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prior listings

 

• projected space 4/29/02 
  Description: the continuous study of the mix between architecture and graphic design
  Comments: Rafael calls it "a dialoge and balance between geometry and space."  The "first projection" is a series of experiments ("3D objects with graphic design") – one of the best presentations of digital art/design I've seen.  It's ideal if you can get 1280x1024 resolution on your computer, but 1024x768 does just fine.  Rafaels studies in form, shape, space, color, and light are simply outstanding.  I'm guessing the coming "architectural projection of a future utopian city" will be something else...
   
• photo-document.com 4/28/02 
  Description: selected projects of photographer Burkhard Walther
  Comments: Anyone who visits coolstop on a regular basis knows that I like photography sites.  The web is a perfect medium for displaying photos, in my opinion anyway, and many sites give you the opportunity to see places you'll probably never have a chance to visit otherwise.  Such is the case at today's pick, the showcase of German photographer Burkhard Walther.  There's 18 different projects covering places like Instanbul, Stuttgart, Saint Petersburg, Prague, and and Bamako.  Along with the photos are literary excerpts and informational texts and most of the site is available in German and English.  Nice site design and navigation, too – enjoy...
   
• bodytag.org 4/27/02 
  Description: experiments in, and explorations of the web, using Java, JavaScript, DHTML, PHP and other languages
  Comments: Remember Brent Gustafson from assembler.org?  You'll probably recall that Brent closed down assembler.org a while back, but I did discover this morning that his other site vitaflo is still online (with restricted access).  Anyway – it seems that Brent was a source of inspiration for Glen Murphy, the guy behind today's pick – I learned that from one of the "resources" Glen provides called "dragdiv."  I'll definitely be playing with it soon.  Several other thingies Glen offers are "iconattach" and "shaded" – both very cool!  Geez, I didn't know you could do that!  These neat resources are a tiny part of Glen's content – there's also over 4 dozen other experiments to view in which Glen explores possibilities using Java, JavaScript, DHTML, and PHP – fun, fun, fun...
   
• The Spamradio Project 4/26/02 
  Description: serving up delicious helpings of spam each hour of every day to all who are hungry
  Comments: "Everybody hates spam. Mass-marketing junk email is the bane of the Internet.  But it thinks very highly of itself.  It invades your inbox every day with a sense of confidence."  Ain't it the truth!  But, there's that old saying "when life gives you lemons..." that comes to mind when I think of the cool concept today's pick came up with.  What if you take the text from all those ridiculous messages you receive from spammers, run it through a "text-to-speech engine" and add some music?  Voila!  You end up with an entertaining radio stream that shows just how stupid all of that crap sounds when spoken, buffered by some cool musical backgrounds.  As much as I hate spam, I found this all rather amusing, especially when a message ends with "Never send spam.  It is bad."  Today's pick is a site with content you'll just love to hate – have fun...
   
• David Grenier 4/25/02 
  Description: Writer. Bowler. Revolutionary.
  Comments: I came across a site last week from a guy named David Grenier – after reading just a few of his journal entries, I thought to myself "damn, this guy can write!"  I was also impressed with the overall design of that site and decided to keep it in mind.  After visiting it a few more times, I realized that he's now writing from a new site at his own domain and that the original site I saw was no longer being updated – so – today's pick appears to be the new home of David's most recent and future writing.  The design is minimal – clean, easy-to-read black on white.  It's more of a weblog and it looks like David plans to integrate the journal-type stuff into the new site soon in a "writing" section.  I really liked the most recent journal entry ("The truth about car companies donating to Sept 11 charities") and another called "Sluts and badasses" – they both make important points in an interesting way – for now, I think it's definitely worth checking out the older site – and when you're done there, check out today's pick for David's latest offerings...
   
• click three points 4/21/02 
  Description: an interactive showcase (Flash)
  Comments: "Change what you want; send back the results."  Over 30 artists and designers responded by changing the small Flash file that Geoff had sent them and returning it to him to be posted on the site – a few of them actually responded 12 or more times!  So – we end up with tons of Flash experiments done by a number of well known web people and all based on a "click three times" functionality – the results are nothing short of astounding – each and every piece is a unique work of interactive art...
   
• spessi.com 4/18/02 
  Description: a photographer's showcase (mature content) (Flash)
  Comments: Today's pick showcases the work of Icelandic professional photographer Spessi.  Though Spessi didn't design the site himself, I like the Flash interface and overall look and feel – kudos to the designer – view the source if you're interested in more information.  It's really the content that made me pick this one – I feature many amateur photography sites and once in a while, it's nice to share a showcase of someone whose fine art photography is exhibited in galleries and whose "work appears frequently in print."  No further commentary today on the content except to say you can expect it to be enjoyable and to note there is some mature content – explore and enjoy...
   
• AAT2:experimental 4/16/02 
  Description: committed to communication... expression... experience... a reflection of environment and self (Flash)
  Comments: "Light is our paint and clay.  The computer is our canvas.  The Internet is our gallery."  This is version 4 of the site, called "aprilshowers" – as soon as you enter, the soft sound loop and blue/green imagery takes over.  You can't turn the sound off, but you probably won't want to.  The current version features 4 Flash motion graphics pieces plus several static pieces.  I think "liquid.creative" says it all, sitting at the screen imbibing drinks full of caffeine all day is so typical for many of us – a neat interactive piece.  "Soccer" and "Variation" are cool, too.  The "Archive" contains works from the last two versions – great creative content and design (love the interface)...
   
• Typofabrik 4/15/02 
  Description: high-quality Lomography Images, a lot of experimental Stuff and Sounds
  Comments: "Design with your heart, not with your mind. Then let's see what other people think, how they are and what they want to feel."  That's the spirit behind "Contribute the feeling 2002" – "...now it's your turn."  The splash page at today's pick gives two choices as to where to enter and "Contribute the feeling" is one of them – it's off to good start already with "Issue#02" only needing one more contribution to be complete – nice visuals with information about each contributor!  The other direction you can take from the splash is to "v2.0" of the site, launched on the first day of this year.  The content's biggest section is "Lomography" sporting 10 issues of "high quality" Lomo pictures, each issue containing 24 shots – Gerthulf is good with a Lomo!  There's also a section where you can download .mp3s from a band that Gerthulf plays in.  Add other art and experimental stuff plus more photography from a friend, Joachim – plenty of cool creative content...
   
• distorted.perspective 4/14/02 
  Description: personal artwork and other things that i care about
  Comments: 19-year-old Colin has been drawing since the age of 3.  He's currently a student majoring in graphic design at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia, and will probably earn a minor in photography.  His artistic style is grunge at its best (if you ask me) and he tries to "create elements that make it more personal than just another piece of artwork."  The result is an extraordinairy website with roughly 100 of his graphical works and the promise of more of his older stuff being added when he has access to a scanner.  His art is great, period.  There's also a journal and other writings, but the artworks are the real grabber.  I'm thinking you'll wanna keep your eyes on this guy in the future – he's off to a blazing start...
   
• The Blue Sea And Sails 4/13/02 
  Description: an ongoing photographic project (Flash)
  Comments: The site's long name is actually a phrase from a short poem called "Gift" that the person behind the site once read.  Today's pick presents 6 series of photos via Flash and it looks like the photographer has been around.  The first series features scenes from the "Canterbury Shaker Village" in New Hampshire.  The second ("Sea") has shots of landscapes from England, Belgium, France, and Greece – nice!  The next two series each focus on specific cities – London and New York.  Then move on to "Flowers" which is exactly what the name implies, and finally to "Jazz" which seems to be the miscellaneous category.  Several of the photos are available as wallpapers, too.  The site is calm and colorful – "I felt no pain... I saw the blue sea and sails."
   
• futabita 4/11/02 
  Description: static and motion visuals (Flash)
  Comments: I mentioned today's pick earlier this month in another site review and have visited it several times since then.  Like Futaba a/k/a Futabita, I also love cats (one of ours is over 20-years-old, believe it or not).  Her motion graphics piece called "i love cats" is one of those I could look at over and over again – great photos of cats, some taken at home in Brooklyn, and others in Barcelona and Tokyo.  There's a cool geographical navigator to the 6 different photos and I guess it also represents places that Futabita has been to.  If I'm not mistaken, she's from Japan.  There's another interesting motion piece, plus a big gallery of static visuals and another section with samples of some of her commercial designs.  The folders/files interface that dims the icons for the pieces you've already viewed is a nice design touch.  I really like viewing portfolio sites, especially when it's one like today's pick – appealing design samples without the hype...
   
• domesticat.net 4/8/02 
  Description: Write.  Not because your therapist says you have to, not because some teacher told you to, years ago -- no, instead, write because the words won't let you go if you don't.
  Comments: "If anything, it's a journal..." says Amy, "an observation space, a writing space, a place to try out new phrases, new pictures, new code."  Using PHP and some real design saavy, Amy's done a great job enhancing her greymatter-powered site.  It's really about the writing from what I can see (Amy writes well), but the little touches she's managed to pull off make it all the more interesting.  Like the random entry excerpt in the sidebar – it jumped me to a piece she wrote in December, 2000 called "The hottest job on Earth" that hit close to home – interesting to read something about the design biz written before the "tech bubble meltdown."  Then, there's the skins – 6 diverse variations of the site, done better than most I've seen.  What a drastic difference between the default skin and "twenty-one" (which I really like!).  Her archives go back to June, 2000 and there's a lot of good reading here.  Like Amy and Jeff, we have two cats, too – her most recent entry deals with adding a little device to the shared litterbox, which I can tell you right now would not fly with our kitties (LOL).  But, not to worry – "cat.net" isn't just about the fact that Amy's a "kittymommy" – she's also loves movies, music, gourmet cooking, and Jeff – all of those things are reflected in her writing.  Aside from the journal, there's photos, recipes, poetry, and "code bits."  Another thing you should be aware of is that she's "thoroughly, completely, and utterly silly."  Ahh, to be "twentysomethingsomething" again...
   
• tile machine 4/7/02 
  Description: create tiles online to send to your friends or add to the gallery (Shockwave)
  Comments: Today's pick is a very cool online toy!  Create a 32x32 tile (or 16x16 or 8x8 if you prefer) using the tight little Shockwave web application – save it as your wallpaper or email it to a friend, or better yet, add it to the gallery of almost 6,000 creations already done by other users.  Excellent drawing tools and a pallete of 112 colors to choose from.  You can browse the entire gallery, 12 works per page, and click on a contributor's name to see all of the pieces he or she has done – or search by the artist's name.  Some of the pieces in the gallery are truly amazing – yummie pixels – go play!
   
• Germán Flores 4/3/02 
  Description: photoseries... slicing and serving time at 72dpi
  Comments: "I guess one would say I am growing as an 'artist'" says Germán Flores, a photographer/designer living in Chicago.  Take a look at the "Eye Series" or the "Fork Series" and you'll probably agree with me that Germán is a grown-up when it comes to his art.  That's not to say he's not still growing – we all are – tomorrow's content, still unseen, will come from that growth – always something new to look forward to.  I miss Chicago – I lived there for 22 years.  Germán's two black and white series of Chicago pictures hit me most pleasantly.  He's got a special talent of capturing people and their surroundings – you'll see that in his various series of shots taken in Cuba and Nicaragua, too.  "Make the viewer be in the image" is one of Germán's goals – I'd say he's delivered on that one, thank you...
   
• 9zaku 4/2/02 
  Description: ES and Jay in vancouver – experimental Flash design
  Comments: Today's pick has been listed in the cool zone since last April – to tell the truth, I had forgotten about it.  But the web has a funny way of taking you back to things.  This morning, I was checking out a site I've been watching (from my long list of "potentials") and found another site on her "inspiration" list that I really like (now it's on the "potentials" list, too).  On that second site, I found a note in the news column mentioning an interview at the site that happens to be part of today's pick.  This early morning path brought me back to the site which is now on "version zerothree 2002" (the previous versions are still accessible).  Mahvelous!  The interview feature is part of "MobileSuits : Japanese Web Design Community" (see "MS" on the menu to get there) – though it's in Japanese only, there's a wealth of good links there plus some cool visual art all can enjoy.  The experimental Flash pieces from ES and Jay are what really grabbed me early this morning, though – they're all those other choices you'll find on the menu and I'll leave it up to you to explore and enjoy...
   
• vengas 4/1/02 
  Description: digital obsession – photo gallery, guest gallery, wallpaper and news
  Comments: Love those dark shades of gray, Vengas!  Today's pick is another visitor of coolstop who recently submitted a few images for the growing Visitors' Gallery (1 | 2).  Vengas says he has a "digital obsession" and it's obvious he does.  His personal gallery of digital photos has 12 different categories, each one with plenty of cool shots.  He takes both color and b/w photos and I think he's really good at it – his pictures speak for themselves.  Then there's the "guest gallery" with 5 different "rooms" of photos, 3 guest photographers per room – it's a unique presentation with neat pixel art and framed thumbnails on the gallery walls.  Very cool!  There's a few more empty rooms waiting for more guests to participate.  Need wallpaper?  There's some here you can download.  I just love sites like this and Vengas' is one of the better ones I've come across lately...