Low resolution bar in Belgium, actually made of pixels

Well, not actually made of Pixels, but the wall is covered with them. The Pixel bar is a new wine and Tapas bar in Brussels, Belgium whose walls are completely covered in soundproofed foam cushions. Over 8,000 of them in total, each made from cubed foam pads in 27 different coloured covers.

When viewed from afar, the image is that of a pixelated countryside scene, close up it is a beautifully abstracted bunch of coloured blocks. As ever the simple ideas are the best, and when executed in such a perfect manner you get something as special as this.

Everybody says great work to the designer behind the bar, Charles Kaisin… Right, Brussels is about 2 hours from here, Friday afternoon drinks there? 6:30pm anyonne?

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Something to do in Rotterdam tomorrow

In case you are stuck for something to do in Rotterdam tomorrow (Sunday 21st March), we might suggest you get yourself down to the Kunsthal in Rotterdam for the “Made in Holland” exhibition. It’s on for a couple more weeks, but tomorrow being the first day of spring, and the equinox, there might just be the chance of a nice sunny day.

The exhibition covers everything from the Speediest of Speed Skaters’ Speed Skating Skates (say that fast!), to aerodynamic brollies, designed to not turn inside out. Delving into the famous archives of the TU Delft, it documents over 400 years of innovation in this small corner of Europe.

The museum has a great little park next to it, as most people in Rotterdam know already, so can certainly have a nice sit out if the weather is anything like.

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Saturday: 404

Don’t worry, it isn’t a real 404!

Just a quick little post… Looking for something totally unrelated the other day and Everybody stumbled upon a reference to one of our favourite films of all time. The Big Lebowski.

The Illustrator, Dave Mott, has both a fantastic style and the set of illustrations in his portfolio blog show this in the best possible manner. He produced this as a concept for the HTML 404 error pages. As he says so many quotes from that film make great 404 pages. Click Walter to go and see his work!

Everybody loves the work of this Illustrator and hopes that you will spend a few minutes looking around his site. Maybe even commision him. Brilliant work Dave.

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Falcon: old and new combined

With my rocky history with motorcycles I have to admit I’m not particularly bothered about them, but as with all other things there are always outstanding examples which make you stand up and pay attention.

Recently I stumbled upon one of those examples and had to point you in its direction. Falcon is a Los Angeles based motorcycle manufacturing company based on high standards of manufacture and quality in design. Ian Barry, co-founder and designer, has been obsessed with old British bikes like Triumph and Norton for years leading to his designing the Falcon when he met his business partner Amaryllis in LA.

Both spent two years sourcing vintage materials and machinery from around the world to create a workshop in Downtown LA where they could make their dream a reality.

So the first result is pretty much what you see above here, an imagining of what would happen would Triumph have produced a Board racer. It’s called “The Bullet” and is effectively a custom Triumph motorcycle, starting years ago as the derelict frame and engine of a 1950 pre-unit Triumph Thunderbird (which for all you movie buffs is the self same motorbike Marlon Brando can be seen riding in the classic movie “The Wild One”.

Everybody will be keeping a keen eye on this and we would advise you to as well, absorb the beauty of the bike, it really is something special. They plan many more bikes all based on vintage forms, so it’s going to really be a thing to watch over the next couple of years.

Good work vintage bike fellas!

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She farted and created the world

Yes, you read that right. She farted and created the world is the title of an animation by a talented fella by the name of Scott Coello.

He uses only bits of recycled paper and pens to draw with to make a very impressive animation about the evolution of everything. Cleverly conceived and even better in execution, this is well worth it’s position in the final 12 of the virgin media animated short film awards.

Everybody loves this style, digs this subject and enjoyed it thoroughly. Make sure you click the link above to watch the movie on Vimeo. Very worth the effort, but make sure the HD is on, it makes it really worth while.

That was a short but sweet post, but then so is the animation.

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Imagine Greater

I have to say that we at Everybody are not really your standard television viewers. We generally turn the channel to watch something specific, until it’s end and then see if there is something else on worth watching, or turn off. Recently it’s been more “turn off” than “watch”. BUT. Occasionally there is something that comes along that really captures your imagination.

Harking back over previous years, these things have been more and more the small things like “Channel Idents” and the occasional advert, I’m thinking things like the jaw-droppingly beautiful Sony Bravia advert (you know… the one where the coloured balls all roll down a San Francisco street) and the clever trailers for Better off Ted currently on Comedy Central, and not the programming itself.

The reason I’m telling you all this is because you may or may not be aware that recently the “Sci-Fi Channel” re-branded itself to the, much more multi-lingual friendly “SyFy Channel”. This was heralded on it’s sister channel 13th street, during one of the shows I watch (House, in case you wondered) and so I duly tuned in to see the re-launch.

At 20:30 the channel’s new logo was revealed on screen and was followed by an amazing little trail video. High in gloss, high in style and über high in production value. The video is entitled “the house of Imagination (Imagine Greater)” and you should watch it. No really, take three minutes to watch the video (by clicking the image above) you will see what I mean.

Everybody says well done SyFy Channel, you have actually made us Imagine Greater.

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Mommy, what does a computer virus look like?

Once in a while a piece of art comes along which strikes you as original, clever and downright good looking. In this instance, a fella has written some code/witchcraft to use malware (the nasty bits of software that do nasty bits of work on your computer) to create a beautiful and organic image to represent the nasty bit of software itself.

Dig deeper into his site and you will find that he also grows something which he calls “spam plants”. These use more code/witchcraft to take spam messages and grow them into more organic looking and in some cases beautiful images.

It kind of reminds us of those art images based on fractals which did the rounds in poster stores in the 1990’s. But there is something wonderful about these images, something which makes you want more. The uniqueness is interesting to me and the way in which they seem different each time you look at them is equally as enthralling.

Just one thing strikes me about this though, and that is that this guy has to have been sent a virus and spam at some point to get this going, so lord help him now his project is public, as he will be doubtless bombarded with the stuff we spend our online lives trying to avoid. Take this one step further and imagine loosing the work to a virus itself… Hope he has a picture called, “My back up” On a serious note though, good work Alex, stunning images and an original idea. Nice.

Design is the fabric of the universe, it wraps us all, keeps us warm and makes you feel snuggly. It needs washing occasionally though, so be careful it doesn’t shrink.

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The Lady and the Reaper

Those of us who saw the Oscars (or at least know the results) can’t help but know the astonishing animated short that that won the academy was a movie based on Corporate Identity… Sort of anyway. Have a look for it, it is worth watching. As a Graphic and Branding designer I love that this particular movie won.

But one of the other nominees, which I personally felt was as good, was the Spanish short called “La Dama y La Muerte” (the lady and the reaper). It’s a stunning animation combining Sexy Nurses, Handsome Doctors, a loveable old dear and most strangely, a cute reaper.

The emotion that the first couple of minutes generates is great and this gives way to a pharsical series of events as the reaper tries to win over the hospital… the chase scene through the huge filing cabinets is pure Pixar, which is probably as high a compliment as you can give any animated movie. Nods towards other animated greats are evident too, such as Looney Tunes and the Tom and Jerry, so why not spend 10 minutes watching one of the best animated short movies in recent years.

The Writer/Director is a Spaniard by the name of Javier Reco Gracia obviously has a bright future ahead of him and with producers such as Antonio Banderas speaking up for him, Everybody can’t want to see what he comes up with next. Great work Javier, we hope to see more soon!

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Mixtape: the video

For those of you outside the UK, Virgin Media is the company behind Cable TV, Telephone and Internet services. Long story but a combination of a few companies involved in buy outs a few years ago. Anyway, they have a vested interest in film and to that end they have a strong support for the “short” genre, (Orange hold feature films tightly by the throat in the UK).

Their sponsorship has lead to quite high exposure and a strong bunch of films were entered for the last round. Various films which were entered were good, but the one which was chosen for the 2009 Grand Prize, was called “Mixtape”. It was produced by Luke Snellin and went on to be nominated for a BAFTA. Certainly good going.

The sweet little film is the story of a boy and the girl next door… and her Mom, a little bit, not so much about her though. It’s well made, well shot, and most of all well scored. Perfectly scored infact. You can read loads into the story, but if it doesn’t make you smile then, you pretty much have no soul.

Everybody says, well done Luke, you deserve all the plaudits you get for this.

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tracing a line in the sky

While we are talking about bugs (see previous post – here), here is a little something, something to make you see them in a different way too.

Photographer and videographer Charlie McCarthy produced a video which is simply stunning. By taking a series of long exposure photographs of fireflies flitting around a street light a very surreal video is made when he put them all together. Coupled with a perfect soundtrack, the video is only 43 seconds long but leaves you wanting much, much more.

If you click on the image you can see the video for yourself – posted on vimeo.com – and have click around on Charlie’s channel to see his other works.

Everybody says great work Charlie, it’s great to see how long exposure work can be given an original twist and make something new, good work fella!