April 19, 2010
This ironic meta/PoMo infographic has been making rounds in the memesphere lately:
It’s true for the most part, though the 3,274 seems a bit over the top.
In any case, here are a few of the better infographics I’ve seen lately:
Julian Hansen has created an extremely thorough visualization of typography for dummies.
Click the image for the full, unadulterated 1983×1402 version.
Inspiration Lab
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Yesterday, before I discovered the video above, I came across a dollar bill with a red “Where’s George” stamp on it and I decided to enter it into the database (I’ve logged a couple in the past). It seems that I’ve since spent said dollar, as it is no longer in my wallet, but I managed to find it in my Firefox history. Apparently, it was in Greenpoint almost exactly a year ago; who knows what sort of wonderful adventures George #B2078 7046J has had in the mean time…
Follow the Money via Visual Complexity via PSFK
Almost (but-not-really-at-all) related: Redesigning the Dollar Bill; UPDATE: The new $100 bill.
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Gizmodo’s guide to the current fronts where the Big Three are vying for tech/information world domination.
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April 17, 2010
Damn right hipsters have infiltrated NBA fandom.
The NBA playoffs start today and I’m excited to watch some “grown-man” basketball (along with “posterized,” this locution has been annoying prevalent this season). I suppose that anyone who has been following the NBA this season knows this already, but GQ has a nice rundown of (most of) the teams that made the playoffs.
Personally, I’m tend to be a fan of specific players over teams—I suppose I can only stake a legitimate claim to the Hawks as my local squad: their opening series against the Bucks is promising, and I’m actually looking forward to seeing Jennings school Bibby, my least favorite Hawk. The Magic look good once again and I expect to see them in the conference finals: they’ll miss Turkoglu but Vince has already proven himself and I can’t imagine he’ll be less than brilliant in the postseason. Even though KG was my hometown hero back in the day and I’m glad he got his ring, but I don’t think the Celtics have it in them and I’m a sucker for Wade’s underdog appeal.
Lebron is a foregone conclusion.
The bottom halves of both conferences are stacked with dark horses, though I can only realistically see one and two seeds in the conference finals. If last year is any indication, the West seems more prone to early-round upsets due to tighter competition. I think the Durant (and then Denver) will give the Lakers a run for the money, but I’d take Dallas over the spotty Spurs. Lastly, I have no idea what to expect from the Suns and Blazers matchup.
I’m actually ambivalent about the Lakers—they’re alternately the team that I love to hate and I hate to love—but I’m fascinated with the semi-mythological culture of Phil Jackson’s team and, of course, Kobe.
In the manner of Carles: which NBA team has the most hipster cred? Portland is easily the most hipster town, but I’ll venture the Nuggets because they’re all tatted up and Melo is from the ‘authentic’ hipster dive-city (if there is such a thing) of Baltimore (via Brooklyn, no less)… though you could probably make a similar argument for just about any team or superstar.
Of course, the real sign that I’m a hipster: I’d rather hit MoMA to see Fassbinder’s World On a Wire tonight (Art vs Basketball?)… and I’ll catch the games tomorrow if I’m not out biking.
April 7, 2010
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April 1, 2010
"apr 1: birdhouse with painted-on entrance (april fools day)"
I just discovered artist/designer/musician Brock Davis’s project to make “One piece of creative work made every day for 365 consecutive days.” The results are invariably visual and variously beautiful, thought-provoking, funny, and sometimes all three.
"mar 1: bert and ernie making out while cookie monster watches"
There are far too many good ones to post here, so I recommend seeing it for yourself. Readers can expect some of these pictures to show up (without explicit permission) as obliquely-related visual aids for future posts, in the same spirit as freely-associated mp3s.
via Murketing
I also recommend terrysdiary and yeahyeahyeahyeahyeah.com as other notable/inspiring digital/visual diaries. I’m sure there are others…
Self explanatory...
March 27, 2010
Given the government’s marketing push, I should hope that the majority of American citizens are aware that it’s high time for the 2010 Census.
Of course, the $14 billion campaign is a massive undertaking, and I’m not surprised to hear that some of New York City is missing. Moreover, New Yorkers who are on the census radar are lagging even as the rest of America is clamoring to be counted.
As a lover of data / maps / infographics (slash, complete nerd), I applaud the government’s efforts at compiling data for maps and infographics. Without the census, we wouldn’t have such gems as Very Small Array’s brilliant population map from 2008, above.
A more recent infographic inverts the relationship , hypothesizing that if the entire U.S. with the density of Brooklyn (35,000 people per square mile; cf. below), all 300m+ people would fit into an area the size of New Hampshire.
The US is one of the world’s biggest countries, with one of the world’s most numerous populations… let’s assume – as this map does – that the country is inhabited by about 300 million people. With a total area of 3,794,101 sqare miles, that gives the US a population density of approximately 79 Americans per square mile.
That’s far less than the world’s most crowded place, Macau (48,003 inh./mi2) but also way above the world’s emptiest one, Greenland (0.006 inh./mi2). The US ranks somewhere in the less densely populated third of the list of countries and territories… For comparison’s sake: Canada, America’s bigger, emptier neighbour to the north, has a density of just 8.8, while Mexico stands at 142 inh./mi2.
Related: NYC traffic study—I finally have scientific proof that biking is faster than the gas-guzzlers who crowd the broad avenues of Mannahatta.
March 11, 2010
Warsaw’s Homework is a design studio that has created amazing posters for cultural events and films. Their remarkably simple yet gorgeous style is a new interpretation of Poland’s tradition of playful visual puns in poster design. Homework’s regularly-updated blog has the latest news and work.
Homework is currently showing at London’s Kemistry, an independent gallery in Shoreditch that showcases outstanding graphic design.
Homework: Modern Polish Poster Design
Kemistry
43 Charlotte Rd [map]
London EC2A 3PD
+44 (0)20 7729 3636
March 12, 2010 – April 11, 2010
M-F: 10-6; Sa: 11-4
Guardian / DB
February 1, 2010
Information / Graphic Designer Nick Felton recently released the 2009 Feltron Annual Report, a rather intimate window into his life in 2009, including eating habits, mood, discussion topics, etc. This time around (number five), Felton’s methodology draws solely on second-person data, with as much pseudo-scientific rigor as social media can afford.
Each day in 2009, I asked every person with whom I had a meaningful encounter to submit a record of this meeting through an online survey. These reports form the heart of the 2009 Annual Report. From parents to old friends, to people I met for the first time, to my dentist… any time I felt that someone had discerned enough of my personality and activities, they were given a card with a URL and unique number to record their experience.
It’s an admirable undertaking, to say nothing of the beautiful end-product.
Check out the rest of his portfolio online; you may be familiar (as I was) with his commercial work for the likes of the New York Times, CNN, WSJ and a handful of Condé Nast titles.
January 19, 2010
–Andy Woodruff of Cartogrammar has mapped his “whole darn year“—a map of routes he travelled in the Greater Boston Area last year. He acknowledges that UrbanTick has done the same thing in the past, but the flash movie (linked above) is worth watching nonetheless.
–Stereogum has just posed a new track by David Byrne & Fatboy Slim, “Please Don’t,” featuring Santigold on vocals. The song is from Byrne’s forthcoming concept album Here Lies Love, a collaboration with Norman Cook, plus guest appearances from the likes of Tori Amos, Róisín Murphy, etc. (I never would have guessed that I would someday have a picture of Imelda Marcos on my blog, but it must be cool if David Byrne thinks its cool.) (Stereogum; previously on BV)
–Stereogum also recently brought my attention to Wieden+Kennedy’s web series “D.I.Y. America.” Say what you want about insidious corporate marketing industry appropriation of authentic art and music movements, the videos definitely benefit from high production value. Three of the four episodes focus on skateboard culture, plus an interview with NYC artist Swoon.
–Anomaly London handled Diesel’s latest cheeky ad campaign, “Be Stupid.” It’s fine for what it is, though I don’t think anything will ever top the viral ‘SFW pornography’ video by The Viral Factory for Diesel’s XXX extravaganza (video after the jump). (DB)
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January 15, 2010
This detailed account of my Thursday is intended as a window into the life of someone who is currently “between jobs” (i.e. jobless—which is why I have all the time in the world to spend on my blog).
It’s pretty stupid and boring.
Honestly though, I don’t really know why I’m doing this—especially without photos, which might somehow justify the tedious and grossly underdeveloped prose. (It reads like something I would’ve written for a 9th-grade English class.) The closest approximation of a rationalization I can come up with is that I’d like to have some really terrible, shameful writing on the record to spite the rest of the content on my blog.
It’s also littered with hip NYC namedroppings and a cast of ancillary characters who barely qualify as devices. There is no symbolism or allegorical value to speak of. I’ve done my best to minimize foreshadowing… but that’s asking a lot and I’m not that good of a writer.
At best, it’s an exercise, an uncharacteristically intimate portrait of contemporary bohemia, largely unembellished albeit esoteric to the point of being skewed. At worst, it may be remembered as the first symptom of an otherwise untold descent into madness.
We’ll see how long it says online before I decide to delete it. (I’m tracking stats now so I’ll know exactly how many people clickthrough and read it.)
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January 6, 2010
–Pavement’s 2010 comeback continues, this time in greatest-hits form. The “fully remastered 23-track compilation”, entitled Quarantine the Past, “digs deeper than the hits” and is slated for a March 9th release. Matador has challenging fans to guess the final tracklisting in order to win a handful of Pavement-related prizes. (Matador)
–Arrested Motion is on top of its game as usual, with recent coverage of Blu, Os Gemeos, and Ryan McGinley (all of whom are worthy of fuller discussion in future posts), plus a nice December recap. Good stuff.
–Raphael Zarka = Richard Serra × DQM. Awesome. (DB)
–The Knife has posted a new mp3 (download link) from their forthcoming operatic (literally) recording Tomorrow, in a Year. More details here. (The Knife / Soundcloud / YANP)
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