icono-wha?

(Ultra) Marathon Monks

A short documentary describes the training of Japanese monks at Mt. Hiei who run heroic distances daily. For seven years they undergo trials and tests which include running 52 miles every day for 100 days on little more than a diet of rice and noodles, wearing hand-woven straw sandals and tabi. In total, they will spend no less than 1000 days on the road during their training and that is without the benefit of engineered food or technical clothing. What is truly amazing is their commitment. If at any point a monk in training cannot complete one of the daily training runs he must immediately commit suicide. Monks have died in training.

At the end of their training a monk will subject himself to a 9-day fast wherein he will not eat, drink, or sleep. If this final test is completed successfully the monk achieves the status of a living saint.

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Michael Bierut on the Creativity of Problem Solving

Michael Bierut shares projects from his notebooks that exemplify his passion for problem solving.

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Daniel Tammet’s Reflections on Being an Autistic Savant

Scientific American has a wonderfully intriguing interview with autistic savant, Daniel Tammet available on their site. I’m so fascinated by his descriptions of his own mental processes that I can’t wait to read his books - starting with Born on a Blue Day.

In the interview he describes briefly how he was able to recite the first 22,514 numbers of Pi:

“… numbers to me have their own shapes, colors and textures. Various studies have long demonstrated that being able to visualize information makes it easier to remember. In addition, my number shapes are semantically meaningful, which is to say that I am able to visualize their relationship to other numbers. A simple example would be the number 37, which is lumpy like oatmeal, and 111 which is similarly lumpy but also round like the number three (being 37 x 3). Where you might see an endless string of random digits when looking at the decimals of Pi, my mind is able to “chunk” groups of these numbers spontaneously into meaningful visual images that constitute their own hierarchy of associations.”

Amazing, considering I’ve been struggling with my new work and home phone numbers all of this past year. [via BoingBoing]

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General Dynamics Ads and Annual Reports (Vintage)

Eric Nitsche is posting (Flickr) the graphically stunning design work done for General Dynamics’ ads and annual reports.

Power for Peace advertisement

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Food Inspiration

When things get busy in my life my food creativity decreases significantly, and I’m sure I am not the only person to experience this phenomena. During these times I simply can’t seem to do anything with the food in my refrigerator and feel absolutely uninspired despite that I truly do like cooking.

The past two weeks have been especially hectic and now that it is all over and the long weekend is slowing things down food is becoming more interesting (finally). On top of that I came across a site with the most beautiful pictures of food linked to recipes at TasteSpotting. Perfect timing.

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Earth Imagery as Inspiration

An Northwest of the village of Tiski in the Sakha region of Russia

When I moved to Alaska and started flying around the state I was awestruck at the vascular textures on the terrain created by the seasonal transformation of water to ice. Last night I was exploring Siberia on Google Earth and came across the most amazing imagery of water shaping the coastal landscape, in much the same way it does here in AK. [Flickr set]

This perspective on the landscape, afforded in the past to only birds and pilots, reveals captivating terrain that seems to possess some mysterious fractal quality. They appear familiar and at the same time alien. Taken out of context, they echo scaled patterns I have seen in slides of muscular tissue and in mold and in root systems of trees.

An area of Kotelny/Faddeyevsky Island. More information on this, one of the largest islands in the world.

An area Northwest of the village of Tiski in the Sakha region of Russia

Partially frozen lakes look like eyes. Located in an area Northwest of the village of Tiski in the Sakha region of Russia

An area Southeast of the village of Tiski in the Sakha region of Russia

A landscape that could be mistaken for a closeup of mold growth in a petri dish. In reality it is another area in the North of the Sakha region of Russia

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A Personal Annual Report

Nicholas Felton has designed the Feltron, an annual report to summarize his personal experiences in 2007. Brilliant and beautiful. [via pica+pixel]

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Graphic Design History: Backfill

In graphic design, as with all other creative professions, it is just as important to know what came before you as it is to have a vision for where you are going. Surfing around this afternoon, I came across The Design Encyclopedia - an effort to make design history available using a wiki platform. What caught my eye was the wiki theme and the care that was taken to make it appear unwiki-like.

The Design Encyclopedia, part of the underconsideration network

Come to think of it, there are a few other historical graphic links I have stashed away for reference and inspiration:

DesignMuseum.org
Mid-century Illustrated group on Flickr
Swiss Graphic Design History
Graphic Design in Russia
Chinese Propaganda Posters
International Posters (Vintage)

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Philippe Starck on Design

I’m a big fan of the TED Talks, brief snippets of visionary inspiration, and what better time to catch up on them than while I’m typesetting course guides for work. Perfect. Mind-numbing leading and alignment tasks are now tolerable.

What more appropriate talk to listen to than Philippe Starck’s talk on design. Unaided by ppt slides Starck paints a humble and vivid picture of human beings in an [affectionately] outrageous French accent, and from a long view shares his motivation to design.

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Super Happy Fun Time Friday

15 Excellent Examples of Web Typography - a collection of sites displaying informed treatment of type, collected by ilovetypography - another really great site. Yes, I know everyone is linking to this today but it is really good, so I am too.

Projekttriangle Design Studio - Work by a German graphic design studio. Beautiful.

Black Box Sculpt Studio - a Second Life in-world sculptie editor.

Particle Wizard - Create particle systems for Second Life without all the scripting. Buy in-world on Horowitz

Magento - Open source ecommerce solution for the web. Demo.

The Classic Mojo Shirt - from bearskinrug.co.uk. Because everyone needs an under enthused monkey hero.

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