Im currently in Madrid for a fantastic two week production workshop and symposium “Visualizar“, with Ben Fry and Adrian Holovaty, organised by Medialab Prado. The days start at 10am and end at 9pm. I’m very excited to be collaborating on the humanflow project by Luis Miguel Cabanzo. alongside Nathan Yao, and Monica Sanchez.
Here are some of the other interesting projects which will be in intensive production over the next two weeks.

The Humanflows project is about designing purposeful, playful interactive visualisations which offer thought provoking views of historic and current data on “Human migration flows, its causes and repercussions”. My personal interest stems from the fact that its a purposeful visualisation, with the potential to educate an audience in an engaging memorable manner. Im interested in designing and prototyping the visual notation system and thinking about the types of interaction which can be quite meaningful in this context
Ill be updating this post daily after the jump.

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There is no gold, sliver and bronze to be awarded here - all three are absolute winners…

1. Stevie Gee + Big Active
I’ve finally tracked down the creators of the awesome artwork for the latest Athlete album.

2. Vampire Weekend
Punk / New Wave / Classical sounding stuff from New York based band that I have been very lucky to see play a couple of times recetnly.

3. ‘Put it Back’ Anthony Burrill exhibition at Concrete Hermit
I’m off to take a look later today - this has motivated me to finally get framed the rather confident AB print I brought earlier this year.

This exhibition is the first UK showing of Taryn Simon’s latest project, An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar, a culmination of four years extensive research and documenting of the unseen and inaccessible hidden below the surface of national identity.

I’ve been and it’s well good, it’s free to get in and you get to meet Kenny the white tiger who is on this planet as a result of selective inbreeding don’t you know!

The exhibition is at The Photographers’ Gallery and closes next Sunday, November 11th.

Last week I went to the D&AD Presidents lecture where straight talking, non computer using, rubbish collecting graphic designer Ivan Chermayeff took centre stage and shared stories from his 50 year (and still going strong) career in design. He showcased projects he was invloved in on behalf of his company Chermayeff & Gesimar, including brand identities, exhibition design, motion graphics and art in architecture. As you may expect it made for a very impressive and highly motivating evening.

Towards the end of the lecture he presented a selection of motion graphic projects his studio has produced, one of which was a project called ‘Logomotion’ where a selection of their identities are morphed in and out of each other, excerpts of which can be viewed here. This organic sequence of events reminded me of a little typographic place called Bembo’s Zoo. Enjoy.

On Thursday night I was very lucky to go to the closing night gala of the BFI London Film Festival, red carpets and film stars aside this was all about Wes Anderson’s latest film The Darjeeling Limited.

The film tells the story of a spritual journey across India by train undertaken by three brothers, Francis (Owen Wilson), Peter (Adrien Brody) and Jack (Jason Scwartzman). They have not spoken for the last year since their father’s death, the trip is planned to allow them to reconnect with each other, to be brothers once again. Without saying too much the trip doesn’t quite go as planned and events unfold to take them on a new journey.

The film was preceded and will be when it’s released later this month by Hotel Chevalier, an entertaining short where Jack, the youngest brother and his ex-girlfriend (Natalie Portman) are reunited in a hotel room in Paris prior to his trip to India. Whilst it isn’t essential viewing before TDL, it introduces you to a heartbroken Jack and allows you gauge the temperature of what is to come.

So for the main attraction, it goes without saying this film is beautiful to look at, the exposure of the indian landscape and culture reinforces it’s place on my list of countries to visit. The sound track is fittingly quirky and at times perfectly introduced by Jack with the assistance of his bose iPod speakers. The deadpan chemistry between the brothers will keep you engaged from start to finish and you will love the 11 piece family crested luggage, Francis’s control freak personailty and the prescription drug abuse. As much as I wanted to love this film completely it doesn’t quite pack a loveable punch for me. For sure it’s a great film to see on the big screen and I would recommend you to do so, although you may come away like me wanting a little more from it.

Here are two rather pleasant things that have been launched into the world wide web from Poke towers recently;

1.Orange Unlimited is a never ending page of interactive flash fun that brings to life the Unlimited campaign tag line ‘Good things should never end’. The characters you will meet were illustrated by the awesomely talented Rex, my favorite bit is the beat juggling musical characters on a washing line - it’s abit like a simpleton’s version of the incredible tenori-on.

2. Spinvox is a clever little thing with a tidy new website…’SpinVox is a service that can be accessed from any phone. Speak Freely and SpinVox will convert your words into text and send them wherever you decide: mobile, inbox, TV screen, blog and more. Give it a try now’