Mike Diver and Pedro Aguilar from DMB have painstakingly recreated some of Caravaggio’s most famous paintings in a set of rich, lustrous photos for the Italian Moda Magazine.  They seem to have hired a motley bunch of roadies and bike couriers to add extra menace to the pictures.

via LoveArtLondon

Thousands of logos animated into an award winning short film with stunning visuals and snappy screenplay.  Directed by talented Frenchmen H5, François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy and Ludovic Houplain.  Watch out for Big Boy’s wandering hands…

The SSZ love affair with JR continues (challenged only by the magic touch of Blu).  This one’s a music video for German singer Patrice singing Nina Simone’s “Ain’t got no (I got life)”.

Originally aired by Fubiz - très genial!

Being a stereotypical middle class white boy, I am obviously fascinated by street art.  In the past we’ve posted about the likes of JR, Blu and the Wooster Collective, and, as promised to a nice young man at VS, we are planning a graffiti-mega-post in the near future.  But in the meantime, to wet your whistle, here is a new Blu-style stop motion by Israeli team Broken Fingaz.

Via Fubiz as usual!

Edit 11/04/10: more lo-fi animation awesome here! MF

I don’t know what this means but I love it!

Turns out it’s from Barcelona design school Elisava. You can add your own gifs!!

via Core77

This quirky stop-motion animation is a segment from artist Rob Carter’s video Metropolis which chronicles the evolution of the city of Charlotte in North Carolina.  The full version is being screened at New York’s Museum of Art and Design.

(via PSFK)

Spotted on visual culture publisher: Gestalten, this video features the illustrator Niemann, who has done illustration blog work for the New York Times and a number of nice covers for the New Yorker.  I just like listening to his accent as he chats sincerely and articulately about data visualisation.

Nanami Cowdroy is an Australian artist, with Japanese and European roots.  She has created these beautifully detailed and expressive drawings in mixed media, and is now exhibiting around the world.  For me, the inky style adds depth and movement to her subjects, and many of her creations provide a fresh take on traditional Japanese imagery.

Diesel have a way with catchy, controversial taglines.  Global Warming Ready back in 2007 sticks in the mind.  This latest campaign: Be Stupid by London agency Anomaly overlays the familiar bold text comments on photos of beautiful people engaged in inadvisable situations.  The photos are less glossy and airbrushed than in the past, with a bit of a Vice magazine or Lastnightsparty (website seems to be down at the mo) hipster vibe.  The images are like a psychological Rorschach test (those inkblots that look like angry clowns killing puppies), they provoke an emotional response to each situation: are you a free-living funmeister or a disapproving consequence-driven square…?

There haven’t been enough genitals on SSZ lately.  Anti AIDS spot by TBWA Paris – lads!

**Warning product design bias!!**

The open-ended student project brief can lead to incredible innovations.  The unconstrained mind can come up with quirky ideas like the screw-in coffin or the moneypad, but getting there can be the most stressful and time consuming process.  Also, each project you take on is an investment in your own future, your portfolio has to stand out if you want to get your paws on an ever-more-elusive job, so you can’t mess it up!  This is why many students use competitions as a source for ideas.  Clued-up lecturers often use the briefs set by our mates at D&AD as part of their teaching.  Mine did not, but a friend recommended it, and it made a really fresh, relevant, well-rounded final year project: you have to set some of your own boundaries, read up on the area, establish your target market and so on, and you can make it as technical as you like.  It beats those tired ”pill dispenser for the elderly” briefs, and if you are a finalist then that looks great on the CV.

I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but for those who are not aware of this excellent source of creative briefs and inspiration (as well as prestige and prizes for the winners), here are some interesting links:

• Contest Watchers (those tie-wearing shapes above) is a blog that aggregates professional and student design, visual arts and music competitions from around the world, keeps an eye on entry deadlines, and bigs up the winners to a growing audience (via psfk)
• The Design Council‘s events and competitions directory is quite good, despite the baffling and hideous website.
• Dexigner is an awesome design industry news resource, and also has a feed of competitions with deadline info.
• Core77 is another design resource, good for news as well as job hunting and portfolio hosting.  They often run 1-hour design challenges which are a great way to show off your skills to the design community in a short time period.

There’s a huge product design bias in these links, if you have a moment, please comment with other resources from your field.

Good luck in those competitions!

Spotted this parkour video on voice of youf, threebillion.com, it’s by Singaporese graphic design student saggyarmpit and it took 4 weeks to plan and create.  She doesn’t even think it’s that good!  I think it’s great that in this era of CGI where any reality seems possible, people are still creating dynamic, engaging lofi work by hand.

You’ve got to love it when an advertising scheme makes total use of its location or the surface on which it is printed.  Fubiz featured a fantastic example of this in Danish agency Bates Y&R‘s campaign for Copenhagen Zoo.

Tis the season for “top ten” lists, falalalalala lala la la.  Brand New’s best and worst identies of 2009 is one such list which critiques some of the year’s most prominent rebrands.  A very subjective topic, perhaps what is most interesting about this article are the comments and discussion of each entry, often showing disagreement on different levels from colour and typography to imagery and symbolism.  It’s quite US-themed, so I’d be interested to see a review of more global or UK-based rebrands (please suggest links).

Via PSFK

Watching this showreel from Stargate Studios it feels like the power of special effects has reached a point where anything is possible.  But it’s not just explosions and spaceships, they seem to be enhancing everything!  Surely it’s cheaper to have Ugly Betty walking into a real bus shelter?

Edit 19/12/09: the video seems to have stopped working, so check out the site for their work on shows such as Heroes, Ugly Betty and Knight Rider.

Edit 08/1/10: it’s back. See below

Stargate Studios Virtual Backlot Demo from Stargate Studios on Vimeo.