Since I have been light over the holidays with posts I thought I would share with you guys a fantastic short animated film. Right now it is airing on current.com which is where my friend Keith saw it when he passed it along to me, but after a little bit of investigation I found that it has won numerous awards and was even an academy award nominee. I found the piece to be very inspiring.

In 1969 Jerry Levitan was 14 and an enormous Beatles fan, so much that he went looking for Mr Lennon himself… knocking on every door in the hotel he thought to be housing the Beatle. When Jerry finally found the room, John was kind enough to let the 14 year old stay and even conduct his own interview.

Years later Jerry Levitan breathes a whole new life into that short conversation with the help of Josh Raskin, director and animator. The delightful timeless wisdom of John Lennon is complimented by charming drawings and illustrations by Alex Kurina and James Braithwaite. I found this film so engaging I watched it over and over, what a wonderful way to breath a magical second life into a simple simple reel- to -reel tape recording!

Get the Designer in your life something they will LOVE.

Uppercase Scarf

Wallets made of Artsy Photographs by DB clay

Univers & Helvetica Ts

Beautiful Typography Calender (via heartfish)

Pantone Bags, Mugs & Wallets

Freitag Bags (via Doug Avery)

Pillows with Typography

Frank Chimero Inspirational Design Posters
The Store has been down for a few days, but prints hopefully will be available again soon.
& I hope this, mostly because… this is at the top of my list this year.

Ampersand Book End/ Sculpture

Anatomy of an A T-shirt

Alphabet Bags

And to prevent gifting mistakes, fill out the Christmas Cheat Cheat!

Want more? Here is last years list, I apologize if some of the gifts are no longer available.

Upon my most recent visit to Art-O-Matic I found myself enchanted by a single exhibit… the Washington Post Peep Show. The 2nd annual contest happened back in March, but the exhibit is currently on display at Art-O-Matic . It is a spectacular celebration of wit, creativity, and craft. Not only was each little box a jubilant little experience, but the entire concept a fantastic exhibit. The fact that creativity sprang from all of these ordinary Post readers to create miniature snapshots in time using marshmallows… that was what really got me. No these weren’t kindergarten-grade dioramas, these were magnificent little masterpieces.

Here’s the background info:

The Washington Post’s Sunday Source Section held a competition, the rules were simple and included

1) Think of a scene, historic, current of in the future

2) Buy enough peeps to play the characters in the diorama

3) Make your diorama using a shoebox or a comparable box.

This was the second year that The Post held such a competition and they received over 800 entries. My favorites included “Peep Art” with a miniature marshmallow Andy Warhol- complete with ratty white wig, “Amy Winepeep” reciting “they tried to make me go to rehab and I said peep peep peep”, and “Peeps Atop a Skyscraper (c. 1932)” which mimicked a famous black and white photograph. Walking around the exhibit, every turn was a delightful surprise… I began by shrieking “Look, Elvis Peeplsey!“, then turned to discover one after another fantastic diorama.

After doing some online investigating I found that the Peeps Diorama Contest is not unique to Washington DC, and it’s actually sponsored by Peeps, the candy company. The online execution of this marketing campaign has a lot of room for improvement…I had a hard time Googling any clear details on Peeps involvement in the contest and did a lot of poking around before I could find it on their official brand site (usability nightmare). However the sheer number of entries is proof that great concepts can carry a campaign and engage based on the fact they are inviting and original.

To View all of my Pictures from Art-O-Matic check out my Flickr Set.
To See this years Winners Click Here.
To see last years winner, click here.

Other Peeping Cities:
Peeps up in Chicago
Where My Michigan Peeps at?
Peeps Denver Style