One Flag Competition.

Adbusters Magazine is hosting a competion to develop a flag that embodies the idea of global citizenship. The competition closes December 1 2008 and the winning design will be splashed across its magazine and developed into all sorts of other great paraphenalia. More details at Adbusters.

Note to self.

Must start launching original content into the blogosphere. Ideas in motion are:

• photo essays
• photo/typo/vector posters for free download
• free icon sets
• personal thoughts on design/science/
• personal thoughts on healing
• discovering the true meanings of things
• new thoughts, new things
• philosophical musings
• advertising awareness
• personal drawings, vector art
• connections between things
• focus more on unity of art, science, health, design

Design Source.

Mud Australia in Sydney does some really great homewares.

They also distribute Chilewich Vinyl wares including these floor mats which I know will come in handy someday, somehow.


As well as these universal shelves by Vitsoe that can be added to and subtracted from, forever and ever.

Amen.

Artists I'm liking right now.

The amazing Vania Zouravliov. More pics here though I'm not sure where his site has gone! 

Tommy Moorman at Albedo Design.

Max Ernst.

Antony Gormley.

Going Green: Extracts from Getty's MAP Report 2.

Image by Tommy Stockel 

_Extract 1 PDF

_Extract 2 PDF

Just released, the above links will take you to these quick downloadable PDF's of Getty's MAP Report into environmental awareness and its impact on marketing now and in the future. You have to pay big bags of money for the full report but the extracts are interesting in themselves - for both up to date information and some quality graphics.

Fan Video - Right from the Book of Right On.

Joanna Newsom - The Book of Right-On from Benjamin & Stefan Ramirez Perez on Vimeo.

Heaven.

Fan made video to Health's Heaven with film cuts from Werner Herzog's 1974 documentary The Great Ecstasy of the Woodcarver Steiner.

Little Forest.

Little Forest from Rinee Shah on Vimeo.

A.

Via Wikipedia.

Wear this.

Via Grandburo.

What's with Vitaminwater?

Image via HowStuffWorks

When I first came across Vitaminwater (VW) I believed it must have actually been a healthy product. This was good old fashioned water but better. Ot alternatively, a better choice over Soft Drinks. Why it's just Water. And it's got Vitamins in it. It MUST be good. But has anyone noticed how VW is absolutely everywhere now? It's all over the 'ends' of supermarket aisles - places usually reserved for such specialties as Cadbury's chocolate and Toilet Paper. So it's piqued my interest. Apart from the tell tale toxic colourings, is VW actually good for you?

Ones suspicions should be raised by this product on discovering that the producers of VW, Glaceau are actually owned by none other than Coca Cola. So, this likely explains how so much product gets pushed on to shelves, at the end of aisles and directly into your face.

But what's in Vitaminwater?

Nutrition Facts:

Calories: 50
Total fat: 0g
Sodium: 0mg
Potassium: 60mg
Total carbohydrates: 13g
Sugar: 13g
Protein: 0g
Vitamin C: 40%, Vitamin B3: 20%, Vitamin B6: 20%, Vitamin B12: 20%, Vitamin B5: 20% Potassium: 150mg per bottle

Ingredients: vapor distilled/deionized water, crystalline fructose, citric acid, vegetable juice (color), natural flavor, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), vitamin E acetate, magnesium lactate (elecrolyte), calcium lactate (electrolyte), zinc picolinate, monopotassium phosphate (electrolyte), niacin (B3), pantothenic acid (B5), pyridoxine hydrochloride (B6), cyanocobalamine (B12)

Alright. So far the stats look pretty good to me. But on closer inspection, one would notice that the quantities listed are actually per serving and VW lists one bottle as containing 2.5 serves! Wouldn't we typically drink the whole bottle straight up? Clever marketing and buyer foolery indeed! And the instant smash in the head to the health conscious is that suddenly, our sugar quantities are looking pretty severe. A can of coke has 140 calories in it - not far from the 125 calories in VW. Really, VW is just a prettied up Soft Drink.

And as for vitamins? Well, how much more do we need outside of a proper diet? And are we going to let a bottle of soft drink give it to us anyway?

Pictures That Make Me Think.

Ahhh. The warmth AND the horror of a mothers love!

Smart, looks good and it's easy on the urbanity.   

Does technology drain or replenish?

I like nice lettering.

Let's invent a new word and end the loneliness.  

I may well know a thing or two about tape splicing but would I really want to go back to that now?   

This weapon killed a lot of rebels in my jedi-fighting youth. 

Baby Brand.

Via ffffound>>

Children are such an untapped market. What a scarey thought. 

Photo Albums Most Worthy of a Flicking Through.

Vietnam 1967-1968

A set of 45 photos on flickr with an interesting back story to the photographers origins. 

Magnum Photos

Owned by a co-operative of worldwide photographers, this fantastic site houses some 400'000+ images chronicling the people, events, issues and personalities that make up our planet. While the images are for sale, the site also hosts some great exhibitions, video essays, a blog and a whole lot more photographic goodness. 

 

Abduzeedo

Awesome light graffiti projects. It's graffiti without the mess. 

SquareAmerica

This is a tremendous gallery of "vintage snapshots and vernacular photography." Be sure to check out the photo's from the series The Booth as well as The Faces - which is a pretty strange compilation of profile shots of young teenage women and one young man undergoing some kind of bizarre experiment.  

Sighmons Photostream

There's a lot of graffiti on here from a fellow Adelaide chap. But of real note is the photo set from an abandoned building of the Julia Farr Centre. These shots really make me want to go explore some of Adelaide's eerie haunts.   

     

Foundphotoslj's Photostream
There's a whole lot of vintage photo's here in different sets - from The Man Who Smiles A Lot to a bunch of pimply teen's from the 50's.

- I've gotta say that looking through these sets of photo's (many of which were found discarded and later secured by caring people) has made me feel a little melancholic. Be warned if you're prone to similar states.

Nanas home baked cookies.

Iconic little things.

Funny little icons and a whole swag bag of design gems can be seen in a curious and fresh little site hailing from Stockholm, Sweden by Paul and Eva: Fellow Designers.   

Make Some Noise.

The future of family dinners looks bleak.

Future Conscious is...

I've been collecting a library of images for a while now. Inspired by The Game, I wondered whether I could come up with some images that would capture what it is that I'm trying to create on this here blog. Sometimes I wonder what I'm trying to represent here at all. Whose values is this blog trying to uphold? Does it really matter what this blog is about at all and who really cares anyway? Barring about three people, is anybody else reading it? Are all bloggers too busy blogging on their own blogs to be reading anyone else's? There's so much good stuff out there, it's not possible to read it all - to be abreast of everything and still function in your own life!

For myself anyway, I think putting this blog together has actually helped me to become more aware of what's on the net that is actually positive, and not pornitive. A lot of the content thus far has not been overly original on my part, but at the very least, I feel it has helped me to keep focussed on what is life supporting and what is out there that can potentially offer us a more fulfilling and ultimately sustainable life. So, here's what Future Conscious IS, in a handful of random pictures:

Seeing the light with your feet in the dark.

Getting out of the box, getting back to nature. 

An open mind.

A recognition that brands are not impermeable to people.

The joy in simple things.

A focus on substance, quality, effort, authenticity....  

Seeing order in the chaos and harmony in all things. 

Reaching out to others.

 

Loving the beauty in the decay.

Technology AND Nature. Together. 

Looking at things from a higher perspective.

The security of place.

Sugar Sweet Fontage.

Sugar Typography by Marian Bantjes.