Renourish

A comprehensive green resource for graphic designers! I was delighted to be find the link to renourish.

Renourish is a resource for the graphic design industry. When green design is usually discussed, most people think of buildings, products or even cars, but what about packaging? Shouldn’t magazines, business cards, brochures and websites be green? At renourish, they’re helping to start the conversation on green graphic design by providing defintions, tips, and links to sustainable resources designers can use to make their work a little greener.

Brilliant! Renourish has great topics that run the gamut of paper, ink, printers, packaging, green design firms, sustainable living, etc. Having all of this info in one place is genius. Although green design is something that most designers are concerned about and interested in, I haven’t come across a comprehensive site like this before. I would like to see the site eventually include green vendors (other than paper & printing). This site will be very helpful to explore green graphic design in te future.

Link: http://www.re-nourish.com/

Tara Donovan

Tara Donovan’s sculptures are born of everyday materials such as scotch tape, drinking straws, paper plates, and Styrofoam cups. Donovan takes these materials and “grows” them through accumulation. The results are large-scale abstract floor and wall works suggestive of landscapes, clouds, cellular structures and even mold or fungus. She considers patterning, configuration, and the play of light when determining the structure of her works but the final form evolves from the innate properties and structures of the material itself. In her words, “it is not like I’m trying to simulate nature. It’s more of a mimicking of the way of nature, the way things actually grow.


All of her work must be assembled and disassembled, sometimes an extremely tedious process. Her work was featured in the 2000 Whitney Biennal and the All Soviet Exhibition and in a recent edition of Art News magazine. She is also the recipient of the Alexander Calder Award and a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University. Most recently her work was featured in a solo exhibition in the Pace Gallery in New York.


Donovan's work is very visually stimulating. The style is similar to that of the well known Andy Goldsworthy. The pieces are very ironic by Tara Donovan. She uses recyled materials (unnatural materials) to display natural growth.


Here is the link to the Gallery
http://www.acegallery.net/artistmenu.php?Artist=8

Museum of Modern Art: Revolutionary Packaging

Shoppers at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) stores may have noticed something different on their latest visit. The packaging in all MoMA’s retail shops is now green. We’re not just talking simple green here either. Their gift packaging including boxes and all bags is now made from a revolutionary sustainable material called TerraSkin™ made by Design & Source Productions in New York.


TerraSkin™ is made from a combination of large amounts of mineral powder (>75%) with a small quantity (<25%) of non-toxic resin to create an environmentally friendly paper. TerraSkin(TM) has very similar characteristics to traditional paper with a tensile and tearing strength ratio of 1:1 - 2:1. It also has many eco-friendly characteristics. First, the production of TerraSkin(TM) requires no water, so the TerraSkin(TM) paper making process incurs no water pollutants. Second, as TerraSkin(TM) contains high proportions of inorganic mineral powder, when the end user is done with the TerraSkin(TM) product, the used paper will degrade when left out in nature for approximately three to nine months back into the mineral powder. If preferred, used papers can also be incinerated safely as non-toxic resins will not emit smoke or poisonous gas by-products. TerraSkin(TM) can also be easily and cost-effectively recycled in the future. Furthermore, on the production front, residues of inorganic mineral powder can be either reused or safely returned to nature. Most importantly, in producing TerraSkin(TM) , there are no trees involved. The paper is completely treeless.

Glucose-operated MP3 Player

How amazing is this, Sony have manged to come up with a glucose-operated battery. In the picture above, the woman is holding the battery in one hand and a MP3 player powered by it in the other. They successfully figured out how to generate the most power out of carbohydrates by breaking down enzymes that release active energy, which then can power small electronic devices. Revolutionary.

Similar Diversity

Similar Diversity is an information graphic which opens up a new perspective at the topics religion and faith by visualizing the Holy Books of five world religions. Communalities and differences of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism are shown up in this datavisualization.


The visual's basis is an objective text analysis of the Holy Scriptures, and works without any interpretations from the creators' side. Despite - or even because of this abstraction, the artworks are not only working on an informal but also on an emotional level. The viewers should be inspired to think about own prejudices and current religious conflicts.

The Worlds First Eco-City

The opening of the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai will mark the unveiling of the newly constructed eco-city of Dongtan. The first of four eco-cities to be built in China by Arup, Dongtan will be ecologically friendly, with zero greenhouse-emission transit and self-sufficient water and energy systems. The city is being designed around a series of village-style neighborhoods to make it pedestrian rather than car friendly. Dongtan will generate all of its energy needs from renewable sources, with zero emissions produced by the city's vehicles. An energy centre will manage generation via wind turbines, bio-fuels and recycled organic material. A majority of Dongtan's waste will be reused and organic waste will be composted or used as biomass for additional energy production. Human sewage will be processed for irrigation and composting, hence there will be no landfill waste sites. Phase one of Dongtan, a marina village with a population of 20,000, is scheduled for completion by 2010, while 80,000 people are expected to inhabit this bit of paradise by 2020.

Link: http://www.arup.com/eastasia/project.cfm?pageid=7047

Nestle Chocolate Factory, Mexico

The Nestlé Chocolate factory in Mexico City's Paseo Tollocan near Toluca has never been a site anyone went to see for its beauty. It is what is inside that has always interested chocolate-lovers.

That changed earlier this year when Michel Rojkind, the 38-year-old principal of Rojkind Arquitectos, decided that he was not satisfied with the original idea of just revamping the factory's viewing gallery.

He put together a team that came up with an entire museum, with a shop, a theatre, and direct access to the factory as well. The 300-meter-wide scarlet building cannot go unnoticed by anyone driving the entrance freeway to Toluca.

This is by far not the first chocolate museum in Mexico, the ancient home of chocolate. Neither is it the first sweet museum for the Switzerland-headquartered consumer-product behemoth Nestlé.

However, it is probably the first chocolate museum ever to be called both a piece of origami and a shipping container. The corrugated metal look gives it an air of impermanence and industrial clunk while the bright color and crazy shape evoke play and fun. What any of this has to do with chocolate, we are not exactly sure, but we almost managed to fold a KitKat wrapper to a similar shape

Book-by-its-cover Website

I found this great website that critically analyses book cover designs. It is essentially a simple blog. You can submit your own book findings and comment on others. The website is a great place for research and inspiration for cover designs. I really like how simply its layed out and how easy it is to navigate through.

Link: http://www.book-by-its-cover.com/

Greenpeace Lighting Installation

Award-winning designer Jason Bruges is teaming up with Greenpeace to create an interactive installation made up of hundreds of energy efficient light bulbs that will feature at this years 100% Light exhibition at Earl's Court this September. It is composed of dimmable compact fluorescent light bulbs that forms an interactive garden.

The spectacular installation is part of Greenpeace's current campaign to champion efficient lighting and replace incandescent light bulbs. It will showcase the range and versatility of the energy efficient bulbs now available, busting many of the current negative myths often used as an excuse for not using this efficient technology.

Beefabet

Robert Bolesta has created an alphabet out of formed chunks of ground beef in styro trays. It is an interesting idea which has great conceptual possibilities. Strangely, when the meat is made into leters it becomes less attractive to eat.

Peter Callesen

Enter the world of enthralling art installations by Peter Callesen. Peter traverses the fairytale landscape weaving between dreams and reality in the creation of these whimsical masterpieces. Lending life to lapsed childhoods, Peter brands enchanting three dimensional creations as a kind of sublime utopian embodiment. Layers take on a magical nuance as perceived by the transformation of a flat piece of paper. The static sculptures, with their inability to ‘escape’, lends a tragic air to the entire installation.

Save The Trees

Interesting concept behind this. They would change the cover every other day to show how trees are suffering from paper use. It would work well as a constant reminder about conservation, and the impact small acts can have on the environment.

Fuwapica, Tangible Illumination with Air

Fuwapica is high-tech furniture illuminating your favorite colorcaused by the pressure produced by you touching or sitting on it.

Masaki Yagisawa and Shinya Matsuyama have been dreaming of an air illuminant by pressure and making a cushion and a visionary illuminator with air. Their collaboration has finally resulted in Fuwapica. You'll enjoy the high fidelity of the item and see the delicate change of colors according to the pressure you exert.

Digital Outdoor Displays

A 250m by 30m LED screen has been installed in the ceiling of a new mall in Beijing. That's an impressive 7,500 square meters of viewable area, and comes with an impressive $32 million price tag to match. It hangs 80 feet in the air, and is actually five screens combined. The technology that can make this possible has many possibilities. It is a step closer to interactive digital billboards. The only think preventing more of these large LCD screen being introduced is the costs incurred. Until these screens can be cost effective, print based billboards with continue.

Human Nature by Federico Uribe

This multimedia art installation titled ‘Human Nature’ by Federico Uribe triumphs in the ‘Giving it a New Spin’ files. By giving a new lease of life to discarded shoes, Uribe has reconstructed a forest environment and animals including rabbits, gorillas, cheetahs, and swans. Created completely from Puma shoes and laces, these ‘animals’ are a spectacle in themselves as well as triggers contemplation of our environment.

Royal Netherlands Embassy

With a site-integrated, passive solar design, the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia pays homage to the surrounding nature and cultural diversity with an inherent sensitivity to place. Surpassing functional constraints, the structure’s design quietly supports security while placing emphasis on experience, encounter and efficiency.

Architects Dick van Gameren and Bjarne Mastenbroek used the site’s existing topography to integrate the embassy’s main building into the landscape. Surrounded by a dense eucalyptus grove, the structure rests along sloped terrain on an east-west axis. Combined with highly insulated concrete walls, floors and ceilings, the orientation captures natural solar and thermal processes to heat, cool and ventilate, minimizing dependence on mechanical systems.

Like the country that surrounds it, the embassy building reflects a convergence of cultures. The texture and tones of the walls and roof mimic the red-ochre earth of Ethiopia and regional architecture like the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela. On its roof, a garden of shallow pools and raised islands suggest the low-lying landscape of the Netherlands.

As a stunning example of a building concept that responds to its cultural and ecological surroundings, the Royal Netherlands Embassy design has been honored with a 2007 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. The award recognizes distinguished architecture that encourages social development, restoration, re-use and environmental responsibility in the Islamic world. Dutch architects Dick van Gameren and Bjarne Mastenbroek share the award with Ethiopian firm ABBA Architects.

Knocked Up

This film is directed by Judd Apatow ( also did “The 40 year Old Virgin” (2005)), and stars Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann and Jonah Hill.

This is a story about Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl), who goes out to a club one night to celebrate and meets an overweight freeloading unemployed Ben Stone (Seth Rogen) and they end up having a one night stand. Eight weeks later, life moves on, and Alison finds out she is pregnant with Ben’s child. They are therefore forced into this relationship together, and even though they don’t feel that they must be together they feel they should at least try because it’s both of their child. The movie follows them through the nine months of pregnancy and relationship up and downs.

This movie is hiliarious. Seth Rogen is on point with all the humour you expect and you can once again believe that this is exactly how it would happen if it were two real people going through the same thing. Each character in the film, Ben, Alison, Alison’s sister and her husband and everyone else each all have their own moments and you will love so many of them.

The dialogue and character interaction was incredible and very insightful. It's developed in such a way that anyone who watches it can relate to the characters and really feel their fears, anxieties, desires, understandings, etc. Seth Rogen's character is really likeable, even despite his comments and lifestyle. It is definately a movie worth watching, because it displays some classic differences between men and womens views. But, in the end, despite some obvious differences, the couples work really well together.

Antony Gormley: Blind Light

Taking the body as its point of departure, the exhibition is an invitation to embark on a journey through different kinds of space.

'Architecture is supposed to be the location of security and certainty about where you are. It is supposed to protect you from the weather, from darkness, from uncertainty. blind light undermines all of that. You enter his interior space that is the equivalent of being on top of a mountain or at the bottom of the sea. It is very important for me that inside it you find the outside. Also you become the immersed figure in an endless ground, literally the subject of the work.’ - Antony Gormley

The Hayward presents Blind Light, the first major London showing of the work of British sculptor Antony Gormley. The exhibition features a series of brand new monumental works specially conceived for The Hayward's distinctive spaces, including one of the largest ever urban public art commissions, Event Horizon, which features sculptural casts of the artist's body on rooftops and public walkways across central London, dramatically transforming the city skyline.

Pink Flamingo Swizzl

Pink Flamingo Swizzle Stick, named after a cocktail stirrer, is a girl, a sewing machine, lots and lots of ribbon and fabric leading to a multitude of pretty fabric things.

Pink Flamingo Swizzle Stick started, at great risk to a student house deposit, with some t-shirts and stencils.

It has since developed via a lot of fabric from the shop that sells fabric by weight and a lovely sewing machine, into a business selling iPod nano covers, and hardback books.

Arnold Pouteau

New York pictures by French photographer Arnold Pouteau. In his own words: he was born in Paris in 1973 and reborn again in NY in 2005. In his online portfolio you can also find pictures of Paris and NY by day. The views are amazing in New York. I travelled there a couple of years ago and I think Pouteaus photographs really do NYC justice.

Link: http://www.arnoldpouteau.com/

Grady McFerrin

Illustrator Grady McFerrin produces some great artwork with lots of colour and a unique style. His work is subtle and soft with an old-fashioned look. The illustrations are all freehand with inks and water colours.

Link: http://www.gmillustration.com/

Helmick & Schechter

Helmick & Schechter have been collaborating on sculpture projects since 1994. A shared interest in the mechanics of visual perception, especially the consolidating properties of human vision, led the artists to the overarching concept for their first collaboration, Ghostwriter, an interior suspended sculpture. Since then the artists have developed a range of experimental approaches.

Bunker Design

The London based graphic design company have produced a great flash website. The site is really well put together with simple drop dow menus. Not only is it functional but it looks amazing. Bunker Design do work in many areas of graphic design and produced artwork for some large companies including Sony. Their website design is a good example of how simplicity can be very effective.

Bunker Design: http://www.bunker-design.com/v4/

Amnesty International

Amnesty Internationals new advertising campaign utilises the space making the poster seem real. The slogan reads 'thousands are held prisoners for their beliefs in places worse than this'. The campaign is effective to evoke emotion towards the prisoners putting the problem right before their eyes.

Book Covers

I found a helpful book design website. It is dedicated to the appreciation of book cover design. There is a huge range of different inspiring designs. The layout of the website is extremely simple, and theres room for you to add your own comments.

http://covers.fwis.com/

2008 Olympic Swimming Pool in China

The official swimming facility of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China, will span 7.8 acres, house five pools, and seat 17,000 spectators, yet it doesn’t contain a single steel cable, concrete column or structural beam. Instead its walls and ceilings are composed of a network of slender steel pipes linked together by 12,000 load-bearing nodes. These nodes evenly distribute the weight of the building, making it strong enough to withstand Beijing’s most severe earthquakes. A plastic Teflon-like foil—just eight one-thousandths of an inch thick—covers the entire structure like skin. It lets in more light and heat than glass does, helping to keep the pools warm and slashing energy costs by 30 percent. Construction wraps up this year with the official opening scheduled for the Summer Olympics.

The building's architecture has provided an opportunity to use new technologies in sustainable development. It uses solar energy to heat the pools and the interior area, and all backwash water and collected rain water will be filtered and recycled. The building will be hopefully a benchmark for future sustainable developments.

The WakeNBacon

What a brilliant idea. No one likes to be woken up, especially by an alarm. But this clock gently wakes you up with the mouthwatering aroma of bacon.

The ED-Awards (European Design) is the comprehensive annual awards organization acknowledging the best of graphic design, illustration and multimedia design in Europe. The website is a great place for inspiration.

The main objectives of the ED-Project are:
• To celebrate European design with all its regional distinctive elements as well as its common grounds.
• To facilitate European designers to meet, benchmark, be inspired and build networks.
• To promote and raise standards for communication design throughout Europe.
• To properly honour and award people who invest their passion in design
• To create a directory of best practise European communication design, where design buyers from around the world may compare and search for collaborators.

Link: http://www.ed-awards.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1