*notcot - , 04:30 -

Washable Sandart

mn_sanddrawing_ch_03.jpgA quickie from the SF Gate a few days ago, wish i could have been there to see it, poke at it, photograph it. Doesn’t it just scream touch me?

Artist Jim Denevan, right, rakes a textured design into the sand, above, at Ocean Beach just below the Cliff House in conjuction with an art project and exhibit at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The Sunday afternoon project was made to vanish with the tide. Denevan, of Santa Cruz, has completed some 300 beach drawings between San Francisco and Santa Cruz. The group exhibition at Yerba Buena, called “Big Deal,” features large-scale sculptures and photos of other huge projects, and is meant to push viewers to see the relationships between themselves and the art object and surrounding space.

Found by ShadeElaine.

*notcot - 03.12.05 , 23:30 -

Web Coloring

wheel.jpg I, unlike some very talented colorists, do not know the hex numbers of everything by heart, or by site, or their pantone codes either. I just like what i like, and sometimes have a hard time finding them again… so here are two resources I love; one old, one new: Both helpful.

First, from long ago, comes the 4096 color-wheel, clean html interface, click-choose-save (even save the page for frequent lookups). I can’t remember even attempting to lookup hex numbers before this.

The other, helpful for finding a site with a color pallete you fall for… simply enter a URL into “I Like Your Colors!” and see what they are. [these are simply pulled out of the CSS, so unfortunately, its not exactly like taking the dropper to any color shown]

*notcot - , 22:35 -

Innovation as a Commodity

creativity.jpg After a year working on my design masters in Milan with design folk, mostly european and asian, you get somewhat coined “an american” extremely fast. Easy enough to write off as another stereotype, but from all stereotypes there lies something deeper. After a long talk with the head of my design program after thesis and graduation were said and done, the truth finally came out.

INNOVATION (aka WOW FACTOR) : apparently its what the US is known for (as well as other things we will not mention)… by the europeans and asians with their strong sense of history and constant reminders of the past strongly influencing their futures. So while at first it is easy to take offense, looking closely at what americans have revolutionized is the outside-of-the-box, adaptive, bounce-back in any situation survival skills which have helped our country flourish in a way… i suppose. Or thats what “they” say anyhow. So in a time of automation, extremely efficent computing and manufacturing (and outsourcing?) with this fear of all great things moving to asia to revolutionize the world as we know it… now what?

The trend in articles popping up in creative and business magazines is in realizing what our strong points are in. After working with an talented international design crowd for a year, simply growing up in american culture has apparently impacted my approach with an out-going rule-breaking naievete… slowly balanced with absorbing an understanding of european and asian constantly looking to the past. Now if only we could all harness the strengths of both, theoretically, anything is possible.

This little rant inspired by this creativity test (like you can really test that) i was led too, and the site it came from…

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*notcot - 03.10.05 , 21:51 -

Delicious Design

Ok so you already know: i’m a design book junkie.

I never really paid much attention earlier when my friend gushed about Delicious Monster’s Library program, but it is rather fun. One rainy LA day, my isight+my laptop+I decided to try it out, and scanned away with ease feeling like a supermarket check out woman (or what i always imagined it would feel like) scanning, hearing the beep, watching the satisfying black and white image om my comp as i tried to line up barcode and isight… its fun, its easy, and now when away from my books, or shopping for more, i always know what i have.

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*notcot - , 21:26 -

ESUVEE!

ESUVEE! i’ll admit i drive one, not proud neccessarily, but it works. Don’t get me wrong i understand where all the anti-SUV folk are coming from, and the trendy Prius people too… but sometimes you just look past it all for a moment and check out some hilariously brilliant design… which should reach out and touch you no matter what side of the SUV argument you are from.

Great graphics. nice site. really fun ad. go play.

*notcot - , 20:50 -

PEPIN! a new gen of clipart

Design lovers everywhere, especially those who appreciate gorgeous high quality images… MUST go see PEPIN PRESS books. Not at all bookstores (but so far i found a nice selection at Henessy and Ingalls which is one of the most browse-worthy design/architecture stores around)…

Here’s the deal, well bound books overflowing with incredibly edgy clipart… i caved in and so far have collected up the Occult, Bacteria and Micro-organisms, and Dutch Tile Designs… they are nicelly bound, well sized, and on nice glossy pages (basically the complete opposite of Dover press old school clip art selections, no offense to them, although they do have weekly free clip art)… Nicest thing though, is at about 20$ a book, they come with CD’s filled with every image used/featured in the book… and the images are extremely high quality in tiff and jpg formats, organized by page number.

For people like me who like to touch and feel their design wares from time to time, or just find it easier to find the right image flipping quickly rather than file hunting… this is a godsend.

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*notcot - 03.07.05 , 14:26 -

DinoBlog!


Couldn’t resist. For the record i read this one in the dinoblog first too. There’s still a major touch/smell factor print has got over my comp? — also in the same LA Times, Business section gave the cover left column to an article on the Movable Type couple; the colorful web designer, and her taciturn engineer high school boyf.

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