CityScape is a colossal fortress of tangled wood hovering in the heart of Brussels for the next year reflecting a frozen moment in time gesturing the increasingly influential city of Brussel within Europe’s capital. The project was funded by MINI for to coincide with the world premiere of the new MINI Clubman Car, which is pretty sweet, though the back reminds me of a refrigerator nostalgically.

CityScape is the vision of designer Arne Quinze who directs the fast paced multidisciplinary firm Quinze&Milan.(They rock!) Their work has been seen around the world, but I first noticed them from last years Burning Man sculpture in Black Rock city which they later burned down like champs! Cityscape reminds me of the trippy Tunnel House in a higher budget way.

I’ve copied a ton of images after the jump, otherwise, go to their BLOG for more pictures, videos, and information.(one YouTube Video about the project)

(more…)

“There’s this new trend of organizing books by color. I love this photo by chotda linked via the Rainbow of Books Flickr group. This growing trend is cool but if I were gonna do this, I’d probably have to create a little digital database so I’d be able to find the right book I was looking for. Also, I’d probably be totally OCD if a book was out of place due to a subtle color tone. Jessica at How about Orange points to a San Francisco bookstore Superhero that rearranged all 20,000 books by color. [ via ] Link.”

via Craftzine

Pretty sweet! I’ll have to reorder all my magazines on my bookshelf since they just sit there anyways. This reminds me that sometime when things are done one way by others or systems are designed to be done one way, there’s always a better solution for your needs.

Take for example those contact card binders with lettered tabs on the side, hinting you to keep your contacts in order by letters. We’ll, I started off that way but figured out a better method. I keep my cards in chronological order. The longer I’ve known you, the further you are in the front of the book. If I met you recently, your on the back half where I continue adding cards. Sometimes you remember people more by when you met them rather than by name, and by putting the cards in this order, you have a timeline of event such as college, a conference, a party, or at meeting. Perhaps this doesn’t work for some of you, but it makes for a great timeline book of contacts which works great for me.

Pretty sweet 3D Display! Can’t wait to work one of these using Solidworks (my preferred 3D Program!
via noob.us (larger video)
USC Institute for Creative Technologies

This video is awesome and will only make sense if your a web geek! It’s an animated collection of viral web icons from the past that we all know about but don’t want to admit! This sure reminds me how much time the web culture has influenced and wasted our lovable time!

Congrats to Dan Meth in creating this hilarious animation “Internet People“. Watch the video, see how many icons you recognize, and enjoy this movie down memory lane!

After the video, go after my jump to get links to all the “Internet People’s” web links via WebbAlert

(more…)

“The way fresh water is supplied to disaster-hit regions could be revolutionized after an Ipswich-based businessman (Michael Pritchard) invented a £190 ($385) bottle that makes foul-smelling water drinkable in seconds.

Military chiefs are excited because the bottles, which can distill either 4,000 liters or 6,000 liters without changing the filter, will have huge benefits for soldiers who hate drinking iodine-flavored water.

Conventional filters can cut out bacteria measuring more than 200 nanometers but not viruses, which typically are 25 nanometers long.

Mr Pritchard’s bottle can clean up any water - including fecal matter - using a filter that cuts out anything longer than 15 nanometers, which means that viruses can be filtered out without the use of chemicals.”

I’m glad to see these globally needed solutions advancing as far and as fast as they are. The Life Saver Bottle reminds me a bit of the Life Straw as well.

via Telegraph.co.uk
To Buy, go to LifeSaverSystems.com

“Raw for 30 Days is an independent documentary film that chronicles six McDonald’s-munching Americans with diabetes who switch to a diet consisting entirely of vegan, organic, live, raw foods in order to reverse diabetes naturally. The six participants are challenged to give up meat, dairy, sugar, alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, soda, junk food, fast food, processed food, packaged food, and even cooked food – as well as go without their loved ones and many of their creature comforts – for 30 days.”

Reminds me of “Sicko” and “Super Size Me” a bunch. Even if turns out to be one sided, I’m sure it’ll be influential to many and good PR for organic stores nationwide.

Raw for 30 Days webpage
Google Video link.
via Treehugger

Above: Newberry Street in Boston, Armani Exchange closed down, dumpster filled with goodies (wooden hangers, manikins, tables, chairs, shelves, etc) a few minutes later, ladies in high heels and gentlemen in suits dumpster diving. I have close up pictures of the ladies in heels, but I decided not to post those ( I grabbed some chairs and hangers)

- Coca-Cola Happiness factory: animated commercial…very nice!
- Huge LED Ceiling In Beijing: nice picture here, videos here.
- Morph Thing: Morph famous faces together, or yours!
- Great Bus Ads!
- An interview with Ferran Adrià on his favorite places to dine in Barcelona with links! (I want to travel now)
- Bill Clinton On David Letterman.
- Removing a Cork inside a bottle: I’m not sure why you would need this, but would be a good IQ test.
- Printing out all Spam installation
- Turning Cheap Steaks into Gucci Prime Steaks!

John Maeda has a great visual design process documentation of his design of the New York Times Key Magazines Cover. Though I’m still unfamiliar for Maeda’s fame in the design field, it’s nice to see his thinking though this overload of vectors seems to be a constant repetition in the information visualization world.

For those of you that know me well, I love the methodology and ingredients to design over final outcomes since ya see the thinking involved. I’ve copied the documentation from the NewYorkTime after the jump. Enjoy!
(more…)