Movie scenes from Casablanca created with LEGO. [link]

LEGO addiction is real! [link]

A reconstruction of the famous photograph taken by Charles Ebbets. [link]

A LEGO recreation of Jeff Widener’s 1989 photograph of “The unknown rebel”. [link]

Cardinal Virtues.

“Charity, penitence, patience, continence, modesty, uprightness, and compassion – these are the seven gates of heaven.”

Mahabharata.

Taken from: A Garland of Quiet Thoughts, 1905.

Copyright © 2009 Nicole Rigets

]]> http://nicolerigetsdesign.wordpress.com/2009/12/24/p-s-no-b-s-i-still-own-a-piece-of-yellowboys-t/ Thu, 24 Dec 2009 10:58:32 +0000 nicolerigets http://nicolerigetsdesign.wordpress.com/2009/12/24/p-s-no-b-s-i-still-own-a-piece-of-yellowboys-t/

Yellow Diablo

On the night of November 2nd, 2001, in an area of downtown Vancouver B.C. called Gastown, a crowd built slowly between 9:20 and 10 p.m. at 206 Carrall Street; they awaited the appearance of David Yonge – YELLOWBOY!  He came outside and stood very still while 15 microphones were duct taped to his arms, legs, and body.  He wore jeans and a body hugging tee spray painted on the back that read: “no pain-no gain”.

He jumped onto the roof of a Camaro and ripped his shirt down the middle, tore it off in three pieces; threw one piece to each side of him and flung one over his shoulder behind him.  I grabbed it and a thrill went through me as I wadded it into my coat pocket.  The next thing I saw was Yellowboy jumping high in the air and landing with all his might on the roof of the car, which now began to sag. “Oh God, his poor body”.  The crowd went wild. Without delay, he went right to work on the driver’s door wrestling it, and when that didn’t work, he backed up and ran at it with all his might half a dozen times, until on the last “ram” the door flung him backward.

Now he pulled up his jeans and walked around to the hood.  He wrestled with the lock and pushed the hood up, at the same time standing on the engine he did everything he could think of to it. “DA-VID! DA-VID!” the crowd chanted.  The crowd was swelling and bus drivers were turning v-e-r-y slowly looking apprehensively out their window to see what was going on, and wondering whether they should call the police, who were already decreetly tucked into the area watching at a distance.  The crowd was so happy; lots of pictures were being taken.

I had already zoomed up around him with my camera when he made his appearance, and caught the excitement.  Two young guys were in the front row and one was wearing tan clothing. The other had on a blue plaid shirt and a bright red cap. Not cool; the crowd had to tell them to back off, it was Yellow’s show.  They just didn’t “get” it:  it was a wrestling, not a wrecking match.  They kept wanting to take a sledgehammer to the Camaro.  Then they’d settle down for awhile. At first, I wondered if they were part of the show, but soon it was clear they weren’t. Thinking back on it Yellow never went for the trunk, wonder why?

Next everyone’s in for a big surprise.  During the performance he has been carefully clearing the cords from the microphones out of the way before he makes his move.  Now he’s ripping the duct tape off his bare arms and the “mikes are comin’ off”.  A 20 foot ladder is being placed in front of us and Yellowboy climbs slowly up it.  Oh no!  Not right to the top. Balanced, poised, “Oh My God, he’s going to jump”.  He  JUMPED!  He hit the roof and he’s up.  Thank God he “made it”.  Now a man from the crowd is climbing up the ladder and a woman spectator tells him to, “Get off there!”  He won’t yet, but after a few minutes he moves back down the ladder with his gaze frozen.  I think he pictured himself jumping and really hurting himself.

This has given Yellowboy a chance to catch his breath and he’s up the top of the ladder for a 2nd time.  Crunch! and the hood receives a brutal blow.  I can’t believe it, he’s going up again.  This time he lands with enough force to break the windshield. Bravo!!  He then quietly steps over the hood of the car and slowly disappears into the gallery while someone in the crowd declares: “I think the car got the worst of it”.

What a show!

What a Night!

Produced by:  Access Artist Run Centre

“Yellow Diablo”

This performance was equal parts professional wresting and sound assault.

Diablo’s opponents are inanimate objects that could not fight back even if they wanted to.

Copyright © 2009 Nicole Rigets

]]> http://nicolerigetsdesign.wordpress.com/2009/12/23/will-my-life-be-fatal/ Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:11:29 +0000 nicolerigets http://nicolerigetsdesign.wordpress.com/2009/12/23/will-my-life-be-fatal/

Will my life be fatal?  I found this inquiry written boldly to stand out between subjects in my journal.  I had to notice it as I was combing the print for creative prompts.

It’s important to ask myself these questions. They are internal murmurs that invisibly rise to the page.  Questions that arrive hammering:  fixing their point firmly in place.

While I’m not thinking of an answer I decide to return to the ongoing list of “100 Things”. Here are 25 more things I notice and ‘love’ in my life:

1. Dappled light on trunks of trees.
2. The noise of a car accelerating with a hole in its muffler.
3. Toasted crumpets.
4. Fresh heavy cream.
5. Bright daylight spilling into the kitchen, scattering patterns all over the breakfast dishes.
6. All kinds, colors, and shapes of glass bottles and jars.
7. Seeing children in the neighborhood playing and growing with the seasons.
8. Squirrels and mud turtles.
9. Puddles full of rainwater.
10. Anything magenta.
11. Breaks in “spells”.
12. The sound of an airplane flying over the roof of the house on a peaceful summer afternoon.
13. Layers of chipped paint.
14. Pink ballet slippers.
15. All shades of red hair and platinum blonde.
16. Hot fudge poured generously over hard vanilla ice cream.
17. Birds chirping “earnestly” to one another.
18. The aroma that comes from grinding my own coffee beans in the Braun.
19. Sometimes when the moon looks like a beautiful white ceramic woman…
20. Carbon paper.
21. Strong winds along the water lifting my  hair off my shoulders and rearranging it ‘any old way’.
22. Lingering over a magazine rack.
23. Weather so warm we turn off the heat and pile the old cast iron radiators high with books.
24. Finding money in the pockets of clothing while sorting the washing.
25. I think about what I would say if I wasn’t me.
26. T-B-C.

Life as layers of "Chipped Paint"

Copyright © 2009 Nicole Rigets

Gotham is my new favorite font family and i found a post about its origin in Hoefler & Frere-Jones and decide share..

“ The Origin of Gotham

Long before the emergence of a profession called “graphic design,” there was signage. Up until the mid-twentieth century, the job of providing architectural lettering often fell to engineers or draftsmen, most of whom worked outside of the typographic tradition. The shape of facade lettering was often determined by the practical business of legibility, rather than any sort of stylistic agenda — although inevitably, even the draftsman’s vision of “basic building lettering” was influenced by the prevailing style of the time. “

more read on please click me..

Today in interface design class we talked about envisioning information and edward tufte

I searched about himself and found Minard’s diagram of Napoleon’s march on Moscow, used by Tufte as an exemplar of good graphical information.

and my talented friend Berrin Sun told me about another good example:

here is the Jack Sparrow

Business cards are no longer used to simply provide information about a company or individual. More and more people are designing creative business cards and use them as a marketing tool. Here are some examples..

Adam Mayer Geared Business Cards

you can watch the video how its work:

Things – Adam Mayer Digitally Designed Geared Business Cards from Bre Pettis on Vimeo.

Daniel Ballou Business Card

Mark Ramadan Business Card

SimpleSong Designs Business Card

Helena Ayres Proofreader Business card

Adworks Media Business Card

A.T.M.M. 04: Retrophosis

All Terrain Mono-Mechanics <4^th in the series, x’mas 2009 version, by “2-Far Playthings” >

Height: ~2000mm

Invitation entry to X’mas tree design competition(Dec 20 – Jan 3) at Youth Square, Chai Wan, Hong Kong

Altered books, journaling, scrap-booking, and collage all jump from the same ground and share boundless experimentalism. Deep from within, these processes surface and swell, to reveal story, history, allegory, narrative, and expose’. Everything from found bottlecaps flattened on pavement to string from Grandma’s kitchen drawer can become a part of these art forms.  We may be doing this work for illustration, for remembering, for inspiring, or twisting away from the ‘norm’, but for whatever reason it’s easier to express ourselves and what we want to say to the viewer if we have a variety of tools and techniques to choose from.  Here are some I have encountered:

• Using a page from a newspaper fastened to a support, apply  a layer of encaustic (melted wax), and write or draw into the translucent wax.  Try smearing with oil paint and then wiping and polishing the surface to achieve a layered effect. Photocopied images of objects or scientific gadgets from the 19th Century can be clipped and incorporated into the design.

• Create an eclectic journal by collecting urban particles of paper.  Peel flyers from walls, save wrappers from fruit, use parts of bags and tags from shopping and purchasing goods.  Fragments of maps, painted and drawn entries, and photographs can work in a way to unify the pages of this artist’s book.  Even the cover can be modified if the book is store-bought.

I have a humble little paper book I bought in Chinatown with a brown paper cover that I immediately attached a tiny Chinese tissue-paper parasol to once I got it home.  Each time I go to Chinatown I return with some artifacts to attach to the inside:  the string and tag from a jasmine teabag, a hand-written receipt for a steamed bun filled with a paste made from red beans, a round bronze coin with a square hole.

Found Objects

• Found objects can be incorporated into work to add an unusual dimension in the resolution of a piece.  This can hint at a deeper meaning to the work.

• Found objects can be used to block out areas of paint and create a negative  shape.

Making New Work Look Old

• Coat heavy paper with plaster.  When it’s dry bend it to form cracks.  Add a wash of paint to this.

• Spread modeling paste or spackle on paper and while it’s wet stamp textures or patterns into the surface.

• Paint gesso onto craft tissue and let it dry.  Stain these with liquid acrylics or inks.

• Add non-toxic dry pigments (being careful not to inhale the powder) to clear polishing wax and rub it onto painted papers.

• Peel, tear, or sand papers after they have been glued in place.

• Brush non-toxic crackle glazes over painted papers or images.

Christmas Papers

• Crinkled, wrinkled brown bags can be carefully brushed or sprayed with non-toxic paint to emphasize the texture.

• Use sheets of plain brown paper and sponge, drizzle, or brush on, non-toxic metallic paint to embellish the surface. Add extra sparkle using metallic ribbons, baubles, bows, and faux jewels.

I bought a Baroque black and white paper one year and randomly glued individual faux pearls to the top of it.  I then added a rich violet organza ribbon tied with a generous bow.

Graphic felt pens, inks, gesso, pencil crayon, foil, and glue on graph paper

This fashion design is an example of composing with a variety of materials and reworking them until the desired result is achieved.

Copyright © 2009 Nicole Rigets

“The vivid colors of the logo are a perfect fit with the image that Poland and Ukraine want to give to the world,” said Platini at the ceremony. Here is the logo and photos from the ceremony.

Quoted from Logo Design Love

and here is the logos from the history of euro cup..

Zoo Safari T-Shirts

FedEx T-Shirt

Invisible T-Shirt

This is what would happen if you use the Photoshop eraser tool on yourself!

(can be yours but only if you want it…)

Tyskie – Beer Mugs Stickers

Police- Slower is Better

Tramontina Precision Knives – Ultrathin slices

Tibits – Very Very Fresh Vegetarian Food

Swiss Skydive – Elevator

Colgate – Don’t Forget

Bergmann & Sohn Funeral services

From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hazy_jenius/2274232091/
Something must have been changed in the WordPress format because I can’t get my text to go where I want it to. So for now, it’ll be a little different. Sorry.

 In the Old City, Damascus, Syria.

"Nicole" (After Friedlander)

Lee Friedlander is one of my favorite photographers.   Earlier this year my husband, Randolph, captured a photograph of me while we were visiting downtown Squamish, B.C.

It’s interesting to me that while I’m preparing to take a photograph I’m unaware of being photographed; a factor adding another dimension entirely.  A viewer sees more in the streetscape than a photographer will see while taking the photo.

In his work, Friedlander frequently liked to include telephone poles, street signs, pavement, cast shadows, and a streamlining of chaos into a class of personalized order.

This flattened 2-D image of the social landscape is one of a great number of my favorite photographs taken by Rand. It becomes one of those moments that allows us to see everything.

To view a select representation of photographs by Lee Friedlander, I recommend the Fraenkel Gallery Online.

Copyright © 2009 Nicole Rigets

Looking forward to seeing this in January.

Montezuma artifacts etc

“Is a holiday card like all others? Surely not. Especially when each card is hand crafted with care and love as a designer seeks to learn something new, a technique that snatches him or her from their usual element, forcing them to improvise and go with the flow.”

must check this out! looks like an entire artists toolbox and and operating system built out of a mindmapping concept. it looks like it’ll boot off a USB stick too. all/most of the tools necessary for being a digitally savvy artist could be distributed on artOne USB sticks.

Screen shots are here and openartist hq is here

A smart phone controlled, energy saving add-on for your bike wheel.

Read more at the Guardian.

Follow us @absurddelight