My Name is Kate

Function and Form are Equal Partners (Inspire)

When you need to stack wood, why not make the woodpile beautiful? Amazing wood sculpture by Alastair Heseltine. Seen on BoingBoing.

I'd fall down a rabbit hole for this any day ...

I have long loved Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. My bookshelf holds a few copies, including the the Annotated Alice by Martin Gardner (one of my favourite mathematicians & logicians) - a fascinating read, just for the annotations themselves. I've also been enjoying The Annotated Pride and Prejudice (not by Gardner, rather David Shapard).  There is something quite delightful about annotated volumes.  Like having the Coles notes built right in. Though I do take issue with some of Shapard's interpretations of the language in Austen.

But I digress ...

I am very keen on the upcoming release of Tim Burton's film Alice in Wonderland - it should be a far cry from the Disney version I grew up with. One thing, for certain, the animated version didn't have Swarovski creating a very fancy jewelry collection to celebrate its launch. 

In celebration of the highly anticipated Walt Disney Pictures film Alice In Wonderland, Disney and Swarovski, the world’s largest producer of cut crystal, are launching an all new collection of jewellery which captures the spirit of each character in this whimsical Tim Burton film. The line features vintage and gothic details inspired by the outlandish personalities found down the rabbit hole, each demonstrating the attention to detail that Swarovski is famous for. 

You can see the look book for the whole collection. But here are closeups of two of my favs.

The first is the signature piece in the collection - the “Sparrow” pendant, inspired by the pendant worn by “Alice”, (Mia Wasikowska), in the film. The pendant features a fine chain with round, rose-gold-plated links and a magnificent Smoked Topaz cut crystal with the silhouette of a small swallow at its centre.

The second is the piece that plays tribute to the “White Rabbit” (voice of Alan Rickman), a character who is always running late, is depicted in the collection through a playful rabbit’s head, a trumpet and a white epoxy pocket watch, all three of which feature crystal pavé. 

Click images for larger versions.

The collection should be available in March 2010 in Swarovski boutiques nationwide.

Note the First - I'm not usually a fashion or  accessories blogger, but I really adore this jewelry.  That Sparrow necklace is definitely going on my birthday wishlist.

Note the Second - the above links to Amazon.ca are affiliate links.

Note the Third - I totally took a screen shot of the "Look Inside This Book" functionality on Amazon for the Annotated Alice pic.  But I feel like this is fair use :)
 

Something pretty to look at

I've long been a fan of the ColourLovers site - both as an admirer of their community fostering tools plus of the amazing things they post on their blog.  Now, I'm not a skilled user of Photoshop, but I figured the activity in a recent article they posted was something even I could do.

It was my first time using "transform" in Photoshop.  Are you impressed :)

I did five versions using different lines from the same photo.  It's pretty amazing the different colour palettes you can pull.

Super cool Steampunk Keyboard

Love this.  Want this.  Delightful!

Check it out over on Steampunk Workshop.  The keyboard (functioning!!) is by Kevin and is up for auction on eBay.  Originally seen on BoingBoing.

I'm really in love with Wordle

I first saw Wordle in action over on Leigh's blog.  And I just love it.  I don't know if there is any practical use for it.  Well, is there any practical use for tag or word clouds?  I think so ... it gives you a view into your patterns.  And that's helpful.  Though perhaps just **personally** helpful, not so much for your community.

In any case, at the very least, the images the Wordle creates are pretty.  So go make yourself some word art.  The one below is of my delicious tags.  Oh, and consider sending a few bucks to Jonathan - it's important to support developers like him!

Update: I just finished reading the rest of the Wordle site.  I just want to say how impressed I am with Jonathan.  He's an IBM'er and created this code on company time which IBM has subsequently given their permission for him to use in this project.  Very cool.  Plus, Jonathan has created an amazing credits page, FAQ and blog.  So many people take acknowledgement and sharing credit for granted and simply don't do it at all.  I'm really impressed by not only Wordle but by the ethics of its creator (also, he's apparently played drums for They Might Be Giants - how cool is that!?!).  Great job, Jonathan!

What is the Difference? 20x2 from Photojunkie

I love Photojunkie (aka Rannie Turingan)!  This is a video he created for SxSW's  20x2 panel in Austin this year - the theme was "What's the Difference?".

20 x 2 : What's The Difference? from photojunkie on Vimeo.

Aside from it being an inspiring sentiment with some great photography and a kickass soundtrack, it's also really neat to see these quiet, private moments in a number of my friends and colleagues lives.  Well done!

Colour Me ... Whitehorse?

I've always been fascinated with colour: colour combinations, colour pallettes ... the age old philosophical pondering of whether or not two people SEE the same colour when looking at the same object.  If it had to do with colour, I was just **delighted**.

As a youngster, I enjoyed Piers Anthony's Xanth series (at least the early books) ... in Centaur Aisle, the characters slide down a rainbow and one of them makes the observation about the colours in-between the bands:

... sandwiched between them where ground observers (couldn't see were) bands of polka-dot, plaid and checkerboard.  Some internal bands were translucent, and some blazed with colors seldom imagined by man, like fortissimo, charm, phon and torque ...

I don't know how many hours I spent daydreaming about being able to see that particular view of a rainbow.  Related to this, I think, was a recurring dream I had where I discovered a brand new colour: Julliard Blue.  I wasn't an aspiring musician or dancer, so even today I wonder why I would have wanted to name it Julliard Blue.

Pantone doesn't think the colour exists, but, in one of many happy coincidences, it does bear a striking resemblance to the colour Saxony Blue which happens to be the colour for my birthday, according to Pantone's Colorstrology site.  The Julliard Blue has a tinge more grey in it.

This all came rushing back as I read an interesting piece by Todd Falkowsky in this month's Walrus Magazine (Jan/Feb 2008).  The piece is entitled Revealing Urban Colours; in it, Falkowsky describes a project where he attempted to discover if there was a common colour palette for Canadian cities ...

I started this project while I was working with a New York consulting firm on the power of celebrity. I asked myself whether there was something about, say, Cameron Diaz’s face we could apply to a cellphone or a car that would increase its appeal. I did something similar for the City of Toronto, trying to figure out whether it has a specific colour that could be used by Canadian firms, and it occurred to me that this could be done for all of Canada.

Twelve colour palettes are published in this issue of the Walrus for cities ranging from Quebec City to Winnipeg (pictured above) to Victoria.

It's an interesting idea ... to see if the essence of a city can be captured in a colour palette.  The article is only two paragraphs - so definitely worth the quick read and browse through the colour strips.

To touch someone's heart with design ...

Elegant, stunning site by graphic designer Jonathan Yuen.  I have such respect for designers who can create amazing pieces like this.  The illustration and the animations are lovely.

FYI .. the title of this post comes from a quote from Stefan Sagmeister whom Jonathan states is one of his inspirations.  TED has posted the video of Sagmeister's talk from TED 2004 ... the topic is how design can make you happy.

h/t to Leigh for the link to Jonathan's site.!

The Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything ... Brainstorm's MediaSphere

Have you ever tried to communicate the magnitude of the new media landscape to either clients or your boss?

Have you been looking for solid, concise definitions of the different media choices available to you?

Have you been praying for someone to put all that together in a handy, dandy BEAUTIFUL 12 page PDF that gives you not only the above two elements, but a large, integrated diagram (for use as a wall poster) showing "traditional" and "digital" media channels as well as how they flow through a product launch?

Then run, do not walk, over to .think, Brainstorm's blog, to download the 5th part of their "B Series" awareness campaign "The MediaSphere".

Holy crap .. this just solved about a b'zillion issues for me trying to illustrate this for my clients.

And this is a whole series!  They have a summary sheet of "Web 2.0 and Generation Me".  And this isn't just pretty pictures ... they describe in detail their thought process for campaign elements and selected media - both on and offline.  They discuss the creative strategy and process that went into the "B Series".

If you ever want an exceptional example of how to think about a campaign - from conception through execution and measurement (their next post will be on the metrics of this campaign), go read this.

I've been <3'ing the .think blog and Brainstorm for a while now.  But this, this is like .. WOW.

Like uber-wow.

They are SO going to the top of my friends list on Facebook!

WOW! Carved crayons by Pete Goldlust

Carved Crayons by Pete Goldlust

h/t to Cliff Pickover