astoria park

Mom came down to visit this weekend and we decided to go explore Astoria Park since it was so gorgeous outside. The park is so pretty and the bridges look so sculptural in contrast with the natural curves and bends in the hills. I tried taking some panoramic shots; theyre not perfect but I think they turned out pretty well for my first time and without a tripod...

Sand Painting

Creativity just posted a link to this incredible video of artist Kseniya Simonova who uses sand to create "paintings" on a lightbox. It's amazing how much control she has over such a difficult medium, considering tiny details like how much a mouth turns up and using the tips of her fingers to create texture. She puts so much emotion into these images with just the flick of her hand, and the mood is definitely emphasized through the dramatic music in the background. Her website is here.

The City at night

I've decided that I really want to get back into photography so I'm going to make an effort to carry my camera everywhere and post new photos each week.

Tonight on my way to the Bolt Bus I decided to snap a few shots in the semi-darkness outside my building. It was just starting to rain so the highlights on the road were particularly emphasized, and the cold air allowed the steam coming out of the manhole to be visible. It was the perfect time of evening to shoot these pics too, I thought it was beautiful how the intensely blue sky contrasted with the yellow lights on the building down the street.

The life of a designer

I found this hilarious video today that shows the relationship between a graphic designer and a client. The 2 animated robots argue throughout the video as the client makes annoying requests like asking the designer for ads without giving the right dimensions, asking him to use microsoft word because that's the program the logo was designed in, and wanting him to come up with some creative advice while watching tv so that it's not billable time. I definitely feel like I've had to deal with some of these situations over the past few years and it's funny to see just how many ridiculously absurd requests a client can make because of their lack of design knowledge!

NYTimes Style Magazine

I just found an interesting article on NYTimes that shows a retrospective of all the best "T" cover designs for the Style Magazine over the last 5 years. There is definitely quite an array of images, from illustrations to photographs to surreal combinations of the two as the artists are given little direction on the pieces. It's interesting to see the degree to which they vary, considering the shape of the iconic "T" remains the same and the focus of the design. Here are a few of my favorites:

orbasquara

I found this fantastic site today promoting the album "the trouble with flying" by orba squara. The site is basically a scrolling flash documentation by Jose Cabaco and the Random Collective of a road trip across the country to follow the band's tour. Its a great collection of typography, photography, illustration, hand-drawn lettering and collage and it's really interesting to scroll through what looks like a digital accordian style book. It also definitely makes me want to go on a road trip and document my own adventure. Surprisingly it also makes me want to start writing... Here are a few screenshots:

Seriously?

There's an interesting and controversial article up on AdAge today discussing similarities between a spot by Grasshopper and one by Ogilvy & Mather for AmEx. David Hauser from Grasshopper is arguing that Ogilvy stole the creativity of their spot, which after seeing the 2 together is ridiculous. Yes they both discuss the importance of entrepreneurs in today's economy and both have similar music but the similarities end there. Discussing the importance of entrepreneurs is hardly anything ground-breaking, over the past few years I must have seen dozens of videos saying the same thing, for a variety of different companies, and type "entrepreneur" into google and you'll find millions of hits about the importance of going out and doing something, as well as how to do it.
The Grasshopper execution is hardly original, using Flash to make the words form in blocks of text across the screen. I've seen this a dozen times in commercials for Midol, Ford trucks and everything in between. One of the responses on AdAge reminded me of TheGirlEffect.org that I saw last semester, which in essence is the same as the Grasshopper spot with the same moving blocks of text and imagery and a slightly different message...yet still is a call to action for the viewer to get up and do something to help the world! The fact that he is arguing that the music is similar is ridiculous as well, since piano music has been around forever, and is commonly used in "inspiring" messages such as this...and what a coincidence that the GirlEffect website has similar music as well!
David Hauser needs to realize that when you decide to use a popular style of execution in current advertising to talk about an extremely general topic there is bound to be some overlap, and just because an ad discusses that same GENERAL topic does not mean that its a blantant rip-off of your work.