Designer Michael Paukner is an infographic wizard level 25. We’ve seen his work before, but thanks to to a Fubiz feature on him, our interests have been rekindled to a height bordering fanboy love. Not only is Paukner a splendid designer, but he strums all the strings of our nerd love by illustrating cool concepts of astronomy, cosmology, geometry, epistemology and many other cool topics. He’s even kind enough to provide a free zipped download of iPhone compatible wallpapers of his artwork. If he were to sell his character (Infographic Wizard 25lv.) on Ebay, we would put up my house for it. Be sure to check out his online shop.
Some of the most amazing motion graphics out there are being viewed by millions of people worldwide through Hollywood movies. We’re talking about title sequences and end credits. As you can see from some of our favorites below, creative motion graphics don’t always come from animated movies.
Thanks to The Art of the Title Sequence for having the best quality legal versions of the clips anywhere online. For quick viewing, I’ve also embedded lower quality video from other sites. UPDATE (2/22/2010): It didn’t take long for the videos to be taken down from Vimeo. I’ll leave the remaining survivors.
For best quality viewing, I recommend clicking on the “480p” or “720p” links next to each title. Clicking on the title itself will take you to The Art of the Title Sequence which may also have credits and extras available.
We had no intention of posting two book cover posts nearly back to back, but upon viewing designer Jim Tierney’s work, there was no avoiding it. These redesigns of Jules Verne book covers were part of Tierney’s thesis project for the University of the Arts. Visit Tierney’s walkthrough of his process on Faceout Books for more images and insights. View the video for the glory of the books’ transparency, die cuts, and pull-tab goodness.
Thanks to Ars Technica for introducing us to the spectacular game trailer for The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom. The game, which debuted at the 2008 Independent Games Festival, was just released on Xbox Live Arcade. Amazingly, Winterbottom was originally created for the Student Showcase at the IGF and wasn’t initially intended for commercial release. The game trailer alone made Agena Agogo because of its visuals inspired by the silent film era. Oh yeah, and the gameplay looks great too (it has pie!).
Coraline Bickford-Smith is the senior cover designer at Penguin Books, where she has gained notoriety for her clothbound covers. In a year starting off with a fervor over e-book readers, Bickford-Smith is making a strong case for the aesthetic and tactile benefits of ink on paper. Truly, these books are individual art pieces made to adorn the shelves of book lovers and anyone who appreciates good design.
Thanks to The 99 Percent for their interview with Bickford-Smith and for introducing me to her work.
Influencing this post is the fact that the wife and I attended a prom last night as chaperones and got our prom photo taken — Star Wars style! (No Storm Troopers were hurt in the taking of the photo.)
What a fitting video promoting the Rethink Scholarship!
“The Rethink Scholarship is an $18,000 scholarship for aspiring art directors and designers to Langara College’s Communication and Ideation Design program. The winner will also receive a 3-month internship with Rethink.”
Designer and illustrator Katrin Olina draws viewers into her romanticized world of nature. Her work is crisp, beautiful, and whimsical. Check out the interior art she designed for the Cristal Bar in Hong Kong. Incredible!
Illustrator Joshua Middleton’s use of color, lighting, and figure provide his depictions of comic book icons with a sense of intimate realism. When viewing his artwork, we see the characters as though through the lens of a real world camera. To put it plainly, his characters seem unaware of being viewed, and this lends a humanness I’ve not seen in other works. Add to that his use of lighting, which further draws out the characters and environments from the page, and you have an amazing collection of artwork. Just incredible.
Well done, sir, now post more stuff in your store!
The 2nd Annual Hey You Guys! Charity Event is set to start on December 5, 2009 with incredible pieces of artwork in an online auction. The auction benefits DonorsChoose.org, which gives public school teachers a forum to post classroom project requests for online donors to support. Here are the ones I love. Sadly, I know I probably won’t win these, but on the brighter side, it means more fun learning time for kids in their classrooms. The silent auction is now on until December 13, 2009, so bid away!
