The Atlas Obscura has begun a series of short videos of explorer’s tales, intriguingly named, “So There I Was.” Each video begins with an adventurer of some sort or another, and the words, “…so there I was…” as they share a harrowing tale from their travels. First up is the “Indiana Jones of Entomology,” Mark Moffett. I did all of the graphics for the video and am so excited to do more!
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I just finished up a short job with the publishing company Little, Brown and Company, doing graphics for a video promoting their new suspense imprint, Mulholland Books. I especially enjoyed making the animated sequence inspired by 30′s noirs, with iconic Mulholland scenery and shadowy figures. Allow me to present 1963′s “The Bookshelf for Boys and Girls, Volume 7: Nature and Science.” I am so smitten with these simple black line illustrations and their bright color accents. So bold! My favorite is the snake biting its tail in preparation, according to the text, to roll away when danger approaches and the caption, “This is something that snakes never really do” – too bad, because that would be awesome. Imagine a snake barreling towards you like a hoola hoop! And of course, the narwhal…if there’s one thing you need to know about me, it’s that I really REALLY love narwhals. Actually, I also love the scientist “preparing questions for the brain machine.” I love how he looks kind of harried and tired, like he’s been up all night trying to stump the brain machine without success. Damn you, brain machine! Damn Yooooouuuu!  The Bookshelf for Boys and Girls  "Preparing questions for the brain machine"  Reservoir Diagram  How We Can Fly  Narwhal  Flowers  Wasp  "This is something snakes never really do"  Airplane Aerodynamics  How a Home Works My mom got me a huge set of prismacolor pencils for my birthday this year, bless her heart. I’ve been playing with them lately, trying my hand at some naturalist drawings.
I love Brooklyn, but there are definitely some downsides. One of those is the size of your average apartment. Ours is tiny and lately this has caused me to grumble on account of plants. Not enough! Never enough! I want to fill every nook with plants – but alas, every nook is already full of something else. I plan to start hanging them from the ceiling, all crowded around the one window we have that gets decent sunlight (the rest face the building across from us – oh, hi neighbors!) I love this planter I found on etsy. Her name is Big Marie, and you can have one too! Plants on the Brain has a much wider variety of heads than when I purchased Big Marie, and some wonderfully creepy versions at that – I might have to look into getting her a friend. 
Big Marie  Jars  Maidenhair Fern - if you look closely, some of the leaves have spores on them  Succulent in a fishbowl with moss I collected while camping in the catskills A long-time fan of Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie, I’ve always loved pouring through ephemeral relics of the aesthetic projection of an individual. When choosing an image and design to define who they are on paper, it seems many folks in the past sided with a whimsy I sometimes feel we lack today – there’s nothing wrong with coming off as a bit silly if you do it with style. I’ve just opened up a whole new can of personal design after stumbling on the great site, Letterheady. What a good name. You can probably guess where this is going – letterheads! Letterheads upon letterheads! I’ve collected a “few” of my favorites from the site.  Tropical Advertising Service  Nash Motors  Harry Houdini  The Seattle Brewing and Malting Company  Chicago Engraving Company  Ethyl Color and Chemical Company  Amtrak First Class  Barnum's American Museum  Floyd & Company  Gene Autry (aka The Singing Cowboy) This one has the best story (and with Barnum’s American Museum in the mix it had some stiff competition!):  Carolwood Pacific Railroad Company
Oh oh oh ho ho ho! Oh my goodness. I have not been able to stop watching these educational animations made for the satellite company, Astra. They are the most perfect vision of modern take on the 1950′s science book style that I love so dearly. Plus, they are totally fascinating – I mean, do you have any idea what happens to a satellite when it dies? Maybe you think you don’t care, but these animations are an incredible example of how learning – about just about anything – can be a glorious, aesthetically inspiring journey of discovery. Yay. |
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