This is pretty impressive!

“No effects or sampling was used. What you see is what you hear (does that even make sense?) Atari 800XL was used for the lead piano/organ sound, Texas Instruments TI-99/4a as lead guitar, 8 Inch Floppy Disk as Bass, 3.5 inch Harddrive as the gong, HP ScanJet 3C was used for all vocals. Please note I had to record the HP scanner 4 separate times for each voice.” Piece by bd594. Source code, demo, and info on how to create something similar here :)

Some very lovely stuff indeed here from designer, illustrator, and hand drawn typographer Jessica Hische. Gorgeous work throughout. Loads of imagination and love have gone into the details. Makes me want to get my sketchbook and paper textures out :)

I had to look at a couple of these before i realised what was going on. And then when i did, i realised there was a genius at work.

When Cookie clapped eyes on them he said … “ If spammers hired people to make their spam look like that. Then i’d quite happily subscribe to it! ”. Do you hear that spammers? It’s not the content we object to, it’s the graphic design :) I’m pretty sure that this is the only spam on planet earth that you wouldn’t mind having framed on your wall. ( And if you’ve got any other kind of spam framed up – then you’re probably not right. Get your dirty mits off my pages! )  The artworks are hand painted by Linze – see even more here, and her behance portfolio here, and her website filled with even more here! And if you still want more you can Buy the Prints Here ( and them hang them on your wall ) ;)

QuadCamera is officially awesome. These shots were taken with my iPhone. Honestly. *

Iain mailed around about this Lomo-a-like iPhone app and i couldn’t resist a play with it. Can you believe that only one of the shots above had it’s levels tweeked in photoshop ? It’s colour, contrast, and edge burning are just lush. I warn you, it’s very addictive once you get going. Download it with caution! More info on QuadCam here. My heart will always be with my Lomo, but this is a lot of fun. See more test shots on me Flickr.

* ( Although – the pic of Igor’s tshirt, taken by Mr.Lomo, is actually an iPhone picture of a Lomo ) ;)

Inspiration to a generation of creative people, today i learned the sad news that Tony Hart has passed away. Hours spent in front of the telle watching Take Hart as a kid no doubt fueled my desire to design and make things throughout my life. I had a giant bag of paper, card, glue and string that kept me happy for rainy day after rainy day. Genuinely sad to hear Tony’s gone. Rex of Little Big Planet sums it up very well in his tribute here.

Co stars Morph and Chaz above – of course created by Aardman Animations.

Absolutely love these chairs. I want them! Pairs of Happy Sad characters always work well, but it’s the abstractness of these i like the most. The work of Bott Scarry. Check out his illustration and exhibition shots here. Lovely work. A warm and optimistic individual style. For a high res of All Smiles ( below ) here.

The video for Fujiya & Miyagi - Ankle Injuries, so much detail and amazing colours. Ingeniously done. I wouldn’t care if it’s modified in after effects. I wonder if they figured out the dice face tones by eye, pixel by pixel, or if they created an app to work it out. If it’s all done by eye/hand that’s extremely impressive. A lot of work however you look at it. By Director Wade Shotter of Joy Rider Films, see his work here.

I’ve had these in my ‘To Blog’ folder for so long i can’t remember where i spotted them! But i wanted to share them anyway. I thought the colour palette and typography on these two were great. Some of them are so retro they look super modern. I wasn’t sure if the trainer boxes were toothpaste, or cigarette packaging at first. Oh! – found it the top one is from MoonStar the lower one from Laboratorium, the sam guys that created the Never Ending Tape Calendar. Lots of stuff to see there.

Update: The badges are in fact Yugoslavian ( Croatian ). My apologies to Marko.

What’s the future of eyewear ?

Ignacio Pilotto’s cheeky concept. I’d buy it! Come on Pantone, pull your finger out ; ) Spotted on Germany’s famous Nerdcore.

It’s always heart warming to see how much thought and effort’s gone into the design of simple, throw away objects in the past. These bus tickets are a lovely example, each with its individually planned layout, colours, and choice of type, and yet each still very clearly belonging to a beautiful family. You don’t get that level of attention paid to the mundane anymore. You can see the slower pace of life written all over the page. Wonderful.

See more eclectic stuff over at Estupipedia.

The orange image is the Wisconsin Film Festival Marquee Kids poster by Planet Propaganda. Lush colours, and the always good combo of photocopy texture and fat pixel fonts. Check their work section and look out for the li’l monkey on the fluro green background – retro looking chunky pixel animation – worth a watch there.  On the right we have a great sketch by Lauren Nassef found over on Doodlers Anonymous. All sorts there. Makes you wants to get your pencils out.

Do you remember those classic 80′s movies Critters and War Games ? I don’t remember the covers looking like this when i got them from the video shop! How cool are these? Andrew Lindstrom has collected together a whole bunch of Polish Film posters. Some are really beautiful. The Empire Strikes Back one has the feel of very recent stencil graffiti. Also, if you’re a fan of Weekend At Bernies, ( Chris check it out ) it’s quite a weird one …

Do you remember the Flip Flop Flyin’ MiniPops, retro gaming style pixel art? Well Ruby has sat down and mapped out each pixel into a massive Mini Pop cross stitch. Check out her Flickr to see the rollover tags on each character. I can see the White Stripes, ZZ Top, Public Enemy, Indiana Jones… Via Blog Like You Give A Damn.

By some strange coincidence i happened to be making a tiny tiny felt camera at work today ( yeh i know, i’m supposed to be a web designer, but today i got paid to spend all day making felt characters. Brilliant huh! ). I hadn’t thought of using a button for the lens. I hope you don’t mind if i do the same! Anyway, i spotted these on Plush You. Loving the iPhone case the most. And the camera case flap that turns into a viewfinder when open is a nice touch. The creator of these fine items is Hine! To bag one check her Etsy shop.