» michael

Lin Yu Chun and William Shatner sing Total Eclipse of the Heart

michael — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 19:30:53 +0000

My brain can’t even process this right now. Lin Yu Chun and William Shatner sing a duet of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” Chun exploded on the scene with his better-than-Whitney-live performance of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.”

Check this out while I get back to letting my head explode:

Designers: 45 Rules for Creating a Logo

michael — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 21:39:27 +0000

45 Rules for Creating a Logo (click picture for link to entire list)

Design is a bit like fashion, going through cycles where a particular style or ethos dominates for a time.

Check out Scott Hansen’s work as ISO50 for retro-organic, combining warmth with modernism (Hansen also records music as Tycho, which sound like the audio equivalent of his design — it’s worth a listen).

Hansen's work as ISO50.

Then there’s corporate America. Here are some logos from the 80′s and 90′s:

Notice any similarities? Do these adhere to the 45 rules?

Compare those to corporate logos of today:

Is it more important to stand out or fit in?

When it comes to rules for good design, it can helpful for guiding the process and making logo use effective and efficient (especially for the many uses of a logo in digital form). But, do rules for design kill innovation? And aren’t they fluid? 20-30 year-olds probably recognize the AT&T logo circa the 80′s and 90′s as distinct from the current one. Same goes for UPS.

AT&T and UPS: Old vs. New

Goodlogo.com is, well, a good logo site for comparing corporate design trends. Check it out. What do you think about logo design and these 45 rules (or should we say: suggestions)?

Gizmodo has the new iPhone after someone left it in a bar

michael — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:29:38 +0000

Apple's new iPhone.

Someone’s in trouble. Picture yourself being trusted to test the new iPhone. Then you head to a bar in Redwood City, get ham-boned and forget your phone. Whoops. What’s the worst that could happen?

Gizmodo getting their hands on it would probably rank high among the worst-case scenarios for Steve Jobs. Somebody’s in trouble.

Complete with secretive X's and such.

There are several new features, mainly regarding design — it’s now squared instead of curved — and the camera, volume control, etc.

From Gizmodo (read the whole article with more pics here):

What’s new

• Front-facing video chat camera
• Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS)
• Camera flash
• Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad)
• Improved display. It’s unclear if it’s the 960×460 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the “Connect to iTunes” screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS.
• What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack
• Split buttons for volume
• Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic

What’s changed

• The back is entirely flat, made of either glass (more likely) or ceramic or shiny plastic in order for the cell signal to poke through. Tapping on the back makes a more hollow and higher pitched sound compared to tapping on the glass on the front/screen, but that could just be the orientation of components inside making for a different sound
• An aluminum border going completely around the outside
• Slightly smaller screen than the 3GS (but seemingly higher resolution)
• Everything is more squared off
• 3 grams heavier
• 16% Larger battery
• Internals components are shrunken, miniaturized and reduced to make room for the larger battery

Nubrella: Because you don’t want to look like an idiot getting wet, right?

michael — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:50:26 +0000

Nubrella: Look a fool. A dry, hands-free fool.

That’s right. You too can look like a pod person thanks to Nubrella (I’ll give $10 to the first person who takes a picture of themselves with an iPod in their Nubrella…whoa, meta — submit pics to info@internwhisperer.com).

These $35 new umbrellas (nu-brella!) are apparently, like, so much better than regular umbrellas because they allow you to use two hands instead of one. That, and the nearly full-body protection Nubrella provides will leave you feeling safe, secure and isolated from your environment and people around you like some kind of urban Bubble Boy.

Check out the demo video below. Good luck navigating New York City streets with an enormous bubble on your head. Though offering shelter from the weather to a lady-friend may offer new levels of intimacy if that’s your game plan you chivalrous dog, you.

Jake Gyllenhaal extols the virtues of bubblehood.

PIXELS: New York City invaded by 8-bit creatures

michael — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:42:52 +0000

We can only hope when robots/computers take over the world, it’s this cool-looking.

China has its Susan Boyle: A chubby, bowl-cut boy sings Whitney Houston

michael — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:36:01 +0000

Credit to Gawker, they found a gem in the round, chubby shape of a bowl-cut Lin Yu Chun — an awkward Chinese teen with pipes of pure gold. The show is Super Star Avenue, a clear American Idol knock-off. Check out the video below for a glimpse into why somebody in the 1600s thought castratos were a good idea.

Will it blend? iPad edition.

michael — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 18:17:36 +0000

The “Will It Blend” iPad edition.

Morning Benders – “Make Excuses” on YourTru.ly

michael — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:13:24 +0000

I love it when I stumble upon music that was no where near my radar. Everyone has their channels: That friend who’s always sporting some serious cans on their head, a favorite blog, a movie, the radio. Ha, j/k, lol (although NPR as per usual brings their A-game for great new music) — no one listens to radio.

Back to the joy of stumbling into new sounds: There’s a lot of music out there. It’s so easy to miss someone/thing or fail to commit the time it takes to check out a band. I usually have a default “they’re probably not great” attitude, which is why I force myself to do some serious detective work every now and then to solve the crime of not having exciting new noises tickle my ears.

Moving on, I’m excited to share the Morning Benders. Check out the video below from the very great site YourTru.ly and enjoy the Morning Benders’ wonderful mix of old and new styles.

Yours Truly Presents: The Morning Benders “Excuses” from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

What the mother eff, indeed.

michael — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 05:26:42 +0000

Art in unexpected places: Meet Claudio Montuori

michael — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 00:31:51 +0000

It’s not like street performers are a new thing (just walk down Pearl St. mall in Boulder), but every now and then, a true artist capable of truly unique, original and beautiful art will strike you.

Claudio Montuori is one-of-a-kind.