It all adds up… and besides, it’s just plain wrong to argue with truisms. Find these and more bottom-line calculations here. (thanks Adrian)

Stockholm, Sweden

An intriguing re-telling of the Grimm Brothers’ well-known narrative—information design meets fairy tale. View the cleverly animated piece here.

(thanks Gregor Brandt)

Brooklyn, New York

…and then she turns them into art—so don’t say you haven’t been warned. She informed me yesterday that she now has a new website (you guessed it: www.wendyrichmond.com) and you can learn more about her here. Though I was already familiar with Wendy’s writing from Communication Arts magazine, I first met her in person six years ago at Anne Telford’s place in La Jolla—and I’ve followed her privacy-breaching oeuvre ever since.

Córdoba, Argentina

A portrait of (Ronald) Shakespear has mysteriously appeared in the form of anonymous grafitti on a park wall in this central Argentinian city, where the veteran designer was recently invited to talk to students. Says Ronald (quoting MacArthur): “I came through, and I shall return.” We don’t doubt it my friend, we don’t doubt it—though even the finest images can be fickle, and a pipe is not always a pipe… :-)

Somerton, U.K.

I’ve always loved clouds—while cloudless skies tend to leave me nonplussed. So it was with considerable pleasure that I stumbled across The Cloud Appreciation Society today. View a gallery of nearly 5000 cloud images here. Following is the Society’s manifesto…

~~~~~

WE BELIEVE that clouds are unjustly maligned

and that life would be immeasurably poorer without them.

We think that they are Nature’s poetry,

and the most egalitarian of her displays, since

everyone can have a fantastic view of them.

We pledge to fight ‘blue-sky thinking’ wherever we find it.

Life would be dull if we had to look up at

cloudless monotony day after day.

We seek to remind people that clouds are expressions of the

atmosphere’s moods, and can be read like those of

a person’s countenance.

Clouds are so commonplace that their beauty is often overlooked.

They are for dreamers and their contemplation benefits the soul.

Indeed, all who consider the shapes they see in them will save

on psychoanalysis bills.

And so we say to all who’ll listen:

Look up, marvel at the ephemeral beauty,

and live life with your head in the clouds!

Washington, D.C.

Another year goes by, and the world’s (now rapidly dwindling) ‘Superpower’ is still involved in ill-begotten warfaring in the cradle of civilization. When will it ever end… or will it never end?

Looking back to last year’s post (language warning still in effect)… here once again is ‘Stick Magnetic Ribbons on Your SUV.’

Dublin, Ireland

Indeed. (Sign on a beam in the Guinness storehouse).

Friday the 13th…

Be kind to the media buyers… ad placement and the context in which audiences encounter marketing messages have much to do with the success or failure of the intended communication. (Thanks to Matt Warburton for this link).

Untitled… via You Look Marvelous.