Links of the Day

1. Hellen Jo’s Lady Gaga [Via The Beat]
2.You Are Not A Gadget cover by Olly Moss [CR]
3. Interview: Universal Everything [Unit Edition]
4. Ayamari Bijin – Beautiful Girls Apologize Online [Via Japan Trends]

Mistake(s): Experimental Jetset

Even the best make mistake(s):

Now we see this poster again, we see our great mistake. While designing, some of the letters must have fallen off the page: as you can see, the alphabet in the right column misses the letters 'g' and 'r'. The strange thing is that, around that time, nobody noticed it. Not us three, not Gary, not the printer. It's such a stupid mistake, and we are fully responsible for it. It shows how blind you can be
while designing.

Experimental Jetset is an Amsterdam based design power house. I like that they provide in depth explanations about each of their work.

ST Engineering Safety@Work Entry Kit 2010

Safety@Work Creative Award is a yearly poster and animation competition organised by ST Engineering and Ministry of Manpower for tertiary students in Singapore.

Computer Back From the Dead

My computer just came back from the dead. I have so much stuff that I wanted to post. Stay tune.

Harry Clarke, Illustrations for Edgar Allen Poe

I always judge a book by its cover and, at Page One, one book illustrated by Harry Clarke, for Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allen Poe, caught my eyes this time. Harry Clarke's art are really something sublime. A Journey Round My Skull via But Does It Float

Frank Chimero on Process

One of my favourite illustrators Frank Chimero share a bit of his creative process with us:

Fooling around is serious stuff, whether it’s for the sake of our work or for the sake of our sanity. Don’t get me wrong: design can be serious stuff, and every professional has the right to take their craft seriously. But, somewhere in the myriad of analysis and tight deadlines, we’ve revoked our permission to play around with ideas and experiment.

I think being serious (or being "professional and business-like") is a way to sell the creative business. Especially in Singapore where most people do not understand, and even fear, design.

However, a solution has become a problem as most client are not aware of a good visual communication. Most of the time we are treated like tools. Where does this leave some of the designers in Singapore? Jaded. Therefore, no play. Very unfortunate.

We own the world, you and I

I think serious shit whilst showering... and lathering. When I came out of the shower, so happened that I noticed a Facebook status update by my good friend, Nick “if the whole network grid fails, I might just go offline for once!” Foo. He asked: How would you measure your wealth? In other words, the condition (th) of your well-being (weal)?

I am always thinking about that in the shower. I answered the best I could from reading limited Nietzsche: By how much I can overcome the material and the spiritual world, and the acceptance of the joy of Eternal Recurrence. Or, simply, how well I can dance.

In the olden days of the hunt, tribes people intoxicated themselves after a hunt. They danced around bonfires. They sang songs of the wild. They worshiped the likeness of their hunt. I guess it was fair. Life was hard then. So much depended on Mother Nature. So much depended on the weather. No one’s life was guaranteed during the hunt. It was hard and unpredictable. And the harder their lives were the harder they dance.

But of course, things evolved. Situation improved. Lives got better. Farming began, yada yada yada, enter intro from Big Bang Theory.

How much better and different though. Let’s examine. People dance harder than ever but for recreation now. Bonfire is replaced by disco lights. People fill their waterhole with Bourbon and Vodka until they barf. People fill the karaoke lounges to sing their lungs out. Now, most people anyway, do not pray to those filthy animals anymore. We devote our lives in blood to the likeness of ourselves. We depend on the policies of people who we gave power to and depend on the economic climate. Oh boy, so much better.

I do not intoxicate myself. I do not sing. I do not pray to my likeness (more like praying to me though). And, I, definitely, do not dance. What I meant by how well I can dance, is, of course, metaphorical. You see, I am a keen reader of Nietzsche. Then, the real questions are: Is my life better? Am I better?

Realistically, everything is arguable. That kind of question is academic. Humanity is layers of layers of historical changes. What could be thought was wrong is now right and vice versa. Everyone is searching for happiness and well-being. It would be extremely hypocritical of me to even start to argue that my life is better. For I do not know if I am happy. I just know I want to be aware of/conscious every second of my life because I feel that it is just so amazing, and it just is what it is without having to give any narrative to it. And, my request is for everyone to just think the opposite of what you believe is moral, what is right and what is happiness, and ask yourself: Is it wrong? Remember, we own the world, you and I.

Academia vs. Business

Applicable to most other professions including design.

Immediate Attention

Ah Lady Gaga. You will continue to shine as long as you keep up with all those masonic allegories and those A Space Odyssey: 2001 references. The little girls had some attention for a while and now the woman is back. I am glad.

Distrito Capital Hotel by Joseph Dirand

Clean, modern and minimalistic interiors,  that I absolutely adore, designed by French architect Joseph Dirand, the 30 room Distrito Capital hotel is located in Mexico City. Check out more interior photos at the Contemporist. Check out the hotel's stylish website too.

Links of the Day

1. Mr. Beaks chats with 2012's Chin Han [Ain't It Cool]
2. Growing penis tissue in the lab (I wish I have an image to show.) [BoingBoing]
3. Google Street View Captures Fire Truck Hit and Run With an Old Lady On a Bike [Gizmodo]
4. Starbucks, but not as we know it [Moving Brand]
5. 21 Writing Prompts for Design Students [AIGA]

Weekly Cool Videos Release Week 46/09

Three great videos this week. Let me start this week with the trailer of the movie based on a book by Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man. Directed by ex-Gucci CD Tom Ford and starring Colin Firth and Julianne Moore.



Immersion: Porn by Robbie Cooper. It is quite interesting to listen and watch people talking about porn and masturbation. It is amazing to see their expressions and actions while watching porn and masturbating. Especially, when you can observe the difference between how the male person and female person does it. One is focused at the porn images while the other is more focused on the masturbatory experience. NSFW. Via Wallpaper*



Something about this Leo Burnett poetic Macdonald's UK ad that is so emotionally good it is just wrong. Via AdFreak.

Workspace by Joseph Holmes

I love chaotic scenes of workspace or humanscape without the human. I am glad I am not alone on this. This image of an industrial office space is a series called Workspace by photographer Joseph Holmes. More at here. Via A Continuous Lean.

CMYK 3.0: The Redesign Story

CMYK Magazine is where aspiring creatives showcase their talents to an industry driven by inspiration and new ways of creative problem solving.

CMYK magazine is getting ready to launch its redesign issue. Check out a preview. And, hey look! Another Christoph Niemann article.

Christoph Niemann 99% interview

"The problem is when people have too much time on their hands. Because then at some point everybody’s going to question, “Why did you make it red, not green?” and “Could we try it upside-down, or left to right?” and then at some point it becomes arbitrary."

Christoph Niemann is an illustration god. Blogs for the New York Times in his free time when he is not illustrating for them and others such as The New Yorker. Via 99%.

Tokion Served

New website to plagiarise find inspiration. It is a TOKION Magazine X Behance Network collaboration called Tokion Served. Above is work by Craig Redman of RINZEN. It is just cool okay?

Leo Burnett Office by Ministry of Design

Headed by President's Design Award winner Colin Seah, Singapore's Ministry of Design is:

An integrated spatial-design practice, MOD's explorations are created amidst a democratic 'studio-like' atmosphere and progress seamlessly between form, site, object and space. We love to question where the inherent potential in contemporary design lies, and then to disturb the ways they are created or perceived - redefining the world around us in relevant and innovative ways, project by project!

Above is one of their latest project for Leo Burnett's Singapore office. Ad behemoths seem to like them as BBH's Singapore office was also done by MOD.

Via Dezeen.

Links of the Day

1. La Charcuterie Business Cards and Stationary [Kitsune Noir]
2. Atheist Damien Hirst to display oil paintings in St Paul's [Times Online]
3. What Space Invaders Really Look Like (T-Shirt) [Gizmodo]
4. Denver to Singapore (and back) in 5 minutes (technically, a cool video but what the hey) [Kottke]
5. Neither Fish Nor Fowl interview [Grainedit]
6. Porter for Monocle [SLAMXHYPE]

"Objectified" - Jonathan Ive talks about Mac design & Unibody MacBook manufacture

Need. To. Watch. Objectified.

Weekly Cool Videos Release and some ranting

I am going to micro-rant about the local design industry in this post so if you are interested click "» read on...", otherwise, here is this week's link to the coolest videos of the week: Thirty Conversations On Design via formfiftyfive.

Burodestruct

Burodestruct, maker of many wonderful and unique typefaces, has updated their website (I think previously they weren't using a weblog format) and flickr with a few new work.

Where The Wild Things Are x Medicom Toy

Where The Wild Things Are x Medicom introduces this 400% version of the Max figure. This cool shit is not available to me at thoseluckyfrenchies'colette for an unaffordable to me price of 110 freakingEuros. Via SLAMXHYPE

Where plastic ends up

The effects of waste floating off Pacific on the population of albatross as documented by Seattle-based photographer Chris Jordan. I kind of wish that these were human babies instead. Even then we might not react. I will let the images speak for themselves. Via CR. Via Guardian. Via Jordan's site.