Sunday, October 19, 2008
Wikipedia Presidential Debate Jokesters
Everyone be cruising the net on their laps during TV time these days, especially the web 2.0 practical jokesters. Well played guys, well played.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Adobe Type Contest Romania
*I was trying 6-7 months ago to convert it into a font, but is a pain in the ass. Sorry guys."
I haven't seen the winning type, but if I were judging this would be a winning contender without a doubt. Check the full series.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
High Dynamic Range
[An example of an exposure series for input into an HDR algorithm. Wikipedia/CC]
The pictures are compiled using programs like Adobe CS3 or Photomatix where a new image is created which highlights the correct exposure on a huge array of differently exposed areas. The brightest bluest sky exposure is apparent alongside the richest color textures of the darkest shadows of a tree. The result is breathtaking, almost taking on the appearance of an illustration or painting.
An HDR shot in Del Mar California by my BOY, Dillon Morris.]
Often times HDRs have very useful applications other than just making a picture look epic. Photographers use HDR to capture the inside of churches to show the detail of the very bright stain glass with the much darker inside architecture in one image. HDR images are also used to render ultra enriched 3D gaming environments found in many of todays first person shooter games.
[Church detail illuminated by HDR. Photo digitalcameratracker.com
Friday, April 18, 2008
The Changing Nature of Online Music
Pandora is another unique music interface that disc jockeys for online visitors based on a formula called the 'Music Genome Project'. Based on a number of criteria including melody, harmony, arrangement and lyrics, stations are created by typing in an artist after which the system shuffles through a series of songs from different artists most corresponding with the style and sound of your initial launching point. Paging through the songs too quickly will give you an error as Pandora has secured the rights for only a limited amount of listens designated per hour for each user. In the battle between the effort to use free file sharing and record companies selling music for outrageous prices, interesting compromises have come. Pandora is one of those innovative and groundbreaking compromises. People listen for free, and find music they like, which they then can purchase, with just a few clicks.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Dissapointment in the 4th Branch
My roomate started up the debate on YouTube in our living room this morning and listening to it from the other room I was quickly keen to the words reverberating through the house. For the first 10 minutes I can remember listening, the moderators George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Gibson asked some of the most irrelevant questions I have ever heard spoken at a political debate function. From Hillary's exxagerated accounts of the dangers faced in her Bosnian visit, to questioning why Obama doesn't wear a flag on his suit, it seemed that an immense amount of time was spent on issues having nothing to do with presidential policies or pertinent political issues. Stephanopoulos later called these questions 'electibility questions' which he believed very important to the political process. In reality 'electibility questions' are incidental, minor issues that have little to do with the overarching leadership qualities of the candidates and our petty attempts to highlight controversy and boost voetship. The cutting edge blogging super center the The HuffingtonPost has a great collection of stories on the issue as well as immense comment feedback from everyday Americans. Politics sucks.
They Rule
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Breckenridge Spring 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
AppleTV
AppleTV is leading the way in developing a standardized Internet gateway for your living room. On demand technologies and Internet equipped television services have been around for over a decade. However, all of these systems coupled computer like functions with content from service providers who already dominated cable and satellite programming like DirecTV, Cox or Comcast in each area. The difference with AppleTV is that content is browsed, paid for and viewed in a completely unique interface running on the iTunes network. From my personal experimentation with my own AppleTV that I purchased in December, I think that the future of Internet TV systems will be defined by the ease of use of the hardware that links the content from the Internet to your living room and the content it offers.
Much of the current commentaries and research on what AppleTV will mean for television media was done before Apple’s latest firm wire update was released. The genius of AppleTV is that with a simple software update that can be initiated from your couch, Apple can upgrade all past AppleTVs with new media service programs. This latest update, has addressed AppleTV’s main, initial complaint, the inability for users to browse content directly on AppleTV. Previously all media had to be downloaded and managed from the computer base station, which was then automatically synced to the hard drive. Now, Apple has created a vivid browsing interface for movies, music, TV shows, Podcasts, Flickr albums and YouTube videos. The ‘My Movies’ option, for content that used to be managed on your computer, has been relegated to the last choice on the browsing lists as it is evident Apple wants you paying for and directly downloading all of your newest content. Movies can be rented for $3.99 where they sit on your hard drive for 30 days until you hit play, after which you have 24 hours to finish them. They are then deleted and returned to the iTunes store. TV Shows can be purchased for $1.99 an episode or by varying lump sums depending on season length. Music is the standard $.99 per song $9.99 per album and most pod casts are free.
With this newest update there is no doubt that Apple is now committed to expanding the potential of AppleTV to be an Internet media gateway for the masses. In comparison with Joost, a highly anticipated Internet television system which I was able to test yesterday, the programming on AppleTV is currently much deeper and its on my 32” high definition living room screen, while Joost is only on my computer. But the question is, will the average Joe, who will be buying most of his content from AppleTV, think that the advertising free, a la carte prices are fair and see it as an alternative to normal television; probably not for a while. AppleTVs movie rental and television shows can be compared to OnDemand, a system that people have been used to for quite some time now. What AppleTV must bolster is its free or very cheap programming that will supplement the premium pay per view options so users do not feel like they are constantly throwing two and three dollar bills down the drain. Apple has been able to do that to an extent with its Podcast selection and YouTube feature. All Podcasts are free and include everything from action sports video blogs to 30 minute Anderson Cooper reports to old re-runs of Comedy Central’s The Man Show.
This Podcast section is the most promising element of iTunes and AppleTV because anyone can make and upload a podcast. This is very exciting for the reinvigoration of the public sphere. Podcasts are a refreshing hope for young, independent and technically savvy journalists, writers and film makers looking distribute their works. While discussing his new book “The Assault on Reason” with Jon Stewart, Al Gore stated, “Internet is a beacon of hope for democracy due to low entry barriers and active contributive efforts.” The technologies that make it possible to share this new Internet media easily and efficiently in the company of family and friends in front of the big screen will be in demand in the future. It is evident that Jobs intends to use iTunes, iPod Video, iPhone and AppleTV to continue to redefine how we get our media. Jobs has began conversations with Jeff Zucker of NBC universal again after their content was pulled from iTunes last fall for fear that “Jobs would ruin the video business the same way he’d destroyed the music business.” Jobs commitment to resolve stalemates and secure premium content after the writer’s strike has ended is promising for iTunes and AppleTV’s future. I believe that the general discontent with mundane mainstream programming will convince users to experiment with internet gateways that offer a la carte and independent programming like AppleTV in the years to come.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Matt Yerman
We caught up with the 21 year old designer via email to ask him a few questions about life:
What's your name and where do you currently reside?
Matt Yerman / San Jose, CA
How many years have you been designing?
5
Personally, from following your work, I know you work with digital art tools like Photoshop and Illustrator alot. Lately, freehand sketch work has been finding its way into your finished products. What percentage of time would you say you spend freehand drawing vs.creating on the comp during your typical work sessions?
It all really depends on the project. I'd have to say that sketching is about 30% of my work. What really consumes time is the nitty-gritty vector work. Taking a sketch and turning it into a digital illustration can take up plenty of time.
You have gotten some great media coverage lately in magazines like Beautiful Decay and on a few blogs. What avenues do you believe has brought you to the attention of these editors? Has it been more from freelance client work or from personal pieces you have published on the internet?
Both freelance and personal pieces are responsible for my coverage. I got my work into B/D through a designer friend I met on myspace. Myspace is a great social networking tool and it helped me meet and interact with designers before the creation of the Behance network.
You currently attend San Jose state, what are you studying there?
Graphic design! I haven't quite decided on a minor yet though. Maybe photography?
How have you viewed your collegiate art education so far? Has it changed how you feel about working for school vs working for a client vs working on your personal projects?
I started off college pretty bummed about all the prerequisite classes I had to take. But now that I am actually in design classes, its done nothing but help. I've learned how important conceptualism should be in your work. If your concept isn't strong, or doesn't make sense, then what you've put on the computer screen or t-shirt is visual masturbation. Have a message and relay that message strongly, so that everyone can understand.
I know from personal experience that grinding away at the computer on design work too frequently, burns me out. What influences, inspirations or motivational sources do you turn to when you feel this
way?
Sometimes I check out design and type blogs to see other design out there. But usually I just reach into the mini fridge and grab an energy drink. Its gotten to the point where I really don't have time to feel burnt out. Too much stuff to do all the time!
You got any shout outs?
To all the Jiberish homies! You guys are awesome and have taken my design to a whole new level. Also to my awesome designer girlfriend who gives me tasty input all the time. And I guess I'll through one out to the family. My parents fork out tons of groceries to keep me well fed while I'm away from the house. Gotta eat right!
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Newsmap
This map is an data visualization offering from the Japanese graphic design and information design firm Maramushi. This application is an effort to codify the content of the Google News aggregator into a visual interface. Content areas are color coded with varying color temperatures to measure currency of the headlines. An aggregator is a mechanism that harvests RSS feeds from, respected news agencies, independent blogs and podcasts.
The Google News aggergator represents the collection of of a huge array of respected syndicated news feeds and thus offers a good cross section of reporting trends across the Internet. Varying box sizes containing common headlines indicate how many articles related to or on the topic have streamed into Google New's Aggregator.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
JO Super Sessions
[Simon Dumont on the Cheese Wedge jump. Photo: Felix Rioux]
Over ten days, the ten skiers have been and will continue to jump during the best light while their associated teams of photographers and videographers scramble the mountainside to secure media. Then, each photographer will present a slideshow, and each videographer presents a two to three minute edit that will be judged on creativity, cinemetography, storyline and skiing action. The winning team will take home $20,000.
[University of Colorado's very own, Mike Clarke throwing a Cork 9 in the Rhythm Section. Photo: Felix Rioux]
This contest format is being tried frequently as of late, recognizing the power of video and photography in capturing the world's most impressive athletic action, breathtaking scenery and general positive vibe that comes with a venue and competition like this. The best skiing probably won't determine the winner, neither the best photography or videography, but instead the team's ability to work together to create the most stimulating and visually captivating media. No judging on the skiing alone while on the mountain is conducted so the importance of videographers and photographers roles are reinforced immensely. The continued development of home editing stations, digital SLR photography and the internet has allowed the emmergence of these competitions to flourish.
[Crazy European hang-glide follow cams. Sammy Carlson crazy american ski jumping. Photo Felix Rioux]
This competition comes in a year when Jon has also conducted an amazingly successful experiment in online action sports media. He created a video blog that was updated at many important weeks of the season and bi-weekly after that. Thousands of viewers tuned in to every video to stay informed about what was going on in skiing. The value of a high quality, well maintained frequently updated blog was instantly recognized by Jon's sponsors as they realized their products and one of their star athletes was being exposed to viewers everyday. There is no doubt that in the future, that these video blogs, will be prevalent across many areas of action sports along with their potential for periodical news updates, online fictional drama and just about anything else a television station broadcasts. The effort to monetize these free blogs lies in banner advertising around the blogs as well as product placement within the videos. The role of product placement in video content will grow in this framework of free blogs.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Monetizing Online Magazines
[Skimboarder online Magazine. Dave Levin's stab at an online collection of photography, writing and design for one of the most obscure and insanely sick sports ever.]
The attempt to monetize these creative ventures is often a challenge. With more websites and online publications selling advertising than ever, and sites where creative content is uploaded by users and distributed for free, leads to fewer advertising dollars available to these online magazines everday. Trying to maintain a digital magazine when, there is more and more demand for content because the internet has stretched talent across a huge spectrum, while there is a dispersion of advertising revnue and hence less money to find that content. Dave Levin, creator and editor of Skimboarder.com faces another problem, his sport is such a niche activity that he only gets 10,000 views per month. To help change the dynamics of his site Levin says, "I'm developing a community based website; testing out its functionality for skimboarder.com." This site could be compared to NewSchoolers.com a successful freestyle skiing community that has used usernames, forums, media uploading and editorial stories to create a teeming internet info village. With these types of sites, monetizing is more lucrative because users frequently return and you can track user logins and activity and then vend that activity to advertisers.
[HoneyEatYourSalad.org a completely free and advertising void design and photography mag.]
Other truly dedicated magazine teams on the Internet publish advertising free magazines that are a testament to the creative spirit. Most of these magazines are built with royalty free submissions from artists all over the world. Magazines like HoneyEatYourSalad.org epitomize how easy and simple the Internet has made publishing e-zines. The magazine flash engine is really cool.
[The work of Emilie Bjork from HEYS.org]
Friday, March 14, 2008
Net Nuetrality, Is It a Real Issue?
[Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's new energy efficient data centers]
This sounds like a sensible idea to some advocates, but there is a looming threat with any legislation that allows companies to control the availability of a supported website over my independent peer's. The idea of such a restricted network is a chilling thought for any internet user. The success of independent speech and start up company triumph is what has given me hope in this truly free medium since its development just 12 short years ago. I don't care whether activities are illegal or not, the status of the internet as completely unrestrained by the ISPs is crucial to the health of the public sphere, and any attempt to moderate that will be devastating. ISPs should merely provide me access, to the most amazingly diverse, massive and captivating information network our species has ever created.
[ISP Time Warner's HQ in New York City]
Friday, March 7, 2008
The Imaginary Foundation
The Imaginary Foundation conducts its business from San Francisco however, which leads me to believe their About section and manifesto may be simply a back story explaining the companies anonymity and visual ideologies, developed by a much less sensational group. This speculation is simply that, a unreferenced hypothesis to what I think the Imaginary Foundation might really be. Although they claim to maintain anonymity and concentrate on producing their visual messages, I feel that if the staff behind Imaginary Foundation was as elite and sophistcated as their description suggests, I would be able to find news and info beyond bloggers simply commenting on their shirts.
Regardless of Imaginary's staff or its roots, they certainly know how to develop phenomenally positive, inspiring and colorful fabric and art prints. Many of their pieces are parallel to the Dadaist ideals that they pledge commitment to, with both vibrant and distressed tributes to higher thought, art processes and creative realms. Much of their work also pulls from surreal and post modernist ideals.
Check out Imaginary Foundation on the web @ imaginaryfoundation.com
Wikipedia Chaperones
When I ask Wikipedia haters to explain why they are so disgruntled, they usually respond something like, "Any random sketch ball can go in there and add entries." My response to that usually is, "that sounds like unrestrained freedom of the public sphere to me." Exactly something that we need more of.
But in all reality I know that Wikipedia does not have true, unrestrained freedom of the public sphere, because if it did, Wikipedia would be unusable. It would be riddled with inaccuracies, cluttered with shameless advertising entries and ravaged by formatting incompetence and redundant inconsistencies that come from multiple authoring of single entries. Wikipedia is instead held in shape by a small oligarchy of top contributors that have created much of Wikipedia's entries and are responsible for making sure it stays clean and relevant. This is what gives Wikipedia its credibility, a vital ingredient in a successful information website in this day and age.
Some might consider this elite group of Wikipedia gurus an injustice to the Wikipedia public sphere appeal. However, these hundred or so individuals were not selected by a government agency or corporate exec board, they were simply granted this power for their frequent use and Wikipedia proficiency. In a media landscape dominated by corporate cop outs, infotainment brain drain and pandering to advertiser agendas, this uncommercial model for moderator delegation is monumental. Another valuable feature of Wikipedia is that if one of these top elites sees an entry that has problems, they will let the entry stand, and publish warnings with explanations at the top of the page. Often times this is either, lack of citation notices, "some experts say" generalizations, and bias warnings. The warnings encourage users to submit their corrections to the problems.
I can understand the position to leave Wikipedia out of scholarly bibliographies, but any other discontent is completely unjustified. For a democratic, user regulated information hub, that is free, easy, quick and advertiser free, Wikipedia is second to non. This masterpiece in the latest development of democratic internet communication power will be a corner stone for the future development of credible, reliable, legitimate information networks.
Many of the thoughts that I have just written, were stemmed from reading an article by Chris Wilson on these elite "chaperones" of the Web 2.0 world. Follow up by reading his indepth article.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Jiberish 08 Media K!t
The Jiberish Staff has really been stepping things up with new over seas production connections, courting approval for a formidable business credit line and a continued "Anything Possible" excited attitude about growing their company in the fierce and challenging textile and garment industry.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Appolgizes to YourHub.com
Armory Location
This is where I go to school. But stay away! Anyone who shows up to find me after seeing my location on a blog is a creeeeper.
Dissapointing Experience at YourHub.com
Registering was pretty straight forward. Although discomforting for some, I think that the requirement to put in my entire address made sense as YourHub can be a site where controversial content must be traced and controlled. The next problem came when attempting to put image links into my news story. First, I simply copied the blogger image html and on preview noticed that it was not translating to an image. I went back and simplified using the standard 'img src' code. When this did not translate to an image in preview I became very frustrated. I used their recommended 'classic' image uploader that allowed me to write captions and give credit. This system worked alright but the inability to dictate where my images fall in relation to text seemed to be a huge restraint as I believe a key journalistic function of any website should be to carry readers on a textual and image based pathway of your choosing down the page.
The most disappointing problem with YourHub was its inability to translate basic 'a href' links. I wanted to point people to both the NY Times article and the Obey website but was instead greeted with HTML code translated visibly to my post. Whatever YourHub's reasoning is that they don't accommodate basic HTML links, it is unacceptable. The essence of the internet is the ability to link people away from your site to further info. Google sees links to and from sites as a pivotal criteria for a respectable website and hundreds of thousands of publishing systems including Blogger, Wikipedia and nearly all forums respect the ability to dictate linking. Even if YourHub doesn't want you directing people elsewhere they should at least have a system that sees alligator brackets and cancels them from the final posting. This was immensely frustrating, so frustrating that I left the link codes in my post and will never go back unless forced to.
Loveworn
My favorite of Mario's applications are his distressed dark colors placed on water stain canvases. Much of his work on these backdrops are reminiscent of the works of influential surrealist artist Rene Magritte. They both are technicians of realistic representations of human forms often experimenting with hyperbolic exaggerations of one or two anatomical elements or playing with attaching unrelated objects that bring new life and character to the subjects.
Hugo's for hire freelance skills have been courted by some of the world's most prestigious companies. His clients include Dolce&Gabanna, MTV, Uniqlo and Gas as Interface.
Visit Mario Hugo's website to view more of his works.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Obey Obama Poster
The New York Times has profiled the poster and no doubt continued to add significance to what Shepard's poster project means. Some believe that his poster will increase Barack's appeal to young people, the demographic most influenced by Shepard's work. One woman on the NY times comment board expressed her dislike for the poster because it was, "Too reminiscent of the old Communist posters." She continues, "All that’s missing is a hammer and sickle or “Workers of the World, Unite!”
Obama deserves something fresher than this."
It is the cultivated hate for communist ideas and Shepards's style parallel to communist propaganda that makes his work so powerful. His style is one of clean vector representations of social movements, poltiical figures and global commentaries. He is best known for his wheatpaste applications in public places technically considered vandalism but with Shepard's rise in prestige has now been identified as a respectable art form. Shepard will continue to pour his heart and soul into his work, stirring controversy over a myriad of modern issues that face our nation and our globe.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Jason Thielke
Being able to make a living doing art is truly the essence of living the dream. Just about any developing artist would give the world to quit their day job and follow the passion of art, and many do. When that day job can be design and expression for the sake of design and expression, void of corporate input is even another level of freedom. As a graphic designer myself I can say that even if I am dressing up a garment, print advertisement or DVD cover for pay, I am proud to feel that everything but the benefactors logo or type is my creation. But Thielke has managed to take his skill to the next level and let his name and his creations stand for themselves.
Jason Thielke observes, documents, and designs urban landscapes and their inhabitants, providing commentary on modern life. Thielke has always been inspired by his surroundings, at times overwhelmed by them. Jason’s strong emotional connection to the built environment and its’ inevitable rise and fall provide the foundation for his growing body of work.
Thielke’s work is linear, layered, dynamic and multi-media in nature. It encompasses both contemporary and traditional techniques much like the architectural design of today. His process of drawing, composing, and eventually transferring images to wood is parallel to the planning, deconstruction and reconstruction phases of urban gentrification.
He works with gel transfers and much of his pieces begin in Illustrator and Photoshop. The gel transfer process is crude and finnicky that is mastered by hours of practice. The imperfections with the gel transfer process when it is applied on the large scale with the detailed intricacy of Thielke's work adds a unique grunge element to some of his final pieces.
More of Thielke's work can be found at his website and a limited series of garments can be found at ABSTRACTmall.com
Friday, February 8, 2008
Behance
Behance is currently on an invite only system for contributors which keeps the site free of mediocre content. Visitors are welcome to browse all areas of the site and use the trademark appreciation rating. The genius of Behance is that the invite only system coupled with the legitmacy of behance.com a showcase for activity on the behance.net network has created an exclusive community that the best designers and photographers want to be a part of.
Advertising projects, web page design and product development for the best companies and firms in the world grace Behance.
Friday, February 1, 2008
On The Verge Video Blog
The series will be a new chapter in ABSTRACTmall's experimentation with internet technologies enhancing the shopping experience of the website as a whole. As a clothing distributor first, ABSTRACTmall is excited to pounce on any opportunity that broadens unique content available on their system. In the fall of 2007, ABSTRACTmall distributed a skiing project, theSPOTL!GHTproject for $.99 a download through their download gateway. "On The Verge" will be free for all visitors but, "this exciting new opportunity to experiment with a periodical video cast series leaves opportunities for us to monetize projects like this so better and better content can become available through this unique service" says Court Rye of ABSTRACTmall. Shooting begins at the end of February and the first episode should be available about a month after that.