CMYBacon

The Dead Words Project

Martin — Fri, 11 May 2012 14:45:40 +0000

The Dead Words is a great project by Karen To in which she, as well as other designers that she invites, reinterprets and rediscovers the meaning of dead words through a variety of styles of lettering. The words she chooses are words that had once been used in the English language but have now fallen out of our every day lexicon and are often omitted from common English dictionaries. By using illustrative lettering like this, Karen is able to weave a story around the meanings of the words in a playful and insightful way.

Perler Bead Creations

Martin — Mon, 07 May 2012 14:45:49 +0000

Lately I’ve been struck with nostalgia and have been playing around with Perler beads. Remember those things? The little plastic beads that you arrange on a pegboard and fuse together with an iron? I ended up going a little overboard this weekend and spent more time making children’s crafts than a grown man is willing to admit. However, it’s a blast so I’m not ashamed of my geekiness.

Here’s a sampling of the things I made. I was particularly proud of the Instagram icon.

I decided to make pixelated versions of famous paintings, so here we have Piet Mondrian, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.

Inspiring Video About ‘Where Things Come From’

Martin — Mon, 07 May 2012 13:30:44 +0000

I’m often in need of a good reality check. And when I think about where things come from (food, products, etc.), that usually does it for me. This minimally animated video by Hardy Seiler wonderfully makes you question our state of consumption and how disconnected we are with where things, particularly foods, come from.

Soaps by Daniel Ting Chong

Martin — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:55:43 +0000

This set of soaps by Daniel Ting Chong, shaped like a cleaver, a paintbrush and an ice cream cone are so quirky and fun. The paintbrush has a lemon scent, the cleaver is peppermint and the ice cream is a combination of the two. They don’t look very practical but they sure are great.

Carpets Made from Plastic Clothes Pins

Martin — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:15:11 +0000

I’m in love with these “carpets” made from plastic clothes pins by We Make Carpets. These so-called Peg Carpets were commissioned by the Graphic Design Museum in Breda, The Netherlands. The bold geometric patterns are really striking in their own right, but when you realize they’re made entirely from clothes pins they become even more impressive.

(via Plenty of Colour)

X-Rays with Pixelated Organs

Martin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:30:45 +0000

I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for pixel art (In fact, I was making some pixel-y Perler bead creations over the weekend). And I really love seeing pixelated objects in places you wouldn’t normally see them (remember ‘Video Games vs. Real Life’?)

Italian graphic designer Viola Moroni has created a great series of pixelated organs superimposed on X-rays that warms my little pixel-y heart. I just hope there’s a geeky X-ray technician out there reading this post who enjoys these even more than I do…

If you’re into X-ray art, be sure to check out a previous I wrote about Matthew Cox’s Embroidered X-Rays.

Etsy Finds of the Week: Vol. 4

Martin — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:20:03 +0000

It’s that time of the week again: Time to share some of the cool things I saw on Etsy in the past 7-ish days. Enjoy!

Vintage Bowling League Patches from Chris Ferebee – $5

Bow and Arrow Necklace by Kaye Blegvad – $68

Reclaimed Wood Chair by TheWoodCaboodle – $102

Ceramic Architecture Set by Laurie Poast – €200

C-Clamp Coat Rack by G.B. Berry – $87

Canned Air from Paris

Martin — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:15:56 +0000

This Canned Air from Paris, created by Kirill Rudenko, cracks me up. My favorite part is the contents list (see the 3rd image)! Pick up your own can of Parisian air at Kirill’s Etsy shop.

Color Wheel Animated GIF by Pasquale D’Silva

Martin — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:30:41 +0000

I’m so mesmerized by this animated GIF color wheel by Pasquale D’Silva. I don’t even want to admit how long I watched it…

Wired Design + CMYBacon

Martin — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:15:25 +0000

I have some really exciting news to share with everyone! Wired.com has launched a design blog, Wired Design, and I have been asked to write for it! Needless to say, I’m pretty excited. And there are some big fish in that pond (Caterina Fake, Christopher Jobson, Chris Anderson, etc.) that make this little fish proud to be writing alongside them.

So head on over to Wired Design and start reading!

‘The Council’ by StoryMineMedia

Martin — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:30:25 +0000

Seeing as it’s an election year, we’re all probably getting a little tired of all the campaigning. Well I’m going to show you a little different, more refreshing political campaign that will give you a new appreciation for “grass roots democracy”.

StoryMineMedia, which was co-founded by my good friend Elena Rue and Catherine Orr, created The Council, three mini webisodes that chronicle the ups and downs of an 8th grade student council election. Specifically, the webisodes follow 3 students: Cara, Leah and Ryan, who all desperately want to get elected so they can change their school for the better. This candid peek inside a middle school is funny, poignant and touching. It was hard for me not to root for Ryan…he reminds me a bit of myself at that age.

CMYBacon Flickr Group

Martin — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 19:16:56 +0000

I just started a CMYBacon Flickr group! This will serve as a place for CMYB readers to share photos of the awesome work that they do or neat things they come across in the world. I’ll be hand-picking things from the pool to be featured on CMYBacon. I would love it if lots of people start sharing their work here, then I can do a weekly roundup of all the best things! So head over to Flickr and join the group!

The Rule of Thirds Keychain

Martin — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:45:27 +0000

Marin Davide has created a handy “Rule of Thirds” Keychain that would be helpful for any aspiring photographer when composing a shot. Made of transparent acrylic and lasercut with 4×6 proportions and a “thirds” grid, Marin is currently raising money with this project on Indiegogo in order to purchase better photography gear and set up a home studio. So go contribute to this campaign and help out a fellow artist (and get a cool keychain in the process!).

Visit Indiegogo for more information.

Dog Names for Graphic Designers

Martin — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:30:34 +0000

Lately, I’ve been suffering from “I Want A Dog-itis”. I often get this feeling but lately it’s been especially strong. Naturally, I’ve been researching breeds, watching cute puppy videos on YouTube, and of course, thinking about what I’ll name my future little pup. I was thinking it would be fun to give it a graphic design-related name, so I came up with a list! Are there any other good ones you can think of?

Photographs That Look Like Still Life Drawings

Martin — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:05:57 +0000

Cynthia Greig’s work is deceivingly simple, but that’s the point. You look at her pieces and think to yourself, “Ok, it’s just a still life drawing. What’s the big deal?” But upon closer examination you’ll see that these are actually photographs, not drawings.

Greig, a Detroit-based photographer, creates these unique photos by drawing crude outlines and shadows around the objects in the still life. Additionally, most of the objects have been painted so they’re just barely off white, which adds to the “still life drawing” effect. I’ve seen a lot of drawings that try to look like photographs, but this might be the first time I’ve seen photos that try to look like drawings

(Hat tip to Rich S. for telling me about Cynthia’s work. Thanks!)

Visit Cynthia Greig’s website to see more of her work.

Etsy Finds of the Week: Vol. 3

Martin — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:45:17 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve posted an Etsy Finds of the Week. Also, I’ve typically done them on Fridays, but I decided to start out this week with some cool finds from over the weekend. Enjoy.

Great Lakes papercut by Marnie Karger - $40

Crochet Lego Baby Blanket by Andrea Baker - $100

Lawn chair re-webbed with vintage Western belts by kikithespunkymunky - $250

Faux Leather Triangle Necklace by Ching - $26

Continental (Book) Shelf print by Mike and Karen Arms - $30

Camp t-shirt by garbella - $24

No Regrets Print by W+K

Martin — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 12:40:58 +0000

This typographic print of eraser shavings by W+K is a reminder to learn from your errors, mistakes and failures. Don’t regret them. Love it. Buy this print for $35.

Knife Typography

Martin — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 16:30:12 +0000

I’ve always had a thing for knives…I guess that’s what happens when you’re the son of a woodcarver. So with that, and my love of typography, it’s no surprise that I’m enamored with this typographic installation made of knives by Farhad Moshiri. The elegant script juxtaposed with a mass of sharp knives is quite striking.

(via Plenty of Colour)

Distorted Tables by Suzy Lelièvre

Martin — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 13:55:37 +0000

I came across the work of French artist Suzy Lelièvre the other day when I saw her Gravity Dice on Pinterest. Her impressive portfolio has a variety of unique art objects, but I was particularly taken with these distorted tables, which are nearly all warped and twisted beyond any sort of reasonable use.

Pantone Easter Eggs

Martin — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 20:19:52 +0000

Tomorrow is Easter so I thought it would be fitting to post some decorated eggs. We’ve all been seeing TONS of eggs on blogs and Pinterest lately, but I thought these Pantone Easter eggs by Jessica Jones of the blog How About Orange were particularly clever.

Happy Easter everyone. Don’t eat too many marshmallow Peeps.