paint by pixels

I hope you had the joy of creating an awesome painting of a bouquet of flowers as a kid just by filling in the gaps on horrible newsprint with the correct color. I also hope it stayed on the family fridge for months until it was joined by an amazing crayon, marker, & macaroni masterpiece.

Enough of the memory lane trip & time for a modern twist on the paint by numbers idea. I think this twist is awesome not only because the small sense of accomplishment I get when completing a task but, it is a community effort!

Painted with Pixels was created by iam8bit Productions for the "The Game Developers Conference"  in 2012. The idea is each of the conference’s attendees would receive a 2″ pixel, either cyan, magenta, yellow, or black and would get to place his or her pixel on the wall in a corresponding square.

This is a "Why didn't I think of that?" project. I was tasked with coming up with a community project for Dell on Earth Day and it was not nearly as cool as this. Well, it was cool but not 20 feet by 8 feet of dragons & monsters cool.

 

Follow me to see more photos and details of the project.

tech21 & the "magic" goo

The only way to explain the goo is to see the goo.
Set your peepers on this.

My guess is this goo is made of cornstarch and water, mix it something else to make it gummy, and add in some orange dye. BLAM! You are a millionaire! If haven't seen cornstarch and water in action it is true magic, or science whatevers.

Cornstarch and water is the cheapest toy you will ever spend hours with. It can get messy but is not hard to clean once it dries. Tip: You cannot stir in the water. It only makes it expand into a solid. You will bend your spoon silly.

I can totally see this goo working to keep a cell phone safe on the outside depending on how thick the case is. For a few seconds the goo expands to make a dense surface on the top layer and that is how it protects it. Anyhoo, I thought I would share my thoughts of what this magic goo could really be. Hey, maybe one of you can make your own magic cornstarch goo for cash.

If you have any thoughts on what this could be other than the cornstarch and water theory, please share. I would love to learn and hear your thoughts.

kerning, the game

Are you up to the challenge? Are you design nerd enough to think this is fun? If you are like me and answered yes to both questions then you are in the right place.

"Your mission is simple: achieve pleasant and readable text by distributing the space between letters. Typographers call this activity kerning. Your solution will be compared to typographer's solution, and you will be given a score depending on how close you nailed it. Good luck!"

Now get to Kerning! 

What was your score? :)