BLU

Artist Blu creates some pretty crazy drawings on public walls. His latest film "Blu: An Ambiguous Animation Painted on Public Walls," is drawn in Buenos Aires and Baden and is simply overwhelming and intriguing.

Check out his blog for more drawings and illustrations.

Every Person in NYC

Jason Polan (of the "Every Piece of Art in the Museum of Modern Art" book fame) is now trying to draw every person in New York City. Talk about some serious ambition!

Every Chair at the Visual Studies Workshop

Luke Strosnider has photographed every chair at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York. Fantastic! There *was* a print up at 20x200, but we are too late!

A Good Thing to Remember.

via SwissMiss.

Hotels in the Afterlife

Haubitz+Zoche have a series of photographs of abandoned resorts in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt that is featured on BLDGBLOG. These are hotels that will never be finished due to fear of terrorist bombings and corruption.

If you are in Vienna, you can visit their show.

Getting Real.

"Conventional wisdom says that to beat your competitors you need to one-up them. If they have four features, you need five (or 15, or 25). If they're spending x, you need to spend xx. If they have 20, you need 30.

This sort of one-upping Cold War mentality is a dead-end. It's an expensive, defensive, and paranoid way of building products. Defensive, paranoid companies can't think ahead, they can only think behind. They don't lead, they follow."

A few words of wisdom from 37 Signals.

Walking Bike

If nothing else, this Walking Bike is interesting! via ItsNiceThat.

Shannon Rankin

You probably know that I have a massive love for maps, so I instantly fell in love with Shannon Rankin's work! Thanks to Frank for finding her Etsy page.

The Sinister History of Barber Poles

Have you ever wondered why there are the blue and white spinning poles outside of most barber shops? Well, neither did I until today - and I am quite surprised!

WPA Posters

For those who do not know, during the United State's great economic depression in the 1930's, the government created an organization called the Works Progress Administration. The WPA created jobs for millions of out-of-work Americans including a branch devoted to the fine arts.

Many posters were created to advertise different aspects of the WPA and here is a fantastic collection of them on Flickr.

Airline Spoons of the World

Wow! This is a fantastic collection of spoons from different airlines all over the world! I used the above spoon on a Jet Airways flight from New Delhi to Kathmandu a few years ago trying to eat some really not-good yogurt type food...

(Trophy) Size Matters.

Nice little graphic comparing the sizes of different trophies. via Coudal.

Collections

Wow. I love collecting things, and this photoset by Glen Mullaly makes me want to keep it up! Also, check out his vintage book covers.

Via p+p.

New British Coins

The British Royal Mint has announced a brilliant new design for their coins by graphic designer Matt Dent. Yet another reason the United Kingdom is cooler than us...

Lost In Translation

I love this stuff! My good friend, Brandon Goodwin, just returned from traveling in China & Vietnam. He took some photos of some t-shirts that just don't quite make sense...

Can't get enough? Try Engrish!

Coolest Thing Ever?

I would have to agree with Coudal on this one - this thing is in the running for the coolest thing ever.

Evolution of Car Logos

Things have been very busy around here, but I thought this Evolution of Car Logos was really interesting.

Bottlecaps!

As a child, my grandparents had a small bucket full of bottle caps. I loved to spill them all out on the floor of their basement ceramic shop and create roads and barriers for my toy cars to drive around. This nice collection of bottle caps reminds me of those days -via p+p

WWII Navy Training Films

Interesting collection of declassified WWII US Navy training films.

Removing Garfield from Garfield...

"Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life?" - via former student Jay Yerxa

You Don't Matter

Three fine fellows in Germany have converted a plotting machine to draw. Yet another piece of technology that tells you that You Don't Matter. The most interesting parts are the mistakes that the computer makes.

Unrealised Moscow

Unrealised architectural projects of Moscow from the 1930s to the early 1950s. This site includes one of my all-time favourites: The Palace of the Soviets.

Cold War Calculators

Wow. I didn't know these existed.

Installation Art in London's Heathrow Airport

Multi-disciplinary art and design practice, Troika, based in London has created a new art installation in Heathrow Airport.

Really interesting and nice - but when I flew through Heathrow, there wasn't anything pretty and it wasn't that clean and shiny...

Rearranged Puzzles

Artist Kent Rogowski combines pieces from different puzzles into fantastically interesting images.

Floppy Disks & Bic Pens

Design Boom has two very interesting articles: one on the History of the Floppy Disk and the other on Reinventing the Bic Pen.

Modern Russian Dolls

The ever-clever Art. Lebedev has created a new twist on the traditional Matryoshkus Russian Dolls showing the relationship of bits to bytes. Nice.

This American Life

I am a new convert to a wonderful radio show called "This America Life" by Chicago Public Radio. Although I do not live in Chicago, I get the fantastic and intriguing stories weekly via their podcast.

Each week, Ira Glass hosts stories of often over-looked bits and pieces of life in America. Routinely quirky, always fascinating, it is simply the best show on radio.

There are so many great shows, but I would suggest starting with the episode that spent 24 hours in a 24 hour diner in Chicago simply telling the stories of the people that walked through the doors.

There is also a television show, which I have not seen, but I am sure it is great!

Library of Congress on Flickr!

Thanks to Frank Chimero, (who has just started a great blog called "By So And So") I have learned that the United States Library of Congress is now on Flickr!

They have a fantastic collection of Farm Security Administration photos in color (which normally you only see the famous black & white photos) as well as many other photographs from their collection. I can only hope that this is just the beginning of their collection coming online! The Library of Congress also has a blog - who knew?

3-D Foam Type!

Some really interesting work using a hot-wire foam cutter to create 3-D type out of foam.

Typographical Top Hat!

I seriously cannot explain how much I want this Typographical Top Hat! If only I had a spare $10,000 to $15,000! (from H&FJ)

Soviet Snowmobiles!

It is pretty dang cold here today, so I thought I would post this Unique Soviet Snowmobiles link.

Who Needs Friends ... When You Have Pens?

More than you may ever want to know about pens...

A Bike Rack with a Built-In Air Pump!

Yet again, this art project based in the Netherlands proves that Europe beats America in coolness, environmentalism, and health.

Thanks to SwissMiss.

Citroën 2CV

I first learned about the Citroën 2CV when I was traveling in England. This wonderfully ugly little car seems to have quite a cult following as well as having some amazing promotion materials.

Grant Hamilton

Somehow, I have never posted about the amazing work of Grant Hamilton - but I am now! I especially love his Geometries set.

Also, a huge thanks to Frank for getting this blog to integrate nicely into my website!

Fresh Type.

It seems that Letman loves type as much as I do - which is both exciting and a bit disturbing! (via The Serif)


Merci Bernard creates some very interesting typographic experiments using three-dimensional space. Nice! (via Monoscope)

Nina Katchadourian

Artist Nina Katchadourian creates some amazingly creative and really interesting work.

Mixed Media Constructions

Artist Chris Kenny makes some very nice constructions using maps and organic materials.

Hand Written Letter Project

The hand.written.letter.project. is a self-initiated project that Craig Oldham undertook after a conversation about how personal a letter can be: a fact that he feels is currently drowning in a tide of depersonalisation, junk mail and automated correspondence. - Via SwissMiss

Vintage Wallpaper

Need true vintage wallpaper? Live in Belgium? Have Euros to spare? Have I got a great place for you!

World Clock Project

It's simple. People submit photos of clocks displaying every minute of the day. Nice.

Hand-Lettered E-mail Spam One-Liners

This is a great Flickr set of hand-lettered e-mail one-liners - such a great idea!

New Guinness Advert

Oh man I have always wanted to do this!

The new (and most expensive ever) advertisement for Guinness shows multiple objects toppling over onto each other in a remote Argentinian village. Toppling items included: 6,000 dominoes, 10,000 books, 400 tires, 75 mirrors, 50 fridges, 45 wardrobes and 6 cars. It is directed by Nicolai Fuglsig of Sony Bravia "Balls" fame.

You can read an article about it here.

And you can watch it on YouTube here.

Running From Camera

I don't know exactly why, but this is really fascinating.

"The rules are simple: I put the self-timer on 2 seconds, push the button and try to get as far from the camera as I can." - Running From Camera

I love type. I don't love beef.

Meat + Letters = Value Pack.

Seen on a bridge in Amsterdam

No comment really needed.

Vintage Signage Polaroids

Here is a great Flickr set of 1960's Polaroids of signs in Washington state.

Stray Shopping Carts