We have just helped launched the new Illustrator’s Lounge daily blog. Focused on showcasing work from illustrators of all fields and backgrounds, it already has great content. There is even a ‘Cabinet of Curiosities‘ which is bursting with helpful free downloads like fonts and textures.

You can follow The Illustrator’s Lounge’s progress via their twitter page – @the_loungers

It is quite impressive (or shameful) to think we have been updating this blog for 3 years and not once mentioned Olly Moss. It is probably written somewhere you can only officially call yourself a design blog once you dedicate a post to Olly’s work. So to rectify this, I decided to post about Olly’s recent Art exhibition at Gallery 1988.

It was his first major exhibition and for it he created 300 stunning paper-cut silhouettes. All the silhouettes are based on Olly’s favourite pop culture icons, and it is a real treat trying to guess who they all are. You can check out a few of them here. To say the exhibition was a complete success would be an understatement—there was a 5 hour queue to get in on the opening day. Unheard of for a designer’s first exhibition. So congratulations Olly! I’m keeping my fingers-crossed your next exhibition is in little old London.

The Impossible Cool is dedicated to posting the coolest photographs of the coolest celebrities past and present.

After amassing a stunning collection of photographs Impossible Cool has recently partnered up with Sonic Editions to produced a set of 10 limited edition prints. Each print is limited to 50 and a framed print starts at a tantalising £69.

A little while ago we posted about the wonderful work of Ryan Woodward. It seems even the bigwigs at Google, with an eye for talent, admire the beauty of his animations too.

Today ( 11/05/2011 ) The Google Doodle is celebrating the Birthday of the ‘mother of modern dance’, Martha Graham, with a charming short animation from Woodward.

I recently stumbled on a great project by Jason Travis titled Personified. The concept being quite simple, take a portrait and the content of the subject’s bag. It works wonderfully, and creates a great set of images.

As a child, I must confess, I did have the terrible habit of rummaging through other peoples bag to find something odd or unique. Yes I have stopped that now, yes I do realise how rude that was. Personified offers a guilt-free alternative. Going through Jason’s photos I did start to create a liking or a disliking to each person based on the content of their bag. Eventually I wasn’t even really looking at their faces at all, just the bag’s content.

My personal fav is the last one

Surly this is so good it deserves a book, I hear you say. You are in luck! Just go to Jason’s Blurb page.

Previews of the new Anthology Project book are up! For those of you who do not know what The Anthology Project is, here is a brief description in their own words -

“The Anthology Project collects the comics of artists unified by their delirious pursuit of compelling narrative and notable artistic work in the medium of sequential art. Its humble intent is only to delight.”

This time around Joy Ang and the team used KickStarter to raise the funds they needed. With a target of $7,000, they managed to raise more than double with over 200 backers – not really much of a surprise for anyone who has seen the first volume. This volume seems to be much of the same great quality, just more of it! Check out the list of artist, my personal favourites are the Rhodes Brothers (Matt & Tom) and Rawls!

Some preview pictures are bellow, the rest can be found on Joy’s flickr page. You can Pre-Order as of the 14th March 2011 from The Anthology Project website.

Looking at the work of Hengki Koentjoro I’m finding it hard to remember when I have seen photography as beautiful and poetic. If I could take just one photo as stunning as his work I would die a happy man. His flickr page is a wash of jaw-dropping gems.

This is a simply beautiful piece of animation. Go to the Character Design Blog to check out a short making of. Also go to Ryan’s Vimeo page to watch more of his work.

found via Character Design Blog

Here is a little bit of wordy inspiration… Positive words often help to feed our creativity, this will forever be a classic and has a great retrospective outlook to life…..

“If” – Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you.
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat these two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!

I recently watched a beautiful video interviewing illustrator and animator Pascal Campion. It is such a engaging and poignant watch that I had to share it. Enjoy!