Hue Test
OK. do NOT try to do this early in the morning or if you have a hangover or if you are at work and you have shit to do. Seriously. All you have to do is drag-and-drop the boxes and place them in the proper hue order – from one end box to the other. I scored an 8 on my first go around on my laptop screen (go MacBook!) which is pretty awesome for a 40 year old (0 is the best score, 1464 the highest). I am going to try it on some other screens to see if I fare better or worse.
UPDATE: Got a big frickin’ ZERO the second time thank you very much. Go forty-year-old eye balls!
Howdy!
Well, here I go again. Yet another freakin’ redesign of bigplastichead.com. This time, it has to stick for a while or my wife is going to slit my throat for spending so much time on the computer. Hopefully my dog will begin to recognize me again. That would be nice.
Throughout my ‘career’ on the interweb I have had a total of about ten different sites. It started off with just wanting a web portfolio of my photography. I learned some Flash and made some swoopy-loopy Flash site that would make anyone looking at it nauseous. After that I started blogging. I even had a blog that recorded all of the letters I wrote and sent to G.W. Bush telling him what a screw-up I thought he was. (Over two-hundred letters and he never wrote back. I guess I can’t expect him to confirm me as a friend on Facebook now either.) I now blog at Big Plastic Head. And now here too. WTF am I thinking!?!
I’ll tell you. This is the more personal, artsy-fartsy site rather than a common scrapping of the internet for things that tickle my fancy. This is the site that will feature my photography and design work. This is the site that I will send clients too that will collect and show my work. I still may link to some outside goodies but they will be on the more photography/design/art theme because there is really some amazing things going on out there. And I am trying desperately to get involved with that…
Super Sweet Obama Buttons
Dig these awesome election buttons for Obama. Super cool.
(via BB-Blog)
Why America is F*cked (Graphically at Least)
(Whole lot of appropriate swearing in the video above. Might not be safe for work if you work in a cube.)
I have been meaning to post this. I have watched it about twelve times. This is a little rant by Aaron Draplin founder and proprietor of Draplin Design Co., North America. He is a designer with a passion for industrial designs of the past and and the designs of blue collar industries. He has a great eye. He knows what has heart and what doesn’t. He has a Dachshund named Gary. He swears like a sailor and damn him if he isn’t 100% right in this video. I am thinking that all designers should make a video like this and fight the idiots who can’t see the art or intrinsic value in a professional designer and have the idea that designers just push a bunch buttons all day without skill or talent. I deal with this crap all day.
Way to go, Aaron. Drop shadows, not bombs.
Cassette Tape Museum
Holy awesome collections, Batman! tapedeck.org has a huge collection of analog cassette tapes that can be browsed by brand, time length, and quality. I was a vinyl guy back in the 80’s so whenever I would get my new Oingo Boingo or Surf Punks LP, I would immediately record them to cassette so that I could “rock out” to them in the car or whatever portable device was around. Usually I did it on this little guy right here or possibly this one. I had freakin’ boxes of ’em. Don’t see your brand? Submit your own!
Awesome Woodccuts by Paul Roden & Valerie Lueth
Check out this beautiful series of limited edition woodcuts by Paul Roden and Valerie Leuth for sale over at Tugboat Printshop. I want the one pictured here but I have five or six prints that are waiting to be framed right now so it is a bit hard to justify. Will one of you go buy it and get it framed real nice and then invite me over to dinner so I can steal it from you? Thanks in advance!
(Via OMG Posters)
Newsweek’s Visions of China Blog
Speaking of cool Olympic photos, Newsweek has a great blog going right now written by photographers at the Beijing Olympics. It is called Visions of China and is chock full of great photographs and insider information on what it takes to get just the right shot. Here is a great post about getting the finish of the men’s 100m. I also like this photo documentation of how Vincent Laforet packed all of his gear for the games.
360º View From Olympic High-Dive Platform
I have to say that I have spent more time exploring this 360º view from the high-dive platform at the Water Cube in Beijing than I have watching any actual Olympic competition. It’s true. I spent about three minutes exploring that pool yet I have watched 0.00 minutes of this years Olympics. Someone please tell the government how unpatriotic I am. kthxbye
(via Gizmodo)
The Peloton
The Peloton is an awesome set of photographs (however presented in a website with crappy navigation) from Timm Köelln . The cyclist on display have been captured moments after they crossed the finish line of the grueling 2005 Giro D’Italia that runs around 2,100 miles. Koelln set up a tent at the finish line and as soon as the riders crossed, they would get off their bike and walk into the tent to immediately be photographed capturing some wonderful emotive portraits. If you were to tell me they were long lost Richard Avedon portraits, I would have believed you.
(via mathowie at Metafilter)
Exploding Banana Face
William Lamson does some crazy beautiful stuff. I love it.
PES’ Western Spaghetti
Awesome stop-motion video from PES. I urge you to check out the rest of their videos if you have not seen them. Very creative stuff.
Security Patterns
Here is a great collection of high-res scans of security patterns found on envelopes. I find the idea of collecting something that is so diverse yet virtually ignored pretty great.
(via Douglas Wilson and Kunal Bhat)
Vintage Luggage Decals
I about had a full on designgasm when I saw this amazing collection of vintage luggage labels from Tom Schifanella. So very cool.
(via)
Douglas Wilson
I have always been a lover of old maps. Just ask anyone who has ever received a gift from me and you will find that I use old National Geographic maps as wrapping paper. And it’s not because I am cheap. I love the look of the colorful lines as they wrap around the edges of packages. I also try to incorporate maps in my designs when I get the chance. They just add this randomness that I really like.
The other day I stumbled on this print by Missourian artist Douglas Wilson. Douglas is a multi-discipline graphic designer and university instructor who is also a self admitted letterpress addict. When I saw this print, I bought it immediately. I love that the uniqueness of the print not only comes from the tiny imperfections that are inherent in the nature of a letterpress print, but also by the fact that each print is created on a different map. It also makes the delivery of the print a total surprise. And it was. Mine is just like the one on the left but with a slightly different cropping. And it looks great. This print originally had a run of 90 but, because it sold out so quickly, he decided to do another unlimited run. (Thanks for that, Douglas!) The prints only cost $42 bucks which is a great deal for original art. It is always great when one can find original art that is affordable.
When my print came yesterday, I loved it so much I went and bought this one. And this one.
Here he is making his “Get Lost” print:
fig. 5~ NEWISH COMMENTS: