Confessions On Life, Death, & God

Postsecret is a popular website/blog created by Frank Warren that collects revealing confessions anonymously written on postcards.  The success of the site has opened the door to “Confessions on Life, Death, and God,” a book showcasing some of Postsecrets favorites.  An intimate video was created to coincide with the book’s release, which may seem similar to a few other videos you’ve seen on this site.  Benjamin Reece, the director and creator of the “Fifty People, One Question” videos has been working with Postsecret, Crush + Lovely, & Deltree to produce a really touching video.  Check it out below.

–Bendey

Floppy Disk Paintings by Nick Gentry

Artist Nick Gentry has a beautiful collection of paintings.  At first glance, his work is stunning.  You notice the dynamic use of color, you notice the subtle rigidity of the floppy disks, the bits of bare metal still exposed, and so on.  But it’s after a few seconds of staring at a few pieces where you begin to see the detail.  Nick keeps each floppy disk alive as it’s own unique piece of the story.  Notice the way you can still read some of the labels, see the HP OfficeJet logos, and watch the colors of the plastic help paint (or break up) the rest of the painting.  Truly impressive.

More at his website, Nick Gentry.

–Bendey

Hu2 Decals Make My Domestic Goods Water

For everyone familiar, you know I have a bit of a decal fetish.  They’re on the fridge, toilet, desk, printer, laptop, snowboard, and even the bedroom door.  But the decals they churn out over at Hu2 make mine look like nicotine patches.

Found this postfile over at Abduzeedo.  Loved the pics, so hit them up for the rest of the set, or even better–get to Hu2 Design’s main page and indulge for several hours.

I’m getting that pen tool out as we speak…

–Bendey

UAC x DOPE Couture

“Les modes passent, le style est eternel.”  For all of you that need a French lesson, the translation into English is essentially, “Fashions fade, style is eternal.”

An in-store collaboration between yours truly and DOPE Couture was set in motion last month.  The DOPE Couture HQ down in Indianapolis needed some installations done and I was given the lead by my partner in creative world domination, T. Hakes.

DOPE, the brand of clothing you’ve seen grace the chests of hip-hop leaders and cats with a solid fashion sense, is a potent taste of… well… complete dopeness.  Check ’em out, you wont be disappointed.

Pics of the work below:

–Bendey

Coke Happiness Machine

Coca-cola recently released a viral titled the “Happiness Machine” that shows the iconic drink dispenser being installed in what looks like a college library.  If you were wondering, happiness ensues.  A pretty great idea, especially for a viral, although the human hands coming out of the tray at the bottom might have started off pretty creepy.  They were also able to find some Kid Cudi and John Legend look-a-likes at 1:05 and 1:07, lol.

AXE – Dirty Balls

Just watch it.  Funny viral for the AXE Detailer.  My favorite part is the blonde guy suddenly becoming very uncomfortable at the :48 second mark.

Helping guys clean the dirtiest of balls.

Carousel: Philips: Awesome

This one is tad old, but freaking awesome…naturally.  Philips teamed up with Tribal DDB and Stink Digital to bring a financial-freeze-frame-fiasco-film to life to promote their new entrance to the TV market (directed by Adam Berg).  Their new 21:9 frame caters to Hollywood’s favorite ratio and makes us drool with such compatibility.

At first, this reminded me of The Joker’s heist at the beginning of The Dark Knight:

At the end of the day, this one packs some pretty serious beauty.  Great spot, seamless editing, and hell… makes me want to see how it all ends.  Watch the goods just a bit south…

–Bendey

Schick Razors: Baby

This recent print campaign for Schick’s Quattro Razors was created by JWT Venezuela.  Heavy emphasis on the baby-smooth skin you get after that morning shave.

Soundtrack Breakdown for Under Armour

A lot goes into TV spots.  Perhaps more than I’m even aware of.  How do developers approach all those small details?  Here’s an interesting video breaking down the soundtrack development for Under Armour’s Cold Gear product line.  Talk about resourceful!

The official broadcast spot is impressive as well, featuring World Cup skier, Lindsey Vonn.

And what’s even more impressive is the :60 director’s cut which you can watch here at ECHOLAB.

–Bendey

Bendey’s 25 Worst Family Xmas Tree Ornaments:

Here at the Bender household, we have a handful of holiday traditions. Some have come and gone, some were retired after age 12, and some were just forgotten. But one tradition that has stuck around for all my years on this earth is making our family Christmas tree ugly as hell. It’s pretty easy to achieve, especially when half our ornaments were made in the 50’s and the other half were hand-crafted by my brothers and I through grade school. In the past, my parents have tried to make it a tree to be proud of, but at the end of the day, I’m going to find a spot to hang that sequined cotton ball nightmare. During my younger years, I felt every ornament deserved it’s fair share of the holiday spirit and would stop at nothing to find a spot for it among the tree, no matter how ugly it was. Now that I’m older, that principle that has worn off, but the tradition still remains: the Bender family Christmas tree is going to be ugly as sin, because it wouldn’t be Christmas without it.

Here are a few examples of the Bender tree ornaments that have the ability to make babies cry.

Rudolph Pine Cone

The hot glue really gives this one character.

Psychedelic Kite

My Mom definitely got this one sometime back in college.

Elf/Pinocchio/Soldier

This one would be considerably less creepy if he had hands and wasn’t obviously lying about something.

Skiing Snowman

Are those Rossi twin-tips?!

Ms. American Mouse

I’m guessing this ornament was made back in ’59 when Alaska and Hawaii became our 49th and 50th states.

Asian Horse Thingy

Nothing pays homage to the birth of Jesus more than an ancient Japanese-style war stallion.

Pears

Ah, I get it, “pear tree”… good one.

Energizer Bunny

Some strange lady in Target gave this to me when I was 5.  I thought the 7-Up dots might have chiseled it for me.

Boy & Girl

I can see why some people might consider this cute, but what they don’t know, is that it smells like old socks.

Pink Victorian Boots

I don’t care how old you are.  This is not okay to have on a tree.

Santa Tie w/ googly eyes

Having trouble selling something?  Put googly eyes on it and watch the money start rolling in.

Bendey’s Kindergarten Christmas Masterpiece

This is when my design skills really took off.

Sleepy Elf w/ cape and lady bug

Not sure why, but to me, this one screams LSD.

Nesting Birds

The eyeballs on these two will make you want to vomit.

Puppy in Present

This one might be okay if the puppy didn’t look like it had just been hit by a bus.

Xmas Tree

They don’t get much lamer than this, my friends.

Santa Dog

I don’t have much to say about his one, except that I’m really really sorry.

Taxidermy Cardinal

Nothing like something dead and stuffed wired to your tree.

A Couple Christmas Bears

Is that a corn dog he’s holding?

Satanic Rocking Horse

Look at those eyes just literally oozing evil.

Singing Angel

The guy who did the lame Christmas tree from above was also responsible for this one.

Glittery Spider

Yeah, this one should have been thrown out back in the 90’s, but my Mom absolutely hates it.  Therefore, I keep him around.

Dinosaur

Creativity Fail Of The Year:  1989

Mentally challenged mouse/dog type thing in a cloud

Looks like Picasso did this… when he was 4.

Well that’s the list. Our tree has never looked more hideous.

Happy Holidays!

-Bendey