Veer's The Skinny
Fleshy Paste
New York based photographer Erik Boker's recent series Product Dissections puts a smile on Biology class. Instead of formaldehyde soaked amphibians and invertebrates, Boker slices, dices and pins down reluctant toothpaste tubes. Breath-freshening pastes never looked so internal.
Via Shape and Colour.
In for a penny, in for a pixel
Sure, the curators behind Ten Thousand Cents may have committed the most highly attended, poorly compensated forgery of all time. And every individual piece does look a bit like an MSPaint sketch up close. But shrink them all down and the bigger picture is revealed as a not-half-bad reproduction of the US $100 bill.
Recruited through Amazon's crowdsourcing site, participants flocked to the task with no knowledge of the bigger picture, and each received a penny for their effort.
Not everyone went along quietly though. Instead of duplicating his assigned block of art, one participant simply scrawled “$0.01? Really?”
(Thanks, Dan!)
Hold on to those sketchbooks
There's art appreciation, and then there's art appreciation. London's V&A Museum just bought the original copy of the Rolling Stones logo for a smidge over £50,000. It was designed by art school student John Pasche in 1970 for just £50. LogoDesignLove has the full story.
Some tasty posts from The Fat
In case those of you reading via RSS might have missed it - our new-ish community blog, The Fat (RSS feed) is delivering some very clickworthy stuff lately:
- Nice type effects & motion graphics from Gustav at Klipp Og Lim
- Little people in London, via Paul
- Mark's observations about mineral deposits on cremains
- Mass-produced turned handcrafted furniture by Rosie
Compendium, coming next week
Here's a special sneak peek for readers of The Skinny. Next week, Veer is releasing Compendium, a new typeface by Alejandro Paul for the Umbrella collection.
Designed as a "prequel" to Alejandro's TDC award-winning Burgues Script, Compendium explores the calligraphic stylings of Ohio's Platt Rogers Spencer, circa 1866.
The Spencerian script style was highly influential in the late 19th century, becoming the predominant penmanship style taught in business schools.
Thanks to OpenType, Compendium instantly vaults you to the level of master penman. Says Alejandro:
"Nearing 700 glyphs, its character set contains plenty of variation in each letter, and many ornaments for letter beginnings, endings, and some that can even envelope entire words with swashy calligraphic wonder. Those who love to explore typefaces in detail will be rewarded."
Peruse the Compendium PDF specimen, featuring extensive samples and photography by Gonzalo Aguilar.
Then watch for the official release of Compendium next week.
Your poster-sized guide to a life of mystery
The well-named Tiny Showcase usually showcases (and sells limited editions of) tiny works of art. Their newest offering is a big 22" x 28" poster by Ray Fenwick, but on the other hand it's full of tiny hand-lettered type.
It's called Life of Mystery - An Illustrated Guide, and it is a beautiful thing to behold, and will certainly add a little bit of magic to anyone's life. Get one before they're gone.
Then solve the mystery of what Ray's other work looks like by visiting his site.
Where's Kernie? You tell us...
As part of our annual Summer Activity Book festivities, we invited readers to print out a fuzzy little three-eyed type monster we called Kernie, and photograph his travels.
Since then Kernie has been captured all over the world, including the Olympics, pointing out typographic glitches or just hanging out. See the gallery of his travels so far.
There's still time to enter. The Kern the Planet contest closes September 15th. It's as simple as uploading a photo to your Member Page and tagging it "Kernie".
Above: Blurry Kernie by Kelly Koeppel
Missed the Activity Book? Grab the PDF (6.4MB).
Waste not, what not
Out of context, yet made to measure. Over a period of three years, German photographer Thomas Kalak photographed the amazing art of material improvisation that seems to flourish in Thailand. While many of his images tell an objective and soulful story of creative reuse, unexpected juxtaposition, and practical MacGyverism — others are deliciously whimsical. The results of his documentation of this cultural/mechanical phenomenon have been published in a book entitled Thailand — Same same, but different!
August Wallpaper
In case you hadn't noticed: nine stylish and summery new desktop wallpaper designs are yours for the downloading. (As long as you're registered and signed in.) Yes, for the iPhone too.
Graphics Interchange Format - live!
We're raving fans of Laurel Ptak's unerring eye for talent at I Heart Photograph.
Laurel's latest project is curating a gallery show entitled Graphics Interchange Format, now on display at Brooklyn's Bond Street Gallery.
Says Laurel, "I commissioned 26 photographers, designers, and new media artists to embrace this more than 20-year-old technology. They were given only 3 days to work on their projects and were encouraged, though not required, to incorporate photographic materials. Some had never made an animated GIF before and some were notorious for it."
The 67 resulting GIFs will be shown on a 44-inch flat screen in an infinite loop, and sold in an unlimited edition for $20, accompanied by a personalized note from each artist.
Flutterers and putterers
What are brightly colored, easy on the eyes, and can really fly?
Vespa scooters and butterflies. See the two iconic shapes converge in a gallery of ads from Vespa's bike-as-bug spring campaign. So simple and clever.
But if your scooter needs repair, you're still way better off with a mechanic than a lepidopterist.
Reformat the Planet, now playing
A very cool feature-length documentary on the sounds, culture, and creators of the Chiptune genre, Reformat the Planet, is streaming at PItchfork TV for one week only.
If you don't have time to watch the whole thing right now, get a taste with chapter 2, which features geeky Gameboy mods, an insane Led Zep cover, and dancing in the streets.
Above: Nullsleep
Just a cog in the machine
Our modern world may be powered by oil, but mankind does all the work. A recent spot by Ambience Publicis in Mumbai makes machines out of us all.
Rian Hughes presents: the video
At long last, we've posted footage of our Design, Tea, and Biscuits event. Rian Hughes, the man behind the Device type foundry, holds forth on his diverse designs, illustrations, inspirations, and clients.
Choose your resolution and sit back with 26 minutes of modern British creativity.
Bananas and cattle prods
While humans vie for international medals in running and diving, robots rove the surface of Mars in the name of science, and would-be pirates bask in the cold blue glow of their televisions mouthing the words to Johnny Depp movies, the world's most underestimated pop demographic are up to all sorts of things.
Inspirational things. Like ice skating. In Xmas sweaters. To the theme from Rocky.
Everything is possible.
Appliance, deconstructed
What would you do with a pile of disused household appliances? When faced with a similar situation (and an obvious need for a thesis project), recent Hartford Art School grad Brittny Badger took ’em apart and then dramatically arranged the constituent pieces into a series of striking photo compositions. The concept was, as she explains, “… to explore the hidden ‘brains’ … allowing us to view these everyday objects from a new perspective.”
Photo Copyright © Brittny Badger
Via Signal vs Noise
Stuff dreams are made of
Like those who have redrawn and staged scenes of drawings before her, Lizette Greco sews plush monsters and critters based on drawings by her two children, using only thrift store and recycled materials.
She can also be commissioned to sew creatures that your children have drawn – just make sure you know if they're of the dream-friendly or nightmare-marauding variety first, or you run the risk of scaring the daylights out of junior.
(Thanks Kristin!)
A beautiful fake
Envisioning a new kind of prosthetic leg could be the ultimate challenge for functional design. The technical and practical aspects can't be any less than perfect, yet it also needs to beautiful enough to replace a real human limb. Gathering inspiration for an experimental prosthetic design, Joanna Hawley looked to the lines and shapes of mid-century design master Charles Eames. Her solution is simple and elegant, but also bold and surprising. Via NotCot.org
