Recommended Viewing | Neutra Face Another Lady Gaga Poker Face Spoof...

I'm sure that you've seen (or at least heard of) some of the many, Lady Gaga - Poker Face spoofs floating around on the internet... a couple of my personal favorites, Christopher Walken's reading of Poker Face, and the UC Berkeley's Noteworthy performing Poker Face. ;)

Well, above is another one... ;P Neutra Face (this one is more geared towards typographers/designers). Check out the video embedded above or on Youtube, here - enjoy!

Recommended Viewing | David Thorne's 27b/6 Website...

David Thorne is an Australian humorist, satirist, internet personality and author. I was recently introduced to his work via a link my brother sent me... where he came across it, I'm not sure. 27b/6 is his website, which you can read more about on Wikipedia...


Anyhow, the link my brother sent me was to a recent post on 27b/6, which seemed to address the issue of spec work (visit http://www.no-spec.com/).

I couldn't help but laugh after reading this. If you're a designer, or in the creative field, I'm sure that you've been asked (at least once) to do work on spec... most of us just say no, although I'm sure that we've been tempted to say more. ;)

Thanks for the link bro! Visit 27b/6 and read the post yourself... enjoy!

COOL! Rorschach Inkblots...

A recent article over on the Globe and Mail, brought to my attention the existence of Rorschach's original inkblot images on Wikipedia. These inkblots of the Rorschach test were printed in Rorschach's Rorschach Test - Psychodiagnostic Plates (Hogrefe, 1927, ISBN: 3-456-82605-2). They've been in the public domain in Hermann Rorschach's native Switzerland, since at least 1992 (70 years after his death), according to Swiss copyright law. They're also in the public domain under United States copyright law (based on when they were first created and published - before 1923).


The images were scanned and posted to Wikipedia along with the most frequent responses for either the whole image or the most prominent detail (according to Samuel Beck). This, as the article in the Globe and Mail details, has prompted some interesting response (like numerous websites/blogs now hosting the images + common responses) and protest... read the article over at the Globe and Mail - here.


What do you think? Was the poster of the images 'in the wrong' or should the protesters just deal with it? ;)

In any case, I think the inkblots are cool, and recommend that you check them out if you've never seen them before, visit the posting on Wikipedia, or check them out on my Flickr (Rorschach Inkblots set) - enjoy!

Things That Make You Go Hmmm... (Part 3)

Another highlight from this past weekend, found on the bottom of baby August's, Buster Brown sandals... 'PLACE HELL HERE'.

...an oversight at QC? An honest, unintentional typo? Another example of 'Chinglish'? Hmmm... IMO, this definitely qualifies as one of those things that make you go hmmm... ;) What do you think?

Thoughts and comments (when relevant) are always appreciated... cheers!

Euro-English...

The following news release (j/k) arrived in my inbox this morning...

++++++++++++++++++++

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.

The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl.

++++++++++++++++++++

Thanks to Doug Fedrau (The Orange Kid) for sending this to me - cheers!

Recommended Viewing | How to Destroy Civilization with Nanotechnology...

How to Destroy Civilization with Nanotechnology.

Slowly-but-surely, I'm starting to make a dent in my '2B_Blogged' folder residing on my desktop. ;)

This little gem of an animation was sent to me a while back by my friend, Paul Kletke... I thought it was quite well done. Watch the embedded video above or check it out on http://www.5min.com/ - enjoy!

Thanks Paul for sending me the link! Cheers!

May the 4th Be With You - Happy Star Wars Day...

(WARNING: Video may not be suitable for minors and is potentially NSFW - view at your own discretion)

Apparently, today is Star Wars Day... or, one of many Star Wars days/events which honours the epic Star Wars franchise. Well, in light of that fact, I offer you the above Youtube video, originally seen on Gizmodo.

May the 4th be with you... ;) Cheers!

Recommended Viewing | Enter the Serif...

Too hilarious not to share (at least for designers and typographers)... as described from the original post on FontFeed:

Enter the Serif... (a student film [1:54] by Johann Pascual | California College of the Arts, USA) combines typography with fragments from the classic Drunken Master – a mix of martial arts and slapstick comedy from 1978 which propelled Jackie Chan to mainstream success. The short film pits Univers Chang of the Sans Serif Clan against Sabon Huang of the Serif Clan. Excerpts of Drunken Master are alternated with dialogue screens that are inspired by the work of Jan Tschichold: his classic, centered serif period and his assymetrical neue Typographie period. Some bits are laugh-out-loud funny (via FontFeed).

I couldn't tend to agree more... ;) you should go and check out some of the other video highlights from the ATypI’08 | Typophile Film Fest 4 (there are some really nice ones...) via FontFeed - enjoy!

Thanks to Nancy Wu for sharing the link on the GDC Listserve - cheers!

Wicked! Poladroid...

A really neat link to share today, via Tina Roth Eisenberg over at swissmiss, from her blog post:

Poladroid - a polaroid image maker:
1. Download the free POLADROID application and launch it
2. Drag & Drop your photos
3. Wait... wait.... wait again... or shake the picture. Then look at or print your POLADROID picture.

It's an awesome little application IMO. You can even save the image in the various stages of 'poladroid' development. I've embedded the official demonstration video below. Go check it out for yourself at http://www.poladroid.net/ - enjoy!

Official POLADROID demo video - v0.9.5
Uploaded by paul_ladroid

Thanks for the link Tina! My first few 'Poladroid' attempts have been collected in a new set called My Poladroids... on my Flickr account. Check out what other people are doing via the be Poladroid! group pool on Flickr, here - cheers!

Image: 'Messing around with the Godfather', created from a picture taken at Madame Tussauds Interactive Wax Museum in Las Vegas... me thinks I'm going to have lots of fun with 'Poladroid'.

Recommended Viewing | www.wulffmorgenthaler.com

Last week at Circle, we had the pleasure of having Lana Wagner Plant working with us—Lana was a visiting Danish designer from Krogh&Co in Copenhagen. Lana, who just recently returned to Denmark, sent me a link to www.wulffmorgenthaler.com - online since 2002, described as a commentary on life: politics, news, entertainment, technology, culture and weirdo beavers... (Lana says, "just for a bit of a laugh - Danish humour").


There are some real gems in here... ;) and there's a lot to browse through, being a daily strip and all...


Thanks for sending me the link Lana! Check out the site for yourself at www.wulffmorgenthaler.com - enjoy!

Visit c!rcular online to read more about Lana's visit and other Circle related news - cheers!

Recommended Viewing | Saturday Night Live's – Season Premier Opening Sequence

LOL... my apologies if, you've seen this before. The embedded video above was the opening sequence of SNL's season premier.

Tina Fey, now the star of "30 Rock," returned to Saturday Night Live (SNL) to play Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Tina bears a striking resemblance to Mrs. Palin and nailed the candidate's distinctive accent (I had to do a 'double-take' at first). Fey and Amy Poehler opened the show with a joint appearance as Palin and Hillary Clinton. Some very funny stuff, and I'm sure that there will be more as the US elections draw closer. Watch the embedded video above or visit NBC.com to watch it, here - enjoy!

By the way, did you know there's a Federal election/campaign going on in Canada right now too? That's another posting (or two) all in its own. ;) Thanks to local designer, Kevin Guenther for sharing the link with me - cheers!

Recommended Viewing | The Extreme Post-It Note Experiment...

From the same two guys that brought you the Mentos and Coke experiments, comes this video.

In collaboration with ABC's Samurai Girl, the pair have come-up with the Extreme Sticky-Note Experiment... you can watch the embedded video above or here, via Today's Big Thing - enjoy!

Via Today's Big Thing and EepyBird.com - cheers!

Friday Fun: The Family – Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates Microsoft Ad...

Here's something fun to watch on YouTube, it's an advertisement for Microsoft featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates. I found it to be rather humorous... hopefully, you will too. You can watch the embedded video above or on YouTube, here - enjoy!

Thanks to Craig Medwyduk for posting the link to the GDC Listserve - cheers!

Recommended Viewing | Airport Animation...

I just came across this neat animation on YouTube, via a post on the popular SpeakUp blog where they describe the video as using most of the famed AIGA Symbol Signs. I think it's rather well done and thought that you might enjoy it too... the description on YouTube describes it as the animated story of one man's epic journey, created entirely from public domain symbols. In other words, an airport story told in the language of airport infographics.

The video is a couple of years old so, I apologize if you've seen it before... you can watch the video (embedded above) or on YouTube, here - enjoy!

Questionable(?) Quotes from the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics...

LOL... I just had to share these nine quips/quotes/comments made by NBC sports commentators/athletes during the Beijing Summer Olympics that they'd love to be able to take back:

1. Weightlifting commentator: 'This is Gregorieva from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning during her warm up and it was amazing.'
2. Dressage commentator: 'This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother.'
3. Paul Hamm, Gymnast: 'I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father.'
4. Boxing Analyst: 'Sure there have been injuries, and even some deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious.'
5. Softball announcer: 'If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again.'
6. Basketball analyst: 'He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces.'
7. At the rowing medal ceremony: 'Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew.'
8. Soccer commentator: 'Julian Dicks is everywhere. It's like they've got eleven Dicks on the field.'
9. Tennis commentator: 'One of the reasons Andy is playing so well is that, before the final round, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them... Oh my God, what have I just said?'

...too funny IMO! I hope you enjoyed reading them as much as I did. Thanks for sharing Rob - cheers!

The K.I.S.S. Principle...

The embedded video above, Underground Street Fight Showoff via Today's Big Thing is a perfect illustration of why the K.I.S.S. principle (keep it simple, stupid) really applies when it comes to an actual combat scenario... the caption from the website read as follows:

Capoeira is a flashy style of fighting based largely on break dancing. Unfortunately for this guy, there's more to winning a fight than what we've been taught by Michael Jackson music videos and West Side Story. Next time he'll focus less on dancing and more on punching.

... as a Kyokushin Karate-ka, I couldn't agree more. ;) Leave the flashy stuff for TV, movies and video games... you don't actually think that Street Fighter moves would work in a real fight do you? At least, I sure hope not... that is unless you can actually unleash a 'real' Hadoken. ;P - enjoy!

UPDATE: My brother tells me that this actually is a clip from a movie called 'Never Back Down'... I'll admit, I had my suspicions... ;P

Things That Make You Go Hmmm.... (Part 2)

Yesterday evening on the way to the grocery store, I came across another one of these old signs(?)... this time on Bison Drive (just off Waverley). Hmm... now, I'm really curious as to what it's doing there.


Like this other sign I had come across earlier, it could be the remnants of an old sign but, once again how do you explain the different apostrophies? IMO, it definitely qualifies as one of those things that make you go hmmm...

I'd appreciate it if anybody in Winnipeg could shed some light onto these mysterious signs? Any ideas as to who put them up and/or why they're there? Does anybody know if there are more of these signs in Winnipeg? Anybody? Bueller? ;) Cheers!

Recommended Reading | Let the (Logo) Games Begin... via Speak Up

There's a great article/experiment over on Speak Up, where Doug Bartow hires four 'inexpensive' online logo design companies, giving them the same visual identity problem, and critiques the results. It's a must read IMO. Check it out over on Speak Up, here:

http://www.underconsideration.com/speakup/archives/005099.html

Thanks to Jean-Sebastien Dussault for sharing this on the GDC Listserve - cheers!

Guess Who's 21 (+9 Years of Experience)?

On this day, in 1978 I was brought into this world. Where does the time go? I guess that the saying is true, time flies when you're having fun (this past decade has been a real blur). In light of the occasion, I decided to Google, 'Thirty'... the results of which you can see here (web results) and here (image results). Thanks to all who've sent Birthday wishes... now, To Infinity and Beyond! Cheers!

Image via Amaztype, a neat little Flash application that searches images on Amazon and generates a composite graphic (I've blogged about it here before).

Recommended Viewing | Design Related Humor Videos...

I've been meaning to blog about these two videos I came across on YouTube for a while now... I found them to be rather amusing. Perhaps you will too? They're definitely targeted towards a designer audience IMO. The first one describes the process... 'what if there were no stop signs... and a major corporation was charged with inventing one?' I'm sure that the video is something that any designer could relate to, hopefully it will generate a smile! You can watch the process video, here (I originally had this linking to YouTube, but for some reason it's no longer available there)...


This font conference video is definitely targeted towards a design audience or for fans of typography... I'd have to assume that it likely wouldn't make much sense to the general public but, perhaps I'm mistaken... anyhow you can watch the font conference video on YouTube, here - enjoy!