The Semi-Genius Of Illusion Illusions
Is the center circle at left larger than the center circle at right? How about this: are there gray spots between the corners of black squares?
Illusions are tricks that play off of the ways our brains typically process sensory information. The problem is that many of them have become clichéd. Hence illusion illusions — illusions that play off of the illusions we’re used to seeing. See the angry-comment-provoking Flickr set.
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Iran Says Olympic Logo Spells ‘Zion’
London’s much-maligned logo for the 2012 Olympics is a bit of a Rorschach test, as large numbers of people have claimed it resembles everything from a swastika to Lisa Simpson performing a sexual act. Now Iran has logged a formal complaint and is threatening to boycott the Olympic Games, as word spreads that the graphic in fact reads, “ZION”, the Guardian reports. (To me, it is clearly the Twin Towers collapsing.)
In a formal complaint to the International Olympic Committee, Tehran has called for the graphic to be replaced and its designers “confronted”, warning that Iranian athletes might otherwise be ordered to stay away from the London Games.
According to the state-backed Iranian Students News Agency, which is frequently used to convey official pronouncements, the letter says: “As internet documents have proved, using the word Zion in the logo of the 2012 Olympic Games is a disgracing action and against the Olympics’ valuable…
The Space Jam Website: A Surreal Slice Of Internet History
In 1996, Warner Brothers was on the cutting edge by building a “web site” to promote its new blockbuster film Space Jam. Since then, the site has been neither updated nor removed, but remains gloriously preserved, a fascinating museum piece showcasing what the internet looked like in its dark days fifteen years ago. There’s GeoCities-style web design, a slightly hallucinogenic swirl of animated graphics, goofy audio clips, garish patterns, screen savers, and difficult-to-navigate frames within frames — it’s amazing to think it was created for a billion-dollar, multinational media conglomerate. Gather any nearby teenagers for a history lesson and explore one of my favorite recent online discoveries, the Space Jam homepage.
Hitler’s Graphic Design Manual
The spookiest graphic design instruction book ever? Steve Heller of Design Observer recently hunted down the Third Reich’s 70-page, full-color style manual for the proper use of Nazi insignia, graphics, and typefaces. This is how fascism created its appealing visual identity:
Designers and design historians told me over the years that they had heard about the existence of a Nazi graphics standards manual. No one could say they actually saw it, but they knew of someone who had. So it grew into something of a Big Foot or Loch Ness Monster tale, until one day I actually saw it too – and it had been right under my nose the whole time.
I had envisioned a manual of the kind that Lester Beall did for International Paper or Paul Rand did for IBM, showing acceptable logo weights and sizes, corporate typefaces and colors. I was so familiar with these standards manuals, that it never…
The United States Of Shame
The magical thing about the United States is that our nation is a rich tapestry — of gonorrhea cases and bankruptcy, that is. Find out what surprising, ignominious category your home state leads the country in. Who would have guessed that Mormon Utah is porn-crazy? Concocted by Pleated-Jeans:
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Propaganda Posters For World War III
I’m a fan of this collection of third world war propaganda posters featured in the Guardian. New York-based designer Brian Moore created these nifty images, which explore the intersection of social networking and global conflict — remember, tweeting can be treason.
Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson Dies In Thailand
Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson, 1955-2010
Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson passed away in his sleep on November 24, at home in Bangkok, Thailand.
A creative and social visionary far ahead of his time, I will let the well-written obits from the Guardian and Independent sum up his life’s achievements.
One highlight from his commercial career as a graphic designer:
Occasionally, the two worlds collided, as when he attempted to convince McCartney that his album Tug of War should have a cover depicting a naked male body hanging from a noose; the former Beatle declined.
Fighting For You (Up To A Point): Bill Maher Gives Democrats Slogans To Go With Their New Logo (Video)
I think Bill Maher’s on the money again. Kudos also to Mad Men’s Jon Hamm for his off-camera observation on the recent Real Time. Frances Martel writes on Mediate:
Whenever a major political party tries to “rebrand” itself, aesthetically, it inevitably ends in disaster. Last time it was GOP.com, but to prove the graphic failure is bipartisan, the Democrats have come up with a new logo, and a new slogan (“change that matters”). An exasperated Bill Maher tried to help out the party by offering some new slogans, like “fighting for you (to a point)” and “we got Lisa Ling’s sister out of Korea.”
The logo (which, it should be noted, The Atlantic has already called out for plagiarism from a Midwestern pizza place), is a small “D” in a blue circle. The hours spent thinking up this complex design must be incalculable. Maher presents it without comment, though his face says it all, and to add insult to injury, Jon Hamm of all people deadpans from off-camera, “Radiates power, doesn’t it?”
102 Alternate Facebook Default Pictures
I’m a fan of this collection of 102 alternate default avatars for Facebook — just because you don’t want to display your photo to the world, doesn’t mean that you should have to be represented as their nondescript bland-o-man. These are about a thousand times better:
Rebranding BP
Greenpeace UK held a rebranding contest to generate fresh new redesigns of the BP logo.
That plain green flower was introduced in 2000, and ten years later … it’s time for an update.
One of my favorites is to the right.
500+ results are included in a Flickr set. Enjoy.
Neil Gaiman: If You Read This Book The World Will End
Source: The Hypothetical Library. (C) 2010 Charles Orr
Such a cool idea: a graphic designer’s site with cover art for imaginary books. Neil Gaiman obviously likes it too as he’s submitted a title to designer Charles Orr, and this is the result:
Mr. Gaiman provided a very different kind of proposal. Here it is as I received it.
“The trouble with imagining a book I would never write is that when I think of it, I think ‘but I could WRITE that…’
So it would have to be a book of books I would never write. A book of ideas I would never have. A book of things I would never do in prose or in fiction. A book of things that should have remained unwritten, fragments and dreams and moments. Secrets too terrible to be learned. Things that would destroy me if I knew them, or hurt my friends. It would contain the secret…
Truly Scary TV Graphics That Make Kids Freak Out
What do you think disinfo community, should we take this report in Fast Company at face value?
Immediately following a 1965 episode of Bewitched, Design Crimes HQ’s switchboard was overloaded with mysterious distress calls. Many consisted only of whimpering. In the background of some, faint yet hypnotic chimes could be heard. Responding officers found children cowering behind the La-Z-Boy, or hiding in the broom closet, inconsolable. No record of assailant(s) reported. Televisions showed only Peyton Place. Over the next decade, similar distress calls were received, but without hard evidence of design assault, case was closed in 1974.
Now, independent paranormal graphics researcher Rodney Ascher has re-opened case with conclusive proof, unveiled at the Sundance Film Festival, of the graphic’s existence, and recently declassified eye-witness reports of its demonic effect on children in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Assailant now understood to be Screen Gems Logo, comprising animated bars of light that appeared to reach…
Rendering Fear: The Graphic Design of Al Qaeda
Fast Company’s Cliff Kuang has created an interesting slideshow showing the developing graphic design skills of Jihadists. As he says,
Al Qaeda and the myriad groups that seek to emulate it are evil, without question. But they also happen to be modernizing their public face, at break-neck speed, translating their message to the Web and to magazines. What they’re running into–in addition to annoyances with Photoshop and Pagemaker–are stereotypically Western middle-management questions of marketing and tone. And you can see that tension in the design of their materials.
Kuang illustrates the last five years or so of Jihadi design with some well chosen images. Here’s just one, with Kuang’s commentary below:
Usually, Jihadist imagery is gritty and terrestrial. Here, we get Jihadis IN SPAAAAAAACE. The poster praises Imam Anwar Awlaki, the “Osama of the Internet,” who reportedly had ties to Fort Hood mass murderer Army Major Nidal Hassan, “underwear bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. It…
