Data + Design Project

The Past in Color: Bringing Old Photographs to Life

Wednesday 01.18.2012 , Posted by

Did you ever stop to think that the black and white photographed world of the past actually occurred in color just like today? Sanna Dullaway, an artist from Sweden, gave us a glimpse of what this colorful world looked like. Dullaway took old, iconic pictures and colorized them using Photoshop. She cleaned up the photos and converted them from black and white to her own interpretation of what the colors may have looked like. “I did not want to ‘improve’ nor ‘replace’ the photos I DID colourize as some of you may think. I just wanted to show you a new perspective of the black & white old world, it used to be in colour, too. I thought famous photos would touch most hearts,” Dullaway said on her deviantArt profile, Mygrapefruit. [Read more...]

Revisiting Villemot: Vintage French Graphic Artist

Tuesday 01.17.2012 , Posted by

Bernard Villemot was a French graphic artist who lived from 1911 to 1989. He did many works for beverage companies Orangina and Perrier along with the Red Cross, Bally Shoes and Air France. His work was primarily inspired by photographs, which he would then transform into simple, bold, colorful paintings and prints. Many of his works are now considered very collectible and valuable. [Read more...]

Scary Accurate Predictions From Over 110 Years Ago

Tuesday 01.17.2012 , Posted by

Most future predictions from 100 years ago include flying cars for the daily commute to work, a robot servant for every family and full meals taken in the form of tiny pills. It’s not exactly the world we’re living in today. This surprising list, however – an article from The Ladies’ Home Journal in 1900 – gets a surprisingly large part of the last hundred years correct… right down to what has become the internet and fast food! [Read more...]

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Hidden Splendor: NYC’s Abandoned City Hall Station

Friday 01.13.2012 , Posted by

Hidden below the streets of New York City are the long lost subway stations of old. Too small to accommodate the hoards that now travel the system daily, too small for the modern trains and too classy for a no-pants subway ride. This beautifully ornate station below City Hall was built in 1904 and operated until 1945 when it was closed to the public. Few have seen it in person. [Read more...]

Mapping The San Francisco of Yesteryear

Friday 01.06.2012 , Posted by

Built with almost no regard for the hills that dominate its landscape, San Francisco’s grid like street layout and near vertical roads are unique in the world of cities. The “City by the Bay” really started growing after the California gold rush started booming in the late 1840′s, so by the time the gorgeous map featured here was made in 1912, the city looked remarkably like it does today. What was missing were many of the attractions the city is now best known for: noticeably absent is Pier 39 and the very crooked section of Lombard Street. Also yet to be built: the Golden Gate Bridge. [Read more...]

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José Luis Ágreda’s Illustrations in Real Space

Wednesday 01.04.2012 , Posted by

What first started off as experiments to speed up concept illustration, resulted in surreal, yet familiar environments. The illustrations, at first, don’t seem like paper collage work at all, because the illustrated characters seem to blend in so well with the photographic environments. Once you do realize that it is a collage, it still doesn’t feel out of place that these wonderfully illustrated characters are interacting in these photographs of mid-century rooms. [Read more...]

Vintage Inspiration: Groovy Posters of Eastern Europe

Monday 01.02.2012 , Posted by

You don’t get much more trippy than the far-out movie posters of Eastern Europe in the 60′s and 70′s. From Poland, Andre de Krayewski created as many as a dozen posters a year for both famous imported films and domestic creations, all with his signature art deco meets pop art style. Other artists like Jacek Neugebauer and Maciej Zbikowski helped further the style, using more bold contrasting colors and a heavy dose of symbolism. Most of the posters loosely (and I mean very loosely) interpreted the story of the film advertised, relying instead on the catchy artwork to draw in viewers. [Read more...]

Bauhaus’s Intuitive Chess Set

Monday 01.02.2012 , Posted by

If you have ever failed to remember a chess piece’s playing direction, then this is the chessboard for you. Designed by Bauhaus sculptor Josef Hartwig in 1923, the set’s pieces are formed to represent their particular function. This was accomplished by reducing the traditional shapes of the pieces into simple shapes, such as circles, crosses and squares. [Read more...]

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Dexter: Killer Posters Inspired by the Show

Friday 12.23.2011 , Posted by

Ty Mattson is killing it with his most recent poster for season 6 of the horrifyingly interesting TV drama, Dexter. Mattson, principle and creative director of Mattson Creative in Southern California, is obviously a fan of the TV series and decided to make posters symbolizing the key events of each season. He mentioned on his blog how the posters ended up being a much larger project than he anticipated, but he loved how they turned out. Apparently so did many others, including Showtime who featured his work on the dvd cover of the 5th season [Read more...]

Frank R. Paul: A Cornerstone of Science Fiction Art

Monday 11.28.2011 , Posted by

The fantastic artwork of Frank R. Paul has had an undeniable influence on the world of Science Fiction. All the way back in 1926 his art was featured on the cover of the first issue of Amazing Stories, the first magazine dedicated to the genre. His bright, even garishly colored works featured fantastical monsters, aliens, imaginative spaceships and architecture… and a limited priority to draw human faces… all in a time when most of the American population didn’t even have a telephone. Later he would illustrate the very first cover of the iconic Marvel Comics, featuring none other than the Human Torch. [Read more...]

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