What are YOU doing tonight? If you’re in downtown Seattle, stop by ZGF Architects for a visually stunning presentation from Voices of the Earth. Led by photographer Robin Acker Bush, this company uses nature photographs—mostly underwater settings and stone formations—in environmental graphic design. According to Bush, these images, which show small organisms in large scale, seek to “connect us spatially and experientially to the natural world.”

Hope to see you there!

EVENT DETAILS:

Thursday, February 2, 2012
5:30-7:30
ZGF Architects
925 Fourth Ave., Suite 2400
Seattle, WA 98104

FREE for everyone (whether you’re an SEGD member or not!)
Light snacks provided

Image via Voices of the Earth

This week we’re celebrating Steve Jobs’ impact on design, turning eyesores into artwork, and savoring some tasty typography.

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Typography and cookies. Could there be a better combination?

Uniting people around the world through laughter and balloon hats.

The ABCs of Bacon.

A Nebraska non-profit turns abandoned grain silos into artwork.

Haven’t you always wanted a beautiful, handmade wooden bicycle? Well, you’re in luck.

Jobs’ 2005 commencement speech at Stanford: how a calligraphy class shaped the future of Apple, connecting the dots in your life, and creating great work.

Image by Jonathan Mak, via My Modern Met.

We’ve spent this sunny week brushing up on our Heavy Metals, checking out Ferrari designs, and tweeting doodles.

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How would you redesign the Ferrari?

Noma Bar’s minimalist negative space portraits capture the personality of famous figures from Einstein to Shakespeare to Kim Jong-Il.

Chemistry class would have been way cooler if we’d studied the Periodic Table of Heavy Metals.

A great collection of the artwork of record centers labels that definitely deserve to be the Center of Attention.

Tired of trying to express yourself in 140 characters? Try doodling instead.

Keep those Parmesan pencils sharp.

The London Olympic medals are revealed.

Image: Noma Bar’s Albert Einstein portrait for The Economist (via Brain Pickings).

This week we discovered place-making at a bus stop, turning data into art, and the fanciest backyard playhouses around.

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Making a bus stop into a pleasant place to pass some time instead of a place people are eager to leave.  

Sheesh, the cost of some of these playhouses rival that of an actual house.

Nathalie Miebach doesn’t let the weather rain on her parade — she turns it into musical scores and sculptures. (via Brain Pickings)

These artists are turning records and floppy disks into art.

Think you can trust that barista with the Hulk Hogan ‘stache or the mailman with the seemingly innocent neck beard? Think again.

Images: Nathalie Miebach’s weather-inspired art.

This week we met people who turn their cars into works of art, learned why so many wine labels feature “Animals Doing Things,” and brushed up our logo history.

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Go ahead, judge those bottles of wine by their labels.

Behind the creation of one of the world’s most memorable logos (done by a graphic design student for just $35!): the Nike ‘swoosh.’

A recap of last week’s Worldwide Developers Conference recap. In song, of course.

Fascinating collection of pictures of pictures of the past in the present (got that?).

Painting a Ford Pinto to look like the horse? Makes sense to me (and to all the “art-car” enthusiasts).

Image: Dear Photograph

From street-art-infused music videos to clever marketing campaigns, and the other news items we’ve followed this week.

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Death Cab for Cutie and Shepard Fairey collaborated on a great music video that looks at “redefining familiar space,” through street art. (via ARTINFO)

It may be missing the steaminess of the Ghost pottery session, but this digital pottery wheel and 3D printing is still pretty darn cool.

Touring Google Art Project is amazing: you can collect artwork, walk through famous museums, and examine (with serious zooming action) the tiniest details of the works. 

Creative and attention-grabbing guerrilla marketing (like the clever Axe exit signs, above).

Get a refresher in Dieter Rams’ Ten Principles for Good Design.

Wondering if you’re following sushi-etiquette, curious about Ai Weiwei’s new installation, or trying to get your kids interested in math and science? We’ve got you covered.

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Dos and Don’t of sushi-eating. I’m pretty sure I’ve been doing it wrong…

The process of creating the New York Times Magazine cover.

After his arrest a month ago, Ai Weiwei’s “Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads” was unveiled in NYC this week.

These “cinemagraphs” beautifully combine photographs with animation.

Maybe the best way to get kids excited about science and math is to show them the amazing things they can create (like the awesome bike, above).

Image: Alpha, created by UPENN students.

This week, we’re enjoying Icelandic potato chips, sculptures that move on their own, and a mother’s first typography lesson to her daughter. 

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Michael Graves on cleaning, the color blue, and the “democratization of design.”

Great package design for new, purely Icelandic potato chips.

A designer gives her daughter her first typgoraphy lesson.

This kinetic sculpture is both really cool and kind of unnerving.

London, from A to Z.

The international arts community is calling for the release of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei with a petition started by the Guggenheim Foundation.

Home Depot re-branding? It’s almost too good…

Goooooooal! Awesome animation of Gareth Bale’s hat trick against Inter Milan.

Do you think they had the kids colors these pictures before or after they doused them in drugs? (The pages, that is, not the kids.)

A bright green idea in athletic field lighting.

It’s a squid! It’s an alien! Oh no, wait, it’s just a Zaha Hadid-designed civc center — and it’s created quite a rift in this central California town.

It may look like a pipe, but trust us, Ceci n’est pas une pipe (and other great art pranks).