Category: Observations

LA Light

Post author By Dan
Post date January 1, 2019
2 Comments on 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.

Tags Cinema

Observations Daring Acts

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.

Tags Afghanistan, British Special Forces

Observations

Monticello Dam

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

lake drain big — 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.

lake people to scale — Gives you a better sense of size with two people next to it

monticello dam glory hole — In summer, it’s full size is apparent

Tags scifi, wow

Observations

Hercules on the beach

c130 Hulk of a transport plane landing at Pembrey Sands in South Wales. Chalk it up as a daring act worthy of Ian Flemming. Stationed at squadron F7 – Based at Satenas in central southern Sweden, about an hour northeast of Gothenberg.

HT via @fightercontrol

Tags cinematography, daring photography

Observations User Interface

Google TV

Post author By Dan
Post date June 11, 2013
1 Comment on Google TV

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

Tags google tv

Brands Observations

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 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.

Tags Cleverly sophisticated, Supeme Coffee

Observations Places

Terroni’s amusing graphic style

Post author By Dan
Post date May 3, 2013
No Comments on Terroni’s amusing graphic style

Amusing graphic style on the home page of Toronto’s ace restaurant Terroni

You’ll want to uproot this restaurant and firmly plant it in NYC. Out of this world. I dined here many time in Toronto.

Tags Toronto

Observations

Users are all different

lSgF2

Whilst this hurts my head, consider the tag line:

“Users are all different”

This visualisation takes fluid morphing effect and clearly goes to town with it.

Tags animated gif

Observations

The illusion of limitless perspective

Post author By Dan
Post date July 27, 2012
3 Comments on 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

Tags perspective, pool

Observations

Peter Drucker

Post author By Dan
Post date April 7, 2012
1 Comment on Peter Drucker

Tags Peter Drucker, Stanley Kubrick

Observations

Smoky Eyes

Post author By Dan
Post date April 3, 2012
2 Comments on Smoky Eyes

Inspiring stylized look.

Tags daring, eyes, make-up

Observations

Cake

Post author By Dan
Post date February 5, 2012
No Comments on Cake

“Hmm, that slice was 12%. Teaching percentages is a delicious game”

Tags cake, percentages, teaching

Observations

Little Black Dress

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’.

Tags LBD, little black dress

Observations

Fireworks In Reverse

Now if only the nation’s fireworks choreographers could figure out how to make this happen in real life, we could try it out in July.

Tags fireworks

Fine Arts Observations Photography

Angel of the North

angel of the north

Snow and sculpture, hand in hand today following snow in Gateshead, Newcastle.

HT via @guardian

Tags scuplture, snow

Observations

Anti Gravity

stupendous anti gravity mints Stupendous find.

Tags mints

Observations

Toyko

Post author By Dan
Post date November 13, 2011
No Comments on Toyko

Amazing aerial view of Toyko taken by @IA

Tags Aerial, Photography, toyko

Observations

Mountain Lake

Nestled in a valley, far in the mountains, lies a beautiful gem of a lake.

North Wales, Scotland or the Lake District. Does anyone recognize it?

Tags lakes, mountains

Observations

Rodania

Post author By Dan
Post date October 30, 2011
1 Comment on Rodania

Knowing what to leave out in web design: reduce the color palette, narrow the focus, increase the desirability. Copyline is clever.

www.rodania.com

Tags visual design, web site

Observations

Citi Logo

Post author By Dan
Post date October 29, 2011
1 Comment on 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.