Visualizing Graphs

Visual Graphs from University of Florida:

"Graph visualization is a way to discover and visualize structures in complex relations. What sort of structures are people who do large scale computation studying? We can get a glimpse by visualizing the thousands of sparse matrices submitted to the University of Florida Sparse Matrix collection using sfdp algorithm . The resulting gallery contains the drawing of graphs as represented by 2541 sparse matrices in this collection. Each of these sparse matrices (a rectangular matrix is treated as a bipartite graph) is viewed as the adjacency matrix of an undirected graph, and is laid out by a multilevel graph drawing algorithm. If the graph is disconnected, then the largest connected component is drawn. The largest graphs have tens of millions of nodes and over a billion of edges. A simple coloring scheme is used: longer edges are colored with colder colors, and short ones warmer. 

uh...WOW....that's uh...yeeah...wow....this totally made me realize that I really don't care about whatever is written in that paragraph!! That's totally amazing!

How about let's just stare at these for awhile and forget about trying to analyzing whatever matrices and matrixesses in existance....I'm totally into that.

Via But Does it Float



Inspiration Pad

I can never write straight or inside the lines. And when I should be taking notes I'm always doodling anyways.... this inspiration pad by Marc Thomasset is perfect.



Starting the Year with a Little Attitude

I know most people tries to start the year with a great new year resolutions and to do things with a clear mind....but I couldn't help but be compulsive when I saw this AWESOME cat calender by Alex Lin (of Studio Lin) and got it!!
This lovely piece is a "limited edition 12 month calendar featuring beautiful kittens in United Bamboo Ready-to-Wear."
Each month is of a cat wearing especially designed outfits perfectly tailored & sized for the kitties...I know...
Now that's.....purrrrrtty cool.

I really don't think I can get as motivated for the year if I didn't get this!
On top of that, I'm also just a sucker for cleverly designed & packaged item. I just how Alex designs with a tasteful sensibility yet playful at the same time.
It comes in a beautiful silk-screened sleeve, and all the number on the dates are blind embossed onto nice  glossy paper. The very last page even has all 12 months silver foil stamped as well....drool....
....I think I died a little when I was holding it in my hands and looking at faces of these adorable cats in their fancy outfits...
and of course to top it off....they even included little brief bios about each kitty and even their petpeeves....
I know what you're thinking....I'm gonna become a crazy cat lady...
but guess what?.....you probably right...that might just happen.



Drawings that are beyond awesome

I must share these super duper awesome drawings by our dear friend Emily Glaubinger (above)!
Check out all her amazing work at her blog, Drawing is Awesome.

Emily will be showing these amazing portraits at the Nooworks in SF this October 23rd. Looks like another great shop in the Mission district!I'm also totally obsessed with these Keds that she designed!!!
To make things even more difficult, all these Keds can be fully customized from the thread color, lace, sole & even down to the trim....just crazy.

Fruity Goodness

This post is inspired by my previous post about juice boxes by Naoto Fukusawa!
An Apple A Day poster by Vik. Stick all the apple stickers on there! It's cool looking AND healthy!
This ring by Jia Style. It's named "Burning Volcano", but it totally looks like a strawberry to me!
Sweet fruit calender by Claire Nereim.

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

L&G Storytime No.8: Visual Feast for Two

L&G would like to share another book!! It's Betty Crocker's "Dinner For Two" Cookbook FILLED with amazing illustrations by Charley Harper. This cookbook is a total feast for the eyes especially for all of the Charley Harper fans out there.
We like how these illustrations are looser and more playfully sketched than a lot of his other work.The cookbook is also filled with recipes for American favorites such as these delights below:Roast beef, broiled hamburgers, speedy baked beans, green salad, quick brown bread, biscuits, apple pie, and strawberry shortcake. Mmmmm...
Try as they may to make the food photography look appealing, you can literally feel your arteries clogging as you look at the spreads. Thank goodness they had Charley Harper illustrations to keep the photos of shellacked roasts to a minimum.
You can see tons more images, here.

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Girard Girard!!

Just saw over at Grain Edit that House Industries came out with a WHOLE line of products with Alexander Girard's illustrations and graphics! I've been a huge huge fan of Girard's work for years now and it's great to see that his spirit still lives on. House Industries dedicated 4 years capturing the essence of Girard's work and spirit. They first started off creating some font types....then next thing they knew, they were designing toys of all sorts, plush dolls, books and more!
See their whole collection and their great website, here.
Girard is an iconic Modern American designer who managed to integrate his expressive and vibrant colors, patterns, and graphics in everything imaginable. I couldn't help but include a ton of images of Girard's work. They're all just too good! Let's look at all his amazing accomplishments...
he designed textiles for Herman Miller (these are re-pros of his prints on maximo) God! I want all of that!
he designed a whole line of furniture,
did the branding for Braniff airline (remember those fab & glam pink and orange airplane interiors? Yup that's Girard!),
designed the interior for La Fonda Del Sol Reasturant, even down to the smallest things like the cups, glasses, teapots, mugs, plates, placematts, utensils, napkins and everything!

Girard is just like all his other crazy Herman Miller friends from the 50's (Eames, Sarrinen, Noguchi, George Nelson, etc.) who paved the road for modern American design. I don't understand how they all managed to make everything they did so totally awesome.....I swear the crack must of been better back in the days or something...there's just no other explanation.

Here's also a little Girard 101 by Todd Oldham below:

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

L&G Storytime No.4: Parlez Vous Francais? Oui!

Bonjour à nos amis! Today’s Poppytalk Storytime centers around the graphic treasures of the 1960 French language book Parlons Francais.

You don’t want to end up like Brett and Germane, so follow us and Parlons Francais and brush up on your French!

What better motivation to learn a foreign language than the promise of an incredible, neat illustration waiting for you on the next page? Learn some words and you can impress pretty much anyone! We learned some French terms and now use them on a daily bases! We like to walk the corner market “Sept-Onze” (or more commonly known to Americans as 7-Eleven) and pick up a croissant and a slurpeé using our superior French speaking skills. We come off so cultured.

Parlon Francais is a set of 8 mini-books that are full of charming illustrations that make the leafing through them a delight. The best part is that each book has pages that can be removed and played on a record player for pronunciation.

Here are a few lessons along with some darling visual aids for you (read and repeat aloud…you want to learn French don’t you?): “Comment allez-vous?” - How are you?
“l'oiseau est dans l'arbre” - The bird is in the tree.
“L’Oiseau et Le Chat” - The bird and the cat.
"La Famille" - Family
"Nous allons en vacances" - We go on vacation.
"Mes chaussures sont de très petites" - My shoes are very small.
“Je voudrais un grand ballon rouge, s’il vous plait” - I would like a large red balloon please.
“Regardez-vous les animaux” - Look at the animals

Now you know all these phrases, your homework is use them and we'll gurantee that you'll impress someone...unless that person happens to be French. Au revoir! You can see more images, here.

Jean & Dylan
Ladies & Gentelemen

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Sweet DIY Valentine Treats By Twig&Thistle

Kathleen from Twig&Thistle blog made these darling DIY treats with lovely packing designs she made for anyone to download (printable straight from your printer!) It's super cute and I'm totally gonna try making them!!Kathleen has a wonderful blog where she shares lots of her own delightful DIY projects and designs as well as things she likes such as graphic design, packaging design, weddings, kid's design and everything lovely and sweet!! We were delighted when she included Chikabird's new Animal Love Patch Kits on her blog! Thanks Kathleen!

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

What a Bunch Of Tools!

Brooklyn based, Dan Funderburgh is an artist and wallpaper designer. I'm in love with his bold and intricate laser cut tool installation. I love tools, peg boards, and laser cutter. It's as if Dan designed and created this specifically just for ME. Thank you Dan, I'm so flattered. Now I just got to use my non-existant retirement fund to purchase this beautiful piece of art.
Beside making amazing laser cut work of art, Dan also designs beautiful wallpaper. He incorporates everyday object and tools to create patterns that are both stunning and playful at the same time. Dan's wallpaper designs are available through Flavor Paper for $150 a roll (27”×15’)
Not too expensive considering it would be an instant facelift to a space! Thanks Dan for bringing awesomness to our world! What a great guy, I tell you.

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

L&G Typewriter Round Up!

L&G Shop is back!! And oh boy, do we have some fantastic finds! First things first, I just have to say that this Olivetti graphic for their typewriter is the coolest thing I've seen! We happened to have painted one of our walls similar to that green! Plus we have an aqua Olivetti typewriter which we're totally gonna hang it on the wall as a display! Now I just gotta convince Dylan to paint one of the walls with that pink...Dylan and I gathered a collection of diversely vintage typewriters. The antique industrial Remington, mid-century Italian Olivetti and classic Olympic, and all are available on our L&G shop! We're psyched about these since each and every one of them are in great working condition. They all have fantastic color schemes and design details! There's nothing that compares to the satisfying clicking sound of the keys.
Check them out! If you're into Olivetti typewriters, check out this site to see all their vintage designs!

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Always Judge A Book By Its Cover

I was browsing around on ebay and found this ebay store selling tons of great vintage books with awesome graphics!! I just love the fantastic color pallet and the simplicity of shapes and illustrations used. Since I'm on a spending freeze (recommended by you know who), I figured why not just save all the awesome graphics for reference!I spent way too much time looking through every page to find the best ones. So you're in luck ladies & gentlemen. Here's a little feast for the eyes of fun book covers!! ENJOY!
All the muted colors on these kid's books look so well all together!
My favorites are the two covers using pink and grays with the playful texture. The beaker filled with letters! It's just brilliant!
You can see all these covers plus more on my flickr vintage graphics set.I'm REALLY curious to find out what this book, "The Fugitive Pigeon" is about..... Maybe it's a suspense thriller story of those two guys (on the top left corner) chasing the pigeon for stealing their lunch. But the main character (the Pigeon) was in fact framed by another pigeon who looked a lot like him. The fugitive pigeon had to leave everything behind...even it's family of 3 eggs. He migrated to an entirely different state with a new identity, life, wife and eggs...everything. The Pigeon was living a peaceful life working at some small town Wal-Mart getting by with amazing employee discounts. Until one day, the guys tracked down the pigeon with their GPS navigator & iPhone and found the Pigeon and kidnapped his family. Will the Pigeon save his wife and couple of eggs? Will the Pigeon be able to find out who framed him and be able to resolve this misunderstanding? Will the Pigeon escape this predicament? Will the guys come to a realization of how ridiculous it is to be chasing a pigeon? What could this book possibly be about?!

-Jean

All images provided by Locobeans Loft

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

The Good Old Days...

Chika showed me this fantastic graphic design blog, Grain Edit with lots of collections of graphic design posters/packaging/books/etc. from 50's-70's...which we can all agree was the best time to be a designer....oh the good old freakin' days....before I was even born. UGH! It's so unfair!! It's not my fault that I was born in the 80's!! What really got me was this recent post about these set of alphabet animal match boxes by Jose Maria Cruz Novillo + Olmos! It's like a kids' book, but 20 times better, since they're in little precious match boxes!! It’s all just WAY too colorful and clever…it’s unbearable for me to look at each of them. I can't stand it!! The monkey…looks like he’s picking his nose!? I mean COME ON!! SHUT UP!!
Okay, I think need to shut myself up now…. :D

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Postage Stamps

I was browsing once again and found this Japanese site called, Turtle Rattel Factory, selling vintage postage stamps from Japan, Russia, Denmark, France, and few other European countries. They have a collection of all sorts of playful and colorful cute stamps! I love vintage stamp designs, and these ones just melts my heart looking at each one of them....sigh.

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Uh-mazing Cuban poster designs

I was just browsing around on the internet and somehow found this Ebay store, called Home of the Cuban Posters, with tons of beautiful and striking Cuban movie poster designs for sale. I'm in love with all the bright bold colors and playful abstract interpretations of the movies. They're reproductions, but nonetheless they would still look amazing framed hanging around the house. Truly inspiring to see all together.

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious