2008 InUmpqua Visitors Guide Cover

Hey, that’s my wife! This is the cover of this years InUmpqua visitors guide. I wanted them to use this one but someone said that the blurry water was going to be, “…too confusing.” WTF!?! I’m trying to make my dog famous! Anyway, here is the original…

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.

2008 InUmpqua Visitors Guide Music on the Halfshell Spread

Old Crow Medicine Show and Keb Mo played the 2007 Music on the Halfshell series in Roseburg in 2007 and these two shots were used for this spread. Want to see more? Go here.

2008 InUmpqua Visitors Guide Wonderfall Spread

Ooooh….smokey waterfalls!. No one has ever done that before…Ha!

This is a spread from the 2008 InUmpqua magazine travel guide that we put out every year. I went up the highway a bit and captured these waterfall photos for the 2007 issue that we used again for this year. Here are the raw photos…

4th of July Poster

This was a rush job I had this year. Normally I do not get to do any print work at the design house where I work. I am merely a pixel pusher (HEAD pixel pusher actually) in our web department so this was a nice change.

Over 40 – June, 2008

Portland, mo-fo’s!! Did some house duty as well. I tried to do a push up but it didn’t go so well. Watched “Fight Club” for about the tenth time. I miss something every time so it seems. I also stood in a field and sat where I was specifically told not to.

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)

Captain Cumulus

Awesome.

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:

bomomo

bomomo – a browser based drawing scribbler time waster thingy. Won’t let you erase or undo but you can save your crap masterpiece. (Only works in Firefox, Safari, and Opera. That’s right. Up yours Internet Explorer. Go home. Nobody wants to play with you anyway.)

(via)

Plastic From the Stomach of One Albatross

Oh! I really like your photograph of all that plastic debris. Great colors and textures. I like the way you meticulously laid out the pieces in a…

What? I’m sorry but what did you say? It came from where? The stomach of one albatross!?! Eww.

All of the plastic in the picture above was pulled out of the proventriculi – part of the birds complicated stomach system – of one bird, a Layson Albatross, on Kure, an island near Midway. The weight of the proventriculi on this bird was 340 grams and 80% of that was the plastic above. The plastic weighed as much as six golf balls.

From the book, Archipelago: Portraits of Life in the World’s Most Remote Island Sanctuary by David Liittschwager, Susan Middleton:

Inside dead chicks, I found, to my disgust, a printer cartridge, shotgun shell casings, paint brushes,  pump spray nozzles, toothpaste tube caps, clothespins, buckles, toys, and shards from larger plastic items such as laundry baskets and buckets. – David Littschwager

You can even make out a couple of cigarette lighters in the picture above. Pretty freakin’ sad if you ask me.

Open this PDF and scroll down to page 8 if you want to see a pretty gruesome picture of the bird itself.

Here is a good NPR story about this issue.

Over 40 – May, 2008

Painted the bedroom, went to Seattle (where we saw an AWESOME play in the park), exercised my right as a free American citizen and voted and also watched the destruction of the old Co-Op grain elevator. Sapo was involved as well.

Subliminal Advertising

Proof that subliminal advertising works…even on the douchebags who create it.

“Psychological methods to sell should be destroyed…” ~The Minutemen

MUTO

Have you watched MUTO yet from Argentinian (I think) artist BLU? Well if not, grab yourself seven minutes of free time and watch his incredible wall animation.