Hasta La Ideas

The hunt for someone to redesign the “loved to death” sections of the National Mall in Washington D.C. has been somewhat quiet since the competition selected its all-star jury lineup back in October. That’s changed this week with the announcement that twelve finalist teams have been selected and are now on display both online and in person, though just for this week only, at the Smithsonian Castle. The finalists include the usual selection of top-name firms, including Rogers Marvel, Balmori Associates, Diller Scofido Renfro and Snohette teamed with AECOM. Strangely, no James Corner Field Operations, who we’ve grown so accustomed to being selected for this sort of project, meaning they either didn’t submit or, and this seems even more strange, that they weren’t picked as finalists. All in all, we certainly dig all of the finalists’ plans for the three spaces slotted for $350 million worth of improvements (anything’s better than the aimless stretches that permeate the area now), but with so much wide-open space and so many limitations on views that can be blocked and what can be built where, there’s part of us that speculates that the renovations will look a whole lot better from an aerial view than from the ground. We’ll have some time to wait before we can test that theory out, as winners for the three projects will be named in May, with construction estimated to be completed by sometime in 2016.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Ze is back! A show with zefrank, the new webseries by humorist and social commentator Ze Frank, is on its way with this first episode titled An Invocation for Beginnings. The new show was successfully funded by a Kickstarter campaign and he recently posted an interesting post mortem on the process.

“Perfectionism may look good in his shiny shoes but hes a little bit of an asshole and no one invites him to their pool parities. Let me remember that the impact of criticism is often not the intent of the critic but when the intent is evil thats what the block buttons for. And when I eat my critique let me be able to separate out the good advice from the bitter herbs.”

You got to check out these HANDLETTERED DEPARTMENT STORE LOGOS

My friend Cillian, just launched a site called folio. If your a creative you have to check this out, it’s rather brilliant.

“Folio is a marketplace for creatives to easily find and sell digital content. It allows anyone to sell their files in three clicks using a simple menu bar application. “

i love this poster.