll of social surrogates, quickly replacing the love of your life. Ah, creepy/funny… and i just love the packaging.

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*notcot - 03.24.06 , 12:41 -

Stray Shopping Carts

0810955202_l.jpgHere’s an example of what happens when an artist/graphic designer with a thing for scientific classification turns his discriminating eye to our urban pollution of Shopping Carts. Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America, The: A Guide to Field Identification By Julian Montague As described on the publisher’s site as

A must-have for anyone with a passion for shopping carts and a love of the great outdoors: This field guide introduces a groundbreaking classification system for abandoned shopping carts. Accompanied by photographic documentation of actual stray cart sightings, this unique guide depicts the diversity of an often overlooked phenomenon. On close examination, readers inevitably begin to see these carts as human, at times poignant in their abandoned, decrepit state, hilariously incapacitated, or ingeniously co-opted. At once rigorous and absurd, this book allows the layperson to identify and classify their own cart encounters, based on the situation in which the carts were found.

So i was flipping through this at a bookstore in Berkeley yesterday, and i couldn’t stop laughing, while simultaneously being made more aware of the impact and spread of shopping carts on our world! To imagine that this was merely a sampling of New England is horrifying when you scale it to what it must be like around the world. Anyhow the graphic design, photography, and layout were as playfully done as the subject matter, so it is definitely worth taking a look at.

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