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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.

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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.

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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
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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

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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.

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The illusion of limitless perspective

Vanishing pools, the illusion of a limitless perspective from positioning your pool against the horizon line, whereas this design plays with the perspective extending deep into the background.

An infinity edge pool (also named negative edge, zero edge, disappearing edge or vanishing edge pool) is a swimming or reflecting pool which produces a visual effect of water extending to the horizon, vanishing, or extending to “infinity

Source: Wiki

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Little Black Dress

wow

The little black dress has been a staple in women’s wardrobes for decades, beginning in 1926 when designer Coco Chanel introduced a short, simple black dress to readers of Vogue Magazine.

Fast forward to 1961: That’s when actress Audrey Hepburn took the little black dress to new heights when her Holly Golightly character wore a sexy little black sheath in the hit movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

The little black dress has become such a fashion icon that it’s now referred to simply as the ‘LBD’.

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Citi Logo

Paula Scher’s original napkin logo sketch. Michael Bierut talks about it:

When Citibank merged with Travelers back in 1998. On the very first meeting of the first day they worked on the project, Bierut doodled the “T” of the word “Travelers” as an umbrella handle. Now, he said, you see pretty much that exact idea everywhere. “99% of the word was done on the first morning.” He also good-humoredly acknowledged that partner Paula Scher insists she did the fateful doodle.