DESKTOP BATTLE! Winners – Ghosts Edition

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The last Wednesday of the month has finally arrived which means I can reveal the winners of the first DESKTOP BATTLE! Almost everything I got was amazing and it was really hard to chose a winner but here they are in order

Our first place winner is Brad Haubrich. Brad resides in the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA, grew up drawing and skateboarding, and really hasn’t changed much over the years. I really love this image because as Brad describes it, ” It’s a ghost riding on a bike with everything he owns.” Ghost kitties and ghost umbrellas are pretty awesome, plus it makes for a great desktop with lots of free space for icons. Congrats Brad on being the CHAMPION!

Second place goes to Veronica Hebard, who’s way artsy fartsy and went to school at SVA in NYC and MassArt in Boston. Right now she’s illustrating three comics for independent publishers and working on projects with Image and DC Comics. When I first opened this image the first thing that struck me were the colors. I love the colors A LOT; the bright pinks, blues and greens compliment each other and give the scene a feeling of movement. Also, the anime influence, sort of reminds me of James Jean but doensn’t feel like a ripoff.

Gary Goa, the third place winner, is a web developer who dabbles in illustration and photography. Gary got the idea for this image from two places: his fascination with old cameras and the idea that they were once thought to steal your soul. I love ghosts and cameras. Cameras in some cultures are known to steal your soul so this whole idea of ghosts paired with cameras seems like a natural fit.

I just want to send a big thanks out to everyone who submitted! There were a lot to choose from and it wasn’t easy, but I totally appreciate everyone who gave it a shot. Be sure to check back on Monday, not next Wednesday, when I announce next month’s theme and fill you all in on what awesome prizes you can win!

Bobby

Verity Keniger

I swear, there’s something in the water in England, there are so many damn talented people on such a small island (with Australia coming up close behind!). Anyhow, the work of Verity Keniger reminds me of this, seeing as how she has a hand full of projects, most of them being really stunning. Her style is kind of all over the place, but I guess the common thread could be bright colors, some halftones here and there, and fun hand drawn items.

The pieces above are from a project she did for her degree, taking inspiration from Haley’s Comet and it’s journey around the sun. Though it looks like a single piece, but it’s actually made up of six different pieces that combine to make one awesome, record cover looking thing. I think the color of the pieces are perfect, and I’m totally obsessed with all the textures. My favorites are the sunburst on the outer cover, and the geometric shapes that kind of look like rocks, like I kind of want tattoos that look like those. Check out the rest of her work, lots of fun stuff!

Bobby

Poked Studio

I came across the work of Poked Studio the other day through FFFOUND! and I immediately started smiling. I couldn’t find much info about the studio, if it’s a person or a group of people, only that they’re based out of Wales in the UK. But their work speaks volumes, which looks like a cross somewhere between a crazy anime and Super Mario Bros. Lots of their work looks like a level to an insane video game, while a lot of their other work features a bunch of different kinds of mushrooms. All of it extremely brightly colored and could make your eyes bleed (in the good way). Take a peek, just be sure to wear glasses.

Bobby

Objectified, A New Film by Gary Hustwit

I’d like to think I know a lot about design, but when I watched Helvetica last year I definitely learned a lot about the font that I really had no idea about. It was also cool to see the opinion of proffesional designers and their thoughts and opinions on the font. So now it’s pretty exciting that Gary HUstwit, the director of Helvetica, has announced his newest project called Objectified.

The movie centers around industrial design, and the people who’ve made a huge difference in the field. It also talks about the designers and their motivations as well as our relationships with the objects the create and what we can learn about ourselves by the things we surround ourselves with. The movie so far has the creme of the crop when it comes to I.D. people, the list so far includes:

Paola Antonelli, Chris Bangle, Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Andrew Blauvelt, Anthony Dunne, Naoto Fukasawa, IDEO, Jonathan Ive, Hella Jongerius, Marc Newson, Fiona Raby, Dieter Rams, Karim Rashid, Alice Rawsthorn, Rob Walker with more to come.

I’m totally stoked about this film, seeing as how these are some of my favorite designers out there. The film should be release by sometime in early in 2009, so be sure to check in with the site to see when it’s playing in your area!

Bobby

Feed Cycling Project’s More Bike Less Car Campaign

As I get more and more into bikes I start to feel guilty that I’m not posting about art or design instead, the bread and butter of +KN. So thankfully I came across something that covers both of those needs! The images above are from an amazing guerilla poster campaign by the folks over at nabiis, which I think is a big bike crew over in Taipei, Taiwan. The project, called Feed Cycling Project, consists of these gorgeously minimal black and white posters featuring some amazingly beautiful photos of bike parts. They then wheat pasted these all over the place, I’m guessing Taipei, to hopefully get people to stop and think about making a change. I personally would just love to own all of these posters, I’ve been drooling over these for days now.

I’d also like to mention that I found this through Something Rotten, the love child of Aaron Bateman, who does a really good great job, so pay him a visit! I’ve also put some more images of the posters under the cut, so check under there as well!

Continue reading Feed Cycling Project’s More Bike Less Car Campaign…