Charley Harper

Charley Harper seems to have laid the foundation for what is now called "vector style" illustration.
His work is done by hand, but is characterized by extremely stylized an simplified forms.
His finesse in borh color, line and composition is extreme.
It seems he had devoted his life to the visualization of nature. I read somewhere that he stated: I don't want to count all the feathers on the wings of a bird, I just want to count how many wings the bird has". Or something like that :) The idea is clear. Only the bare essence
This illustrator is new to me but it is already hard to imagine that I did not know him and his work.
It is possible to buy prints of the wonderful illustrator Charley Harper here. the pictures are from the same site which is a nice gallery in its own.
There is also a marvelous book, in four editions. With four different silkscreens, and one, cheaper, without.
I have it on my wishlist. It is for sale here. and a bit cheaper here

good news for the rare picture hunters

I just found something amazing.
On the site of Media.org, which is an outstanding collective that produces very important and relevant websites and online initiatives, I found a link to Public Resource. At first this looks like a simple and strange site.
However, when you click on one of the logo's you find an open letter to a government institutions.
The letter(s) deals with the right a culturual and public institution had of keeping information from the public (which is in essence the funder of the institution).
Here's a fragment:
We write to you today on the subject of SmithsonianImages.SI.Edu, a government ecommerce site built on a repository of 6,288 images of national significance. The site is breathtaking in scope, with imagery ranging from the historic cyanotypes of Edward Muybridge to historic photos from aviation, natural history, and many other fields. If the Smithsonian Institution is our attic, these photos are our collective scrapbook.
However, the web site imposes draconian limits on the use of this imagery. The site includes a copyright notice that to the layman would certainly discourage any use of the imagery. While personal, non-commercial use is purportedly allowed, it requires a half-dozen clicks before the user is allowed to download a low-resolution, watermarked image. An image without the watermark and at sufficient resolution to be useful requires a hefty fee, manual approval by the Smithsonian staff, and the resulting invoice specifically prohibits any further use without permission."
The result of this is:
"Because the overwhelming majority of the images in SmithsonianImages.SI.Edu appear to be public domain, and because the draconian notices on the site have a dramatic chilling effect on use of these historic images and national symbols, we have performed several actions that we hope will allow others to examine the public domain status:

1. We downloaded all 6,288 images, scraped the metadata from the html pages, and embedded the metadata in the .jpg headers. These images are low-resolution and contain a watermark, and were all previously available on-line.
2. The images were uploaded to Flickr, a popular photo sharing site.
   http://www.flickr.com/photos/publicresourceorg/
3. The images were loaded into 262 contact sheets and formatted with a cover for printing as an e-book. The book is available for free download or a printed copy may be ordered.
   http://stores.lulu.com/publicresource
4. A tarball of the images was created and is available by download by ftp or http.
   http://bulk.resource.org/si.edu/
   ftp://resource.org/bulk/si.edu/
5. Three of the high-resolution, non-watermarked images of Muybridge Cyanotypes were purchased, and a series of derivative works were created and posted.
   http://www.flickr.com/photos/publicresourceorg/collections/72157600218951688/
   ftp://resource.org/bulk/si.edu/

when I went to the flickr site, I found this fantastic image (among thousands of others!)

Private Art

A Collection of WWII Letters

To and From The Home Front.

Map Site:Map Mundi and nice example of data map

Map of .com names in New York
Copyright: Matthew Zook, 2000 <br>


 There are currently over 18 million .com domains registered on the Internet, along with another 11 million domains of varying sorts [1]. What is the geography of these domains - who owns them and where are they concentrated? Clearly domain names are a valuable commodity (and some of them are very valuable, for example the $7.5 million paid for business.com or $3 million for loans.com), but they are also a useful indicator for tracking Internet content production. Mapping domain name geography provides valuable insights into where the decision makers, the new jobs, and the money are, helping identify which neighborhoods, cities, regions and countries are leading the pack on the Internet. Matthew Zook is a researcher at the forefront of measuring and mapping domain names in his Internet Geography Project [2]. Map of the Month asked him recently about his project.

      Zook has been running a bi-annual survey of the geography of domain names since the summer of 1998. Using the billing address for the domain name registration he is able to pinpoint the location at which it is owned. From this dataset he undertakes a variety of analysis and mapping from the global scale down to the local neighborhood level. An example of one of his maps shows the detailed geography of domain names in Manhattan, New York, at the level of individual streets and neighborhoods. The blue dots represent clusters of domain names at individual street addresses, with the size of the dot denoting the number of domains at that location.

taken from a great site about maps

the lone star flag

<br>
Nice Design for a new American flag.
This is the rationale behind it:<br>
<br>

The suffrage flag was my inspiration for a 2004 re-appropriation of the American flag which, since 9/11, seems to have been co-opted by conservatives to represent pro-war nationalism, “family values”, etc. I’m taking it back. The flag below has only the 6th star, for Massachusetts (the 6th state), the only state which allows gay marriages. I’ll republish this flag with more stars when more states follow suit.<br>
taken from the site of Carl Tashian, who also has a nice idea of displaying photo;s

Blast II

from picture parade 1953

blast

</br><h3>"It is that beauty that great pets dream about but describe most poorly and inadequately"</h3><br><h1>Thomas F. Farrell, <A Los Alamos Laboratory official speaking to the press after the first atomic blast on july 1945 at the trinity site in Jornada del Muerto, New Mexico</h1><br>

A site which has a large amount of nuclear bomb test images.

illustration teacher

a great interview with a gifted illustration/comic artist teacher.
form the blog of cedric cohnstadt

Itunes link, look for episode #395

the interviewer is a suck-up so try to only listen to the man itself.

tools for sale here

buy them here!

Craig Thompson's tools of the trade

taken from his site

Carson Ellis, works for sale

mjummy work.
Her site
Her Blog

Fast Company: a rolemodel agency

a brilliant story of a brilliant agency

two more links on woodblocks

http://ana.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/ http://grandstreamdreams.blogspot.com/2007/10/japanese-woodblocks.html

How to make a reproduction of a Hokusai

This Japanese site shows the making of a reproduction of a Japanese woodblock print by Hokusai. Although it is not understandable (in Japanese), the process is made clear in movies.

Carl Larsson

Beautiful illustrations by Carl Larsson (1853-1919)

pedalboard Trainspotting

I didn't know this was a hobby (profession) but it seems there's people out there taking pictures of other people's pedal boards. For die-hard hardware fans. Me, for one, I like seeing this stuff. It's like technical porn :)

great site about futurism (not the art movement)

Nina sent me this site. It gives great insight in the shape of dreams and visions of the future. Technique driven utopia's and social structural societies. Beautifullly illustrated aswell

nice animation

http://icono-clast.blogspot.com/2007/06/supercool-animation.html

Krtek Molletje

what's it like to be on top?

check this out!

Zdeněk Miler

Zdeněk Miler is de bedenker en maker van de tekenfilms van "Molletje" (krtek). Ik heb vier delen aangeschaft van deze serie op DVD voor mijn zoontje. De verhaaltjes zijn stilistisch een wonder van technisch vernuft en originaliteit. Het zijn mooie compacte verhalen met veel fantasie waarin objecten net als in het werk van bijvoorbeeld Saul Steinberg een rol kunnen spelen in meerdere realiteiten (bijvoorbeeld in een twee dimensionale en een 3 dimensionale). Er staat iets meer informatie over Zdeněk Miler en zijn werk hier: http://www.tsjechie.net/board/f31/krtek-s-schepper-zdenek-miler-3475.html Later meer, en ook wat plaatjes!

Take a look at this movieclip. Looks really nice. I have never seen a Charles Burns Image move before. Look chilling. http://www.primalinea.com/pdn/images/peursteaser.htm I got the link for this teaser from the weblog of fantagraphics (the comics publisher) They also have some images that make your mouth either water or your jaw drop open: This is original art by Gilbert Hernandez. Just a stack ful of brilliant original art. Wow. I can't believe this one. One of those beautiful pages from the book Palestine by Joe Sacco, painstakingly rendered, is thrown in a box. According to the writer of the blog by Joe Sacco himself. Send me a line Joe, if there's more art you want to get rid off!!!

very good piece of writing about the counterculture movement

The Stone Age - Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll by Louis Menand http://www.totse.com/en/ego/can_you_dance_to_it/stoneage.html

good poster

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fe/Basic_instinct_2.jpg

gallery of horrors

Nice site with a gallery of crime & horror covers. http://www.samuelsdesign.com/comics/pages/crime-horror/adv-weird_worlds3.htm

cool blog

http://www.nicksherman.com/

nice IT tech site

http://jeremyfain.wordpress.com/

wisdom

Hunter has the right idea

Hunter has the right idea. I want a sticker like that on my Renault Laguna.

I want to do this...

This looks so awesome. Like the only place in the world you'd want to be.

From the same site I posted about yesterday. Photographer's name is Jeff Divine. Photo is from 1974. This is Hawaii.

another one

libraries

this appears the publisher of some of my favourite photobooks:

A collection of photo's from Patrick Tourneboeuf:

cool guitars

The site that also contained Hunter's photo's contains some great picture books

Fishing with Guns

Another Hunter Thompson note. This blog is becoming a HST shrine.

Anyway I found some beautiful Hunter Thompson photo's here

I found them through a cool weblog. While I was looking for some more info on a new Hunter Thompson photobook which only costs 300 dollars..I have to make up my mind if that's worth feeding the small addiction I am building here.

on uncle neil's sound

http://www.thrasherswheat.org/sound.htm

Uncle Neil's battered black beauty

elliot smith documentary

elliot smth gear

I was listening to the new Elliot Smith album, which is brilliant and stunning. Just stole this of a a site. Guitar fetishists info. This is the guitar to buy: ELLIOTT SMITH

When it comes to musical equipment, prolific songwriter Elliott Smith doesn't need a lot of bells and whistles; he prefers to keep things fairly simple. His main acoustic guitar is a Yamaha, the model number of which escapes him. "It's a real standard-looking guitar," he says. (it is actually a YAMAHA FG-180)

"It's big and loud and made out of light wood. I don't use a pick when I play most of the time, and I chew my fingernails, so it's a good guitar for me because it's really loud." He recently expanded his collection with a Norman 12-string (La Si Do, 4240 Sere St., St. Laurent, PQ H4T 1A6, Canada; [514] 343-5560; sales@lasido.com).

Smith uses John Pearse medium-gauge, phosphor-bronze strings. "They seem to last longer," he explains. "I get mediums because I tune all the strings down a step. That happened by accident a couple of years ago. I didn't have my own guitar for quite awhile, and I'd play my girlfriend's guitar. I don't have perfect pitch and I didn't realize that it was way lower, so the E string was actually a D, the A string was a G, and so on. So, nowadays I just tune that way, and when I play older songs that were written in normal tuning, I put a capo on."

As far as amplification is concerned, Smith sees no need for pricey, complex equipment. "I go direct," he says. "I have one of those pickups that fits in the soundhole, a Lawrence. It was real cheap, like 40 bucks. It's the only one of those I've seen that has a metal cover instead of wood or plastic. I like it a lot better than a bridge pickup. It doesn't sound glassy or slick." (Editor's note: the Lawrence acoustic pickup is no longer available.)

(actually I have a photo of Elliot Smith playing a rare earth Fishman acoustic Guitar Pick up)

--Roger Len Smith

More info here:

clapton in de seventies

zat te luisteren naar No Reason To Cry van Clapton. prachtige plaat waar zo'n beetje alle leden van The Band aan hebben meegedaan.

Bio'tje van Clapton

http://www.vandaagindemuziek.nl/Eric_Clapton_70.htm

the most amazing graph I ever saw

I'm not an information designer. Don't have the stamina for it. But when I see this gorgeous image it makes me want to display all sorts of gibberish ridiculous and obscene information in beautiful graphs like these. CLICK!

rip off?

This beautiful though bitter poster campaign for amnesty looks familiar... I just found it here. These people make good work. The Red Cross campaign is identical though better I think. Don't know who was first. I like them both. Very Jeff Wall-ish. Very trendy. Don't know if the impact is as big as the agencies are pretending with their environmental semi 3d solutions. It's nice for their portfolio though and it does make one wonder I guess.

Battersea Power Station

Battersea Powerstation is the factory used for the cover of Pink Floyd's album ANIMALS. Beautiful intimidating building. Stalin would be proud. Looks like a 19th century castle.

what do we call ourselves now

Interesting article by Steven Heller in eye magazine about the title graphic designer.

It seems designers use this title less and less. And there's definitely no consensus on an alternative.

nice quote

The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.

There's also a negative side.

Hunter S. Thompson

curious piece of writing here... good though. The doctor would be proud.

Devil Ascends to Heaven to Battle the Almighty

Hunter S. Thompson, the so-called 'gonzo journalist' known for his immoral advocacy of drugs, wild uninhibited sex and gunplay, has used his dupes in the amoral, secular humanist liberal Hollywood to blast his way to heaven to fight God to the death.



His Hollywood moral relativists built a huge Tower of Babel on Thompson's ranch, topped with Thompson's favoured false idol of evil: the double-thumbed red hand, pictured below.



Built by Johnny Depp, a famous actor known for his portrayal of characters unable to prevent their own excesses and moral decay, the tower of hate blew Thompson's remains into the sky from a 150 ft vantage point.



"He'll never make it," predicted brother Iguana, an expert on liberal entertainment cults. "Heaven is infinite, and these evil cult instruments from science can't ever project him far enough to reach the blinding light of infinite truth. Dust in the wind. All he is is dust in the wind."



"People downwind will need to be exorcised," he added. "That's costly, but my ministry can help."



But what if he did make it to the Almighty?



"My money is on God", says Iguana. "He's got the most righteous uppercut of them all, and you never know where he's coming from. One moment he's jabbing right, and the next, he's a southpaw. God can do that, you know. He's all powerful. And he knows kung fu."



Yes, Thompson, for all his highly concentrated evil, is expected to lose, joining the ranks of other failed would-be usurpers of all-that-is-right-and-good such as Elvis Presley, John Lennon and Peter Jennings.



Jud McCloud is The Wingnuterer's writer-at-large.

more

beautiful mathematical patterns

Ravensburg Madonna of Mercy

Michaël Erhart

1480's

Painted limewood, height 135 cm

Staatliche Museen, Berlin

http://www.interestingideas.com/roadside/roadside.htm

http://www.luckymojo.com/stonehenge.html

http://www.eccentricamerica.com/links.htm

/>

the paranoia of Hunter Thompson?

http://www.indybay.org/olduploads/hunter_thompson_aug29_2002.mp3