DoubleFine Costumes!

Last year Lindsay and I got a group together to dress as characters from Double Fine's recently released game, Brutal Legend. Brutal Legend is a heavy metal themed fantasy game that was bursting with charming humor, gorgeous art and face-melting music.



It was kind of last minute, but everyone got excited and it turned out great! So great, in fact, that I entered our photos in a costume contest on Double Fine's site and we won!





And for reference, from left to right: Mangus, Eddie Riggs, Ophelia, General Lionwhyte and Kill Master.

Check out the whole set of pictures! And look out for this year's costumes coming soon!

Piece of Me Piece of You

Boo! I did I scare you? It's Halloween so I thought I'd try to make you poop your pants in fear!

This video is a few years old by now, but it's so cool that I go back and watch it every few months and I think today it's extra relevant.

Three Legged Legs have an awesome name and make awesome videos, animations and everything else, basically.

This was an ad for Microsoft's Zune. It might not be immediately obvious if you don't know anything about Zune, but the concept is to highlight Zune's ability to 'squirt' music to a friend's Zune, thereby spreading word of good music like a zombie plague.

But it doesn't matter what it's for because it's an awesome combination of sweet puppets, creepy atmosphere and music by the always-amazing Chromeo. It's so awesome it makes me want to cry, dance and sing at the same time.



For an added (trick or) treat, check out the 'making of' on their site! Amazing!

Time Lapse Landscapes

I don't know why time-lapse makes everything cool.



But it does.

Cataclysm

Whenever a new Blizzard game comes out, you know you're going to be in for a treat. Besides making great games, they consistently churn out some of the most amazing CG cutscenes around.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is approaching and it was cool to see the intro cinematic they just released.



They've got a different, interesting take on standard fantasy tropes (like dragons). Check out the wicked scary ice-bone dragon from the previous expansion Wrath of the Lich King.



Any although it's a different realm of fantasy, some of the cinematics from Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty might be the best of all.

Tim Flach

Tim Flach photographs animals. His gorgeous book Equus was dedicated entirely to horses. He just recently released Dogs, filled with a ton of amazing images of... dogs. Which (as you might know) is a subject very close to Paper Bicycle's heart.













Again, check out his site because it's absolutely loaded with brilliant photographs. Picking only six photos to share was difficult, I could have just as easily picked sixty.

Rogue Chocolatier

I almost can't believe how long it took me to realize I should post about this. Rogue Chocolatier is an award-winning, Minneapolis-based gourmet Chocolate company, and you will not often taste chocolate as magnificent as this.

Did I mention the packaging is beautiful, too?
One of the few ways you can try these delectable bars is by ordering online, though if you're in town, I'm also heavily in favor of visiting one of our favorite teahouses, Infinitea, and buying a bar there. Otherwise, at the moment, they're pretty hard to come by! (My favorite so far is the Rio Caribe)

Oops.

In the short film Oops, Chris Beckman's uses found video clips that all feature a camea being accidentally dropped. The videos are seamlessly stitched together, and it creates a strange experience that's both funny and filled with a surprising amount of tension.

It recently placed first in the Vimeo Awards' Experimental category. You cans see what Beckman has to say about the video here.

oops from Chris Beckman on Vimeo.

Marcel the Shell.

Marcel the Shell is directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp, and it's the cutest little animation. The real star of the show, however, is the voicework by Jenny Slate.

Apparently it's not enhanced in any way and so gosh-darn cute!

Andrew Hem

Andrew Hem works in gouache, oils and acrylics to create some great paintings.

Younger than Springtime- That's you.

I went on a vintage greeting card buying spree again (this is the second one this year) where I bought quite a few fun old greeting cards.







These are fantastic bright pieces from "A Sunshine Card" - where there is no limit to the retina burning neon awesomeness. Sometimes I wonder why design culture doesn't revisit some of this amazing stuff more often. - like - revive this sweet, sweet party-time amazingness, PLEASE!

I'm incredibly inspired by 50s - 70s illustration, particularly on wrapping paper and greeting cards. The only thing better than this is what they say inside.

"Younger than springtime - that's you. Happy Birthday"

Die Antwoord

You can finally buy $o$, the first full-length album from Die Antwoord. If you love bizarre, catchy, vaguely shocking (?) music and don't mind a heavy dose of absurdity they're definitely worth checking out.

Lindsay should really be writing this post, since she's been a little infatuated with them for about a year or so. If she had the chance, I think she would run off with the group's frontman, Ninja. And maybe I have a tiny crush on the group's (also tiny) female lead, Yo-Landi Vi$$er. Maybe.

I could post videos all day, but I think this one sums it up nicely:



Die Antwoord is a sexy and strangely lovable team.

Clever Tea Packaging

Two of the three of us adore tea. So - when I saw this post about all the amazing ways that people have dressed up my favorite drink, I just about died.


Natalia Ponomareva


Maum Tea Bags

If you want to see more ... head over
here

Rain Dance

Paper Bicycle, as a studio, loves to get down. When we come to a party we come to dance, no questions asked.

But these guys are so awesome it kind of makes me want to never try to dance again. Because I will always think about this video and realize I could never be so dope.

Hollis Brown Thornton

I remember when everything was VHS. It feels like it only lasted for five years (did it?), but during that time the recorded tapes my family had looked like they had been through several wars.
Hollis Brown Thornton has a number of intricate permanent marker drawings depicting VHS and video game cartridges. The specificity of these drawings is really great, and definitely does a great job depicting the well-used, hand-crafted look of a recorded VHS tape.


He's also on flickr, which might be the best way to keep up with his work.