Happy Birthday Nikola Tesla...

Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was an inventor and a mechanical and electrical engineer. Tesla was responsible for revolutionary developments in the field of electricity and magnetism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries... his patents and theoretical work formed the basis of modern alternating current (AC) electric power systems. Why is it then that so little is known about this 'forgotten wizard'?

I came across this video on YouTube while skimming through the related Google links on Tesla's birthday. I had no idea Tesla was responsible for so much... enjoy!

Recommended Viewing | Carved in Stone...

The Leeds School of Business flew master lettercutter Douglas Coffin from Sandpoint Maine to carve the Koelbel name into a new building.

Coffin is one of only six lettercutters in the US. View the video to see the carving in progress and hear Coffin describe the art, techniques, and pleasure inherent in this rare (perhaps dying?) art form. Watch the video embedded above or on YouTube, here - enjoy!

On Staycation...

Well, as you may be aware, the world economies are in the toilet. Recession is the word of the hour as almost nothing seems to be unaffected by it... one of these being the classic 'summer vacation'. One of the recession buzzwords I've been hearing more and more of lately, is 'staycation' - essentially defined as a vacation taken at home or locally (with minimal travel involved).

I think 'staycations' are great! It gives individuals a reason (not that you need any) to explore their own backyards, and local treasures (parks, galleries, etc.) which are far to often overlooked. I for one have used part of a 'staycation' to catch-up on some much needed blogging back-log (though I saved it to the very end). ;D I'd be keen to hear from other fellow 'staycationers' as to what they've got planned.

Rummaging through my '2B_Blogged' folder, I came across this Live Journal link, where user Crimeanelf posted about 'You and Your Laptop' - an article about laptop users and the positions they assume, with images to illustrate ('Oriental' position shown above)... I found it to be rather amusing. ;D Check it out if you've never seen it before, here - enjoy!

Hopefully, I'm all caught up now (or at least have less in the '2B_Blogged' folder) and ready to get back to a more consistent blog posting routine... I'm constantly amazed by the dedication some bloggers have (i.e. Robert L. Peters, Michael Surtees, Swissmiss) in posting on a regular (if not daily) basis... keep it up! Cheers!

COOL! Canada Post Recording Artists Stamps...

It's not very often that I blog about the work I do at Circle - for reasons of security, confidentiality, etc... but I'm making an exception with this post. ;)

Today, Canada Post released the second set of the Canadian Recording Artists stamps. Circle designed the previous series a few years back, which was a great success. I'm very proud to say that I had the privilege of working on this series. Featured artists include Robert Charlebois, Édith Butler, Bryan Adams and Stompin' Tom Connors...


...the stamp series was featured in the latest edition of Details magazine, Canada Post's quarterly publication for stamp collectors. You can view some pix of the article on my Flickr, here - or even better, read it online, here - enjoy!

Additional information regarding the project can be found on Circle's News+ section of the website, here.

Here are some additional links to stories in the media regarding the release:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/arts-and-letters-and-stamps/article1202400/

http://www.radio-canada.ca/arts-spectacles/musique/2009/06/29/001-timbre-charlebois-butler.asp

http://www.spinner.ca/2009/06/23/bryan-adams-honored-with-his-own-stamp/

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Canada-Post-1012337.html

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/putting-its-stamp-on-canada-49922632.html

Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day! Proud to be Canadian - 'nuf said. Cheers!

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I came across the following video and felt it was an appropriate video to embed for this post. Check it out above or via Today's Big Thing, here - enjoy!

WICKED! Nokia N96 + Bruce Lee...

A very cool bit of video editing here... in this commercial for the Nokia N96 - Bruce Lee Limited Edition (I wouldn't mind having this phone). Watch the embedded video above or via YouTube, here - enjoy!

Via swissmiss - cheers!

An Evening at The EX...

Went to the opening night of the 2009 Red River Exhibition (aka 'The EX')... this solo ticket booth operator perhaps is a sign of the recession (i.e. less 'disposable' income for families to spend)? Hmm...


If I was in the mood for rides, I wouldn't have had to wait very long as line-ups were non-existent.



All the favorites were still around on the midway, with a few new(er) additions here and there (or perhaps just refurbished classics?)...


...the 'crowds' must have all cleared out near the end of the evening (capped off by fireworks) ;D


Highlights were, awesome Carnival typography, vivid lights + motion = interesting photo opps, plus the usual sights you only see at Carnivals. ;) The one item to draw the most attention from the crowds this year would be my corn-on-the-cob purchase... drawing inquisitive looks from attendees and staff (even with some queries as to where I bought it from)!


One can't go to the EX and not get mini-donuts... ;P We ended up buying out the last batch of mini-donuts, much to the dismay of the line-up behind us (oh well, they can always go to the Forks).


My first encounter with the new Pepsi logo on a vending machine... it just so happened to be out of order. Which was quite funny considering it was placed beside a vending machine with the old Pepsi logo, which was still working... things that make you go hmm... - would "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" apply in this situation? ;P

Anyways, please do check out the rest of my photos from the evening, in a Flickr set on my Flickr account, here, or view it as a slideshow - enjoy!

WICKED! Post-It-Note Animation...

You have to see this crazy animation to believe it... do you think they really stuck all those 'sticky-notes' up by hand or is this fancy CGI? Any thoughts? Watch the embedded video above or via Today's Big Thing - enjoy!

Recommended Viewing | GDC Manitoba's June 2009 e-Newsletter...

The latest edition of the GDC Manitoba e-Newsletter has been released! Jeope Wolfe, MGDC (Chapter Communications Chair) was responsible for putting it together. Jeope says:

It's summertime (or is it?) and the living is easy. School's out – and with that comes a fresh crop of design students hitting the egg-frying sidewalks. Work is humming along like power lines on a hot, muggy day. And for all of us at the hustle/bustle of GDC Manitoba headquarters, the forecast calls for a 100 per cent chance of Blue Sky… Curious? Grab a cold one from the cooler and read on…

Go and check it out for yourself, here - enjoy!


On a side note, the latest GDC Manitoba promo item has arrived! Also designed by Jeope, these black tote-bags are pretty slick... thanks again for all your hard work Jeope! Cheers!

Visit Jeope's blog Jeopopolis.
Learn more about GDC Manitoba.

Happy 25th Birthday Tetris!

This Saturday, Tetris the world famous falling brick/puzzle game turns 25! Excerpt from CNET news:

...created by Russian programmer Alexey Pajitnov in June 1984, Alexy had an immense love for puzzles, and felt compelled to create a game that allowed players to arrange distinctive puzzle pieces along the bottom of a field or "matrix." Pajitnov chose the name Tetris by combining the words "tetromino" and "tennis." The game was first made available on the IBM computer.

It quickly enjoyed popularity and was ported to a variety of other platforms. In 1987, it became a major hit in the United States. But it wasn't until Nintendo released its version of Tetris for the Game Boy in 1989 that Tetris reached critical mass. According to The Tetris Co., the Game Boy version of Tetris sold more than 35 million copies.

I have fond memories of playing Tetris on my original Game Boy (back in the day)... video games and technology has come a long way in 25 years. In celebration of this historic occasion, I offer you Human Tetris, watch the video embedded above or on YouTube, here - enjoy!

COOL! Compfight...

Compfight is a really neat, Flickr image search tool. Intended for finding images on Flickr for comps, inspiration or research, Compfight is not affiliated with Flickr but makes good use of the Flickr API.

There are a number of different settings you can use to filter your search results, try Compfight out for yourself and see what you think, check it out at www.compfight.com - always double check the image license before use (CC or otherwise) and respect the rights of the content creators... enjoy!

Euro-English...

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

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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.

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

Top Ten Type Crimes...

Ilene Strizver, founder of The Type Studio, is a typographic consultant, designer and writer specializing in all aspects of typographic communication has written an in-depth article for Monotype Imaging in regard to the Top 10 Type Crimes, excerpt from the article:

Are you a type criminal? Don’t be afraid to confess; the type police won’t come knocking at your door in the middle of the night. Even the most seasoned designers can commit an occasional type crime, by accident or inattention. If good typography is important to you, knowing and recognizing the “ten most wanted” type crimes will help make your projects stay on the right side of the law...

I highly recommend you read the in-depth article for yourself, here - perhaps you've been committing type crime(s) without evening knowing it! ;)

Cheers!

Happy Birthday Mr. Peters!

Happy 55th Birthday Rob! Wishing you all the best, on this day and the rest! May all your birthday wishes come true! Peace, love, and happiness always... cheers!

Image: ASCII portrait of Rob prepared as part of my e-card birthday greetings.

COOL! Font Game...

A little over a year ago I blogged about The Rather Difficult Font Game... well since then, the game has been updated with some additional fonts for you to challenge, as well its now being hosted on I Love Typography. Give the game a try for yourself and see how well you do, here - I still can't seem to manage to get them all, my best is still 33/34. Perhaps, I'll give it another shot later. ;)

Thanks for the link Beth!

WICKED! Type War...

Too cool. This typographic animation/ad was created by Optix Digital (Hamburg), for Inlingua Business English schools. Watch the video embedded above, on YouTube or via Motionographer, here - enjoy!

Thanks again to Mr. Simpson for the link - cheers!

COOL! Micrography: Text Art and Typography...

Image: Obama word portrait by Jeff Clark.

Wikipedia says "Micrography, also called microcalligraphy, is a Jewish art form developed in the 9th century, with parallels in Christianity and Islam, utilizing minute Hebrew letters to form representational, geometric and abstract designs. Colored micrography is especially distinctive because these rare artworks are customarily rendered in black and white.”

View some beautiful examples of this art form, here - enjoy!

Thanks to Mr. Mark Simpson for the link - cheers!

COOL! Graphic Design - The Forgotten Web Standard (Video)...

Graphic Design: The Forgotten Web Standard on Vimeo.

The following video was played as part of Mike Kus' talk at FOWD London 2009. It's sped up footage of Mike designing his slides for his talk. Mike thought that it would be interesting to show it because he thought it would interesting to see the design process he went through whilst making them. It also features a footage of slides being designed that never made it to the final slide deck... it's quite neat IMO.

You can view Mike's presentation at FOWD London 2009 , here - enjoy! Thanks to Davin Greenwell for posting the link to the GDC Listserve - cheers!

COOL! Book Cover Archive...

A very cool and handy website to share, www.bookcoverarchive.com - is a website dedicated to the appreciation and categorization of excellence in book cover design (all covers are the copyright of their respective publishers).

Browse covers via designer, book title, genre, etc., - go and check it out for yourself at http://www.bookcoverarchive.com/ - enjoy!

Thanks to Ian MacCausland and Rob Peters for the link! Cheers!

Recommended Viewing | 99DS.net

From the website:

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99DS.net is a collaborative exhibition featuring artwork digitally illustrated on the Nintendo DS handheld game console by local Wellingtonian artists Greg Broadmore and Christian Pearce. A shared, public exhibition showcasing the first two completed collections is scheduled for the 1st of February 2009. Each collection exhibits a series of full-colour digital sketch artwork - as prints, in books and on screen. Animated reels revealing the illustrative process behind each piece will be on looped playback throughout the exhibition. Housed in custom-made containers in Wellington's Civic Square, 99DS aims to show a fun and frivolous way art can be created on the digital media available to us today, free of symbolism, metaphor and manure...

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All the artwork was created using Colors! (a digital sketching/painting program) on the Nintendo DS! If you're familiar with the DS, these pieces are amazing to say the least... go and check 'em out for yourself!


99 Dodgy Slips by Greg Broadmore...


99 Deadly Sleds by Christian Pearce...

Very cool stuff indeed! If you're curious to see what some other artists have been creating using Colors!, go and check out the gallery over at the Colors! website. Thanks to my good friend, local designer/illustrator, and fellow Guardian Dojo Karate-ka, James Gillespie (KALAMAFRAZ) for the heads-up on this one! Cheers!