Visual Scrap #3

It's kinda been a week around here, and I haven't synthesized the ideas in my head into written form. But I have a ton of stuff bookmarked that's worthy of your exploration.

Joseph Ducreux's Unorthodox Self-Portraits

From the Public Domain Review — "With their unusual combination of directness. ambiguity, and exaggerated expression they earned Ducreux a mixed reception in his lifetime but a strong and curious rebirth in the age of social media and the all-powerful "meme". ⠀⁠
⠀⁠
They seem to have been virtually waiting, through the centuries, to be adorned with witty captions. Since, 2009, "Self-portrait of the Artist in the Guise of a Mocker", in particular, has appealed to meme-makers — its anachronistic aspect, of such a modern-seeming expression from so many centuries ago, providing the perfect impetus to get playful with rap lyrics, translating them into what Know Your Meme calls "archaic rap"."⠀⁠

💀

Is The Rise of Strategy the Death of Design

From Fast Company, this is part of a larger discussion about our definitions of design and how the corporate world keeps renaming jobs to the point that it's nearly impossible to understand what somebody actually does for a living.

Architect Breaks Down 5 of the Most Common New York Apartments

Michael Wyetzner of Michielli + Wyetzner Architects shows you these common architectural styles and gives a history lesson in the process.

Monitor with a Ruler

Mind blown. A friend of mine uses this ASUS ProArt Display monitor and it has both a ruler at the bottom of the screen (you can just see the tick marks on the bottom bevel above) AND one you can turn on within the display itself. I can't tell you how many times I've held up an actual ruler to various monitors to see if 100% is, in fact, actual size. Depending on your resolution and monitor, actual size can vary.

🎧

Just the Right Noise

Do you like to listen to noise, but not necessarily music? There are a ton of options here ranging from cafe backgrounds to nature sounds to white (and all the colors) noise. But lately I've been playing Dunes of Arrakis.

Lighting New and Old

Been a little obsessed with lighting lately. It used to be chairs, but as our house filled up with chairs, lighting seems like a smaller thing to collect? Above is a corner lamp designed by Moisés Hernández, for Hay. Interesting, because a few weeks ago, my husband and I teamed up to design a wall corner lamp that is basically the inverse of this for the living room. Also, I bought a Josef Hurka orphan on eBay that we are fixing up. Turns out finding just the right bulb is the hardest part. You can also search Napako, the company that he (and others) designed for.