711 circa 1976 via 2013

Loving the retro Swedish 7-11 coffee rebrand by Swedish design office BVD.

 

Submarine Cable Map

Incredible map of all the cables that run under our oceans to keep data flowing. Published by Telegeography.

You view the full map below. Inspect it’s details. Amazing.

Lumen type

Just stumbled across this curious typographic experiment, and found it quite inspiring. It’s a kind of bokeh type effect Ruslan Khasanov. I’ve featured Ruslan’s work in the past. He’s a ceaseless experimenter, and I love what he’s doing.

This bokeh lumen type is really quite fresh, and I’m not sure how he’s accomplished it. There is a clue in one of the images he provides (see below). A lens and light set up. Does he create each circular shape one at a time, then assemble the full letterforms in post. I think not, because seeing them in motion (see below) all the circles in each letter react to changes together… curious…

You can see the lumen type in motion here:

Campbell’s Warhol Cans

Life imitates art or maybe it’s the other way around, and in this case, marketing imitates art. Fifty years after Andy Warhol created his now iconic soup can prints, The Campbell’s Soup company has issued special edition cans (via Target stores) that emulate his abstract “interpretations” of their labels. You can read more about Target’s coup here.

Spinning Type

Interesting typographic experiments from Jinhwan Kim involving spinning letterforms. What makes these more interesting is that they are not simply animated on the computer, they are shot through a lens, with a light box, which reveals a chromatic aberration of colours beyond the pure black letterforms themselves. You also get that lovely “wagon wheel effect” as the motor accelerates and decelerates. That can be seen best with the full alphabet below.

I think “J” is my favourite!

38: The new London bus

Like spotting a rare bird, I’d seen the beautiful, new London double decker buses from afar for the past few months. With only a few on the roads (started with 7 in Feb 2011, now up to ?) I would narrowly miss one as it drove off from a bus stop, or chase after another to take a photo. They had eluded me until yesterday – I had my first ride, and I wasn’t disappointed!

Designed by the inspired Heatherwick Studio in London (this post has just had an Olympic update, because Heatherwick also designed the beautiful Olympic flame caldron – see below for a video), its the first time in 50 years that London has commissioned the design of a new bus specifically for the city. The result is a beautiful homage to the curves of the old Route Masters but with a definite future facing ethos. Utterly contemporary in look and feel (asymmetry abound) but also utilizing the latest in hybrid technology (40% more efficient than the current London diesel buses), they are most certainly a confident and intelligent solution, but not without some sentimentality for the heyday of double deckers, the complete combination of which, I find very pleasing.

The interior’s are simple and slightly underwhelming, though what more would they need? Probably nothing. The highlight is the restoration of the hop-on, hop-off, open rear door, like the old Route Masters had,  and with it, a second bus man (again) looking after that rear door. The bars for holding on to disappear into the ceiling in with a pinched profile that I really like. The fabric on the seats is as ugly as ever, though better-designed-ugly ; ) which also feels entirely appropriate. The London underground tube car upholstery has always been “unusual” slash ugly.

The exterior, however, is wonderful. Diagonal windows that follow the stairs upward (or downward), a diagonal slash of red on the front face, revealing a black under-colour, like Robin (Batman’s Robin) lowering his mask to reveal his true identity, and another widening slash of window on the rear leading to the hop-on/off door. Truly beautiful and imaginative, while being completely functional at the same time. More light in the bus, more views of the city, and better visibility for the driver.

We now have at least 3 (maybe 4) generations of double decker buses on the London roads, including the old Route Masters that still have a few token routes. Most of them, regrettably, have been relegated to Wedding transport!

Thomas Heatherwick writes:
“It has been 50 years since a bus was last designed and commissioned specifically for London. This has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a team to look again at the opportunities for a new open-platform bus. It has been an honour to be asked by London’s transport authority to take an integrated approach and design everything that you see and experience from the outside down to the tiniest details of the interior.”

Olympic Update: Heatherwick studio design the incredible Olympic torch caldon. Quite a year for Heatherwick Studio: a retrospective show at the V&A, the new London bus, and now the Olympic caldron. To see it action watch this BBC footage from the Opening Ceremonies below:

Gerry Anderson Stamps

How did I miss these fantastic Gerry Anderson “Supermarionation” stamps when Royal Mail issued them last Autumn and Winter! The series showcased some of his puppet based TV shows from the 1960s: Thunderbirds, Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray, Captain Scarlet and Joe 90. Royal Mail also issued a series of Thunderbirds stamps with lenticular effects that animated the Thunderbirds 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 countdown. Super cool.

Here’s a Creative Review article about them: