"...There are, however, some designers and even clients who insist that the public deserve and will respond to much higher standards in graphics. They are convinced, as Charlie Chaplin was convinced, that the best way to entertain the public is to first entertain oneself."
Have you ever thought, not only about the airplane but whatever man builds, that all of man’s industrial efforts, all his computations and calculations, all the nights spent working over draughts and blueprints, invariably culminate in the production of a thing whose sole and guiding principle is the ultimate principle of simplicity?
It is as if there were a natural law which ordained that to achieve this end, to refine the curve of a piece of furniture, or a ship’s keel, or the fuselage of an airplane, until gradually it partakes of the elementary purity of the curve of the human breast or shoulder, there must be experimentation of several generations of craftsmen. In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nakedness.
You know when you find some great drawings and you wish you were able to draw like that ? These guys are frustratingly good:
Bengal (a long time favourite, always loved the way he draws light and shadows, simply superb):
Enrique Fernandez (nice to see how french BD evolves, influenced by anime and comics at the same time, but keeping it’s artistic roots, always present in french illustrations – by the way, Bengal is also french):
Justin Sweet (insane watercolours):
This caught my eye today, sitting outside the office for a break. I was amazed to see that the happy-no-worry-kid was riding a beautifully designed bike :) I’d sure love to see more smart design like this in Bucharest every day.
I spend 8-9 hours working in front of a monitor. I go home and spend another 5-6 hours surfing the web, working, drawing, reading, watching movies and talking to people, still in front of another monitor.
This means that I spend more than half of the 24 hours looking at an electronic window. I wear glasses but, luckily, I have very small diopters. Since I’m spending so much time of my life in front these windows, I decided to get a good one, this 24 inch beauty:
Since it’s a new model, released this summer, I had to order it through Genesys, who were very helpful. It will take about 20-30 days to arrive, but the longer the wait, the bigger the pleasure, they say ;) This monitor is the 6th release of the popular 2407WFP, and the big difference is its 92% color gamut (a normal LCD has around 72%). I was considering Samsung as well, but Dell has (among other benefits) a guarantee you can’t resist: should anything go wrong, they replace it, plain and simple.
Can’t wait to enjoy it – yeah, porn in HD, like a friend quickly suggested :))
One of the best games ever gets its long awaited sequel. It looks awesome. It will be a long wait, but, hopefully, it wil be worth it. Can’t wait to hit the speed limiter and go cruizin’ throught the city again, feeling like driving a yacht :)
One of the best music videos around, Twisted Transistor manages to entertain and energize me every time.
I mean, how can you stay serious seeing Snoop-Munky shouting: “Man, I don’t need no video, my music is my expression. Get outta m’face!” :)) Or Xzibit-Fieldy saying: “It’s pink!” “No, it’s psychedelic!” “Man, it’s PINK!” – reminds me of some client-designer talk :P
Talking about “Where the wild things are”, here is another gem, “Obluda”, a story contained in the 37th episode of Monster (the anime). Monster is one of the best written mangas, one of the best anime there are nowadays, truly a great watch. This little story is yet another thing that sends shivers up my spine (especially the melodic, feminine voice, saying slowly “bari bari, cusha cusha, baki baki, gokun!”). It is a lot more mature than “Where the wild things are” and it could be compared to the way Mamoru Oshii reinterprets “Little Red Riding Hood” (Perrault’s version, not Grimms’) in his Jin-Roh movie (another classic anime).
I don’t know if the “Obluda” book actually exists or if it was made up by Naoki Urasawa (Monster’s creator), but it seems they were selling it along with one of the Monster dvds in France. I searched a lot, I’d really like to buy it, so if you find anything at all about it, please tell me :)
Today I received my package from Amazon with four books, 3 design books and a story one: Where the wild things are (wiki).
I wasn’t very sure about it when I ordered, but after reading it I must say that I’m glad I did. It’s wonderfuly illustrated, it’s a great story and it manages to make you feel “the magic” of a child’s world. It’s actually a classic, and it seems Hollywood are making a movie inspired by it. Hope it turns out allright (Burton’s Big Fish is a great movie that has a similar feel to “Where the wild..”)
I also posted some weeks ago this Hulk comic cover, which as you can see is a tribute to “Where the wild things are”:
