N O U N : A design blog by Oliver Oike

I’m a cycling fan. This show looks like a wonderful display of work by photographer Brent Humphreys, with show art direction & design by http://www.weaponofchoice.ca/. Wish I could find myself in Austin.

Lance Armstrong and his team seem to have really embraced art & design as they mature the Livestrong brand.

I’ll get behind any effort that raises money for cancer, and doubly so when it allows design to take centre stage.

An oldie, but goodie. Something light for the summer, playa:

Eclectic Method – Long Live The King (Michael Jackson Mix) from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.

Always a great place to find high-quality video of recent ads and other motion graphics, Boardsmag recently posted their It List for 2009:

You know what’s awesome? No? We do. And it doesn’t start with ‘r’ and end with ‘ecession’. It’s a hamper full of companies, people, gadgets and trends that entertained, enlightened and impressed us over the last 12 months, all wrapped up in a pretty ribbon and with our sincerest love. You’re welcome.

So what is IT this year? Well, read on for more about Music Marketing, Visualization, Beef, The Obama Effect, Destination vs. Dissemination and much more.

Also, the lead graphic above was created by (one of my all-time faves, and designers for electronic group Underworld) Tomato, and their process is described here.

Zoinks! This is amazing. Wish I could see it in person.

More here. And a video of it action:

Came across this super fun line up of body products at Winners of all places. Their line goes: “Whatever you look like, whatever shape you’re in, we only want you for your body.” Nice one. Lots of great product names, delivered in simple, inviting packaging using Helvetica Rounded.

One of my most treasured albums, and a sure sign I’m older than I care to admit, I see that The Stone Roses are getting ready to re-issue a 20th anniversary edition of their classic,  monumental self-titled album from 1989, “The Stone Roses.”

To celebrate, I offer one of their best songs, on my Top 10 all-time list, “I Am The Ressurrection.”

More info here, and here.

Souvenirs (2008) Three short films which trace the shifting identities of a city called Winnipeg and the people who call it home.

* colour, black & white
* archival photos & sound
* 8 & 16mm film
* Hi-8 digital video, DigiBeta, Beta SP NTSC
* 4:3 letterboxed
* stereo

Created through the Winnipeg Arts Council’s Public Art Program during an artist residency at the City of Winnipeg Archives. Collection of the City of Winnipeg.

Fun, fun, fun Japanese goods shop… sections include Art, Fashion, Interior & Toys.

“Tokyocube was founded in 2005, initially with the launch of the Tokyocube Magazine, which was designed to provide people throughout the world with a place to find features, articles and reviews on all the latest to come out of Japan, as well as learn more about the unique Japanese lifestyle.

As an extension to the Tokyocube Magazine, which receives thousands of visits every week from people all over the globe, we wanted to provide a further link for people interested in the Japanese culture – this time, a place where people could buy some of the cool products we’d featured on the magazine site, which would otherwise be very difficult to get hold of outside of Japan – from this, the Tokyocube Shop was born!

Our aim for the Tokyocube Shop is to introduce people to the quality and unique style of Japanese products which have been carefully selected from some of the most up and coming designers and suppliers in Japan, as well as bridge the communication gap for English-speaking users by offering a secure and efficient online store for purchasing these products directly from Japan.”

You can’t walk around Vancouver without being affected by Arthur Erickson’s work, and I was especially lucky to have had a chance to work in a studio in one of his buildings (the Evergreen Building on West Pender, now condos).

To me, Erickson’s buildings *are* Vancouver – they engage the geography and climate, the warm tints of their concrete age beautifully with their moss-covered surfaces;  they seem a perfect contrast to the endless glass that makes up contemporary Vancouver architecture.

I don’t know much about his involvement in the planning of the downtown as we know it, but on the whole, downtown appears to have benefited greatly from his influence (especially when compared to the Law Courts in the heart of the city): lots of room for people to move on foot, a near-perfect combination of work & play and just enough originality in design to give the city its own personality.

Arthur Erickson passed away this week at age 84.   CBC |  Vancouver Sun |  Twitter

The Law Courts stairs.

Evergreen Building (pre-condo refit). Praxis was on the top right corner.

Evergreen Building (detail)

View from Praxis’ balcony in the Evergreen Building (looking north)

Designer M.S. Corley is seeing a fair amount of success with his ongoing process of re-designing book covers in unexpected and fresh ways. Lots of great stuff to see here.

Found this post full of  Japanese Type examples. Love it.

T-shirts re-drawn from old photos of your favourite rock stars. Fun! Visit http://www.wornfree.com/ (Found via: http://nfgraphics.com)

I missed the boat on this yesterday, but wanted to share a cool Manitoba-related resource called “This  Was Winnipeg.” It’s updated regularly was all kinds of interesting bits & pieces of useful information, photos and observations. Well worth a visit.

Two beautiful examples of typography in motion, both found via  design fckr.

Flickermood 2.0 from Sebastian Lange on Vimeo

And, this beautiful spot from Mercedes Benz:
http://motionographer.com/theater/mercedes-benz-bas-plus/

I stumbled across this site while doing some typography research. At first I kinda chuckled (have you ever seen a lawyer’s handwriting?) but upon closer inspection, I found it to be a very clear, well-written piece of information. Very useful not only for lawyers, but for any professional not already familiar with typography and communication design. The author of the site is a lawyer who spent time as a typeface designer.

I posted about this film over a year ago (here), when it was called “The Alchemists,” wondering if anyone knew if it had a release date… and then I forgot all about it. I see now it has been renamed to “Art & Copy” (and maybe re-edited? judging from a comparison of the two trailers) and has had it’s official release at Sundance this past January.

You can see the new trailer here, and the original “The Alchemists” trailer here (which I prefer).

For the 2 or 3 of you still reading this, I’ll be fiddling around with things over the next couple of weeks. Apologies in advance for any “do funnies.”

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.