Recently in Randomness Category

One of my college roommates loved all sorts of retro things. But out of all that I remember most fondly, it's her adoration for Marilyn that's most memorable. Although I have never been a diehard fan, thanks to her I atleast picked up a strong appreciation for her fashion sense and playfully infectious smile -- both of which are on display at the fun French photo blog Sugarland that is devoted to chronicling Ms. Monroe's life in front of the camera. With over 100 pages of entries with rare and well-known images -- both in color and black + white -- this delightful blog is definitely a bored girl (me) who's got-too-much-time-on-her-hands' best friend... unlike diamonds.

This Mexican helicopter pilot -- a budding photographer -- snaps pix while up in the skies and posts the results on his Web site. What are the most interesting photos by far? His views of some of the 10,000 homes in the new low income neighborhoods in Ixtapaluca, Mexico. (Link via Business Opportunities Blog)

Started feeling under the weather Sunday night and last night I just started to feel right again... Hence, the lack of posting. Will return in full force tonight. Thanks for your patience!

Illustrator and I have never been good friends. You see, my first love was Freehand, and we worked well together. Everything clicked like it was supposed to, naturally you might say. Now, with Illustrator as my vector bedfellow, things are always awkward. So much so that I frequently find myself looking up tutorials and tips to complete what most designers would consider simple tasks.

One of the most easy to follow tutorials that I've ever come across while doing this legwork is offered up for free by the folks at N. Studio Design. Covering how to use tracing to your advantage to create portraits -- like they used this summer for promoting the uber-cheesy Herbie remake, they tell you step-by-step what to do and show you helpful example images and screenshots of menus along the way! Pretty sweet.

Other tutorials worth checking out include:

• Making 3D pie charts (and bar graphs)
• Designing background patterns--think like the gradient-heavy, Apple default desktop wallpaper style backgrounds
• Creating 3D objects

With tutorials like these that actually making working with Illustrator fun (and not all engineeringly complicated and scary like CAD when doing 3D work), I just may come around to liking this program! Speaking of 3D, test your skills at distinguishing between Pixar-worthy images and those by photographers over at Alias Wavefront's site. I can't believe I got two wrong! Hopefully you'll score better. (link via The Woodwork)

Now here's a group project that I can get behind -- a shared, virtual scratch pad! Lunchtimers.com has three different "Big Pads" you can view and draw on at their Web site. But don't wait too long to leave your mark because you only have a couple minutes to contribute before the page refreshes and you have a new sheet to "decorate." It's a timewaster to be sure, but an interesting one at that!

My favorite thing about going to the theater to catch a movie isn't the buttery popcorn, it's the long screening room corridor lined with lively posters for upcoming movies. Unlike reviews and trailers, movie posters -- when designed just right set the mood. If much care has been given to the poster, you can bet your booty the director, actors, and everyone else on the film gave it their all too.

Of the upcoming crop of films about to hit theaters, V for Vendetta looks the most promising -- mostly due to their great posters. Sin City did it up the comics-to-film-thing perfectly and still tops V for Vendetta in terms of translating the mood of the comics to the big screen advertising, but V for Vendetta does come pretty close.

Even better than the re-imaging of the original comic book cover art into a poster are the versions with completely new visual concepts. I haven't been this geeked about a movie poster since Fairey strutted his posse-lovin' stuff for Walk the Line. Here's hoping this illustrated posters trend continues in Hollywood!

The only thing I love more than graphic design is music. Specifically, listening to and combining sets of songs into mixes.

If I wasn't an art director working for a magazine, I would probably be a struggling dj somewhere. To pay tribute to my favorite past time, I created a new mix about mixes and posted it to the Web's best mixmaker haven -- Art of the Mix. Be sure to drop into their image gallery. The art that folks submit can range from cheesy Web graphic collages to sophisticated covers featuring original artwork and typographic treatments. Truly a must-see, even for the non-mix lovin' creative type.

But back to those of you who would consider yourself a mix appreciator or creator, be sure to add Thurston Moore's latest book Mix Tape : The Art of Cassette Culture to your library, or just hop over to Wired to read his article "The Best 90 Minutes of My Life" or to NPR to listen to his thoughts.

While most sports fanatics make predictions based on how well teams match up, I'm going to make my first Superbowl prediction based on factor that I know a little something about: branding.

Over all, Seattle's brand looks like a sports team logo whereas at first glance Pittsburgh's brand gives off a more corporate feel. The typography for Seattle's wordmark packs more punch and feels appropriate to communicate power and strength (two qualities one would truly like to have associated with their sports team, no?). On the flip side, the Pittsburgh wordmark's typography seems informal, slight, and less impactful. It is almost overwhelmed by graphic element of their brand. The logos themselves, though, have me routing for Pittsburgh. With its strong bold collection of three repeated diamond-like shapes that have an almost Rand-like whimsy, Pittsburgh's logo is far more memorable. Its uniqueness as a brand, despite its lackluster typography, makes me pick Pittsburgh as a hands-down winner. I guess we'll see if that shuffles out to be true on the field, too.

For a little more on the Steelers logo, check out this well-written story from the Houston Chronicle