Gorgeous logos for Beckenridge Brewery by advertising and design agency Cultivator. These would definitely make it into my shopping cart as they fit nicely with my analogy of well designed labels. Any of you tried some of these?

For the most part the posts of my blog are related to design, music, photography…basically creative subjects. But every now and then I have the desire to write about everyday things and so I’m going to start incorporating those into the blog. So to kick things off, why not write about things that have bugged me today?

1. I admit that I watch a lot of HGTV, especially the shows dealing with finding a new house. For the most part I can cope with the varying personalities of the home shoppers, but it drives me nuts when the guys are mostly concerned with finding a house with a “man-cave” and when the women are constantly concerned about having granite countertops as if that has to be a built-in feature and you’d be crazy to buy a house without them. Shudder!

2. The commercial being run now by Discover that starts off with the line “We’re a nation of consumers…and there’s nothing wrong with that.”  I find it ironic how credit card companies are promoting themselves as the solution to the national debt problem.

3. The fact that Bernie Mac died today.

Shot live at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City on Icelandic Independence Day. With this Sigur Rós seal their number two position on my list favorite bands and are chompin’ at the heels of Radiohead.

Unbelievable images by Dutch photographer/designer Jaap Vliegenthart. Not all of his work samples are surreal like the ones above, but these stood out to me in particular because of their surreal qualities. I could totally get into doing work like this because I love to do composite work in Photoshop. Obviously no where near as easy as it looks, but I’d really enjoy the challenge.

Can someone tell me why our present day doesn’t look anything like these old depictions of “the future”? I mean, what happened? How could we have such amazing visions for how the future could look with the sleek vehicles and homes and end up with the Ford Explorer and David Weekly? 

In all seriousness, how cool are these illustrations? Aside from their visual awesomeness, they are all so beautifully done. Reminds me of the work of artist Ralph McQuarrie.

I’ve recently been introduced to Portishead’s music, recent meaning in the last 2-3 days, so I have a lot more listening to do before I make up my mind about the band. My first experience with Portishead is from their latest album titled Third which is their first release in 10 years and their third album to date. They have a big following and are widely respected by fellow artists such as Radiohead.

I don’t have much to say about the band, but I do really like the single “The Rip” from Third and the album cover is also pretty rad. This song is haunting and has been stuck in my head over the past couple days. I love when the song picks up around 2:12.

Portishead - “The Rip”

An additional treat is this video of Thom and Jonny of Radiohead performing “The Rip” acoustically backstage at one of their shows. I think Thom is the only one who possesses a voice capable of covering this song.

While browsing my usual feeds today I found this post by Jason Santa Maria about the website he did for Gary Hustwit’s new film Objectified. Hustwit is the man behind last year’s documentary Helvetica, a film dedicated to the life and influence of the famous typeface. I found Helvetica to be a fascinating film and the synopsis behind Objectified looks like it will be just as interesting.

Objectified takes a look at the world of industrial design and explores the creativity behind the everyday objects we use in our lives. The film will feature interviews with some very famous industrial designers such as Dieter Rams, IDEO, and Jonathan Ive, the Sr. Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple Inc….think iPod, iPhone, iMac.

The film is scheduled to release in early 2009. Check out some of the production stills on the site for a sneak peak.