Life before Death

i stumbled upon the following site today and was utterly fascinated. 

Roland Barthes says that a photograph is a referent to a moment that has past, and therefore is representative of a time that will never exist again - it has passed us by. But for the dead, does photography do the opposite, and immortalize their presence in a specific moment for all time?

I looked through these photographs and couldn't keep posing this question, because I was side tracked by the dead's skin and how is slips off the face like a loose glove. 

Portfolio Box and Cover Hell!!

So, I got an email while I was in Miami that I need to decide what size my book will be - by today! Awesome. So I figured I would look at some other books online and see what others have done. I'm not so sure about getting one of those large ass boxes, so I wanted to see other options.

from here

from here

from here

Milk packaging

I'm doing a little research on milk packaging - because for some reason, I think it would be fun as a student project to try to package something that everyone buys. 

People should design the staples just as much as the specialty items. Despite the fact that the Tropicana redesign was a debacle, I am still appreciative that they were considering a modern upgrade. And because orange juice is such a highly used item, the response to the redesign was amazing. That wouldn't have happened if it had been a lesser used product such as granola or a cereal box. I wonder what would have happened if it was Mott's apple juice! hm.

all via theDieline

Threadless

I've always been a fan of threadless but I've never had the courage to buy anything. Although I kindof want this shirt! I may spring for it.

These are really cool

Bittogrammi! from todo.to.it on Vimeo.

Interactive table surface. Persol event. from todo.to.it on Vimeo.

Five Seasons Brewery Westside

I am so excited. My favorite local Atlanta restaurant is finally opening on Marietta St in Atlanta - so I don't have to drive all the way out to Sandy Springs. Its official opening date is May 5.

Just needed to blog my excitement!

Check them out

Mark Weaver

This dude is incredibly talented. I love the way he merges images in a surreal way to create dynamic compositions that are just stunning.

I have seen his work before, but somehow every time I am on ffffound.com or flickr.com I happen to stumble upon more of his work. I believe he is Atlanta based and it seems that he does a lot of layout and illustration design for Paste Magazine.

Mark, wherever you are here in ATL (or Decatur), I am shouting out to you to say "You Rock"

While doing my Mark Weaver research I stumbled upon  Scott Hansen's blog iso50. Scott is a musician and artist living and working out of San Francisco. His music is pretty rad - check it out. 

Scrabble Everyone

Scrabble Campaign...from Ogilvy Paris, trying to bring more kitch and fun into Scrabble in order to reach the Adult Swim audience (apparently). Actually, according to the brief, despite some resurgence of interest from a younger audience due to facebook and iphone apps, Scrabble is still considered an elitist game for an older audience. In order to revitalize the brand and peoples understanding of Scrabble, the company needs to help a younger audience rediscover the richness of words.

The whole point of the campaign is to show how words spawn different words to create a maze of language. This is visually portrayed in a "stream of consciousness" illustrative style.

Each spot is done by a different illustrator and produced at Wizz Motion Graphics studio

via The Inspiration Room and Sonya

Snapple Logo

I was thinking about logos and packaging today when I went to the supermarket and realized that Tropicana completely reverted back to their older design-they didn't merge the two designs (the new and old.) It's amazing to me that a company would spend that much money, create a new print ad campaign, and not try to figure out a way to make the new design be more functional - what a waste of money.

I also noticed that Snapple underwent a facelift. I guess I am actually one year late, but surprised none the less.

 

via Brand New

Design Thinking

As much as I want to write something for the upcoming Winterhouse competition, I don't think I will have the time (which saddens me greatly). Although this much is true, I was inspired to see that design writing is still encouraged, and even was supported in my school at one point. And when I am saying design writing, I don't mean copywriting in ads but art criticism and design theory - both of which are supposedly dying breeds (do to blogging, lack of knowledge of design history and a lack of emphasis on writing and communication in general).

take a look here

ps. Speak Up is no longer being updated :( saddness that we lost such a good avenue for design writing, thinking and criticism.