I probably spend too much time on Tumblr, because I immediately recognized that Sairobee’s Black Friday comic depicts Iron Man, the Hulk, and Hawkeye without any more context than the first two panels. If you’d like to know what happens when Bruce Banner has a little too much Holiday shopping, you should check her Tumblr. I like to think that during this Black Widow is on the Helicarrier, gamely still trying to explain traditional Thanksgiving movies like Home Alone, Mystery Science Theater, A Christmas Story, and The Iron Giant to Thor and Captain America.
A little while ago, Jaimie Alexandertold an interviewer that she was getting more involved with the children’s hospital in LA and hoped to go in-character to hang out with the kids sometime soon. Well, she did this week, giving out posters and DVDs and letting the kids pose with Sif’s sword and shield. Cuuuuuuuuuuute.
So here’s a fun way to burn nineteen seconds of your day as you count down to Thanksgiving. In a 1994 interview with Connie Chung, Bill Gates’s ability to leap over small objects came up, which of course means he had to demonstrate, which of course means the internet unsurfaced that quick cut almost twenty years later and set it to “Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangster.”
“It depends on the size of the chair.” Yes it does, Bill. Yes it does.
Recently, as you may recall, we announced our plan to subvert the annual elections for baseball's Hall of Fame by buying votes from voters. Our idea was to make a mockery and farce of the increasingly solemn and absurd election process, and to take some power from the duly appointed custodians of the game's history and turn it over to the public.
Launched in 2005 Google Maps has been providing, well, maps to the world and has evolved into one of the most robust and helpful online thingies ever. Since 2007 Google Maps has provided the option for Street View, a ground-level, real-life, 360-degree view of streets where you are aided by a little yellow man to find your orientation (geographically speaking, that is). That little yellow man has a name: Pegman. In May, Google introduced a new version of its map application going from "Classic maps" to "new Google maps" and took the opportunity to redesign Pegman with the help of B-Reel. (A few additional details and images can be found at Matt Delbridge's Behance project page).
This redesign provided an opportunity to align Pegman more closely with current Google aesthetics. In considering Pegman's role as an ambassador for the brand, it was important that he appeared strong as an icon, while, at the same time, not losing his personability or his most identifiable characteristics. For example, the telltale triangle on his chest has remained, but by adjusting his proportions, we hoped to improve his readability at small sizes within the product.
Pegman detail.Rotation samples.Pegman in Google Maps. Four of the 200+ costumes. See all here.New Pegman introduction.Family portrait.
It goes without saying that this is far from our typical reviews but still a before-and-after is a before-and-after and this fits most of the talking points of any logo and identity. Both Pegmen have their merits and I don't think one is necessarily better than the other. The old one was less human and more like a Monopoly token, which made for a nice metaphor of placing it on the board of, like, Earth. But it felt a little robotic and impersonal. The new one is more like someone you would want to have a beer with. It's more human and relatable and obviously has an advantage in gaining popularity by its myriad costumes. Accessories aside though, the new Pegman does feel more usable and helpful within Google Maps with a much clearer sense of direction and volume. His head probably needs a bit of shading to help it become part of the body but other than that he seems like a great travel companion.
Established in 2002, Feral Brewing Company is a family owned and operated hand-crafted craftbrewery in Perth, Australia. Its range of beers, from White Beer to American IPA to Porter have made Feral one of the most popular craft breweries in Australia and one of the most celebrated, having won many prizes at the Australian International Beer Awards, including being the current titleholders of Best Large Australian Brewery. Yet, Feral remains unknown to less discerning beer drinkers and they wanted to extend their reach through a redesign of their logo and beer packaging, designed by Perth-based Block.
Original bottles.Before and after comparison of Feral White.
Block's rebranding is handcrafted and distinctive without detracting from the company's obsessive focus on its beers, flavours and ingredients, with an intentionally DIY, rough-and-ready aesthetic to match the company's hands-on approach to brewing.
"At a time when all the big guys are jumping on the craft brew trend and every bloke and his accountant-mate starting a trendy craft-brewery, Feral is the real deal. Feral is all about what's in the bottle, so we felt this rebranding shouldn't look overworked or pretentious. What we have created is the antithesis of the minimalist or 'ye olde' beer brands that are cluttering the market," says Mark Braddock, Creative Director at Block.
The branding process started with the purchase of an old photocopier for $50 so that the packaging and promotional material would be genuinely fresh and DIY.
Provided text
New range of bottles.
Block was kind enough to share some of the non-design materials presented to Feral, including the non-scientific research below, sketches of the titular hog, and the brand vision for the brewery.
Some observations by Block on the state of craft beer packaging. Open image in new window/tab to see bigger.Some sketches to improve on the original hog (shown at top). Ultimately, the hog was kept the same.Brand vision.Label details.Packs.Cartons.Ads.New look announcement.
To say that this is an improvement over the original logo and packaging is an understatement. While the original bottles and logo had that naive, amateur charm of craft breweries and their unpolished logos and labels — which can only take a brewery so far — the new approach maintains the same raw energy but with a much clearer purpose and strategy. Even if the punk rock collage aesthetic isn't your thing, the level of consistency within the inconsistent and chaotic look is perfectly crafted — speaking for myself, the punk rock collage aesthetic is very much my thing (mostly because I can't do it myself but wish I could). The resulting identity is as bad-ass as the brewery's name and everything from the cutout animal illustrations to the red pencil markings to the flaming ass of the smoked porter makes me want to drop what I'm doing and drink a beer.
So, George W. Bush is painting cats now. First it was dogs, "over 50" dogs. Then it was a cow-horse, a watermelon, and a quiet golf course landscape rich with longing. And now, reportedly, Bush is moving into his "Cat Period." He painted this cat. It is cute. And janky. And wonderful. Like an 8th-grader made it. It has attitude. And if I don't take some drastic psychological measures right this instant, I'm going to have to PRINT THIS SHIT OUT AND STICK IT UP ON MY FRIDGE AND THAT WOULD BE MESSED UP, YOU GUYS. Which raises the question...my god...do I like the Bush family?
So it turns out the soccer stadium Qatar is erecting for the 2022 World Cup isn’t much of an erection at all. In fact, it’s the complete opposite. While many are worried about the host country’s labor conditions and extreme weather, Jon Stewart is more concerned that the stadium looks like a giant steel vagina.
Last night on The Daily Show, Al Madrigal put on his Senior Sports Correspondent cap and gave Stewart the inside scoop. There were vagina jokes. Lots and lots of vagina jokes.
With almost a million views since it was uploaded to YouTube yesterday (and, you know, so many people owning televisions) you might’ve already seen Foot Locker’s new Week Of Greatness Kyrie Irving commercial, but in case you haven’t, oh man, it is the greatest.
Without hyperbole, it might be the best and most socially important sports commercial of all time.
To recap, we’ve got:
- Mike Tyson keeping Evander Holyfield’s ear in formaldehyde, giving it to Evander as a gift and the two hugging
- Craig Sager burning a pile of horrible-looking suits
- Dennis Rodman watching America cheer as he decides to go to North Korea and never come back
- Brett Favre making wiser-than-usual decisions about pie
So good. Although technically if you bite off a man’s ear and give it back to him, are you regifting?
Well done, Foot Locker. The only way they could top this is by making a commercial about the real Foot Locker experience, which is “going in to look at some shoes and having a guy dressed as a referee harass you about how you need to buy socks until you can sneak out.”
I hope you're ready to be blown away, because everything about this video has got it all: a hearty rejection of princess dogma, children scream-singing about female empowerment, a giant Rube Goldberg machine...
By C. Coville Published: November 14th, 2013
There are some things that everyone agrees are awful, like paper cuts, or cancer, or paper cuts from the hospital bills you receive after getting cancer. But not everything in life is that certain. It turns out that a lot of the things you've been us
Were you one of those people who cancelled their Netflix subscription after they tried that whole Qwikster thing? You might want to think about getting back on that train by 2015. That’s when Marvel Entertainment will premiere their first original content on the service – four solo-character series to be following by a mini-series titled, The Defenders.
The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) and Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) today announced an unprecedented deal for Marvel TV to bring multiple original series of live-action adventures of four of Marvel’s most popular characters exclusively to the world’s leading Internet TV Network beginning in 2015. This pioneering agreement calls for Marvel to develop four serialized programs leading to a mini-series programming event.
Led by a series focused on “Daredevil,” followed by “Jessica Jones,” “Iron Fist” and “Luke Cage,” the epic will unfold over multiple years of original programming, taking Netflix members deep into the gritty world of heroes and villains of Hell’s Kitchen, New York. Netflix has committed to a minimum of four, thirteen episodes series and a culminating Marvel’s “The Defenders” mini-series event that reimagines a dream team of self-sacrificing, heroic characters.
You may recall there was already a Jessica Jones series in the works, called AKA Jessica Jones, from Melissa Rosenberg. It was originally meant to find a place on ABC but the last we heard, Rosenberg said Marvel was trying to “set it up somewhere else.” We’re not sure at this point if the Netflix version will be the one Rosenberg had been working toward, though Luke Cage was set to appear in it as well.
Needless to say, this deal is a bold move for Marvel Entertainment but also a very smart one. Netflix’s original series have been doing very well. Orange is the New Black even premiered to better numbers than the new season of Arrested Development.
“This deal is unparalleled in its scope and size, and reinforces our commitment to deliver Marvel’s brand, content and characters across all platforms of storytelling. Netflix offers an incredible platform for the kind of rich storytelling that is Marvel’s specialty,” said Alan Fine, President of Marvel Entertainment. “This serialized epic expands the narrative possibilities of on-demand television and gives fans the flexibility to immerse themselves how and when they want in what’s sure to be a thrilling and engaging adventure.”
This news comes on the heels of some other exciting news from Marvel. Most recently, it was confirmed lesbian character Victoria Hand would be making her debut on Agents of SHIELD, brought to life by bisexual actress Saffron Burrows. On the comic publishing side of things, a new series featuring a Muslim Ms. Marvel, written by G. Willow Wilson, was announced (be sure to put in a pre-order for it at your local comic shop!).
While their work is compared on the regular, it’s certainly hard in this case not to look at the difference between Marvel’s live-action projects and Warner Bros./DC, who earlier this week announced an Hourman series was going to make its way to The CW. While Daredevil may be the only character of the four in the public’s consciousness (and even then, only because of the Ben Affleck film), Marvel is going big or going home, as it were, and is giving us a wider range of characters to learn about. Depending on how everything shakes out, the Luke Cage series will make him the first non-white character to headline a Marvel project and Jessica Jones will be the second female character to headline after Peggy Carter. Meanwhile, DC ladies are like.
Kat Dennings suggested She-Hulk, and in unrelated news is my new hero.
You know the (essentially ten year, since we pretty much know what movies are coming out in 2014 and 2015) absence of a solo film for a female superhero is becoming the elephant in Hollywood’s palatial hotel suite when mainstream journalists are asking actors about it on red carpets. E Online put the question to the cast of Thor: The Dark World: what superheroine do you want to see get their own movie?
Chris Hemsworth answered right away, with admirable loyalty to his fellow Avengers:
“I’d live to see a Black Widow movie… I think it will [happen]. It has to. We’ll rally for it. We’ll get it started…”
Tom Hiddleston agreed. “That would be amazing,” he said. “Scarlett would really bring the thunder on that.”
But after the actors who’d personally worked with Johansson, Kat Dennings (Darcy), Zachary Levi (Fandral), and Jaimie Alexander (Sif) weighed in with their own ideas. E says Wonder Woman was of course thrown in as a name. I would really like to see it happen,”said Alexander, “I think there’s a need for it. I think young women would like to look up to somebody strong and not have the movie dominated by a male character.” Dennings came out in favor of Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk, and also generally for female heroes: “She-Hulk is pretty amazing. There are so many fantastic female superheroes to choose from. It is time and I’m sure it’s already in the pipeline.”
It was Levi who pulled out the most obscure suggestion in the bunch: the Nazi-hunting mercenary leader Silver Sable, a Marvel character created in 1985. Silver was the gun toting commando leader of a superhero team, a CEO, and a national leader of her made up European country Symkaria, which shared a border with Victor von Doom’s Latveria. Marvel’s unlikely to put her in a movie for a reason that has nothing to do with her gender, however: she’s most closely associated with Spider-Man. Levi might want to go tell Columbia Pictures about the opportunity they’re missing.
