It’s that time of year for dramatic statements and long-shot resolutions. I have my own and I’m sure you do too. However, I’ve been feeling funny about this evening. Waiting for the clocks and calendars to flip to a brand new year, I can’t shake the feeling that something has left us and something else is coming. I’m pretty sure it’s not the Rapture, but I think it will effect us all. Particularly the “us” that use the world wide web.

I’ve got some shit to say after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Francesco Franchi is the art director for Italian magazine IL – Intelligence in Lifestyle.  If you’ve got a soft spot for gorgeous infographics (check), well-set type (check), clean icon design (check), grid-heavy layout (check), and Commercial Type’s Publico typeface (well, now, check), then you’ve probably already clicked the link to Franchi’s portfolio or flickr stream and are kneedeep in his work.  I especially love the restrained cover design; we’re all so inundated with covers that are half covered up with text of the top 10 ways to know if your man is cheating on you or whoever is engaged or pregnant or whatever.  So nice to let the beautiful photography sing uninterrupted.

Joe Van Wetering is a Chicago based illustrator who uses bold colors and geometric shapes to create some very interesting/abstract pieces. I wish I knew more about his process, but fingers crossed it involves color-aid paper and an exacto.

Update: After seeing this on his flickr account, I already know it’s gotta be awesome.

Read the rest of this entry »

David Wolpert, German Graphic Designer living in Mannheim, has created a diploma thesis of another level.

As I remain in awe of this perfectly concepted, executed and presented body of work, I have to resort to quoting directly from his site:

–
What would be, if…the perfect Utopia exists? A state suggesting and producing the »perfect« society for its citizens in form of a consumer paradise? Everybody could devote himself to the pleasure of purchasing and consuming, seemingly unhindered and according to his free will, and thus could experience the »happiness on Earth«.
But what would be, if…this sparkling Utopia behind the brilliant facade would be a dystopia in reality and the seemingly free choice of offers would be the directed and manipulated result of a giant surveillance and control machinery? My diploma thesis deals with a society within a historically departing parallel world. You can see a sort of Switzerland whose inhabitants are almost completely observed, manipulated and controlled. By accident one of its citizens gets several fragments of a file about his own person. Quickly this citizen realizes that all his former life and all freely made decisions had been manipulated and were thus controlled by the system.
–

See below and here for further details on his thesis.

Read the rest of this entry »

Happy holidays from all of us here at OKG!  Most of your are probably counting down the days til Christmas with anticipation and excitement.  A few days off from work, some family, some boozy eggnog fueled evenings – good times.  Personally, I’m counting down til the day after Christmas – my own personal Christmas (for a Jew like myself) – the day when Christmas music ends.  No more rum-tum-tumming or jingle bells or Frosty the snowman for another 11 months or so (though it seems like it starts earlier every year).

Now before I get accused of being a Grinch, I’d like to say that it’s not Christmas music per se that I can’t stand.  It’s the incessant playlist of the same songs in any commercial setting, on tv, on the radio, everywhere.  So I’d like to offer an alternative.  Sound Opinions, the fantastic WBEZ weekend radio show, enlisted the help of Andy Cirzan, their own personal Kris Kringle, to scour the musical obscura for the weirdest, most unappreciated (though often for decent reason) Christmas music you’ve ever heard.  Now I’ll admit, some of this stuff probably should have never seen the light of day, but I’ll take it any day over jingle bells.  Try it out!

For the record, the views expressed here are my own Grinchy views, and do not reflect those of my fellow OKGreatsters.  Though deep down you all know I’m right.

Fantastic Hysteria has an awesomely playful + retro style. I am totally digging his color palette and typography skills. Check out more of his work on Behance + flickr.
Read the rest of this entry »

It’s almost 2011! That means it’s almost time for new calendars and planners! Even though I usually abandon/lose my planners before January is even over, I like to try to start out the year pretending that I’m going to be organized.

Here are a few of my favorite Etsy calendar finds:

top left: letterpressed wall calendar by Yeehaw
top right: weekly planner by Lily Jane Stationery
bottom left: monthly pocket planner by Dozi
bottom right: illustrated desk calendar by Red Bean Design

John & Kelly from LabourLove are brave souls.

Want to see my arithmetic on that statement? Check it:

1. They opened a small business.
2. They opened a small business an art gallery.
3. They opened an art gallery in a new development on the edge of downtown.
4. The opened an art gallery in a new development on the edge of downtown at the beginning of the economic collapse.

… and now?

5. They are completely reformatting their business model.

LabourLove has decided to scrap the idea of a traditional gallery model and are starting a collective. Check out the innovative concept after the jump!

Read the rest of this entry »

Fact. My house will always be too small for all the posters I really want. florafauna.

Richard Selesnick and Nicholas Kahn have been collaborating as Kahn/Selesnick since 1988 on a series of complex narrative photo-novellas and sculptural installations.

The work featured on their site takes time to absorb—it’s incredibly rich and fascinating, they truly are masters of narration. I’m featuring just one novella here—City of Salt— but bookmark the site and check out the whole body of amazing work. City of Salt reminds me of Burning Man meets Matthew Barney meets 1001 Arabic Nights meets Hemingway. If that makes any sense.
This is the first sentence of the storyline:

What lies beneath the city, beyond its ornate façade? Are not all cities the same, the transient crowd forever in motion, the bustling railway terminus or the airport desk, a place that is not a place, where there is no “there” or “here.”

Enjoy.
Read the rest of this entry »