Criterion.

It's always been a secret dream of mine to design movie posters and their accompanying packaging. Now, I can continue to be jealous of those who do with this collection of fantastic DVD covers from (what else?) the Criterion Collection. These show just how beautiful covers can be, which again, prompts me to ask why Hollywood insists on dumbing down their own DVD releases with lame-azoid covers. Anyway, enough with being disappointed with one segment, instead, let's celebrate the good. Here's some Criterion. Below, some of my favourites:

"It's been a long time comin'..."

For those of us who didn't stay up to watch this, or, er, don't have cable, here it is, Senator, oh, let's just throw it out there, President Obama's acceptance speech.

Palin as President.

This is way too much fun - I mean, so long as it never crosses into the real world. Er, just stay in the World Wide Web, President Palin.

{Thanks Rod for this.}

Tonight is the night, the end of...

This. Fucking. Election.

The fellow behind the canvas.

So we all know the face of Mona Lisa - but how many know the face of da Vinci? See how portrait artist Woldhek cracked that code in this video.

{via Coudal}

Christopher Doyle's Identity Guidelines

Came across this while, coincidentally, in my own mind was mulling over a brand guide I'll be working on with my friend. Would love doing this for myself as I've been doing a huge haulout of my closet and reimagining my "brand" a little. Would be interesting to do this each season as a personal documentary; goodness knows how we look speaks volumes about who we are - or at least who we'd like to be.

3-D is the new 2-D.

Excellent excellent site showcasing the fine work of Amsterdamians (?) Barcinski & Jeanjean. Especially love the concept behind their site for FITC Amsterdam 2008 - it involves cowbells and Brazilian percussion so what more do you need to know? I could link directly to it but then you'd miss out on the fun of tracking it down in their mini virtual Amsteramian world. 

99% fun without 3-D glasses. 127% with.

{via Computerlove}

We have more in common with the Yukon and Nflnd than we thought...

Holy crap! That's a lot of blue! As we beach ourselves back onto the shores of Tory-manned Canada this morning, here's a quick and comprehensive look at how Canada voted (note: the GTA's propensity for Red - man, are we ever products of our environment), compliments of CBC.ca. Nice interactive zoomy map there! 

Kriegsmann on Flickr.

I wish I was the one who found that box in Venice...

A Passion for Fashion and Twisted Ankles

Models, including Canada's own Jessica Stam, literally fell head-over-heels for Prada's, well, heels this past week at Prada's Spring 2009 show. I've never seen anything like this. It's just so blatantly ridiculous to be pushing fashion, even haute couture, to these levels. Below, poor Katie Fogarty one of the many casualties at this show.

{via fashionologie}

'This American Life' tees

Back from a rainy week in the Dominican, and, like most vacations, feeling like saying "oh, Marge, I feel like I need a vacation from that vacation" while crossing my legs and throwing my head back, Starbucks in hand, and what the hell am I even talking about anymore?

In any case, my fine-feathered resorting partner, Michelle, introduced me to that little podcast known as This American Life. As I'm listening to their 'Going Big' episode, I discover the winners of their recent t-shirt design competition. Here: the winners, and some of my personal faves.

DUCK! GUN SHOTS!

It's possible that this video alone will save P. Diddy's career.
Thanks to Justin for this diamond in the rough.

A final, depressing thought on this Friday.

Rickrolled.

During the joy that is my daily commute on the subway this morning, I couldn't help but rip out this ad in Metro today. I was compelled. Fascinated. Unsure if this was real, or just some bad joke, but it just looked so genuinely bad that I couldn't help but follow the link to funcareer.ca. And ah ha! (Insert Giant Corporation's name here) got me good. Kudos to the people behind this prank, because I would otherwise have never bothered to check out their site.

A meal fit for a criminal.

That makes Paul J. Kneale either a genius or a wacko.

NOKIA's Design Manifesto

A corporate manifesto that gives us cynical and internally embattled designers a bit of hope. And hey, though actions speak louder than words, it is commendable for Nokia to at least strive towards their goals here.

{via chroma}

"You won't hear me laughing as I terminate your day."

With help from Nick Hooker (and the PhotoBooth app?), Grace Jones successfully scares the b'geezus out of us with her new single.

More gig posters.

{find and buy pretty well anything at GigPosters, also soom via Well Medicated}

Aesthetic Apparatus

Minneapolis based Aesthetic Apparatus uses their aesthetic apparatus for screenprinting to create dozens and dozen-zos of band posters, art, and (hey, we all gotta pay them bills), Burger King crowns. Check their store for tons of good stuff for your walls.

Now get ready for the most intense screenprinting video ever:

Summer's Ice Cream

Studs that remind me of wistful sun-drenched visits to Summer's Ice Cream in Yorkville. Farewell sweet heat, hello pistachio ice-creamed ear baubles.

T-postman Sam.

This is great. T-shirt subscriptions from T-post based on the latest and greatest current affairs, like the man who woke up from a coma after 19 years (illustrated above, obviously).

TIFF brief

Day -1: On the eve of the TIFF opening, standing in the sweltering sun with makeshift program visor to pickup tickets to Detroit Metal City.

Day 1: TIFF begins! In true spirit I celebrate by going to an unrelated Vice party.

Day 2: Volunteering in English, Cantonese, and French. A bit past midnight (okay, they were behind schedule), enjoys first movie, DMC. Laughs, headbanging, and one Q&A later, home and watching Laguna Beach at 3:30 am.

Day 3: Waiting 2 hours for Lebron James and abandoning that ship for Faubourg 36. Noting how Nora Aboudezer should have ditched the jacket-part of her outfit that afternoon. Volunteering, gets to be a ballot girl on stage, watches Spike Lee introduce Youssou Ndour.

Day 4: Early morning Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist. Different from book but not bad different. Bad cold. Tourists with TIFF questions for me tonight, bring a hanky.

It's almost Christmas again...

And by Christmas I really actually mean The Toronto International Film Festival, where we essentially do the same thing: lots of unnecessary lining up and dreading the end of it and oh my god i think i heard Brad Pitt on the rooftop can I leave him some cookies.
This year, I have the privilege of not only playing attendee, but also volunteer. So far, I have scored tickets to 'Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist' (good book, by the way), as well as 'Detroit Metal City' (movie poster, above). Some other ones I'm hoping to snag tickets for are:

• 7915 km
• Hunger
• Seraphine
• 24 City
• Birdsong
• Achilles and the Tortoise
• Afterwards
• Blind Loves
• Faubourg 36

See you film buffs there! In the buff!

Where ma' bees at?

HelptheHoneyBees.com

Zune Arts loves cobras and ice cream, too.

Zune Arts has been kicking around for a while, but luckily for us, they keep the goodies coming. I mean seriously, I do not think there exists a more fun (funner?) scrolling menu. The seemingly endless lists of animated shorts (some collabos between both the designers/artists and musicians) seem to march along a path right in front you, coming alive as you tickle their cute and sometimes scary selves with your mouse. 

OK, I'm getting a little into this.

Stepping back a little - another major plus is that the people behind Zune have made the individual videos really easy to embed into sites, or MyFacebookenoratiStumble.Digg.icio.us. 

One of my faves has to be 'Meltdown', created by Epoch Ink to the soundtrack of Goldfrapp.

Now, back to lineup. Tickle tickle tickle, boo.

Hello, old friends.

The past few weeks, oh my, how quickly they have passed. In the moments that I have had a chance to write, my ridiculously tardy internet connection refuses to allow me to upload anything, and then all the other moments in between I have spent laughing, crying, nursing wounds that have formed into scars (that's real, not just metaphorical. ask anyone who's seen my mess of a knee), and just sitting back and wondering what the heck is going on around here.

But, good news, I have found the most daaahhling coffee shop at a nearby gallery with quick wireless, and will be back in full visual swing soon! In the meantime, I have made a discovery to be shared with you all: boiled egg, grapes, cheese, and avocado all taste damn good together.

If you live in Toronto and need help...

help me help you - August (toronto)
Reply to: comm-797001111@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-08-14, 5:54PM EDT

i made a promise to someone i'd help 100 strangers with BIG things in their life. These things can be how to drive a car, learning a new skill, or figuring out a troublesome personal task in their life...etc.

A taste of things i've done:
i've delivered a lunch and dinner to someones grandmother while they were out of town for a week,
i've shoveled driveways of 2 elderly homes on my street in the middle of the night on the worst and 2nd worst snowfall this past winter
i've help find jobs for a single mother, 2 unemployeed/intelligent/educated forieners who had a hard time getting a job, i've tutored several people in leaning more fluent english. I've personally helped people move from their home, find a new home, install curtains in someones house,help someone with their detailed plans to propose to their girlfriend, proof read resumes and just offer a few kind words of encouragement to someone down on their luck..
So now i ask....how can i 'try' to help you today?...

Oh, Canada.

At the Olympics, while other countries dress in traditional garb and professional suits, we instead embrace the fact that we are so multicultural and hip that there is no one 'garb' or 'suit', and strut out in something decidedly more... urban. And it's green. And made in China. And from HBC. Thus making it a mystery hidden in a puzzle engraved with dichotomy and wrapped in hemp.

Go Team Canada!

A Creative Community

Darnit! 

Crappy wireless internet connection is keeping me from posting those glorious images I so love, so for now, you'll just have to take my word for it when I write that Spraygraphic is a pretty exciting spot for lovers of creativity. Pretty easy to make your own mark, and earn the right to call ultra talented people from Brazil your "friend".

Celebrate 6 with YWFT.

YouWorkForThem is design duo made up of Michael and Michael from Minneapolis. This is their 6th year of doing great stuff out of their shop (I like snagging tees from their site, and it shows up at my door at an alarmingly quick turnover rate). And so, we congratulate them by downloading the 23 free illustrations they're offering on their site. Er, congrats, guys.

I see Saul.

The Coen Brothers' new movie, "Burn After Reading" (set to premiere at the 2008 Venice International Film Festival before hitting theatres on the 12th), and their oh-so-Saul Bass inspired movie posters. However, it is near impossible to find out who was behind these creations. And, oh goodness, I pray that the DVD cover will honour this aesthetic instead of suffering from the "heads blended into the background with epic landscape along bottom instead of kickass movie poster image" formula. Aka, the 'V for Vendetta' effect.

Now, some Saul for the Soul:

Australia.

Having always been a fan of Baz Luhrmann and his no-fear approach to true, over-the-top entertainment and imagery, his upcoming film starring muse Nicole Kidman (as well as Hugh Jackman), looks to live up to his style, and with a dash of old world Hollywood.

Design won't save the world.

Nice notes.

Love Whitelines notebooks, FOB from Sweden. Enviro-friendly with "non-conflict" white lines that make your writings and scribbles the star, without annoying black or blue lines stabbing into them from all sides. My binding of choice? Perfect bound. And did I mention rounded corners? Hoooooo sheeeit. Available in select stores in Canada.

Back and civil...

from a weekend of ostentatiously loud music, thanks to having gained access to A) Robyn's entire discography and B) Rock the Bells 2008. Best hair award goes to Murs.

Screengrabs of some work... part 2.

Some older stuff of mine... maybe the sort of thing I should be doing more of today? This is a mashup of things done mostly for fundraisers, charities, local events. 

The Global Rich List.

Global Rich List from the folks at Poke to a) make you feel better about your financial status and b) guilt you into donating to charity. And it takes me back to that era when everyone loved playing "Oregon Trail" on their beige Apple computers.

Surrealism, fo'real.

The mystical musings of artist Andrea Galvani.

Dyed tips are back.

The 'dos sported by Luke Goss (as Prince Nuada) and Anna Walton (Princess Nuala) in Guillermo's new Hellboy flick tell us that dyed tips actually have great potential to look ethereally fabulous. If I had my way, I'd throw this on the runways immediately. Seriously.

Olive Riley goes, waltzing.

Known to be world's oldest blogger, Olive Riley, 108, passed away, leaving her legacy behind in a little online world called 'The Life of Riley'.

Too bogged down to blog down...

But will return this week with more useless information! Like: did you know that the 'W-D' in WD-40 stands for 'water displacer'?! Brilliant!

Tide-to-Go is so last season.

A renewable dress designed by professor Fernando Brízio @ ex carceri 'le nuove' (The World Design Capital) in Turin. Simple dresses that can be customized each and every time you wear it simply by placing an uncapped felt marker into the individual pockets. Let the ink run in and you have your own, one-of-a-kind dress. Wash, and start over. Interesting idea toying with the idea of reinvention and renewing a single piece over and over... but how about all those markers you need to throw out? All the same, an interesting way to pass the design reigns over to the consumer.
{via design boom}