2012 Oscar Titles/Graphics
It doesn’t matter who they put in as host (maybe Chris Rock?). Until the Academy starts voting for the deserving nominee instead of surrendering to Harvey Weinstein’s films, the Oscars will and always suck. It’s not all bad though.
Year after year, I have to give it to the Oscar production team providing great titles and graphics throughout the show. Last year, we saw more of a classic “Oscar” look to visuals. This year, typography and typeface were in the forefront. Using several fonts from Hoefler & Frere-Jones, plenty of graphics used to display nominees and films were beautifully designed with simplicity, sophistication and charm.
The first New York Low-line park?
What’s terrific about New Yorkers are their constant drive to make the city a better place. With the new success of New York’s High Line Park, citizens have band together in hopes to transform an abandoned trolley terminal on the Lower East Side. Using solar technology and fiber optics that will transfer sunlight to the underground, they hope to solve city issues of the lack of green space and empty land for public spaces. Currently, the project has gained public and city support and half-way to its $100,000 pledge support on Kickstarter.
As a citizen of Toronto, one has to wonder if we’re actually utilizing our space correctly and with it’s ongoing battle on whether or not the Gardiner expressway needs to be demolished, maybe we should be asking the question why we haven’t used any of the land beneath it.
NBA Logo Redesigns by Michael Weinstein
There are some logos you don’t touch. Lakers, Bulls, Celtics. If there is so much of a slight tweak to their logo, riots would break out in their respected cities. And while the NBA has some timeless team logos, some fans are pleading for a logo revamp from their team.
Enter Michael Weinstein, a Cambridge-based graphic designer. Weinstein has recreated logos for 8 teams while keeping their colours, traditions and previous logo elements. What he ends up are radically different logos that evoke a clean and simplistic finish that can be used for ages. My favourites are the Clippers, Hornets and Nets, all which undoubtedly need a redesign. Here’s hoping Weinstein can get to a new logo for the Raptors.
BOOKSHELF PORN
Not sure why I love ‘Bookshelf Porn’. Whether its the look of hardcovers shelved, the organized chaos or the idea that it satisifies my OCD tendencies but this blog collection is great.
INFLUENCERS
INFLUENCERS is a short documentary by R+I Creative that explores what it means to be an influencer and how trends become contagious today in our culture.
Best Movie Posters of 2011
One might debate today’s importance of movie posters. The legendary Saul Bass designs have been replicated to exhaustion and movie trailers spearhead online hype and fandom. Even so, the first impression of a movie poster displayed in front of the theatre cannot be replaced.
This year, we’ve seen some great poster designs, which range from the simplistic photography for ‘Shame’ to the homage of ’70s exploitation cover ‘Hobo with a Shotgun’. Flavorwire released their top picks for this year’s best movie posters. Criterion fans rejoice.
The old outdated city of Toronto logo seems to epitomize how things function in this broke and stagnate metropolitan. Led by a “I Know Best” Mayor in Rob Ford, the municipal government gives off the reputation that they are close for business. Which surprised me when I was aware that Open Data Toronto was in operation for more than 2 years. The goal of Open Toronto is to make the government open, accessible and transparent. Seems ironic doesn’t it? Allowing this information to be free and open to everyone allows better ways to improve in the city.
The best success story of this open source platform is in New York City. Spearheaded by Rachel Sterne, Chief Digital Officer of NYC, the city has promoted NYC OpenData as a creative/innovated way to make government more citizen-centric while holding officials accountable. Doing this has allowed apps, websites and online services at virtually no cost to the city. For example, The Daily Pothole, shows transparency and how much work the city is doing to repair the city’s ongoing road maintance issues.
This opportunity is great for startups and engaging the private sector, job creation while essentially at no cost to the city and more importantly, it engages the citizens. New York is currently running its 3rd annual Big Apps competition, which offers $50,000 in cash and other prizes to software developers for the best new apps using Open Data to help NYC Residents, visitors and businesses.
One can ask whether the city of Toronto has done a proper job promoting this open source initiative to its citizens and developers.
T Magazine’s winter travel edition by Lego artist Sachiko Akinaga inspired by Central Park.
