Illustrator: Nyoin

View more work here.

Mental Health meets Wonderland: MD.net clinic

Japanese architecture firm Nendo was commissioned to design an unconventional space for a mental health clinic in Akasaka, Tokyo.

From Nendo: "Rather than getting patients back to a 'zero', a neutral starting place, the traditional model for mental health care, the clinic aims to provide patients with something extra: a further richness in their daily lives that they did not have before starting treatment.

"The interior design is an attempt to express this philosophy in space. The 'doors' that line the walls of the clinic do not open, and 'ordinary' parts of the walls open up into new spaces. The consultation rooms are entered by sliding the bookshelves sideways. The door at the end of the hallway opens onto a window; the amount of light in the hallway is controlled by opening and closing the door."

View photos of the finished clinic here.

Sculpteur: Stephane Halleux

View more work here.

Container City

Let's all go live in crates! Two hours outside of Mexico City, Container City is an eco-friendly metropolis made entirely out of recycled shipping containers. Restaurants? Yup. Bookshops? For sure. Your Momma? You know it.

CC is open Monday - Saturday from 10am - 8pm and Sundays from 11am - 6pm.

More info here.

Come Up To My Room

It's baa-aack!

The Gladstone Hotel is hosting the 7th Annual Come Up To My Room design event starting on Thursday, January 21st. Featuring 11 rooms and 16 public space installations from over 50 designers, it's something to get those creative wheels a-turning. More info here.

The Fun Theory: Piano Stairs

More on The Fun Theory here.

It Happens When Nobody's Watching

Agency Jung von Matt in Hamburg, Germany has won a Cannes Silver Lion for their powerful digital print ad on domestic violence. The outdoor ad for Amnesty International features an eye-tracking camera whereupon the image of a seemingly regular couple changes to an act of domestic violence when the observer looks away from the poster, accompanied with the tag line "It Happens When Nobody's Watching".

For more info, click here.

Walking The High Line

It's official! New York is the super coolest.







Welcome to the High Line, a raised park in the sky! Built on an old freight train track constructed in Manhattan in the 1930's, the High Line opened on June 8th, 2009. For more info, click here.


All images courtesy of the High Line Blog.

Earth 2100: Civilization at Crossroads

It's a rarity to actually see a program nowadays and be stunned by both the context and the aesthetic quality of the production. [Except for The Hills. That gets me everytime.] Earth 2100 is a 2 hour documentary that aired on ABC last night. Examining climate control, it poses the question if this is the last century for civilization as we know it.

Says Alexa Daner, a writer for ABC News, "In order to plan for the worst, we must anticipate it." Following this thought process, a sub plot of Earth 2100 is narrated by Lucy, a fictional character who was "born" on the evening of June 2, 2009. Earth 2100 follows Lucy through her life span based on predictions and imagined environmental catastrophes from real life scientists, environmentalists, and anthropologists.

Apart from the program being incredibly poignant, it's beautifully executed. Lucy's sub plot is animated in such a way that it would make all your Graphic Novels get together and weep with envy.


If you missed this program on ABC last night, fear not. Watch it here:
Earth 2100: Civilization at Crossroads

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To read more on Earth 2100, click here.

Watch: Sorry I'm Late

In about 50 seconds, this image of a man lying on the floor with a newspaper in his face will make much more sense to you. Written and directed by Tomas Mankovsky, Sorry I'm Late is a live action stop motion short filmed from an aerial perspective and acted out horizontally on the floor. It's all about a man's journey to get back home. Man, if only it were that easy! Now's there's no excuse to get home late!


To view the film, click on the image below:



Definitely worth checking out the Making Of page here.

We want SPOTIFY!

The next big thing to be making it across the music industry is Spotify, a search engine-esque jukebox of practically every song ever written. All you need to do is download & install and you can be listening to any song your wee musical heart desires FOR FREE. Move over, iTunes! You can even make playlists for friends and coworkers. The only problematic thing to Spotify is that you can't download the music files themselves, so they make a permanent home only within your Spotify account. No MP3 or iPod transfers here. As well, in order for that "free" bit to happen, a good ole advert pops up every five songs or so. If this annoys you, you can purchase an ad-free Spotify account for a monthly fee.

Sounds too good to be true!! Unfortunately for us CANADIANS, Spotify is not yet available in our country due to licensing restrictions. However, send them your email address here and hopefully due to maximum Canadianus volume we can get on that sh*t.

For the rest of you non-Canadians, enjoy Spotify! Know that we're deeply jealous of your free playlists and hate you.

Watch: The Story of Stuff

If you have a spare twenty minutes across the next week or so, give The Story of Stuff a go. This is an animated "short" about consumerist society, written and hosted by Annie Leonard. It's easy enough to understand if you're a baby to the term consumerist culture; similarly, it's invoking enough if you're already a sociological/ecological veteran. A great film to watch when we're in the midst of a recession - when our existing business structures are breaking down, what can we be doing to shift industries in a more humanitarian and environmentally friendly manner?

The film is produced by Free Range Studios, a production company built on the ethos of "Creativity with a Conscience"; namely providing creative branding, strategizing and execution for those on a mission to save the world. To view Free Range Studios, click here.

To view The Story of Stuff, click here.

Portfolio Night 7

Y&R Toronto have announced they'll be hosting this year's Portfolio Night 7 in the T Dot, woot! Designers, get them portfolios all shiny! The fun kicks off on June 11th, 2009. For those of you who've never heard of Portfolio Night, it's the brainchild of our friends over at ihaveanidea; an evening where aspiring Art Directors or Copywriters [i.e. students] are given the opportunity to show their portfolios to 3 different Creative Directors. Each student spends roughly 20 minutes with each of their 3 CD's. This is a great opportunity to get some feedback on your work, and for potential recruiters to see what's out there, so please try to check it out.

Not in Toronto? Don't worry. Portfolio Night is happening all over the world. For more information, click here.

Life's For Sharing: T Mobile

How much do you wish you were in Liverpool Street Station in January?!!

T Mobile's Life's For Sharing Campaign [2009] kicked off with 350 dancers secretly and strategically placed around London's Liverpool Street Station, who busted out into dance as soon as music started blaring across the concourse. The ad was filmed by 10 secret cameras on January 15th, and aired on Channel 4 on the morning of January 16th, 2009, going on for a decent run on Youtube.

The idea is nothing new - we've seen staged breakouts like this from Improv Everywhere in New York [remember Grand Central Station in 2008? Click here to view] and even our own little Subway Dance Party here in the T Dot, but lack of originality doesn't make it any less fun.

I propose we learn the moves and meet up at Union Station... anyone?

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, London

Pod Castaway

Can I have one?




For more info on Free Spirit Spheres, click here.

LOOKBOOK

I gotta admit, I love Mos Def. There's a little Mos Def shaped hole in my heart that beats everytime I hear Black on Both Sides, even if the album is almost ten years old.
I'm old.
Fear Not of Man is the opening track, and Def weaves in the beats with this beautiful prose:

"You know what's gonna happen with Hip-Hop?
Whatever's happening with us
If we smoked out, Hip-Hop is gonna be smoked out
If we doin alright, Hip-Hop is gonna be doin alright
People talk about Hip-Hop like it's some giant livin in the hillside
comin down to visit the townspeople
We are Hip-Hop
Me, you, everybody, we are Hip-Hop
So Hip-Hop is goin where we goin
So the next time you ask yourself where Hip-Hop is goin
ask yourself.. where am I goin? How am I doin?"

Too poignant for a post on fashion?



LOOKBOOK delivers Mos' prose in fashion form. Instead of leaving fashion to the Anna Wintours of the world, Lookbook users post their fashion finds and inspirations to spread the all-you-can-see buffet of user generated couture.

So the next time you ask yourself where fashion is goin
ask yourself.. where am I goin? How am I doin?
[And go to Lookbook for a slice of idea pie]

Reassuring words for Hipsters who feared their postmodern tailoring had sewn its last thread.

For more on Lookbook, click here.
For full outfit details on image above, click here.

Volunteer on your Cell Phone

I have to admit, I'm a terribly selfish volunteer. Last year I had the grandiose idea of becoming a Big Sister, until I realized that my 9-5+ schedule would not work out with my future Little Sister's 3 PM after school program. A brief brush with becoming a kitten feeder at The Humane Society followed [Sundays? Thursdays?], as did contemplating being Saturday staff at St. Michael's Hospital, but apart from all my thought-that-counts volunteering, that's as far as I made it. The thought.

For those having similarly pressing schedules and an unshakable desire to volunteer, The Extraordinaries have devised a program that can suit all volunteer time constraints. Through what they refer to as "micro volunteer opportunities", you can now volunteer for many organizations simply by using your cell phone. [And no, peanut gallery, not to make the call!]

How would you like to identify craters on the surface of Mars for NASA? Or tagging images for the Smithsonian? Or fact checking items for reporters on the run? If you have a smartphone and a pocket of time [waiting for the bus / a client approval / an internet upload / parking space], it's possible.

The Extraordinaries

View more presentations from benrigby. (tags: extraordinaries spare)

For more on The Extraordinaries, click here. Hats off to all the volunteers who do find the time.

DAREDALLION WEEK!

Woo hoo! Today officially marks the first work week of March - we've made it through the worst of winter, the sun is starting to break through the frosty clouds and - today is the first day of DAREDALLION WEEK in Australia. Darers, beware!

Daredallion Week is an event where participants are encouraged to take on a dare of hilarious proportions to fight against men's cancer. To view all of the latest dares, click here. Stuck for a dare idea? Use the dare generator here.

My personal fave is from Rodd Messent, who pledges to sign all of his work and personal emails for one week with: "with cuddles and love, Rodd". Check Rodd's progress here.

Up until this point the Darers have been collecting pledges, and will execute their dares once their pledge marked is reached during this week. The dare that launched it all features Adam [oh yes, Adam] on Bondi Beach trying to get airborn with helium ballons:



Awesome.

For more info on Daredallion week, click here.

1 Girl, 50,000 Cups

No no no no. Stop what you're thinking.

Tara Donovan has given us all reason to contemplate "waste not, want not." The New York artist has impeccable skill in taking materials that most would consider - well, garbage - and creating beautiful installations. This sculpture was made of just styrofoam cups and hot glue and hung at the Ace Gallery in 2003:





For more on Ms. Donovan's work, click here.

R is for Recession

A very reassuring email has been circulating around the offices in Toronto.
Due to budget cuts, this is your new cubicle:





To view more of your new beautiful office, click here.

Those looking to upgrade their condos can find luxury living under a roof of one of these babies:



It even flat packs so you can take it to work!