This is comparatively old webernet news, but I finally saw these Japanese anatomy scrolls, and as a fan of macabre medical illustrations (I loves me my Mütter Museum), they’re quite compelling. (The blog post in turn links to the original files on a Japanese website.)
I just stumbled across an amazing album of historic San Francisco Photographs on Calisphere. I’ve been digging through online collections of old SF photos, and most are muddy, brittle, damaged. These are in amazing shape and startling clear.
Some favorites:
Market, Post, and Montgomery (this is where the Montgomery BART station is now):
Market, Kearney [sic], and Third Streets:
California West from Kearney Street:
The City from an Oakland Ferry Boat:
Street Scene in Chinatown (before all the obnoxious chinoiserie)
Just found out about these folks in a review of the upcoming Animation Show 4. In America, they’re best-known product was the Coca-Cola ad “Videogame,” which I unabashedly love. In clicking around their filmography (requires a little digging), I found “Grand Classics” an engaging retelling of the history of cinema with a rabbit as a main character. See how many film references you can spot!
In catching up with various media after my vacation, I got around to listening to a BusinessWeek Innovation Podcast with graphic design luminary Steven Heller on The Business of Web Design.
Given the podcast’s title, I wasn’t at all ready for the conversation that occurs, wherein Mr. Heller blathers a misguided, outdated, outmoded, and mostly pathetic commentary on the state of design online.
Anyone familiar with the history of web design, could tell you that his commentary is reminiscent of what was spouted in 1996-1997 when graphic designers realized they were going to lose their battle to gussy up the web with “aesthetics” and that, god forbid, people just wanted to get shit done online.
This is not to diminish the role of great visual design online. But why do old guard graphic designers have to declaim that the current state of design on the web is so bad, and that it must be thrown out in favor of a more aesthetic one? The web is a remarkably successful medium and content platform. I’d pay more attention to the likes of Mr. Heller if he demonstrated an appreciation for the nature of the medium, and articulated a desire to mix in great graphic design with what’s already there, instead of grousing about clutter.
It’s just appalling that after 12 or so years of web design practice, we’re still having to address these inane views.
Considered by many to still be the best car chase ever filmed, the classic scene from Bullitt has long amused San Franciscans as automobiles seemingly leap through wormholes to get to totally different parts of the city. Now a fan has provided a real-time-map to go along with the chase, so you can see just how much territory is covered.
