Tron: Legacy | Official Trailer

I have to say that my memories of 1982's Tron are pretty vague, but I remember very vividly that my brother had rented it out from a video club and we watched it on a Saturday afternoon. Two things are engrained in my memory regarding this film: the scene where Flynn is digitized and transferred into the mainframe and the use of the neon-like effect throughout the mainframe scenes.

The new one surely looks promising, at least as far as the eye-candy part of it is concerned. (Plus: how amazing is that retro-futuristic flat surface computer? Such an 80s concept, yet, so... today.)

I guess it's time I did a couple of things in anticipation of Tron: Legacy. Watch the original to get into the mood and go buy that pair of limited edition Tron Adidas sneakers I found at a sportswear outlet store.

Also, I think I am a tad more excited about the Daft Punk-composed soundtrack than I am about the film itself. If what I hear in the trailer reflects the overall work, I will hyperventilate... (And is it true that they will appear in a scene?) 

December 17, 2010 anyone? 

Abandoned Places

Ryugyung Hotel, Pyongyang, North Korea

City Hall Subway Station, NYCPriyapt, Ukraine | Chernobyl Ground ZeroThe Ruins of DetroitAbandoned City of Ammochostos (Famagusta), Cyprus

As a continuation to the previous post, "Under Construction", here are some more abandoned places. These images are taken from Coolist, off a post named Abandoned Places: 10 Creepy, Beautiful Modern Ruins. Like in the case of industrial areas and construction sites, I guess one of the things that fascinate me the most about deserted landscapes, is probably the creative carte blanche they provide, as far as photography is concerned.

They can be captured in many different ways and techniques, but what I usually do is fantasize about fashion shoots and the incorporation of seemingly unbecoming and/or "contrasty" subject into these blank lanscapes.

"Under Construction"

I am a sucker for industrial zones and construction sites. I love the roughness and rawness of everything. Fundamental structures are out in the open and creation procedures are either blatantly revealed in construction sites, or screamingly implied in industrial zones.

I love the sight of a construction site when everyone leaves, the process is paused and you can just see what you're not supposed to see: naked structures, raw materials and unrefined forms. In industrial zones, on the other hand, I love how all the production steps are concealed, yet very present, in usually overwhelmingly large buildings. 

So with all this stated: imagine my gasp when I came across the above image in one of my (tens of) daily Google image searches, though I can't even remember what I was looking for in the first place. The picture shows the construction of the Shasta Dam in California. Later, when looking-up the dam on Wikipedia, I discovered that the above picture was taken in 1942! I love the detail, the light and the quality of colors in this picture, and... 1942!?. I'd love a huge print of this. The photo was taken by Russell Lee.

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.