Brian Dettmer

I recently visited this year’s installment of the US Artists show, which took place at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. Basically a way for galleries, local and national, to showcase their best and most interesting works that were up for sale. Ranging from colonial to contemporary there was quite a range on display including some amazing paper cut sculptures by Brian Dettmer. Using materials like books, maps and other printed ephemera, Brian carefully constructs astounding worlds and visions with incredible depth and composition. The pieces I had a chance to see appeared to be carved out of single books, like dioramas constructed out of nothing but hundreds of sheets of paper. Amazing stuff to see up on screen, but even more fascinating in person.

Visit Brian Dettmer’s portfolio here.

Scott London – Burning Man 2011

Take a look at this great set (100 in all) that photographer Scott London took during this year’s mother of all freak-fests, Burning Man. I’ve never been myself and honestly, I still haven’t worked up the courage to spend that much time out there in the desert without all the modern amenities I’ve grown accustomed to, but it’s amazing to see such a large group of people creating huge structures, machines and other artwork in the vastness of that terrain.Maybe next year…maybe…

See Scott London’s Burning Man photos here.

Gary Hustwit’s Urbanized

Documentarian and director Gary Hustwit has just released a trailer for the upcoming film Urbanized, his third “design” related film after Helvetica and Objectified. If the previous films are anything to go by, this surely won’t disappoint.

Learn more about the film at it’s website here.

Relaunched: OMFGco.com

One of my favorite small branding/design firms, Official Mfg Co. (or OMFG), has redesigned and relaunched their website complete with some new features, an updated shop and new projects. The Portland, OR based firm has created or been instrumental in branding, identity, and design for such great clients as Ace Hotel, Property Of apparel, Clyde Common and many more. I love the professional yet still personal touches the small group of designers bring to the site, especially the home page Instagram feed, which sometimes chronicles projects as they work on them, giving a great peek-behind-the-curtain into their process.

Be sure to also check out their great new work for Scandinavian clothiers Dunderdon, the Spirit of ’77 bar, and their in-store graphics for GAP. Well worth a click.

Visit OMFGco.’s new website here.

Jenny Odell – Satellite Prints (20×200)

Spending hours and hours scanning satellite imagery, Jenny Odell, then isolates boats, farm silos, pools and parking lots and reorganizes them, creating patterns and canvases that from afar look like blobs and dots but up close, reveal a God’s eye view of our manufactured world. Prints of her Satellite series are currently for sale on 20×200.

Visit her profile page and see all the of the series here.

Lizzy Oppenheimer – USA Rest Stops Kickstarter Project

Photographer Lizzy Oppenheimer has recently launched a Kickstarter project aimed at raising funds to continue her documentation of America’s swiftly vanishing highway rest stops. With the budgets of states and towns continually diminishing, these architectural artifacts and pieces of Americana are prone to closures and neglect. Lizzy aims to continue her series of striking images and those who pledge have the opportunity to score beautiful prints and other great works from the ongoing series.

I have such fond memories of my childhood taking epically long roadtrips and stopping at these sometimes strange, but always needed rest stops. To see them slowly erased from our landscape is saddening and hopefully Lizzy can raise enough funds to continue in her efforts to document them.

Visit the Rest Stops of America Kickstarter page here.

 

Personal Work: Bowie Gridley Architects website

In early 2010, while working at Unison, I had the pleasure of working on designs and concepts that would eventually become the new website and online portfolio of Bowie Gridley Architects, based in Washington DC. Recently launched, BGA’s website is a robust and clean window into not only their extensive portfolio but also their process and methodology. Congrats to Unison and their team for another great website!

Visit the BGA site here.

Studio: A Practice for Everday Life

London based design studio A Practice for Everyday Life truly take their name to heart. Simplicity, minimalism and pure distillation of essential information permeate their portfolio. It’s so refreshing and reinvigorating to see a collection of outstanding work live and breathe a less cluttered and sparse aesthetic. It’s something I strive for in all my own work and it can get increasingly frustrating with every layer of “noise” or non-vital design a client requests. It’s good to be reminded to keep fighting the good fight!

See APFEL’s portfolio here.

Google Art Project

Late last week Google formally launched their “Art Project” website, an ambitious endeavour to catalog and provide hi-rez (and we mean HI-REZ) imagery of the collections in art museums around the world. This aspect of the mission is not unique, as there are a handful of other organizations attempting the same thing, but what does seperate The Google Art Project from others are the nice touches that only Google can provide. Instant search features by artist, or gallery or region or time period, along with the “Street View” style ability to wander virtually through some of the greatest museums and collections that some people may never get to experience otherwise makes this is a very bold and promising experience.

While nothing will ever match the awe and power felt by seeing an amazing artwork in person, this at least allows the visitor a chance to witness masterpieces in a way never before possible.

Visit the Google Art Project here and start exploring!

weekly stimuli – vol. 37

Here’s the 37th edition of Weekly Stimuli a weekly installment of visual genius and creativity grabbed from my inspiration archives.

Enjoy the images after the jump.