iconolith

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.

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

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]

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)

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.

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.

Open Architecture

In today’s world of increasingly open systems and online community participation it seems only natural to find the Open Architecture Network. Announced at this year’s TED conference, this online community endeavors to improve the living standards of five billion people by allowing people to share among themselves information in material innovation, sustainability practice and building methodology.

On the site you can search projects that others have contributed and register for an account to contribute your own project info. Within each project you can find/share an overview, information about project the team, updates, workspace info, a project calendar and supporting files. There is also an area of the site named Resources which appears to be a potential place for conversation about various topics concerning building and architecture.

The Open Architecture Network is a project of Architecture for Humanity and its volunteers, and in 2006 was awarded the TED Prize.

via

DWR Announces Champagne Winners

Design Within Reach has announced the winners of their Champagne Chair design contest. Entrants were asked to design a chair using the components of a champagne bottle. The winners are posted and there is a link to runners up there too.

Flash for Atmosphere

I normally don’t pay too much attention to the gratuitous eye candy of Flash web sites. But when atmosphere is part of what you’re selling to your audience it can really work when its done just right - as it does for bajocero.es. Great presentation using imagery and navigation to deliver an atmosphere of contemporary indulgence.