This “billboard” for Hot Wheels is simply brilliant! Unlike most advertising which tends to concentrate on a specific product, this iconic loop is simply designed to evoke a pleasant childhood memory. It’s brand-building at it’s best.
via YNot
Design
PressPausePlay: A Film About Hope, Fear and Digital Culture
About PressPausePlay:
The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent of people in an unprecedented way, unleashing unlimited creative opportunites.
But does democratized culture mean better art, film, music and literature or is true talent instead flooded and drowned in the vast digital ocean of mass culture? Is it cultural democracy or mediocrity?
This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era.
This looks really cool, I would love to see it. Unfortunately the screening dates and locations are a little limited right now, and there’s been no announcement of the DVD release date. You can, however, save it in your Netflix Queue. It should be automatically added when it becomes available.
Official Site | YouTube Link | Via Quality Peoples
Premium Pixels: Free Resources for Designers
PremiumPixels.com offers free resources for designers including, interface elements, textures, icons, buttons, etc…
I can’t recall where I originally heard about this site, but they have some nice stuff. If you’re a designer you may want to have a look.
Turbine-Free Wind Power
This looks very cool. The video isn’t embed-able, so you’ll have to watch it, here.
Conservationists argue that wind turbines pose a risk to birds, bats and sensitive habitats like shorelines. People living close to wind farms, meanwhile, complain of constant noise and vibration. This year, engineers responded with a new way to draw electricity from the wind: oscillating wind panels. Read More…
Is Adobe rethinking how Flash should be used?
Ever since Adobe acquired Macromedia, just about every page at adobe.com has been thick with Flash content. Their home page, especially, always had lots of motion and giant interactive flash banners. Recently, they’ve been doing some redesign work on the site, and I was extremely surprised today when I noticed that the entire site is almost completely void of any Flash content. Flash is used very sparingly (and tastefully). And, the home page currently has no Flash at all.
Given Adobe’s past use of Flash, and their very public feud with Apple regarding the quality, stability, and usefulness of Flash, I found this new, subtle use to be very uncharacteristic of them.
Now, I’m not complaining at all. I personally think the site is better without all that overuse of Flash. But, it does make me wonder if Adobe is rethinking exactly how and when Flash should be used.
I was actually kind of surprised when Adobe starting adding all that Flash to their site in the first place. Many years ago Macromedia tried to convert their entire site to Flash, and it was a dismal failure. One which they spent months undoing. I would have thought that Adobe would learn from Macromedia’s mistake.
So, is Adobe rethinking it’s position on how Flash should be used, or have the Flash designers simply not caught up with the web designers, and all that Flash will be back eventually? Only time will tell.
San Francisco Typographic Map
Axis Maps is custom cartography company located in Hewitt, Texas. Among a variety of other services, they’ve also made some super-cool maps made entirely of type. They’ve had typographic maps for Boston and Chicago, and they just recently released one for San Francisco. It looks very cool!
The map is available through Zazzle.com. There’s four sizes to choose from, ranging from 16″ x 11″ ($14.95) to a colossal 78″ x 52″ ($195.25).
via Laughing Squid
Design a Cover for “Project” Magazine
If you’re unfamiliar with, Project, it’s a new iPad-only magazine from Richard Branson. The publishers are having a contest to design a future cover of the magazine. It could be a fun project (no pun intended), but bragging rights will be your only reward, as there are no actual prizes – other than having your design published.
TUAW has posted all the details, including a link to the design assets you can use in your cover. If you’re interested in giving it a shot, don’t delay, as the deadline is December 15th.
If you want to check out the premier issue of the magazine, you can download the Project App for free on iTunes. The actual magazine is a $2.99 in-app purchase.
Shop Vac – Kinetic Typography Animation
I’m a big fan of this style of animation – where the primary element is text. This video by Jarrett Heather is an exceptional example of how to do this well.
Type-Face Portrait of Steve Jobs
Here’s an amazing portrait of Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, done almost entirely in type. It was created by Dylan Roscover. The portrait is formed by the text from Apple’s, Here’s to the Crazy One’s ad campaign of the 90’s, and it uses fonts found in Apple branding and products. The image above is just a slice of the portrait, I recommend checking out the full size version to really appreciate it.
If you like this style of typographic-portraiture, here’s 45 more portraits to look at.
via YayEveryday
Noma Bar’s May 2009 Limited Edition Spock Cover for Esquire
I just love this illustration of Spock for the May, 2009 (limited edition) issue of Esquire Magazine. It’s by famed illustrator Noma Bar. His work is really wonderful.
I can’t find a site for Noma, but you can see more of his work by doing a Google image search. He also has a book available at Amazon.
via YayEveryday