A beautiful self-initiated series of posters for popular TV shows by designer Albert Exergian. Described as a “A HUMOROUS VIEW ON TV CULTURE”, these posters are less humorous and more just stunning in their simplistic, boiled down view of each show. If you think that they would make great posters, you are in luck! They are now for sale over at Blanka.

All this talk of the new year. Obama’s second year in office. The continuing “war on terror.” The (hopefully) upward-turning economy. New music releases. The Oscars. So much comes with the new year. So let’s pause for a second and talk about something truly important for this new year.

Color.

I’m sure most of you never think about what kind of color the year will be. And you know what, that’s ok. You don’t have to. The fabulous people at Pantone, “an X-Rite company and the global authority on color and provider of professional color standards for the design industries” (phew that was a mouth full!) have come up with the color of 2010 for us. In fact they have been doing this for a few years now.

2007: Chili pepper
2008: Blue iris
2009: Mimosa

For 2010, Pantone has named Turquoise as the color of the year. Turquoise? Not some fancy name like Sea breeze or Ocean spray? Ah well, at least we all know what the color Turquoise is by name. So why Turquoise? According to Pantone:

“Combining the serene qualities of blue and the invigorating aspects of green, Turquoise inspires thoughts of soothing, tropical waters and a comforting escape from the everyday troubles of the world, while at the same time restoring our sense of wellbeing.”

Well I wouldn’t have thought Turquoise when thinking about this coming year, but when they put it like that, it sounds pretty spot on. 2009 was pretty rough for all of us and a sense of wellbeing and feeling of escape from the everyday troubles would be great right about now. So I’m on board with this color for 2010. Now, will I be using it willy nilly in my design work? Probably not. It’s not a color to be thrown around lightly. But perhaps a little accent here or there would be nice. What does everyone else think about this color choice? Put your thoughts in the comments below.

Kid Cudi artwork by Jenny Herbert, via The Hype Machine

Without a doubt, one of my favorite blogs out there is The Hype Machine. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to find time in the day to visit every blog on your list — never mind mining one with such deep, many-posts-an-hour content.

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I was never much for biology in school. I was more of a physics lover myself. But if my teacher had had these cute little Hello Kitty toys to demonstrate the anatomy, I probably would have paid more attention. Granted I’d have learned everything ALL wrong since I’m fairly certain the insides of a cat don’t really have cute smiley faces, but who cares about these minor details?

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It’s all about how we look at things. If we tilt our heads we might see beauty where we didn’t expect it or saw it before. A different or deeper meaning to a familiar object. Lyrics from a U2 song came to mind when I found this slightly romantic series of paintings by Illustrator Sophie Blackall. Sophie found her inspiration through the “Missed Connections” ads on Craigslist and other sites. You know, the ads where someone saw someone on a street corner a late Sunday night and just couldn’t stop thinking about them. Three days later that same someone turns to the internet for a last chance of finding the lost connection.

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