Catch up with the latest from London with our UK-based editor Justine Aw.

You may noticed the little spectacled cormorant in our post on the Ghosts of Gone Birds exhibition. The cormorant is part of the visual identity of the exhibition, created by Peter Hodgson of Goodpilot. Having a strong visual identity throughout the show really helps tie all of the diverse pieces together. Here is a closer look at the visual identity work from the show, including the lovely logo and series of ghost stories and other materials. Read more about the stories behind the posters here.

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Here’s the latest from our London-based editor Justine Aw

Naturalists and art lovers are in for a treat with the stunning exhibition Ghosts of Gone Birds. Ghosts is the brainchild of filmmaker Ceri Levy and Chris Aldhouse of Goodpilot and an exhibition which captures and celebrates extinct bird species and raises awareness and funds for conservation. The show includes over 300 pieces created by an army of 120 artists, writers and musicians (see the full list here and all proceeds from the show will aid conservation through Bird Life International.

Those who can’t catch the show in London can still purchase some of the gorgeous prints through the online shop, but I would strongly recommend heading down to see this amazing show in person if you can. The exhibition runs until November 23rd at the Rochelle School in Shoreditch, full details here. In the meantime, take a look at the show through our eyes with our photo gallery of personal highlights and Ghost’s facebook page.

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Views from space, QR haircuts and programmable GroundBots are all part of this week’s roundup from NOTCOT.org. To find out more about each post, click on its individual image.

Grenade Bunny!!! Tonight’s current inspiration obsession are the adorable Grenade Bunnies of Lucky Bunny ~ triggered by the giant (larger than human) one that Vinyl Pulse shared from DesignerCon this weekend… i ended up on the Lucky Bunny site, facebook, and store exploring the world of Lucky Bunny and the making of the various Grenade Bunny creatures! Take a peek on the next page… and keep an eye out for the next limited edition series of Grenade Bunnies hopefully in the near future.

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Just discovered a series of Perrier Jouet wallpaper graphics on their facebook page ~ beautifully intricate paper frescoes by Jo Lynn Alcorn. See them all (click them to view full sized) as well as close ups of details on the next page!

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Rhinos in flight, electric multicopters and a 3D scanned forest are all part of this week’s roundup from NOTCOT.org. To find out more about each post, click on its individual image.

This featured video series on beautiful visual inspiration is brought to you by FIAT! Thank you FIAT for your support of NOTCOT!

First things first, if you haven’t seen it, you must check out The Third & The Seventh. It is a stunning film ~ and I love that Alex Roman asks you to “Fullscreen it, please.” A masterful mix of 3D modeling and rendering of both designer objects and places that exist in reality (Like Kahn’s library at Phillips Exeter Academy) seamlessly combined with the fictitious through 3dsmax, Vray, AE and Premiere. But surprisingly, when it reaches the uncanny valley side of the digital, it’s hard to appreciate just how much went in to this film… until you see the incredible making of below!

TO PAGE 2 of “the Making of The Third & The Seventh”! ——->

Tattoos & Tentacles is a book by photographer Julian Murray… and it is precisely what it sounds like (though the octopi don’t seem to be alive)… and it might be NSFW, but there’s a SFW peek inside the book on the next page!

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This post is part of NOTCOT Having Fun In The Dark series sponsored by Canon Powershot’s Your Second Shot! While taking pictures in the dark means standing super still, you may still end up with more graininess than usual …armed with Canon’s low-light HS SYSTEM, you can trust the tech to help you capture the perfect shot the first time!

While exploring Las Vegas for SEMA, I love to escape into the least vegas feeling Vdara in City Center. Of course this means being surrounded by the stunning mix of modern architecture and large scale modern sculptures galore. One can’t help but stare at Nancy Rubins’ Big Edge in the center of the huge roundabout ~ with boats somehow forming a huge tree light structure… with more than 200 aluminum boats — canoes, rowboats and flat-bottomed boats strung together with steel wire into a colorful cluster held together with cantilevers, they manage to look nearly in motion, as if exploding apart! Nancy Rubins has been making these large boat structures for some time now and Big Edge is a larger version of her “Big Pleasure Point” in the Lincoln Center in New York, with similar pieces around the country. Perhaps one of the best parts of being placed in the center of City Center in Las Vegas is the ability for everyone to enjoy it in so many different lighting situations, so Shawn Sims had a little late night photoshoot last night wandering up close to it to share some of its amazing looks at night! Take a peek at all of the pics on the next page!

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Pillow destruction, water jet packs and candy blood slides are all part of our weekly roundup from NOTCOT.org. To find out more about each post, click on its individual image.

Sure the new California Driver’s Licenses started in Oct 2010… but since mine was about to expire, i’ve only just gotten bored enough to get one and stare at it up close… WAY up close… with the microscope. It’s quite awesome seeing where they went all Toys R Us with the backwards R… hidden little strings of text in microscopic ascii art fashion nearly invisible to the naked eye… initials and birth year are tucked all over… some birthdays and signatures are raised… when you hold it up to the light you can see the state bear appear out of tiny holes… So take a peek at the details and some of the beautiful patterns they used super close up on my new driver’s license!

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This week’s roundup from NOTCOT.org includes a Periodic Table of Swearing, quantum levitation and an insect-powered smartphone. To find out more about each post, click on its individual image.

Our London-based editor Justine Aw shares another find from the London Design Festival!

Foldboat (the design duo Max Frommeld and Arno Mathies) featured a special Dock edition boat at Tom Dixon’s ‘Multiplex at The Dock’ during the London Design Festival. As the name suggests, the boat is literally folded from a flat 2.5m x 1.5m plastic sheet and can be transformed from flat sheet to row boat by a single person in 2 minutes using only 3 components. Amazingly fun to see it action ~ see more pictures of it at the Dock as well as close ups on the next page!

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The architecture of Gotham, a panoramic ball camera and sentimental cartography’ are all a part of this week’s roundup from NOTCOT.org. To find out more about each post, click on its individual image.

Another highlight from Superdesign was David Roux-Fouillet’s Diamond Shot, a fun and unique way to set a diamond. That’s right, specially made bullets are quite literally shot into jewellery to create the setting. Roux-Fouillet’s bullets are composed of 24ct gold, diamond, tool steel, and ivory, turtle shell, bull horn or silk (depending on the model). Bullets can be fired into rings, earrings or pendant structures made of platinum or 9ct gold. More photos of the setup and a video of the setting in action on the next page!

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