It's no secret that at the 49th Floor we have a love for Lego (just look at the home page) and I was really overwhelmed when I happenned upon the super 8 camera created by Friedemann Wachsmuth on gadgetbox this week. Creativity can manifest itself in many different ways and I just love this guy's vulgar display of Technic power and I have been truly inspired to dig out some of my twenty year old schematics that I would have built if I'd had enough bricks.
I stumbled across these at http://www.dornob.com and seeing as we will be decorating our family home in the near future, something like this has now gone straight to the top of my "Oh my God, I must have that in my house" list. The original Pacman and Space Invaders, followed by life-size R2D2 home-help robot still top this list, but wallpaper games are now right up there. The difficulty will occur in trying to get this past my lovely wife, who although a constant support and inspirational figure - is also death to grrreat ideas. I'll try my hardest though.
I have just come across this piece of design genius on the interweb. It's the vision of Shenzen Huashi; a monorail system to make use of the space ABOVE travelling cars. Apparently this is in production already and building will start at the end of the year.
This is unbeatably cool whichever way you look at it and really does mark the start of 3 dimensional travel possibilities - like those that were previously only seen in sic fi.
I hate the Simpsons. Don't get me wrong - it's been awesome in the past, well written, great ideas and performances. But is it really necessary to watch it EVRY SINGLE DAY FOR THE LAST !% YEARS. The answer is no of course and I'm sure you are probably wondering why I don't just change the channel - after all this is well within my power. To anyone maybe reading this who is married you will understand and appreciate the pursuit of the easy life and much like the sitcom Friends before it I am duty bound to put up with it and move on.
Putting aside my developing distaste for the Simpsons I have happened upon some news of an interesting collaboration, in this case featuring a starting sequence delivered by revered street artist (and probably terribly middle classed and endearing fellow) Banksy. The Simpsons collaborations have veered wildly in my opinion between great and REALLY REALLY BAD. Gervais I'm talking about you here, I am a fan of everything you do, but that episode was a mockery of a sham.
Anyway, take a look at the video below, I wonder how much he got paid for this?
The title of this entry is a little misleading because I don't actually own a dog and I don't necessarily believe that old wives tale that people look like their dogs (although these images I found from a random dog food campaign seem to suggest otherwise). So what the eff is this all about then eh? I think a designers work is reflected in their work space (and appearance, but I'll get to that another time) and that you can tell a lot from that random selection of crap that lingers around your desk or is stuck to your monitor.
This company offer The Best Graphic Design (apparently). Saying you are the best at something is a bold claim. I'm all for self belief but if you deal in superlatives then you'd better be ready for a critical kicking if you don't deliver. Do clients really fall for this kind of self promotion?
There's loads of talented designers, creatives and whatnot out there who all operate in a different way. Isn't that the joy in working in design in the first place?
Further to the blog post the other day about placing testimonials on your web site, due to recent events I wanted to follow this up with a question to you all.
I have recently read the CV of an ex-colleague (whose name shall be kept to myself so as to a. avoid blushes and b. avoid law-suits) which goes into great detail about his strengths - narrowly avoiding the point of toe-curling pretension, but stopping just ahead of the 'ugh' marker. Obviously a CV is the first port of call used by prospective employees to sell themselves to a company, organisation or person enough to warrant a call back or indeed an interview. Whilst I understand the necessity to make yourself sound strong in a multitude of areas and back this up with both real life experience and relevant education/training, this is where a lot of people can come unstuck via an unfortunate lying snowball, which paints the picture of a completely different person than that who actually exists. What can begin as a genuine attempt to add some sheen to your skill-set by either taking full credit for a bit-part role or making the most out of what was in reality either a failure or product of questionable merit, can later turn into an out and out den of lies.
