SIGGRAPH hosted a talk this evening called Art by Number:Generating Dynamic Art with Flash with presenters Jeremy Thorp of Blprnt.com and Gary Stasiuk of Liquidjourney.com. I am a hack coder at best so I should let the work speak for itself, although I do suggest checking out Jer’s DarwInstrument which essentially applies a combination of genetic theory, selection of the fittest and mutant variables to the evolution of a more pleasing musical sound — yeah, exactly.
I won’t pretend that I know what I’m talking about here but I do love …

Jane and I checked out Dianne Bos’ Verre et Mer exhibit at the Jennifer Kostuik Gallery this afternoon which showcases pinhole photographs from the Southwest of France. Beautiful and haunting imagery with an amazing sense of nostalgia filtering through the light of the photographs. In fact, Bos writes that “Viewers have said that my work evokes the memory-image that remains for them long after they have viewed a familiar location.”

It was interesting timing when I first made contact with Catherine Morley (Cat) a few weeks back. I had submitted my site for consideration at designers-who-blog.com and received some very positive and encouraging feedback from Cat. I also became privy to her most recent project and passion: the NO!SPEC crusade.
This hit very close to home. The Canadian design community was recently looking down just such a barrel when the Design Exchange in collaboration with the Department of Canadian Heritage released a speculative national competition for the redesign of the Canadian …

While on a completely unrelated search, I stumbled upon this fascinating website titled They Still Draw Pictures. Apparently during the Spanish Civil War, the Board of Education and the Carnegie Institute of Spain collected the drawings of school children throughout the country and in the refugee camps in France as a means of documenting the experience. While the images speak entirely for themselves, they are also accompanied by a wonderful introduction by none other than Aldous Huxley. Of note, he writes:
“If we look at [the drawings] with the eyes of …

Jeroen Witvliet sent me a link to his latest project entitled Pan-orama, a collection of paintings that are intended to wrap the viewer in the pop culture imagery and those similar themes that Jeroen has explored separately in his previous work.
No show dates as of yet. For now we must be content with the online version.

My own personal experience has taught me that China is a force to be reckoned with. As it careens forth into this century – a century that most have already conceded that it will dominate – gaining momentum at every turn, one is left to ponder how anyone is going to keep a hold of the reigns.
Edward’s Burtynsky’s photographs, recently compiled in the book Burtynsky – China, document the harsher side of this burgeoning rise and provide a rare glimpse into the hefty price of progress.

You know that you are a true design geek when you are listening to Doyald Young recount the moment in 1950′s Paris when Adrian Frutiger showed him the early drafts of a font called Univers, and you have goosebumps on your arm.
Last night’s talk by Mr. Young, a legend and master of typography and logo design was full of such moments as he showed samples of his utterly perfect hand drawn wordmarks and shared the wisdom of a sixty-year career in graphic design to a packed house at the HR …

Okay, so “phenomenon” might be a little overstated, but there has been a pronounced trend online lately towards using or replicating a tilt-shift lens effect to make a normal photograph look like a miniature. Sam Javanrouh over at daily dose has produced some really interesting results with it here, here and, with a slight twist, here. So has his friend Shahin. And this morning, PingMag featured images of a “Tiny Tokyo” inspired by the work of Olivo Barbieri.
Very cool effect. You can learn how to do this to your own …