Day One: Going into the deep cloud. About to be scared witless!

After a shaky start the weather finally arrived. ( This picture above is Day Two )

Day One was rain, wind, and thick fog obscuring most things around us. Quite creepy when you’re heading up an empty unfamilar mountain. Not knowing precisly where you are, ( Cookie pretty much knew) or how far there is to go, and the uncertainty of any challenges or dangers ahead, can make you feel pretty uneasy. Especially when you’re up a slippy slope a few thousand metres up in the snow and it’s a complete white out! It’s been all excitment so far.

Then we heard the Avalanche.

If you’ve never heard the sound of a (very) nearby mountain collapsing - let me tell you, it sure puts the underwear at risk of a good wash. Especially when you’re looking up into the biblically terrifying, unseen sound coming out of the white foggy space ahead. I was clinging on to a snow slope like … like I’m not sure what - Someone who’s absolutely shitting it!

But it all turned out well in the end. We turned back and had an emergency beer on the grassey ridge below. Then went to the pub and drank! .. And drank some more.

Heard 14 more Avalanches. Before we got to the bottom.

Monster-Munch is going ‘off piste’ for a while. Cookie is walking me across the Swiss alps for a couple of weeks. Cookie has the lowdown here. I’m set up with the Shozu app for my iPhone so you may be treated to some random shots of goats and cheese ;)

My little backpack is packed and ready to go. ( I’ve found a pair of socks that have not yet been made into a monster ). And just to prove i’m not making any of this up - here’s a shot of my survival kit!

The brilliant movie graphics site Film The Blanks has been going from strength to strength the last few months. Competition is raging as to who’s the top movie poster buff. But you’ll have to be extremely quick off the mark. I’ve never managed to get any points! The best thing is that John’s set up a tshirt shop, so now not only can we enjoy them as screen prints but wear them too. Awesome! Visit the tshirt shop here or find out more info on the design and printing here. I love the Life of Brian one below.

Tidy little radio design by Valentin Vodev from Pix Studio. Speaker on the top, and cheeky aerial poking like a cig from his mouth. Just shows how much character you can get into something using only simple functional forms, but jigging them in an imaginative way. Via Design Spotter. Reminds me of a salt and paper shaker for some reason.

These strange hairy aliens come in all shapes and sizes - each with his own unique, tailor made, hand blown glass space helmet. Standing at around 20 - 30 cms tall, a member of the cactus squadron would make the perfect desk buddy. The Domsai are made by Matteo Cibic in Bassano del Grappa, Nove, Italy. Grab one from the Monotono shop here.

From classic family portrait shots to action re-enactments, Mike Stimpson has created some bold and stylish shots of these iconic Star Wars figures. Visit his flickr to view the full set. Several of these shots are available to buy at RedBubble. My favourite is the Chewey Big Foot shot. Those trees take me back!

Woa! Check out the size of this beast.

Caveman Rides Trunki-Mamouth!

Cookie and I have been busy working on a little project for the Bristol Design Festival, Pimp My Trunki! If you’ve not heard of Trunki, it’s a much loved kids-ride-on-suitcase designed by Cookie’s college buddy Rob Law. ( Documentary about Rob here ) Kids go mental for them.

A set of Trunki’s were mailed out to prospective, product designers, artists, and wild cards for pimping. Fascinated to see what’s been done to the others ( i’ll post pics if i can wangle any ).

We’ve been sewing, stuffing, and weaving wig like no-bodies business! I was in charge of Caveman Construction, and Cookie of Mammoth Management. ( Although i helped with the stuffing and eyes ;) ). Mammoth is made from a bath matt bought from Ridley Road Market in Dalston - plus a couple of buttons. And Caveman Rider is comprised of a pair of American Apparel socks, some goofy tooth shaped felt, a bit of fake zebra skin i had laying about ( as you do ) … and finally, the pièce de résistance - the hair piece. Took me flippin’ hours to cover over his bald patch!

Cave-fella and his hairy elephant-like mate fold down and pack inside for handy carrying….. Does anyone else think he looks a bit like Tina Turner ?

German digital artist and tinkerer Quasimondo has been noodling with the idea of encoding images within a single tweet. The results above show how the image is geometrically reconstructed. It looks abstracted but you can see that the idea could be pretty interesting!

“Preliminary result of a little competition with the goal to write an image encoder/decoder that allows to send an image in a tweet. The image on the left is what I currently manage to send in 140 characters via twitter.”

I’ve not tested it but, apparently this is the tweet for the image:
圑嘌婂搒孵怤實恄幖戰怴搝愩娻屗奊唀唭嚟帧啜徠山峔巰喜圂嗊埯廇嗕患嚵幇墥彫壛嶂壋悟声喿墰廚埽崙嫖嘵奰恛嬂啷婕媸姴嚥娐嗪嫤圣峈嬻尤囮愰啴屽嶍屽嶰寂喿 嶐唥帑尸庠啞彐啯廂喪帄嗆怠嗙开唅恰唦慼啥憛幮悐喆悠喚忐嗳惐唔戠啹媊婼捐啸抃岖嗅怲幀嗈拀唹坭嵄彠喺悠單囏庰抂唋岰媮岬夣宐彋媀恦啼彐壔姩宔嬀

( Update: Didn’t work for me but let me know if it does for you. I may be missing something )

You can read a full rundown of his ideas and coding methodology on his flickr. You can see more of his Algorithmically Generated imagery here.

Eye think it’s quarter past three! ;)

Love this abstracted way of telling the time. Now this would make a great stop frame animation if you placed it by the window and shot the shadows passing ( and the eyes boggling ). This fantastic Eyeball Clock is by Mike Mak. Via Design You Trust

Been meaning to blog about this awesome Augmented Reality game but i’ve been a little under the weather for a few days. So in case you’ve not found it yet … may i introduce RubberDuckZilla in … Massive Aqua Rampage!

With a simple printer and webcam, and through the wonder of AR, you can become a crazed water hating giant duck and rampage through the city blowing up buildings with you laser beam eyes …. so what’s not to like there then! ?? ( PS. there’s a tutorial video in there with the two japanese girls from the tv ad - shows you how to print out the code and stick it on your head in order to transform into the duck ). Print the AR Code from here then —>   Play it here!

And here’s our glamorous assistant Chris with a demonstration video.

I ( of course ) have a love monsters, and they don’t get much better than Gozilla. So i bloody love this! A big shout out the the very talented Poke boys who’ve been working hard on this one - especially Jason and Rex - in collaboration with the cheeky fellas over at LingoBee. There’ll be 4 games in total as the AR codes are released in the press. So keep your eyes peeled.

Bit of Clarkson for you this morning. Brilliant.

I think he might be reading my mind….. It’s those terrifying eyes. And the sinister way he’s reaching out to shake your hand, while thinking about how good you’re going to taste with a bit of piri-piri marinade, and pineapple. Creepy… Find out more about Marcel Dzama’s work .

Meanwhile, on Heidi Slimane’s fashion diary…

Typographic experiment by Steve Rura. Just liked the colours and the thin forms of the type on this one. I like the skinny 3D approach.