Tokyo Sky Drive
February 4, 2010 // Video

The video above is called Tokyo Sky Drive and is utterly beautiful. I can’t really tell you how he did it, but I think he drove around Tokyo taking footage of the streets at night, mirrored it horizontally and then went from there. I say went from there because you’ll seem like you’re driving down a street and then you’ll enter some kind of tunnel or be under a strange overhang, and well, it just doesn’t process in my brain.

I’m pretty sure that some of these images are stitched together, but how I’m not sure, and I could definitely be wrong on this. But combined with the music by Sugar Plant it makes for quite a relaxing viewing.

Found through SNOW Magazine

Bobby

‘Polygene’ by Efterklang
February 4, 2010 // Music Video

If there was one thing I could learn how to do it would be creating motion visuals and animations. It’s a realm that seems so beyond my current skills but that I love to watch. This video for the Efterklang song Polygene is a great example. The video was directed by Carolina Melis and features a ton of amazing shapes and colors that remind of mixture between old cartoons and It’s A Small World. I love how the visuals slowly start to evolve over time with the song, it’s a really beautiful video, even if it is a few years old.

Bobby

Christoph Niemann on Gestalten.tv
February 4, 2010 // Illustration + Video


You may have seen Christop Niemann’s work pop-up a lot recently. The first time I had really heard of him was through his I LEGO N.Y. project, where he illustrated the daily life of New York through nothing but LEGO pieces. None of them really looked like anything at all, but with his narration and context given these blocks came to life and made you giggle. After that came Bio-Diversity, where he shaped leaves into random shapes, yet again giving them context and making you laugh the whole time.

Gestalten recently sat down with him to talk about his work and ho he visualizes all of his ideas in different ways. There’s also a great part where he talks about when he left New York for Berlin, and his main reason was to try new things, even if he failed at them, or there was a chance of failure. This allowed him to start his blog on The New York Times creating the two pieces that I mentioned earlier. I love this mindset, and is something I touched on in a post on Monday.

Watch the video and soak in some inspiration.

Bobby

The Desktop Wallpaper Project featuring Toro Y Moi
February 3, 2010 // The Desktop Wallpaper Project

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Blessa by Toro Y Moi

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Fax Shadow by Toro Y Moi

Good Wednesday morning. A little while back I got an email from a very unlikely source, someone I never thought I’d hear from because it would just be too random, but that’s the fun of having a design blog. It was from a guy named Chaz Bundick, who some of you may know as the musical artist Toro Y Moi. You’ll recognize his music name if you’ve listened to my Mixcasts or follow what I’m listening to on #musicmonday. I’ve been a fan of his for a long time now so I’m pretty stoked to have him participate in the DWP.

Yesterday, Toro Y Moi had his second album released called Causers Of This, and it’s definitely one of my favorites of the year. It’s kind of electronic, kind of J Dilla inspired and all around laid back and a solid album all around. So he decided to send two images for wallpapers, and I think they sum up his style pretty well. They have this washed out kind of ethereal vibe that floats through his music. Plus I think the colors and textures are awesome, I already have the top image set as my iPhone background.

I’ve also included a few MP3s from Causers Of This, Fax Shadow and Thanks Vision, so you can get a taste of what he sounds like. I highly recommend you picking up this album. You can grab it over on Insound or iTunes, whatever you prefer.

This isn’t going to be the last music related wallpaper either, I’m gonna try and branch out and get more of my favorite musicians to do some like Lady Gaga, Bono and Guns and Roses…

Bobby

Liquid Lamp and Bookmark by Kyouei Design
February 3, 2010 // Design





Kyouei Design is small firm based out of Shizouka City, Japan which is about 2 ours West of Tokyo. They have a big body of products that they’ve created and distribute, a lot of you will remember this Umbrella Pot that waters a small plant at the base through runoff from the umbrella. But I’m really enjoying this weird liquid collection they have going on.

First is the Liquid Lamp which looks like a lampshade that has started to melt from the inside, creating a small puddle of red metal at the base. I wonder if that extra splotch comes along with it? Then there’s the liquid bookmark which looks like your bookmark is melting inside your book. Each of these silicon bookmarks are handmade, so no two are alike. Is drippy the new black?

Found through Hypebeast

Bobby