Leave it to Charlie Todd of Improv Everywhere to come up with an idea like this one: King Philip IV of Spain is signing autographs in front of the 400-year-old Velázquez painting of ‘himself’. “He is 400 years old but doesn’t he look good?”
(via FoundbyJames)
The above image is by Paul Octavious. Read more about the magic number here. And if you’re wondering exactly how long Pi is, here you go:
Pi = 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510
58209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679
82148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128
48111745028410270193852110555964462294895493038196
44288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091
45648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273
72458700660631558817488152092096282925409171536436
78925903600113305305488204665213841469519415116094
33057270365759591953092186117381932611793105118548
07446237996274956735188575272489122793818301194912
98336733624406566430860213949463952247371907021798
60943702770539217176293176752384674818467669405132
00056812714526356082778577134275778960917363717872
14684409012249534301465495853710507922796892589235
42019956112129021960864034418159813629774771309960
51870721134999999837297804995105973173281609631859
50244594553469083026425223082533446850352619311881
71010003137838752886587533208381420617177669147303
59825349042875546873115956286388235378759375195778
18577805321712268066130019278766111959092164201989
38095257201065485863278865936153381827968230301952
03530185296899577362259941389124972177528347913151
55748572424541506959508295331168617278558890750983
81754637464939319255060400927701671139009848824012
85836160356370766010471018194295559619894676783744
94482553797747268471040475346462080466842590694912
93313677028989152104752162056966024058038150193511
25338243003558764024749647326391419927260426992279
67823547816360093417216412199245863150302861829745
55706749838505494588586926995690927210797509302955
32116534498720275596023648066549911988183479775356
63698074265425278625518184175746728909777727938000
81647060016145249192173217214772350141441973568548
16136115735255213347574184946843852332390739414333…
Never despise small beginnings, and don’t belittle your own accomplishments. Remember them and use them as inspiration as you go on to the next thing. When you venture outside your comfort zone, wherever the starting point may be, it’s kind of a big deal.
- Chris Guillebeau, Kind Of A Big Deal
The below TED Talk is awe-inspiring:
MIT researcher Deb Roy wanted to understand how his infant son learned language — so he wired up his house with video cameras to catch every moment (with exceptions) of his son’s life, then parsed 90,000 hours of home video to watch “gaaaa” slowly turn into “water.” Astonishing, data-rich research with deep implications for how we learn.
I would give so much to have a map of my very first words in chronological order. What a lucky little boy.
(thank you Jessi!)
(originally uploaded by Nick Bilton)
Studiomate Chris pointed me to Benjamin Franklin’s Daily Schedule. The non-clutter-person in me loves that he alloted time in the evening to ‘put things in their places’…
Word Puzzle universal wrapping paper was designed by Fabio Milito and Francesca Guidotti. Wrap your gift and then simply locate the holiday you need, circle it, and you’re all set. Made me smile!
(via Design Milk)
Core77 just launched their Core77 Design Awards.
They’ve include several long-over-due categories of design effort. In addition to the usual suspects, they’ve added Service Design, Design for Social Impact, Educational Initiatives, DIY (with a reduced price that will leave you enough change left for a pocketful of LEDs), and their favorite, “Never Saw the Light of Day,” honoring projects completed, but killed, in 2010. Core77 has always paid a special attention to students, so they haven’t thrown them all into the same bucket. Rather, each of the 15 categories has its own student section. 15 categories, 30 trophies. All well-earned.
Designers are great at showing and tell, so Core77 wants to provide them the opportunity to share their “real story”…beyond static jpegs and entry form text (they’ve simplified and sharpened that up too). This is your chance to make a personal connection with the jury using a low-tech, honest, look-into-the-webcam piece of documentation.
My studiomate Aymie is carving a linocut letter a day for the month of march. Chosen typeface: Champion Gothic by Hoefler & Frere-Jones. Lightweight was chosen based on a deep rooted affection with its ampersand. I can’t wait to see the posters she’ll be cooking up with these!
Google deploys People Finder to help Japanese quake victims. The tool is an easy registry creator to help victims and loved ones communicate during emergencies.
Personal Note: I was worried about John Boardley of IloveTypography and looked him up. He checked into the site and apparently is unharmed. Whew.
Introducing Dropmark from oak on Vimeo.
My studiomate Skylar is the brilliant mind behind dropmark. It let’s you drop files right from your computer, or the web, to create organized collections. Watch the above video and join me in being completely blown away.
Dropmark let’s you invite friends or co-workers to collaborate and edit your Dropmarks in real-time. They are private and secure, unless you choose to share them (each collection has a handy short URL).
Access your Dropmarks via the web and RSS, or get nerdy with their API—it’s your data after all, use it however you want. It’s not about “social media” (they won’t ask you to “follow” anyone), it’s about organizing and sharing your ideas in the easiest way possible.
Major, major hat tip off to Skylar! dropmark is nothing short of revolutionary!
EDCLondon is a London based contempary furniture store that I’d love to see in person. Check out these two fantastic items below:
Horizontals Cabinet, by Shigeru Uchiday
Totem Unit by Pastoe
(via norisdesign)
Now here’s what I call a modern take on the good old fishbowl: Modular Fish Hotel.
LookTel Money Reader – amazing optical recognition iPhone app allows the blind to identify and count currency:
(via Nick Bilton / via curiositycounts)
Here’s an overview of the upcoming March CreativeMornings in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. (Zurich’s next CM is in april! Daniel is speedy!)
N E W Y O R K
Date: March 31st, 2011 <-- THURSDAY Morning!
Speaker: Ji Lee, Creative Director Google Labs
Host: Galapagos Art Space
Sponsors: Mailchimp and Freshbooks
Organizer: swissmiss
More info and rsvp at creativemornings.eventbrite.com
L O S A N G E L E S
Date: March 18, 2011
Speaker: Blik Co-Founder Scott Flora
Host: TBA
Sponsor: TBA
Organizer: Jon Setzen
More info and rsvp at losangelescreativemornings.eventbrite.com
S A N F R A N C I S C O
Date: March 25, 2011
Speaker: Mule Design Founder Mike Monteiro
Host: The glorious Typekit headquarters
Sponsors: Happy Cog and Typekit
Organizer: Greg Storey
More info and rsvp at sfcreativemornings.eventbrite.com
Z U R I C H
Date: April 8, 2011
Speaker: Memonic Co-Founder Dr. Dorian Delz
Host: TBA
Sponsor: rtp Agency
Organizer: Daniel Frei
Check out our site creativemornings.com for more info and for links taped talks.
Absolutely Stunning. Fantastic find by James. Hat tip!
If I had to be reborn as a table in my next life, I would want to be the one above by by Piergiorgio Cazzanica. (I would kindly put in a request for renaming it though, it’s currently called Tense.)
Leave it up to Fred&Friends to come up with new products that put a smile on your face. I couldn’t help but chuckle when I saw this OCD Chef Cutting Board. And the AppKins. (They don’t seem to be listed in the product pages yet, but are announced on the homepage.) I am so getting the AppKins for our office..
Another fantastic find by BLTD: The Crossword Puzzle Tote Bag.
It doesn’t get much more minimal than this Firewood Holder. It’s made from one strip of steel and features pine runners along the bottom to protect the floor. Available from Iron Design Company. (It comes with a hefty price tag of $360. Gulp!)
(via bltd)
What looks like a vintage camera is actually a pencil sharpener. Fun!
“When I was a child it was called talking back, now it’s called Public Speaking. It’s really all the same!”
Quote from the Public Speaking Trailer, below:
(via KrisLane)
My studiomate Skylar wrote an interesting post about How film titles have evolved.
