“jerry likes his dotty quiff”

Here via ffffound

Well! I’ve spent a fun filled week in London and while I was there among other things I went to see the newest installment in the Batman movies; The Dark Knight.

It is completely impossible to not have an opinion on the film, even if you haven’t seen it. With Heath Ledger rumoured to be up for a posthumous Oscar nomination you know you are about to witness something special.

I decided against seeing the movie in IMAX, just to save pennies, (even though it’s supposed to be amazing) and I took myself down to Vue at Islington and it was *fully booked!* No available tickets whatsoever! So failing that I booked ahead for the evening and when I came back, arriving exactly when the doors opened, the cinema was completely packed - again - so I had to sit a bit near the side of the cinema… but thankfully not too much so I didn’t have to crane my neck to see.

As you may have seen, I posted the first 6 minutes of the film on my blog so I did know what was about to happen at the beginning of the film, that didn’t make it any less chilling seeing The Joker for the first time on screen. Heath really does play a very chilling version of The Joker.

I don’t want to ruin it for anyone who hasn’t seen the film so I will be brief, but the entire movie was just excellent in every way. There are clever twists, there isn’t just one scheme for Batman to try and solve, but many. It keeps you glued to the screen all the way through the film.

The *only* problem I had with the movie was Christian Bale’s Batman voice.

If you have seen Batman Begins then you will know that when Bale slips into the character of Batman, he tends to get raspy and dark… but this really is something else. In the Dark Knight, he sounds way too much like its a joke, and at one point when Batman is losing his temper towards the end of the movie the gruntyness got so bad that I couldn’t make out what he was saying.

For any reason you were undecided about going to see The Dark Knight it really is a brilliant film, one that I’m sure you will appreciate seeing at the cinema.

This video wasn’t long enough, so we made it double-spaced.

Via CollegeHumour

That clever clogs over at Geenius just made a post on his favourite viral adverts of the moment, which I just had to share with you. There are some clever nuggets of graphic language included, advertising is definitely a good industry to be involved in if you can help it.

I love the American Apparel ad, though this could possibly be because I love everything about their brand.

In essense Dov Charney could either be seen as a clever guy for creating one of the most internationally successful clothing companies for the age range of 17-30 year olds (and still being able to keep the prices low) or a lazy man for tapping into what is quite frankly an obvious selling point. Having porn stars and scantily clad models in your clothes will obviously sell. Sex sells. Can’t there please be more than that? No. Apparently not!

Something that I do admire about AA is that while their models look positively post coital they don’t Photoshop them, which I find inspiring, it must save them quite alot of money too! I personally do not have a problem with the raunchiness of their adverts. I love the innuendo and the way they convey it is very well thought out.

For example, in the advert above, the use of the white bar refers to the fact that in the 1960’s a white rectangle used to appear in the lower right corner of the screen to announce upcoming explicit sex scenes. Clever huh?

Click over to Geenius to see the full adverts…

I’ve recently been made aware that the Zune is actually a nice little gadget. Anyone who reads my blog will know that I heart Apple, their iPods are not only brilliant quality MP3 players but they are beautiful pieces of design too.

Now there are some very obvious similarities between the Zune and the iPod’s design, just google image “Zune” and there are plenty of fan made comparisons, but something I am liking more and more are the customisation options for the Zune through “Zune Originals”

With Zune Originals, you can custom-build a Zune with laser-engraved artwork at zuneoriginals.net. Choose from over 50 exclusive designs, including seven by prominent Canadian artists, or add personalized text.

It’s something that Apple just wouldn’t do. You can have custom text engraving on the back of your iPod but no imagery. By displaying these particular kinds of new age graphic design imagery on the Zune website they are showing themselves to having a certain “taste”.

I like it.

Some really interesting projects here, these two are my personal favourites. This type project was constructed in a derelict apartment block and it looks really quite beautiful.

Another aesthetic project is simply an empty space with colour experimentation. The mixtures of the different palletes makes this neglected space look like something special - see thumbnails for the larger images.

Source

That is not computer graphics, that was really there! Yes it was. Oh no, it’s not a real dinosaur (ofcourse!) not much of a spoiler and you may have already noticed but watch again and check out the dinosaur’s feet.

I think that may possibly be the best costume I have ever seen! I bet you are already thinking of the first place you would wear it to scare some unsuspecting members of the public? Well who isn’t? :)

I found this image via fffound and it displays one of the growing interests in street art that doesn’t require psray cans or paint/stencils. It makes the world look a bit more fun and colourful.

The example shown on this page is by D.Billy and he has this to say about what he does…

Using colorful media such as twisting balloons, party streamers, and artist tape, I have begun to add visual representations of sound effects to public spaces as a sort of dimensional graffiti.

After embellishing the found scenes and photographing the results, I leave my additions in place to engage passers-by for as long as the materials hold up. For me, this process encourages a reexamination of surroundings and objects that are usually taken for granted, and injects a hint of the fantastical surreality that I have established in my other work.

Or, at the very least, I hope someone thinks these things are kind of funny.

I just found this video of the first 6 minutes of the Dark Knight (through Digg) and I hadn’t been bothered about watching it, I dont particularly like Christian Bale as Batman in the previous movie which didn’t help, but now I’ve seen this I have already booked tickets to go and watch it! Which I *never* do with any films!!

Set within a year after the events of Batman Begins, Batman, Lieutenant James Gordon, and new district attorney Harvey Dent successfully begin to round up the criminals that plague Gotham City until a mysterious and sadistic criminal mastermind known only as the Joker appears in Gotham, creating a new wave of chaos.

Batman’s struggle against the Joker becomes deeply personal, forcing him to “confront everything he believes” and improve his technology to stop him. Meanwhile, a love triangle develops between Bruce Wayne, Dent and Rachel Dawes.

I heard that Heath Ledger was supposed to be great in this film playing The Joker but I really had no idea. 6 minutes of awesome! Go and book your tickets too ;)

UPDATE: the link for this video was taken down so luckily I found it on my new favourite video site Vimeo

Thanks to George!