MacAskill’s Imaginate

This has been doing the rounds on the blogosphere this morning, so I’m already a few hours late to the table by posting this now, but it’s worth it.  I promise.

Climb inside the mind of street trials rider Danny MacAskill who, with the help of Red Bull and Imaginate, has released a new riding film.  Seven minutes of tricks, stunts and unbelievable balance as Danny spins, hops, and pedals his way through a childhood fantasy.

Enter Danny’s mind and enjoy

(worth clicking it up to 720 HD quality)

Surrounded by oversized versions of kids toys, the stunt rider ‘makes do’ and builds himself a course and terrain worthy of any five year-old’s bedroom floor.

I love the attention to detail in using ‘plasticine’ to secure the extra large colouring pencils-cum-telegraph poles, and the army men that spring to life.

Absolutely stunning stuff.  Jealous doesn’t even cover it.

Design In A Nutshell 2/6

As promised, following on from last week’s mini series opener of the Open University‘s short animations on Design In A Nutshell, I now bring you part 2.

Revealing that there is so much more to arts and crafts than all the mess of glitter and glue at primary school, I give you Design In A Nutshell – Arts and Crafts.

We do not reject the machine, we welcome it

Part 3 on Bauhaus follows next week.

Designed By Apple – Intention

Design intent is something that I say almost everyday, trying to defend or convey an idea or concept to colleagues, other consultants, and even the client.  Moving the vision from something in your mind to something tangible.  Something real.

In the wake of Apple’s announcement of iOS 7 there has been huge volumes of criticism.  With barely a breath taken, Twitter and the blogosphere were a wash with negative comments.  Let’s not deny there are some fantastic ideas and functionality in the latest version (some even love the new look too!), but the main issues people seem to be having are with the aesthetics and (lack of) consistency.

In reading lots of opinions and tweets I think that Frank Chimero and Joshua Topolsky have probably made the most sense to me.  Frank’s Generosity of Perspective and Joshua’s on The Verge seem to make the most valid and well-considered points, based less on a knee-jerk reaction than some others all to eager to Twitter-bash on Apple.

Circling back to my original point on design intent, it seems that however well (or not) iOS7 has been received Apple’s heart was always in the right place.

A beautiful little animation.  Enjoy.

Design In A Nutshell 1/6

The idea of writing blog posts as a mini series on here started almost two years ago with the Open University’s Thought Experiments and was swiftly followed by the Vi Hart’s endearing videos on Doodling In Math.  Time has got away from me and it has been a while since anything more on a similar theme, but the idea is back.

Whilst trying to discover my Design Alter-Ego I came across some more fantastic work from the Open University, and so, instead of packing them all into one bundle of information-overload, the plan is to post one extract per week for the next six weeks.

Are you ready to get your goth on?

 I give you Design In A Nutshell – Gothic Revival.

Stay tuned for part two on Arts and Crafts coming next Friday.

Lego Champions League 2013

We’ve seen some great football recreations over recent years, from the beautiful efforts of Richard Swarbrick to Lego stop motion captures.

Following on nicely from the Champions League Final between Dortmund and Bayern last weekend The Guardian have provided the match highlights wonderfully recreated in Lego.

The champions of Germany, the champions of Europe again

They have got the instant replays spot on, and when paired with the style of pre-match television coverage overlaid with the original commentary the whole thing is impressively accurate!

Wakeboarding and Lights

Using light as a medium for art is something that we are increasingly seeing.  Light can be expressive and emotive in a single fleeting instance, which makes it such a powerful tool to work with.

Combining this with slow motion video capture or long exposure photography we have seen before with the likes of the LED Surfer, but Red Bull have taken it to the next level by incorporating a similar idea into wakeboarding.

Three Red Bull wakeboarders (Mike Dowdy, Adam Errington, Dallas Friday), one photography studio (Snap!) and one light artist (Patrick Rochon) came together in an entirely experimental collaboration.

The plan was to “fuse sport, art, and technology” to capture the excitement and creativity of wakeboarding, by using the movement of light and the riders across the water.

Focus on art, creativity and beauty

Even Patrick himself was impressed with the outcome.  The planning and capture was tough, but his motivation was simple.  Trusting the boarders to rise to the occasion and achieving final shots that “are so fluid in the water … it is precisely what we are trying to do.“

See part 2 of the Red Bull enterprise where they take to the skies with a paramotorist!

Fast Food Packaging

It’s Friday.  The end of a long week and traditionally take-away night in many homes.  Admittedly not usually McDonald’s down my way, but this rather innovative re-work of the Golden Arches‘ fast food packaging (also applicable to a number of other fast food burger franchises too) is wonderfully simple.

Designed to solve the problems that traditional fast food packaging offers of, broadly speaking, too many packets and not enough hands.

Instead of grabbing a a rolled up paper bag in one hand, a drink in the other, and then somehow picking up a straw and napkins on the way out, this solution neatly wraps it all up together.

Your burger, fries and drink are held in a single container with carry handle, leaving you with one free hand to send a tweet about the latest packaging design, high-five your mates, or even open the strangely heavy doors that fast food restaurants often have.

GIF above via Funri.