We've been together for some time now, and we've had some great times. But lately I've noticed you've been letting yourself go. You used to be so confident in your simple, minimal, utilitarian ways. You had cheap, great food and you didn't bother pandering to trends and marketing bullshit.
But ever since you started hanging out with McDonald's, you've been acting like a real ass. I mean, your latest campaign uses bad graffiti in a wasted effort to appeal to "the kids". We both know this is ridiculous and you're kidding yourself. You're making us both look like idiots, but I'm willing to pass this off as a midlife crisis and pretend it never happened if you would just come to your senses and be yourself.
I love you, but I'm moving on if you're going to keep up this asinine behavior.
Jason
Dear Chipotle,
A lesson for the children...quit school now.
Hanna Konola may still be in school at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, but you'd never know she wasn't a seasoned illustrator by her work. I hereby give Hanna permission to quit school...I think she'll be okay.
The horror....the horror....
Most of what photographer Philip Cheung shoots is photojournalistic in nature, but his shots are so dramatic they seem like stills from a movie. A very dramatic and extremely well-shot movie...like Apocalypse Now or Full Metal Jacket. Via RBT
Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea.
I realize that this doesn't exactly fit the aesthetic of my usual content, but I just had to. What the Beverly Hillbillies really would've done if they had struck oil:
_______ The Planet
In the words of colleague and designer extraordinaire Frederic Terral of Right Brain Terrain, "Save, protect, revere, clean...our planet. You decide. Either way, do it now. Do it. Do it. Do it."
Do it now at RBT.
Eat your heart out, Bobby Flay
There's a reason I seldom write about the culinary arts. Many culinary artists think that spraying a zig-zag line of sauce across a plate with the ubiquitous squeeze bottle makes fine art. Spanish chocolatier Enric Rovira, however, is simply an artist who uses chocolate as his medium. Each of his pieces are not only beautiful and I'm sure delicious, but created with a conceptual experience in mind, and he understands that the process he uses to craft each piece is an integral part of this experience.
Let's just say you won't see this guy on "Food Network Challenge: Thanksgiving-themed Chocolate Battle". 
Apparently Leah paints in her sleep
Leah Giberson, who you've seen before and I'm sure will see again on this site, has some new work available in her Etsy shop, adding to the already enormous collection of amazing prints and paintings.
Alarming in more ways than one
Barbara Hashimoto saved and hand-shredded the junk mail that came to her studio as an artist-in-residence at BauerLatoza in Chicago for one year. The result of this collection is an alarming 3,0000-square-foot mountain range of shredded paper that dominates the storefront space of a building in the Chicago Arts District.
Think about this the next time you propose a direct-mail piece for your clients, designers:
Simply Good Design
French designer Fanette Mellier has some phenomenal work on her site. Great use of color and simplicity, what more could you ask for?
It's Geo-Logical!
With the recent popularity of Google Earth and worldwide accessability of gps and topographical maps, we’re finally starting to see some artistic applications of geological information. One of the best examples of such artistry comes from Fluidforms, an Austrian company that translates this information into beautiful objects. Simply give them a zip code and they’ll create a 3D representation of your requested locale. I will soon be the owner (and ruthless dictator) of my very own tiny hometown. Geo-nius! Okay, I guess it doesn’t work for all applications.
Via Miriello Grafico
Unexplainable Beauty
Australian artist Janet Laurence creates beautiful works of art from media such as, but not limited to, duraclear, shinkolite acrylic, and aluminum combined with oil paint. How? I have not the slightest idea. I do know, however, that the final result is a dreamlike painting with incredible depth.
Tank Goodness for Cookies
With what may be the greatest idea in the history of the world, the Tank family of Minneapolis has expanded the variety of delivery-food offerings to include cookies. They also had the good sense to employ the Spunk Design Machine, who have delivered some genius of their own in the form of the Tanks' cookie packaging.
In the immortal words of the great Cookie Monster:
"C is for cookie, it's good enough for me; oh cookie cookie cookie starts with C."
What, no Sbarro? Where will I get crappy pizza?
The new food court in the JetBlue terminal of JFK is taking airport-design-for-the-masses to a whole new level. Not only will the food be exciting and varied, with restaurant concepts from cozy tapas bar to authentic French cafe to Italian trattoria (that plays vintage Italian films for ambiance), but the design of the space itself will keep travelers visually stimulated as well. Via New York Magazine.
Sure beats the Sbarro/Chili's/McDonalds offerings here in Orlando.
Stamp(s) of the Day
To close out the Beijing Olympics, here are a few stamps issued by several countries to celebrate the games.
Cyprus:
China:
Israel:
New Zealand:
Vanuatu:
Miriello Grafico Part Deux
You've already read about the work of Miriello Grafico below, (of course I know you all come here for more than just the pretty pictures, right?) now enjoy the personal works of Ron Miriello, hanging sculptures which repurpose used highway barricade signage. The signs are CNC waterjet cut, then bent and formed into interesting shapes without using any fasteners. For those of you lucky enough to reside in sunny southern California, the pieces will be part of the upcoming Sanctuary 143 installation show (http://www.sanctuary143.com/) at the Miriello Grafico warehouse on September 27.
