Happy Thanksgiving, MetaFilter! If you have friends from different parts of the U.S., you might have wondered why they consider certain dishes to be an essential part of a Thanksgiving feast, when you've never even thought of them as remotely Thanksgiving-related. Now you can see what dishes were popular searches on allrecipes.com in various states thanks to a series of infographics in the New York Times.
posted by grouse on Nov 26, 2009 - 70 comments

Japanese Matchbox Labels is a fine collection (flickr set) of wonderful vintage eye candy from the Japan of the 1920s through the 1940s. [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite on Sep 26, 2009 - 7 comments

Graphic Concrete is a process with which textures, patterns, typography, images, or works of art can be "printed" on concrete surfaces, with subtle and dramatic results. Invented by Finnish designer and architect Samuli Naamanka, Graphic Concrete is being used in projects all over the globe.
posted by mattdidthat on Sep 10, 2009 - 21 comments

Flip Flop Fly Ball - Baseball infographics and other visual treats. Highlights: How tall is the Green Monster?, Assembling and dismantling the '86 Mets, and Wu-Tang Clan vs. E-Street Band.
posted by Ufez Jones on Jun 19, 2009 - 48 comments

"Pryde and I came across it one day in an old stable, on a sack of fodder. It is a good, hearty, old English name, and it appealed to us, so we adopted it immediately." That's how The Beggarstaffs, a short lived but influential paring of graphic designers, got their name. [more inside]
posted by Brandon Blatcher on Jun 16, 2009 - 9 comments

The Served is a family of sites that brings you a steady supply of top quality creative work in specific categories: Fashion, Industrial Design, Photography [some nsfw], Typography, and Motion Graphics. All projects are streamed directly from the owner's portfolios in the Behance Network, along with proper attribution and a direct link to contact information.
posted by netbros on Jun 8, 2009 - 5 comments

You may have already noticed some of the visual tricks in these logos. Or maybe not. (I never saw the b--- in the T-------- logo before.) Or maybe you just think these are too obvious for words and there are much better examples out there. (via)
posted by maudlin on May 18, 2009 - 119 comments

Pixel City is a procedurally generated cityscape by Shamus Young. Procedurally generated graphics have a long history of producing attractive results with extremely small amounts of code, like Elevated, which was generated by just 4K of code, automatically generated video game content (also, Spore) or the generation of realistic water flows. Note the last demo reel may have been the test for a new film mentioned previously.
posted by GuyZero on May 15, 2009 - 44 comments

The Inamo restaurant in London's fashionable SoHo district isn't known for its splendid food or accommodating waitresses. Instead, this new Asian fusion eatery is getting raves for its use of a touch pad-projection system that allows diners to send food orders directly to the chefs and makes the dining experience fully interactive. It's all one graphic application, with new iconography for signs and menus, graphic wallpaper and tablecloths, shopfront etched patterns and illuminated screens. [more inside]
posted by netbros on Mar 16, 2009 - 40 comments

We've very much enjoyed the beautiful work of the NYT graphic and infovisual design staff before, but what about when those glorious graphs and interactive adventures don't turn out as expected? Still pretty neat.
posted by carsonb on Mar 11, 2009 - 17 comments

A Day in the Life of Abbey Road; (sorry for the prosaic lead-in link - at least I didn't use the word "iconic!") Enjoy watching Beatles' fans and locals negotiate London's famous Abbey Road crosswalk. I miss album covers; I'm of the generation of high school kids who spent a zillion hours flipping through them in record stores. The best of them - like Abbey Road - could be high-impact and sometimes accompanied their records like a kind of graphic mini-novel. What were some of your favorites and why?
posted by Dex Quire on Mar 10, 2009 - 42 comments

Journalism may be going through a painful period but thanks to the web the once lowly information graphic is finally growing up to be all it never could on paper. Especially the New York Times seems to currently stand out in how frequently and quickly they build amazingly detailed and insightful interactive features. Consider the tracking of US Airways Flight 1549 or the piece on raising its engine from the Hudson. Other recent highlights: 9,955,441 parking tickets issues in NYC mapped by street, The Ebb and Flow of Movies: Box Office Receipts 1986 — 2008, Ansel Adams's Yosemite, the view from the 10-meter platform explained, A look at the language of presidential inaugural addresses 1789 to the Present, A Map of the number of medals that countries won in summer Olympic Games, Going to the End of the Line, The 44 Places to go in 2009, an explanation of how the Pentagon responded to criticism of then-Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, The Soyuz Spacecraft, How the Towers Stood and Fell and many, many, more. [more inside]
posted by krautland on Feb 14, 2009 - 16 comments

In 2005, graphic artist Kentaro Nagai was struck by the play on words between peace and piece in relation to global politics. This concept was expanded in an exhibition entitled Twelve Animals, where Nagai rearranged outlines of the world's landmasses into shapes respective of the aspects of the Chinese Zodiac. [via]
posted by Smart Dalek on Feb 12, 2009 - 11 comments

Radical Graphics you can use in your flyers against the system.
posted by - on Feb 8, 2009 - 29 comments

Ever see an awesome graphic or visualization in the New York Times and wonder who did it? Chances are it's either Amanda Cox or Megan Jaegerman. [more inside]
posted by AceRock on Jan 21, 2009 - 15 comments

Hongkiat.com is a treasure trove from a Malaysian designer, developer that features Photoshop tutorials, icons, Wordpress tips and tricks, tools for everything from sound to Flickr, inspirations, graphics and templates, stunning wallpapers including for Windows 7, Leopard, and iPhone, and finally a library of how-to's to make your everyday internet simpler.
posted by netbros on Jan 15, 2009 - 2 comments

Electronic Masks and Calculated Movements are two early computer animation projects featured at EVLTube, the YouTube channel for UIC's Electronic Visualization Laboratory. In additon to the video archive, the EVL website also features a trove of interesting current EV projects like snstncntnrs and Unfolding Space, not to mention extensive notes on the fascinating research conducted and devices used at the facility. [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Jan 10, 2009 - 4 comments

Cloth Physics Simulation
posted by Brandon Blatcher on Dec 29, 2008 - 25 comments

A cornucopia of 'pictorial representations' of safety messages for industry. All images freely available in EPS and and DXF format. My personal favorite is this rather unfortunate situation.
posted by sp160n on Nov 4, 2008 - 47 comments

FairyTaleFilter: SurLaLune Fairy Tales features 49 annotated fairy tales, including their histories, similar tales across cultures, modern interpretations and over 1,500 illustrations, 1,600 folktales & fairy tales from around the world in more than 40 full-text eBooks. Fairy Tale timeline. l Women Children's Book Illustrators l The Evolution of the Illustrated Children's Book l Some really beautiful free graphics and clipart from Grandma's Graphics. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on Oct 1, 2008 - 11 comments

Quest for a true 3D Mandelbrot Fractal - a very nice exploration of Mandelbrot/Julia set fractals in various kinds of 3D space.
posted by loquacious on Sep 14, 2008 - 21 comments

Data-Driven Enhancement of Facial Attractiveness
posted by phrontist on Sep 8, 2008 - 39 comments

I am Walmarticus! [more inside]
posted by y2karl on Jul 31, 2008 - 62 comments

Looking for the graphic "The Genealogy of Pop/Rock Music" I remembered from Tufte, I found HistoryShots. [previous mention]
posted by cgc373 on Jul 26, 2008 - 16 comments

Retronomatopeya - cute collection of comic book images and language conveying sound and motion. Also see anastasiav's prior post: Ka-BOOM, the Dictionary of Comic Book Words on Historical Principles. (via oink!) [more inside]
posted by madamjujujive on Jul 17, 2008 - 11 comments

screamyGuy: Random Acts of Programming [created using Processing]
posted by brundlefly on Jun 22, 2008 - 8 comments

A new crop circle formation in Wiltshire depicts the first 10 digits of pi. [more inside]
posted by casarkos on Jun 20, 2008 - 96 comments

Clever! Peppy! Immensely entertaining! The opening sequence of the Dick Cavett Show was a little masterpiece of 60s pop graphics. A similar aesthetic is at work here in this 60s era PSA reminding you to vote. Here's some jazzy 60s animation: a commercial for Beechnut Gum. And lots more typically 60s animation and graphics on display here in this Animation Commercial Collection.
posted by flapjax at midnite on May 6, 2008 - 22 comments

More cool business card designs. (Previously.)
posted by Armitage Shanks on Apr 24, 2008 - 29 comments

3d renderings of the zodiac signs.
posted by Wolfdog on Apr 14, 2008 - 43 comments

The Gallery of Graphic Design has a huge collection of magazine print adverts from the 30s to the late 60s. The images are fairly large and organised/searchable by year, product, magazine and advertiser. [via]
posted by peacay on Mar 12, 2008 - 21 comments

Blue Vertigo | Web Design Resource Links
posted by Gyan on Nov 21, 2007 - 24 comments

VectorMagic is a new site that uses technology from the Stanford University Artificial Intelligence Laboratory to transform your bitmap images into vector art that can be scaled without becoming blurry of pixelated. Here's the first image I submitted, before and after.
posted by Turtles all the way down on Oct 29, 2007 - 36 comments

7 Means of Movement: Flying From "Come Fly With Me" to "Waitress In The Sky," Locust St. impresses us with all things aeronautical.
posted by vronsky on Oct 4, 2007 - 5 comments

The Histogram As The Image. An interesting (but probably mostly useless) spin on steganography.
posted by melorama on Sep 30, 2007 - 20 comments

It's not a bug, it's a feature: Carolin Horn has designed Anymails, which represents your email messages and folders as micro-organisms. The morphology of the individual organisms and their behaviour within colonies imparts information about the state of your email. You can view QT movies of the application in action (1, 2), download her thesis, and download the Anymails code itself. See some of her other work here (predominantly in German). via Madame Martin, the "French Metafilter".
posted by Rumple on Aug 31, 2007 - 22 comments

Content Aware Image Resizing. Every year SIGGRAPH rolls around I get a reminder of how smart everyone else is, especially people who do computer graphics research. From Shai Avidan and Ariel Shamir. The algorithm resizes images non-uniformly and, well, somewhat magically.
posted by GuyZero on Aug 21, 2007 - 94 comments

Fontfilter -- ever wondered what font a logo uses? Wonder no more. (site's in German but the chart is simple--there's also a reversed one, by font instead of by company)
posted by amberglow on May 29, 2007 - 14 comments

Pie charts that represent the proportional amount of color in each country's national flag. Similar to this (previously), only not as pointed.
posted by tepidmonkey on May 28, 2007 - 33 comments

Ubuntu Studio is a Linux distribution focused on creative audiovisual pursuits.
posted by phrontist on May 10, 2007 - 55 comments

PSST! Pass It On…
posted by ijoshua on May 8, 2007 - 8 comments

Milestones in graphics, maps, and visualizations. An incredible site for anyone interested in the history of visualization of data. See the first town map from 6200 BCE. Take a look at some of the most important graphics through history, including the London cholera map and the diagrams that made Florence Nightingale's case, as well as recent examples of some of the worst. Also check out the fascinating history of timelines, or Cabinet magazine's beautifully illustrated Timeline of Timelines.
posted by blahblahblah on Apr 24, 2007 - 13 comments

Abnormal Behavior Child's got some interesting things to look at and watch or play with. Site self-describes as "visual poetry". {second link's got flash/sound}
posted by dobbs on Apr 17, 2007 - 6 comments

Get lost in the fabulous labyrinth of Coconino World, a mammoth French site with thousands of images from illustrators, graphic artists, and cartoonists ranging from the classics to the contemporary. Some personal favorites: the generous selection of graphics from Simplicissimus, the celebrated German satire magazine published weekly from 1896-1944. James Swinerton's Canyon Kiddies. George Herriman's Krazy Kat. -more-
posted by madamjujujive on Apr 15, 2007 - 9 comments

Magic Ink - Information Software and the Graphical Interface
posted by Gyan on Apr 7, 2007 - 29 comments

Wellington Grey used to be an essayish personal blog, but lately Grey has taken to posting amusing graphics. Don't miss out on gems such as Bedtime Entropy, W.W.G.W.B.D., W.W.R.F.D., Why Go?, Roomba and Things I Teach At a Girls' School.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Feb 28, 2007 - 23 comments

The making of the Korean Actress "Song Hye Kyo" by Max Edwin Wahyudi. Computer graphics have come a hell of a long way.
posted by chunking express on Feb 22, 2007 - 38 comments

The Morphable Face Model "captures the variations of 3D shape and texture that occur among human faces. It represents each face by a set of model coefficients, and generates new, natural-looking faces from any novel set of coefficients, which is useful in a wide range of applications in computer vision and computer graphics." Amazing/terrifying tech from Herr Prof. Dr. Volker Blanz.
posted by gwint on Jan 15, 2007 - 38 comments

A periodic table of visualization methods.
posted by fatllama on Jan 7, 2007 - 13 comments

The sphere. A simple object. Primitive. Round.
The CGSphere Project is simply this: What can you do with a round object in your 3D world?
Gallery here

Contributors have tried to create the most captivating 3d sphere, using their choice of software.
My favorites: My Precious. No Way Out. Solar Radiometer. Idea in a Cage. Sputnik. Hunter Killer. Don't Do it. mini adventure. Corals. Pin Ball. Spy Hole.
posted by filmgeek on Dec 23, 2006 - 19 comments