cool app for your Mac

Type star is a lyric visualizer created by Scott Garner that renders lyrics of a song in realtime according to a number of preset visualization schemes.
Application is available as Mac, Windows and Linux download.
(via creativeapplications.net)

I think this application is a brilliant design due to the fact that it communicates with users through multiple senses such as sound, visual as well as the movement that is created by the animation.

Painting in a minute

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CFPg1m_Umg

FedEx : Always first

Conductor

Conductor (2011) by Alexander Chen. Video capture. View live at: mta.me

Conductor turns the New York subway system into an interactive string instrument. Using the MTA's actual subway schedule, the piece begins in realtime by spawning trains which departed in the last minute, then continues accelerating through a 24 hour loop. The visuals are based on Massimo Vignelli's 1972 diagram.

More details at:
blog.chenalexander.com/​2011/​ conductor-mta/​

Conductor: www.mta.me from Alexander Chen on Vimeo.

LaBoca does Black Swan

I know that this movie came out already and I'm sure everyone has seen it (if not, go. Now!), but I wanted to share the beautiful artwork that was created to promote the film. After some digging around, I found out that the posters were created by a British design studio called LaBoca and were "influenced by Polish and Czech posters of the 60s and 70s, as well as ballet advertisements of the early 20th century."*

I only wish that more movies put more thought into the artwork for their posters.

*http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2010/dec/20/black-swan-posters

Communication Takes Many Forms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0HfwkArpvU

I watched this video in my Critical Reading and Writing class and felt it pertained to this course as well. As various clips of film are shown, your mind makes connections between each transition without the use of words or speech. This goes to show that communication really does take many forms and by submersing us with images that are common to our environment, we know instantly what is being portrayed. The film is extremely well done and each clip is carefully planned and placed into the video.

Anamorphic Typography

Anamorphic typography uses visual illusions and warped spatial interactions between a range of letter representations. This includes everything from standardized fonts to graffiti lettering.