VISUAL CULTURE: THE TIMES’ BEST OF 2020 ILLUSTRATION!
The New York Times art directors have picked their favorite illustration of 2020. It’s an excellent survey of some of the best artwork, most of it graphical, some of it animated, all of it compelling and topical, reflecting the dramatic events of an incredibly memorable and crazy year that manyContinue Reading
SKATE BRAZIL: MESMERIZING VIDEO SHOWS OFF SKILLS OF BRAZILIAN SKATEBOARDING CREW!
A short skate film called “The Girls of Guanabara” is a mesmerizing clip that showcases the dance-like skateboarding moves of four women as they ride their longboards and do tricks on the streets of Rio de Janeiro. This style of longboard skateboarding previously garnered attention when videos of South KoreanContinue Reading
WHOPPER: GLOBAL FAST-FOOD CHAIN ROLLS OUT NEW LOGO AND BRANDING!
Worldwide fast-food restaurant chain Burger King has revamped its brand identity, including its iconic burger logotype, color palette, typography and icons. The change is a big deal for such a large and recognizable brand. It’s the first change to BK’s branding in over twenty years. The new branding was designedContinue Reading
NAILED IT!: GERMAN MAGAZINE DER SPIEGEL’S UNCANNILY PREDICTIVE COVERS OF TRUMP AND THE WASHINGTON CAPITOL RIOT!
Like many news magazines around the world, the highly-respected weekly German news magazine Der Spiegal has over the past five years devoted a number of its magazine covers to images, illustrations and cartoons depicting Donald Trump in the context of political news and the state of current events at theContinue Reading
AUDIO FILES: THIS IS POSSIBLY THE COOLEST MUSIC PODCAST IN THE UNIVERSE!
The podcast Lost Notes 1980 from the massively influential Los Angeles public radio station KCRW takes deep dives into significant pop-music milestones and the artists involved in the year 1980. These are sometimes well-known, sometimes obscure, bands and songs that shaped the trajectory of music, from punk to soul, fromContinue Reading
STREET ART: SPEAK NO MONEY, SEE NO MONEY, HEAR NO MONEY!
This wonderful mural in Downtown Los Angeles is a visual play on the age-old proverb “Speak no evil, See no evil, Hear no evil” that often accompanies an image of three “wise” monkeys. Here the evil is money. Instead of monkeys, the painting depicts three simple, cartoony line-drawing-style characters withContinue Reading
DOING IT FOR THE GRAM: IT’S JANUARY! JANUARY JONES, THAT IS!
January Jones, star of such television shows such as Madmen and the Last Man on Earth, is a celebrity who made her Instagram account a highlight of 2020. Her posts are in a style that’s distinctively her own and a fresh break from the usual celeb social media feeds. JonesContinue Reading
HAPPY NEW YEAR! WE WENT SURFING!
Happy New Year, everybody! We’ve started 2021 right by going surfing! The waves have been pumpin’! Hopefully this is the sign of great things to come in 2021 after the slow-burn nightmare of 2020!
LIVIN’ LARGE: WHAT A HOME FILLED WITH MINIMALISM ART LOOKS LIKE!
The MoMA dives into what it’s like to live with some amazing minimalist artwork in the home and workplace. In a short article and photo essay the museum published on their website last spring, the idea of integrating large- and medium-size minimalist installation art is shown with a rarefied example:Continue Reading
TRAIN STATION FROM HELL FINALLY SAVED FROM ARCHITECTURAL DAMNATION!
If you’ve ever been to New York City’s Penn Station then you are familiar with one of the world’s most distinctively oppressive, depressing, poorly-designed, irksome and unattractive public spaces. What’s more, the station replaced one of the most beautiful, grandest, and historic architectural gems of New York. For the pastContinue Reading
AMERICAN “DEAD MALL” GOTHIC: PHOTO ESSAY DOCUMENTS THE EMPTYING OUT OF ABANDONED SHOPPING MALLS
Cool article and photo essay in the New York Times on dead malls, how these are emptied out through the auction process, where all the stuff goes, etc. The images are akin to “ruin-porn,” visual documentation of once grand buildings and public spaces now abandoned or crumbling in decline. It’sContinue Reading
REVEALED: LONGEST PHOTO EXPOSURE EVER — 8 YEARS! — CAPTURED WITH PIN-HOLE CAMERA MADE WITH BEER CAN! REALLY!
True story: An MFA student at the University of Hertfordshire in the U.K. made a pin-hole camera using an empty beer can. The student attached the beer-can cam (or, perhaps “beer-cam” is more apt and concise?) to the side of a telescopic dome at the university’s Bayfordbury Observatory and aimedContinue Reading
PRIVATE EYES: MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR TOILETS WITH A VIEW AND MORE!
Artist-photographer Andi Schmied’s latest project called “Private Views” is a photo collection documenting the incredible views from some ultra-luxury high-rise apartments in New York City. For the project, Schmied posed as a Hungarian billionaire looking to buy an exclusive luxury condo. She then photographed the apartments and views afforded byContinue Reading
WATCH: MIND-BLOWING OPTICAL ILLUSION FUN WITH ROTATING CIRCLES AND ARROWS
This mesmerizing animated GIF is an excellent illustration of an optical illusion where our human cognitive system plays a trick on itself and see something that’s no really there. In this case directional arrows within two-color, spinning circles trick the mind into seeing directional shift in the position of theContinue Reading
FROM LONDON WITH LOVE: MASTER OF THE SPY NOVEL COMES IN FROM THE COLD! RIP JOHN LE CARRE !
British novelist John le Carré passed away this past weekend at the age of 89. As the Guardian newspaper reported he died of pneumonia Saturday night at a hospital in Cornwall, England. A master of the espionage novel and literary storytelling, le Carré made a life for himself as aContinue Reading
BREAKING! NEW BANKSY “AACHOO” ARTWORK GOES UP IN U.K.!
The Guardian newspaper in the U.K. has reported that a new work of street art has been put up by the artist Banksy in the city of Bristol. According to the Guardian, Banksy has confirmed the stencil street art is his. The artwork, titled “Aachoo,” appears on the side wallContinue Reading
IT’S HERE! THE “ALOHA DEATH” PLAYLIST!
Yup, by popular demand we’ve finally set up a proper playlist for GlobalGraphica’s indie-rock-electronic soundtrack music project “Aloha Death.” AND we’re about to drop some new tunes later this month and in early January 2021, which we’ll add to the playlist once released. We sincerely hope you enjoy the tunes!Continue Reading
MUSIC: OUR NEW WINTER 2020-21 PLAYLIST IS HERE!!!
Our new Spotify playlist for Winter 2020-21 is here with lots of new tunes, lots of favorites and some obscure older songs from back in the day. It’s a mix of indie, hip-hop, rock, dub-reggae and electronic sounds and includes tracks from Run the Jewels, Tame Impala, Sylvan Esso, A$APContinue Reading
MEDIA DIET: WHAT WE’RE WATCHING, READING, AND LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW!
In a new installment of “media Diet” here we’re sharing some of what we’ve been consuming across the cultural landscape. These are books, podcasts, TV shows, movies, music, and print that have kept us entertained and inspired in our free time while stuck at home during the COVID pandemic. FirstContinue Reading
ADDICTIONS: COFFEE, IT’S NEVER ENOUGH!
As many Global Graphica readers will know, we’re big — BIG! — coffee drinkers here. We drink a lot of coffee, especially espresso and slow-pour coffee. We like it black and hot, but occasionally we’ll pick up a cappuccino or even a cold brew. In the summer, our go-to isContinue Reading