Philly’s award-winning design studio, The Heads of State, is a two man operation run by Jason Kernevich and Dustin Summers. After learning their design chops creating posters for Philly bands and music venues, the team has garnered such diverse clients as Starbucks, NPR and Modest Mouse.
I’m a big fan of their Travel Series. The art deco-ish group of city posters pays homage to America’s great cities and historical landmarks with spare graphics that draw inspiration from historical prints and tourism campaigns without being overtly retro pieces.
Orly Airport in Paris is experimenting with virtual boarding agent avatars to assist and inform passengers. The pilot project at Paris’ second airport, just south of the city, began in July, and has so far been met with a mix of indifference and/or confusion by most travelers.
The “2-D hologram” agents are actually rear projection images on to person-shaped plexiglass silhouettes. The marketing firm L’Oeil du Chat created the virtual agents by filming actual Orly staff.
Since the avatar agents are not yet interactive, the experiment seems to be falling flat. The few passengers who attempt interaction with the holograms are baffled or annoyed by the lack of response. Still, Aeroports de Paris which operates the city’s airports plans to expand the project through out Orly and to Charles de Gaulle Airport as well.
Dominic Boudeault shot this wonderful timelapse montage titled Timelapse—The City Limits from late 2010 through early 2011 in Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto, Chicago and New York City.
Who doesn’t enjoy Washington Post fiction critic Ron Charles’ hilarious video reviews? Well, he out did himself with this parody of erstwhile Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell’s new memoir, Troublemaker: Let’s Do What It Takes to Make America Great Again.
Last week some mindless troll took the time to create a Facebook page titled “I Hate Reading” and more than 437,000 other morons “Liked” the page. If that’s not sad enough, the “I Hate Books” page has over 271,000 “Likes”, while “I Hate Reading Books” has a mere 78,000 knuckle-draggers “liking” it.
The antidote to these feeble-minded pages comes from Lindsay Thompson and our friends at Abebooks.com
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Mash-up Franz Kafka’s groundbreaking novella The Metamorphosis with Frank Capra’s syrupy classic film It’s a Wonderful Life and you get this marvelously absurd short film.
Directed by Peter Capaldi and starring Richard E. Grant, the film won tons of awards including an Oscar and a BAFTA.
Part 3
Baker Jean-Louis Hecht operates a small chain of traditional boulangerie around Paris, but that has not stopped him from embracing a hitherto unthinkable method of delivering the iconic baguette. Earlier this year he began experimenting with a vending machine that heats pre-cooked baguettes and presents a finished loaf in a minute or so. The device is now selling more than 4,500 baguettes a month. Mon Dieu.
A very different trip around NYC:
Travel Between The Pages 