making a car out of cake!

Found this a few days ago - such an amazing and lovely advert for a car!

simple & brilliant!

The colour of every flag of every country in a mathmatical pie chart. Really a simple and great idea.

Friday Fantastic.

You must visit the British National Archives of public information films. Simply fantastic - especially the 1940's through the 1960's.

Also, two great articles about Super Sonic Airliners and amazing Communist Gothic: Architecture by Yakov Chernikhov.

And finally, the best and most understandable discription of the rules of cricket ever. Using pies. Seriously.

Probably the coolest thing ever!

Art Links from Design Observer...

Two beautiful pieces by English artist Antony Gormley. Here and here. Allison and I saw the piece with the massive wings driving somewhere in England - we didn't know what it was, so it is neat to finally place it in context.

Also, someone just paid $72.8 MILLION for a Rothko painting - amazing.

And, whether or not Andreas Gursky is out of ideas really doesn't matter to me - his work still impresses me.

rainy afternoon happiness = whimsy and colour

You must check out the work of Miroslav Sasek - an amazing Czech illustrator that did the great "This is..." childrens book series. His whimsical illustrations are some of my most favourite of all mid-century illustrators. Also, having visited many of these cities, it is a wonderful way to remember them - even if I wasn't there in the 1960's.

If (or when) I find out that we are having a child, I will buy every book in this series.

See:

This is.. on Wiki
His official website
And one more...

hand dryers and the internet - together at last...

Thanks to my good friend Frank Chimero I have been made aware of a bit of "blog activity" (I still think blogs are quite silly) about my Hand Dryers.

Click away.

One
Two
Three
Four

And Frank also directed me to this.

An on-going list...

(I hope this doesn't make me seem too greedy)

I wish that graphic design was easier to explain to my mother.
I wish that more Americans traveled internationally.
I wish that I traveled more internationally.
I wish I had more bookshelves.
I wish that I had a garden this year.
I wish the air conditioning worked in my Volvo.
I wish that politics were less political.
I wish that more parks were created in more cities.
I wish there were more hours in the day.
I wish more people cared about more than themselves.
I wish I was better at playing the banjo.
I wish to visit Antarctica some day.

The histories of people I've never met...

foundslides248.jpg
Originally uploaded by onpaperwings.

I have been collecting old slides from estate auctions and flea markets for years and finally, this past weekend, I amassed them all into a collection. Some of the best are on my Flickr account.

These images are so fascinating to me. They are from another life - a life that has all but been forgotten and the memories purchased by me for a few dollars. I find it strange that photographs are so easily disgarded. I would like to think that someone cares about these people and they want to remember them. But, it also makes me think about how cyclical life is - and maybe one day someone will find photos of me and think "I wonder what kind of life this person had?"

In 24 hours...

Travel041
Originally uploaded by onpaperwings.

I have always been amazed at the fact that 24 hours from now I could be walking the streets of Tokyo. Or sitting in the Sydney Opera House watching a performance. Or viewing works of art at the Louvre.

International travel is much easier than most people think. I used to think that Tokyo was beyond my reach - but it certainly is not. Yes, this takes money, but not as much as people think.

Save your money and I hope to see you in Tokyo some day soon.