The Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at the National Gallery in London is proving to be one of the most successful exhibitions ever, for good reason.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2011/may/09/leonardo-da-v...

The Guardian Newspaper has created this very cool interactive guide to some of his work, "from grotesque caricatures to sublime nudes", and it is well worth checking out...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/interactive/2011/nov/09/leonardo-...

And something positive for the holidays. The Holstee Manifesto on film:

(via Brainpickings: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/11/10/holstee-manifesto-life...)

Just saw this on the New York Times site. Unexpected to say the least. And all the better for that.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/garden/ice-cube-on-eameses-and-his-hom...

"Cinema is a matter of what's in the frame and what's out." -- Martin Scorsese

If you are interested in film, editing, and in action films especially, then these short video-essays by film Critic Jim Emerson make for fascinating viewing. In the first, by dissecting the chase sequence from Christopher Nolan's 2008 blockbuster The Dark Knight, he explores the language of film and how directors and editors will often dispense with visual logic and break the rules of filming in the pursuit of bigger, bolder, but not always better, action.

"Ultimately, everything about the movie -- the characters, the story, the emotions -- all come down to what is inside the frame, what's left out of the frame, and the associations that are made between different shots, as they're all pieced together. Compositions, angles, camera movements -- they take on different meanings depending on their relationships to the other shots around them. So, something that maybe isn't in the frame, something outside the frame, or something that may happen in the cut between two shots, can be implied, depending on how the pieces are put together."

Parts 2 (on Phillip Noyce’s 2010 film, Salt) & 3 (in which Emerson takes on classic chase scenes from Don Siegel’s The Lineup (1958), Peter Yates’s Bullitt (1968) and William Friedkin’s The French Connection (1971)) are below, too.

In the Cut, Part I: Shots in the Dark (Knight) from Jim Emerson on Vimeo.

In the Cut, Part II: A Dash of Salt from Jim Emerson on Vimeo.

In the Cut Part III: I Left My Heart in My Throat in San Francisco from Jim Emerson on Vimeo.

The videos and an accompanying essay by Emerson can be found at:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/pressplay/IN_THE_CUT_The_Dark_Knight_by_Chris...

And an annotated transcript is available here:
http://blogs.suntimes.com/scanners/2011/09/annotated_transcript_in_the_c...

Another great animation from the hit-parade of Russ Murphy's portfolio. Our animation director has been working on this funky visual mash-up for VERSIS ✖ DIBIA$E - FLY ME T'THE MOON.

VOCALS - VERSIS
PRODUCTION - DIBIA$E
DIRECTED BY - RUFFMERCY
INTRO/OUTRO SOUND DESIGN - TOM GUEST tomguest.tv

LIMTED EDITION VINYL AVAILABLE THROUGH FATBEATS.com

VERSIS: tiny.cc/9bqnc

DIBIA$E
10thirtyrecords.bandcamp.com
twitter.com/darealdibiase
mrdibiase.com
2011©

Special thanks to:
DuDuf for Duik! & Famos for Translation ..they know

A mighty collaboration with interactive developers BASIK (and a crash course in American college football) made this infographic for Nissan a reality.

Tasked with creating the visuals and building the front-end showing the progress of Nissan’s crowd-sourced vote in the Heisman trophy race, we went straight to the playing field and got the various players competing to make their way up the field.

A little dimensional illustration combined with some 3D rendering all built in Flash makes for a fun application that lets users see how their favorite Heisman candidates are doing. The application updates voting tallies daily and lets users see the progress of the race over time.

Oh, and now we know A LOT more about American football.

Some beautiful monkey business from our magic man, Russ Murphy.

N O Y O R K !

Directed/Edited by David M. Helman (davidmhelman.com)
FUCKERY by RUFFMERCY (ruffmercy.com)
Produced by Chris Bryant
Cinematography by Nick Medrud

Additional Animation by:
Tsvetelina Tomova
Maxime Bruneel
Ewan Farr

Additional Cinematography by:
Matt LaRoche

We continue our lovely work for Biomega with this latest tasty bit of packaging design...

...of starlings. Who knew? Not me. But this is "a magical case of mathematical chaos in action...all driven by the quest for survival." And it is jaw-achingly beautiful.

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

(via Open Culture: http://www.openculture.com/2011/11/chance_encounter_with_nature.html)

We've been working on a front cover design for The American Lawyer magazine alongside Jessica Walsh, and it's become a bit of a labour of love. Here's a few behind the scenes shots along the way...