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prior listings
prior listings
- exp.typo 8/31/03
Description: graphic design and typography
Comments: 27-year-old Korean designer Kim Minsoo also goes by the name pixel, so you know by now his site gets a little priority. Coolstop just loves pixels. Of course, it takes a little more for the resident reviewer to say "pick 'im." Take a dirty, grungy graphic style with obvious talent, which we're seeing less of these days, and "trash" that's really good, plus a big collection of splashes by pixel and others. Then, add in some free grungy fonts and a cool photo section full of mementos and you've got cool pixels. Pixel's cool, which is what I've been tryin' to tell ya...
- slower.net 8/30/03
Description: a website where a person named Eliot Shepard puts his photographs
Comments: Since the site was originally listed in the cool zone in late 2001, about a month after Eliot bought his first digital camera, it's grown to having almost 1000 photos. Why so many? "I post pictures because I'm trying to get better at taking them. Having a steady outlet keeps me motivated, and I like to look over what I've done in the past to see whether or not I'm improving." The collection is organized by date and Eliot provides several excellent navigation options based on thumbnails. There's 23 archive pages, each with 42 thumbs. Also, each photo entry has 7 navigational thumbnails plus 6 more randomly selected shots to choose from. All in one window and easy to quickly find interesting shots. Here's a few I like: [≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ cya...
- TwistedStudio.com 8/25/03
Description: twisted experimental playground
Comments: Today's pick comes from 20-year-old Portuguese designer Daniel Pereira. On one hand, it's a portfolio of Daniel's twisted artworks and photography. I think "She is Gone" and "The Shadows Whisper" are both very cool. In the photography section, "Far Beyond Eternity" and "Stairs" are great but a shot called "Polluted" is clearly my favorite. I don't want to leave out the wallpapers – some great visuals there, too. On the other hand, today's pick is a pretty good design portal as well, including a number of excellent resource links. Nice design! – v4.0 was just launched this month. Daniel promises to "do [his] best" to keep growing the links and portfolio sections, so do stay tuned... [robocore.]
- boghe 8/24/03
Description: private collections of illustrations and graphics (Flash)
Comments: It's grafitti style letterz and illustration rolled into big digital renderings that rock. It's theBoghe's private collection. "Testoni" and "we are the streets" are just 2 of the 11 projects that amaze me, but if I had to pick a fave, "roots" would be it. I couldn't help imagining what "blackbook" would look like on a real brick wall, but I promise I'll leave my markers at home today... ;~)
- Tofer 8/23/03
Description: paintings, public art, graphic design
Comments: The navigation is a little strange but I won't be a heel for your information, but when you agree it's strange, I'll be able to say I toed you so (yeah, I know what they say about puns). Some of Tofer's work ends up on canvas while other work ends up on buildings. It says "please check back frequently" on the main page, so I'm assuming the other shoe will have to come off soon. But for now, the five digits lead to some nice visuals... [eltono.com]
- *spo0ky* one.year 8/22/03
Description: one year of digital.photography (Flash) (mature content)
Comments: For one year, beginning in June of 2001, spo0ky built an extraordinary collection of digital auto-portraits, in the form of an online digital.diary. "Themes explored are desire, voyeurism, sensuality, fashion and strong use of colour schemes." The images are tastefully done and highly emotive – among the very best I've seen online, and the presentation, simply perfect... [Swikiri]
- Gothamist 8/19/03
Description: group blog focusing on media, technology, and New York City crime
Comments: So many great sites out there – it's hard to keep up. But out of the darkness came a reminder about this group blog that's been online for almost a year. Did I say blog? Okay, it is a blog, but more than that, it's a top-notch online magazine in my opinion. It's in New York City, covering everything from food to celebrities to style to music to art and architecture. Great design and content and just look how busy the comments are! Kudos to editor Jen and publisher Jake for putting out such a special (drumroll, please) magablog...;~))
- Lomography in action 8/17/03
Description: Lomography by Lars Michael Sorensen, Denmark
Comments: An early morning jump to pictoblog (see 8/13/03) led me to lomography.com, which I've visited a number of times before. That, in turn, led to today's pick. Lomo photos have a unique quality about them that's hard to describe. The photographer can compose the shot and control it to a point, but with a Lomo camera, the results are somewhat unpredictable and have an artistic quality all their own. What I like about Lars' site (beside the cool photos) is his simple presentation – just click for the next one and keep going. I'm not sure how many photos there are, but I got up to 100. You can bookmark where you stop and continue on your next visit. Enjoy...
- eltono.com 8/16/03
Description: street art, postering, propaganda, logos and graffiti
Comments: As I've done before when reviewing graffiti sites, I offer this brief disclaimer – don't get so excited about today's pick that you go out and start painting on buildings or defacing property. It may be illegal depending where you decide to do it, so please don't try this a home. So much for coverin' my butt. El Tono and sidekick Nuria have painted on walls from Paris to Seoul and Madrid to Liverpool. It's not typical graffiti and in many of the photos, it appears more to have enhanced the scene than to have defaced it. El Tono is also into posters and other experimentations, including stenciling of art onto containers. Right or wrong, it is art that's interesting to observe and the photos are pretty good. Happy Saturday, y'all... [monsieura.com < lovegraffiti.com < forthemasses.net]
- always write 8/15/03
Description: an interesting experiment and, I hope, an entertaining one
Comments: Paths to picks. Wanna round the week off with a blog or journal pick, but something special, thank you. Where to begin? Tired from the outage, I want an easy route. Six stops max but needs to end in cool. So I start at my own blog (self-promotin' bastard!), which happens to be a misfit, jumping off to teammonkey (she redesigns a lot - nice - could've been today's but I decide to keep movin'). Next is adampsyche which leaves me dusted and disgusted, but the word pixel always grabs me (colorful site, also cool). Since I said six stops max, I decide put my mouse over the blogroll, close my eyes, and move the mouse up and down several times being careful to stay over that column of links and... click! "I hope it worked," I think and open my eyes. Hmmm... nice clean layout and the most recent entry reads well. "Maybe it did work" crosses my mind as I see the "Rants" category in the sidebar. Tired, maybe a little cranky, I'm thinkin' a well written rant or two might help accomplish what the coffee didn't. Bingo! The two entries written since she thought she may have been "running out of rants" are really good, leaving me slightly energized. I feel a grin coming on. Kelly writes! In fact, "she said goodbye to corporate America in February of 2002 and now picks up the pen only to write for writing's sake." Well, just look what I found... a flourishing creative space. Another day, another path... to cool.
- The Fiction Warehouse 8/14/03
Description: weekly literary ezine devoted to promoting new, emerging, and established writers working with the fiction short story
Comments: Thanks Jared, for taking the time to let me know about this "interesting ezine" you spotted. Today's pick focuses on fiction and features short stories from over 60 "emerging and established writers." Their mission is simple. "The short-short of it: we're here to publish stories." It's been adding a new featured story weekly since late October, 2001, so if short fiction is your thing, enjoy...
- Pictoblog 8/13/03
Description: image weblog, updated weekly
Comments: Each weekly page contains 7 crops of images from around the web, 200x200 in size. I'd call it an excellent alternative portal to the visual arts and culture. Each page I checked out led to a variety of interesting sites. It's been online since last November. Do the math and today's pick offers hours of enjoyable exploration. Though this site is relatively new, Nemo Nox, its creator, has been doing the webthing since '97 and the Brazilian press has called him everything from "weblog pioneer" to "Lord Internet" to "one of the most active people on the Brazilian cultural web." I used an online translator to read a few of the articles about him – they love this guy! Then, I checked out his images section – I love this guy too... [Globe of Blogs]
- swizz made 8/11/03
Description: visual design portfolio (Flash)
Comments: Der Wiz makes a big, bold design statement using red and black and the pencil with the white cross on it seems not quite as sharp as the Swiss Army® brand he's parodying (I think). Then again, a stroll through his portfolio of 2D and 3D illustrations and motion graphics tells me his pencil only appears dull because he's been using it so much (and quite well, thank you). There's tons of inspiration for visual designers here and the promise of the adventures of Big Wiz being online soon is something to look forward to. A comic strip perhaps? Non-designers might also enjoy Der Wiz' colorful and playful illustration style. Heck! Just the cool background image on the main page makes the site worth checking out...
- BlogShares 8/10/03
Description: fantasy blog share market
Comments: Okay. I gotta get something outta my system today. Maybe it's because I just can't get the site outta my system that it's time to make sure it's listed here at coolstop. And Sunday's a good day to do it, when things are quiet, 'cause Lord knows I use quite enough of Seyed's bandwidth already. It's not the type of site I typically review but it certainly is special. If you haven't heard of the site yet, I wish you a safe journey back from whatever planet you've been on...I've been spending at least 1-2 hours a day there for the last few months. It's more fun than any other site I've frequented. Did I say fun? Let me rephrase that. Addictive! That's what it is. It's caught on like wildfire with thousands playing the game. I love it and have to recognize it for what it is – a truly unique website. And while I'm at it, counting my phony moolah, let me mention that what it's really about is helping people find new and interesting websites, which it does quite well in the context of the game. That's what I call cool. I want to be sure to point out that you don't have to pay to play, unless of course, you just can't enough of it like me. Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta go call my accountant...
- A Picture's Worth 8/9/03
Description: essays on photographs of personal significance
Comments: David's a law student in Melbourne who enjoys writing and photography. The concept was in his mind for over a year before he launched the site on August 1st. The goal is to post a new photo essay daily and it relies on contributed content. So if you have a special photograph that inspires you to write about "an experience, emotion or memories," go for it! David's welcoming all contributions and the site's as much about the stories as it is about the photos. As David puts it, the project "aims to highlight the inspiration that can arise from a photograph and to capture it in the form of words which in turn can reveal the true beauty of a photograph." I've read just a few of the 8 essays already posted and found them quite moving, and as I was writing this review, a new essay appeared on the home page. It's looking like daily-it-is so far and I'm guessing that will continue as more people share their inspirations, so enjoy and spread the word, please...
- Neeton PhotoLifeBlog 8/8/03
Description: Digital portfolio of 2 french photo shooters. Feed your eyes and stimulate your retina... (Flash)
Comments: 2 shooters in Paris, one an actor and the other a web designer, share a total of almost 700 photos in the PhotoLifeBlog. Each guy's shots are presented in reverse chronological order and there's some textual content. Though similar to a photoblog, there's no permalinks and the presentation (via Flash) is more like a gallery than a weblog. Works for me. [Cya... [upwardlink]
- photographix 8/7/03
Description: just some photos from me for you (Flash)
Comments: I just discovered there's now 49 site reviews in the results for the keyword playground, going back to '99 and most of 'em are still online. Patrick calls his site a playground as well. It's all photography (another fine keyword in these parts, thank you), presented via Flash as 180x180 shots against a lush landscape in the background – big points for design and presentation. "SundayKitchen" and "Sharpness" have some interesting shots of objects, while other categories include landscapes, skies, plus a look at "Old Rotterdam." An nice little collection... [linkdup (unfiltered)]
- tairona.de 8/4/03
Description: photography of Dominik Pietsch
Comments: Busy guy. Dominik redesigned the site in May, then again in June. It looks like the pictures he took in New York in June are the latest gallery added to the large Photos section. Several other sections have also been updated since then. Nice site design with horizontally scrolling galleries. Living in Essen, Germany and armed with 4 cameras, Dominick is no novice. Check out the Industrie and Nachts galleries and you'll see what I mean. Then browse his shots from New York and Berlin and repeat after me. Ooooh... Aaaah...
- www.logotypes.ru 8/3/03
Description: extensive library of logos
Comments: Today's pick is a true resource for anyone interested in logos. You could spend hours, even days (if you're really interested), browsing through the enormous library of logo art. Downloads are available in zipped-up vector format. "More than 80% of logos are taken from the respective trademark owners, publishing houses or creative bureaus, who promotes the brand. The rest are copied with maximum precision and quality." The site cooperates with any company who requests removal of their logo from the library, noting that "all the materials available here are the property of their owners." I think Serge and Dmitry were on to something about the web when they created the site way back in late 1997...
- bmace.com 8/2/03
Description: an ever-growing collection of experimental Flash installments that span both interactive and static mediums
Comments: The latest experiment is the "DNA Generator," which "makes a nice random pattern." Indeed. That piece, contributed by one of Benjamin's friends, is just one of 29 experimental Flash works on display here. Each one has information on scripting the site will probably appeal most to those who work with Flash and want to learn more. They'll also like the fact that the source code is available for downloaded – see "About" for more information and disclaimers. Benjamin ("otherwise known as 'b'") has been working with Flash for years and calls the site "a digital sketchbook that allows [him] to explore Flash as well as help educate others and develop in a collaborative environment." As always, I appreciate the help that a site like b's provides...
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