ryan sims: just watch the sky.

This is my new favourite thing. Virb’s lead designer Ryan Sims mixes music, discovery, typography, and the inherent poetry of song lyrics into Just Watch The Sky, a sleek, simple, and totally kick-ass site that is one-half beautiful design and one-half music.

The site is one page only, with a small audio player in the corner to play the track and see who you’re listening to. Lyrics from the song are laid out typographically to put the beauty of the lyrics themselves on display as well. There they sit, unmoving and aching, and the site blends a mix of sound and sight into a total experience merging both senses. The visual and sonic compliment and augment each other; audio poetry; visual sound.

Sims’ taste in music is killer, and I’ve discovered a few new artists (Kyle Andrews being one of the them…) from the site. I can’t get enough of it. I want to live here.

universal everything: 6 billion people, 6 billion colours.

Universal Everything is heaven. Utopia. Shangri-La. A creative Eden. Any of those good places you want to go when you die.

To promote their new E71 phone, Universal Everything continued its collaboration with Nokia as one of four artists asked to produce videos for “Beautiful Connections”, a minisite exploring the beauty of connection. Also featuring work from Carl Burgess, field, and SHFT, each film is up for download, has an available wallpaper, and the site invites you to create and upload your own vids as well.

No big surprise, but Matt Pyke, Maxim Zhetskov, and Simon Pyke’s contribution for Universal Everything, “6 Billion People, 6 Billion Colours” was my fave. It resounds not just with the feeling of connection and human interaction given to these little shapes, but to the possibility of inspiration and change. How amongst even the largest masses an individual has the ability to impact all the others, and create a more beautiful, harmonious, connected existence. Plus the soundtrack, created by Simon Pyke’s Freefarm, is un-freaking-believable.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

I read an interesting opinion from Martina, creator of Adverblog, that the site is “…made of four very beautiful videos and not much else… I have contrasting feelings about marketing initiatives that mix art and advertising. As usual I have a very pragmatic approach, and I appreciate and understand them only when the brand and the product fit the artwork.”

I humbly disagree. But, then again, I’m artsy. For me, a brand with enough balls to promote and patron the creation of art and ideas is worthy of my loyalty because it does so without tying it in so neatly to the product. Similar to Sony’s groundbreaking “Colour Like No Other” campaign, these companies are taking something fairly techno-boring (unless you’re a techie) and imbuing it with an emotion. An artistic feeling. And for me that demonstrates not just an evolved thinking but the trust that I’m smart and saavy enough to relate back without having technical specs and other traditional sales pitches thrown at me. These types of venutres create the ultimate brand connection – they make me feel something.

gary hustwit: objectified.

Yes please. The amazing Gary Hustwit’s new full-length industrial design doc, “Objectified”, is gearing up to hit the festivals this spring and the trailer has just been released. Featuring design luminaries like Apple’s Jonathan Ive – the man who led the designs for nothing less than the iMac, Powerbook, iPod, and iPhone – and many more, “Objectified” opens our eyes to the fact that everything we see, all around us, every day… was designed. Someone, somewhere, is responsible for the specific way we interact with everything we touch. If you think about it long enough, you start to go nuts.

Watch the trailer. Watch it right now:

Hustwit also directed 2007’s “Helvetica”, one of my fave documentaries ever, about the ubiquitous, much loved (and much maligned… someone’s always gotta hate) mega-font. If you didn’t see “Helvetica” then you missed out. Even if you’re not a design nerd you’ll enjoy it. And if you are a design nerd, then “Helvetica” is pretty much typophile porn. I dare you to watch it without touching yourself…

daniel eatock: prismacolor pen print.

I loves me some Daniel Eatock, and his “Pantone Pen Print” back in 2006 quickly became one of my favourite things. In it, he balanced a complete set of Pantone markers upside down on a stack of paper and let gravity do the work. The colours, travelling osmosis-like down into the sheets of paper, created fascinating organic swirls of colour. There’s something so interesting about seeing how the shapes align themselves without the aided touch of the artist. Though, just like a scientific experiment, the amazing results wouldn’t exist without the initial idea of is creator.

For this follow up project, “Prismacolor Pen Print”, he created a diptych balancing a full set of Prismacolor markers upside down, inside indiviual glasses, on two stacks of paper for 5 weeks. The ink seeped through 31 sheets, creating 31 completely unique pieces. Just like with his previous project, the prices for each piece will be the reverse of how close it was to the top of the stack. #1, receiving the most colour at the top of the stack, will be £31, and #31, getting the least ink at the bottom, will be £1. Such beautiful simplicity.

Via COLOURlovers

chuck anderson: wandering off into space.

NoPattern (a.k.a. Chuck Anderson) is one of my fave artists ever. One of his prints, “Places You Can’t Imagine”, hangs above my bed.

Now, his website has (huzzah!) a promo for a new book of art, design, illustration, and photography he’s releasing, called “Wandering Off Into Space”,with (boo!) absolutely no details other than it’s coming in December 2008. It’s already the 17th. I need it now. I don’t need to know anything about it. If it’s from Chuck Anderson, then it’s awesomeness is guaranteed.

UPDATE: The book is now totally up for sale for the crazy reasonable price of only $25. Considering the quality of his work, Chuck is basically giving thie shit away for free. I’ve already ordered mine, and so should you. Right now. Plus there are some gorgeous new pics of the book as well. As if this wasn’t already all incentive enough, it’s been announced that a portion of the proceeds from the book are going to Invisible Children.

brighten the corners: victor & susie.

I’m a crazy sucker for anything that falls into that whole kidstuff-for-adult category. Whenever artists and designers take the nostalgia and imagination of childhood and envision through some slick adult design sensibilities, the result can be that ideal balance of young at heart and style savvy. In that spirit,  multi-disciplinary design and strategy shop Brighten The Corners brings us “Victor & Susie”. All of the illustrations in the 72-page pocket-book are created by slyly manipulating letters and tells the story of Susie, a girl who finds a sick snail, Victor, in her vegetable garden and nurses him back to health. Described as “a modern tale about caring, mending and letting-go, drawn with letters and punctuation marks.”

“Victor & Susie” is up for sale on Brighten The Corners’ site. Cute as hell.

Via Cool Hunting

hoagy houghton: aleatory compositions.

First off, let’s just get this out of the way, dude is named Hoagy Houghton. Which is incredible in and of itself.

Secondly, and equally as awesome, while graduating from the University of Brighton with Honours in both Illustration and Graphic Design he created “Aleatory Compositions”: A book of musical work, unwittingly written by people filling in colours onto a grid which were then translated into musical notes.

All art is connected, just as are all human senses. By taking one medium generally ruled by one sense (colour and the eye) and transcribing it into another (music and the ear) he’s created an almost simulated synaesthesia. A sonic and visual switch-out that highlights the beauty of colour that lives within music, and visually manifests the inherent sonic shapes that live within colour. Add on some hot design to polish the whole concept off and voilá. Pure win.

markus hofko: the rainbowmonkey.

I’m going through a big German illustration fan-boy phase, and today is no exception. The Rainbowmonkey is the online portfolio site of German-born, currently New Zealand-based designer, musician, and artist Markus Hofko. Chock full of design goodness, his stuff ranges from graphic design to illustration to photography to brand identity work to music videos. And all of it is completely kick ass.

ignacio pilotto: rubitone.

The only thing that gives colour geeks a bigger hard on that Pantone is applying Pantone to another equally geeky product. If that product happens to be the retro-kitsch game-playing goodness of a Rubick’s Cube, then you’ve pretty much got a designer’s wet dream. From industrial designer Ignacio Pilotto.

Via Swiss Miss

one point oh: love letters.

Magic tricks and Beatles’ lyrics. What more do you need really? “Love Letters” is a sweet little visual short, created by UK creative design studio one point oh. Plus, they’ll even send you your own set of cards to do some tricks of your own. Watch “Love Letters” in HD here or check out the YouTube below.

I like one point oh’s positive vibe and universal love spreading. Check out some equally lovely brand identity work they did for Coke here.

Thanks to Stephen for the tip.