We all know the adage “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” That’s a pretty good nugget of popular wisdom.…
NEW ISSUE OF BELOVED, ARTSY INTERNATIONAL SHELTER MAG HAS ARRIVED AND WE FEEL BLESSED!
The new issue of Apartamento magazine arrived in the mail from Barcelona, Spain last week ands we’ve been savoring its…
MOVING PICTURES: THE LITTLE MOVIEMAKING TECHNIQUE YOU’VE SEEN A MILLION TIMES BUT NEVER HEARD OF!
You’ve seen this a gajillion times in tons of movies: At a critical moment the shot you see on the…
NO LOGO : ARTIST RENDERS FAMOUS BRAND MARKS IN CHROME!
For this “36 Logos” project German artist and designer Martin Naumann re-worked the logos of some of the world’s biggest…
SELLING THE SIZZLE! : A JAPANESE CAR COMPANY UNLEASHES AN EPIC NEW COMMERCIAL!
The 60-second commercial is for Honda and is called “Origin of Determination.” The spot features 100 Honda products, from race…
FLIP MODE! SHREDDED BANKSY RE-SOLD AT AUCTION FOR MORE THAN $25 MILLION!
We’re in the wrong business. We should be in the business of flipping infamous Banksy artworks. Especially the kind that…
“LIT A.F., DUDE! “: SEEING THIS ICONIC L.A. ARTWORK NEVER GETS OLD!
Artist Robert Irwin’s wall of multi-colored fluorescent tube lights at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art serves as post-modernist…
BEAN HERE NOW : OUR NEW COFFEE STATION UNVEILED
Here’s the coffee set-up at our headquarters. We put up these shelves above the counter where the coffee-making gear is…
ULTIMATE PAINTING: ARTIST SARAH CAIN PAINTERLY PROVOKES ART WORLD GATEKEEPERS!
The New York Times arts section has turned a deservedly keen eye towards Los Angeles-based painter Sarah Cain. Cain’s paintings…
RUB A DUB: FAREWELL THE LEGENDARY UPSETTER! LEE “SCRATCH”PERRY, R.I.P.
Has it already really been a week? Yes. Actually, it’s been just over a week since news hit us that…
STOP MAKING SENSE: NEW WORK FROM TEXAS ARTIST RAY DUNLAP DRIVES DEEPER INTO GLORIOUS ABSTRACTION!
Houston, Texas-based artist Ray Dunlap has unleashed a new series of paintings dubbed “American Made Witchcraft.” This new work delves…
SPARKLING COLLAB: TAKASHI MURAKAMI BRINGS “SUPERFLAT” TO A PERRIER BOTTLE NEAR YOU!
It was only a matter of time until we see a contemporary art superstar lend their artwork to a major…
SMELLS LIKE LAWSUIT SPIRIT: “NIRVANA BABY” SUES ICONIC GRUNGE-ERA BAND!
The guy who was the baby on the iconic cover of Nirvana’s”Nevermind” album is suing the influential Seattle grunge pioneers.…
INEDIBLE EDIBLES: ARTIST CROCHETS PASTA!
Somebody’s got a lot of free time on their hands. They’ve got vision. They’ve got yarn. They’ve got a crocheting…
BUILT FOR SPEED : JAPAN’S NEW “BULLET TRAIN” DESIGN REVEALED!
Japan Railways (JR) recently unveiled the design for its newest shinkansen, a.k.a., “Bullet Train.” It’s called the “Kamome,” which translates…
WEIRD FLEX BUT OK: FREESTYLE COMPETITIVE CANOEING! FOR REAL! SEE FOR YOUR SELF!
Soooo, today we learned there’s such a thing as competitive interpretive freestyle canoeing. It’s really a thing. Think of it…
101-ISM : HOW TO DRAW YOURSELF AS A PEANUTS CARTOON CHARACTER! FOR REAL!
Happy Monday! And we know what you’re thinking! Wouldn’t it be cool to draw yourself as a character from a…
PHOTOGENIC : NEW SHOW REVEALS DEEP TIES OF TWO JAPANESE PHOTOGRAPHY MASTERS!
A new exhibition at the European House of Photography in Paris (Maison Européenne de la Photographie or MEP) showcases two…
EXHAUSTIVE : NEW DOUBLE EXTRA-LARGE BOOK OF EVERY FRIDA KAHLO PAINTING EVER!
Taschen’s new XXL-size coffee table book contains the entire set of artworks by the late great artist Frida Kahlo. Aptly…
SUPER COOL COFFEE-TABLE BOOK! “AFROSURF” CELEBRATES AFRICA’S RICH SURF CULTURE!
As regular readers of this blog know, we love to surf every chance we get. So when a new artful,…
SHAMEFUL OR SMART? : TOKYO OLYMPICS ARCHITECTURE LACKS OVERPRICED, PRETENTIOUS NEW TROPHY BUILDINGS!!!
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics will open this week in the here and now of 2021. The world’s biggest sporting and…
BAD DESIGN: A COLLECTION OF THE “WORST VOLUME CONTROL USER-INTERFACES IN THE WORLD EVER”!!!
This collection of extremely poorly-designed volume-control user interfaces (UI) is curated with tongue very firmly in cheek. It’s a hilarious…
POP CULTURAL: A “SEINFELD” TV SHOW LEGO SET WILL BE RELEASED THIS SUMMER!
Yes, Danish toy-maker LEGO will be selling a set of their iconic bricks to build your very own set of…
DESIGNED TO DEATH : AWESOME POST-MODERN VERSIONS OF CLASSIC MOVIE POSTERS!
Check out these retro post-modern movie posters designed by Patrick Concepcion. These are so good. Concepcion’s graphic design manages to…
TATTOO YOU! : ARE “PANDEMIC TATTOOS” REALLY A THING?
Maybe. The New York Times is reporting that for some tattoo aficionados and newbies alike, getting a tattoo commemorating the…
ADVENTURES IN AUDIO: NEW AMBIENT CHILL-OUT MUSIC BY ALOHA DEATH
We produced a new original piece of music for Aloha Death. The song is called “Gallery Meditation” and is a…
TOUR DE FORCE: OBAMA PORTRAITIST AMY SHERALD’S BRILLIANT “THE GREAT AMERICAN FACT” EXHIBITION IN L.A.!
It’s a small show, but one that packs a punch. Amy Sherald’s collection of five new paintings manage to fill…
LIKE A VERSION: 100 INTERPRETATIONS OF ANIMATION SEQUENCE ARE MIND-BLOWING!
This short montage video showcases 100 animation interpretations by 100 different animators. It’s absolutely wonderful. The video reveals all the…
SUBLIIMELY CAFFEINATED: THE INTRIGUINGLY MINIMALIST COFFEE THERMOS!
We recently got this ultra-minimalist travel mug for our coffee. The form factor and style of the container can’t get…
CALIFORNICATION!: THE SURF-INSPIRED ART OF DJ JAVIER!
One could draw a Venn diagram with one circle for artists, designers, musicians, actors, and all manner of creators, and…
TRANSPARENT THINGS: THE MINIMALIST GLASS CUBE THAT TURNS THE WORLD RED!
Artist Larry Bell’s red, glass cubes at MOCA Los Angeles are a masterful use of color, materials and space. The…
LIGHT LINES: THE STUNNING IMMERSIVE SPACES OF BRAZILIAN ARTIST BLOWS OUR MINDS!
Last weekend we went to the new exhibition of artwork by Brazilian artist Lygia Pape at Hauser and Wirth Los…
IMPORTANT MESSAGE: “DON’T SURF!”
“Don’t surf!” We found this message scrawled into the layer of road dust caked onto the rear window of a…
CAFFEINATED DESIGN: CRUSHING HARD ON THIS COFFEE BRAND’S DUSTY PINK PACKAGING!
If you’re a regular visitor to this blog then you probably already know by now how obsessive we are when…
SO VIRAL IT’S SICK! VIDEO OF THE LINDA LINDAS PERFORMING “RACIST SEXIST BOY” DINGS INTERNET!
By now you may have heard of and seen the Los Angeles power-pop indie-punk band the Linda Linda’s. A YouTube…
JUST FOR KICKS: THE ART OF THE SNEAKER
A new exhibition at the London Design Museum offers a closer look at the evolution of sneaker design and innovation.…
EXHAUSTIVE: AWESOME 12-MILE, HI-DEF FIVE-AND-A-HALF HOUR REAL-TIME VIDEO WALKING TOUR OF PARIS!
. . . . . This video of a real-time walking tour of Paris is awesome. The video covers a…
DRAWN TO DISTRACTION: DAVID HOCKNEY FLIPPING THROUGH HIS SKETCHBOOK IS BRILLIANT!
. . . . . This video of British artist David Hockney flipping through his sketchbook without commentary is a…
REVEALED: BEST TYPOGRAPHY DESIGN OF 2021!
The Type Directors Club (TDC) recently announced the winners of its annual type-design competitions. The TDC is part of the…
PUMPIN’!: THE MOST BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED GAS STATIONS IN THE WORLD!
Gas stations tend to be pretty bland and merely functional when it comes to architectural design. Many are drab, dirty…
FANTASTIC PLASTIC: GIANT YELLOW CUBES MADE OF WEST-AFRICAN WATER CONTAINERS!
On the edge of a Native American land tract on the outskirts of Palm Springs, California, stand a pair of…
UPDATES: HEARING NEWS THAT NYC STREET ARTIST BAST HAS PASSED AWAY!
We’re still in a bit of shock this morning after hearing about the passing of the artist BAST! We learned…
ALL OF THE LIGHTS: “EX STASIS” BRINGS L.E.D. MAGIC TO BEAUTIFUL NATURAL LANDSCAPES
. . . . . This video of four audio-visual artworks by artist Reuben Wu are sublime and otherworldly. The…
KOOK SLAMS: BEER CAN DESIGN INSPIRED BY INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT HAS US IN DRUNKEN STITCHES!
Kook Slams, the beer. For real, it’s here! It’s a limited edition I.P.A. from Duck Foot, a brewery from the…
WATERING HOLE: HOTEL BAR EVOKES BYGONE ERA OF CALIFORNIA DESERT GLAMOUR!
“Hola, Amigo!” That’s what you should say when you enter the hotel bar of the Ace Hotel and Swim Club…
ICONIC: IMAGE OF QUEEN ELIZABETH AT HUSBAND’S FUNERAL SPEAKS VOLUMES ABOUT MONARCH IN THE PANDEMIC ERA!
Prince Philip, a.k.a., the Duke of Edinburgh, and husband of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, past away last week. There was…
EXPLODED VIEWS: ARTIST SLICES UP EVERYDAY OBJECTS!
Artist Fabian Oefner’s Heisenberg Objects is a collection of sculptural works created by slicing objects — sneakers, a clock, a…
TRUE GRIT: SURFER-MUSICIAN’S VINTAGE, STICKER-FIED STATION WAGON
Would you drive this stickerfied vintage station wagon? We spotted this car parked along a remote stretch of Pacific Coast…
MEDIA DIET: WHAT WERE WATCHING, READING & LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW!
Here it is, folks! A brief run-down of our current media diet: Some of the TV shows and movies we’ve…
CRYPTIC: HIPSTER-BEVERAGE GUERRILLA MARKETING AS STREET ART!
We saw this wheat-pasted poster on an electricity utility box on Fairfax Avenue in Hollywood on Monday. And we thought…
BACK TO THE MUSEUM!: WE VISIT OUR FIRST EXHIBITION IN OVER A YEAR! PANDEMIC BE DAMNED!
On Monday we went to our first art exhibition in over a year. Our first since the start of the…
NIFTY: WE’VE MINTED AND RELEASED AN NFT!
We’ve actually minted and released two NFTs! These are original images of surfers on waves at a couple of legendary…
ESCAPE ARTIST: NEW BANKSY STREET ART DEPICTS MAN SCALING PRISON WALL IN U.K.
. . . Banksy recently painted this stencil street art work on the wall of Reading Prison in the U.K.…
MARK THE SPOT!: EPIC, SPRAWLING “DESERT X” CONTEMPORARY ART EVENT RETURNS TO THE COACHELLA VALLEY!
It’s back! And we are so very happy to see it! Desert X has returned. What’s Desert X? It’s the…
REMOTE CONTROL: AWESOME ONE-TAKE P.O.V. VIDEO OF DRONE FLY-THROUGH OF A BOWLING ALLEY!
. . . . . You’ll want to watch this video at least a couple of times. This well-choreographed and…
ABOUT FACE: MASKS OF THE WORLD, UNMASKED!
. . . . . “Beyond Noh” is short documentary film by Patrick Smith that dives into the subject of…
NIFTY!: DIGITAL N.F.T. ARTWORK SOLD FOR $69 MILLION AT AUCTION! JAWS DROP!
In a groundbreaking auction sale a digital artwork in the form of a JPG file as non-fungible token (or NFT)…
HOME RUN: ARTISTS COMMISSIONED TO RE-IMAGINE ICONIC BASEBALL CARDS!
The Topps chewing gum and baseball card company has launched Project 70 to celebrate seventy years of producing annual baseball…
WHAT PARTY?: FIRST MAJOR KAWS RETROSPECTIVE OPENS IN BROOKLYN!
The New York Times has published a review of the new KAWS exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. KAWS…
A NEW FONT FOR OUR TIME: “CLIMATE CRISIS” TYPEFACE REFLECTS REAL-TIME CLIMATE-CHANGE DATA!
A newspaper in Finland has launched a new variable font called “Climate Crisis.” The font was designed to reflect the…
WHAT DA FUNK? FAMOUSLY UN-FAMOUS FRENCH DUO DAFT PUNK SPLIT UP!
. . . . . Daft Punk has split up. Has ended things. Called it quits. Called it a day.…
“PRETEND IT’S A CITY”: WHY MARTIN SCORSESE’S NETFLIX SERIES WITH FRAN LIEBOWITZ IS MUST-SEE TV!
Netflix’s “Pretend It’s a City” takes its title from a remark by Fran Liebowitz. It’s a command to the tourists…
THE UNLIKELIEST ART STAR: HOW KAWS WENT FROM GRAFFITI-TAGGER TO GLOBAL ART WORLD MEGASTAR!
The New York Times has published an excellent profile of artist Brian Donnelly. Who is Brian Donnelly you ask? He’s…
ADVENTURES IN AUDIO: BRILLIANT A CAPPELLA VERSIONS OF WINDOWS & iPHONE SOUND FX + SUPER MARIO BROS., TETRIS SOUNDTRACKS!
. . . . . This South Korean vocal group’s a cappella versions of Windows and iPhone sound effects and…
FUZZY LOGIC: CULTURE OF MISAKI KAWAI!
Artist Misaki Kawai‘s current exhibition of new work at the Hole Gallery in New York City could at a brief…
WORLDS COLLIDE: FILMMAKER WERNER HERZOG INTERVIEWED BY SKATEBOARDING MAGAZINE!
Skateboarding magazine Jenkem interviewed Werner Herzog. Yes, THAT Werner Herzog, the auteur German film director and actor whose directorial credits…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
LIVIN’ LARGE: WHAT A HOME FILLED WITH MINIMALIST ART LOOKS LIKE!
The MoMA dives into what it’s like to live with some amazing minimalist artwork in the home and workplace. In…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
FINALLY! NEWS OF TRUMP DEFEAT AS ANNOUNCED BY NEWSPAPERS AROUND THE WORLD!
We woke to the news this Saturday morning that the U.S. presidential election result finally has been called in favor…
POLITICAL CARTOONS: ARTIST’S ILLUSTATIONS SERVE UP SCATHING CRITIQUE OF DONALD TRUMP’S PRESIDENCY IN WAKE OF ELECTION!
New York artist Edel Rodriguez, has made a sub-career the past few years of creating clever illustrations that offer scathing…
PHOTOGRAPHIC: WHAT GORDON PARKS SAW!
. . . . . Gordon Parks was a multi-faceted artist who worked across diverse mediums, but his photography capturing…
UPLIFTING: JAPANESE ARTIST TAKASHI MURAKAMI DECORATES CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL WITH ICONIC ARTWORK
Mega-superstar Japanese artist Takashi Murakami recently decorated part of the Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., with his iconic cartoon-like…
ZEITGEISTY: STREET ART REFLECTS COVID PANDEMIC AND BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTESTS
With urban architectural surfaces an almost always available canvas for street art and graffiti art, new artwork can emerge quickly…
SPACEY: MAN GENERATES 2.5 GIGAPIXEL IMAGE FROM MORE THAN 2,500 PHOTOS OF ORION TAKEN OVER 5 YEARS!
A man in Tennessee has spent over five years taking detailed telescopic photos of a single constellation. The man is…
GLOBAL GRAPHICA 