Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Going Underground.


I'm going underground for the next week to bury myself in my notes and finish up my applications... While I'm sure my frequest absences from this blog are nothing new to all of you, I have decided that declaring my inactivity will keep me from constantly thinking about Witty Designs in the interim.

...I'll be back just in time to count down the days to our first anniversary!! How time has flown this year!

Ciao for now.

Image via Kate Spade.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Hanging Around.


It's Monday... Hang in there! Personally, I'd rather be monkeying around on artist Leandro Erlich's Bâtiment - a mirrored installation by currently on display at Le 104 in Paris as part of their In_Perceptions exhibition. The massive building facade was constructed on the floor near a towering mirror giving anyone reflected the uncanny appearance of being weightless. This optical illusion is one for the books...

Via lonely planet

Friday, January 20, 2012

This & That: Rothko.


Rothko is one of my favorite artists of all time. I could sit forever in front of his oversized masterpieces -- in fact, I have spent an hour or two doing just that at the National Gallery in DC... taking shelter from the bitter cold, snuggling into a thoughtfully placed bench right in front of a deep blue work, finding myself completely mesmorized...


Have a cozy, creative weekend!

Clever cookies by Mimi O Chun, via CMYBacon.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Sunshine.

January in San Francisco. Can't complain.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Racing the Clock.


Racing against the clock as a deadline rapidly approaches, and time slips away minute by minute... Not my favorite feeling.

Via Things Organized Neatly.

Friday, January 13, 2012

From Above.


Artist Jenny Odell (who happens to also have been my sister's room mate at Cal) has been getting a lot of press lately for her stunning prints of cut-outs from Google Maps which include swimming pools, ships, parking lots, farms and other meticulously assembled collections of satellite imagery minutiae. In the last year, she's also taken on people and where they congregate en masse - specifically a collection in San Francisco - their ant-like figures filling public spaces and leaving a human footprint. I think it's a brilliant use of the prolific data and imaging we collect in this day and age. Can you guess where the latter two prints are from?

Have a lovely weekend!

(Answer: Dolores Park (notice the density on the hillside shelf we all know and love??) and Pier 39).

Abstracted.

New York City
 Berlin
Montpellier

Abstracted urban city plans and organizaed components by French artist Armelle Caron.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Across America.


The idea of high speed rails across America is thrilling (to the adventurous, non-driver in me), and Australian designer Cameron Booth has brought this to life in his map of the United States Highway system as if it were a public transportation subway map. Love it.

Typographic Rails.


I'm a public-trans kind of girl (stiffle your chuckles if you can, friends) and I'm digging these TRNSPRTNATION city maps. Each train route is comprised of a long, repeated list of the station stops from that line across Chicago, New York, London, San Francisco, Boston, and Washington D.C.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Tangram Nation.


I love maps. We know this. I also had a major obsession with tangrams as a kid. Did any of you play with these amazing puzzles??  So. Much. Fun. (Yay nerdy toys!!) These Tangram States Postcards by Midnight Umbrella have obvious appeal to me, as a result.

In a wanderlusting mood at the moment, as I begin to plan a few adventures for the year... let's see what other travel inspired posts I have in-store for you, friends!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Lest You Forget...

Lest Your Forget Kiss Card on Flickr. Reminders of my selection...

Love.


Three years ago when you whispered those three little words, you changed my world... You have brought love, light and joy to every day of my life since. Looking forward to another year of adventures by each others' side!

Monday, January 9, 2012

Lonely Boy.

Now to get your hips shakin.

Jump Start.



Early Monday morning jump start at Cafe Trieste with an old friend. Lovely.

Swallowed Up.

Monday. Every week, it seems to swallow us up.


Check out this paste-up series by street artists Ro and l’Homme Pendu, entitled Animae Dementia (roughly “soul madness” or “animal madness”). The giant paste-ups of crazy mythical beings seem to turn on their unwitting creators... Much like my email inbox at the moment. 

Via Colossal.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Making the Invisible Visible.




For a second year, street art collective Mentalgassi has partnered with Amnesty International and Wieden + Kennedy creative team Lisa Jelliffe and Kirsten Rutherford to help highlight some of the year’s most prominent human rights abuse cases playing out around the world. Via Unurth:
This year the German street art collective have created work that appears in 26 sites across Wales, Ireland, Germany and Denmark. The 6 individuals highlighted in this year’s work include Fatima Hussein Badi, who faces the death penalty in Yemen after an unfair trial, Jabbar Savalan, who is in prison in Azerbaijan for his peaceful anti-government activism (including comments he made on Facebook), and Natalia Estemirova, a Russian human rights activist whose murder has not been brought to justice.
Mentalgassi transformed large portaits of each individual into segmented strips that are applied to the slats of fences. At first the images aren’t readily visible and only come into focus suddenly from extreme angles, reinforcing the campaign’s theme, ‘making the invisible visible‘.

This is incredibly powerful work.

Via and written by Colossal

Friday, January 6, 2012

Bold.


Loving these bold, bright, angular oil paintings by Hong Kong based Simon Birch. "Birch extends his exploration of the human body in figurative paintings that tilt into abstraction, conveying fragility and resilience, movement and mindfulness" observes Future Industries - I couldn't agree more.

Have a bright, adventurous weekend... the first of many in 2012!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Scenes from the Holidays: Sunscape.


Ocean Beach, San Francisco.

Triptychs.





Adde Adesokan of Germany captures beautiful portraits of strangers by snapping three photographs of their head, hands, and feet. The frames are then arranged as triptychs that creatively reveal who the subjects are.

This body of work felt appropriate to share as we begin the year with self reflection, and break apart our resolutions into manageable, achievable goals and objectives (and they are gorgeous, obviously!). What resolutions will bring about evolution for you in 2012?

Via Peta Pixel