The Ad Generator

December 26th, 2007

The ad generator is a generative artwork that explores how advertising uses and manipulates language. Words and semantic structures from real corporate slogans are remixed and randomized to generate invented slogans. These slogans are then paired with related images from Flickr, thereby generating fake advertisements on the fly. By remixing corporate slogans, I intend to show how the language of advertising is both deeply meaningful, in that it represents real cultural values and desires, and yet utterly meaningless in that these ideas have no relationship to the products being sold. In using the Flickr images, the piece explores the relationship between language and image, and how meaning is constructed by the juxtaposition of the two.

http://www.theadgenerator.org/

Cool Hunting

December 25th, 2007

Cool Hunting is a daily update on ideas and products in the intersection of art, design, culture and technology, and features weekly videos that get an inside look at the people who create them.

http://www.coolhunting.com/

Heavens-Above

December 24th, 2007

If you’re interested in satellites or astronomy, you’ve come to the right place! Our aim is to provide you with all the information you need to observe satellites such as the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle, spectacular events such as the dazzlingly bright flares from Iridium satellites as well as a wealth of other spaceflight and astronomical information.

We not only provide the times of visibility, but also detailed star charts showing the satellite’s track through the heavens. All our pages, including the graphics, are generated in real-time and customized for your location and time zone.

http://www.heavens-above.com/

Picnik

December 23rd, 2007

Picnik makes your photos fabulous with easy to use yet powerful editing tools. Tweak to your heart’s content, then get creative with oodles of effects, fonts, shapes, and frames.

Will this tool replace Photoshop? And it’s free too!http://www.picnik.com/

The New(er) Typography

December 22nd, 2007

Consider Design You Trust™ in Russia, NiceFuckingGraphics in Mexico, Etienne Mineur archives in France, the borderless ffffound, and a large constituency of U.S.-based blogs as well.

Together, these web sites paint a clearer and more current picture of the state of graphic design around the world than any magazine or single web site would ever hope. They are also highly reflective and representative of whatever trend may be sweeping the world, as it’s common to see the same project linked again and again in a variety of languages — a great .jpg or .gif knows no boundaries.

As my feed count increased it became increasingly clear that this year’s trend was a new typography: Devoid of counters, generous in girth, and joyous in application. As 2007 comes to a close, here is a partial, yet global, celebration of The New(er) Typography — plenty remains out there and unnoticed here, but you’ve probably seen it on your own.

Read more

The Ultimate Bootleg Experience

December 21st, 2007

Lots and lots of music…

http://theultimatebootlegexperience.blogspot.com/

Tutorials on the industry standard animation tool

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials.html

Lyrebird unbelievable jungle bird mimic bird and human sounds mimics car alarms, chainsaws, cameras, all kinds of birds.

See the video here.

More info here.

The Vegetable Orchestra

December 18th, 2007

Collection of really nice, understandable, videos on stuff like Blogs, wikis, RSS and social bookmarking.

http://www.commoncraft.com/show

Thanks to David for this one.