Wooden Toy Magazine

"This is a world renowned skate and design magazine, the trademark of which is super slick design mixed with decidedly impressive content".

The wooden Toy Publishing Co is produced by Melbourne born art director, artist Timba Smits who founded the magazine late 2005. This is a quarterly magazine it comes out 4 times a year and has lots of beautiful, amazing artworks/designs inside, along with articles on artists and now even some advertising. I like the time & thought put into this magazine's layout, images & cover design; with each issue based around an overall theme. Publishing and distributing the most unique, limited and collectible art & design related magazines, books and products the world has ever seen.

 

Its the 'no rules' layout and design of this magazine that won it People Choice Awards 2007 for best designed magazine.

Review

"I have always been drawn to graphic design, fonts and everything that comes with it. Obsessed! But after listening to Timba I can now declare myself  mentally addicted. “Wooden Toy” is without a doubt the coolest, most beautifully designed underground magazine in Australia I have yet seen".

wooderntoyquarterly.com

Psychedelic!

These designer coca-cola bottles, with there use of bold curvy lines and vibrant colours are very retro!!

There also very modern with there imaging being digitally created, the packaging too having a metallic texture.

I'm not so keen on the two dull coloured designs (top left&2nd in from the right), I don't think they work as well as the brighter coloured designs. They are still nice just don't give off the same kind of vibe as the other 6. I think they would have all fit together as an overall design if they had bit more colour.

This Carmen-Miranda like bottle is the latest makeover of the iconic curvy Coca-Cola bottle. 

As a collectors edition this design gives a classic retro feel, with the bottles naturally curvy shape and decked out in cotton sleeves, a polka-dotted flounced skirt and tiny red earrings.

I thought this design was a little over the top at first...for a coke bottle!! But after looking at the other 7 out of the 8 designs entered into this competition, I think it is by far the best. Its very interesting & well thought out.

With the intention to walk down the runway at Milan's Fashion Week I think the designer considered this and sought inspiration for her design. This is just one reason why I think this design works well, the fact that she has designed for the target audience more so than just thinking up a design for the collectors edition coca-cola bottle.

...through this website you can also see the other designs entered into the competition & them in life size walking down the runway at Fashion Week in Milan.

http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.blogcdn.com/www.luxist.com/media/2009/10/moschinococacola_v_30sep09_pr_b.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.luxist.com/tag/coke%2Bbottle/&usg=__ixS7d1CI_fHDI4GnbeChQydVEx0=&h=437&w=291&sz=38&hl=en&start=69&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=MBY6J5AJX8nE8M:&tbnh=126&tbnw=84&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dretro%2Bcoca%2Bcola%2Bbottles%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN%26start%3D54%26um%3D1

Logo Moose

I find this website to be both interesting and useful as it has a full variety of inspirational logo designs, either image or text based or both. This website is regularly update with new materials, so it doesn't date either.

I stumbled across a couple of other logo based websites' such as logobliss.com which has some okay stuff on it too but it is limited, where logomoose.com has pages and pages to keep you inspired.

On logomoose.com

• your able to collect your favorites and go back and look at them any time you want instead of re-searching every time by creating a user account.
  

• you can submit your own logo design, logos can be rated and categorized accordingly
  

• They have a jobs tab, so if a client/business requires a logo design they are listed here with a brief overview of what the company does, where there situated etc... keeping in mind though these jobs usually go very quickly.
  

Couldn't just anyone access the website and steal someone else's logo might you ask, well no! They inform you about an easy to use program called myows, which is a providing a full suite of copyright solutions. It lets you store your protected works online for free. That way if you find out someone is using your work you can easily prove that you are the owner/creator of that particular logo, design, article etc...

logomoose.com

...taking advertising to a whole new level, check this guy out, our very own real life kwik-e-mart in Bladensburg, MD. Security guards have been hired to control the anticipated crowds.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/s/#1cqBcy/whatsthecrack.net/Real-Life-Kwik-E-Mart/

came across an awesome website, sumbleupon.com it has categories that you can pick from that interest you and it comes up with all sorts of stuf related to your search, pic, vids etc... all you have to do is take a look at the page thats loaded, if you dont like it just hit the stumble button to look for something new.

I thought this one was sweet, bit odd and freaky on some level but kinda kewl lol

http://www.stumbleupon.com/s/#1flwQb/bestiario.org/web/media/19/preview/index.php?id_proyecto=19/

I like the layered, textured effect they have used in this image, i think it may be a little too busy but still kinda quirky and interesting to look at, love the vibrant colours used also. 

Miso &Ghostpatrol

I admire the efforts of this duo, miso& ghostpatrol, strolling the streets of melbourne creating these large size artworks around the city streets when people sleep.

There works have I think a signature style about them, over the last year or two they have grown as artist, becoming more recognised for there works. Traveling and holding more exhibitions, they work non stop and love what they are doing. I think they are an inspirational duo, just getting out there and being noticed, doing something different that everyone can just enjoy on a day to day basis.

Miso originally from Russia, now teaming up with ghostpatrol in Melbourne, Australia. Works mainly with paper, pen and watercolour. Ghostpatrol is a self taught artist, working with blank walls and spray paint or with larger works, fine liner and cream paper which give more detail.Working in a studio in the city together, collaborating idea and motivating each other to succeed. 

How they feel about there work & as an artist want you the view to feel...

"Every piece has it’s own intent and ideas – but at the bottom of everything, I want to make art that’s beautiful and makes the world or the person better for having seen it, even if it’s temporary [as street art often is]. So much of contemporary art is concerned with ‘unsettling notions’ or ‘destroying comforts’ for really superficial and empty reasons,  and so much of it has alienated people from engaging in this esoteric rubbish that is made for a particular ‘enlightened’ audience, that it’s nice to make art which engages people and reflects some kind of beauty or inspires interest in the world.  That’s why doing work on the streets is such an important part of my work". Miso, wooden toy magazine

"I hope people who discover my art smile. It would be nice to awaken people from their normal live and transport them to a more beautiful place". Ghostpatrol, design federation interview

doco' on the duo...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2uycLPyt5I

Desk Top: #252 August 09' page 9

In this issue of Desk Top there is an advertisement for the drawing book 'illustration gets noticed' its pretty much an illustration studio for 

Art Directors who take pride in the originality of their ideas.

• Art Buyers who want to deal with a studio that takes responsibility for getting the job
   done on time and on budget at the highest quality.
• Any organization looking for striking imagery in order to stand out in the market or persuade investors.
• Creative people with an idea that needs to look great in front of their respective audiences and get their idea across.

They view potential artists portfolios every week and only select the artists with the highest quality illustrations and the lowest amount of overlap in style. To them "highest quality" is defined by reliability and speed of service as well as the highest standard pencils and final artwork. 

There are some interesting, well done illustrations and storyboards on there website but I was originally attracted to by the illustrations by Anton Emdin and Johan Potma this is when I looked into the website and found some other fantastic illustrations by David James and Ken Taylor.

drawingbook.com.au/new

Lola

"Lola's works are a gathering of memories, past moments and sentiments captured gracefully on her carefully tended panels". 

(wooden toy publishing co.) 

Lola spends most of her time in and around Los Angeles painting and loving her two little girls. Her works speak for themselves, each one telling a story. She likes the viewer to see that each body of work contains many pieces of the puzzle, giving them a 6 degrees of separation effect.

Her collectors each becoming connected, owning a piece or paragraph to the entire message.