(karl)sin(field)design(er)

links for 2010-08-28

karl — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 11:01:04 +0000

Win a DOGTOOTH poster

Ooh, look. Five lucky people could win one of my lovely posters for the crazy Greek film DOGTOOTH.
Vintage Circuit Boards Create Stunning Sculptures | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

These are beautiful. I spent most of my youth wondering if there was a use for the circuit boards I had meticulously extracted from old TVs. Finally someone with some actual skill has crafted them into something practical and aesthetically pleasing.

links for 2010-08-26

karl — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 11:00:48 +0000

RES72 | creative surveillance system

Artwork made with adhesive tape. Clever stuff.

links for 2010-08-25

karl — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:00:56 +0000

The First Book of Jazz, 1955 - a set on Flickr

Absolutely beautiful illustration from the 50s, still so fresh and relevant today.
Maya Lin « File Magazine

I find this kind of book defacement art inexplicably thrilling. I think it may be a combination of the delicate beauty of the final artefact, and the illicit wrongness of slicing up a book, albeit in a meticulous, craftsmanlike way.

links for 2010-08-24

karl — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:01:05 +0000

BBC News - China traffic jam stretches 'nine days, 100km'

This is insane. Knowing a little bit about how things work in China. I predict that this will become a new functioning ribbon-settlement town, and they will simply build a new road around it.

links for 2010-08-14

karl — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 11:00:50 +0000

Car crushed by rock which fell from lorry - Buxton Today

This seems to happen all the time round here. Perhaps they need to think of better ways of attaching large rocks to lorries.

links for 2010-08-13

karl — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 11:02:25 +0000

Bustler: Choi+Shine wins BSA Unbuilt Architecture Award for Land of Giants

Great, and apparently easily achievable idea for pylon design.

Slippers for The Guardian

karl — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:33:43 +0000

I’m happy to say I’m working on a poster for a fascinating and powerful film at the moment. It’s called The Arbor, and it’s about Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar, who wrote the brilliant Rita Sue and Bob Too. As part of the campaign, we have licensed the above photograph by late great Guardian photographer Don McPhee. The picture, shown above, is wonderfully shot, in an atmospheric hallway, composed in available light by simply opening the door. And now I have the full resolution file, I can see more clearly the details; the stains on the stairs, and the fact that the tiles have been stolen from the floor. But the best detail is this: Andrea Dunbar is wearing carpet slippers. The man from the Guardian has come to photograph her because her play will be showing in the National Theatre in London, and she’s wearing carpet slippers. A great insight into the character of the woman, and also into the eye and process of a sadly missed photographer.

VeryPC, very nice

karl — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:01:42 +0000

I’ve just updated the office with one of these beauties. It’s a VeryPC Broadleaf BL3V-B-Q84. Not only is it blindingly fast (it boasts a quad core processor, with 4gb RAM) but it uses a 96W power supply, and generally consumes about 33W. Which is less than a third of the power consumption of a regular PC. It’s also more-or-less silent. And the cherry on the top is that it is designed and built in Sheffield, just 30 miles down the road from me.

I’m delighted with it. The silence, low power consumption, local build (and it’s guaranteed and carbon off-set for 5 years) are all great, but they are mere trifles compared to the main benefit which is this: I’m working on a 1GB Photoshop file for a film poster right now, which on my other PC would entail taking a tea-break every time I transform a layer, but the Broadleaf whizzes through tasks like this in seconds.

(This is an independent opinion by the way, VeryPC have had no input on this, nor have they given me a free PC. But they should, obviously.)

links for 2010-08-10

karl — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 11:01:23 +0000

Taryn Simon, Strange Cargo at Kennedy Airport - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com

Utterly bizarre. OK, I can understand the drugs and counterfeit merchandise, but… a pitcher of salami? Lard? And as for the animals / partial animals…definitely some sort of horror movie sub-plot going on here.
Andrew Brooks on Vimeo

Fascinating talk by photographic artist Andrew Brooks. Definitely a case where understanding the process increases the appreciation of the final image. Great stuff.

links for 2010-08-05

karl — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 11:02:40 +0000

Patrick Cramsie's top 10 graphic design books | Books | guardian.co.uk

Nice list. Alan Fletcher's is certainly one to savour.
Pay & Site Private Park Bench by Fabian Brunsing

Shockingly misanthropic public space design here, but easily circumvented, surely? I mean, it's inconvenient for the general public to carry large boards around to place on top of the spikes, but if you spent a lot of time sleeping on benches (as this is presumably meant to deter) it wouldn't be too difficult. Perhaps the market will come up with its own solution, the PortaBoard. To be seen on Dragon's Den soon.