Talk to strangers
So I’m reading the Google story at the moment and what’s been most impressive about the company’s staggering rise from its rather inauspicious beginnings is the resilient single-mindedness of the founders. They met at Stanford University and began their initial research into bettering the existing search engines in a friend’s garage. They had a vision and they refused to compromise it, not even when it all looked like it was going to go bust back in the embryonic days when the company was bleeding money without any real idea of how to generate revenue. But Brin and Page ignored the advice of the more conservative ‘experts’ and instead developed a unique business model which has seen them rocket into the top five most profitable media organizations in the world. There’s something to be said for remaining wedded to an idea; for putting faith in the core values of your concept. Provided, of course, that it’s a good one to begin with. And yes, I’ll acknowledge that this rules out my experiment with vegemite and honey. But heck, it seemed like a winner at the time. I apologise to anyone who tried it. By the way, this has to be the best film clip ever. You just can’t beat a good tune and some serious synchronized dancing. Charles Schultz got it wrong. Happiness is not a warm puppy. It’s a belly laugh at four musicians with sharp threads and a damn fine memory. [illustration by Sophie Toulouse]
Also by ZOLTON
Maths explains the origin of superhero characters
I love the colours and simple reasoning in this clever series by Scottish illustrator Matt Cowen, which uses basic maths equations to explain how certain pop culture icons came to be. Read more
Star Wars Uncut: a fully crowdsourced version of Episode IV
The project of creative technologist, Casey Pugh, this full length version of the George Lucas masterpiece was created from multiple 15 second segments recreated from the original movie and submitted by thousands of Star Wars fans, which were then spliced together by editor Aaron Valdez to form the final product. Genius, as both a commentary on contemporary pop culture trends (there are references to LEGO, stop motion, memes and the like) and on the power of tapping your audience for quality material.
Filmmaker creates LEGO stop motion to propose to girlfriend
Now, this is one for the ages: back in 2010, Atlanta film-maker Walter Thompson created a jaw-dropping LEGO stop motion to propose to Nealey Dozier, his girlfriend of four years. The video took 22 hours of shooting and some 2,600 pictures to splice together, a small sacrifice to pay for years of happiness together. Right? Right! Oh, and she said yes. Bonus.
YOU'RE SAYING (1)
HAVE YOUR SAY
Dror Peleg designed this concept bike, a single-speed road bike made from recycled plastic, as his graduation project at the Bezalel Academy of Design in Jerusalem.
Jay Nelson’s beautifully crafted structures are a fresh breath of air to the automobile and boat design industry. With his multi-faceted design projects and his love for surfing, Nelson creates futuristic wooden domes with stoves and water tanks, ready for exploration. Read more
God save the Queen. Oh, and Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious, Steve Jones and Paul Cook too. Read more
Schmidt, Hammer and Lassen’s design for the Copenhagen national library is a celebrated structure in the already glittering design portfolio of northern Europe. The marble and glass façade of The Black Diamond (yes, that is what their national library is called) is an example of architectural brilliance, with even the angled walls designed to best mirror the city’s beautiful canals.
10:15 is a photoblog on which participating photographers from around the world snap a shot every day at 10:15am sharp and post the results. Read more
How can you not love a band called ¡Apeshit!? Their name says it all. I got to catch these guys tour at a warehouse in Bed-Stuy the other night as they were capping off their most recent tour, and even though there were only 20 or so people in the audience by the time they went on, their set was absolutely epic, culminating in frontman Pat Berran being hoisted up and subsequently dropped by the drunken, sweaty, and heavily tattooed crowd. If you love fast, spastic, intensely brutal punk, this band will make you crap your pants.
Do I like dogs? Yes. Do I like jumpers? Yes. Do I think WARMI’s jumpers with dogs on them are amazing? I sure do! The brand was created in 2008 by French-Colombian designer Sylvia Toth and all the clothes are hand knitted by women weavers of the villages of Tausa and Sutatausa in Colombia. Read more
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
Get lost in a daydream or a craving for something sweet while gazing at these cool sculptures by Brooklyn-based WiNK WiNK PONY. Made using clay, tree bark, wood, and mossy moss.
Communication prosthesis by Sascha Nordmeyer
This ‘communication prosthesis’ by designer Sascha Nordmeyer is hilarious and awesome. I want to wear one to a job interview.
Christoph Niemann illustrates a nightmare flight
New York Times illustrator Christoph Niemann has created a brilliant visual diary outlining the peril and pitfalls that beset the everyday passenger based on his recent experience flying from New York to his home town of Berlin. Read more
Michelle Blade’s psychedelic artwork
Michelle Blade’s washed out paintings are deceptively simple, her washy acrylics creating psychedelic textures and conjuring ghostly figures from the past. Read more
Francoise Nielly’s Yellow series
Parisian visual artist Francoise Nielly brings technicolour to the forefront in her latest series, Yellow. Featuring thick impasto palette knife strokes and trippy neon hues, Nielly captures the vulnerable expressions of her muses to a tee. Read more
In 2008, graphic designer Becky Edgington and illustrator Sarah Beetson created two limited-edition packs of playing cards featuring images from Beetson’s exhibition, 50 Bucks: Bring On The Sluts. The images were selected from almost 500 small artworks created on moleskine paper, inspired by vintage pornography and a trip to Japan. Read more
If you have a Twitter feed that focuses on cool pop cultural things and you’d like to swap Tweets with Lost At E Minor and other like-minded Twitterers, drop us a note (with Tweet Swap in the title). We have a system in place and we’d like to have you in on it! [illustration by Brad Fitzpatrick]
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Lost At E Minor: Music, illustration, art, photography - from Australia and beyond » Kenzo Minami said | 19 August, 2006
[...] With recent credits including Nike, Flaunt magazine and International Deejay Gigolo, Kenzo Minami is simply one of the hottest illustration and design talents around right now. [See also: Sophie Toulouse; Yoshi Tajima] [...]