Animals and humans come together in a beautiful way

These lovely manimal creations are from UK based illustrator Kevin Cornell. They are funky and whimsical with a tad bit of sarcasm added for good measure. Even though this series is varied, there is a commonality which runs through and grabs you head on.

You can see Cornell’s other works and purchase the prints above at BearSkinRug. I recommend following @BearSkinRug on Twitter as well. Good stuff!

Word clouds

Jonathan Feinberg is the mastermind behind Wordle.net – a fun way to weave word clouds. The cloud creation is quite simple. You can either add words via an online editor or you can add an RSS feed to automatically generate a word cloud. Just like any word cloud, prominance is given to the frequency the word appears.

The fun part is tweaking the clouds. At your disposal are different fonts as well as a myriad of layouts and color schemes. The final images can be printed out and placed in a frame.  Bam! instant artwork for typographically challenged.  The clouds can also be saved to a public gallery so others can enjoy your handwork.

The word cloud above was generated via Mashable.com’s RSS feed

Create your own word clouds at wordle.net.

The Lean, Green, Vector Series

Several years ago, we created an ad series to promote Foreclosure.com’s new agent listing center. The ad was to run in the leading default real estate trade publications. Thumbing through any of these default real estate pubs was like watching Scooby-Doo run past the same five houses over and over again. Nearly every ad featured a photo of a house and way too much copy. Some ads were copy driven, but not like you would expect … the whole ad WAS copy!

Our goal was to swim upstream on this one. We thought “What if we created a campaign with NO houses, NO photos, and NO long copy?” The result was the lean green vector series. With a right-read placement and the brand’s pulsating neon green background, this ad definitely stood out. Way out!

Copywriter: Tom Myers
Creative Director: Me
Illustration: Simon Oxley | Bortonia

The world’s tallest buildings

Did you ever wonder where you can see the world’s tallest buildings side by side? Wonder no more. Simply head over to skyscraperpage.com. This site is chock-full of amazing facts and renderings.

Super Mario reality style

Artist Mike Mitchell’s inventive take on the NES classic. Well done. Check out some of Mike’s other artwork. I love the creepy Mickey Mouse.

Male / Female animated flash type

Here’s a site that animates anything you type. It takes your type and animates via flash with the male and female sign. To see the animation again, simply mouse over. To give it a whirl, click on the mindtoss type.

Four artists, two countries, thirty-six weeks, one sketchbook

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The concept is simple. The artwork is stunning.
Here’s how the sketchbook was created:

For thirty-six weeks, a sketchbook was sent in random order between four artists: two in Brooklyn, two in Belfast.

Every Wednesday, one participant would receive book. In order to maintain schedule, it was sent out the following Monday, giving each artist five days to complete a spread in response to the one that preceded it.

A small portion of each entry extends on to the following page. Beyond this, there was no communication between the artists concerning the content of book during its making.

book’s first trip across the Atlantic was on 2 June, 2003. Its final trip was on 2 February, 2004. By the time it was completed, book had traveled over sixty thousand miles.

Shortly after the book was completed in 2004, the four artists sat down in a room together to discuss what the meaning was behind each spread and how it was interpreted. They did so over a bottle of whiskey.

The artwork was was reproduced and exhibited in Belfast. Each spread was set up at it’s own viewing station. At each station were headphones to listen to the round table discussion about the book.

The book can viewed in it’s entirety at LookAtaBook.com. In addition to viewing there is an option to listen to the artists discussing each spread. It’s very moving to hear the interpretation verses the actual artists intent. I found myself laughing right along as though I were in the room with them. It would have been interesting if a documentary was made of the whole event from start to finish.

The artists:
mac premo
oliver jeffers
duke riley
rory jeffers