26.1.09

Fun with Illustrator

Many people ask me the difference between Photoshop and Illustrator. The answer, super-simplified is this: Photoshop is for editing photos, and Illustrator is for creating art. Now, of course, Illustrator can handle photo-realistic images (to an extent) and Photoshop can definitely create art, but when it comes down to it, I would never try to create a web site mock-up in Photoshop anymore, nor would I ever try to map an image to a 3d plane in Illustrator (well, I might...but that's for another day).
I believe that there are two things that you can do to become an expert with these two programs: practice (obviously) and watch others use them (not so obvious, apparently).
I try to find some really good practices for those wanting to practice, and sometimes, I'm fortunate to find video tutorials (like the crazy posters found here, video double below). Here's a good one for Illustrator. And of course, like all of my vids I post, it's quite interesting for the un-artist too.

"Spacegirl"

"Science Machine"

100 Meter Photos and The Beatles

There is a fantastic photo which can be found here that is an actual 100m long photo. Quite cool.


Also, here's a pretty interesting list of Beatles' songs in order of how good they are. I don't know if I completely agree, but here are the bottom ten and the top ten:

185. “Revolution 9”
184. “Honey Pie”
183. “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”
182. “Yer Blues”
181. “Good Day Sunshine”
180. “Ask Me Why”
179. “Long, Long, Long”
178. “Little Child”
177. “Old Brown Shoe”
176. “You Know My Name (Look Up My Number)”
175. “I Wanna Be Your Man”

10. “Eleanor Rigby”
9. “Something”
8. “Strawberry Fields Forever”
7. “In My Life”
6. “All You Need Is Love”
5. “Hey Jude”
4. “Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End”
3. “She’s Leaving Home”
2. “I Am The Walrus”
1. “A Day in the Life”

On other random notes, Layer Tennis is a sweet little competition where two photoshoppers send a file back and forth, each adding something to the image. It looks like it will be pretty fun, and the second season starts in February. If you're into Photoshop, you should consider checking it out, since you can look at the archives and see exactly how some designers work. Sign up for season tickets (free) if you want to be informed.
And does physics not apply to most of the universe?

23.1.09

Cool Panoramic of Inauguration

Great events call for great photography!

Fullscreen here!

21.1.09

Cellular Marketing

This is fun. Hooray for cellular technology!



[kottke.org]

20.1.09

Inauguration Tuesday Update

On Sunday, I took some visiting friends up to Sundance and we saw a very poignant film called 'Kimjongilia.' It's about defectors from North Korea, and they talk about the state of that nation. It was intense, and I learned quite a lot about North Korea and its many, many problems. Afterwards, we went to Main Street and, of course, to the New York Lounge, where I spent some time last year (free food!). Walking through we saw Pierce Brosnan, which was cool. As we were leaving, he also came to step outside and we had a little chat:
Pierce: "It's so hot in here, I have to get some air."
Me: "Can't blame you."
Me opens door.
Pierce leaves.
Okay, so it wasn't word for word. He's actually a nice guy, and seemed very personable. Hooray for Sundance! We heart you!

So, my satellite sources have revealed there were LOTS of people in D.C. today. How many? This many:

You can actually get a super high res version here.

So, we have a new president. It makes me sparkle inside. Government might finally be able to communicate with its people. Obama's marketing team was amazing through the campaign, and it looks like they are continuing strong. They even have some creative copy cats and innovators following their path. Check out the differences at whitehouse.gov:

It even has a blog, which makes me wonder if comments will be enabled. That would be pretty sweet. Even cooler, is how much transparency is evident just in the website changeover. Take a look at the comparisons of the robots.txt file. For those of you uninformed about the robots.txt file...it's an internet standard that every domain should have. It tells the search engines what directories they are not allowed to search through. Bush's administration had over 2400 entries!! Obama's? 2 lines...the two that must be in every robots.txt file.

If you want to have a good chuckle, check out the superuseless superpowers blog. It's a fun read.

For those who remember, I kinda like the ukulele, and I love the Beatles. So this video was pretty sweet:

17.1.09

Let's Move On

Okay, so, apparently politics aren't a great talking point for the group that reads this...but Walmart is. Well. Hmm. How about more Star Wars!?
Who hasn't seen the original Star Wars series? Go ahead and answer that. This video follows the storyline of the original trilogy--as told by someone who has never seen it. Quite hilarious. 'HANS' SHOT FIRST!

[gizmodo]

14.1.09

Why I Hate Walmart

A quote from Brett in the comments from a few posts back:
Why exactly do you hate Walmart, other than your preference for a more hip, urban environment while you shop? As far as I can tell, Walmart is successful because it is very efficient.

I will try to examine my aversion to Walmart in as few words as possible. Bear with me.

As you say, Walmart is efficient. What you fail to mention is the lengths at which they go to remain efficient. The power of the efficiency machine has brought in more hazardous products from China than any other, has shown its moral deficiencies are worse than almost any other entity in the world, encourages against voting democrat, and, if you care, has monopolistic powers towards manufacturers. However, as many of you would say, these are easy to overlook because, well, we are capitalism: these things work themselves out.
But what pushes me over the edge is Walmart's ostentation to fool the taxpayer. Just in Salt Lake City and Ogden alone, Walmart has recently requested RDA funds to acquire land AND build their stores. Excuse me? The wealthiest corporation in the world wants money set aside for recreation and development? I believe the development in RDA is for citizen development: theatres, stadiums, libraries...not a corporation who doesn't want to pay for their own building.
On top of that, Walmart has even gone so far as to require cities to pay for their electric bill as part of their agreement for coming into a city. Even if Walmart had better energy practices, this is purely unacceptable.
Sam Walton started Walmart as a place for low-income individuals to make affordable purchases. He did an amazing thing, and it shows. Completely honorable. But the pure greed and morality-shirking of his children have pushed Walmart to do unmentionables.
I never said I hated Walmart. I've surpassed the feelings of complete animosity, but I still don't agree with what it does. Furthermore, I can find better prices in better environments, hence I will continue to make the effort to complete my purchases elsewhere, and feel good about it. Heck, even Glenn Beck doesn't like it.

The Inheritance of War

Just got this e-mail from Ashley:
As some of you may know I recently completed a feature length documentary entitled "The Inheritance of War." It premiered this month at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and is now playing in the LDS Film Festival in Orem, UT. I wanted to let those of you who live in the Salt Lake / Provo area that the film will be playing:

Friday, January 23rd
2:00 PM @ Scera Xango Grand Theater

For more information about the festival go to www.ldsfilmfestival.org The film is listed under "Feature Films"

You can also learn more about the documentary by going to www.theinheritanceofwar.com

If you can't make it to this screening, but would like to see the film stay tuned to the web site. We're hoping to be playing in Ogden in early March.

Star Wars Universe Map

This is pretty neat for all you Star Wars nerds (read: Brett). Click for super-high res.

13.1.09

Photoshop'd!

I absolutely love this Flickr set, can anybody guess why?

Quote:
Remember, it's airbrushed
"Don't forget..." is a street art project that consists of Photoshop palettes pasted over heavily airbrushed advertising in a metro station in Berlin. (thx, phil)

[kottke.org]

9.1.09

Walmart Empire

So, most of you know that I haven't willfully bought anything at Walmart for a few years now, which is quite the change from before where I teased my friend who refused to walk in the store. Now, that being said, you can now see the vicious growth of Walmart from the few stores that Sam originally had. Check it:


AFTER MUCH EFFORT, I CANNOT GET THIS FLASH MOVIE TO PLAY IN ALL BROWSERS...PLEASE FOLLOW LINK BELOW OR CLICK HERE.


[Flowing Data]

7.1.09

Utah Utes: National Champions

Love this article...and my own personal comment about the game? Freaking AWESOME!!! I'm quite jealous of Shawnee and Brady!!!

[ESPN]