Category Archives: Brightness

Sep 3

Double-Think designs burn the web’s retina at techno roots

There’s a bit of a hardcore artwork movement going on that’s been hitting the graphic design addicts of this planet for the past several years. Even before the techno dance revolution hit the pop radio spectrum, there was a really hard collection of colors out there beating up people’s eyeballs. If you were looking at the beginning of Tumblr, you saw this madness – here you’ve got a bit of artwork from a designer / artist by the name of Dobbeldenk.

Doppeldenkgesternheutemorgen!!!

The manifesto of this person, unnamed, aka Doppeldenk™, is as follows: Continue reading »

Sep 27

Talkin Heads Circle

Perchance you’ve heard of the Talking Heads, band headed by David Byrne. Perhaps you’ve been to a live show of theirs, and thusly know of the magical nature in which it’s been known to unfold. Designer Olli Hannonen knows of this, and for a live album’s created a lovely cover encircling the essence of a specific show in which each song of the show is revealed in layers. Titled “Stop Making Sense” and colored in the warmth of the earth. Continue reading »

Sep 23

Whisps and Stains

Look at this wicked set of drawings! These are illustrations from the desk of Markus Raffelsberger & Michael Zagorski, who together form Valence graphic design studio. This set of magical collages, paintings, and drawings was made for a weekly design exercise as initiated by three studios: Mustard, RadioMetric, and Valence! This exercise goes by the name Hard From The Heart and is totally active as this post is written. Check it out! But first look at the gallery in this post, for it is magnificent.

The subject these contributions cover is “Holidays.” Hang loose. Continue reading »

Sep 22

Jenny Lane’s Whoopsy Daisy

Hooray! Our old pal Jenny Lane has another music video! If you’ll remember, we did a feature on her colorblaster “Say Say Say” and then another on the robot loving “You Start a Fire”. Today there’s another masterpiece of loveable modern technology, this time in 2D animation form. This is the video for “Whoopsy Daisy,” a big fluffy pillow full of fabulous sweet-jam music and sugar-coated candy animation. And it’s all a dream. Continue reading »

Sep 11

TMurakami x Palace of Versailles

Welcome to the Château de Versailles, home of the finest art in the world, an elaborate fantastical environment where each room is more gorgeous than the last. It’s here that Japanese superartist Takashi Murakami is about to have a sort of retrospective show, displaying tiny to gigantic sculptures and spectacular paintings. You’ll recognize many of the pieces like the busty Miss ko², KaiKai and KiKi (standing on balls of flowers), and a new version of Flower Matango (the ball of flowers with vines flying out of it.) Such is the continuation of Pop art. Continue reading »

Jul 20

Landscape on the Quick

Illustrator Naresh Ch Das, straight outta Hyderabad (India), presents his fantastic skills with the swiftness. Each of the works you see here took Das a very very small amount of time to do, in MOST cases somewhere around 20 minutes. Holy crap you’re saying, and will continue to say throughout this post. The gallery is full of magnificence, a bounty of natural, human habitat, and science fiction horizontals are spread over digital canvases in a world I’m sure heaven isn’t too far apart from. Continue reading »

Jul 19

5 Dalek Colorbombs

Mister James Marshall, aka DALEK, is a master of lines, color, and little green space men. He’s been perfecting his sharpness and colortastic explosigazms since he first spewed forth this Space Monkey in 1995. In 2007, he began using his real name and had a flabjabulous show at Jonathan Levine gallery. From there, the Monkey only appeared here and there, if at all. In these 5 new paintings we’ve got here in the gallery below, there’s no monkeys in the least bit! The power remains. Perhaps they’re just hiding. Continue reading »

Jul 13

Arvold Donuts on Bikes

If you’ll remember a few weeks ago, we posted some pics of a painting in process by a certain mister painter Isaac Arvold. At the time of the painting of the painting, Arvold was unsure of the final fate of the painting. Well look at this! This is one of the several new bike parking places for the city’s new biking initiative. On the endcap here we see the same painting we’re talking about sitting behind a biker on one of these green bikes! Continue reading »

Jul 11

Animal Gangs!

I’ve got some healthy amount of rage in my heart today. That’s why when I happened upon these “Animal Gangs” images illustrated by Mostrico!, I was totally pumped up. Mostrico is a very talented illustrator that hails from Medellín, Colombia, and also goes by the name Alejo Giraldo. These animal heads are part of a set, as many fantastic projects are – a set that includes a Cat, a Zebra, a Panda Bear, and a Fox, each of these with their own animal pack to run with them. Stay hard! Continue reading »

Jul 9

Beer Me That Bear

Agh! Claws! Oh no, also robots! Wait, these robots have fantastic beats and French bits. They are Les Robots! Or, as I call them in my head, Daft Bear. They are one of a collection of bear-related background images from the extended collection of bears called “KING PANPAN,” a 365 day-a-year, image every single day, project by Julius Santiago. It’s 365 days starting at the beginning of 2010, so that’s a whole bunch of months already, with a whole bunch more to go! Check out more of the collection in the gallery below, then head over to Santiago’s twitter account to send him some suggestions for more bears! Continue reading »

Jul 8

Batman Bangers!

OR! Onomatopoeics!

At the heart of every great piece of pop is a simple combination. A combination of words, a catchphrase, a combination of colors, an iconic image, and sometimes a combination of it all, so perfectly distilled that it sends shockwaves through our collective systems that never stop! Behold, Bat-viewers! It’s the action cards! Those everloving combinations of color and exclamation the likes of which have never been used as effectively before or since! Gotta catch em all, someday, you never know – a good shot is below! Continue reading »

Jul 3

Power Loss is Power Gain

Today (I wrote this a few days ago) I hear the sad news that one of the ultimate original players in the Graffiti and Hip-hop world has kicked the bucket. “RAMM::ELL::ZEE” or Rammellzee as he was called died today [June 27, 2010] whilst, if the rumors are true, he was doing math equations in none other than his home town and city, Far Rockaway, Queens, New York. How unbelievably appropriate for one of the most mathematically sound wild-style artists of many generations. The first I ever heard of him, he was being described in the Graffiti documentary film “Style Wars,” his paintings of weapon-clad letters being shown by his pal Dondi, another king.

In humble celebration of the passing of Ram, I and we present to you a gallery of armored letters, operators that blow the lids off all that they encounter. Rest in peace, Zee. Continue reading »

Jul 2

Medicom, the God King of Toys

Let me tell you about the best little giant toy company in the world. Medicom. They’ve got contracts with some of the greatest toy designers in the world and they do not-hold-back! They make the greatest stuff ever! Lemme give you a rundown of their latest achievements. First, let’s talk about that KAWS Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket set you see above. They were first blasted all over the internets by Arrested Motion who, when walking about a museum exhibition, spotted the little cuties. This was (is) The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum‘s first KAWS exhibit, as well as Brian Donnelly (KAWS)’s first solo museum show. Then there’s all sort of other toys like EAMES, Ren and Stimpy, The Clash Mickey Mouse… Continue reading »

Jun 29

The Godly Goalie

It’s that time again, that time when the whole world (surprisingly, even the USA,) is embroiled in the heat of futball madness. It is the World Cup of soccer right now, and we’re getting down there in teams already. USA is out, Britain just got beat by Germany by about a billion points, and Ghana’s advancing toward the goal. Then there’s the losers. The people who totally got destroyed, and only one person’s to blame. The goalie. Always with the goalie. Of course, it’s them who saves the game as well. It’s never easy being the highest commanding officer in front of the net, and photographer Bill Cramer knows this. In this recent set, Cramer sets eyes on the prize, depicting the the world of füssball with a female goaltender with a fabulous jersey in orange, white, and red. Continue reading »

Jun 25

Ultra Rigs Goes Japan 2010

Perhaps you know that Japan is a wild and crazy place. Perhaps you know that. Something you also maybe know is that generally their autos, because of the congestion in their small world, are also small. What you may NOT know is that sometimes they get big. Really big. I mean like semi-truck big. And when they do, (not always, but I WISH always,) they go wild. Mister Roger Snider has a camera. Mister Roger Snider went to take some photos. Mister Roger Snider got some bright lights. Continue reading »

Jun 24

Put Instrument on Head

It puts the lotion on the skin? No. Put shoe on head? Yes. The following is a set of selections from graphic design group Akatre‘s photo project “Mains d’Œuvres” – Series pictures for annual communication. They take these photos, yes, then they print them up and mail them out as “mailers” – communication papers to their former and current clients, friends, and maybe even family. This is not only a perfect example of taking the basics of one’s life to an extraordinary level, it’s also just the sort of pie anyone could make to fly over the pages of the entire internet overnight. Continue reading »

Jun 23

Toutanka Tut Fashion Victim Bash

In promotion of his graphic design and illustration business, FENiks has whipped up this excellent rendition of everyone’s favorite boy king of Egypt. Tutankhamun is represented here as being the world’s first fashion victim. I would argue that it was Adam or Eve, though, with those terrible leaf coverups. Those were the worst. This graphic is meant to promote the skills of FENiks as well as spread the word that FENiks is rad at character design, and can represent even the eldest posse. Continue reading »

Jun 22

Furry Energy Guzzlers

So I’m sure you’re aware that once an appliance sort of… runs its course, and you’re not really using it much anymore because it doesn’t work so well, or it doesn’t keep the ice cream as cold as it used to, it swallows the energy. It swallows a BUNCH of energy, and you’re paying for it. And you don’t like that, right? Well check it out. There’s a place that can take care of that for you, and they’re affiliated with puppets. Puppets, you say? Yes. Big furry ones. Terrifying puppets from HELL. Continue reading »

Jun 21

Rocket Monster Kim

In honor of Portugal beating North Korea in their latest world cup game 7-0, oh my god, here is an image of Kim Jong-il as illustrated by Sakkan (サッカン). I want Jong-il to see this and change his mind about his more than likely plausible decision to murder the entire N.Korean football team. I joke, but also seriously hope they don’t end up missing. The image above, by that wild illustrator Sakkan, depicts Kim as a Pokemon hunter, the characters around him referring to North Korean abduction of Japanese citizens. Weird! But look, the idea that Kim is a Pokemon master makes it all make sense. Gotta Catch Em All! Continue reading »

Jun 16

Sliced Up Pics from Oliva

You’ve got a photo, but that’s just step one. Next you’ve got to make it fly. And how do you make it fly? You slice it up! Then of course, you glue it all back together in an aerodynamic way and push it really fast down one of those really big slides that ends in a jump, but we’ve not got one of those. We’ve got Marco Oliva. This guy is a designer who loves his shapes. Olivia loves his colors, his splashes, and his explosions of connections. Take a peek at this selection of his works, all of them photographed and accouterment’ed by him. Continue reading »

Jun 14

Spaceman Elson

Imunna tell you about a guy named Peter Elson. He’s an illustrator and a big-brain-having imagination exploder. He’s passed on to the next world in 1998 but his works live on ever to today. You might not have ever seen a thing of his before because he worked for science fiction magazines which are really radical because they tell tales that eventually turn to reality, but they’ve got a generally underground following if you know what I mean. Let’s talk about how a person find himself drawing for such a publication. Continue reading »

Jun 8

The Greatest Posters on Earth

Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey. The Greatest Show on Earth. Al G. Kelly and Miller Bros. 2nd Largest Circus. These are the dirt and mud spawning beds of some of the most fantastic poster design in the history of the world. I’m drawing a line in the sand here, a circus line. One that clowns honk their lives on. Lions and tigers, trapeze artists, acrobats, and everything else they could fit inside three rings and a whole mess of tent. This is a poster collection consisting of the Princeton University collection of American Circus posters PLUS a whole mess of additional posters as wrangled up from collections across the internet, including of course the US Library of Congress – our friends! Continue reading »

Jun 3

Greg Simkins Solo Exhibit “Inside the Outside” at Joshua Liner Gallery

Hey, who loves show previews? I do! Here’s one! Our pals over at Joshua Liner gallery have a show coming up that features the fabulous Greg “CRAOLA” Simkins. He’s a sometimes graffiti artist, all the time artist, detail intensive magician, and all around cool fellow. What we’ve got here is a full preview of this show that goes by the name “Inside the Outside”: paintings, drawings, magnificent works from 48 inches square paintings to tiny 10 inch high fabuloso graphite pieces. Continue reading »