Blogbook

Off the street in Paris, this cool piece of wire art by Matthieu Robert-Ortis is a play on perspective, with an elephant on one side and a pair of giraffes on another, all the while looking like a fluid line drawing. It’s called La Révolution des Girafes, or “Revolution of the Giraffes.”. Viewed head-on, it looks like a 2D drawing of giraffes, but when you move around to the other side, you might notice something strange start happening to the head of the giraffe on the left, as it transforms slowly into an elephant.

More on the artist’s work can be seen here on his website.

About the Artist

Based in Paris, much of Matthieu’s work is meant to play on different viewpoints:

‘If you are a normal people then you must always see in front of them. Because you can see the ‘real’ shape and idea standing front of you. However, if you are a creative person, you probably could find different angles to explore my works. They are all stereoscopic.’

Revolution of the Giraffes was completely hand-made by Matthieu: you can find progress images here: unlike what some people have believed, this amazing sculpture was not 3D-printed.

Pets with Credit is an adorable dogumentary imagining dogs using credit cards by Zulu Alpha Kilo for Interac Debit, illustrating the downsides of credit. It follows the life of Max, an 8 year old Australian Shepherd dog that struggles with the effects of credit card debt. Launched online on 10 April, the pets dogumentary was produced through zulubot, their content division, to be supported by a social media and print campaign.

Credits:

Agency: Zulu Alpha Kilo
Client (Company): Interac Association
Chief Creative Officer: Zak Mroueh
Executive Creative Director: Allen Oke
Art Director: Fiorella Martinez
Writer: Jacob Pacey
Agency Producer: Tara Cochrane, Tara Handley
Account Team: Rob Feightner, Laura Robinson, Winnie Hsiao
Strategic Planner: Emma Brooks
Clients: Andrea Danovitch, Leslie Vera, Lauren McKay
Production House: zulubot
Executive Producer: Shaam Makan
Director: Sean Wainsteim
Line Producer: Marc Juliar
Director of Photography: Jackson Parrell
Casting Director: Andrew Hayes/Tristan Abraham, Powerhouse Casting
Carly Blais (Agent/Dog Talent) Carolyn’s Talent Agency
Video Post Facility / Editing Company: zulubot
Editor: Jay Baker
Compositor / Online: Alter Ego (conform), zulubot (supers/logos)
Colourist/Transfer: Cem Ozkilicci, Alter Ego
Audio Post Facility/Music House: Eggplant
Audio Director: Adam Dameline
Producer: Nicola Treadgold
Production Coordinator: Lindsay Fry
Engineer: Brad Tigwell
Media Agency: Media Experts
Media Agency Planner: Richard Ivey, Borisenko, Jenna Bendavid, Josee Thibault, Dan Mak, Lauren Rosenblum

In celebration of the start of Game of Thrones Season 6 and to promote their new Game of Thrones range of notebooks, Moleskine has remade the opening in paper using only paper architecture models. Created by Milan-based animation studio Dadomani, the stop motion video uses over 7,600 paper cutouts. That’s a crazy amount of effort for a promo vid. The new Game of Thrones stationery is very tempting. Looking to get your hands on a boxed set, including wax seals, Moleskine book and letterheads? Embiggen Books in Melbourne has the Lannister and Stark sets, the last we saw (end of April 2016).

Making of video:

In other Game of Thrones news, you can also watch the cinematic in 360 video via the show’s official Facebook page. Via the Verge:

The video shows all the usual haunts, starting at the capital of King’s Landing, before zooming up to Winterfell, the ex-Stark stronghold of the North, and up to the Wall that keeps the White Walkers out of Westeros. The tight-angle zoom means you’re not free to explore the chunky map at your own leisure, but by spinning the camera around, you can get an idea of the surrounding geography of a city before you’re whisked on to the next location. Spin it too far, however, and you get the weird image of the continents of Westeros and Essos appearing above you, wrapped around as if they were trapped inside a reverse globe.

Agency life is a nature documentary in these six hilarious videos by the Variable, an agency in Winston-Salem, N.C. In a new online series called Adland Adventures, Variable mixes up nature footage with a David Attenborough-esque commentary describing the blow-by-blow agency action. Variable has called it “a mostly comedic expedition through the wild advertising wilderness.”

Perilous Emails: “There is nothing more terrifying than thinking you have your creative workload under control only to find your email filled with ridiculous requests that ruin everything. Watch as a studio artist comes back from a long lunch to find their greatest fears realised.”

Nocturnal Desperation: With its back against the wall, the copywriter makes magic happen.

Legal: This video went through three rounds of revisions and a two-week approval process.

AAE vs GCD: Feedback is only an obstacle for the weak.

Design Process: Go inside the brain of a designer – hear its inner brilliance.

Credits:
Agency: The Variable
Executive Creative Director: Joe Parrish
Associate Creative Director: David Jones
Senior Designer: Matt Cook
Copywriters: Matteson Fields, Gary Bostwick
Video Editing: Emily Morgan
Sound Design: Hot Sake
Sound Mix: Groundcrew Studios
Voice Talent: James K. Flynn, Matteson Fields
Director of Account Management: David Mullen
Account Executive: Brandelynn Perry
Senior Project Manager: Kate Fenstermacher

The first trailer for Graphic Means has just been released, exploring the history of graphic design before the advent of the desktop computer. It was previously a Kickstarter campaign that was funded in 2015. The film is meant to be released in 2017, with interviews from Ellen Lupton, Malcolm Garrett, Tobias Frere-Jones, Ken Garland and Adrian Shaughnessy. Directed by Briar Levit, the film explores the period from the 1950s to the 1990s. According to Levit:

“It’s been roughly 30 years since the desktop computer revolutionised the way the graphic design industry works. For decades before that, it was the hands of industrious workers, and various ingenious machines and tools that brought type and image together on meticulously prepared paste-up boards, before they were sent to the printer.”

In a further message from the director:

I have amassed a vast collection of design production manuals (1960s, 70s, and 80s) from the Goodwill over the years. As the stack grew, it became clear I was naturally drawn to this period of design, and the skills and processes that went along with it. I missed these production methods by about 12 years (I started studying design in 1996), and worked almost exclusively with a computer during my education and after.

I had some vague knowledge about production before the Mac, but it was only based on brief references my teachers made, or the little-used-tools that remained in various studios I worked in.

It occurred to me that if I knew so little, my graphic design students know even less! So with this, I set out to document the tools, processes, and people, of this brief moment in the design world.

I hope you join me along the way!

Looking forward to the film.

China’s extreme fireworks: sheer spectacle in Nuanquan. Following an old tradition, these highly unusual fireworks are made by a specially trained blacksmith throwing molten iron at an old stone wall, creating one of the most death defying performance arts in the world. Located in Hebei province, five hours’ drive from Beijing, these fireworks at Nuanquan are one of a kind. According to the ABC:

They call it “DaShuHua” or, literally, “Beating down the tree flowers.”

Nuanquan villagers claim it has been performed for over 500 years by local blacksmiths. It was traditionally only performed once a year on Lantern Festival, which is the 15th day of the New Year and the unofficial climax of the annual two-week-long festivities. Nowadays, there are a few more opportunities to witness it.

ABC News visited Nuanquan a week before the Lunar New Year and met Sui Jianguo, a 14th generation blacksmith. Sui has been performing “DaShuHua” for more than 25 years and shows off his skills on a new nightly cultural show hoping to draw more tourists to the neglected region.

Sui explained to ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff that DaShuHua started out being the “poor man’s fireworks.” In the past, only the wealthy residents of Nuanquan could afford firecrackers to ring in the New Year.

Sprout World has made a pencil that you can plant after use, combating disposable culture. It is the world’s first fully sustainable pencil, and it’s made possible by replacing the usual eraser on the top of the pencil with a seed capsule. The pencils were a concept by MIT students, in partnership with Michael Stausholm, CEO of Sprout World. Via CNN:

“At the time, I was living in Denmark and working a lot with sustainable companies,” he said. “But sustainability is hard to illustrate to consumers. I was searching for a product that could easily do that.”
A year later, he came across Sprout Pencils when it was a Kickstarter campaign.
“I loved the idea. It was a perfect way to explain what sustainability is all about,” said Stausholm.
Stausholm partnered with the students and convinced them to let him sell the pencils in Denmark. “We sold 70,000 pencils in the spring of 2013. We realized there was definitely demand for them,” he said.

By 2014, the startup had sold a million pencils across Europe.
Later that year, Stausholm acquired the patents and rights to the brand and became Sprout World’s CEO.
He said Sprout World now sells an average of 450,000 pencils a month and has logged more than $3 million in revenue.

The Sprout Pencil can be bought here.

The Swedish Number is an unusual campaign from the Swedish Tourist Association. From now on you can call the number in the video and get connected up to a random Swedish resident (who will have to sign up through an app to ‘volunteer to chat’ for Sweden). Via ABC News:

The phone number was set up to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Sweden becoming the first country to abolish censorship. The Swedes who take the calls download a special app on their smartphones, when they have the app turned on they will receive a call from anyone who decides to call the number.

So the Swedes taking the calls have become unpaid ambassadors for their country.

The number has proven popular, with so far over 9,000 calls made since it began on April 6, clocking over 16 hours of chat time between callers and a random Swede.

Among the suggested topics of conversation are: northern lights, hiking, suicide rates, gay rights and darkness.

Along with other Swedish residents, some known signups to the app include the AP bureau chief of Sweden and the Swedish Prime Minister, Stefan Löfven:

Naturally not every caller believed that it was really Stefan, with one person asking him to prove it. Great concept!

The greatest Star Wars lightsabers are often built by fans. Here are some lightsaber construction processes – and their makers’ dedication. In Sacramento, California, 43 year old Michael Murphy makes a living by building high end custom lightsabers. Money quote from the Verge:

“I guess somewhere deep down I always wanted to be a toymaker,” Murphy tells me across the island in his kitchen. Except for the rack of lightsabers by the couch and the detailed blueprints and sample materials sitting on the counter, it feels like any suburban home in America. “Even though I originally wanted to build cars, those are just big toys. More dangerous. More money.” His eyes shift mischievously, and he laughs. “This is something that’s much more unique.”

Unique doesn’t even begin to cover it. For the past 10 years, Murphy’s made his living building LED-powered lightsabers, and the internal chassis that make them tick. The forums on his website, FX Sabers, are part of a thriving custom lightsaber scene, where designers, engineers, “sabersmiths,” and DIY tinkerers all collaborate in the name of building the ultimate Star Wars movie prop.

Murphy’s work doesn’t come cheap: he once sold a Luke Graflex lightsaber with removable blade and sound on Ebay for $3,900, a decent profit from the $800 worth of parts that it was made from. Interested in getting your own custom saber? Try his website, fx-sabers.