Links published in April 2007 — Going down ↓ is going back in time.
¶ Je les perds, je les magane, je les brise, je les néglige, mais si j’avais en ma possesion un parapluie comme celui-ci, je ne l’utiliserai qu‘à l’intérieur tellement y’est beau.
¶ On this grey but somewhat pleasant morning, may I suggest you rinse your eyes with photographic beauty with the portfolio’s of Sirs Tim Flach and Giles Revell. Quite elegant and visually stunning work indeed.
¶ American Institute of Architects: Committee on the Environment (COTE): Top Ten examples of sustainable architectural projects that protect and enhance the natural environment (aka green buildings). And evidently, 7 out of 10 are in the eastern or western states.
¶ Trop hot: Ransom Note Generator. J’peux enfin commencer mon business de kidnappage de gens sans perdre tout ce temps à découper toutes ces lettres!
¶ Paleo-Future: Postcards Show the Year 2000 (circa 1900). With house-moving by train, weather controlling machines and summer holidays at the North Pole.
¶ Votre dose quotidienne de design graphique: les illustrations et le self-made de The Culture Front et les installations de typographie & design de l’environnement de Why Not Associates.
¶ Hong Kong mid-level escalators: 800m escalators, moving walkways and pedestrian bridges that connect the downtown financial district to the mid-levels, a upscale neighborhood of condominium towers where many executives live.” And if you like escalators (I mean really love the idea of a fixed conveyor belt-like machine that moves humans), I strongly suggest you read Nicholson Baker’s The Mezzanine.
¶ The Price of a Gallon: 47 liquids compared. From tap water to cobra venom passing through human blood and Chanel 5 parfume.
¶ Black Cloud: Drive one day less and this is how much carbon monoxide you’ll keep out of the air we breathe.
¶ Erwin Olaf’s photography Quite stunning. He seems to reach the pictural quality of paintings with photography. Makes me wanna take pictures all day.
¶ Ridgemont Typologies: is about our desire for a mythic lifestyle, one industry’s attempt to fulfill that desire, and what the results look like to a passerby. “If there is some kind of big sellout occuring, what are we getting in the deal?”
¶ Heart-shaped egg mold and you can make your own cute morning-after/breakfast-in-bed/love-bird caption joke.
¶ Fast Food: Ads vs. Reality : “Each item was purchased, taken home, and photographed immediately.” Gross. Haven’t had a Big Mac (or any other fast-food junk) in 6 or 7 years and I don’t miss it one bit.
¶ Flickr: Lastest pictures of Daniel Libeskind’s Crystal structure addition to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. UPDATE: Jf, voici comment ça fait pour tenir debout: Steel Project Case Study Gallery: Renovation to ROM.
¶ World’s best designed newspapers: 28th Edition. All europeen (Estonia, Danemark, Spain & Germany), thought out insertion of illustrations is important and you can always feel that grid.
¶ Pour Jihef et mes amis de design: The Bauhaus Rap. “Don’t you know it got / Art by Paul Klee, Kandinsky, and Lissitzky / Manifesto that is sayin’ what it really means.”
¶ Task-Focused graphic design portfolio. Tight (like a tiger) work and numerous gorgeous examples of edited and or self-made typography. And to-the-point portfolios like this (no web fluff) are always very welcome.
¶ Justine Cooper photography Saved By Science : “backstage” photos of the Natural History Museum.
¶ PingMag: Interview with Manufactured Landscapes canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky. He was also awarded a TED prize in 2005 for his work and you can see his presentation online.
¶ Edlo Kawa photography. First a retoucher, then a photographer, he call this new line of work photocrafting. The distinction between the two has all but disappeared: they control the final image form start to finish, and it shows.
¶ Hip-Hop Pop-Up : is a mp3 playing software that pops up websites of brand names in real time as they are mentioned in rap music.
¶ Status Brace : “Fake or non-functional bejeweled braces bought by teenage girls from a street market in one of the poorer districts of Bangkok. [...] My assumption is that purchase motivation is driven by a mixture of decoration, experimentation, and status – showing off that one’s parents can afford to pay for this kind of dental care.” I think it has maybe something to do with portraying innocence as well, like the young and sexy girls depicted in japanese mangas.
¶ I just finished Chris Ware’s excellent Jimmy Corrigan: the Smartest Kid on Earth. Love the style, the details, the gloomy expressions. Coincidently, Francis sent this in: Chris Ware does animation as well! And this short animated story makes me think that today people would do the same thing with cellphone cameras.
¶ I saw Stranger Than Fiction this weekend. A good smart, precise and funny movie. Kind of in the same alley as Jonze and Kaufman. Although seeing Will Ferrell play a somewhat more serious and uncommon role (for him) was quite enjoyable, what amazed me the most was the opening sequence.
¶ Some day I will have a Chesterfield. I would think it’s the kind of furniture that ages well over time. Get that leather tender (like a good pair of leather booties).
¶ I just super-heart these Japanese light drawings films: PIKA PIKA: PIKA PIKA 2007 release!
¶ Purest Cut: Overpriced designer t-shirts that manage to sell-out. Seriously, who buys this stuff? It looks cool and all but 90$ for a tshirt?
¶ Quiltsrÿche : Evil Rock Quilts by Boo Davis. “Personalize these designs with silkscreening or fragments of your old rock tees for an heirloom piece you’ll want to take to the grave.”
¶ Death by architecture: the preeminent site for architecture competition information on the internet. Tu cherches des compés? T’en trouves. Y’en a comme plein. Information aficionados: check the neat flash calendar on the side.
¶ Calatrava unveiled monday the latest design for Chicago’s new waterfront skyscraper. At 2000 feet, it’s 550 feet higher than the Sears tower. I am however surprised of the very small and elegant footprint versus its overall height.
¶ Vous vous souvenez de ce party rouge avec mes amis d’archi? Et bien y’a des vidéos de nous dans la cuisine à faire de l’architecture humaine (lire des pyramides), tous habillés de rouge. Le sommet touchait le plafond: Fabulous I & Fabulous II. (merci Sophie & Fred)
¶ One Click Butter Cutter. This is the kind of thing you see at a random friend’s house and go “Whoa! You got a One Click Butter Cutter! Can I try it?”. Pis le gars mets juste trop de beurre sur son assiette.
¶ Value Pack: Alphabet made of raw hamburger. Y’a un jeu de mot pas loin, j’le sens… Ah, ché pas.
¶ Vive le web! Une baleine bleue vraie grandeur sur votre écran. Comme un collègue de bureau vient de dire: c’est google-earth pour baleine!
¶ For typography buffs: Type Directors Club TDC2 2007 Winners. I like Darden’s “Untitled” and Bee’s “Olga” most.
¶ Universcale: Interactive size comparisons of just about everything. The interface could use a bit more fluid navigating and a typography lesson though.
¶ The RED interactive universe. Je vous laisse le plaisir de le découvrir par vous même. Pis les arrières plans sont méga-beaux.
¶ OMG y’a eu un flash mob vendredi soir: party dans un wagon du métro de montréal.
¶ Mon aggrégateur indique plus de 910 fils RSS à checker. Ça me tente telllllement pas. L’expression « la terre continue de tourner » devrait être contemporanisée « l’Internet sera mis à jour demain ».