I love these 8-bit style camera icons, which have been designed by Billy Brown and provided free of charge for any possible use, so long as you credit him.
Mar 012011
Feb 272011
Sweet chart by DeviantART user Spongeboy1985, showcasing most of the swords from the entire Legend of Zelda series. There is also a very huge 7,500 x 5,000 pixel version.
I cannot quibble with his decision of eschew minor enemy swords like the Moblin spear.
(via Geekologie)
Feb 242011
If you like Westerns (who doesn’t?) and if you like surreal comedy (again, who doesn’t?) then you’re in for a treat, as Nicholas Gurewitch (creator of Perry Bible Fellowship) has started a web series called Trails of Tarnation.
Enjoy Chapter 1: Black Coffee, above.
This reminds me that Keith and I once had a great idea for a series about cowboys. We’re going to have to get on that, Keith, before we miss the boat.
(via tdw)
Feb 232011
Wanna decorate your home with vintage posters from classic concerts? Have no fear, Baltimore’s Globe Posters is on Etsy selling reprints of some of their coolest designs — using original artwork and on classic cardstock.
This Led Zeppelin poster, as an example, is just $27, and it’s 22″ x 30″ so you’re going to get some serious room anchoring from it.
Niiiiiiiice.
Feb 212011
Even as we read about history happening right now in Egypt and other Middle East countries, it’s hard to escape the hold that Egypt has on our collective historical imagination. Sure, the pyramids are basically, as mounds, designed to withstand the passage of time without eroding, but they’re still ancient and mesmerizing.
I was just as mesmerized by these colour photos of Egypt from the 1920s — when my only previous colour experience with that approximate era of Egypt would have been through Indiana Jones.
It’s sort of mind-bending to imagine those faded black-and-white scenes from your memory in vivid colour, but that’s how they were.
In other news, tourism in Egypt these days is, well, lonely. If you ever wanted to escape the crowds, go now. And don’t wait till March.
(via Retronaut)
Feb 212011
If you’re not in the 204, you may not know that there’s a holiday about Louis Riel. Although, school children as far away as Ghana learn about the Métis leader called by some a traitor and others a patriot. Since those two things are so often conflated, let’s come up with a word we can all agree on — traitriot.
(Other famous traitriots might be Benedict Arnold, George W. Bush, William of Orange, etc.)
Anyway, Louis Riel was a traitriot in the best sense: Leading a revolution against the (distant) authorities of the day in order to establish a fairer, more just nation that better represented the people. Also, it is quite possible that he was insane.
But, in true Canadian tradition, just in case this whole armed rebellion thing didn’t work out, Riel was also elected — thrice!! — to the Canadian Parliament. Then he was hanged for treason.
You can find out more by reading this excellent comic book.
In posts from previous years, I’ve linked to T-shirts that you can buy, or passed along a student newspaper suggestion that you can celebrate Louis Riel Day by “Occupying a case of Fort Garry.”
This year, I’ve noticed that there are stickers and fridge magnets available for sale. Woo-hoo!
As I tossed off in an aside to my previous post, I am willing to argue that declaring Louis Riel Day was the best decision made by the Doer government. Oh, it was no great shakes to declare a new February holiday — it was a welcome, populist move that was easy since we weren’t even the first province to do so — but it was bold and controversial to pick Louis Riel instead of going for the focus-group pablum of “Family Day.”
Way to go Doer. Way to go Louis Riel.
Feb 202011
Imagine if Stonehenge wasn’t a prehistoric marvel of lost engineering talent, but rather a problem to be solved by Swedish ingenuity!
That’s what the Hënj is, as composed at How To Be A Retronaut, where you can also see the latter stages of construction.
(via Neatorama)
Feb 182011
So it’s not really a short film; deal with it.
It’s something everyone says they’ve done, though I suspect very few actually have: play Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” synced up to the original Wizard of Oz. Personally, I never had the time (or inclination) to figure out exactly when to start playing the album. And, really, I wasn’t all that interested.
Bryan Pugh has done all the work for me us, allowing us the opportunity to experience what so many people have raved about…the Dark Side of Oz.
The Dark Side of Oz from Bryan Pugh on Vimeo.
Besides, it’s a long weekend. Surely you’ll have time to watch it, right?
Feb 162011
Everybody’s favourite bounty hunter is a pretty good role model for those of you trying to make a go of it in this post-corporate world! Aspire to greatness, even if it means you have to put up with some shit from clients every now and again (whaddya mean, no disintegrations!) and even if it means your “retirement” is likely to feel a lot like being slowly digested for a thousand years.
(photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid, poster apparently by Solvate, a freelander-finder)
Feb 122011
Ha, here is a great idea for a blog: 365 Days of A
I’m Jonathan Klinger and I’m spending one full year driving a 1930 Model A everywhere I go. (Starting October 13, 2010) Why? Because not everything a person owns should contain a computer.
Right on. Above is a video of him starting it in cold winter weather. He doesn’t say exactly how cold it is, but he does say that it’s the coldest of the videos he made, and that the other day, it had warmed up to 7 degrees. Presuming, since there’s plenty of snow, that we are talking Fahrenheit here, that would make it somewhat colder than -14 C.
That’s not super cold, not for a Canadian — but for a Model A? Well done, sir.
(via MeFi)
Feb 112011
These logo treatments were, according to the Vimeo uploader, “from an old 8.5 by 11 Kodak box in a storage room near the art department at ABC Television in New York.”
That. Is. Awesome.
There are some really cool vintage logos there. Great find!
Feb 102011
Say what you will about “grammar Nazis” but I think we can agree that the Germans in World War 2 had a strong brand identity. They are still so completely associated with the stark image of a swastika that it’s impossible to use one today — despite the symbol’s innocent origins.
When you think about it, that’s kind of amazing. The Japanese had a strong “rising sun” logo, too — and I’m not talking about the red circle on the white flag, which is too generic to forever taint, but the “sunburst” style used by the navy that had red rays streaming out from the (off-centre) circle to the edge. That’s a stark, easily identifiable image, and yet it’s used in graphic design everywhere these days (check the background of ads and posters for the distinctive sunburst style).
Swastika? Not so much.
Steven Heller, a designer who is working on a book about the “brand” of 20th century totalitarianism (attention: people looking for my next Christmas gift!) has an interesting post on Design Observer about a legendary “design standards manual” for the Nazis that might explain some of their rigid — and successful — brand identity.
After hearing about people who had never seen it — but who always had a friend who had — Heller managed to find one, as he says, “under his nose.”
First he had to sort out the different bureaucracies — the Nazi party identity was different from the country of Germany’s identity, for example. But then he found it. It’s 550 pages, bound in red cloth, and explains everything about the Nazi “look.” Writes Heller:
The policing of all things Swastika was the responsibility of Dr. Robert Ley, the head of the German Labor Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront, DAF) and the Strength Through Joy (Kraft durch Freude, KdF) …. It is not exactly clear how much Dr. Ley (who hanged himself after the war) was personally involved, although his introduction is in the volume. Perhaps he did not know the difference between typefaces, or even what graphic design was. But it was his office that determined the standards of stationery, enamel signs, flags and pennants, awards and badges, party uniforms and all things involving the swastika and ancillary symbols. So someone in Dr. Ley’s office knew what he was doing, though received no credit.
Published in 1936, The Organizationsbuch der NSDAP (with subsequent annual editions), detailed all aspects of party bureaucracy, typeset tightly in German Blackletter. What interested me, however, were the over 70 full-page, full-color plates (on heavy paper) that provide examples of virtually every Nazi flag, insignia, patterns for official Nazi Party office signs, special armbands for the Reichsparteitag (Reichs Party Day), and Honor Badges. The book “over-explains the obvious” and leaves no Nazi Party organization question, regardless of how minute, unanswered.
If you’re interested, and can read German, a full pdf scan of the book was unearthed in the comments. It exists at archive.org.
Here are another couple of photos from the book, as posted by Heller. His full post is worth reading.
(via Coudal)
Feb 082011
One of the great advantages of the analog clock is that it lets you see, at a glance, information that you have to mentally calculate from a digital clock. When it’s nearing, say, four o’clock, it’s obvious, while a digital clock will still start out with a 3: and if you happen to be near-sighted, like me, sometimes those square-edged numbers start to look a little alike.
If I was going to prefer a digital clock, I would prefer one of those old-style flip-clocks — and, as an aside, does anyone know where I could buy an obsolete flip-style airport arrivals/departures board? Seriously.
Anyway, the geniuses at Karlsson have merged the flip-clock retro-digital style with the time-telling fuzziness of an analog clock.
This is just like how a real person would tell you the time. I love it!
Sadly, I can’t find a price for this clock at their site — and they don’t even appear to have any Canadian dealers. But what they do have is an astonishing array of other drool-worthy clocks. Astonishing!
(via Blue Ant)
Feb 062011
What I really like about this clip is that you and I are watching, and perhaps commenting, on a video of a man who is, himself, watching and commenting on a video of his own life. The soundtrack, albeit sparse, is entirely this man, speaking about an event that has already happened to him — but that we haven’t yet seen. He is a real-life example of the omniscient narrator.
It’s very meta. Kind of reminds me of this Kids in the Hall sketch.
Feb 052011
As explained by The Daily What:
Superfan Jambe Davdar has spent an awe-inspiring amount of time piecing together three absolutely must-watch Star Wars fan documentaries — essentially, the original trilogy re-cut with alternate takes, deleted scenes, concept art, original audio, production footnotes, and commentary from the cast and crew.”
If, like me, you know the original movies backwards and forwards, you will still find an astonishing amount of new information packed in here. I’m just getting started, but I think I’ll be watching this instead of the Superbowl.
Star Wars Begins: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.
Building Empire: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24.
Returning to Jedi: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23.