Design anywhere and digital culture NEWS // June 2008
Florian
Bayer is a talented illustrator who uses line art in a comic strip
like coloring. In his own words: “I try to bring you eyes opening
magazines, exhibitions, and all other kinds of fun. On my own illustration
is the main topic of my day. I kept my enthusiasme with drawing as
I was a child and compare this with the try of breaking the edge of
skills and new contexts for giving the information the best way to
the audience.”

First
ever, Singapore Toy & Comic
Convention will feature a host of toys (general and designer), comics,
animation, gaming, design, licensing and Cosplay from creative minds
from all over the world, serving up an eye-popping visual feast and unprecedented
variety and innovation in all the closely-related industries

Thunderdog is
a New York based creative agency and toy brand, founded by artist Tristan
Eaton who began designing toys for Fisher Price at the age of 18. Since,
their seminal toys have invaded the market and imagination of designers
worldwide, and they cultivate art for city streets, gallery walls and
everywhere in-between.
Check the collection of toys! Especially the Your
Momma and the Thundermutts.

Fubiz
released a compilation of 70
amazing business cards

Introducig
a new book by Zeptonn where over 40 international artists were invited: Black&White
Freedrawings.
“Traditionally, for artists to collaborate in drawing, they would
have to be at the same physical location. Each artist would take turns
drawing, adding to the work until it was fi nished. Due to the ease and
effi ciency of current communications, however, new opportunities arise
to work together in similar fashion even when the distance between two
artists is vast.”

C.I.
Studios is one of Australia's fastest growing commercial photo
production studios. They offer a full range of services in Melbourne
and Sydney including: first class production, some of Australia's leading
commercial photographers, high-end digital image retouching, stylists
and hair and make-up artists.


Red
Ant is a full service (2.0 ready) digital agency, focused on delivering
powerful online results like improving user experiences, driving sales
and traffic, increasing conversions and delivering beautiful, functional,
accessible websites.
cool slot machine like dropping of new visuals every 5 secs to reveal
a new set of delivered projects! Red layer pimps the results. Smart use
of flash.

Derek
Swalwell is a Melbourne based commercial photographer and if you
want an inkling as to what being professional mean, check
his portfolio. The quality of light is exceptional. The staging is
almost perfect. Whatever he tackles, he delivers.

Gestalten
interview with Oded Ezer who “creates brilliant Hebrew and
Latin typography that make it hard for you to say whether he is still
working in typography or already in the realm of art. When he recently
visited Berlin, we finally met him face-to-face and talked about the
Typosperma project, a filmic hommage to Israeli poet and art critic
Hezi Leskley and his future plans.”

MOGO
Media presents Getting started with Dreamweaver and CSS a one day
publishing workshop is coming to a city near you!

Projektil is
an international series of lecture at the Bauhaus University. As it is
a project from students for students all lectures and workshops are free.

Martha
Rich
is
quite candid in sharing how she ditched her pantyhose world, quit her
human resource job at Universal studio to land doing illustration for
a living.
Tx to Clayton Brothers for
encouraging her!


As
we're ramping up our 10th anniversary - we just launched the Netdiver
Magazine facebook
group and posted the topic du jour in the discussion board:
If you were to celebrate in style - and budget is no problem - how would
you do it? Join to add yours!

Christian
Ward illustrations is a mix of line art and watercolor all bearing
strong characters with a touch of psychedelia issued from the youth
scene.

William
Ismael represents the true worldling: born in France, lived in
the USA - did back and forth, is a signed recording artist since age
16 and after strenuous studies - he's got multiple degrees - he graduated
in motion and design and since, set his heart and passion on producing
digital art with soul.
He has an opening show in NYC on the 14, contact him for more information.


I
like this interface design approach: in todays information overload images
are getting more attention than words so DesignBolaget is
taking full adavantage of just that. Simple red boxed large thumbnails
of their work with just the right amount of copy and huge tiled background
images of chosen projects. Smart navigation too.
From Denmark with luv!

Another
extra talented designer I just discovered. We just hooked-up on FB and
I'm pleased to introduce Chapman Tse operating under Yellow
Atelier whose work is sharp, funky and urban.
Even his little critter logo was turned into a toy!


Love Fayte.
Love Art! is an absolutely gorgeous new project by Benny Luk, creator
of sixstation. Hats off for launching a new line of exclusive T-shirts,
accessories and prints.
The photographic staging and montages as well as graphic design treatment
are stunning!

Andrew
Gordon is an illustrator and artist who lives and breathes in Melbournes,
AU and has quite an unusual path to finding his passion. For a year
he lived in the desert with an estimate 9 months without human contact.
Now that may well kickstart any sluggish imagination.

You
have gotta to watch DVEIN opening
title clip he did for TocaMe 2008! Have a look at the making of and then
watch the movie! The textures are close-ups of foam that is slowly melted
down. The editing and retro animated sequeces make for an outstanding
animation!
One of the best I've seen in the genre!


Why
Do Web Startups Die? Lack of Alphalpha by Dave Goldenberg
“The biggest problem I’ve seen isn’t
lack of talent, enthusiasm or even funding. It lies in skipping a critical
early stage of development I call the “alpha-alpha” stage,
or “alphalpha” for short. Alphalpha fits into that frantic
time between the Product Requirements Document and the alpha release—but
to neglect it is to raise a building without first laying the foundations.”
Luv
the interactive mouse induced bubbles and cool pins on Napron
Love.


Can't
read a word of russian - but when you look at these four MTV
idents with flowing drapes and objects to be build the 'M' you will
be blown-away. The extent of motion fx is growing at a phenomenal pace.


A
brilliant mostly print graphic design portfolio for Greig Anderson aka Effektive!
Luv his work!


Sam
Dallyn is a well-rounded designer who keeps on improving over the
years. He relaunched a fresh portfolio where you can see some of his
web work which is of award-winning quality.

Jorge
Restrepo aka Wonksite is a long
time netdiver alumni. Always a pleasure to see how other designers develop
through the years. Consistence! Evolution! Mix media, photography, typography
and illustrations make the bulk of his work.
Luv the funk bro!


Just learned that he co-organized Colombia
Passion + Hong Kong Exhibition Poster event now taking place. He
posted some pictures-have a look! cool works!

What
is WHEREWEDOWHATWEDO? It
is a community-built visual database of the spaces in which we spend
our days, nights or both doing whatever it is we do.
Submit yours or browse the archive! Really interesting to see how others
work and set-up their space.
Check out part of my studio
space :))

What
a cool website Soia & Kyo have
put out! This fashion label has used flash to make the collection toggle
from each piece of the collection that all adorned with great pictures
and vector art decorations.

Interview
with Jakob Nylund from FCSPCY (formconspiracy).

“Haha, Swedish creativity... I don't think Sweden is more or less
creative than any other country. I just think that we have a visual language
in general that people from around the world seem to appreciate. We are
simple and focused on the essence of things — in furniture design,
fashion design, graphic design, architecture... always with a minimalist
approach we get the job done by being honest and simple. Sometimes maybe
a bit boring.”

With
a little help from friends Fifty
Thousand Shirts is hoping to raise $1,000,000 by selling 50,000 shirts!
Why? Read on.

Amy
Ruppel
portfolio
website uses a different grid than the ones illustrators usually do.
Three column goodness - just wished there were no pop-ups to display
her artwork. If you're going to still use pop-ups make sure to display
larger artworks than the one on the index and include a 'next-back'
link.

Toormix is
a creative studio and their work process incorporates a strategic vision
from the word go. They attach a great deal of importance to
investigating languages and new codes.
Gorgeous website!

Somewhat
darksish, Jesse Lefkowitz comic-stripe
like illustrations. Great compositions and color choices.

4-pli is
an architectural design firm that works in every stage of the design
process, from concept to construction. Their goal is to create work
that is innovative, economical and functional.
One of their fav material is plywood used for its lines that gives spectacular
sculptural fx.

Indulge!
A showcase of all 2008 graduates
of BA(Hons) Graphic Design and BA(Hons) Illustration at the University
of Brighton.
Poster shown is by Jez Burrows aka Evening
Tweed.

NAKD relaunches
and you've gotta to see what they have in store. The Samsumg advert is
mind-blowing! Today we celebrate the use of hands!

Mysterious
creature is the central character for the now defunct Resfest festival
ident. Issue 10 took place in Brazil and was designed by Birdo.

Manuel
Dall'Olio website puts a twist on using photograpraphy of hands
as section highlights - mouseover and see. Aside from the naughtiness,
large range of work available.

Talking
about hands, check this Carrier
bag concept by Jamie Wieck that
literally carries your shopping. This is one, of many of his ingenious
ideas.
Hats off to a brilliant product designer.

Stunning
illuminated bath panel by Jona Hoad.
More of his product and interior designs available on his website.


There
was a mega glitch with the newsarchive navigation
and fixed it! Sorry about that. As you can see the site is in flux because
we're preparing the next version.
All is good now :))
Test
your knowledge! Lost
Formats Preservation Society provides simple vector and explanations.
If you want to contribute info is available at the bottom of the first
column.

Oh
my gosh! If you wear glasses like I do - check Sugarkane asymetrical
frames which include photocromatic lens! Funky enough?

Jason
Limon has a fixation on robots and electrical wire parts which
gives way to a retro scienci-fi look to his detail rich illustrations.

The
Finger - Oded Ezer's new typo art project, is an imaginary landscape
of Hebrew letters. Watch the movie!

Derek
Bacon is half-way photography and half-way illustration which give
way to stunning montages.

Though
I most of the time prefer not to cover liquor websites, I'm making an
exception for Level Vodka because
of its overall exceptional design and concept. Handy work of long time
web alumni James Widegreen and company.
A must see!

Say
what? Publisher goes on a rampage, steals content, gets no right to publish
artwork from the artists involved and sells at 100$ a book based on the
interviews Darren Di Lieto conducted on the Little Chip Society. Read
the full story: Colorful
Illustrations 93°C - Please DO NOT buy this book!
We, editors, spend loads of time.. loads and loads of time acquiring
content — and this is a first for me — a completely unethical
action and showing how little respect we get!
Fight back, boycott the book!

Loui
and Louise
are
dedicated to dressing up the kids! Luv the top banner animations!

Skaffs is
an illustration, animationa and sound design company founded by Luke
Feldman. His moon faced characters are sweet and seem caught up in a
dreamy state.

Rita
is
a multidisciplinary design studio. Her world is both 2D and 3D. She believes
that graphic, object and event design are naturally interconnected. Working
together, these modes of design complement each other, inspiring new
creative solutions in form, function and communication.
Check her living-room installation made of wood and painted over objects!


Travis
Lampe moved from being an advertising art director to creating
a world inhabited by weird little characters. Good illustration style.

SF
(Strangefruits) relaunches with a stunning new website. Surf by
color, countries, categories... awesome!

OBVIA is
a fashion label with the craziest website to show off the collections.
Wildly animated and populated with awesome vector animations, becomes
more of a brand experience than anything else.
From Spain with luv!


Poke
behind the bar codes to discover the art of Adam
Nielsen.

Simple
and beautiful! I luv Super
Nature website. Based in Shanghai, this multi-discipline design company
specialises in interactive design, visual communication and media technology.
The interface uses huge visuals and many short videos convey such luscious
textures as proof of the talents at work there.

Illustrator Christian
Lindemann restocks his portfolio.

Fuel is
a one-day conference for entrepreneurs and marketers who want to make
their companies, services and products truly remarkable.
Upcoming: London, June 13
Fashion,
comestics, design, love, etc. can be found on The
Playground
a
small visual communication collective based in Sydney.

Sarah
von der Heide
just
recently graduate after studying communication design. She's rooting
solidly into sound editorial design with an edge and her illustrations
have personality.
Now freelancing as an illustrator and designer.

Way
too cool! Check the merch on display on Tookata
People! Gotta luv it! Especially like the hoodies and the nice illos.


SPDH is
Shaun Hagarty little spot on the web where you can view is totally fun
caricactures. Much talent!

Flashbelt
08 will be rocking the Minneapolis scene this Spring. They keep
it small to keep it cool, only 450 passes available!
Upcoming: June 9-12

Internet
Week New York is a week-long festival of events saluting New York's
thriving Internet industry and the many talented companies, organizations
and innovators creating the future of online media!
In the spirit of the Web, Internet Week is open to any and all companies
and organizations working online, big or small. Whether you'd like to
have a seminar, party or meet-up, we encourage you to participate!
Upcoming: June 3-10

Matt
Stuart sense of timing, opportunity and composition render in totally
unexpected results, from a photographer point of view. You get to witness
how sharp his sense of momemtum, space and story telling are.
Pay attention to some of his play on words for different sections which
underlines in words what he does in his pictures — like the one
that he shoots people! Oh and he does! Shown, humoristic captures.


It's
great to discover new blood producing original user based experiences
as well as fantastic graphic design. These two are recent graduates.
Imagine their future!
These two awesome talents are ramping up a great career ahead. First, Karim
Zariffa is a motion and graphic designer who has already under
his belt a couple of high profiles projects and awards.
Be ready to be surprised by a very cool flash website!


Which was designed and programmed by Philippe
Roy who sure is demonstrating his potential as a flash developer — not
so much from his personal website — but from but his knowledge
of interactive design substantiated by his projects. Click and explore!

Claudio
Sinatti did this video installation for Nike which required a custom
built corset with 48 cameras attached to football player Marco Materazzi
and a 104 video projected plexiglass screens and a lot of compositing...
see some of the Solo backstage
footage.
Insane set-up and logistics. Humbling to see how far some projects are
taken.

It
can't get simpler than this: evi.o
uses
a vertical navigation with tiny-tiny squares to showcase her design and
illustration work. Fantastic talent to discover.
Hats off to a new powagirrrl!


RBG6 is
an extraordinarily talented motion and graphic design studio from Sweden.
Check them out (and don't miss the clips)!

Julien
Vallee is a talented motion and graphic design upcoming rock star.
His work is original and he does not shy of pushing the boundaries.
His dedication and intense focus on creative discovery makes him one
to watch for.
From Montreal with luv!

Straigt
to the edges of edgy and urban youth culture stands kidGaucho portfolio
of Lucas Lasnier and Andrés Bonavera, both
graphic designers and illustrators. Take a coffee and enjoy their
work spanning across motion, illustration, interior design and merch!
From Buenos Aires with luv!

Another
processing feast by Flight 404: Weird
Fishes.

INK
01: INTERNATIONAL illustration rally competition for artists, graphic
designers, illustrators and creators. Get more information on the exhibit that
will follow in Bilbao, Spain.
Exhibit: May 15 - June 7

Drawing
Day 08 is a worldwide drawing event encouraging everyone to drop
everything and draw for the sake of art. The internet is an open canvas.
Help us create 1 million drawings online this day and boost online
art communities.
Upcoming: June 7

More
power to processing! The German
Reclam publishing company sells mainly classics of literature. To get
schoolchildren and students' enthusiastic about Reclam titles, The Literature
Doner Kebab presents literary works in an easily digestible form.
Instead of the familiar meat skewer, visitors find on the microsite a
doner kebab, formed of selected quotes.
Brought to you by Jung von Matt/Neckar.

Swirly
curly graphic design and illustration by Ginger
Monkey! Had been quite impressed by a past cover of Computer Arts
which he happened to have design.

Lovely
productions just finished a new music video for a band called Orba
Squara which shows as a central feature an illustrated and animated
head. Excellent technique in conveying movement, emotion and following
the lyrics!

Hello,
World by SoftBank is a meta flash experimental website with tiny
animated people are having a field day - literally!


Kareena
Zerefos
is
an artist and freelance illustrator who lives and works in Sydney,
Australia. Her illustrations are based around memories, dreams and
nostalgia. Sweet!

Another
flash video based website for tha ltd. home
of extra talented art director and designer, Yugo Nakamura.

Round shows
a most unusual navigational system to display their content and agency
portfolio. Don't know what to make of it: good idea or not? But it is
certainly original. Excellent projects.
From Melbourne, Australia with luv.

Designfotofever is
an event based photolibrary focussed on contemporary design. The site
offers screen res downloads for free and print res versions as agreed.
People using the images are either design magazines worldwide and also
daily newspapers worldwide who either haven't got their own photographer
in place to cover these events or who can't find better pictures elsewhere.
There is no requirement to clear usage from people in photographs intended
for reportage and news gathering purposes.
“Following industry standards, for any work that will appear in
consumer or trade magazines, newspapers, or educational books, you generally
do not need a model release. This is also true for photographic exhibits.
These are considered educational
— informational uses.”


The
Cans Festival is the greatest stencil
art exhibit that took place in a tunnel under the Waterloo station
in London last week-end. World reknowned Banksy was
part of it and Ms Karen Lacroix, a student at the RCA, submitted this
picture.

Calling
all young creative professionals across the map: ADC
Young Guns 6 is out to uncover the best professional talent, aged
30 or under, working in today's multi-disciplinary creative industry.
50 winners will be awarded in September 2008.
Deadline: June 2

Eduard
Muresan is the creative director of Citrus,
an independent multi-disciplinary design studio founded in 2002 in Timisoara,
Romania. Reposting his thoughts about design - inspiring!
“Design is life. Design is everything. You may think
that it's not but that is because it's mostly good design and you are
not supposed to notice. But if you take that away, you will surely miss
it. The reality is that you can not invent new design, it's all there.
You just need to observe carefully and put it in a different light. To
me, that's what a designer should do..”
Sappi
Ideas that Matters call for entries
We believe that the creative ideas of designers can have an impact far
beyond the design world. If you have an idea that can mobilise the world
for the better, and believe in the power of print, this is a special
call to you. A call for action. A call for involvement. A call for change.

Photofit:
Self-Portraits is a project by Giles Revell and Matt Willey (of
Studio8 Design) which was featured in the Guardian Weekend magazine.
In the .pdf you will get the full set of these portraits and interviews,
including ones unpublished.
Read the introduction to understand how the Photofit system came about — and
as an initiated portraiture exploration — pretty mind boggling
are the results.


Biopiracy,
the new colonialism — review of an installation by Ines
Doujak
“Biopiracy describes
a new form of colonial pillaging in which western corporations
reap profits by taking out patents on indigenous plants, food, local
knowledge, human tissues and drugs from developing countries and turning
them into lucrative products. Only in few cases are the benefits shared
with the country of origin.”
A poignant photographic montage drives the message.

Visual
amusement brought to you by Adobe cards.
Can't help being impressed by the animation sheer amount of frames.

I
own two of their tshirts and they probably have the most comfy tees on
the planet. Superdry fab funky
and relax apparel for guys and girrrls.

Zune
Arts is looking to recruit groups for a research project for. The
respondents would be paid for their hour of time. They would need to
be art enthusiasts and familiar with their projects.
For more info please contact Leah
Gritton.

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