Designed to introduced the students to the fundamentals of art direction via set building, prop sourcing and creative lighting. Some of the results, as these shots below testify, were amazingly effective and convincing. Can you guess who’s rooms they are?

Another similar project involved set design and costume for a range of different characters.

The answers are: The Invisable Man – Winston Churchill –  Alfred Hitchcock – Lord Lucan – Eddie Shah – Christo – not too sure about the last one? Answers on a postcard please.

The 45 most powerful images of 2011, see them all here.

Via here and here.

Below are a selection of the sculptures some with the names some without and if you happen to be in Sydney I recommend taking a look.

Bondi Beach

The Yearning by Margerita Sampson

Domestic Bliss by Peter Tilley

The Nail by Juan Pablo Pinto & Clary Akon

Bronte Beach

When two giants of the New York dance scene came together the resulting brand had to stand out from the crowd. Strategically creating an organisation model that focussed on the cross genre collaboration of artists, we created a name that reflected this new approach -
New York Live Arts.

The resulting brand marque captured the energy and dynamism of the new organisation, and neatly illustrated the core proposition of bringing talent together. The brand goes from strength to strength and continues to be the most talked about arts organisation in the city.

New York Live Arts launched with an impactful advertising campaign rolled out across Manhattan. The concept was based around the aspirations of the people that make up the organisation, from co-founder Tony-award winning choreographer Bill T. Jones, through to the artists, staff and audience members. Commissioning acclaimed photographer Philip Habib, the result was an eclectic and engaging portraiture story that gave the new entity an inclusive and approachable voice.

A set of 3D photographs by Jason Hawkes of sites around the UK.

Grab your 3D glasses take a look, if you like what you see there is a whole load more on his website.

Gary Whitworth, 2nd Year student of Graphic Design at UCLAN has contacted TDOD with his self initiated project “Phonetography”.

Gary explains:
Technology is everywhere around us, including the palm of our hands. Mobile phones have evolved from being giant clunky boxes that required the strength of an Olympic strongman to carry, to being small futuristic boxes of information that can fit in the pocket of your jeans. Over 70% of the world’s population now has a mobile phone and with more and more phones containing a camera of some sorts it makes it much easier to capture important moments of your life on them. The problem I find is now that we have this technology we don’t use it to it’s full potential. Memories are stored on these phones and forgotten about, piled up amongst the pictures of yourself in the mirror or of a photo of your dog that you feel that everyone in the whole world needs to see on Facebook or Twitter.

My attempt with Phonetography is to release the great photographs that we all take on our phones, the pictures that have a story to them or that tell a story themselves and show them to the world before they get deleted or become corrupt beyond salvation. This zine is the first attempt at this and I hope you all enjoy it.

Here is a link to the blog page where you can download it :
http://designlame.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/phonetography-issue-1/

BH: I particularly like the shot above of the couple on the bus, not because as the photographer commented that…

“They just seem like they stepped in from another era.” 

A pretty common sight in San Francisco if you ask me, but that the guy has a Nordstrom bag on his lap (equivalent to House Of Fraser, with what looks like a recent purchase, probably by his wife?). Rock & Roll!

The website hubblesite.org contains galleries of hundreds of the images taken by the telescope in its lifetime, with many available to download at hi-res.

Not only are they beautiful to look at in their own right, but they can also serve as inspirational references when creating colour palettes and patterns for our design projects.

The end of the space shuttle program leaves no way of servicing Hubble in the future, and with no direct replacement scheduled any time soon it remains to be seen how many more of these photographs will be taken – buts it’s an amazing resource.

David Bowie

This was Bowie at the peak of his powers, changing rock n roll forever in 72′.

Hunter S Thompson

Anti authoritarian, Inventor of Gonzo Journalism and author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. There are a few Hunter posts on the blog, this one is a collection of his more famous quotes.

Johnny Cash

Andre the Giant. 

If you only read one article, make it this one. Describing some of the – quite frankly - INCREDIBLE drinking exploits of Andre the Giant. Here’s a snippet…

“You won’t find it in the Guinness Book of World Records, but Andre the Giant holds the world record for the largest number of beers consumed in a single sitting. These were standard 12-ounce bottles of beer, nothing fancy, but during a six-hour period Andre drank 119 of them. It was one of the few times Andre got drunk enough to pass out, which he did in a hallway at his hotel. His companions, quite drunk themselves, couldn’t move the big man. Fearing trouble with cops, they stole a piano cover from the lounge and draped it over Andre’s inert form. He slept peacefully until morning, unmolested by anyone. Perhaps the hotel people thought he was a piece of furniture.

Think about it: 119 beers in six hours. That’s a beer every three minutes, non stop. That’s beyond epic. It’s beyond the ken of mortal men. It’s god-like.”

French wrestler Andre Rene Roussimoff, best known as “Andre theGiant” during a Paris fashion exhibition. At 19, Andre reportedly stands 7 feet and 4 inches tall – 1966.

Wilt Chamberlain, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Andre the Giant, on the set of Conan.

The New York City Polaroid Project by Andrew Faris began Spring 2003.

“So I moved to NYC with my newly acquired diploma and my parent’s Polaroid camera. During the week, I worked as a web designer. But on the weekends, I hit the streets of NYC with my Polaroid and curiosity. To me, everything I saw was fresh and new and ready to be photographed,” says Faris.

Recently, he revisited the stacks of Polaroids he took from his time in the city. Now Faris has decided to share them online on the NYCPP.