i'm a hipster. pardon me while i cope.

yah. i'm still coming to terms with my hipster-dom. trying to understand it all O_O
hahahah.

anywho, a good friend of mine shared this with me (he is a hipster, too *pound*). it's of another hipster (graphic designer/illustrator) talking about what he does, why he does it, and some other insights. there are a bunch of other speakers on the website as well that are informative. take a peek.

Geoff McFetridge lecture:
http://www.dolectures.com/speakers/speakers-2009/geoff-mcfetridge

website:
http://www.dolectures.com/speakers/

Logos and designs in different languages

Something you don't see everyday (at least in this country!). We're constantly surrounded by examples of typography designed using the Latin alphabet, so it's interesting to see typography from a non-alphabetic origin. I stumbled across some cool flags from Japan.

Itami municipality: The kanji 伊 (i), symbolizing a swan of the Koya Pond. (Wiki)

Every municipality in Japan has a flag, which incorporates parts of its name into some sort of design or logo that represents what that area is famous for (like the one above). Some flags are actually "picture-puzzles," leaving the viewer to try and decipher how the name is represented (like the one below). To be honest, my untrained eyes don't recognize most of the characters, even the ones in plain sight.

Omura (in Nagasaki): picture-puzzle logo features the kanji 大 (ō) surrounded by six (mu) katakana ラ (ra).

What are some other nifty type designs you've seen in other non-alphabetic languages?

Typographic town logos in hiragana/katakana (via PinkTentacle)
Bonus one in Arabic, it's a poem! (via Flickr)

Birdsong

Jarbas Agnelli saw a picture of birds on electric wires and created a composition based on the location of the birds. The resulting music is almost lullaby-like and just lovely overall.

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

Please Say Something

super cool
http://www.capacity.tv/#/upgradeAndMobilize
haha, pardon laziness.

movie title stills collection

film stills of opening titles from movies from 1920s to the future! i'm actually a part of the film stills community on livejournal, so this is an added treat. some films you have to pay to have access to their stills, but i think the title lock-ups are gorgeous to look at nonetheless :]

http://www.annyas.com/screenshots/1940-1944/

vintage wallpaper

textures! tacky wallpaper! i know these will come in handy someday.
if not, they're pretty to look at.

http://www.5qm.de/index-en.html
http://www.johnny-tapete.de/
http://www.vintagewallpapers.be/

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale

that's pretty amazing.

Gulp

I love this Coke ad. It's just a beautiful piece of creativity and craft. [I first spotted this a year ago]

jim denevan sand art

http://www.fatcap.com/jim-denevan-sand-art/

gorgeous environmental art! holy moly.

peur[s] du noir

rented and watched this film consisting of french scary animated shorts after seeing gorgeous screen caps online. absolutely gorgeous black and white animation, however, the stories are hit or miss. the last one really captured my fancy because of the play of light and shadow, form and counterform. like the frames being full of emptiness. and it was creepy.

milo is a threat to human relationships

this fricking pisses me off.

"meet a real character.. understands you, your voice, your emotions, that's fascinated about your life"

bollocks. sad. scary.

kokiriko bushi / omodaka

I can't type much now, but I found an awesome youtube channel with a Japanese music/art project on there. Awesome music accompanied by some cool music videos.

Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/user/fareastrecording

some favs of mine

the big picture - human landscapes from above

boston.com does a really great series called "the big picture" which if you are unfamiliar with them, it's photography with a theme. and they're all really interesting, haha. i figured i'd blog this one of human landscapes because it's really gorgeous.. and also at times really depressing how humans are shaping the earth in the more negative spectrum.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/04/human_landscapes_from_above.html

you should also check out these sets of pictures too:
at work
scenes of the recession
these are really interesting to see because of the stark contrasts in employment and unemployment.

UGHHH, I LOVE TYPE

GLORIOUS GORGEOUS TEXTURES OF TEXT!
http://www.houseind.com/

man. these are beautiful vintage-esque typefaces. i just asked for a free catalog of their stuff. eeee, typefaces in the mail!!

cellphone caprice

i really love the music to this animation. there are a lot of synesthetic sequences that are really neat. i also just like the choreography of the characters, specifically the lonely pig that flips its phone open waiting for her sweet pork to call her. it's smart and quite telling of our dependency on cellphones and how it affects everyday living.

Paper Scupture fun!

Honestly I don't know where this is from or who made them. The site I found them on had no info. Pretty sweet though

mozilla UBIQUITY is THE FUTURE

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

my green crocodile

heartbreaking and beautiful.

Barack Obama: The Font

I rolled my eyes when I read about this. Never too late nor shy about capitalizing on Brand Obama(TM), Insign Design has created a font based on President Obama's handwriting. Yes, for a mere $16, you too can create inspirational pieces of literature with The Hand of Obama(TM), with its magnificent curves, loops, and left-handed slantiness. (To be fair, I think it's kind of pretty, almost something I'd use to match with my Hello Kitty stationery.)

It's only a matter of time before I'll be seeing Obama-brand 2% milk or Obama-brand oil pastels. I guess that's one way to stimulate the economy.

Now excuse me while I finish off the last of my Obama-edition Altoids.

Source: Gizmodo

zap gas

Ridiculous, satirical flash games with the theme of global warming. Obviously political. The one where you have to save Venice from tsunamis kinda freaked me out, hahah (i have this fear of tidal waves). I really like the game where you are a polar bear and have to defend the planet from CO2 balls coming from the four major countries that emit the most greenhouse gasses. It's got the photomontage, surreal feel to it – illustrated by artist Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung. I don't know if it's just me being awful at flash games, but these games are pretty hard. That might be a commentary on how we just won't be able to win against global warming.

Gaszappers site is pretty interesting though, if you get the chance to look through it..

http://www.gaszappers.com/

naked slave for naked art's sake

i don't need to say anything. this is ridiculous. discuss.

LASER GRAFFITI

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