The best chefs in the world will tell you a dish is only as good as its ingredients. Every kind of produce tastes better at the height of its season. Tomatoes are juicier, strawberries are sweeter, and pretty much any other fruit, vegetable, or herb is better when eaten during its natural harvest. [Read more...]
Love him or hate him, Quentin Tarantino weaves a pretty mean and engaging story… and in the case of his second major release, the now classic Pulp Fiction, that story is engagingly complex. You could watch the films drug abusing, law breaking crew a load of times and still catch small elements which pop out, unnoticed until the 3rd or 4th screening. Now, designer Noah Daniel Smith has put together an extensive timeline detailing the many intermingling paths of the film characters, tracing their moves through the film in chronological order based on the time each event happens, starting with the epic story of the gold watch and finishing up with a ride on Zed’s chopper. It’s an insightful look into the craft of cinematic storytelling. [Read more...]
With the unemployment rate growing, many people have been looking for work in novel places. What a perfect time for the app Gigwalk to enter the workforce. Gigwalk is an app- available on iPhone, Blackberry, and Android that posts little work “gigs” in your area and pays you through PayPal. The gigs range from photographing local businesses to connecting to Wifi to comparing prices of products at a store’s different locations and more. As I travel I always check the gigs nearby to pick up some extra cash, now that Gigwalk has spread to over 1,405 cities across the 50 states. [Read more...]
Some people really enjoy the holidays and get into the spirit. It’s a time to visit with family and relatives, drink some spiked eggnog, exchange gifts, and pass out on the sofa watching James Bond 007 marathons (why James Bond marathons are always on during the holidays we don’t understand, but fully support). Some people take having a little bit of fun and turn the nob up to 11, one wilder than 10. Cue your parents when they were dating… they enjoyed the holidays entirely and created you (too much information?). [Read more...]
A wave of change is hitting the nation. Last June, New York became the largest state to legalize same-sex marriage under the Marriage Equality Act, making a precedent setting move and bringing further attention to the much discussed and debated issue. Now, just this Wednesday, President Obama became the first leader of the country to endorse legalizing same-sex marriage, stating “At a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married” (ABC News interview, May 9, 2012). According to an ABC Political Analysis, some advisers “pointing to rapidly changing public views of gay rights, say Obama has more to gain than lose by the move.” [Read more...]
Have you ever been at a fancy hobb-nobbing party and said something like:
“Today most wines are fully mature. It has proved to be a delicious vintage but perhaps just short of the density, complexity and ultimate longevity for greatness. The whites were probably under-rated because they appeared, on tasting, to have little acidity. In fact it was there, but masked by the tannins from thick skins. This phenomenon, curiously enough, was repeated in both 1995 and 2005. Even so, 1985 whites will now be past their best.”
Ok… neither have I, but if you have ever wanted to sound like a fancy-shmancy wine snob, there has never been an easier time. [Read more...]
We are happy to announce that the April contributions selected for the Data + Design Project are now live! Each month we’ve been challenging a select group of designers to create something unique and interesting following some very simple rules: this month they used the standard bar chart and came up with some really unique designs and topics, ranging from crayons to surfing. For more on this fun project, or to see about being part of it, head to the main Data + Design page. [Read more...]
If you could get all the planets in the galaxy together for a photo shoot in the studio, it would probably look a lot like these insanely well done illustrations of the planetary crew. That’s right too… these aren’t Photoshopped satellite images, but actually 3D digital illustrations of our most local cosmic neighbors.
Created by freelance designer David Fuhrer, each of the planets is rendered against a white background, much like one would photograph a new car in the studio. The stark background brings out the bright hues of the colorful orbs, unlike the starry black background we are used to seeing. [Read more...]
We have all heard about the massively destructive force that is nuclear weaponry, with the astonishing end of World War II to prove it. The world was caught off guard by the utter destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the U.S. dropped the 15 kiloton Little Boy and 21 kiloton Fat Man. The two Japanese cities were leveled in seconds, killing hundreds of thousands from the initial blast and later radiation poisoning. It would be difficult to call their impact small, but those bombs were only a shadow of the weapons to come. [Read more...]
Most of our world maps are created with geographic and legal boundaries dictating how they are drawn… it’s highly useful for getting around the block, but hardly tells the whole tale of what is going on. What really matters much of the time? It’s all about where the people are… and this map shows only that. [Read more...]
