Global Graphica

Full of awesome.

[ Traduction française ci-dessous. | Traducción al español está por debajo de | 以下の日本語訳。]

C’est génial.

Esto es impresionante.

これは素晴らしいです。

Sometimes referred to as “visual pollution,” pichação is a style of graffiti lettering that has become a defining part of the urban landscape of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s mega-city and business capital. It’s not art — neither street art nor “graffiti art” — but the style has a distinctive identifiable typographic aesthetic that is, as a New York Times article explains, “eerily reminiscent of Scandanavia’s ancient runic writing.” Pichação is a blight on the city’s buildings, but also represents a sub-culture of underclass activism and symbolizes the struggles and social ills of the city’s poor, disenfranchised populations in the face of Brazil’s increasing economic prosperity. The Times has produced a short-form video doc about it that’s worth checking out.

Parfois appelé «pollution visuelle», pichação est un style de lettrage graffiti qui est devenu un élément déterminant du paysage urbain de São Paulo, Brésilméga-ville et capitale économique. Ce n’est pas l’art - ni art, ni de la rue ”l’art du graffiti” - mais le style est une esthétique distinctive typographiques identifiablesqui est, comme le New York Times explique, “rappelle étrangement l’écriture runique Scandanavia ancienne.” Pichação est un fléau sur les bâtiments de la ville, mais représente également une sous-culture de militantisme sous-prolétariatet symbolise les luttes et les maux sociaux des pauvres de la ville, les populationsprivées de leurs droits dans le visage du Brésil à la prospérité économique croissante. Le Times a publié un court-doc sous forme de vidéo à ce sujet qui vaut la peine de vérifier.

“Gentrification Battlefield” is a Dutch video game project pitting the forces of yuppie-hipster invaders against long-time residents of an Amsterdam neighborhood as they fight to control the territory. The game is set in Noord, a real neighborhood in the transition process of gentrification. GB was shown as part of the recent Talk to Me interactive design communication exhibition at MoMA. “Full of awesome,” we say.

A few months ago we posted a short video sampling (see below) of the urban scenery in New York City’s Meat Packing District.

A lot of people have asked us about the specific locations, street art and landmarks shown in the clip, the first such video in Global Graphica’s “Visual Culture” series.

We’re posting the video again with an annotated list of the shots and visuals captured in the clip in the order of appearance. Here is the list …

1. Intersection of 14th Street and Ninth Avenue, looking east.
2. W. 14th Street, looking east from the High Line Park
3. Porter House, 66 Ninth Avenue – Building by SHoP Architects
4. 14th Street, looking west between the High Line and Ninth Avenue
5. Tree foliage on W. 14th Street
6. Outdoor antique chandelier hanging from awning at Rubin Chappelle shop
7. Angry Birds wheat-paste street art
8. Uncle Moneybags (Monopoloy) wheat-paste street art by the artist ALEC
9. “Passing Through at the Standard” (with “Companion” character) by the artist Kaws
10. Geometric glass penthouse atop the Diane von Furstenburg (DVF) building
11. Stencil of photographer Terry Richardson with iconic “thumb up” pose in stairwell entrance to subway station at 14th Street and Eighth Avenue
12. Vitra storefront
13. Apple store – Chelsea
14. Hanging Apple logo sign – Apple store, Chelsea
15. Belvedere vodka billboard and NYC taxis on Greenwich Street at 14th Street
16. Soho House building, Greenwich Street
17. Ceiling Lights in High Line passage between 15th and 16th streets

Visual Culture in the NYC Meat Packing District from Super Core on Vimeo.

This video is from a few months ago, but it’s awesome nonetheless: A real-life version of the popular mobile game Angry Birds, shot in Barcelona as part of a T-Mobile viral campaign.

While some of the Global Graphica team have decamped to Berlin this week and is posting from the German capital, some of us have been cooking up a little visual goodness of stuff in New York City.

Here we bring you the first clip in the Global Graphica “Visual Culture” video series: A video snapshot of some of the art, architecture, design, branding, street atmosphere and creative landscape of the NYC Meat Packing District.

Visual Culture in the NYC Meat Packing District from Super Core on Vimeo.

Little Big Berlin from pilpop on Vimeo.

Check out this cool mini-documentary video that tells the story of the Prius x Parlee ( PxP ) bike, an innovative concept bicycle inspired by the technology principles of Toyota’s iconic hybrid car.

The bike was designed and built by Parlee. It’s ultra-light, aero-dynamic and made with carbon-fiber. An integral part of the concept is the use of a “neuro helmet,” which uses a rider’s brain waves to control gear shifting. A company called Deep Local developed the helmet technology exclusively for the PxP. It’s pretty amazing.

The Prius celebrated its ten-year anniversary in 2010 and the bike project is one in a series of original art, technology and video projects by Toyota to mark this milestone and introduce the next generation of its hybrid vehicles. Global Graphica’s very own Van Corsa worked as a creative producer on these projects – including the development of the Prius x Parlee concept and the bike project itself – with Toyota’s ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi LA. Yay!

Love this. We can watch this over and over again, diminishing law of returns notwithstanding. It’s surfing porn. And it’s good.

Pacific Pirates from Billabong on Vimeo.

Video titled “My Social Tattoo” of a woman getting her Facebook friends’ profile pictures tattooed on her arm. 152 kinds of awesome or 152 kinds of wrong. Whatever your opinion, this tattoo is a serious testament to friendship. (152 is the number of Facebook friends the woman had tattooed on her arm.) Question: Is this a hoax or PR stunt?

More details on the story behind the tattoo via Mashable.

There’s is nothing more to be said about this clip. It speaks for itself.

We’ve watched this satircal look at the current web-tech start-up culture at least five times and it made us laugh every time. Remember: “No brand cuffs!”

If you’re a huge European soccer (“football”) fan, like we are here at Global Graphica, then this month witnesses a rare series of matches between arguably two of the world’s best football clubs, both from Spain: Real Madrid CF and Barcelona FC.

Due to their successes this season in three simultaneous club league and tournament competitions, the two clubs are facing each other four times this month. One final regular season match in LA Liga, the Spanish League, plus a meeting as the finalists in Spain’s Copa del Rey tournament (a.k.a., the Spanish Cup), and two meetings, one home and one away, against each other in the European Champions League. The last is the biggest prize of all.

Ahead of the Copa del Rey final today in Valencia, Spain, Adidas has produced a commercial capitalizing on the intense rivalry between the two clubs.

We don’t really pay attention to the Super Bowl game itself and this year was no exception. But, of course, in what has become as big an event and tradition as the epic football match, we’ve watched, rated and discussed the many TV commercials that aired during the live broadcast of the game. Here are the 10 best according to Spike.

Personally, we can’t stop thinking about the Volkswagen Mini Vader commercial titled “The Force” (watch video below), which featured a child dressed up as iconic Star Wars villain Darth Vader. Even though it wasn’t the best commercial in our humble opinion, it was effective insofar as we’ve remembered it and are talking about it.

Awesome video pitting two dudes (Rhett and Link) and their awesomely stop-action animated graphical t-shirts. Reminds us a bit of the awesome Justice video for that awesome tune “D.A.N.C.E.” a few years ago. A brilliant ploy to sell some tees in the process. Awesome stuff.

Thanks to Mayumi for tipping us to the clip. Full of awesome.

Lots of Internet lulz here in this short video wherein Web meme and viral superstar Keyboard Cat spoofs British street-art star Banksy and his Oscar-nominated documentary film “Exit Through the Gift Shop.” The feline mockumentary is titled “Exit Through the Pet Shop.”

Absolutely brilliant idea for an Apple Store display: Suspending a new MacBook Air laptop from a floating balloon.

The man and photographer behind one of our favorite blogs, The Sartorialist, is profiled in this short-form documentary video, part of Intel’s Visual Life series.

Released a couple of months ago from Swedish interface and technology  design firm The The Astonishing Tribe (a.k.a, TAT, recently bought by Blackberry) …