GIS Maps on Flickr

Flickr user Qaanaaq uses ArcGIS 9 and Illustrator to make Geographic Information Systems (GIS) maps. Pictured: Detail from a map of NYC's commute routes. Blue is public transit, red is cars, and green is walking. Statistics made beautiful. [via Gothamist]

This Weekend: Cheap books, Free Museums!

On Saturday, be sure to swing by the Open Air Book Fair, during which Housing Works unloads their excess inventory of books, CDS, and more for cheap. Then on Sunday, take advantage of Free Museum Day—this is a Smithsonian-related event, which limits the number of participating museums, but hey, you can still go to the Cooper-Hewitt and El Museo del Barrio. [via GOOD Magazine]

UPDATE: The Strand is also having their Fall Sidewalk Sale this weekend! Saturday and Sunday, at both Strand stores (not the kiosk).

ZingFu: test your Photoshop skills

Something fun for Friday: What better way to test and hone your Photoshop skills than by working your photo into magazine covers, celebrity shots, global locations and more at the ridiculous website ZingFu. It's harder than you might think to fool the eye, even (especially?) under such silly circumstances. [via Photojojo]

3-D Heineken Billboard

"The traditional large format 2D billboard simply doesn't cut it anymore," sniffs the Cool Hunter, throwing up this great Heineken billboard and calmly reminding us all that consumers are just simply demanding better concepts.

Design with the Planet in Mind

The Illustration Castle features a growing list of ways that you can work towards a more sustainable earth while you design. From recycling to thinking about the energy you're using as you create the next great concept, this is a great list of everyday, doable things. [via HOW]

The Apartment Creative Agency?

When did (apparently former) retail store The Apartment become a creative agency? I was walking down Crosby over the weekend and saw they'd put up a small sign that growled NOT A STORE... and now Gothamist throws the spotlight on their current stickies display. At least I'm not the only one baffled...

UPDATE 10/5: Apparently we have none of us been paying attention. The Apt retail store closed three years ago... see the comments on this post for more.

GO

The design word for October over at Speak up is GO.

Disney Inspirations

Cartoon Brew features the exhibition of classic Disney artwork that is currently on at the Le Grand Palais in Paris. People are raving about it, calling it "one of the greatest animation exhibits ever"—it showcases influences on the Disney animations and highlights the fine art-inspired craft of the old school Disney animators. [via BoingBoing]

Bad, Bad Type

Ah, typography. So very... sexy? Perhaps by now you've heard the story of how a sex font was inadvertently used on a handout to the parents of third graders. Or had a chuckle over the phrase well-endowed fonts. [via DO and kottke]

If you need a little more typographic juvenility in your life, next time you're out with your design friends start an impromptu contest to see who can come up with the best type-related pickup line. The best I've heard yet is "I think we need to kern 'me' and 'you' a little tighter..." Meanwhile, ligatures make for a nice concept, but no one can seem to craft a gem line.

Kapitza: Snow

Purchase the Snow set from Kapitza and you get 40 vector illustrations in EPS format, ready to be layered into endless variations of unique snowflakes. [via HOW]

Mxyplyzyk Sidewalk Sale

The Mxyplyzyk sidewalk sale is this weekend! Be sure to stop by for discounts on all sorts of cool design items. Check out their inventory (and also be sure to get directions) on the Mxyplyzyk site.

Illustrated iPod Games

Drawn! reports that the new Mini Golf game for the iPod features work by several great illustrators (including previous GDBar fave Julian Hector). James Chung, an art director for EA Mobile, describes how the artists were involved with the project. Unfortunately, the illustrators weren't credited for their work (a common practice), which has caused some justified grumbling in the comments in the Drawn! posting. Just remember the little creative people next time you're playing a video game, won't you?

LIT: Literature in Transit

Pratt student Kristina Drury reworks old books into unique bags and wallets as part of her collection LIT: Literature in Transit. Now, before you start rallying in defense of the books themselves, know that she does not use rare or expensive antique books and either preserves and rebounds the interior pages or recycles them into her art projects. She takes custom orders, so you could turn an old design book into a practical conversation piece or an even better gift. [via design*sponge]

Guess the Artist: Elephant, Kid or Pollock?

The paintings above were done either by an elephant, a pre-schooler, or a famous artist like Jackson Pollock. Can you guess correctly? Don't underestimate the talent of the pachyderm... [via kottke]

Worldwide SketchCrawl This Saturday

The 11th worldwide SketchCrawl takes place tomorrow and is open to anyone with access to a piece of paper. Here in NYC, there's at least one organized sketch gang meeting up at the Met—check the SketchCrawl site for more locations and meetups. [via Drawn!]

MOO MiniCards via Flickr

The internet has been a-buzz this week over Flickr's great deal on MOO MiniCards. Basically, the first 10,000 Flickr pro members who make it to the MOO site can get a free pack of 10 cards—don't miss your chance! If you're not a Flickr pro member, you can still experience all MOO has to offer by visiting moo.com—and, as a consolation prize of sorts, there's free international shipping until the end of September.
Photo by richardmoross

UPDATE 10/9: Want to see what people did with their cards?

Letterpress Roundup at BAD

Be A Design Group has rounded up all their letterpress postings (which include links to free alphabets and downloads!) into one great big wonderful mess of letterpress resources.

Museum Banners at BetterWall

BetterWall sells authentic banners from museums around the world, and—as a great bonus—a percentage of each sale goes back to the museum. [via DO]

Megan Jeffery: 17 Years of Freelance Illustration

Freelance illustrator Megan Jeffery celebrates 17 years of work with 17 things learned along the way. [via Drawn!]

Quark VS Indesign.com

I'm catching on late in the game, but I just love that this site exists: Quark VS Indesign.com is the brainchild of Pariah S. Burke (yes, his real name), and follows the warring software giants as creative professionals stagger on the battlefield (come on, a little drama is totally appropriate!). [Thanks Eva]

Design Like You Give A Damn

Tonight at the New York Public Library, Wired Magazine (as part of WIRED NextFest 2006) presents Design Like You Give A Damn, a discussion about how designers can respond to humanitarian crises and use their creative skill to shape a more productive social and economic future—basically, how design can improve lives. Led by designers from Architecture For Humanity, authors of the accompanying book. [via BoingBoing]

National Design Week/People's Design Award

This year the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards have a new People's Design Award (aka People's Choice)—get in there and vote! The award will be announced during National Design Week, which is the third week of October [via Speak Up]

Advice for Design Students

Allan Chochinov follows up his 1000 words of advice for design teachers with 1000 words for design students. All excellent advice—I wish someone had tipped me off about a few of those when I was in art school. [via kottke]

Uppercase Poster Store

Uppercase sells vintage posters representing "the past 150 years of graphic design" and chosen for their "illustrative style, typographic interest, and influence on visual pop culture". Some interesting finds, ranging from the usual Art Nouveau prints to the strange and wonderful (Sunset Boulevard Medusa? I love it). [via atelier455]

Flash Forward 2006 Winners

This year's Flash Forward Austin winners are up—truly inspiring flash work. The winner in the cartoon category was Adam Phillips' The YuYu, which has certainly made rounds on the net previously but deserves yet another mention because it is just so great (and bonus, music by the Pogues' Spider Stacy!). Other categories include motion graphics, typography, instructional, 3D, and many others.

Blackstock's Collections

Blackstock's Collections: The Drawings of an Artistic Savant is an amazing catalog of the visual lists of Gregory Blackstock. Blackstock, who is autistic, has a near photographic memory and is generally something of a wonder. The lists, drawn in Sharpie marker, pencil and crayon, are fascinating and cover a range of topics from birds to world landmarks. Available directly from Princeton Architectural Press.

Sky Mirror Sculpture

Anish Kapoor's Sky Mirror is up at Rockefeller Center through October 27th. Presented by the Public Art Fund, Sky Mirror "offers a dazzling experience of light and architecture"—it's a 35-foot mirror that stands nearly three stories tall that Kapoor describes as a "'non-object,' a sculpture that, despite its monumentality, suggests a window or void and often seems to vanish into its surroundings."

UPDATE: Gothamist is running a little contest to see who can snag the best Sky Mirror photograph. Photobloggers everywhere are already out in force.

COLOURLovers

On the COLOURlovers site, creative individuals can share favorites, swap palettes, talk trends, read articles, and generally dish/obsess/rave about color.

AIGA NY's Mentoring Program

Run by volunteers who want to make a difference in the lives of NYC's student artists, the AIGA NY's Mentoring Program teaches young artists about the creative fields of graphic design, fashion, architecture, photography and illustration. Orientation is scheduled for early October, so there is still time to get involved. Membership in the AIGA required.

UPDATE: deadline to apply to be a mentor is Friday, September 22nd

Start A Story/5x5

Start a Story is "a project that encourages creativity and collaboration." One recent project was 5x5, an illustrated patchwork made of individual yet interacting squares done by different illustrators. [via Drawn!]

London Design Festival Envy

O, to be in London right about now... The London Design Festival starts today. Coolhunting plans on running periodic coverage of the event, so we can all live vicariously... Now, where is our New York Design Festival, eh?

Modern Tarot

More iconography. John Coulthart has created a modern tarot deck using info graphics. I've always thought that a tarot design assignment would be much more interesting than the rather tired concepts of the illustrated alphabet and/or seven deadly sins—come on, art teachers... [via BoingBoing]

Free Pictographs

Need some free iconography? The National Park Service has a treasure trove of their standard cartographic symbols and patterns available for download. [via kottke]

Reflections

Observing Apple's new penchant for reflective surfaces, Jason from 37signals utters this rather frightening statement: "Reflections are the new drop shadows."

Designism

M. Kingsley muses on the idea of designism over at Speak Up.

ViaLetter

Type nerds, rejoice—next time you send a letter, you have the option of literally sending typography. British company ViaLetter will wrap up letters of your choice, available in a range of typefaces including trusty Helvetica and classic Bauer Bodoni. [via DO]

Matchbook Art

Atelier455 showcases a stunning set of eastern European matchbook covers found on Flickr.

DesignerID

DesignerID is a wonderful online resource and community, created specifically to help designers make meaningful connections worldwide. Launched in February 2006 and swiftly gaining momentum, the site allows you opportunities to network locally and beyond, put portfolio pieces online, research niche markets, communicate within your field—the potential is tremendous. The clean, easy to use interface is especially great, and the focus is on designers and their work rather than on web bells and whistles. Registration and eventual paid subscription required, but there is a free trial. Check it out now at www.designerID.com.

Monopoly Here & Now

Look at the new Monopoly—the logo gleams like a brand new car (as Strong Bad would say, "make it fast n' slick n' shiny, dip it in molten plexiglass...") and the board pieces have been revamped into 21st century consumer icons like McDonald's fries, Starbucks coffee, and a Motorola Razr. Misha Cornes of Three Minds @ Organic calls this "more proof of the importance of advertising and consumer brands in popular culture." [Thanks *g]

Lola Alvarez Bravo at Aperture

Vintage photographs from the entire career of Lola Alvarez Bravo, a.k.a. "Mexico's first woman photographer", are showcased in an exhibiton that runs through November 2nd at the Aperture Foundation (gallery at 547 W 27th Street).

Advice for Design Teachers

In art school, it became popular to calmly remind the teachers that we were paying $2.00 a minute for their time when/if they floundered at the front of the class (as a student, this amused me to no end. Now, having taught and been on the other side of the guns, this seems an unproductive and rather poisonous thing to do). Perhaps, had our instructors read Allan Chochinov's 1000 words of advice for design teachers, that semi-malicious trend of pressuring them to deliver our money's worth would never have arisen... and we would have gotten a bit more out of some of those classes. [via DO]

Friday Nights

Looking to move to some music in a design-related space? The Guggenheim's First Fridays are back—on the first Friday of every month, Frank Lloyd Wright spins in his grave as DJs spin in his space. And now the new 5th Avenue Apple store is serving up a Friday Midnight Mix—tonight DJ/Producer Danny Krivit makes his noise amidst all our industry toys. Get out and have some fun already!

Blank

Blank is a collaborative sketchbook project. They're on a mission to "instigate a shared experience and manufacture a unique artifact of
cooperative creativity", and they've done two books so far—a call for entries is currently out for the third book. [via Drawn!]

Helvetica Wallpaper

Helvetica wallpaper, available in 11 colors. Brilliant. [via Popgadget]

Dissecting Gradient & Transparent Logos

As much as the design community likes to grumble about gradients, the reality is that they thrive among us—many of the big companies have run happily in shiny, slick, gradient-rich directions when it comes to rebranding. Bennett at Be A Design Group takes a look under the hood of some recent logos that have been given this treatment—fight gradients all you like, but at least know your enemy.

Cut and Paste Call For Entries

Cut and Paste returns! Last November (*), this "live digital design battle" was a big hit here in New York—now things are going national. Deadlines start September 29th for New York, other cities follow. More at cutandpastecontest.com. [via Cool Hunting]

FontShop September Calendar

The September FontShop calendar is available for free download. This month features the typeface Fournier.

New York Paper Show

The New York Paper Show is tomorrow, September 7th. Head down to the Puck Building on Lafayette from 6 to 9 pm—you'll be able to register at the door (online registration has closed). Major vendors from Crane to Yupo will be there, and the paper samples will be flowing freely!

Pantone Matching on Flickr

Everything—from red velvet cake to rubber chickens—has a Pantone color in this great set of Flickr photos from December of last year.

Golden Books Calendar

Feeling nostalgic for the illustrations of your youth? Fred Flare has a 16 month calendar that features classic Golden Book covers. And there are stickers, too! Meanwhile, this informative About.com page has more on the Golden Book series.

Hey, Hot Shot! Summer Winners

The summer winners of the seasonal Hey, Hot Shot! photo series will go up at the Jen Bekman gallery tomorrow. Hey, Hot Shot! showcases emerging photographers—this season's winners include Kate Bingaman of Obsessive Consumption. If you can't make it to the gallery, you can view past and present series on Flickr.
Pictured: man with bear, by Nadia Sablin, Brooklyn

Paper Making Video

"Today, papermaking requires more technology than a jumbo jet." I stumbled across this little video about how paper is made and, to be honest, found it a little bit narcotic (especially in the yawn of the afternoon). But if you've ever been curious about the papermaking process, this nicely done movie is just what you need.

Twenty-Four Seven

Twenty-Four Seven is a bit of a life lesson (in pdf form) developed by UK designer Adam Graveley, constructed specifically to cover some of the basics that young designers should know before venturing out into the workforce (or in those first few months on the job). One quote: "be prepared to sweat blood over the way you present your work, and the way you present yourself... every employer expects a level of basic competency and clarity of communication." Happy Labor Day. [via DO]

Bob Staake's Freebies

In an interesting reversal of the usual product-dictates-art formula, illustrator Bob Staake has proposed a conceptual breakfast cereal called Freebies, the specifics of which would be driven by the drawings. Storylines about independent thought and doing good deeds would be cast with a range of edible characters, aiming to make breakfast fun and teach "something of value in a small, yet goofy and entertaining, way." This seems a much more sensible solution than a recent (rather snooty) call for more upscale design on cereal boxes (come on). [via Drawn!]

Last Chance: Morgan Masterworks

This weekend is the last chance to see Masterworks from the Morgan, an exhibition of literary and historical manuscripts organized "with particular attention to what manuscripts reveal about the creative process." The exhibition features poetry, prose, correspondence, journals and other documents of artists, authors, scientists and historical figures including Charles Dickens, Galileo, and Jean de Brunhoff, creator of Babar. [via Gothamist]

Influences

The new book Influences: A Lexicon of Contemporary Graphic Design Practice examines "who or what is influencing, provoking, inspiring and informing graphic designers’ working methods and research processes today." An international range of nearly 200 designers contributed answers ranging from Kraftwerk to kidney stones—sure to be interesting . [via DO]