Way back in the beginning of this blog I did a post called: "What's On Your Chess Board". Where I just talked about some interesting chess boards that I had found along the way. Well today, I have a couple more to add to the collection.

Lens Chess Set

This chess set is made using real Canon and Nikon camera lenses. The company Lensrentals.com, that made this unique concept makes it available for you to rent for a whopping $9,221.00 per week. So if your a chess fanatic and you have some cash, you can play some Camera Lense Chess.

Ice Chess Set

The Ice Chess Set would be a fun and interesting way to play chess. They have silicone ice molds that create frozen chess pieces. This set is avaible for $12.99, and it's a lot cheaper then renting the  $9,221.00 per week Camera Lens Chess Set.

Key Chess Set

This sweet looking  Key Chess Set was designed by Dave Pickett around the function of skeleton keys. The skeleton keys on this board are mode of brass. One set was finished in liver sulfur petina and the other set was sandblasted. The wood includes curly maple and walnut.

LED Chess Set

Here is an innovative way for ravers to play chess in the dark.  The LED Chess Set which, you can read more about how it came about and how it was made on Instructables.com

3D Chess Board

This is a strange chess board and it would more than likely take me a minute to figure out. The 3D Chess board give another add dimension to the game we call chess.

Cardboard Chess Set

The Cardboard Chess Set is a modern set with unique chess pieces made out of cardboard. Here is a chess set that has gone green.

Straight Up Chess Set

Here is a different perspective on playing chess. This Straight Up Chess Set is a vertical wall mounted chess board. It would make you think a little different on how you would play and display your game.  They have different styles of this set, which can cost you anywhere from $185 to $300.



















If you know of any other chess sets that you think could be in this collection. Let me know, leave a comment or sent me a message.

I was enjoying the color palettes and the details this morning in these poster designs by Andy Rohr. These future retro posters were part of a fictitious airline that takes you to Mars called MarsUnited. These posters reminds me of some old school 60's scifi take on how the future will be and where we can go. Andy did a wonderful job on taking the vintage to a retro future. The MarsUnited series posters are available to purchase on his shop. Plus, don't forget to check out some of his other works as well.

Photography Richard Gubbels from the Netherlands captured these beauties. The color tones and the surreal feeling of nostalgia in these photos are fantastic. I could picture myself explore this cooling tower inside of an abandon power plant on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Why Sunday you ask? I don't know it just seems like a good exploring day. These are not the only stunning images taken by Richard so check out more of his work on Flickr.




Source: ThisisColossal

Seeing how I'm an Ohioian, I get excited when I find bands that are from where I use to live. The Lighthouse and the Whaler is a band from Cleveland, Ohio, though its name would assume otherwise. This indie-folk-pop band has a future of making it big due to their sound is catchy, uplifting and somewhat rustic. They have already completed two EP and a Self Title Album and currently will be playing more live shows (hopefully in Tampa!). They are also in the process of creating their new album which you can keep up to date with them on their Blog.

Below you can a listen to their Self Title Album and spread the word. I think this indie band will be exploding in 2011. I look forward to their new album but in the meantime, I will enjoy their Self Titled Album.





Source: JessG,

This is a place where being inside feels like one is outside. Located in beautiful Brazil and designed by Fernanda Marques. The Loft 24/7 brings in modern style with nature. This spacious bungalow has some unique materials to bring nature a little bit closer. The use of rough stone walls, limestone floors, steel and glass give the interior a earthly tone to it. The interior and the outer environment, glazed walls and ceilings ensure spatial continuity: one of the hallmarks of Fernanda Marques’s designs.

I would have to say though, this house would making camping at lot more comfortable. You can read more about this home on Architizer.com

Laura Bifano has been working on her new series "Menagerie". It's a show of 10 polygonal animal paintings that she has been working on for the last three months. This series shows her fascination with the natural world and the world of computer games. She is not the only one with this fascination because her prints are selling like hot cakes. (Yes, hot cakes)! Each print is selling for about $40.00 a piece. She's currently releasing a painting a day and is up to number 7 so only 3 more to go. You can keep up with them on her Tumblr.

Who doesn't want a pixelated octopus doing what he does best? Creepin!





Source: drawn

I had the pleasure of talking with the creator Marty Kenney about his Fake Album Covers website. Marty, also known as Mantis, designed a site that allows others to generate fake album covers and provides them with an outlet to show their designs.

The rules are simple since there are only three and they are as follows:

1. Generate a band name/artist based off a generated Wikipedia word/name
2. Generate an album title based off of using the last few words of a quote that is also generated by a link.
3. Generate album photo/artwork based off a limited number of flickr images that are also provided by a link.

In designing the fake cover, you can use any kind of editing software to create a square proportioned graphic; 685 x 685 pixels using the above method. You are also allowed to manipulate the photo; as long as in so far that the original image is for the most part, recognizable. Give it a try!

During the whole process of running through the rules and generating an album cover, I got a chance to ask Mantis a couple of questions concerning his ideas about the site. Here is what he had to say:

Mantis: I would like there to be enough submissions for there to be daily updates, and see the whole thing grow, and get as many people interested and involved as possible.

Alexandre Farto known by the art community as Vhils uses a slightly different approach to making art. Although he uses walls to make his art he does use other types of canvas like metal, paper and wood. Also included are the occasional print and/or installation.

Vhils wall portraits are stunning and mesmerizing. From what I'm guessing he first craves the image into a concrete wall and than fills it up again with plaster and explosives. To create a unique and destructive way of portraying his street art.










Source: webdesignerdepot

I saw this video the other night and man it was pretty impressive. Madeon had an idea and started playing around with it and did a mashup of 39 different songs to make one sick mashup. It would have been interesting though to see the software side of the setup before mixing it up but you take what you can get. This 16 year old producer from France has some skills that I can only image will get better. After checking out this video check out some of his other remixes as well.




Here is the track list of the songs

Tracklist

Alphabeat - Boyfriend
Alphabeat - Fascination
Bag Raiders - Shooting Stars
Black Eyed Peas - Gotta Feeling
Britney Spears - ...Baby One More Time
Capsule - Can I Have A Word
Chromeo - Momma's Boy
Coldplay - Viva La Vida
Daft Punk - Aerodynamic
Daft Punk - Around The World
Deadmau5 - Raise Your Weapon (Madeon Remix)
Deadmau5 - Right This Second
Ellie Goulding - Starry Eyed
ELO - Mr. Blue Sky
Girls Aloud - Biology
Gorillaz - Dare
Gossip - Heavy Cross (Fred Falke Remix)
Gwen Stefani - What You Waitin For (Jacques Lu Cont Mix)
Housse de Racket - Oh Yeah
Justice - DVNO
Justice - Phantom Part II
Katy Perry - One Of The Boys
Ke$ha - Take It Off
Kylie Minogue - Wow
Lady Gaga - Alejandro
Linkin Park - Crawling
Madonna - Hung Up
Martin Solveig ft. Dragonette - Boys and Girls
Michael Jackson - Billie Jean
Nero - Me and You
One Republic - All The Right Moves (Danger Remix)
One-T - Magic Key
Ratatat - Shempi
Solange - I Decided (Freemasons Remix)
Stardust - Music Sounds Better With You
The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star
The Killers - Losing Touch
The Who - Baba O'Riley (SebastiAn Remix)
Yelle - Que Veux Tu (Madeon Remix)

Well it has been made just for you iPhone photography fanatics. You can now transform your iPhone into a DSLR that uses real SLR lenses. The iPhone SLR Mount ($190-$249) is available to give your iPhone access to Nikon or Canon lenses for supposedly great quality photos. The set comes with an aluminum case, a thick lens adapter, and UV filter, all of which give your phone an upgrade in photo taking. The telephoto, wide angle, macro, or your fixed-fifty lenses all attach to this mount giving you a full range of lenses at your iPhone lovin' fingertips. So if you want to carry around large lenses all day and take photos with your phone then this is your product.

I don't think that I have written about a book before on The Collective Loop, so this will be a first. The book Symbol by Angus Hyland and Steven Bateman ($40) is a book that features over 1300 symbols, organized into groups and sub-groups according to their visual characteristics. Each category includes a short introduction, with expanded captions providing information on who the symbol was designed for, who designed it, when, and where appropriate, what the symbol stands for. The book is 366 pages with 1400 illustrations of symbols to get your design motivation kicking.

Below are some videos of Angus Hyland talking about the book Symbol. It's quite interesting because he talks about old school versions of companies symbols to now. It's a five part series and if you would like to watch the rest they are available here.

This week is going to be a good one and here is the reason why. On July 13th at Czar in Tampa, The Glitch Mob will be performing as well as Phantogram and Com Truise.  Each one of these bands has it's own style yet I can see why they would all be performing together.   

The Glitch Mob is a trio of three that is known for tweaking and toying with cutting-edge technology to produce their sound of electronic music.  Phantogram is more on the indie synth side with their tracks like "Mouthful of Diamonds" with their waverly sounds of the guitars and random noises. They would describe them self's as street beat, psych pop which I actually like better then my description. Then we have Com Truise who has been a growing name on the Ghostly International  label. His sound is more on constantly experimenting with synthesizers and structure in an attempt to bring new age sounds to the forefront. So each one of these groups has a style that in the end works together to produce a very interesting live set of cutting edge technology with new styles of music.

Tickets for this show are still available total price comes out to like $20 bucks. Get them here.  Hope to see you there!

On July 23rd I will be playing at The Hookah Lounge again mixing up some unique ambient, indie and chill dubstep. While I'm mixing it up you can enjoy about 65 different Shisha flavors and your own hookah. They have a really chill atmosphere with great prices on smoking hookahs. It's $15.00 bucks for unlimited and $8.00 for a single. If you haven’t been, it's well worth checking out.

Last month had a great turn out so I hope to see you there. If you want to check out my mixes you can do so here


Designed by Damion S.

An Abrupt End is a project completed by James Huse who uses milk-filled balloons and explodes them while capturing the beauty at high-speed. We would only see it happen so quickly with the naked eye but now with the right techniques, equipment and skill we get to see this on a totally different level. These inverted balloon photos have a unique flare or wave to them that seems like a dark and cold surface. It could be the use of the milk that makes them seem so thick and textured.

If you want to check out more of James Huse work then check out his website.

When your Windows computer is being a bit slow, when its memory is fragmented, when the threads of its normal execution become so tangled that it's no longer considered useful, the one thing that will refresh it fully is the troika of buttons "Ctrl - Alt - Del." Hitting those three buttons are designed to interrupt the computers processes, clearing out the memory, and recycling the system power.

The Ctrl-Alt-Delete Cup set ($11.99) by ThinkGeek are designed to provide another stylish way of interrupting your day. Now when you feel that your becoming like your computer. You can then turn over your Ctrl-Alt-Delete Cups and clear out your lagging day with something to boast your energy a.k.a coffee.




Source: ThinkGeek