04-30-2007: Opposites Attract

It is the bipolar and opposing views that make life so interesting. This one is an invite to express your love or hate for the Helvetica typeface. Via the Helvetica Film blog.

04-29-2007: Blood on the Poles

As I was watching 'Five Disasters Waiting to Happen' on BBC Climate Change, this image flashed in my mind. This Howies Art Think winner for 2007 by Norwegian photographer Pal Hermansen is a surreal masterpiece that tells us that it's not just the ice caps that are melting, lives are also fading away.

04-28-2007: King of the Clubs

Found on the bar counters of Ministry of Sound Singapore. A postcard size roar claiming to be the king of dance clubs. I didn't feel like a lion, but got to watch many who were acting like they were on a trance like prowl on a neon lit pulsating hunting ground.

04-27-2007: Asking Back

We are under constant surveillance as we move through the everyday milieu called public space. Some places are more watched than others. And some countries more paranoid about watching than others. It is a public service and safeguarding method. Sometimes we all feel like hovering up to the camera and asking them what they are looking at. And graffiti artist Banksy has just done that in his work above.

04-26-2007: Flight to the Future

[Originally uploaded by bitmapr]

An image that conjures up a thousand metaphors.

The horizon is wide.
The grass is green.
The energy is right.
The future is bright.
Fly to greater heights.

I can go on and on and on…

04-25-2007: Tintin in China

The gifted animator and comic book writer Guy Delisle pays tribute to Tintin in his book 'Shenzhen: A Travelogue From China'. He incorporates his journey through Shenzhen to that of Tintin in his Chinese adventure 'The Blue Lotus'.

When will I pay tribute to my childhood hero?

04-24-2007: I'm a Pretty Random Face

The Jaiku screenshot where my profile picture popped up as a pretty random face among a dozen randomly selected Jaiku members. Don't know how often this happens. The chances of finding your picture among their randomly selected faces section. I happened to notice my icon (which is a graphical representation of the face of Ravana - 12th pic in the screenshot above) couple of days back. Anyways, now I can happily claim that I have had my 15 seconds of random Jaiku fame.

04-23-2007: Paradiso = USA??

This is Guy Delisle's interpretation of the similarities between the descent to hell in Dante's 'The Inferno' and the Chinese dream descent (or ascent, depends which way you look at it). From his second comic book travelogue 'Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China'.

04-22-2007: What's Your Lucky Charm?

I have mine in my pocket. This New York Times article (subscription required) has many more and explains the phenomenon called lucky charms. Photo via the same article.

04-21-2007: Peeled Banana

Andy Warhol's Banana is peeled and half eaten to save the orangutans. From the poster for this benefit gig found via Russell Davies blog.

04-20-2007: The Chaos of Jabrwoky

This is what my Jabrwoky portal looks like interpreted in a chaos theory inspired graph. Via Websites as Graphs.

04-19-2007: A Smile in the Mind

That sly feeling of elatedness and accomplishment crept into my mind as I saw this ad at the bus stop first thing in the morning waiting for the bus. Not the best of ads ever made, but I guess it's something that puts a smile in your mind, when you think about the innumerable rounds of brainstormings and client meetings that went over it in the first place.

For a better stirring of the mind go for this 'Smile in the Mind'.

04-18-2007: The Calm After the Storm

Hokies Fill the Drillfield (Originally uploaded by kevincupp)

Many questions remain unanswered. For now there is a silent calm while the media is screaming the events.

04-17-2007: Bowling for Virginia Tech

This image (courtesy of New York Times) would probably remain in American consciousness for a long time to come, as will it for many of us who don't live in America. For me, having lived in Virginia as a graduate student at VCU, the tragedy at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg was truly shocking and saddening.

Anger and emotions stir a strange brew of questions on why did this happen. When will America get a grip on its gun culture. Haven't we seen this debate in Michael Moore's 'Bowling for Columbine'. Right now there are more questions than answers.

04-16-2007: Not Lost in Translation

Happened to stumble on this cartoon in a Chinese newspaper in my office. Since it had our venerable prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh and the Chinese premier Wen Jiabao on it, I took it to a colleague who speaks Mandarin, to figure out what exactly it is saying.

The message was quite clear and had the right dose of wit. The first picture depicts the overall Indo-Chinese relations, while the second one is the more thorny issue of Tibet. Not all was lost in translation. The power of cartoons I say.

04-15-2007: The Power of Listening

There is a reason why we have been given organs proportionately. Two eyes, two ears and one mouth. If only we took the time and effort to utilize it in the right proportions, the world would have been a far better place. So talk less and listen more is the message that came to my mind when I saw this visual collage of different ears from a Bang & Olufsen print ad.

This movie's inner message is also a more profound call to listen.

04-14-2007: Message to God

While on a late evening walk on the jetty in Labrador Park here in Singapore, I happened to stumble on this message inscribed on the wooden pier railing. A call to sacrifice humanity for the greater good of the planet.

04-13-2007: Holy Jesus!

It's Friday the 13th today. And I stumbled on to a skateboard with The Sex Pistols, Jesus Christ, electric lightening and anarchy residing in happy oblivion next to each other. Thanks to the street smart geniuses of WK Interact via Supertouch.

04-12-2007: Goodbye Mr Vonnegut

Read today that Kurt Vonnegut had passed away yesterday. It was only about 10 days back that I bid farewell to a monday with his doodle. Today I bid farewell to Kurt even though his books will continue to intrigue me for a long time to come.

04-11-2007: Baghdad Testudo

This John McCain testudo (or tortoise shell formation) going through war-torn Baghdad totally cracked me up and reminded me of the Asterix & Obelix comic classics.

04-10-2007: The Shortness of Ideas

I am reading Jon Steel's book 'Perfect Pitch', in which he outlines that any big monster million dollar new business pitch should be based on an idea that can be articulated in a short concise sentence or paragraph.

Stephen Hawkins tried to capture the complex Big Bang theory in about 224 pages or so in his book 'A Brief History of Time' for the layman.

Bill Bryson gives us a short history of nearly everything in about 560 pages in his book 'A Short History of Nearly Everything'.

John Maeda deliberately sticks to 100 pages to explain his 10 laws of simplicity in his book 'The Laws of Simplicity'. His final sentence on 'Simplicity' which can be read in less than 10 seconds is here.

So it's no wonder then that Albert Einstein's little scribble of a short description of the theory of relativity put a long smile on my face. From the must read '20 Things You Need To Know About Einstein' article in Time magazine.

04-09-2007: The One

Talking of hearts, this picture reassures us that there is the ONE for all of us somewhere out there. Fortunately, I have been blessed to have found the ONE.

Seek and you shall find is what the Bible said.

Thomas Hawk shot this image, I presume, with some deep thoughts.

04-08-2007: After

There is no wound in this world that time doesn't heal. Yann Arthus Bertrand follows up on a wound of love from Mother Earth and tells us that all is well and healing.

04-07-2007: Before

Yann Arthus Bertrand's signature photo that has captivated all of us. Another brilliant metaphor of the wounds imparted on to the loving Mother Earth by mankind or nature. Sometimes, the earth shows her heart sending signals that she can take all the hardships and pain. All for love.

04-06-2007: The Fine Art of Waiting

Sometimes it is amazing when I think of the metaphysical question of how long we spent 'waiting' in everyday life. Like today, I spent certain number of minutes waiting for the bread to toast, for the bus to arrive, in the checkout line at the store, for the food to arrive at the restaurant, for a page to load on the internet etc etc. The list goes on day in and day out.

Brazilian street art extraordinaire Alexandre Orion has gone one step ahead to capture the waiting phenomenon on a wall in Sao Paulo.

[Originally found in the book 'Graffiti Brasil']

04-05-2007: Spitr for the Future

Web 2.o, virtual worlds, wifi anywhere, RFID tags. The future is unfolding now. And according to Michael Mace the future could be a Spitr with some tad bits of bluetooth, nanotechnology, wireless and server transcription thrown in. Further revelations is here.

04-04-2007: Our Self in the Universe

Our sense of self in the universe is captured in its holistic simplicity by the creative minds at PhunkStudio. The wonders of doodles I say.

This one is part of the work (based on the theme of 'universality') that PhunkStudio is exhibiting at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei.

04-03-2007: Talk, Talk

It was one of those lucky days of not being in office, but doing an offsite workshop. Got to meet and do some thinking and fun stuff with a bunch of smart people from our offices in the Asia-Pacific region. Underwent some warm undercurrent of brain tremors. Took some bathroom breaks to not get caught in the middle of a sitting-in-the-meeting-pretending-to-be-taking-notes siesta.

Overall, it was a fun and fantastic gathering of some funny, friendly and fine ad folks. Something like Hugh McLeod's 'Echo Chamber'. Talk, Talk and more talk. But definitely not cheap talk.

04-02-2007: Goodbye Blue Monday

April Fool's Day gave a good start to embarking on a journey of simplicity. Now it's already Monday evening and I'm left with a crazy doodle by Kurt Vonnegut.

04-01-2007: Simplicity

A simple yet very powerful and meaningful quote from the champion of simplicity in the chaotic digital world we live in. Just finished his simple book called 'The Laws of Simplicity'. Not a particularly heavy or spectacular book, but one that nonetheless makes you think and open your mind to the possibilities of simplifying our everyday life.

Brilliant image of the quote from Presentation Zen, while further pondering takes place here.

03-31-2007: Visual Metaphor Extraordinaire

I have been in the Takashimaya mall at Ngee Ann City Towers on Orchard Road many times. But it seems my keen curious eye has missed something that has been lying hidden in plain sight inside the mall.

But Daniel Cheong's curious third eye didn't miss it. A brilliant metaphor for Singapore's favorite pastime - shopping. The P is organically formed in the interior structural evolution of the mall to signify the larger motivations of capitalism - profits.

03-30-2007: WYSIWYG

Hurdles (Originally uploaded by Mazzyii)

Or as this picture reminds me what you see is eventually what you get. Another parallel to the glass is half full or half empty attitude.