The gentlemen behind design less better are busy hammering out the nuances of ethical design.

Here at arctic oak, we are happy to let them do so and occasionally grift an awesome image or glean an interesting idea. ( Just so you know where we stand in the ethics debate, it is pretty squarely in the grifting and gleaning camp.)

As General Mills stands ready to roll out their retro design, nick senske ruminates on the intent of the throwback and what the design evolution says about modern culture to good effect.

Also, I have quietly enjoyed design less better’s logo for quite some time.

Still smiling, one month later.

The children of DC are safer without Cheney’s dark shadow circling the sky. Although, baby calves thoughout rural Montana should be nervous come January, cause Cheney’s supply of fresh baby hearts is going bankrupt …this is the only recession that will effect him.

Anyway, I don’t care how broke we are as long as those “conspirators, card sharks, double-crossers, and secret betrayers of their own people” leave Washington.

Amen.

PS. I don’t remember how I found this painting from Africa, but it is super bad.

An idiolect is a variety of a language unique to an individual. It is manifested by patterns of word selection and grammar, or words, phrases, idioms, or pronunciations that are unique to that individual. Every individual has an idiolect; the grouping of words and phrases is unique, rather than an individual using specific words that nobody else uses. An idiolect can easily evolve into an ecolect—a dialect variant specific to a household.

If you want to argue about it, go here. Personally, I’m off the Stanford Sauce.

via

About a week ago I heard, in the background of my day, a NPR interview with the photographer, Art Shay, who took these famous naked pictures of Simone de Beauvoir.

I cannot find the interview now. There may be better articles than this out there, but I could not find one readily. I also could not find one that did not dilute the debate about whether the magazine fails to honor an influential theorist for her works or succeeds in honoring, as a part of her work, her courageous and unselfconscious sexual freedom, by commenting on “how nice her ass does look.”

Does this mean that if her ass was wrinkled and frumpy the truth about the gesture would be easier to come by?

KW

It took me awhile to appreciate the ornate and intricate nature of Rococo design; I tend to be very why draw two lines if you can draw one well? But, you know, slowly, slowly I go along.

Often confused with Baroque design, Rococo pieces intended a move away from the solemnity and reflection Baroque art and architecture meant to evoke.

It seems to me that the Rococo notion of design for designs’ sake is itself a philosophical notion that leads directly to reflection. But, I’ll leave these matters to the professionals.

There is an excellent book called The Fold by Giles Deleuze. This work examines the notion of straight and curved lines as Deleuze theorizes the foundations for Baroque philosophy by examining Baroque artifacts of architecture, literature and mathematics. At just over 100 pages, it’s probably some of the most enjoyable (if dense) modern philosophy out there as it weaves contemporary aesthetics into the concept of, “a body of infinite folds and surfaces that twist and weave through compressed time and space.”

If you believe the San Francisco Guardian, “the scope of Deleuze’s understanding makes this book pertinent to artists, writers, architects or anyone generally interested in ideas.”

Oh yeah, and visit here to view more fantastic Rococo objects.

photos Matt Flynn.