If anyone has ever picked up a book or magazine featuring european cycling racing. You’ll be sue to notice the sport lends itself beautiful photographs. A sea of brightly colored jerseys from the peloton with a backdrop of incredible european countryside and/or villages. And if yo look at the credits for these photographs, you’ll see that about 80% of them are taken by the now infamous Graham Watson. One of best-known photographers in pro cycling’s press galleries, his photographs capture the beauty and awe the sport is famous for. I don’t know how he does it, but his images stand out above the rest. They tell a story, are beautifully constructed, and are destined to become classics.

About a year ago I ordered the documentary, War Photographer, from Netflix. I was one of the most impact-full films I have seen in a long time. James Nachtway, seems to capture the truth of conflict rarely seen. His technical execution is also amazing, even beyond the impact of the subject matter, his command of the medium is stunning. And still even more astounding is the fact he has survived to tell the story after being embedded in the middle of some of the most war-torn locations and treacherous conflicts in history. Recipient of the 2007 TED Prize. His talk and TED below gives a nice summery of his work.

I’ve been increasingly interested in ways to incorporate multiple inputs from various sources and output a manifestaion of the variables in an interesting way digialy. Karolina Sobecka’s Wildlife project does a great job of executing this type of project. In Sobecka’s own words the website:

“At night projections from moving cars are shone on the buildings downtown. Each car projects a video of a wild animal. The animal’s movements are programmed to correspond to the speed of the car: as the car moves, the animal runs along it speeding up and slowing down with the car, as the car stops, the animal stops also. The framerate of the movie corresponds to the speed of the wheel rotation, picked up by a sensor. If the presence of a moving object (such as another car or pedestrian) is detected with proximity sensors, its animal “avatar” appears in the projection.”

Everyone should see this in action with the video here

One of the magazines I consistently find myself picking up and flipping through at the bookstore is Make Magazine. For someone who really likes to build and make objects, I really should get s subscription. The other day I found something equally as interesting, the Make blog, where the editors and users share information and videos for new do-it-yourself creations. One of the most informative videos I’ve seen lately is the Make’s video on how to screen-print T-shirts. Something I’ve been wanting to try for a while now.

Etsy.com is a online site/community which brings people together to buy and sell all things handmade online. I could see this as an invaluable resourse for young up and comming designers to get there products out there and gain some exposure. From the looks of it, it seems to have some good quality wares to offer.

the film birds from Pleix, a motion graphics studio, demonstrates how a simple concept can result in a mesmerizing result. The high definition of the film and the super high frame rate capture resulting in beautiful slow-motion playback, come together to create a truly unique piece.

Soorikian is an Atlanta based furniture designer and manufacturer which creates unique modern pieces destined to become classics. It is admirable to see modern furniture which embraces the craft and style of hand-built artifacts.

Marumushi, the creator of Newsmap, has some very interesting projects and interface designs worth taking a look at.

Businessweek profiles “Metro” — a prototype laptop designed by Intel and Portland, Oregon based Ziba Design. The 0.7 inch thick laptop is the world’s thinnest notebook and weighs only 2.25 pounds. It is less than 0.7 inches thick—about one-quarter of an inch thicker than Motorola’s RAZR Phone. I hope to see more and more companies, other than apple, stepping up to the plate and pushing the boundaries of design and ergonomics for consumer electronics.

I was in the store the other day, looking at the (overwhelming) selection of board games and toys. All of the packaging seemed to have the same jumbled “fit as much as you can” type of design. All with roughly the same color palette. All of these products together were lost in a sea of visual confusion. But there was one that popped of and demanded attention. Not because it was brighter than any others but because of its simplicity and beautifully executed minimal graphics and typography. It was Colorforms, which after looking at the back of the product, I remember playing with as a child. Colorforms is a classic game which was first designed and introduced in 1951 by two art students who where experimenting with a new flexible vinyl material. The students discovered that the vinyl stuck to the glossy wall of their bathroom. They cut out shapes and placed these geometric objects on the walls leaving extra vinyl and a pair of scissors out for guest to add to their creation. After observing the fun everyone had, they decided to market this creative activity as a consumer product. The item first launched through FAO Schwarz and was considered by the New York Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) for its permanent design collection. By 1991, COLORFORMS had sold over a billion sets, and was also selected for the Toy Hall of Fame.

As for the logo? I found out it was designed by the great Paul Rand In 1959, the designer of the IBM, UPS and General Electric logos.