Summer vacation

It is that time of the year again where there are just two things in life of any importance . Chablis and wakeboarding (oh, BBQs, girls in bikinies, music festivals and no computers are allright as well). Frozentoy is taking some time off and will be back in full power in August. +espn might have a post or two for you, I dont know. Bran wants you to look at Psst » and Winona wants you to look at the cutieness over at amostoys »

Have a splendid summer ye all !!!

The Mysterious Power of Context

«A while ago, I was designing the identity for a large, fashion-oriented organization. It was time to decide which typeface we'd use for their name. Opinions were not hard to come by: this was the kind of place where people were not unused to exercising their visual connoisseurship. But a final decision was elusive.

We decided to recommend a straightforward sans serif font. Predictably, this recommendation was greeted by complaints: it was too generic, too mechanical, too unstylish, too unrefined. I had trouble responding until I added two more elements to the presentation. The first was a medium weight, completely bland, sans serif "C." "Does this look stylish to you?" I would ask. "Does it communicate anything about fashion or taste?" Naturally, the answer was no.

Then I would show the same letter as it usually appears as the first in a six-letter sequence: CHANEL. "Now what do you think?"

It worked every time. But how?»

Excellent article by Michael Bierut »

While you´re at it dip into this one by Paul Rand as well »

Animatronic Flesh Shoe

Its summer and a good time to sport Adam Brandejs flesh shoe with mp3 player and a proper vibrating t-bone steak sole. Adam has got a nice collection of other errant projects as well.

Flesh sneaker is ere »

Hanazuki Content Creators

Hold your Goretex - Niko Stumpo and Hanneke Metselaar in full effect. Hanazuki creative studio, boutique and a moonflower.

«We decided to start the Hanazuki simply because we needed to. We need to create and collaborate without any fixed boundaries. The only way we felt we could do this was quitting our jobs and start this new mission. A store and a creative studio where we just try to make good things happen.»

Hanazuki now »

Webesteem issue 16 (***fat a tat tat ***)

Webesteem is out again, and as always - fat a tat tat. This issue includes Erwin Olaf, Nicholas Di Genova, Hyper Island, Suicide Girls and heaps of other quality stuff.

Spend the rest of your day reading Webesteem »

Martin.72dpi

Oooh! Super nice work here. Martin has a great portfolio to show you. Lovely illustrations, typography, posters, packaging, shirts and more. Respect!

Visit Martin »

Apple Pro Profiles

Go check out the video profiles over at Apples. And sir Ulrich Schnauss playing in the background on the 2X4 feature. Sweet!

2X4 profile »
Culturebloom by Stardust »
Stardust profile »

Keepsmesane

Keepsmesane is awesome! The portfolio of Darren Firth shows his commercial works between 2002/2005. Check out the Clarks Originals illustrations!

He also work at un.titled

Visit here »

Richard Foster photography

The great Group94 has created this beautiful showcase of photographer Richard Foster's work. Plenty of high quality photopages wrapped in proper minimalism. Love it!

Visit here »

Sixstation - top notch 2

Sixstation is a Hong Kong & King Kong Designstudio delivering some of the best work i have seen for ages. So mutch beauty here it almost made me cry! The page is a bit slow, but it's worth the wait!

sixstation.com »

Pietari Posti Illustration

Sweet illustrations and luvely colorshemes from PP Barcelona, Spain. Also, Eric wrote me wanting to strut his stuff at the froze.

Pietari Posti »
Contre Coups »

Polimekanos

This slick site reveals the hard working London based Polimekanos-studio of Stefan Kraus & Joseph Kohlmaier. This really makes me want to spend more time on work..

Polimekanos »

Brand New Design Observer (*** top notch ***)

Launched ten days ago. Superb archives and properly cross referenced. This is the shit! And knack knack ~enlightenment~ there is a brand new(?) Emigre as well!

Design Observer » & Emigre »

People_Makes_Music_Makes_People

It's all about the music. If you havent already tried it, i suggest you should take a good look at this brilliant radio. It's kinda like pandora, only with saturday makeup.

Download the last.fm player »