The Magic of Recent Relics

thorton4 thorton

Cruise through any form of media and you’ll notice an obsession with the past. From #throwbackthursday and #nationalsiblingsday to any other communal hash tag, we all love a walk down memory lane. As the babies of the 70’s and 80’s find themselves getting married and having kids, balancing rising careers within the confines of the recession, there’s a wash of nostalgia and yearning for simpler times.

thorton2 thorton3

We look back to the days when the Internet was in its infancy and social media didn’t yet weave through our lives, before iPhones and Google, before Wii and Playstation, when life was more “simple.” Pixels were big back then and we liked it that way, because that was The Future and in The Future, anything was possible – at least, that’s what we were told. In Hollis Brown Thorton’s The Land Between Solar Systems, he elevates our simple things, our recent relics of the past, into art. Click here for event info.

Linda Warren Gallery: 327 N. Aberdeen Suite 151, Chicago, IL. 60607

April 11, 2013 | By: Shayna Kulik

Pattern Spotting on Instagram

instagram_blk_wt_patternpulp

Who else was on twitter during the Grammys? The Presidential Debates? New York Fashion Week? While watching Homeland, House of Cards or GIRLS?

Crowd-sourced commentary’s made commercial media a lot more fun for the masses. It’s like a magnified peanut gallery, where everyone’s kibitzing about the minutia of the moment in real-time. The visual version of this exists on Instagram.

If you’re part of the fashion elite, the behind the scenes crew, or simply an enthusiast, there’s ongoing eye candy for everyone during the global presentations in New York, London, Paris and Milan. Be it street photography, accessory shots, models, make-up or set design, everything’s being documented and shared, in overtime.

Absorbing this steady stream is interesting when you’re looking for patterns. Some of the most obvious stories are welded together based on timing and contributors. Others are construed by theme, location, color or mood. Today we’re sharing black and white contrasts from a few accounts worth following.

Who are some of your favorites?

1. StyleSight
2. Darkroom_London
3. Netaporter
4. OpeningCeremony
5. Shayna121 (a personal Pattern Pulp plug!)
6. BridgetFlemming

February 20, 2013 | By: Shayna Kulik

Animating Life's Little Moments

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aTLySbGoMX0#!

While this looks like an old Disney feature, it’s an example of the newest technique in film where computer and hand drawn animations are seamlessly merged. Directed by John Kahrs, Paperman is a short about destiny, chemistry and New York City. I spotted it on Heart Explosion. Enjoy!

February 14, 2013 | By: Shayna Kulik

Cross-Pollinating your Gradients

Finding a connection between the digital and physical spheres is a never-ending hunt for today’s forecasters. Whether you’re comparing the symbolic differences between RGB or CMYK or simply finding inspiration in either execution, important observations can be made when considering how one medium influences the other.

Here we have a pixelated display at the Red Dot Design Museum in Singapore. A blurry screen becomes textured art and the type conjures up early 90’s atari. If you follow our line of thinking and view Benjamin Moore’s paint chips immediately after, it’s easy to make a connection- they’re strikingly similar, but hold opposing conversations (and purposes).

Now let’s move to the commercial realm. This is window display from the GAP on Fifth Avenue. It’s extremely economical- paper’s been folded and arranged in a grid. The gradient is the storyline and compliments the clothing.

Moving along to packaging, this method was recently the result of Sephora’s beauty collaboration with Pantone Universe. Pixels are again the focus. Mimicking the diversity within skin tones, the packaging amplifies the face and focuses on color, making us wonder if CMYK really wishes it were RGB.

February 13, 2013 | By: Shayna Kulik

Gifts for You Design Minded Folks

Since the season’s in full swing, I’m assuming most of you are already crossing gifts off your lists- particularly if you celebrated Chanukah. With pop up shops on every downtown corner, I figured I’d jump in and offer my two cents. I might continue adding more to the mix, but to kick off, here we go:

* * *

1. Fold, Unfold, Tablecloth by Hay & Margrethe Odgaard, $160
2. Patterned Paint Roller, The Patterned House, $15 GBP
3. Sitting Bull Pixel Bean Bag, $313
4. Little Bits Holiday Kit, $49
5. Green & Gray 15″ MacBookPro Laptop Bag, $49.95
6. Revenge of the Nerds Onesie, $18
7. The Napsack by The Poler, $130
8. Blueprint Paper Placemats, $26.50
9. Detachable Conductive Smartphone Friendly Glove Pins, $11.99

December 17, 2012 | By: Shayna Kulik

Set Design using Cymatic Patterns

Here’s an example of life imitating art and vice versa, compliments of Meara O’Reilly. O’Reilly created these designs as a multimedia backdrop for Björk’s Biophilia world tour. By day, Meara works as a sound artist and educator, in residence at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. This is just one of many projects where she uses cymatic effects to reflect the texture in sound through vibration in matter.

December 3, 2012 | By: Shayna Kulik