Shearing Time

Oliver Sacks on Visual Hallucinations... Including Cartoons!

The Crazy Art & Design of Jordy van den Nieuwendijk

The Art of Robert Burden

The Hubcap Creatures of Ptolemy Elrington

The Location Designs of Armand Serrano

Cookie Monster goes into Withdrawl

From 1990, the final appearance of my favorite Sesame Street comedy duo, Ernie (Jim Henson) and Cookie Monster (Frank Oz).

Of course I like Ernie & Bert, Kermit & Grover, and all of Jim & Frank's other great double acts, but there's something about seeing Ernie & Cookie together that I always really enjoyed.

Picture of the Day

Larry thinks of a good way to escape jury duty:

Pumuky's "Los enamorados" By Nacho Rodríguez & Gina Thorstensen

Infotoons by Lunchbreath

Image: Lunchbreath [Flickr]

The Road - Trailer 2

It's still hard to tell if The Road is going to be an overblown Roland Emmerich of a mess or a post-apocalyptic classic that will do its source material proud, but just from this new trailer I'm ready to give the film its first two awards.

Award 1: Best Score That Makes Me Think the Trailer Will End with Someone Landing on the Moon. I'm not sure if this is the film's actual score or a track lifted from a classic I'm failing to recognize, but hearing it has me on the edge of my seat waiting for that American flag to strike the lunar surface.

Award 2: Most Disarmingly Gratuitous Use of the Wilhelm Scream. If you're going to be that blatant about it, it should at least be followed by a cartoon "splat." Or maybe it was the not-so-famous Howie Scream, I don't know.

Graphic Designer vs. Client

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (End Credits)

Todd Hemker: We took our cues from directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who wanted to end the film on an absurdly happy note set in a utopian trippy wonderland made out of food. We worked from story ideas already developed by them that would help provide some sense of resolution with the storytelling of the film (i.e. food did NOT destroy the planet, the formation of a tight bond between father and son, the corrupt mayor getting his just desserts, etc…). The unpredictable nature of the titles was already “built-in” by the directors’ original vision for the piece. However, when you know the story and characters from the film, you see that the titles are a mix of tying themes from the film together with things that are just plain silly. Our inspiration in many ways mirrored that of the directors and designers at Sony. At our initial meeting with them they referenced the Muppets, the film Twice Upon a Time, the illustrator Miroslav Sasek, Yellow Submarine, Monty Python, Schoolhouse Rock, and Xanadu.