dropclock.

There’s nothing ground-breaking going on here, it just looks freakin’ hot.

The Dropclock is a ridiculously good-looking clock + screensaver. Telling time never looked so hot. Check out this demo to see the Dropclock in action:

Via NotCot

gap: sound of color.

I don’t know if this could really be called a genuine viral, since everybody knew it was happening and that it’s sponsored by Gap. I mean, most virals don’t have a Billboard press release. And by “many”, I really mean “none”. I’m pretty sure the genesis of this project was a bunch of old men wearing ties in a boardroom somewhere, scratching their wallets and asking “what are the cool kids doing these days? we need to move some khakis…”

Despite the sort of desperate-to-be-cool bandwagon-jumping vibe of the whole deal (not too surprising since Gap makes the most world’s most boring, middle of the road clothes), the colour freak in me can’t help but love this site. Plus the musicians they’ve got on board are sick. I tried not to like it, but c’mon, it’s called Sound of Color. It’s right up my alley…

Exploring music inspired the by the mood of color, 5 musicians – Marié Digby (songwriter of the 2007 song of summer “Umbrella”), Dntel, The Ravonettes, The Blakes, and Swizz Beatz – were given a color – red, yellow, green, blue, and black – and asked to write 5 songs about it. Then those tracks were given to 5 video directors. The end result is five original songs and videos, all inspired by the universal language of colour.

The site is beautiful and really seamless. Each colour gives you the song, the video, an interview with the artist, their bio, and a making-of. Plus you can download the tracks for free until March 15th and check out dozens of colour-facts about each hue. Cleopatra wore green to symbolize victory and all that stuff. I love that shit.

you are beautiful.

We all know it, but it’s hard to resist. We live in a world that bombards us with fear-inducing marketing aiming to convince us that we’re too ugly, too fat, or too old so that we’ll go out and buy shit to fix it. How often, if ever, do we get sweetly and succinctly told that there’s nothing wrong with us? It’s the simplicity behind You Are Beautiful that makes it’s message so immediate and powerful.

The creators of the site and all it’s members are anonymous, choosing to let their message speak for itself. Collaborators design different versions of the three words “you are beautiful” and then hi-jack public areas that would normally contain advertising. From more traditional graffiti spaces to usurping billboards and lining the insides of advertising-riddled subway cars, the idea is to replace the ubiquitous consumer-driven messaging we normally see with a compliment. A little burst of positivity, unexpected in the midst of buy-buy-buy messaging, that asks us to do absolutely nothing but feel good about ourselves.

The collected images of how the message has manifested itself created an exhibition that’s appeared in galleries around the world. Living up to the true nature of it’s movement, You Are Beautiful seeks out individuals to contribute as well. People can let out their inner artist with their very own version of the message, be it public or private, and send pics to the site for posting. The only thing they ask is that the message not be commodified or sold in any way – to just always be free and always be true to itself.

Plus, for just the price of postage, Are You Beautiful will mail you a free package of stickers. Spread the message, take pics of where you put your stickers, and send them to the site to be added to the collection:

Ryan Johnson – Milan, Italy

Emily Gordon – Ottawa, Canada

Peter Federma – Amherst, US

Laura Schlipf – Palmdale US

adidas australia: originals festival.

Adidas never lets me down. Just like The West Wing or Golden Grahms or Tori Amos, I can depend on Adidas to do what I need it to. If that includes creating a full-blown 8-bit pixellated website that invites you to create your perfect summer music festival, that I guess that’s what I need right now. I trust Adidas that much. If Adidas gave me Kool-Aid, I would drink it.

The Originals Festival website is candy. Besides giving you that old-skool Commodore 64 feel that makes me feel warm all over, it lets you pick your dream line-up for a healthy list of scenester bands, DJs, and folk heroes. Then it gives you a box full of design tools to create a poster worthy of your earth-shatteringly cool headliners. It’s easy enough that design-fans like myself can have some fun with it, but complex enough that an actual graphics expert could do some seriously good shit. Once you’re done, people vote on which fests they’d be into and which suck. The winner gets a trip to the Berlin Festival and a shopping spree and all that stuff. Of course, it wasn’t until after I’d done the whole thing that I realized you had to be an Australian resident to officially enter. Feat not, no matter where you live everyone can add their own festival for voting.

Here’s my poster. I went for a heavy electro vibe, a little hippie-folk, and topped it off with M.I.A.

Via Adverblog

19.20.21.

This article also appeared on Josh Spear

In 2006 the planet crossed a tipping point – more than half the world’s population now live in cities.

Focusing on 19 cities with populations greater than 20 million people at the turn of the 21st century, 19.20.21. is a 5 year initiative to study the global effects of urbanization. The project plans to use the data collected to become an indispensable tool for urban and business planning.

Since most of the world’s biggest cities lie on a coastline, the study is paying particular attention to issues related to the global warming, ocean resources, and energy distribution while also studying factors like crime dynamic and calamity risk. Once gathered, the site aims to distribute its findings in traditional channels like print and TV as well as online and in a series of seminars to be held in each of the 19 cities that were studied.

learning to love you more.

This article also appeared on Josh Spear

Just as it’s title so succinctly implies, Learning To Love You More is an on-going interactive web project created by artists Harrell Fletcher and Miranda July that teaches us to explore ourselves from every angle.

 

Managed by California-based artist and designer Yuri Ono, the site challenges potential participants to complete a series of 68 assignments. New tasks are always being added and they can be completed in any order you chose. The results – whether it’s a video or picture or drawing – are submitted to the site and added to the chronicle of each task. Ranging from the artistic (#27 – Take a picture of the sun) and the anarchic (#34 – Make a protest sign and protest) to the ephemeral (#68 – Feel the news) and the sublime (#36 – Grow a garden in an unexpected spot), each new idea moves you to take on a new talent, face a new fear, or potentially dig up the past to get it done.

Since it’s creation in 2002, more than 5000 people around the world have put pieces of themselves into Learning To Love Your More. Those works have been gathered into a constantly shape-shifting exhibition and screening of the project, including a presentation at NYC’s Whitney Museum, and the project has also been documented in a new book. 

The simple power of each task and the collaboration between strangers all around the world points to one eternally poignant message. By accessing the most personal facets of your self and then having the courage to share them, you can’t help but see a beautiful truth: nobody is alone.

random website friday: weburbanist.

Sometimes you’re in the mood to wander the ‘net aimlessly but you’re not feeling Perez and all the usual suspects. Say you’re in the mood for something intellectual and architectural, yet completely random, with some culture and a good dollop of modern art thrown in. When you’re in that mood (and who isn’t, really?) that’s when you need to head to WebUrbanist.

This site is the shit. There hasn’t been a single visit where I haven’t come across something unexpected. For instance, right now the latest posts are on shopdropping (the subversive art of reverse shoplifting), the 3 most bizarre micronations in the world, the 7 smallest hotel rooms in the world, and urban camouflage.

If you’re saying “shopdrop who?” and “micronation what?” and “urban camowhazzit?” then that’s precisely why you need to go there. Now. Go now.

random website friday: desktopography.

As someone who spends a large part of they day starting into a Powerbook, Desktopography is one of my fave sites.

Each yearly exhibition features desktops from digital designers around the world. The work is nature-themed, the whole idea being to bring a fantastic view of the natural world to your computer screen. The designs are so hot you’ll have a hard time picking just one, but since they’re free to download you can switch up your desktop whenever you like. Even better, link back to each designer’s home site from their Desktopography submission and explore their full portfolios whenever you need a little time out from your daily routine.

random website friday: COLOURlovers.

How I’ve lived so many years of my life without COLOURlovers I’ll never know. This site is mental candy. Highly addictive creative mental candy.

Described as a “Colour + Design Community for Creative Inspiration”, the site lives up to it’s name and delivers inspiration in spades. Simple to navigate, you can discover new artists in it’s extensive blog or create your own colours, palettes, and patterns. Spread them around, search through others’, send them a love note if you’re into what they’ve done, or create your own palettes and patterns from other people’s work. The site links everything together seamlessly so credit is always given where credit is due and you can also follow a line of creativity and design between different people from around the world.

To me, the best part are the palettes. Not just from the formations of colour, but because each one is named by it’s creator. Like the world’s most succinct poetry, exploring the various chromatic connections between the names inspired by the colours (or the colours inspired by the names) is frighteningly addictive. We’re talking Tetris-addictive.

When I signed up , there were already a whopping 234,097 palettes. A side-bar on the page shows the latest palettes and patterns as they’re created, and several new ones are added each minute. It’s a constant stream of creativity and you can’t help but jump in.

This is my first palette, bleu comme le ciel:

Yeah, I like blue. I was only able to make it through 500 of the palettes, but keep reading to check out my ten faves (in no particular order):

burger king: whopper freakout.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky continues it’s viral brilliance for Burger King with Whopper Freakout. Basically, they took over a BK for a day and told people that the Whopper had been discontinued: fake newspapers reporters, big black Xs on the menu boards and all. Hidden cameras catch the stunned, the speechless, and the mentally unstable go ape shit as they try to come with the mind-bending realization that the Whopper is no longer.

Not only is it entertaining, but when finally the poor transfatties are let in on the joke and are reunited with their Whoppers, the looks of relief and pure joy on their faces are probably the most heartfelt advertising a fast food burger could hope to get.

People are going to debate if this is fake or not, which is precisely one of the points of it. Get people talking. If it is fake, then these are some of the most brilliant improvisational actors ever. If it’s real, then equally awesome. Either way this will spread like wildfire so BK and CP+B are winners all.