With the worldwide success of the Avengers movie and Marvel’s history of iconic characters, it’s no surprise that people from every corner of the creative globe have created their own tributes, often from a wildly different point of view from the character’s creators.
Sometime around Christmas, you may have seen Australian illustrator/animator Mel Roach’s reindeer gifs. Well if you liked those, then brace for impact because her latest project Happy Happy Yay Yay has landed! This makes me want to get punched by a rainbow!
Great flamboozles, it’s OUT!
I hope you’re all wearing your iron socks for this!
Happy Happy Yay Yay is now OFFICIALLY on the internet, so be a pal and spread it around. Kapow!
Click on the pic, or go to this Youtube link.
These mules are bibliomulas - or “book-mules” - and they’re doing their bit to change the world by helping people in isolated areas of Venezuela to read.
As much as I’d love to imagine them sitting on a beanbag reading Roald Dahl to an enraptured audience, instead they’re draped with a roll of books which they carry to remote villages as a mobile-library of sorts. The next step - and this is already happening - is for the mules to carry laptops and mobile phones too, as the villagers get connected to limited internet.
“Imagine if people in the poor towns in the valley can e-mail saying how many tomatoes they’ll need next week, or how much celery.
“The farmers can reply telling them how much they can produce. It’s blending localisation and globalisation.”
I thought this was quite appropriate, with today being not just World Book Day, but also the date that Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare died (as well as Bill Shakespeare’s probable birthdate). Mainly though, I just think they’re cute.
Amazing new video from Absolut, showing what I hope is dog racing of the future. The effects are amazing and the animation of the robotic dogs is mid-blowingly good.
The whole thing makes me rather want a drink.
Music courtesy of Swedish House Mafia.
Great video of the founders of Instagram. Great to see someone putting pride in their work and their own morals before money. Even if Kevin’s version of “less money along the way” is probably still staggering ;)
Cool video from May 2011 given by the founders of Instagram.
Great quote at around 45:30 from Kevin:
I still don’t make as much money as I was offered out of school - the job I didn’t take. I’ve made decisions along the way, that have taken less money along the way, because I love what I’m doing and hopefully that pays back some day.
A few days ago Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion.
We’ve all been here - left high and dry by a client who thinks payment is a casual affair that can be dealt with whenever they want. It’s the phrase we all want to say; “Fuck you, pay me”.
Thankfully this hasn’t happened often in my case as the majority of my freelance clients/employers have been surprisingly amazing, but when it has this print by Rafael Ruiz captures the mood perfectly. The lettering particularly reminds me of 80’s hair-metal album covers.
As a guitar/bass player, I’ve been asked by several friends why some guitars are (often vastly) more expensive than others. Hopefully this video goes some way to explaining the craftsmanship and hard, skilled work that goes into each guitar at Fender and other companies.
Even if not, it’s a great video giving a very brief overview of a genuinely interesting process.
(Source: freshnessmag.com)
IE: The Browser You Loved To Hate
Say what you will about Microsoft, they do funny self-deprecation like no-one else. I’m actually genuinely looking forward to IE 10.
Though some of the examples in this great article over at The Cool Hunter are pretty questionable (they will look dogshit in 10 years), I wholeheartedly agree with the premise. Leeds, the city that I’ve always lived near and recently moved to, is full of stunning buildings, new and old. But the city was known for a time for being the birthplace of a style that I won’t even go as far as calling architecture.
Does the building enhance the surrounding area or make it worse? Will the building still look great 10, 15 or 20 years from now?
With the growth of the financial sector in the 1980’s, new buildings sprang up around Leeds to house them. An interim style hailing the city’s Victorian heritage was adopted, complete with orange-red brickwork, steeply sloped roofs of slate, the style spread through the country and is almost universally hated. Still applied to modern apartment blocks, cheap-looking new-build banks and everything inbetween, the style is barely any better than the concrete blocks that dominated in the 60’s and 70’s.
Yet for some reason, property developers and council councils still allow these characterless, ugly buildings - and countless other of equally soulless styles - to be built.
We see property developers rushing to get their building up, wanting to make a quick sale and profit, and not really caring or thinking about the aesthetics of the building.
While I don’t think our streets should be littered with gimmicky clusters of mis-shapes, I’d love to see some originality, some care put into new buildings. Something that will highlight the beautiful British buildings we already have, something that will bring people and services to flocking to buy, improving areas all over. And something that won’t look terrible in 10 years - after all, we’re the ones who have to look at and work in them.
If you’re looking for something for the walls of your living room, you could do much worse than taking a look at the Hello Poster Show. Not only are there dozens of amazing looking prints, but each one is limited to 30 and - perhaps best of all - the money raised through sales supports charities and goes back into the community.
Great art, great causes. Lovely, really, isn’t it?