Steve Jobs | How To Live Before You Die

Apart from being a huge Apple fan, I admire Steve Jobs for all the innovation he's brought into the realms of computing & design. Seeing this video (a fifteen-minute video that is), and getting to know HOW he made it, was more than eye-opening. 

There are some parts of the video (from the 2005 Stanford Commencement) that made a great impression on me. The one that I love the most is the part where he says that he dropped out of college and didn't want to take the "normal" classes, so he took a calligraphy class. (which explains a lot)

I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them

 Whether you're a Mac or PC user, Jobs fan or not, the messages are there. It's worth the fifteen-something minutes. "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."

The transcript of the commencement address can be found here.

Photos From NothingLand

Despite the fact that today was, by far, the most invalid day I've had in years, and despite the fact that the thought of having one of these days again in the next months is creeping me out, I am happy I got to snap a couple of things which can be used. I only had my iPhone with me, given that I couldn't be carrying my Canon around in the army.

However, today, I was also reminded of the creativity/inspiration blasts I had when I was in the army, especially after a rough couple of days. Let's hope today triggers a productive epiphany in the following days.

BAFTA's Best Film Nominee Posters

Tavis Coburn is a graphic designer/illustrator who was commissioned to create these posters for the  2010 British Academy of Film & Television Arts Awards. Each poster (5 in total) features a character from the nominated films for the Best Film award. Above are the posters for Avatar and Precious. See all five posters here.

Layer Tennis: Redux

Last May I was introduced to Layer Tennis and posted something on here. From what it seems, it's that time again: when friday afternoons (over that side of the pond, anyway) are dedicated to online creative face-offs. 

The video below is the whole season two of Layer Tennis in a couple of minutes. 

Codeorgan

The Codeorgan is essentially a "magical mechanical" website on which you can type any url and it will generate a melody for you. Mind you though, not just any melody: your website's unique sound.

Okay bear with me. I am not that much of a connoisseur in the technical field of music, but from what I could sum up from the description on the website; Codeorgan uses some sort of fancy algorithms to convert the characters, content and number of characters on your webpage into an as-cohesively-as-possible sounding tune. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong here.)

I was surprised to see that both my website and blog delivered tracks which are not bad at all, in an interestingly alternative way, though the one from my website is quite short. (I guess there ain't much text there)

(via @ghostlyint)

Wired Tablet App

My love (and I mean LOVE) for Wired Magazine is something that grows issue after issue. I love how they can take all sorts of information and interpret it visually in an impeccably interesting manner, allowing the readers to take-in a great amount of facts, useful and also some trivial, info. More importantly, I cannot even begin to describe what I feel about their design. I am truly inspired and motivated by Wired as a publication designer/art director.

Now, imagine the multiplication of the above excitement when wired becomes alive and moving; touchable, swipe-able, pinch-able, zoom-able, and in all its high-tech Wired glory: A DREAM COME TRUE! (and another flippin' great reason to get an iPad as soon as possible!).

BUT!: Trying to embed a video from Wired on your blog is a challenge. You can't resize it, or customize anything, thus the clutter below. 

Edit: The video below was taken from Adobe's website.

Alexander McQueen - Plato's Atlantis

And while we're on the Alexander McQueen subject, of whose the buzz has unfairly faded, I thought it'd be appropriate to post the video of his final show, Plato's Atlantis Spring/Summer 2010.

 I won't go into analyzing and judging something that is way grander than anything I could possibly perceive, I'll just say that his brilliance and genius is something that will be missed.

Alexander McQueen

Photography by Nick Knight

No eulogies, no rest-in-peace lines, just a celebratory remembrance of a legendary artist.

Blast From The Past | Feist - "1234"

This song popped in my head out of nowhere today and I remembered just how amazing the video was, and how obsessed I was over this song a few years ago. (I can't believe it's been practically three years!!) 

Trivia: Time magazine named "1234" one of The 10 Best Songs of 2007, ranking it at #2. | The "1234" video was featured in the TV ad for the (then) new colorful iPod Nano. | Directed by Patrick Daughters who also directed Feist's "I Feel It All"

Google - Parisian Love

Google was one of the companies which spilled major dough to be one of the Super Bowl ads this year.

Really like the (Apple-esque) simplicity of it.