Really Interesting Group

Some things I noticed last week (only two videos):

Phil has written about how good Misfits is. I love blog posts like this because they feel like a peak behind the curtains of someone’s brain. Sort of. A bit. They’re better than posts just about work anyway.

I also love a bit of Caravaggio.

Last weekend James was in Milan, after speaking at the ifbookthen conference. He visited two of Milan’s most famous galleries, because he has a thing for Caravaggio. Who doesn’t?

He’s written a really good post (review?) of his visit that I was first alerted to by the tweet below.

Who could resist a piece of art criticism that starts like that? I could see James as the new Brian Sewell.

And so on to the videos.

The first is by Michael Bierut, Pentagram partner. It’s a short talk where he explains the joy of clients. Yes, you read that right, the Joy Of Clients, “without them I wouldn’t be here today.” He’s right about that and if you’re working with a ‘tough’ client it’s worth remembering this every now and then. Watch it, it’s very funny.

2010/01 Michael Bierut from CreativeMornings on Vimeo.

The second is a data visualisation of Boris Bikes. It “shows the real-time behaviour of hire bikes in London on October 4th 2010, the day of a major tube strike, and the busiest day for the scheme to date.” It’s not perfect, it only knows when you took the bike and when you brought it back – not where you went, but it’s interesting.

London Hire Bikes animation from Sociable Physics on Vimeo.

It also reminded me of the Nike Grid visualisation I did with Stamen and w+k last year. Which brings me nicely to my last link, Nike Grid has just been nominated for a Guardian Innovation Award.