What a lovely winter we had...are having...I'm not even sure anymore. However the sun was out and the weather was lovely this weekend so I hope you all got out and about. I went to see Shakespeare's Richard III playing at BAM this weekend, starring Kevin Spacey. What a visually stunning production it was. The acting was so superb that, despite my nosebleed seat, I almost forgot how boring Shakespeare's histories can be (four words: two hour first act). In honor of the great production, I've created the quick series of heralds below.

In the same classic vein, I found the photography/portrait work of duo Sarah Cooper and Nina Gorfer to be quite riveting. The beautiful combination of photography and other media creates captivating images that seem to be a breath from the subject's story in each frame. The color palettes are decidedly dark and antique in quality. I love how each piece evokes the classic sense of the  European masters while remaining decidedly modern and unique.

Similarly, the web site for Mezcal Buen Viaje takes traditional Latin American folk art and turns it into a stunning, bright and fun modern site. I especially like the unique folky navigation elements, like the rainbow diamond scroll bar, and the amazing characters used throughout the page. Also of note is the animated bird at the top of the page, done in the classic style of zoetrope animation. The retrofitting of old analog tech to modern websites is so titillating and full of possibility.

And there's nothing quite as fantastic as borrowing those physical artifacts that most represent our predecessors lives and taste, namely entire buildings. By now almost everyone's seen examples of video projections on buildings interacting with the building's architectural elements sometimes to great effect. However the following video far surpasses any such show I've seen online before. I'm still, as of yet, to see such a show in person but I can only imagine that the effect is many times stronger and more visceral...one day soon I hope.

The Sketching Mechanism is a series of weekly posts, published on Mondays, containing the artistic musings of Mobile Designer/Developer Ben Chirlin during our Monday morning meeting at the NY Creative Bunker as well as his inspiring artistic finds of the week.