Swiss Cheese and Bullets

Explorer’s Ghost, by Jez Burrows for Urban Outfitters.

Simone Lia (creator of the excellent Fluffy and Chip and Bean) ran a ‘spud the difference’ contest on her blog the other day, and guess who won? Only little old me! I now have my very own one-of-a-kind Chip! And a rosette! Yeep!

Eames Century Modern Thin Italic by House Industries. I need this.

Tee hee.

Pic by 11Wolves.

I’ve updated my portfolio, this time using the excellent Cargo Collective content management system. There’s still a lot of stuff I have to put in there, but there’s plenty to be wrapping your eyes around, so have a look-see. All feedback is welcome!

The Small Stakes and The Transformer: two books that simply smell amazing. 

I echo myself quite a lot – particularly when I’m on the phone, for some reason (this kind of thing is often pointed out to you when you live with a psychologist). I never thought anything of it before, but now, thanks to the magic of the Internet, I’ve managed to diagnose myself with both autism and Tourette syndrome.

Not bad for a tuesday morning. 

So I went back for a second helping of Inception on Saturday, this time at the IMAX in Manchester’s Printworks (one of the obnoxious buildings I’ve ever had the displeasure of stepping into … but that’s for another post). Much like Christopher Nolan’s previous puzzlebox films, Memento and The Prestige, a second viewing is really rewarding. I spotted a couple of dubious plotholes/contrivances, but nothing major. No, the big problem I had was with the IMAX format itself.

It’s just too big! Unless you’re sat slap bang in the middle of the auditorium, you’re going to get a distorted image. This doesn’t matter too much on the expansive wide shots (Nolan is particularly good at capturing breathtaking aerial shots of cities), but it ruins close-ups. I think he’s an amazing actor, but staring into Leonardo Dicaprio’s gigantic distorted nostrils really doesn’t add much to the viewing experience, you know?

So in summary: go and see Inception. It’s amazing. But only see it in GigantaVision if you know for certain that you’ve got the very best seats in the house.

Unbearably cute pic pinched from Nicole Peterson.

My XBox RIP :(

There’s a nice bunch of images tracing the evolution of the Braun logo over at Logo Design Love. I absolutely love the geometric simplicity of the current incarnation, although their actual product and packaging design leaves a lot to be desired. Come back Dieter – all is forgiven!