The Sad Bear

August 24, 2008

Draplin Design Co.

First he told us why America is Fucked (graphically at least). Then he documented the Longest Yard Sale in the World. Now he brought to light a short documentary about the world's largest vinyl record collection.

I'm talking about Aaron Draplin of Draplin Design Co. He's got a design sense I respect, the blog I wish I had, an honest biography, and he's proud of his Michigan/Midwest roots to boot. When he uses a phrase like "haul balls" toward home, and publishes a travel map that bounces across Chicago and Michigan (like I did once, here), I feel especially kindred.

Unrelated: holy Bolt! And in the willy nilly progression to being plugged in, is anyone else wasting time with StumbleUpon? Enter your interests, lick the browser button and it finds magical sites up your alley, like Be Pollock, artpad (my sample), and The Sheep Market.

But to be more practical while still cool, I'll end by mentioning PicLens. It's a Firefox add-on that will change the way you look at videos and photos online (even Facebook or Flickr). In short, the site grabs all the images or videos on a site, throws them into a three-dimensional space and allows you to move around intuitively, enlarging and shrinking things and exploring.

Edit: There is considerable controversy about that Pollock link above. Turns out, it may be totally stolen Flash coding. Search "stamen" or "manetas" to learn more.

Labels: design, Draplin, Michigan, stumbleupon, The Midwest, Usain Bolt, vinyl records

by Tony at 12:16 AM |