It’s a New Dawn, a New Day, a New Change…

…and I’m feeling good. www.Barack Obama.com

Scrabble, Anyone?

Top photo: 3d simulations of type-based installations by psalmplasma, commissioned by Odyssey Communication for Vodafone.

Bottom photo:  Pillows available from Steven Reed Design.

Mossy Message

Being a huge fan of gardening and anything typographical, I was delighted to discover illustrator Anna Garforth’s Mossenger project. She has used moss to create type/grafitti that grows on a wall with a verse from Eleanor Stevens. This installation is a part of YCN LIVE in London. I'd love to try this on the cinderblock wall down my driveway, but here in Southern California I'd probably have to do it in Astroturf. Beautiful work, check out her site. (Via SwissMiss)

Architectural Stalker

How I wish our city was graced with such a structure as William Alsop’s  tabletop extension to the Ontario College of Art and Design. It is so graphic, so striking and I love it mixed with the Victorian streetscape! If this building was here in Los Angeles, I am afraid I would become a stalker and visit it multiple times for that feeling of awe that visionary architecture can provoke. Thanks Krysta! 

Political Types

The outside facade of the CNN Grill in Denver, getting the message across to DNC attendees. Love how the building is used as a vessel for the typography.

An Illustrated Life

I just love the hand-lettered designs of Nate Williams, an artist, illustrator and designer who has worked extensively in various facets of the illustration industry with a wide variety of clients. The pillows are great and available exclusively at Urban Outfitters. He also has silk screen prints for sale on his site as well, which is where I will be be shopping this morning for some new artwork.

Card Tricks

P22 type fonts held a contest back in 2004 for playing card design entries featuring type from their foundry. They have held another competition in 2008 which is has some great designs. The decks can be free with the purchase of $100 fonts or $10 per deck. I think I need to plan a poker party! (Click on image to see cards at a larger size)

Carnophobia

This is just so wrong, so frightening and so hilarious. (Via ffffound!)

Swatting in Style

Thanks to Apartment Therapy I finally have found a fly swatter I don't want to hide. Philippe Starck designed the Dr. Skud flyswatter in the late 1990s and it is available in the US from Alessi. Be gone, summer flies, your small game hunter is on the prowl!

Blue Limes

The new Limes Hotel, in Brisbane, is all about the newest, stylish innovations in hotel living. With only 21 rooms, designer Alexander Lotersztain decided to focus on guests' primary travel requirements rather than traditional, 5-star standards. Add to that a gorgeous, innovative exterior, and you have a new definition of the luxury hotel experience. Really digging the facade of the building and the interior view of it from the guest rooms.

(Via Been Seen)

Heroine Worship

Another reason maybe I need to make a trip up to San Francisco, The Museum of Modern Art, SF has a Frida Kahlo show running through September 28, 2008. I have never viewed her paintings in person and can’t imagine how wonderful an exhibit this is. The exhibition, commemorating the centennial of the artist's birth, brings together paintings that span her career, along with a selection of her own collection of photographs, most of which have never been on public display. 

Under Glass

I just discovered the work of Thomas Doyle and I am almost tempted to make a trip up to the Bay area to catch his show Forces of Nature at the Limn Gallery. In his words, “My work mines the debris of memory through the creation of intricate worlds sculpted in 1:43 scale and smaller.” 

Pull Up a Chair

Spotted these great looking prints on stackable bentwood chairs from West Elm, especially loving the tree bark print. 

Cookie Porn

After holding on to this now infamous Chocolate Chip cookie recipe that originated in the NY Times for over a month, I finally gave in and made them this weekend for a family gathering. This is an investment in time & precise ingredients but well worth it, the combination of flours, bittersweet chocolate chips and sea salt (I used sea salt instead of Kosher salt) is almost too much pleasure to handle. The adaptation by Molly at Orangette is easy to follow. Attempting to not eat too many is futile. I recommend waiting 36 hours (I know-it’s a long wait) before baking dough as stated in recipe, the result is well worth it. The flavors & texture are sublime. My waistline disagrees.

Culture Club

Spent the day on a marathon tour of the new Broad Contemporary Art Museum at LACMA. My favorite installation was artist Barbara Kruger’s 3-story very graphic installation that covers three walls of a gigantic elevator shaft. The graphics are so huge, the impact is quite arresting. The guard would only let me take a photo from outside, but here's another shot of an exhibit she did back in 1991 at the Mary Boone Gallery. 

Dark Type

Great poster series for upcoming film The Spirit, designed by Ignition/Print. See more of the series at IMP Awards.

X-Ray Vision

In honor of all the friggin radiation I've been exposed to over the past days of multiple x-rays as a result of my car wreck—here is the wonderful world of Nick Veasey photography. You know his colorful x-ray shots on the Adobe CS2 software packaging, but his other work is just as stunning. Some prints are available at 20 ltd.

Playing with Food

How delightful is this tiny tabletop food photography of Akiko Ida and Pierre Javelle, playing with food never looked so fun.

Someone’s Been Naughty

Artist Barnaby Barford works with found ceramics, cutting, splicing, repositioning and repainting figures to create uncomfortable and irreverent narratives that have a dark twisted humor that really appeals to me. The photos above are from his latest series, Private Lives , very naughty indeed.

Olympic Fever

Pretty forward designs of these Nike shoes for the Chinese Delegates in the Beijing Olympics. The boot is what I covet the most!

Musical Chairs

Digging this chair design, clean simple & graphic. The BOLLA is designed by Alberto Turolo (Italy) and available in a range of 223 colors. 

(Via DesignSpotter)

Beautiful Decay

Cuba has always held a part of my armchair travel lust, with it’s tropical lush colors and sparse decaying beauty. These stunning photos by Michael Eastman are worth a visit to his portfolio site. (Via Coudal)

Magnificent Obsession

Brilliant concept and design by Issac Tobin; Illustrator: Lauren Nassef. This book is about the history of obsession, how apropos — hours spent pricking away at a heavy piece of card stock. 

The Secret Life of Type

Stunning typography design by Craig Ward from the U.K. where he designs under the pseudonym “Words are Pictures”.

Going Tubular

Felt somewhat out of the loop of knowledge of historical electronics objects when I happened upon this CHRONOTRONIX V400 NIXIE TUBE CLOCK. I am fascinated by the look of this wonderful object/clock. It really looks like an art piece, both vintage and modern at the same time. A nixie tube is an electronic device for displaying numerals or other information. The glass tube contains a wire-mesh anode, and multiple cathodes in the shape of numerals or letters. Applying power to one cathode surrounds it with an orange glow discharge. The tube is filled with a gas at low pressure. Devices like these date back as far as the 1920s, but were first introduced in 1954 by the Burroughs Corporation. 

A Closer Look

This image is from the cover of Funki Porcini’s album Fast Asleep. If you look closely you’ll see that the titling is all done in vintage audio gear, what a great concept! (Via iso50)

Seeing Things

Love, love this brilliant signage and direction system for the Eureka Tower Car Park in Melbourne. The distorted letters on the wall can be read perfectly and appear to be floating and transparent, when standing at just the right position. Makes parking your car there like a visit to an art museum installation. This project won several international design awards and is the brainchild of Axel Peemoeller. Very clever, very bold. (Via SwissMiss)

Car Wreck Blues

It’s been two days since my head-on collision and the bruising is coming into full flower. I am most blue about my limited production Volvo S60R being trashed and have to wait till next week to find out if it’s going to be fixable, good chance I may lose it. So bummed, I love that car too much. Spell with found type on Flickr at this site. Have a great weekend!

The Bullet Holes Really did it for Me

For over 13 years, once a month I would be driving out to track in the Mojave desert where my boyfriend would race in his motorcycle club. Every single time we went down that dusty side road just as the sun was coming up harsh & warm with it’s light I knew we'd be passing this rusty timeworn metal sign that I had a crush on. It looks like a Hatch Show print wrought my Mother Nature herself. The bullet holes really did it for me and I wanted that sign, badly. I wanted to mount it on a side wall in my backyard or in a large loft space if I ever had a loft or as an entire wall in my living room. It was giant fabulous found typography pure graphic art that probably seasoned itself for over 40 years. So for 13 years I never thought about it until half awake on our monthly drive and then I would start my fantasy. I dreamt of stealing up in the early morning before sunrise with a flatbed truck and a couple of tattooed strapping tough guy friends/exs that would do anything for you and I would jump around as they took down the sign for me. It was a glorious fantasy that gave me butterflies thinking about it. But, a good girl I am, just have an active imagination. So I took this photo one morning, pleading with the now-ex to stop so I could shoot a photo of the sign. Glad I did, next month the sign was gone and the land was being sub-divided for the ever expanding sprawl of mini mansions. I still can visualize hanging that sign somewhere, it’s my fantasy for life.

(This was one of my original posts when I started this blog, but I like the photo & story so much, I thought it was time to bounce it forward)