IN PASSING, IN MAKE OUT CITY: THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF IAN HOLWORTH
British photographer Ian Holworth‘s images remind us of the work of another photographer, William Eggleston, and the painter Edward Hopper. Holworth’s photos capture life and people in British coastal towns like Brighton, his home, and the mundane artifacts, romantic encounters and drab settings that establish the tone of the urbanContinue Reading
IN MOTION: OREGON TOURISM CAMPAIGN LOOKS LIKE A JAPANESE ANIME FILM!
. . . . . Travel Oregon‘s newest campaign promoting tourism to the state includes an animated commercial that’s a dead ringer for a magical and epic anime film from Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli production company. The ad is part of a campaign called “Only SlightlyContinue Reading
FLAKEY: WEB-BASED SNOWFLAKE GENERATOR IS SUBLIME (AMONG OTHER THINGS)!
Here’s a fun way to wile away a couple of hours. The Snowflake Generator is the awesome work of California-based artist and game designer Vivian Wu. It’s sublime. And fun! Happy Friday!
BEACH GRIT: THE CINEMATIC ART, MUSIC, SURFING AND LAUGHS OF “FREE SCRUBBER”!
. . . Regular readers of Global Graphica will know that among our many passions is surfing. (Or is it more of vice?) We surf every chance we get. And we try to watch as many surf films and edits as we can. But there’s so much content out there,Continue Reading
FORCE BE WITH YOU: U.S. POST OFFICE ISSUES STAMPS CELEBRATING “STARS WARS” ANDROIDS!
The United States Postal Service has announced that this spring they will be issuing a new series of stamps featuring the androids from the Star Wars films, including C3PO and R2D2. It’s a big nod to one of the greatest and longest-running cinematic franchises in motion picture history, one thatContinue Reading
EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES: ENOUGH WITH THE BUNDLED-UP BERNIE MEME ALREADY!
It was brilliant and funny for the first 24 -48 hours. The meme of U.S. Senator and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders based on an image of him sitting alone in a folding chair in his casual puffy winter coat and knitted mittens, legs crossed, arms folded, pandemic mask on,Continue Reading
HOT TYPES: LIST OF SOME FAVORITE NEW TYPEFACES FROM 2020!
I Love Typography’s “My Favorite Typefaces of 2020” is a list of notable new fonts produced last year. The typefaces run the gamut of… uh… types: Serif and san-serif, serious and whimsical, handwritten-style and no-nonsense, ornamental and symbolic. It’s a nice aesthetic survey of where typography is headed, some newContinue Reading
MAKING WAVES: OLAFUR ELIASSON’S “ATMOSPHERIC WAVE WALL” BREAKS IN CHICAGO!
Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson has built a career on ambitious, large-scale and innovative public installation art projects that lean into themes of nature, often play with the practical effects of light and rely on mechanical and architectural technologies. Many of these works are awe-inspiring and some have spawned unforgettable imagesContinue Reading
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