Culture Archive

2021 (2)2019 (1)2018 (1)2017 (1)2016 (2)2014 (2)2013 (22)2012 (77)2011 (81)2010 (176)2009 (198)2008 (61)2007 (16)2006 (54)2005 (4)0210 (1)0203 (1)

Describing Problem Spaces

Design Thinking – Better Together

You should be having a conversation when asked as a designer to design an experience, service, or product design. Don’t assume they have taken the time to think about it. You’ll have a hunch about which aspect of the strategy you are asked to focus on, but sometimes projects move so quickly, asking to be intentional about the goals and objectives, about the problem to solve for the business, is the very building block of a foundational strategy.

In your mind, you can decide much of this is intuitive, mostly it is implied and never explicit.

LA Light

Electric radiance of Los Angeles at night. Still incredible after I originally posted this back in 2011

LA Light from Colin Rich on Vimeo.

Colin Rich’s interpretation of the city captures the downtown district including a memorable reverse view of the Hollywood sign. Colin’s “LA Light” journey serves as a homage to the best of LA’s landmarks at night.

The most notable benchmark for cinematic brilliance of LA’s nighttime hues and tones could be Michael Mann’s 1995 feature film, ‘Heat‘.

This movie captured a quiet ambience, albeit with some lesser known architecture.

Dante Spinotti the cinematographer on ‘Heat’ provided stark unsentimental framing and Elliot Goldenthal gave an equally minimal soundtrack avoiding the mundane and elevating the sober mood into a truly admirable realisation.

Omega Seamaster Special Forces

“In December they talked about SBS Seamasters but this was still unconfirmed rumors and something of a minor myth or urban legend amongst military watch collectors.  Then they were all but unknown to the collector community, but now it seems to be veritably raining UKSF Seamasters.”

omega seamaster sas
Remarkable

You have to take a step back to the original Rolex Submarine watch, the first to be defined by true military specifications and collaboration with stringent military grade benchmark:

“They were a different breed of beast entirely.  Not only were they officially issued and thus more highly coveted by military watch collectors, but they were custom modified by Rolex at the factory from the drawing table forward with specially made hands, bezels, and special fixed bar lugs according to Royal Navy and Royal Marines stringent specifications, so much so that some like the 5517 were actually given a separate model reference that was never commercialized.  So not only is there an issue pedigree, but the Milsubs were substantially differentiable from the regular production models in form and function.”

HT via @ialreadyhaveawatch.com

British Special Forces

Incredible footage. Stealth/surprise remains one of the most valued tactics of these small special forces units. Watch how intelligence teams track the operations from high in the sky.

British Special Forces in Afghanistan. It’s a rare glimpse to watch these team warriors slug it out. The faces are blurred out to protect the identities of these covert soldiers.

Monticello Dam

Incredible sight of Monticello Dam draining (Lake Berryessa, CA) photographs #scifi #bathtub

Incredible way of controlling overflow to prevent dam spills

This bathtub drain spillway last saw action May 2006 due to low rainfall. Try to comprehend the magnitude of it’s size. The hole diameter is 72ft (22m) wide whilst the critical drop is 280ft (86m). That’s a man-made monster of humongous proportions.

Gives you a better sense of size with two people next to it
In summer, it’s full size is apparent
At the base
Breathtaking product feature

Patagonia rock and roll act

Beautifully described purity of purpose from former Belgium native:

Sean believes he didn’t choose to climb – climbing chose him. He considers his first expedition to Patagonia as a turning point in his life because he felt utterly connected with the forces of nature and the adventure of just being alive. Climbing teaches Sean to live life to the fullest and that he can do whatever he wants if he puts his mind to it.

HT Patagonia’s Rock Climbing Ambassador “Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll”

Ferrari 250 GT SWB

These cars are timeless masterpieces in automotive history. Whilst the 0-60 may be halved today, I’d pay 10X the amount for one of these over anything of recent vintage from Maranello.

lightboxFerrari 250 GT SWB (or 250 GT Berlinetta Passo Corto)

Nature

Cerita Ambar visited Kilauea lava flow from the sea at Kalapana, Big Island Hawaii.

When molten lava meets the ocean it’s a profoundly cinematic moments in nature. Peter Lik’s award winning shot came after countless trips to Hawaii hoping to capture volcanoes. Stunning.

Kilauea Volcano, on Kalapana, The Big Island, I found following some rumors down dirt roads. I shot it at 5:54 a.m., under moonlight. It reminded me of the legend of Pele, Goddess of Fire in Hawaiian folklore—legend has it that she and her sister Na-maka-o-Kaha’i, Goddess of Sea and Water sabotaged each other. You can visualize Pele in the upper left, blowing steam from the volcano into the ocean.” Visit www.peterlik.com. *Tech Specs:* Tripod-mounted Hasselblad H2 with 50mm lens and Fujichrome Velvia 50. Exposure, 2 sec at f/11.

Failure: The Secret of Success

It’s often said, “Always dare to fail. Always take chances, and never give yourself the comfort of not trying”. In honor of Edison who’s rare successes beat the 10,000 failures.

Failure. The mere thought can paralyze even the most heroic thinkers and keep great ideas off the drawing board. But is failing really that bad? We get an inside look at the mishaps of Honda racers, designers and engineers to learn how they draw upon failure to motivate them to succeed. From poor color choices to blown race engines, these risk-taking individuals provide an honest look at what most people fear most. Watch the film and discover the upside of failure.

Google TV

Failed attempt, or better still, describe going from product 0 to product release 1

The Apple way – do it right, or don’t do it at all. If you do it wrong, can it quickly and pretend you never made it in the first place (or, alternatively, call it a “hobby”).

The Google way – do it, put it out there regardless of the state it is in, hope to be able to fix it or upgrade it later to something worthwhile.

I am not saying one method is better than the other in all cases (Gmail and the iTunes Store are enormous successes of the two respective philosophies) but when it comes to something like this, I can’t see a future where GoogleTV has been fixed or upgraded to make it worthwhile. It is exactly he kind of thing that you don’t bother launching until all the partners and especially all the content is in place.

Otherwise you’re just doing damage to the brand, and later on when you do have the partners and the content, all anyone will remember are the jokes from the early days about how you don’t have anything to watch and can’t buy a screen with it built-in anyway.

Getting the tech right and the content wrong is a classic error, and Google should be smarter than this. It’s not like that film; just because you build it doesn’t mean they will come.

HT @engadget

La Jetée

La Jetée 1962 France
Director Chris Marker
Jean Négroni, Hélène Chatelain, Davos Hanich, Jacques Ledoux
Japan 1990 (1st Japanese release)

Rolled poster 20×28 was $450

STASIS

A welcomed addition to our cinema listing featuring luscious cinematography with a deep stirring soundtrack. Bit of a familiar and trying storyline but it’s worth sticking with it for such lovely art direction

STASIS from Christian Swegal on Vimeo.

STASIS by Christian Swegal 24m high definition movie with outstanding art direction.

In the future, an Ex-Soldier is placed in virtual exercises to cure his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In the simulations, he sees glimpses of a mysterious girl, presumably someone from his past. When a Stranger appears in his facility offering answers, the Soldier finds himself once again asked to kill, this time for her…

Adrenaline junkies

Adrenaline junkies captures the brilliance of bikes.

Shinya Kimura – Chabott Engineering from Henrik Hansen on Vimeo.

A short film about Japanese custom motorcycle engineer shinya kimura from chabott engineering. Directed by Henrik Hansen

Exquisite work. The film, the story, the subject, the bikes – beautiful.

Defying Gravity

Tokyo Photographer ‘Levitates’

Natsumi Hayashi makes flying look easy. But these defying gravity self-portraits that seem to show the Toyko photographer levitating above the ground are actually the result of a lot of hard work.

“Sometimes I need to jump more than 300 times to get the perfect shot,” Hayashi told MSNBC.com on June 8.

Hayashi blogs a levitating picture-of-the-day each day on her website, http://yowayowacamera.com/. Either working with an assistant or using a self-timer, she uses photography to freeze herself hanging in the air in diners, phone booths and on Tokyo sidewalks.

Hayashi makes no bones about her levitation being an illusion.

Supreme coffee cups

Coffee Supreme’s take-out cups were already known in NZ and Australia for being unusual, distinctive and quirky, so while we knew from our re-brand brief that they wanted the brand to ‘grow up’, they felt it was important they didn’t lose their individuality.

Cleverly sophisticated Supreme coffee cups Cleverly sophisticated and stylish design team at coffee supreme in NZ who give you these delightful cups.

Design and brewing, hand-in-hand:

When coffee drinkers pick up a cup of Supreme coffee they have high expectations. Our approach is based on finding the best quality raw materials – the green beans – that we can obtain, and then roasting them carefully so that the entire inherent flavor potential comes through in the cup.

Independent specialty coffee roasters all nodding in agreement.