The 47th Precinct

Best of...

2007-05-18T21:50:00.000-04:00

I think I love that there is a best of YouTube cats video (plus, it involves bjork)... such as this:

Just what one needs to see at the end of a long week.

Edward Hopper

2007-05-11T23:56:00.000-04:00

Last weekend the MFA opened its Hopper Exhibition. I have to be honest, I was never really excited about Hopper's work before I had the chance to work on the online portions of the exhibition. Now I really appreciate it.

He does such an amazing job of implying so much in a painting. You really get the feeling that there's a story just beneath the surface, that these are real people or places. I can't help but wonder what happened before or what's about to happen.

The lights, shadows, composition and colors are all wonderful. You should really go check out the show. Ann and I got a sneak peak before it opened but Nikole and I are going to see it this weekend in all it's restrained glory.

By the way... check out the Hopper microsite that Ann and I worked on. Unfortunately we had to take a few things off due to rights and licensing but we'll be adding a few more things soon.

MFA Hopper Microsite

WHAM!

2007-05-09T18:37:00.000-04:00

Just to get in the mood for summer, and because I am strangely attracted to the overall 80's feel of these, I would like to reintroduce you to WHAM!

club tropicana! matching girl outfits, suntans, shower scenes...

wake me up before you go go! CHOOSE LIFE is a message of quotidien optimism as opposed to political message...

PSST! Pass It On…

2007-05-08T12:04:00.000-04:00

A collaborative motion graphics experiment.

"The mission of PSST is to produce original short films through the collaboration of different teams of designers, directors, and animators. Each film is comprised of three sections produced by three different teams. This process is the whole idea behind PSST! – a technique derived from the Dadaist game of Exquisite Corpse and the children’s game Telephone and applied to the arts of motion graphics, animation and film-making."

Poster Contest!

2007-05-01T22:02:00.000-04:00

Post your submissions here for us to see! Entries due May 10!

Bjork poster contest, read all about it!

"To kick off the release of her forthcoming album, Volta, she’s inviting eager graphic designers (and non-designers) to submit a concert poster for a May show in northern California. The winner will be flown in for the show and put up in a hotel to enjoy the celebrity that comes from having 2,000 limited-edition broadsides printed for distribution to the masses."

(( thanks to kelly! who found this on the readymade blog! ))

Quick!

2007-04-21T14:09:00.000-04:00

Quick... have a look! at the Quick, a project that I posted a while back when we did a demo/one story version. Now Jason (along with some talented help from andy + sean + colin and the hunt&gather crew) has released issue 1! Included is an interview with one of my new favorite bands, Asobi Seksu, as well as many other items for good reading.

Here is a little bit about the Quick:

"The Quick is an online bi-monthly that focuses on music as the source and/or result of epiphany, transcendence, revelation, etc. of a spiritual or even more general variety. In other words, it’s for folks who find the world to be a wonderful and (perhaps divinely) mysterious place and find music to be a great reflection of that, or folks who find music to be the one thing tripping up their otherwise firm grip on their assumptions about the world around them. The Quick, as opposed to the dead, the life in something, the blood flow…

Like I said, a work in progress, but I think you get the idea. Pursuers of faith, music, art in general… all are on a path of discovery, and the Quick is the celebration of those moments of discovery."

Ni Hao.

2007-04-21T03:40:00.000-04:00

I hope this works- blogger is all in Chinese for me....
Anyway, this is a wild amazing place. I am having a fantastic time- please check out my daily photo uploads at flicker

Xiexie,
Beth

grindhouse

2007-04-19T21:31:00.000-04:00

although I hid under my jacket for the first half of the first movie, I have to say IT WAS GREAT! A good gory genre zombie movie, and then a great car chase (despite common criticism, I think I preferred the second — good surprises, well balanced machismo - particularly for tarantino). Nice scratchy effects on the site, too...

And, it introduced me to a new queen bee: Zoe Bell. Although I want to do adventurous things and ice climb and jump off of little hills of snow, I don't think I will ever be brave (ahem, rash?) enough to have my next career as a stunt woman.

the Gonz!

2007-04-19T14:26:00.000-04:00

Mister Mark Gonzales, the greatest skateboarder ever, ever, doing a performance piece at Staditches Museum Abteiberg in Monchengladbach, Germany in 1998 or so. Featured in a video for the new Jason Shwartzman (yes, the actor) song, which is actually a pretty good song too!

multimedia menagerie

2007-04-15T22:30:00.000-04:00

who has heard of ubu?

why haven't I? until this month's dwell, that is. so far I have found:

1. british knickers pattern from ossie clark (thanks to a full archive of ASPEN magazine, the magazine in the box, with numbered objects making up each issue; hence, entirely inspiring for the magazine that I would like to create)

2. audio clip of marcel duchamp "The Creative Act"

3. banksy's paris hilton stunt

amazing!

last minute submission...

2007-04-14T11:58:00.000-04:00

there is a new, last minute submission for the rosso bianco movie contest... someone forgot about the deadline, so plans for post-production, and asking treehorn to compose a soundtrack... those will just have to wait for the sequel.

but, it needs some votes!
http://www.rossobianco.com/movie/61

frazier & wing

2007-04-13T13:47:00.000-04:00

my friend adriane lee bird (best name in the business) showed me her friend's new work... and since we all are in need of a beautiful mobile...

or a lovely pillow...

visit the site : frazier & wing

boomshine

2007-04-13T13:39:00.000-04:00

although mitch and steven might tease me about my immature game affections, I found this game highly addictive (and satisfyingly patient)... how it works: click on one of the dots (you only get one click per screen, and there is no time limit), it will expand, and then capture and expand any dots that wander into its circumference. pretty, polkadots, venn diagrams — I love it!

boomshine

Independent Art + Design

2007-04-12T11:51:00.000-04:00

I came across the greatest site for you all to check out. ELSEWARES. I think the idea is really, really great. I was actually thinking of putting together a site with all of my friends amazing products. Think about it, we have Ann's ... everything, Steven's art, Beth's collars + baby hats, I have several friends who make great jewelry, I have some odds and ends, and John's t-shirts. WaLa! That right there would be one kick ass online store.

Anyways...take a look at the site. They have some great stuff!

Apple TV Commercial

2007-04-12T11:04:00.000-04:00

The other day I saw Apple's new spot for Apple TV and I was really impressed by it and at first I didn't really know why. It just felt right, everything was very comfortable and fluid.

I had to go online and check it out again. After playing it back in slow motion it started to be come clear. Apple had cast me in the spot and shot it in my house. Or at least the house I'd love to have. The bookshelves are overstuffed with books, yet everything is very orderly. All my designer furniture is there along with the cute molded plywood scooter for my son on the white shag rug that I've been meaning to buy. There's a beautiful yard outside with wonderful greens and a thoughtful wood bench and so on.

It's all perfect. But it goes beyond just the contents of the scene. The way it's shot is very smooth. The lighting, the choreography, transitions all of it.

I'm a big Apple fan, but I'm by no means one to blindly praise them. I think what impressed me most about this spot was how deceivingly simple it is.

Check it out.

ONE!

2007-04-08T16:04:00.000-04:00

it is official! the 47th precinct is one year old!

in celebration, I would like to mention ten points from a great little book I just finished. The book is "The Laws of Simplicity" by John Maeda, an easy little read of 100 pages, but happily thought provoking and stimulating towards (simply stated) SIMPLICITY!

REDUCE the simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction
ORGANIZE organization makes a system of many appear fewer
TIME savings in time feel like simplicity
LEARN knowledge makes everything simpler
DIFFERENCES simplicity and complexity need each other
CONTEXT what lies in the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral
EMOTION more emotions are better than less
TRUST in simplicity we trust
THE ONE simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful

Most poignantly for me: Technology and Life only become complex if you let it be so.

{UPDATE: I decided to nix the borrowed sidebar images and to type these out... easier to read and easier to share! learn more about each chapter by reading more at the site itself or buying the book or borrowing mine!}

no one belongs here

2007-04-05T19:20:00.000-04:00

miranda july, how I love everything you do...

a book in two covers: you can coordinate your outfit to your cover color of choice.

Ann Day!

2007-04-05T12:30:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday, my darling!

unfortunately... it seems that the art.com magic drawing program isn't quite working right anymore, so the movie of the drawing is broken...

This drawing was of course inspired by this amazing movie.

we feel fine

2007-04-04T14:57:00.000-04:00

WEFEELFINE.ORG

unbelievable.
The data is generated from peoples blog entries (trolled by search engine) that have the word "feel" in in them.

Kodak Assvertising

2007-04-02T17:52:00.000-04:00

We've posted other kinds of creative advertisement placements but I think this is the one I'd like to see more of.

Click for a larger version

Kodak assvertising during a photo convention in Kiev, Ukraine.

(found on I believe in adv)

HMX Stuff!

2007-04-02T14:22:00.000-04:00

Guitar Hero 2 360 Ad

New ad for GH2 360, which comes out soon! The animation is really awesome.

Also, we announced our new game today ROCK BAND! It's going to be huge!

Short Film

2007-03-28T18:01:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine passed this video on to me. My favorite is the first 2 minutes. Check it out.

http://films.thelot.com/films/33348

(sorry I am not all that computer savvy that I know how to post a video. When John gets home I will have him show me)

Enjoy!

shorts make me happy

2007-03-28T12:52:00.000-04:00

these from favorite furniture folks from Chicago, BluDot!

and more are popping out all over the woodwork...

of course, they might have been there all along and now I am just newly excited about them. my 30th birthday present to myself is some video editing software... any suggestions on what I should get?

what do you call yourself?

2007-03-28T12:41:00.000-04:00

As I am a very happy camper, having just been sent to my very first company sponsored professional event, and I am newly super enthusiastic about being a designer again, I have been thinking lately about what I call myself...

the options are:
1. designer
2. creative consultant (that has been my preferred freelance line)
3. multimedia designer
4. graphic designer (for family, etc.)
5. art director (which means very different things in different places)

I like the generalness and ambiguity of 1., plus the fact that it doesn't restrict itself to a. the computer, b. commercial purposes, c. a specific discipline. I do tend to say "graphic designer" to my family, because web designer is now synonomous with pop-up ads, and people seem to get "graphic designer" in a way that "web designer" or "multimedia designer" leaves them flummoxed.

I am happy to know that the AIGA is struggling with a similar issue. As they switch their official name to "the Professional Association for Design" (while keeping the AIGA logo), I have to think that "Design" in this case seems too ambiguous, and perhaps misleading... Many illustrators/artists wouldn't tag themselves as designers, while their discipline does clearly fall into the realm of "Graphic Arts".

Maybe we need to go back to arenas of expertise. Can I call myself a "creative"? Should I buy "happyandcreativeeveryday.com"? Can my title be something to aspire to as opposed to being an exact descriptor to what I "do"?

Ball Buster

2007-03-28T11:46:00.000-04:00

This was in a DJ Shadow song I think... I thought it was made up but apparently it's for real.